I like your beautiful eyes

Today on the metro a guy drew a picture of Homer Simpson with a thought bubble that said ¨I like your beautiful eyes¨and then pased it to me as we walked to our connecting metro line. His name was Jose and he wants to be a forensic scientist but right now is working at a novela magazine drawing cartoons.

I can´t believe we only have 3 weeks left in Mexico. December 15, Lauren and I will be boarding a plane home. I´m glad I´ll have a companion, we´ll have a lot to talk about.

I´ve turned 21, met fresasa, danced to hip-hop, met sex workers, lived above a restuarant that´s been closed, stayed out all night talking about America and hating it and loving it at the same time, bought Bratz (you know you´re jealous), met with Braceros, and realized that you can get angry and frustrated and become a cynic, but in the end you´re still from the USA and there is so much there. We have a lot to hate, our government being a large part of that: while Mexico may have a repressive government, America has little sway in the opposite direction. We´re composed of representatives that are not physically or emotionally close to their constiuents, our voting system is set up to deny that people have too much power, because of the people as I´ve seen in Chiapas and Toluca is something those in power really fear. But its all for a reason: it starts with a c and ends with apitalism. So I´m reminded that its this that I hate so much, its the people that I love, here in Mexico and in the US. I see so much that can change, but starting with my own actions, and I´m so excited to be graduating, albeit another year away.

Its been really hard to put words to all my experiences, they seem to happen so fast and with such force. This past week we visted a prison, where political prisoners have been held for about a year and a half now. We couldn´t go inside, but there are people camped outside and will remain there until they are released. The people inside were apprehended after the police broked up a demonstration in Atenco, Mexico, its worth hearing about, and I´ll tell anyone whose ready to listen. But they camp there in tents, they live there, without a bathroom, with one meal a day (there are about 5 that remain there all the time) so that the men inside will not be forgotten.

We also visted a preschool/kindergarten on Thursday. THere were two. One had classrooms filled with color and lots of space and a playground and pictures and books. The woman who ran the school was motivated and had red hair and was all about child centered learning and seeing her students as capable people. The second was built where there used to be a landfill. The playground, or the one tetter-totter was broken. The director also has her own class. They recieve no money from the government. Conditions are unfair. I cried. This is what the government says about its future. THe most important development of a person is at a young age and here these students have to attend a school that is not adequate, not deserving of anyone. What are we saying about the future of the below? I was so devastated because this is what I want to do: I want to teach young people and to think that anyone can have that much disconcern for children is beyond my realm of understanding.

But I´m letting everything push into a heap of despair, rather I´m so excited to share all of this with everyone. To let it push me towards something bigger. To ride it. Yea baby