Hope

There is a place where I can fix my computer about 30minutes away. I'm elated. That's all.

Saddest Day of My Life

So yesterday started out just fine. We went to Xoconoxtle again and this time played soccer with the kids of the town. It was awesome. I took lots of pictures, which hopefully some day you will be able to see. I got home and was going to call my dad with Joe, one of the students, to work on a data entry issue...when I realized my computer was frozen. I tried to restart it. It now will not even recognize that there is a hard drive. Period. I am so sad...I almost cried. So I am calling Apple Tech support in Mexico. Wish me luck.

More than anything, I am sad that I have to admit to my mac having problems. My host fathet thinks it's a virus from using my flashdrive at the internet kiosks here...oops. Anyway. I'm sad. It's a tragedy. Hopefully soon I'll be able to put up at least some of the pics, b/c they are awesome.

Xoconoxtle Día Uno

So...that's how "ho-co-no-tlay" is spelled. Yeah. Who would have thought? Let's be serious--today was an awesome day. Even if I can't exactly pronounce where I was. It is beautiful (in my opinion). So serene, though the ride there is not. It's the bumpiest ride...ever? Probably not. But at least 15 minutes driving on a dirt/stone road to basically the middle of nowhere. There are also lots of potholes. It's also partially on the side of a mountain. There is one part in the road where you are going down a hill, on really rocky road, and can basically only see...that in front of you, if you don't turn right, you will go straight down into a valley. Awesome. And we were in this HUGE van that belongs to the municipal president. I'm not really sure why that's the vehicle of choice...I guess at least it can hold 5 students and a doctor, which was our crew for the day.

We whizzed through interviews and tests. Let me explain a little bit about what I was doing. It is essentially the same project as I helped with last year when I was here. It is a study about cholesterol, hypertension and diabetes, as well as lifestyle and depression this year. We do 3 different surveys/questionnaires, then take vitals--blood pressure, weight, height, hip and waist measurements, then glucose. I can't do the cholesterol tests, but I can do everything else. I had forgotten how interesting it can be...how much I really loved doing this work last summer. It was really my first taste of research, and the reason that I wanted to do what I'm doing this year. You get to learn so much about a person in so little time, to make a connection with them, even though you will never see them again. It's a very bizarre kind of interaction. Anyway, it was awesome. We also were busy for the first 3 hours, and then there was no one, which was nice. So some of use (me, Charles, Kristoff and Dan, the doctor) went back to Juventino to find lunch and go to the bathroom (there is only an outhouse there, which wasn't even at the church, it is in a woman's hosue). It took us quite a while. We went to the same restaurant Kiko & Juanita took us to last week, since we knew the food was decent. It was somewhat difficult to find. So we got back to the church in Xoconoxtle around...2pm? I think we left around 11:30. We brought back food for Lorene and Joe, who stayed while we adventured. When we got back, they were sitting outside...doing basically nothing. They'd entered some of the data, but there'd been no more people. So we all sat around for a while...Kristoff, who is obsessed with having music playing at ALL TIMES turned on his iPod with portable speakers and we just kind of chilled...some people read, whatever. A few more people came in for tests. I entered some data--we got all of the data we've collected so far entered--and still had...hours to go until we were to do our platica--a work that means chat in Spanish. It's basically an informative session for the people of the community.

Lorene, Charles, Kristoff and I decided to play a game. This game was called "Throw your rocks into the bucked from 10 feet away." Though it sounds kind of...lame?...it's certainly better than "catch with a rock," which was the previously suggested game. The premise was pretty simple--take your two rocks (which we all were pretty attached to by the end of the game) and attempt to throw them into the bucket from a rock placed about 10 feet away. You get one point if your rock goes in the bucket but comes out and two if it stays in the bucket. We decided teams were the way to go--Kristoff & I were a team and Lorene and Charles. Let's just say I had no idea how much rocks can bounce out of buckets. By the end, KS (me & Kristoff) had 5 points, LC (Lorene & Charles) had 8. This score is to be updated tomorrow. It ended up actually being challenging and fairly fun. And certainly better than catch with rocks. I guess that's what happens when you're in the desert--anything can become part of a game. I'd like to call it creativity.

Our game of throw-the-rocks-into-a-bucket was somewhat rudely interrupted by people who were 45 minutes early for our platica. We felt bad playing our silly little game in the middle of their church yard...so we started cleaning up. The platica went well, though they were a little too in depth with the information I thought, and then I ended up being able to do an interview with one of the women there. We came home and hung out at their house for a little while, then I came home and ate la cena ("dinner," but really a 10 o'clock snack) with my familia. A thoroughly wonderful and productive day. Tomorrow I have plans to make more use of the time for my project and conduct maybe two more short interviews. For now, I must go to sleep. Pictures tomorrow of Xoconoxtle? And definitely of my pretty rocks.

Early.

So. It's almost 7am here in Mexico and I am about to go out to the communities for the first time. We're going to one that I can't write very well, though it's prononce "Ho-con-oaze-clay." Joconozcle? Maybe? Anyway, I was gonna walk over to the students' house, but then it was raining, so I called them to come pick me up and now it isn't. But I don't have time to walk over there. Funny how things work, huh? I'll let you know how it goes...

It's been a while

Hey loyal readers! I appologize for not writing recently. Life here has been pretty uneventful. I was sick, as I said, the end of last week and am *finally* feeling not as snuffly. The enferma (sickness) persists stil a bitl, just not through pain in my throat, so that's nice. I did want to share about the fun of going to Carlos' adorable little dance at his school to celebrate Father's Day, though it was last Friday.

I had been hearing about this little dance recital (and little is not quite a strong enough word, as Carlos' part in it lasted MAYBE a minute) for quite some time, so when I understood that it was coming up, I asked if I could come. My host parents (of course) said sure, so I tagged along. It was really hilarious, and continued my whole feeling of things being really similar more than different. Though it was held in what to me seemed a warehouse (though it was not--it was a building that you can rent to hold events such as this) that left something asthetic to be desired and was incredibly hot, it was the same teachers-making-children-look-silly-for-their-parents as in the US. The younger kids' dances were simple and quick with fun upbeat music. The older kids (third grade, fourth and fifth) had more intricate dances, though some of the girls were so obviously much more comfortable in their bodies while the others awkwardly tried to immitate the moves. I posted some of the pictures on my album that's on facebook, but available to be viewed by all, even if you don't have an account (I'll put a link to your right at the top of this page). After the dancing, we all ate. Good times. Then the kids ran outside and had a foam fight. That was pretty exciting to witness. Whoever decided to give kids cans of sprayable foam...I don't know why they thought that was a good idea. But the kids were having fun, so I guess it's all good. No real permanant damage.

Yesterday I went to breakfast at the doctor's parents and then dinner at Amparo's parents. Since it was Father's Day, AND I had Skype in my room, I called my dad. Breakfast and dinner were really nice. I really especially love Amparo's family. For some reason, I can understand them better. I mean that in a literal way--I understand more of what they're saying, whereas the doctor's family is still difficult to understand.

While both families are really nice and welcoming, I do feel a little bit...out of place. I'm never really sure if I should spend time with the adults or the "kids" (some of them are my age). I usually end up with the adults. Is that anything new? No, not really. But I talked pretty extensivly with one of Amparo's sister-in-laws and it was really interesting--we talked about family, and especially what it means to me and what I want from my life in relation to family...how important it is to me. We discussed the differences between the United States' familial culture and the historical family culture here. As I've said, here, family is everything. People depend on each other because they have to. In the US, we try not to rely on each other, we try to be independent. But we fail, because no man is an island. There is a freedom in recognizing that we DO need each other, because there is something relieving about it. We talked about the materialism of American culture and how money becomes more important than family, or really, support. It was interesting and powerful.

When I got home, there was a lovely thunderstorm that I happily watched and listened to along with some music.

Today was quite a lot less interesting. I discovered one wall of my bathroom is infested with tiny little ants. And I mean INFESTED. I attempted (and somewhat succeded) to take a shower, though the extremely low water pressure nearly stopped me. It is usually pretty low, basically no more than a dribble, but this morning seemed even more extreme. Whatever. I managed, so I guess I can't complain too much. This summer and last, I really realized that I am pretty resourceful, a skill I was not all that convinced I had. I watched the New Hampshire Presidential debates--the Democratic one and then as much of the Republican one as I could stand, which wasn't much. I read some of my book, "Bait and Switch," which is by Barbara Ehrenreich, who wrote "Nickel and Dimed." It's my third book of the adventures and I am thoroughly enjoying being able to read freely. In the room I'm in, there are also a bunch of classic books (like Moby Dick, the Divine Comedy, The Thousand and One Nights, Count of Monte Cristo) in Spanish. So I need to get on that...maybe.

A new era

I am writing you from my bed, my new workspace. This is going to be pretty short since, as you may be able to tell, it's quite late and I'm up for a very intense day tomorrow--I get to do at least one interview (finally!). But I did want to take the time to share my pictures, since that's the reason I'm up so late. Hopefully there will be more with more frequency, now that I have more internet access. I'm pretty psyched, b/c it means I get to keep myself updated on the Daily Show and Colbert Report world, which will just generally make life better. But if you want to see the few pictures I have so far, click here. Enjoy!