Friday, October 9, 2009
heres some more foto
just to throw something else in the mix other than that rant... heres some fotos of the work weve been doing and some other stuff for everyone to enjoy. peace!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
although i am happy to read David's account of Cepeda, filled with joy and magic, I feel like bursting, or at least balancing, the bubble a little bit with an account from Tzucacab. My host familiy is not unusual. The father works construction in the urban centers of Progreso and Merida. For the past three years he has been dedicated to drinking alcohol and now wanders the streets sleeping whereever he collapses. Doña Berta, the mother of his children is a big, strong woman. She says she doesnt let him inside anymore. Along with her young son of two years, Jesùs, she also cares for her brother's children, whose mother died. Both her brother and her younger sister work in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo. Family disintegration is rampant due to alcohol, drugs and migration. Neighboring Peto has 8,000!! of its natives living in the United States, the majority in San Rafael, California. The youth suffer for lack of guidance, often living with grandparents, they take to television, video games and motorcycles at best. six were recently caught with drugs at a local school.
speaking of DRUGS, last year a band of narcotraficantes was almost apprehended here in yown. seven were caught, and three got away. now the townspeople are edgyu and suspicious of strangers because the narcos threaten to kidnap their children. into this enters bearded, long haired, red gold and green shirted I. talking to the kids about what they want to plant, they say MOTA, lets make some money. walking out to cut wood, they threaten to cut my throat with machetes. scenes of the Guerra de Castas flash through my mind, of which hardly anyone has even heard.
The school's attendent explains to me why they dont use k'aanches. he said, "our fathers looked at the k'aanches and decided that they werent very good. a strong wind comes and they fall. and then you have to do all the work over again. we prefer to use wire, it lasts forever and the chickens cant jump up onto it" Gorda, Doña Berta's 16 year old charge asks me, "why do students always come here to study the things we dont like to do?" The reality of people leaving the campo culture for modernity and city values has a staggering affect. Literally between one generation and the next knowledge of local trees and traditions are lost in favor of "emo vs. skate" "OH MY GOD!" girls shout at me imitating a popular song. When i say to Gorda "baax kawaliik?" she replies "i dont speak maya!"
I wonder about the people's interest and investment in the projec, and what would they suggest be changed if they were asked.
Both the top down structure of PROTROPICO and the authoritarian school teachers leave me in the role of taskmaster, the youths frustrated and bored, and the community members ranging from slightly involved to disinterested and fearful. There is very little communication between PROTROPICO and community members. what is discussed is readily misunderstood. I am afraid that all it comes down to for local members of the community is that students pay rent and they are desperate for money.
I am reminded of the phone conference regarding the Sping Break Tzucacab project where everything that was discussed was focused on the students: their experiance, what will they do, where will they live, will there be adequate photo ops, etc. I just want to express now what i didnt then: Why is the experiance of the community not being discussed? Why is no one from Tzucacab being asked what they want a band of 10 gringos to do in town for a week? or if they want them at all= I know were all excited and Dr Jimenez has 10 years working in the community but in reality he isnt from this town and there are serious communication and cultural gaps between Tzucacab and Merida, not to mention Santa Cruz. So let's take a deep breathe before we send in the invasion force and consider: who do we know in Tzucacab? with whom are we communicating? and if the answer is NO ONE then why are planning socalled "participatory" projects without input from the local community?
speaking of DRUGS, last year a band of narcotraficantes was almost apprehended here in yown. seven were caught, and three got away. now the townspeople are edgyu and suspicious of strangers because the narcos threaten to kidnap their children. into this enters bearded, long haired, red gold and green shirted I. talking to the kids about what they want to plant, they say MOTA, lets make some money. walking out to cut wood, they threaten to cut my throat with machetes. scenes of the Guerra de Castas flash through my mind, of which hardly anyone has even heard.
The school's attendent explains to me why they dont use k'aanches. he said, "our fathers looked at the k'aanches and decided that they werent very good. a strong wind comes and they fall. and then you have to do all the work over again. we prefer to use wire, it lasts forever and the chickens cant jump up onto it" Gorda, Doña Berta's 16 year old charge asks me, "why do students always come here to study the things we dont like to do?" The reality of people leaving the campo culture for modernity and city values has a staggering affect. Literally between one generation and the next knowledge of local trees and traditions are lost in favor of "emo vs. skate" "OH MY GOD!" girls shout at me imitating a popular song. When i say to Gorda "baax kawaliik?" she replies "i dont speak maya!"
I wonder about the people's interest and investment in the projec, and what would they suggest be changed if they were asked.
Both the top down structure of PROTROPICO and the authoritarian school teachers leave me in the role of taskmaster, the youths frustrated and bored, and the community members ranging from slightly involved to disinterested and fearful. There is very little communication between PROTROPICO and community members. what is discussed is readily misunderstood. I am afraid that all it comes down to for local members of the community is that students pay rent and they are desperate for money.
I am reminded of the phone conference regarding the Sping Break Tzucacab project where everything that was discussed was focused on the students: their experiance, what will they do, where will they live, will there be adequate photo ops, etc. I just want to express now what i didnt then: Why is the experiance of the community not being discussed? Why is no one from Tzucacab being asked what they want a band of 10 gringos to do in town for a week? or if they want them at all= I know were all excited and Dr Jimenez has 10 years working in the community but in reality he isnt from this town and there are serious communication and cultural gaps between Tzucacab and Merida, not to mention Santa Cruz. So let's take a deep breathe before we send in the invasion force and consider: who do we know in Tzucacab? with whom are we communicating? and if the answer is NO ONE then why are planning socalled "participatory" projects without input from the local community?
Monday, October 5, 2009
Extracurricular
Rain falls steadily from the sky. The sound is subtle and comforting, but the presence is strong. Where will I go with all of this rain pouring down... it entraps me. This is the beginning of October, the rainiest month here and my two-week anniversary. Life has picked up.
Mike arrived last Monday and another Gringo in the village has made life more exciting. Last week social events included dancing lessons, a river excursion to a beautiful waterfall, cruising the town, playing pool, roller skating to music in a gym, soccer practice, and a long hike to see a potentially incredible view, which was actually just a ton of fog. The town is quiet, but fun is here. I´m learning what young people around here do for fun, which brings me to my older brother: Yeison.
There had been a problem with the electricity I believe. That was why every single time that I arrived home they were all working on the car. Although it belonged to Yeison, his brother Octavio and sister-in-law Marisol spent long amounts of time on it. One day when I got home Mari was detailing with a tooth brush. The list of what this car doesn´t have would be easier to cover - a hot tub -, but to paint a clearer picture it is royal blue with impossible to see through tinted windows, very large built-in speakers, the extended bottom, a DVD player for the driver?, fancy blinker lights on the mirrors and crazy blue lights on the stick shift, tires with nice rims, and probably a bunch of other things that I don´t appreciate. Basically, this ride is pimped. So, when Yeison takes me out in his sweet ride, we drive a mile to Agua Buena, get a drink at the bar and then park on the side of the road (with all of the other very pimped rides) and sit on the curb of the sidewalk to hang out with everyone else. Such is the night life that I know in this town and the afore mentioned. As the rain begins to fall more frequently I wonder how motivated I will be to go out on foot.
Mike arrived last Monday and another Gringo in the village has made life more exciting. Last week social events included dancing lessons, a river excursion to a beautiful waterfall, cruising the town, playing pool, roller skating to music in a gym, soccer practice, and a long hike to see a potentially incredible view, which was actually just a ton of fog. The town is quiet, but fun is here. I´m learning what young people around here do for fun, which brings me to my older brother: Yeison.
There had been a problem with the electricity I believe. That was why every single time that I arrived home they were all working on the car. Although it belonged to Yeison, his brother Octavio and sister-in-law Marisol spent long amounts of time on it. One day when I got home Mari was detailing with a tooth brush. The list of what this car doesn´t have would be easier to cover - a hot tub -, but to paint a clearer picture it is royal blue with impossible to see through tinted windows, very large built-in speakers, the extended bottom, a DVD player for the driver?, fancy blinker lights on the mirrors and crazy blue lights on the stick shift, tires with nice rims, and probably a bunch of other things that I don´t appreciate. Basically, this ride is pimped. So, when Yeison takes me out in his sweet ride, we drive a mile to Agua Buena, get a drink at the bar and then park on the side of the road (with all of the other very pimped rides) and sit on the curb of the sidewalk to hang out with everyone else. Such is the night life that I know in this town and the afore mentioned. As the rain begins to fall more frequently I wonder how motivated I will be to go out on foot.
Friday, October 2, 2009
¡Hách Utz (How beautiful) is this life!
I am returning from a lovely morining full of a bike adventure to a near by pueblocito to learn about some magical plants from a good hearted man, Fliex, I joked that we were Feliz because I was happy to be with him and his name is prounouced Fiez, which is happy. Fliex, full of life and full of love, was happy to show me around his little solare or home garden system, growing in abundance of medicinal plants all around his house! And wow! He taught me about 20 or more incredible plants; helping and curing all sorts of sickness from cancer to diabities to the common headache. Indeed a great morning with this good man, we talked about life and about how his grandparents had taught him soo much, and we looked at old ethnobotany (the human and plant relationship) book from 1775, and both we sharing a happy glow to know the power of plants and how they are truly great friends. He told me that he knew many more plants in the wild, he told me that there are more than 1000 wonderful plants that heal everything! I gave words of inspiration to him that we should go to forest and collect many more to grow in his wonderful garden, he told me he would go soon. He is living a good life, tranquillo, as he put it, helping people with plants and not working to hard, eating the gifts of the earth, sell a little at the local market and healing the people that visit, usually up to 5 a day, but laughed that sometimes up to 20 people arrive to his home. I love the people that this magical land cultivated! Mi vida es llena de una cultura maya buena ! I am living with a wonderful family, a strong Mom, whom is friends with nealy everyone in our little community of Cepeda, mi papa ahora is a strong man, whom shares a powerful love of mine; Bicycles, he fixes the towns bicycles. My days are filled with wonderful people and many wonderful family members. I have been here in Cepeda less than a week and my heart is being filled quickly with this wonderful little community. I have been helping out at the local school full of soo many wonderful kids and teenages, so eagar to learn and they have much curousity with me and is nearly impossible to walk by a class room, without many warm and loving calls of David... Inviting me to talk to them, so I have been helping in classes about the environment, farming classes, sharing my prespectives about life, and listening to thiers. Tomarrow some teachers and I are going to create a compost system at the school with some students to teach them how to create soil full of life for the life of plants. All of this experience is soo incredible. On sunday another Yérbatero Maya whom I have befriend is a strong man deeply rooted in Na´Lúum, Mother Earth, who knows much about life and medicinal plants, has invited me to to an all day lecture about medicinal plants with others that know plants...
Now a moment for why I love spanish more than English, for the ease of expressing my heart. When I wrote how other good people that know plants, in my head I was saying people that Conoce, plants conocer is know but to know with the heart, like I know my friends and family, different form saber which is know información....
Okay well I have a bit of an adventure home so I must leave this writing, but much more goodness is ahead in this wonderful life. I have plans to fish with a good friend of mine in Meridad, and bike trips to zaranotes with some of the students at the school and many more learning opportunities to Know plants with the strong people I have befriend. I will soon begin to collect plants and with the help of some of the school teachers and the students we are going to plant a medicinal garden in the local school to help the kids develop a deeper relationships with these magical plants and our tierra madre (mother earth). Vamos a sembrar semillas de concimeinto en las mentes por el medio ambiente!
As always may peace be with you all,
Love,
David
Now a moment for why I love spanish more than English, for the ease of expressing my heart. When I wrote how other good people that know plants, in my head I was saying people that Conoce, plants conocer is know but to know with the heart, like I know my friends and family, different form saber which is know información....
Okay well I have a bit of an adventure home so I must leave this writing, but much more goodness is ahead in this wonderful life. I have plans to fish with a good friend of mine in Meridad, and bike trips to zaranotes with some of the students at the school and many more learning opportunities to Know plants with the strong people I have befriend. I will soon begin to collect plants and with the help of some of the school teachers and the students we are going to plant a medicinal garden in the local school to help the kids develop a deeper relationships with these magical plants and our tierra madre (mother earth). Vamos a sembrar semillas de concimeinto en las mentes por el medio ambiente!
As always may peace be with you all,
Love,
David
Thursday, October 1, 2009
october the first!
time flies! i am out here writing notes in the ciber and i thought i would share some more photos because today we started building the first kaanche. now the most time consuming part of the project is finding and cutting the wood. after thats done, its not too much work. we now just have to do the walls, line the inside with juano and mine, mix and fill the dirt... and of course PLANT ON THE FULL MOON! tomorrow we finish it up and then i go to merida to speak with Dr. Jimenez and work with Don Alfonso finishing up the second kaanche modificado and aparently he has started building an oven, so we'll be
working on that as well. heres some DOCUMENTATION
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Farming
The people here are so kind. I FINALLY got to get my hands dirty today :) They´ve been too clean for too long. I spent the morning working with William the owner of one of the farms that I´ll be working on for the next few weeks. One of the main projects there is setting up hyrdropontic lettuce, but today we started out picking tomatoes and eating really delicious oranges. I had a really great time with him and thankfully understood almost everything he said.
We visited the other farm that I´ll be working on yesterday and they are also a really sweet family. Francisco the owner is growing a lot of lettuce and celery, as well as lots and lots of coffee, but the lettuce has developed a blight that is destroying it and the celery is showing signs of a blight as well. My job is to find a cure - hopefully organic, but Francisco just wants to be able to sell his product and feed his family.
A week here has passed so fast. I love learning about the people. I´m really glad that the farmers are happy to work with me and teach me. I have chosen to do ´trabajo de hombres´ (men´s work) as my homestay mother calls it, but I suppose that the people here have become accustomed to the Gringas.
Some important vocab words - Americans are Gringos. Costa Ricans are Ticos. Ojo de Gallo is the fungus that is destroying coffee in Coopabuena. Costa Rica is where the best coffee in the world is grown. Coopabuena is where the best coffee in Costa Rica is grown. Mai is dude. Catholic is the only true religion.
So I learn...
We visited the other farm that I´ll be working on yesterday and they are also a really sweet family. Francisco the owner is growing a lot of lettuce and celery, as well as lots and lots of coffee, but the lettuce has developed a blight that is destroying it and the celery is showing signs of a blight as well. My job is to find a cure - hopefully organic, but Francisco just wants to be able to sell his product and feed his family.
A week here has passed so fast. I love learning about the people. I´m really glad that the farmers are happy to work with me and teach me. I have chosen to do ´trabajo de hombres´ (men´s work) as my homestay mother calls it, but I suppose that the people here have become accustomed to the Gringas.
Some important vocab words - Americans are Gringos. Costa Ricans are Ticos. Ojo de Gallo is the fungus that is destroying coffee in Coopabuena. Costa Rica is where the best coffee in the world is grown. Coopabuena is where the best coffee in Costa Rica is grown. Mai is dude. Catholic is the only true religion.
So I learn...
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