It’s been a while since I’ve written and things are getting pretty busy here. Whatever excess of free time I had during the first portion of the trip is now gone; taken up with an insane amount of reading for classes, writing, meetings, and trying to fit in time for an intercambio and shadowing in a rehabilitation clinic. That said, life is still going incredibly fast. We are just about done with our second session, the main session with classes. Literature class has been a ride to say the least. I’ll be honest, I’m not a big fan of literature, and analyzing Mexican literature to find the “hidden meaning” seams insane sometimes. Only 2 more weeks left! Sociology is awesome, on the other hand. We have learned a lot about the social structure of Oaxaca, families, cultural differences, and much, much more.
Since Mexico City and Día de Independencia, we have taken quite a few trips out of Oaxaca, all of which have been amazing. Our excursions included a bike tour to Monte Alban, (an hour of straight uphill, for an amazing 15 minutes of downhill awesomeness!), the ruins of Mitla, Teotitlán, Mexico City again, and the beach town of Huatulco. Since I haven’t written in forever, I guess I should explain about a bit of each, because each was awesome in their own way. This is what I get for not updating my blog in so long…
After taking salsa class for a few weeks, we have enjoyed going a few times to a salsa club on Thursday nights called candelas, where there is a live salsa band a a big dance floor. It doesn’t really start until after 10:30 so when we go it is a long night, but usually worth it. While I can’t speak for the girl’s perspective, I always have an abundance of girls to dance with from the group and learn new moves. In comparison to the salsa guys that fill up the dance floor, it seems like I have just started salsa. With them around, the oaxaqueños are out of my league. Most of them are professional dancers with their own studios, so while it can be a little intimidating, it is always cool to see their moves and look stupid trying to replicate them. However, they always love it when our group comes and the girls in our group hardly get a break. One of the dancers we found out is also is a tour guide and dance instructor and offered to take us on a bike tour to Monte Alban. We rented bikes for a good price and rode through the city until we found the way to Monte Alban, way up on a mountain. The ride up was a challenge and was about an hour of straight hill, but it was really satisfying to arrive at Monte Alban and look out on the city. Furthermore, the ride up was paid in full by the full 20 minutes of not needing to pedal as we descended the mountain.
One weekend we decided to get out of the city and go to Mitla, a little town with some ancient Zapotec temples and ruins. It was an adventure to get there however, because with the flooding the week before the bridge on the only highway to Mitla had a big crack in it and busses couldn’t pass. We then had to walk across the bridge (while they were repairing a crack in it) to catch another bus to a nearby town. From this town, we waited for a collectivo taxi where we crammed in until we finally reached Mitla. The town itself was awesome. It had so much culture and it was great to be out of the noise of Oaxaca. The ruins were also quite impressive. We were only in a group of 3, so it made it easy to walk around town and enjoy the tranquility of the place. We also enjoyed looking at the handmade indigenous clothing in the shops.
We went to Teotitlán two consecutive weeks to learn about the culture and some of the problems the community faces; the first time with a group called ENVIA and the second with Accion Permanente por la Paz, the group that took us to Mexico City and will take us to Chiapas also. ENVIA is a new non-profit organization that gives out interest-free microloans to women in the town of Teotitlán. These loans are funded by donations and the tours that they give, and provide a way for women that have the drive and skills to start a successful business get money to be able to start up or expand their businesses. They take out increasingly higher loans every time they pay off their previous loan and it was really encouraging to see how successful the program was in Teotitlán. Our tour consisted of going to about 4 different houses and learning about how the microloans work and seeing how they have helped get women and their families out of poverty.
Our second tour with Acción Permanente por la Paz was one of the highlights of my trip. The logistics were carried out by our group, but once we got to the town, we were the responsibility of our families. Our group was divided into groups of 3 or 4 and assigned families in the community to stay with for the weekend. Every group did their own thing, but we all had a great time experiencing the inner lives of these families. It was really powerful to see that although our families did not have much, they loved us with everything they had and shared whatever they could to make us comfortable. One of the highlights of the trip was attending a birthday party of a 10 year-old girl that was part of our extended family. The party must have had 60-70 people there and we made around 800 tamales for everyone. We ate, socialized, and ate some more. I had a soup called chicken foot soup, and to no surprise, there was a chicken foot in my soup. Fun times. One the morning we had to leave, we got up really early to climb a mountain that overlooks the Valley. It was absolutely gorgeous and satisfied my climbing itch a little bit.
Because our first trip to Mexico city was mostly educational and filled with a lot of meetings and presentations, we wanted to take a trip to see the sights of the city. A group of 5 of us took a bus at 1 am (to avoid paying for a night in a hotel) to Mexico city, a ride of about six and a half hours. We spent our weekend walking around the city, enjoying street food, touring the museums, looking at the hundreds of Diego Rivera murals, and taking crazy photos. We even got into this uppity dance club with bouncers and everything, but the entrance fee was too expensive. We are also very proud to say that we navigated through a eye clinic in Spanish for our friend Kara who had a nasty eye infection. Consultation, prescription, and antibiotics= 20 bucks.
The most recent of our trips was to the cost and the beach town of Huatluco. It was everything I imagined. Warm tropical water, pools, a nice hotel, amazing seafood, snorkeling, boogie boarding, piña coladas, Frisbee on the beach, and laying out in the sun. What a needed break from lit class! Being the only guy, I was put in my own room which turned out to be the marriage suite! I got my own balcony, a huge comfortable bed, a great shower, and AIR CONDITIONING! It was the first room I had been to that had air conditioning in Mexico. Although I didn’t stay in my room for more than sleep, it was pretty plush living. We were also pretty much the only people in the town because it wasn’t a break time for the rest of Mexico, so we got deals for everything: for a private boat, snorkeling, and visits to 5 different beaches all day I paid about 8 dollars. I did get a little sun burnt from the snorkeling (I didn’t think it was possible for me to burn), but the experience was all worth it.
I’d better stop here, but there’s a little update on my life down here in Oaxaca. There are so many more details, but those will have to be saved for a later post. Thanks for keeping up on my life, and thanks for the prayers and thoughts.
Que les vayan bien,
Bryan
P.S. Most of my photos are on Picasa instead of facebook so you can view them at: http://picasaweb.google.com/thepharoah99?authkey=Gv1sRgCLSRtMiAtdKifw
P.P.S If I get my act together, a day of the dead post will be coming soon.
P.P.S If I get my act together, a day of the dead post will be coming soon.
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