19 - 22 June
19 de junio de 2006
This weekend was so awesome! There’s nothing to describe, no words to say, how much I needed the change from noisy, polluted Oaxaca to the beautiful Mexican countryside. Don’t get me wrong, I love Oaxaca and my routine through it but when you’re a small town girl like myself it’s difficult to swing into a city that’s twice the size you’re used to and live there for four weeks. Luckily, Benito Juárez came to my rescue.
I was expecting something beautiful since it’s hard to go wrong in the Mexican countryside, especially around here with all the mountains but nothing could have prepared me for Benito. It was so beautiful it seemed like everywhere I looked was just another photograph that I HAD to take. I ended up with 144 pictures, all from about 24 hours. Some are simply amazing and none are bad. We had a huge cabin, all to ourselves, and we all slept together in one room with ten bunk beds and a glass ceiling. The reason we only needed ten bunk beds is because this wasn’t an offical excursion, only those who wanted to go on it went and we had to plan it ourselves. That also made it better since we didn’t have any clue about what we were doing, we just went to the place our director said “You can get taxis to Benito Juarez from here”, said we needed to go, went on an hour and a half taxi ride over dirt roads, and made our cabin reservations when we got there. Anyway, like I said, the group number was perfect and we all got to sleep together in the same room which I felt like went a long way towards building group unity. I feel like I came out of that weekend really close with those nine other people. The locals and the food of Benito Juarez were awesome too. We have pictures of us all playing basketball and jumping rope with some of them and for breakfast Sunday morning I had the best trucha (trout) I think I’ve ever had in my life. It was a bit expensive but not terribly so and I needed it so badly that I feel like I would have paid double to go. I would really like to go back but there are tons of other places I’d like to go too and I would like to spend a weekend just checking out Oaxaca too so that probably won’t work. We’ll see.
We bought our tickets to Huatulco today. It’s a very nice, fairly touristy beach, another excursion we’re planning ourselves. They were a bit expensive but we’re getting a really good deal on the rooms (three nights, in a touristy area, for 550 pesos total per person) so I guess it’s okay. I’m not going to lie, I was bummed out but I’m doing okay on money so sometimes you just have to suck it up and spend it! Can’t wait for Huatulco!
el 20 de junio de 2006
I had the COOLEST day today. I didn’t get to go to the internet café because of it, but it’s totally okay because my day was so cool! They finally gave up on finding Allison and I a different service job and just put us in the orphanage. Luckily, Katie was right there and she drew us an exact map to how to get there (we’ve tried to get there before but just got terribly, terribly lost). We got there about 10:45 and played with the kids until about 12:10 since it’s an hour walk from the orphanage to my house. They’re all really nice with strong individual personalities and a great group ethic. I only had to ask one kid (my favorite, Freddy) once today to let someone else have a turn at something. This might not sound that amazing but what you don’t realize is that these kids don’t have much at all. Between about 16 kids they have five or six working computers from about 1991, one busted skateboard, about five tops, six balls all of which are in random states of worness and most of which are unable to hold air, a piece of string (for the hand/string games) and two busted up basketball hoops. This may amaze you, but I had more fun playing with these kids and their limited toys than normal. It’s because they’re so inventive and once they get playing, they really hate to stop. We had to leave and it was so cool because they were all asking “¿Nos vemos manaña? ¿Jueves?” ( We’ll see each other tomorrow? Thursday?) I really like this trabajo servicio and I hope this optimism stays with me. I’d really like to be able to buy something for these kids since I’ve been so good about sticking to my budget that I actually have some extra money and I think it would be a good place to spend it. We’ll see. I can’t really think of cool toys for so many boys of different ages (ranging from 6 or 7 to 16). I don’t know what boys enjoy either which is a problem. I’ll just have to keep my eyes open!
el 22 de junio de 2006
Well, today I was back at the orphanage but I was one of two volunteers that went today. Normally we have about 8 or 9 so I couldn’t figure out why until I tried to walk back. The teachers are still in the Zocalo which doesn’t bother me since they’re been there for so long, I expect them now. But they were armed today which was suprising and I couldn’t figure out why they were decked out. They were all carrying large sticks, boards, and bits of pipe or thick wire.Yikes did I scoot out of there quickly! Anyway, I’m walking my one hour walk home and found that there was a non-violent, non-supportive of either side march going on. That made a bit more sense but still wasn’t totally clear. Then I finally got home (it took me a while to get across the non –supportive march that just wants the teachers back at their jobs so that their children will get educated) and my host mother told me that there was a third demonstration of people who support the government’s stance. I know this is terrible but I’m just so sick of all these people, I wish they’d just go home. I mean, think about how ridiculous this is- I have my orphans who are playing with deflated balls in relative poverty that the only real way to escape from is education. Meanwhile, the teachers sit in the Zocalo, pulling in salaries and demonstrating for more money. We shall see.
This weekend was so awesome! There’s nothing to describe, no words to say, how much I needed the change from noisy, polluted Oaxaca to the beautiful Mexican countryside. Don’t get me wrong, I love Oaxaca and my routine through it but when you’re a small town girl like myself it’s difficult to swing into a city that’s twice the size you’re used to and live there for four weeks. Luckily, Benito Juárez came to my rescue.
I was expecting something beautiful since it’s hard to go wrong in the Mexican countryside, especially around here with all the mountains but nothing could have prepared me for Benito. It was so beautiful it seemed like everywhere I looked was just another photograph that I HAD to take. I ended up with 144 pictures, all from about 24 hours. Some are simply amazing and none are bad. We had a huge cabin, all to ourselves, and we all slept together in one room with ten bunk beds and a glass ceiling. The reason we only needed ten bunk beds is because this wasn’t an offical excursion, only those who wanted to go on it went and we had to plan it ourselves. That also made it better since we didn’t have any clue about what we were doing, we just went to the place our director said “You can get taxis to Benito Juarez from here”, said we needed to go, went on an hour and a half taxi ride over dirt roads, and made our cabin reservations when we got there. Anyway, like I said, the group number was perfect and we all got to sleep together in the same room which I felt like went a long way towards building group unity. I feel like I came out of that weekend really close with those nine other people. The locals and the food of Benito Juarez were awesome too. We have pictures of us all playing basketball and jumping rope with some of them and for breakfast Sunday morning I had the best trucha (trout) I think I’ve ever had in my life. It was a bit expensive but not terribly so and I needed it so badly that I feel like I would have paid double to go. I would really like to go back but there are tons of other places I’d like to go too and I would like to spend a weekend just checking out Oaxaca too so that probably won’t work. We’ll see.
We bought our tickets to Huatulco today. It’s a very nice, fairly touristy beach, another excursion we’re planning ourselves. They were a bit expensive but we’re getting a really good deal on the rooms (three nights, in a touristy area, for 550 pesos total per person) so I guess it’s okay. I’m not going to lie, I was bummed out but I’m doing okay on money so sometimes you just have to suck it up and spend it! Can’t wait for Huatulco!
el 20 de junio de 2006
I had the COOLEST day today. I didn’t get to go to the internet café because of it, but it’s totally okay because my day was so cool! They finally gave up on finding Allison and I a different service job and just put us in the orphanage. Luckily, Katie was right there and she drew us an exact map to how to get there (we’ve tried to get there before but just got terribly, terribly lost). We got there about 10:45 and played with the kids until about 12:10 since it’s an hour walk from the orphanage to my house. They’re all really nice with strong individual personalities and a great group ethic. I only had to ask one kid (my favorite, Freddy) once today to let someone else have a turn at something. This might not sound that amazing but what you don’t realize is that these kids don’t have much at all. Between about 16 kids they have five or six working computers from about 1991, one busted skateboard, about five tops, six balls all of which are in random states of worness and most of which are unable to hold air, a piece of string (for the hand/string games) and two busted up basketball hoops. This may amaze you, but I had more fun playing with these kids and their limited toys than normal. It’s because they’re so inventive and once they get playing, they really hate to stop. We had to leave and it was so cool because they were all asking “¿Nos vemos manaña? ¿Jueves?” ( We’ll see each other tomorrow? Thursday?) I really like this trabajo servicio and I hope this optimism stays with me. I’d really like to be able to buy something for these kids since I’ve been so good about sticking to my budget that I actually have some extra money and I think it would be a good place to spend it. We’ll see. I can’t really think of cool toys for so many boys of different ages (ranging from 6 or 7 to 16). I don’t know what boys enjoy either which is a problem. I’ll just have to keep my eyes open!
el 22 de junio de 2006
Well, today I was back at the orphanage but I was one of two volunteers that went today. Normally we have about 8 or 9 so I couldn’t figure out why until I tried to walk back. The teachers are still in the Zocalo which doesn’t bother me since they’re been there for so long, I expect them now. But they were armed today which was suprising and I couldn’t figure out why they were decked out. They were all carrying large sticks, boards, and bits of pipe or thick wire.Yikes did I scoot out of there quickly! Anyway, I’m walking my one hour walk home and found that there was a non-violent, non-supportive of either side march going on. That made a bit more sense but still wasn’t totally clear. Then I finally got home (it took me a while to get across the non –supportive march that just wants the teachers back at their jobs so that their children will get educated) and my host mother told me that there was a third demonstration of people who support the government’s stance. I know this is terrible but I’m just so sick of all these people, I wish they’d just go home. I mean, think about how ridiculous this is- I have my orphans who are playing with deflated balls in relative poverty that the only real way to escape from is education. Meanwhile, the teachers sit in the Zocalo, pulling in salaries and demonstrating for more money. We shall see.
posted by Emma at 5:36 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home