Spent the weekend in Mexico aka el D.F aka el distrito federal aka la ciudad de mexico aka the city where police salaries are supplemented by "mordidas/bribes" aka the city where you can find a Bentley dealership within only a few miles of mariginalized neighborhoods filled with people working for less than a few dollars a day. Look who's talking. I spent the night in a 5 star hotel, ate Thai food in a restaurant that was so fancy they looked at me strange when I walked in with a plastic cup half full of tequilla and a large smile on my face (had to subsidize my meal, it's in my blood)
Anyways, quite an adventure traveling with a group of 20 gringos in a city that isn't exactly equipped with the modern niceties that we've become accustomed to. No kidnappings, no trips to the hospital and no diarea. Success!!!!!
Highlights of the trip:
Ballet Folklorico! Who would've thought that watching a bunch of costumed dancers prancing around a stage for a couple of hours could be so much fun. No joke it was actually breathtaking. The women were beautifully graceful and even the guys put on quite a show of grace and power. The dying dear scene was probably the most artistic live entertainment I've ever scene. Google it! It's famous
Museums: We got to see all sorts of Diego Rivera's, Frida Kahlo's and Diego Olmeda's. Quite the threesome!
La plaza/El zocalo: Spent some time wondering around the center of town checking out the churches. They love their virgin Mary here and don't mind getting splashed on the head with a little holy water that's getting tossed around. Got a little on my shoulder and it didn't even catch fire. What a miracle.
There was also coincidentally a protest while we were there with thousands of frustrated Mexicans who believe that the last election was a fraud and that their candidate is the rightful leader of the country. So many fraudulent elections in this country's short history. They had a war for independence in 1810, a revolution in 1910, and a ____________ in 2010. Hopefully it doesn't happen in the next 10 days.
Just spent the last 9 hours becoming educated so I'm a bit tired. Adios
Monday, July 26, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Through Week 4
4 weeks down and 2 to go. At this point, team morale is very tenuous. Some days are better than others but the pressure of getting this curriculum ready has become tangible. I've finally decided what I want to do and now I just need to actually get it done!
The past week has been quite interesting. Although it continues to rain on a regular basis, I've been able to put together some cool events while simultaneously dodging rain drops and sitting through 3 hour lectures on God knows what.
I went down to Mexico City last Sunday with the director of the program who has actually turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. We walked around the city, checked out the artesanal kiosk, made it to the palace of fine arts, rode the subway, ate some street meat and dodged some more rain drops. For having over 20 million million and a terrible reputation it actually was a cool experience and the people seemed very happy.
Yesterday was probably the high point of the trip thus far. Team morale is volatile but we finally got to spend the day with "real" Mexicans. Cuernavaca is a town with economic extremes and it seems that we spend most of our time with the upper class. Our task was to go to a youth center called "vamos" in the middle of the mountains, paint the exterior of the building, help prepare the 4pm meal and play with the neighborhood kids. It was a well needed break from the classroom and helped us regain a better perspective.
Today we had 3 female Mexican artists come to speak to us about their lives, artwork and societal roles. We had some informative discussion. One of the women was an indigenous Guatemalan that left her country during the the civil war of the 80s. Her family members began to disappear so she picked up and took refugee status in Mexico. One of the others was a gorgeous guitar player from Veracruz. Oddly enough, this is the first attractive Mexican girl I've seen this entire month. Needless to say, team morale is back up.
Taxco: Took a trip to an old silver mining town. Did some shopping, saw another old chuch which happened to be built by a wealthy Spaniard (Borda) who in return was able to name his son and subsequent grandchildren as high priests for all to pay tribute to as a personal liason to God. Oddly enough, this mans wealth came from the sweat of the indigenous workers who were essentially forced to worship in this church but were made to pray in a separate chamber from the Spaniards. That must have been one hell of a sales pitch!
Other major events in the last week: Visit to Cortes palace and the local municipal market with anything and everything you could ever imagine. Quite the rollercoaster ride for ALL of your senses. Saw a huge Diego Rivera mural that reflects a couple thousand years of Mexican history through pictures. You essentially read it like a book. Amazing!
Will write more later but I've got my preliminary curriculum presentation tomorrow to get ready for.
The past week has been quite interesting. Although it continues to rain on a regular basis, I've been able to put together some cool events while simultaneously dodging rain drops and sitting through 3 hour lectures on God knows what.
I went down to Mexico City last Sunday with the director of the program who has actually turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. We walked around the city, checked out the artesanal kiosk, made it to the palace of fine arts, rode the subway, ate some street meat and dodged some more rain drops. For having over 20 million million and a terrible reputation it actually was a cool experience and the people seemed very happy.
Yesterday was probably the high point of the trip thus far. Team morale is volatile but we finally got to spend the day with "real" Mexicans. Cuernavaca is a town with economic extremes and it seems that we spend most of our time with the upper class. Our task was to go to a youth center called "vamos" in the middle of the mountains, paint the exterior of the building, help prepare the 4pm meal and play with the neighborhood kids. It was a well needed break from the classroom and helped us regain a better perspective.
Today we had 3 female Mexican artists come to speak to us about their lives, artwork and societal roles. We had some informative discussion. One of the women was an indigenous Guatemalan that left her country during the the civil war of the 80s. Her family members began to disappear so she picked up and took refugee status in Mexico. One of the others was a gorgeous guitar player from Veracruz. Oddly enough, this is the first attractive Mexican girl I've seen this entire month. Needless to say, team morale is back up.
Taxco: Took a trip to an old silver mining town. Did some shopping, saw another old chuch which happened to be built by a wealthy Spaniard (Borda) who in return was able to name his son and subsequent grandchildren as high priests for all to pay tribute to as a personal liason to God. Oddly enough, this mans wealth came from the sweat of the indigenous workers who were essentially forced to worship in this church but were made to pray in a separate chamber from the Spaniards. That must have been one hell of a sales pitch!
Other major events in the last week: Visit to Cortes palace and the local municipal market with anything and everything you could ever imagine. Quite the rollercoaster ride for ALL of your senses. Saw a huge Diego Rivera mural that reflects a couple thousand years of Mexican history through pictures. You essentially read it like a book. Amazing!
Will write more later but I've got my preliminary curriculum presentation tomorrow to get ready for.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
On to the indigenous people
We've moved our studies over to the indigenous/forgotten people of Mexico. We haven't had a chance to visit a community yet but hopefully we will. I think that experience would add a face to the facts, theories and policies we've discussed. Learning about these people, their history, culture and suffrage, has got me thinking. Pretty much everyone here, known as mestizos or mixed blood, can trace their ancestry to an indigenous tribe and for that they are proud. Whenever I tell anyone that I'm studying the history of the Mexican people they invariably tell me about the amazing history of this country and its people. However, when you look at the treatment and politics towards the indigenous you'll notice that they are a marginalized people who have essentially been pushed to the limits of society. Their national politics are similar to the policies that have been created by our government towards the native Americans. However, very few Americans consider themselves natives. It seems like they appreciate their heritage but see them as a problem preventing them from being a completely "civilized" society. Basically they treat the indigenous similarly to the way that they were originally teated during the colonization by the Spaniards.
Off to NYC for Marc's wedding!
Highlight of the trip so far: yesterday I skipped out of class with 2 of my new buddies and played in a 6 v 6 soccer game with a bunch of mexican guys in a torrential thunder storm. They kept calling me Donovan which I think might actually be a complement after this world cup. Victory!
Off to NYC for Marc's wedding!
Highlight of the trip so far: yesterday I skipped out of class with 2 of my new buddies and played in a 6 v 6 soccer game with a bunch of mexican guys in a torrential thunder storm. They kept calling me Donovan which I think might actually be a complement after this world cup. Victory!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Week 1 Thoughts and Reflections
One week down and 5 to go. Starting to figure out who is who and where is where. The first week is always interesting in a foreign city. Trying to memorize local landmarks, memorize names and addresses and learning the proper coloquialisms.
They've definitely kept us busy throughout this first week. Visits to local schools, visits from renowned regional scholars, excursions to ancient civilizations and a 3rd of July BBQ! Better early than never.
Still seems like we've got a good group of people. No complainers! yet
Visit to local bilingual school and interview with private and public school teachers:
We went to visit this little school right across the street where we're studying. Cute little place. They definitely put more resources and value to learning English than we do learning Spanish. There's definitely something we should learn from them. Start young and it works! The 3 women that came to talk to us about the education system were semi-combative but the interesting thing was that you could have presented the exact same argument about education in the States. Private schools for the priveleged and crowded public schools for everyone else. Not enough resources to pay teachers or to lower the student:teacher ratio. Sounds familiar! They also referred to the Sindacto (union) as the devil that has single-handedly ruined the reputation of teachers and lowered student achievement because of their political influence. Sound familiar?
Visit to Vamos: We took a trip downtown to see a small non-profit with the mission of educating and providing health care to the marginalized children and adults (mostly indigenous). We're gonna be doing some service with them throughout the trip. Great mission but lacking resources to get to everyone that needs that type of assistance. What's amazing to me is that they would be able to receive national funding except for the fact that the government puts so many regulations on the organizations they will financially support. Corruption, inefficiency and lack of trust seems to be the common sentiment based on my conversations. Sound familiar?
Migration: We had a professor, PHD, published author on migration speak to us for 2 days. He brought an interesting perspective but as a demographer he showed us graph after graph after graph. At the end we saw a touching video about a Long Island town that was the quintessential argument between ignorant fearful people who have been convinced that have been ignored by their government and hard working (usually law abiding) people that get stuck with shittiest jobs but seek the American dream. Very polarizing issue but we didn't really have anyone to play devils advocate in the discussion. Seems to me that people want an answer from their government (immigration reform is said to be on the top of Obama's platter now because of the Arizona law being passed). We tried to come up with a "solution" without any real success. I think that our job as people with personal experience/knowledge of immigrants as well as having a forum (a classroom) to educate, it is our responsibility to break stereotypes and try to de-criminalize these people and pressure the government to do what is right and create a law (as has been done multiple times in the past century) to that deals with the multiple millions of undocumented individuals and families that are in America. Any political decision will be contested but we've got to be realistic and practical and consider the people already here as well future migrants. Good Luck!
Friday Night: good times! we all went out. drinking and dancing. Gringos gone wild!
Teotiuhacan: Visited the ancient ruins of a civilization around centuries before the Aztecs. Climbed up the narrow stairs of the 3rd largest pyramid in the world. Too tired and sunburnt to write any more about that.
Will write more later. HAPPY 4TH OF JULY
They've definitely kept us busy throughout this first week. Visits to local schools, visits from renowned regional scholars, excursions to ancient civilizations and a 3rd of July BBQ! Better early than never.
Still seems like we've got a good group of people. No complainers! yet
Visit to local bilingual school and interview with private and public school teachers:
We went to visit this little school right across the street where we're studying. Cute little place. They definitely put more resources and value to learning English than we do learning Spanish. There's definitely something we should learn from them. Start young and it works! The 3 women that came to talk to us about the education system were semi-combative but the interesting thing was that you could have presented the exact same argument about education in the States. Private schools for the priveleged and crowded public schools for everyone else. Not enough resources to pay teachers or to lower the student:teacher ratio. Sounds familiar! They also referred to the Sindacto (union) as the devil that has single-handedly ruined the reputation of teachers and lowered student achievement because of their political influence. Sound familiar?
Visit to Vamos: We took a trip downtown to see a small non-profit with the mission of educating and providing health care to the marginalized children and adults (mostly indigenous). We're gonna be doing some service with them throughout the trip. Great mission but lacking resources to get to everyone that needs that type of assistance. What's amazing to me is that they would be able to receive national funding except for the fact that the government puts so many regulations on the organizations they will financially support. Corruption, inefficiency and lack of trust seems to be the common sentiment based on my conversations. Sound familiar?
Migration: We had a professor, PHD, published author on migration speak to us for 2 days. He brought an interesting perspective but as a demographer he showed us graph after graph after graph. At the end we saw a touching video about a Long Island town that was the quintessential argument between ignorant fearful people who have been convinced that have been ignored by their government and hard working (usually law abiding) people that get stuck with shittiest jobs but seek the American dream. Very polarizing issue but we didn't really have anyone to play devils advocate in the discussion. Seems to me that people want an answer from their government (immigration reform is said to be on the top of Obama's platter now because of the Arizona law being passed). We tried to come up with a "solution" without any real success. I think that our job as people with personal experience/knowledge of immigrants as well as having a forum (a classroom) to educate, it is our responsibility to break stereotypes and try to de-criminalize these people and pressure the government to do what is right and create a law (as has been done multiple times in the past century) to that deals with the multiple millions of undocumented individuals and families that are in America. Any political decision will be contested but we've got to be realistic and practical and consider the people already here as well future migrants. Good Luck!
Friday Night: good times! we all went out. drinking and dancing. Gringos gone wild!
Teotiuhacan: Visited the ancient ruins of a civilization around centuries before the Aztecs. Climbed up the narrow stairs of the 3rd largest pyramid in the world. Too tired and sunburnt to write any more about that.
Will write more later. HAPPY 4TH OF JULY
Monday, June 28, 2010
First Days in Cuernavaca!
Captain's log: Day 1: Rations are low and morale is down. Mutiny inevitable! Send potable water and food.
Recently ventured in to this God forsaken town in search of survival supplies. Missison failed!
Just kidding. But I've never started a blog so I wanted to at very least catch your attention.
This place is a slice of southern heaven. The 15 of us flew in yesterday morning and were picked up at the airport by Raphael who was holding a little sign that (dream come true).
Just so happened that we arrived while the Mexican national team was receiving an ass beating by the Argentines. That was the end of their world cup dreams. Needless to say, we were greeted by a country in morning.
We took an hour long drive to Cuernavaca and were immediately met by our new host mothers. Turns out I'll be with a cute little old white haired lady named Dora (the explorer). Got my own room next to another American teacher, Sean, who is the curriculum development associate for the Fulbright program. Our first meal was spectacular and she's definitely going to fatten me up and spoil me for the next six weeks.
Passed out and slept for 11 hours (no mind the barking dogs, crowing roosters, ranchera music and thurderstorms)
Running water, flushable toilets! Definitely a step up from Honduras.
Day 2: Amazing breakfast of fresh fruit, eggs etc. Had our first class in the Spanish Language Institute. Beautiful little school with a tiny pool. Jumped right into the tough stuff. past tense subjunctive etc. 4 students 1 teacher. great ratio. had our orientation.
Met downtown and took an organized tour. Nothing like having 20 gringos walking around in crowded markets taking pictures trying vigilantly not to be robbed or lose the group. Downtown is exciting. Bought a soccer ball and got into a little game in the center of town. Tour included the plaza, palacio de cortez, la catedral.
Recently ventured in to this God forsaken town in search of survival supplies. Missison failed!
Just kidding. But I've never started a blog so I wanted to at very least catch your attention.
This place is a slice of southern heaven. The 15 of us flew in yesterday morning and were picked up at the airport by Raphael who was holding a little sign that (dream come true).
Just so happened that we arrived while the Mexican national team was receiving an ass beating by the Argentines. That was the end of their world cup dreams. Needless to say, we were greeted by a country in morning.
We took an hour long drive to Cuernavaca and were immediately met by our new host mothers. Turns out I'll be with a cute little old white haired lady named Dora (the explorer). Got my own room next to another American teacher, Sean, who is the curriculum development associate for the Fulbright program. Our first meal was spectacular and she's definitely going to fatten me up and spoil me for the next six weeks.
Passed out and slept for 11 hours (no mind the barking dogs, crowing roosters, ranchera music and thurderstorms)
Running water, flushable toilets! Definitely a step up from Honduras.
Day 2: Amazing breakfast of fresh fruit, eggs etc. Had our first class in the Spanish Language Institute. Beautiful little school with a tiny pool. Jumped right into the tough stuff. past tense subjunctive etc. 4 students 1 teacher. great ratio. had our orientation.
Met downtown and took an organized tour. Nothing like having 20 gringos walking around in crowded markets taking pictures trying vigilantly not to be robbed or lose the group. Downtown is exciting. Bought a soccer ball and got into a little game in the center of town. Tour included the plaza, palacio de cortez, la catedral.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
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