Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico
So I got to Mexico alright and am in training to become an amaranth expert! Today, I found out that I will be in a SMALL mountainous town of only 200 people, Loma Larga (Long Hill). There will be no running water but there is electricity and even a computer lab (no internet though)! The views are supposed to be amazing. I will make sure to take pictures and post them when I am back in here in Oxaca City.
The city is pretty amazing. Right now we can´t go out and really explore the center and the market because there is a protest by the teacher´s union. Apparently the police were sent in to quell a riot and the teachers pushed them back by force (and a few people were supposedly killed). So that is a bummer because the market is supposed to be AMAZING! Oh well, maybe later in the trip . . .
The church we are staying at is very cool. It has two inner courtyards, and last night, at 1 AM, a market suddenly began to be constructed. The food we got there during the next day was awesome. Lots and lot of meat; maybe I will actually gain some weight on this trip ;)
posted by Jeff N @ 7:17 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I am amazed at how many non-Mexicans are in Oaxaca supposedly working with communities to better their circumstances, yet when it comes to talking about the teachers strike, they only mention it in the context of it getting in the way of everyone's fun. Oaxaca is not Disneyland. Real people live there and struggle with a profound level of economic marginalization. That includes schoolteachers (who earn very little and have virtually no teaching materials) and the thousands of kids in the state who arrive at school without having had breakfast (if they even have a school in their communinty), and who rarely have access to textbooks and school supplies. If you are really interested in knowing Oaxaca, you might try informing yourself about the strike rather than just lamenting that it prevented you from visiting the market or the zocalo.
A very good commment and point. I wish I had known more at the time that I wrote the entry. As the weeks have passed, I have been able to talk to people about what is going on and get a broader sense of the riots, the teachers union, and the issues surrounding the events. When I wrote this, I was bascially locked in a church and unfortunately had few avenues to learn more about the issues (if I had, I hope I would have sought more information). In retrospect, the commenter is very correct. Many tourists (which I am regardless of the "community service" I am doing) only understand the riots in the context of it getting in the way of their fun. I am slowly becoming less sheltered than I was a couple days after arriving in Oaxaca: the elections have occurred, I have finally gotten out and talked to people in the community (and found cabbies are very good sources of info), and figured a few more things out. I still have so much more to learn however
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