In Santiago Suchilquitongo

I have now arrived to my community of Santiago Suchilquitongo. It`s a beautiful place from where I can see much of the Oaxacan valley. My host family includes the Director of the Culture Center in the community and her son and daughter. The house is a very interesting place, as they have just started an internet cafe business, which means there are two computers set up for people to come and use for 8 pesos an hour. On the other hand, it is very much like a Latin American community, with animals everywhere and trucks with loudspeakers going by all the time. My partners Maya and Lindley live in houses about 20 minutes away, and I`m planning to go visit them after comida.

It`s still very strange to be so far from home and I think it will take a while to get used to. But this community seems like a great place for Project TECHNO and I think my host brother will be able to help a lot with the classes and stuff.

Until next time, adios!

-Apoorva

I´m in Oaxaca!

After lots of training and traveling, I have finally arrived in Oaxaca! We have had 3 days worth of training in the city, and on Thursday my 2 partners Maya and Lina and I will go to our community named Santiago Suchilquitongo, which is about 45 minutes from the city. It is a town of about 8,000 people. The community sounds very exciting, and I can`t wait to start reporting from there! Our internet connection will surely be very nice.

¡Super padre gûey!

-Apoorva

Angry Oaxacan maestros

I've been seeing a bunch of news lately about school teachers in Oaxaca striking because they want higher pay. Then a few articles came out yesterday that a pretty serious encounter between the maestros and the police occured in the Zocalo. Apparently there was some tear gas fired and some independent news sites say that police shot at some protestors with guns as well. The Oaxacan governor denies this, but who knows?



I remember that the teachers were always striking back in December as well, and thus many kids missed school all the time. This time, kids haven't been to school since May! The teachers want higher wages, and the government says they don't have any more money. All of this in the midst of the July 2nd presidential election.

I don't know if this will all settle down before we arrive on Sunday, but it doesn't seem as if there will be a solution anytime soon. Hopefully the conflicts will be peaceful.

Here's an article by the BBC.

And here's one by an independent media source, Infoshop News.

And now, the time is here...

Tomorrow it all begins! CV training will be in Houston until Sunday and then I head off to Oaxaca! It seems like I was a new intern in the IO just yesterday. I'm excited and nervous and really hoping I haven't forgotten to pack anything!

I hope I will have decent enough internet access in my community to keep this blog in tip-top shape. This project ain't called Project TECHNO for no reason!

Here's to a great summer!

-Apoorva

This summer's election

After more than 6 months of preparation, Project TECHNO is about a week away! I'm very excited about going back to Oaxaca, and for sure this is going to be a very different experience than the one in December.

The Mexican presidential election will also take place this summer. At this moment it appears too close to call, but I the PAN candidate Calderon has a small lead (7% as of Tuesday). What will end up happening, I have no idea.

I want to cover the election from perspective of my community during the summer. I'm not sure how politically active the community will be, but I have heard that the parties do some tough campaigning to get the vote out (or perhaps I should say to prevent the vote from getting out) in the rural areas.

Tuesday was also an important day for the campaign - the presidential debate. The front page of the Mexican newspaper La Jornada titled it's front page article, "El debate, rehén de la televisión y de encuestas." This sounds a lot like American presidental debates! It appears as if nothing new came from the debates and that the results will have a lot to do with which candidate can best fend off attacks from the other candidates.

Here's the article

I wonder how much the US-Mexican border and immigration issues will play a factor in the election?


Apoorva

Photos from my December 2005 Trip

Here are some pictures I took during my December 2005 trip to Oaxaca:

The Program Guide is done!

About two weeks ago, I finished putting the final touches on the the Project TECHNO 2006 Program Guide! The volunteers will be getting the guide during training in June.

If you want to check out the final copy, here it is: TECHNO Program Guide 2006

(Note: this is the updated and final copy)

-Apoorva