Tomorrow it might rain, snow or be sunny

Home is a week away. I don't feel ready to leave, but I'm ready to go home.

Mexico has been hard in many ways and now trying to put it all into a project to share with many is a real challenge, but I have two great partners, Nicki and Lauren.

I miss you all and am so excited to see everyone. If you're looking for some great music, check out RJD2.

so close yet so far

the radio stations are in english, we get fox five and my cell phone works. the border is about 30 minutes away and there is a walking bridge from mexico to el paso. we are close but worlds in Cuidad Juarez.

we have eleven more days here. we've got a lot to think about.

I'm so excited to be coming home, and a little confused about how all of this is going to be put into action, everything I've learned here. I'm so excited to talk to all of you and hear about what you've all been up to.

Also, congress is trying to pass a bill called S. 1959, and if passed could have major consequences for critical mass riders and anyone else trying to protest. i dont know a lot about it, but there is stuff out there to be read. what people are calling terrorism is expanding.

Hope everyone's warms and happy!

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

Have you ever had a fat-ass day? I've been having a lot recently. When the food is hot, the sun is shining, everyone is smiling and looking at you in the face.

I'm sitting in an Internet cafe and have been meaning to write recently. I should be working on my paper that's due tomorrow, but this is more fun. Toluca de Guadolupe, which is where we're living with our families is a place free of tourists and gringos and anything making it remotely accessible. There are no pay phones, the internet is slow and the people all know each other. The past week since we've been there has been amazing. The family I'm living with has four kids, three girls named Lupe, Vicki and Jessy, aged 15, 13 and 9. And one brother, Antonio whose 16 and loves electronic music. I want to download some Daft Punk for him, who played on Wednesday (Halloween) in Mexico City. We missed it, but I listened to Daft that night and closed my eyes and pretended I was there. My mama, whose name is Rosa reminds me a lot of my mom. She is laid back, laughs a lot, is quick to smile, and loves her kids a lot. She doesn't take anything too seriously and is prepared to deal with my ridiculous questions or when I mix up Spanish words. The other day I asked Rosa if it would be okay if I went for a run in the morning and she was like, yea sure. So come morning time, I tell them that I'm going to go for a quick run and Rosa asks Lupe to come with me- I figured she just wanted to go running too. So we go out and start knocking on someone's door. Then I got the idea that she needed to get something out of the classroom we were using and figured she's just walk with me. Wrong! She got the key to the computer lab and then I was like, oh do you need to use the computers? No she says. Oh, neither do I, then I realize that I misspoke- correo doesn't mean run, it means email. The word for run is correr; they're close but...so Lupe and I went running together.

This past weekend four of us took off for DF; we missed a baptism and a giant party with about 300 people. Lauren and I wanted to meet up with some friends we'd met on the beach and we wanted to get some work done, and there is something about DF that is...entrancing. The buildings are huge, the people are dressed in everything you could imagine. The metro is fast the food is sweet the museums are big and sometimes too crowded. We had a great weekend; I went to my first punk show on Friday and got my nose pretty bruised up. Then we headed to see Frida Kahlo's house. It was blue. Blue like you love blue. Really deep. Its the kind of blue that blood would be if it wasn't red. You almost wanted to dip your hands into it. Anyways inside we got a quick glimpse at where Frida spend a little bit of her time; I would have enjoyed it a lot more if we hadn't had to wait to see things or push your way to read a few sentences about a picture someone took of Frida or her friends.

It's weird to think of someone's house becoming a place of attraction. Imagine what she would think having all her things, like her bed, pictures, books, everything behind glass or just on display. I was really happy I went but I don't think I'd go back. Another weird museum I went to was the Anthropology museum in DF. I wrote a paper about it. How detached I felt from everything on display. The most impressive part was definitely the hall on Mayans. There were about 8 different museums within that one place. I felt like that place was trying to make up for years of not recognizing the importance of the indigenous people of Mexico and not consulting the people that still are directly connected to those traditions and customs.

I've been writing a lot. Thinking about power dynamics. You know, normal things. I miss green food, but I need to find out what's in season.

Water, Mountains and lots of fish

Hey all, I´´m writing from an internet cafe in Txlcala, about two and a half hours from DF (Districto Federal) or Mexico City to the gringos. This is my first day back in the real world, if you want to call living ontop of a mountain with blue clouds, a view of two of Mexico´s largest mountains, one of which is an active volcano, and eating amazing food and walking tons and talking to people, then I´ve reentered the real world.

We left Oventic two Fridays ago to begin our vacation week. It was a parting filled with songs and scattered notes of appreciation in slightly broken Spanish and picture taking with pasa montañas (the Zapatistas for reasons of safety and intimidation wear bandanas or ski hats to hide their identity). That place was really phenomenal. No were else can you find a place were high school aged students care about each other so much and show so much affection and understand what it means to struggle. The promotores have given thier lives to the lucha. To a lucha that acknowledges the importance of having control of your life and your community and remaining close to everything you appreciate. I ate butterflies, made puppets, cooked a meal for 250 people, spoke to government officials del buen gobierno (how many people have spoken face to face with thier representatives?) The thing about this fight, about the caracol, about EZLN is that it´s all coming from the people. They recognized that something needed to change and did something about it. The unity they have and the dignity they see amongst each other I think is key to thier fight. I miss it there a lot. But I plan to go back, with lots of people. Maya, KellyAnne, Katie, Julia, everyone should see the murals, the mountains and especially the people. Not just see them, talk to them. Being there made me realize how fortunate I am because I have never really lived the struggle, I have a choice to make in what struggle I join. I think in some ways that´s extremely priveleged, but I won´t deny at the same time it makes me really excited, I have great deal to share with a lot of people and they may be vague ideas at times, but its something to show for it all. Plus Lauren and I are going to write and illustrate a children´s book!

There is a lot more to write, but I have to go eat some ant eggs. I´ll write some more mas tarde. Hope everyone´s smiling!

Dos, Tres y Cuarto!

CHELLO! Hope everything is treating everyone really well! I realized this week how much I miss the fall and changing leaves and lots of people. But Mexico has been treating me really well. I'm learning a lot about social movements and popular education and Zapatismo and how to take a cold shower and totally enjoy it. I've been in Oventic for four weeks now, this upcoming week will be our last. It has gone by so fast- I've been in Mexico for more than a month now! Oventic is a region about an hour from San Cristobal. We've been staying more specifically at a Caracol, which is an autonomous community completely run by Zapatistas. The one we're staying at is covered in murals dedicated to the beautiful faces of the students of the secondary school, the luchadoras, the women of the cause, the men of the cause, the message that is the Zapatistas: todo para todos y nada para nosotors, which roughly translates to everything for everyone and nothing for us. They are anti-capitalist, autonomous, as in they reject the Mexican government, which has been deemed el mal gobeirno, which is how I've started to refer to it as well. This program is a lot about looking at history and the current condition from the bottom up, as in how people have been exploited and where we all fit into the picture; the picture of change and of exploitation.

Anyways since being in Oventic I've climbed a huge hill/ slash mountain which has a pueblo at the top and the only way for people to come and go is to climb the path which is about a 30 minute walk, but that was without bags of things. I've visited a river and had class there- most of my classes are outside and only with four-six people. We're usually in circles without shoes on. Sometimes we look at picture books other times we're playing board games. We've visited a woman's cooperative, where indigenous women sell all the amazing clothes and jewelry they make and get the money directly- there is no middle man. The women were incredible. They saw the manner in which they were being exploited and did something about it. So they no longer have to sell on the street and sell at unfair prices. There is also a clinic in the caracol and two men talked to us about everything they've been working on, including prevention measures in the various pueblos because treatable conditions, such as diarrhea continue to be serious conditions.

But on some happier notes, we've all worked with students from the high school and made a radio show (all in Spanish- which is the students' second language, an indigenous language called tsotsil being their first). It was great and I worked with three students, Ana, Rosa and Mauro. Mauro is from a community about seven hours from the Caracol; its a long trip to from the school. These kids are motivated, beautiful, inspirational. They live all together in large dorm style rooms and they are so affectionate towards each other; the environment here is like none other I've ever experienced. The kids take care of washing their own clothes, cooking food (for the 200 students), cleaning their living areas, functioning as a collective; I sometimes have a really hard time imagining this kind of place existing in the United States.

I'm trying as hard as I can to appreciate being here each day and taking in the food, the murals, and most importantly the people. We leave on Friday morning for a week of vacation, but sometimes I feel like I still have so much to learn from the Zapatistas.

On Thursday we're going to throw a huge party! Una fiesta! WITH A PINATA! AND FOOD FOR 250-300 PEOPLE! AND GUESS WHOSE COOKING? ME! haha just kidding. All twelve of us are cooking all day Thursday. Peeling, cutting, dicing...its going to be great! And we're putting on a puppet show. Its going to be really busy! We did all the cooking, I wish you call could see the mass amount of food we have!

Then after the fiesta, on Friday we're coming back to San Cristobal for one night and then driving the 12 hours to Mexico City to start vacation week! We'll spend like 2 nights there and then off to Michoacan, where five of us will spend an amazing week looking for turtles and lying in the sun!

Miss you all

First week in Mexico

The first week in Mexico was spent at Uni Tierra (University of the Land) where indigenous youth live, work and learn. They learn hands on skills like making doors and windows, sewing, cooking, building, and once they graduate they return to their pueblos or stay at the school for however long to become teachers. Its great and everyone there was so friendly. Saturday of that week was Mexico's independence day and they had a fiesta with a marimba band (drums and guitar and a marimba). Lots of dancing and bbq chicken for dinner! I'll try to find some more pictures and my trusty disposable pictures are waiting to be developed!

The campus there was amazing. You could see so far and so many rolling hills. Most of the time we ate beans and rice with really sweet coffee and tea. Cold showers and toilets that you flush with buckets of water. Everyone there works really hard and are really self motivated.