An Update

Again I am in Oaxaca for a "taller", a mid-trip meeting with all the Amigos here in Oaxaca. However, we will be headed back to the States in only a few weeks so it feels strange to spend time out of the community with so little left. Overall, things are still going well.

In response to questions from a number of people, I wanted to give some updates about my research and the situation with nutritional education in my community. Basically, my community is pretty well off in terms of malnutrition. Upon entering the community at the beginning of the summer, a government agency gave us a list of those children malnourished our community; we had only four within our entire area all of whom were near recovered. This compared to other communities with mutiple children who are "serverly" malnourished (the three levels are severe, moderate, and leve or near recovered from malnourishment). But what I found upon arriving in the community is that things aren't as peaching as the malnourishment data would indicate. As I talked about before, fruit and veggie consumption is quite limited. To try and track this, I've been recording everything I've eaten since July 1st. Granted I am going to be treated to better food than the average as a gringo visiting town, but the data has been interesting. From what I can tell, vitamin and micronutrient consumption is limiting to a few sources, most of which I would not describe as ideal. They include eggs, fortified powdered milk, other fortified sources like government supplied fruit loops, chile sauces, nopal (veggies from a cactus), and occasionally other fruits and veggies. The problem is that under the project as set out from the beginning of the summer, my partner and I are supposed to be pushing amaranth, amaranth, amaranth as a solution from many of these problems. We are supposed to and do talked about other sources, but I don't feel like we have the resources to adequately question issues of nutrition in our community.

Plus, the problem is not just food selection or availablity. Of course a whole other slew of problems confound everything: the women rarely eat with us and do not seem to eat much or well, the local culture is very set on corn and black beans for both profit and consumption, and there is a lack of knowledge about nutrition and processes of the body. But the aim of many of our partnering agency is very limited in scope, and changing some of the confounding factors I just listed is not plausible: there aren't enough people, money, or time. These agencies stop by communities every now and again, hand out some food, and then leave and only return a month later. While this is great on many levels, I don't know if it is really changing much, changing the underlying problems and causes. I know that Puente, one of our partnering agencies really wants to do what I am talking about, they just don't have the power to do so. The scope is limited (more or less only amaranth), and the organization is tiny. On the other hand, Un Kile de Ayuda, the large governmental organization I work with, doesn't seem to be in the business of changing the system. They are drop by communities every two weeks, weight the children and hand out food to those not on track with "ideal" growth curves. Throwing food at people like this serves some purpose, but it is like many forms of community service (including what I do much of the time). It serves as a bandaid and does not address the real, underlying sore.

All this led me into my research as is right now. I am trying my best to form some semblance of a view on nutrition in MY community. I want to try to shed a little light onto the real problems within my community; the problem is that in two months I really cannot do anything. But hoepfully what I do find will be of some use, to me, to Amigos, to Puente, to Un Kilo, and more importantly the people in my community.

After taking a survey of food consumption in all the Amigos communities, I realized what is rationally obvious. Issues of nutrtion vary HUGELY for one community to the next. Some Amigos are eating too many fruits and veggies and not enough protein. Other like me are not eating enough fruits and veggies, but we get plenty of protein in various forms. Still others get a relatively balanced diet but there is NO variety whatsoever in the diet. They eat about 4 food items ad naseau. And this means tackling malnutrition needs UNIQUE solutions for EVERY community. One blanket solution is not going to work, even in an area as small as the towns surrouding the City of Oaxaca. But again, there just aren't the resources to know and explore each area on this level. The world doesn't value the poor enough to change things. I will go back in two weeks to my comfortable home in the US, with my hot showers, flushing toilets, and fancy car in the driveway. I will leave my community and truth be told, not much will be different as a result of anything I did in my time here. This is the problem that I face in trying to extract myself from the system enough to do something, however little. I've got to have hope and much of the time it is hard. I am more a part of the problem than the solution. What to do . . .

Back in the City

Back in Nochixtlan for the day, running errands again and the like. All is relatively well. Missing everyone back home!

Challenges

So I am in a city called Nochixtlan today running a few errands. Things are going alright but the questions surrounding what I am doing here are really starting to set in. That is to say, what am I really doing here? Is what I am doing really worthwhile for me or the community I am in? I knew these questions would come up and hit me hard and they have started to. The slowness of the projects and the goals have frustrated me. For instance, we are going to be teaching English classes, but I really wonder why. The community is all for it, but I worry that is only for the reason of enabling people to immigrate to the US and end up work shit jobs and getting no governmental support. Then again, they might make more money than they are right now. I just want to find projects that I feel will empower people to stregthen their own lives, their own country, and their own culture. I don´t feel like I am doing that and only feel I am helping to continue the class system that has created all these problems in the first place. Unfourtunatly, I only have another 4 weeks here, and I feel that I am going to finish these classes and accomplish nothing. I think I will only prove that I am another gluttonous American "trying to do good" in the world, yet only helping to feed the system.

But this is the ultimate question, what do we do? What do I do? How do you do community service in a socially just way, in a way that does not help to promote the status quo. I don´t know if there is an answer and that scares me. I want to believe there is a better way, a better tomorrow but it is difficult. I talked with my partner the other day about economic systems, about "developement". He was making the arguement that economic investment is the only way to improve people´s lives. But I don´t see that working, I don´t see Mexicans lives improving by becoming more like the archetypal American consumer. And I don´t know if what I am doing is really helping to stop that from happening. That is the slippery slop I am walking right now.

Oaxacan Food

So my expectations of food here in Oaxaca have not been met in the way I thought. That is not to say that the food is bad - I have definately had some great food - it is more to say that there is not much variety. Beans, tortillas and more beans. And a few eggs and pieces of chicken. Let me say my multi-vitamin pills are coming in handy. I am simply just not eating enough fruits and veggies; they just don´t eat many of them in my town. The interesting thing is that other volunters in other communities are receiving too much fruit or veggies and not enough protein. Nutrition is thus a very interesting problem. The communities are so varied in culture, food, and in ever way shape and form. The concept of a homogenous Oaxaca, or Mexico for that matter, is something that I meant to shatter for myself and am doing so. This poses some really interesting challenges in the way of what it means to "do community service", especially as a white person in a foreign culture.

But, back to the food, the other day we did eat some great mole and slaughtering a turkey! THat was an expierence! And the day before yesterday I was served sheep intestine (which appeared to be alien meat) and liver. I tried and ate a fair amount of both . . . the intestine was not bad but not something I am interested in eating regularly ;) My partner refused to eat either and got made fun of by some of the people at the dinner party!

Overall, everything is pretty good, and I am have a good time. But send me some e-mail people. I feel alone out here in Oaxaca!