by the way, route this week was the best route ive had.

it made me really happy to see my vols upset about leaving.

theres a film fest in guanajuato this weekend for shorts. yesterday we went to see one down in one of the tunnels in gto. The picture up there is a photo of the tunnels. imagine watching 'sexual diversity shorts' at 11 pm in there. it was pretty amazing.
today marcus and i went to see some more shorts that were filmed in GTO. there was a really amazing one about a mexican who joins the us army in order to get his paper and dies in the line of service. it was really intense and a really relevant subject matter seeing as i've had all these talks with people about why they go to the u.s.

Quick update since i{m in an internet cafe paying for the time.

i think ill first tell the story of yesterday morning

so on thursday night i go over to juanas house in Tortugas to make sure i can leave on the van with the factory workers friday morning. she tells me that she and amanda are going to Leon tomorrow too so we should all go together, they are leaving at 7. now, i know for a fact that the van leaves at 7:30... but regardless, when someone tells me 7 i feel a little guilty waking up AFTER 7... so i get up at 6:50, a good compromise i think. at about 7:15 i wander over to juanas house. she leaves me outside watching the chickens. now, if you havent watched chickens eat tortillas ever, you should. totally reminded me of geertz and his quests. (dorky anthro joke-- i have to get them where i can) at 7:30, erika leaves to take the van... curious i think.. but we are waiting for dona amanda so we must wait. 7:45 juana decides it's time to take off in search of dona amanda. she is nowhere to be found. so juana leaves me in the street while she goes off to get her son because she is not going alone and if amanda has abandoned her, her son must come. i see her come back 10 minutes later in a different outfit. apparently amanda has called and she left with the factory workers (the smart way out of town). juana has changed into a more flowing skirt so that she can walk better but hasn't brought her son because she's sure she will find amanda. we walk for about an hour when finally someone gives us a ride. but they drop us off at this weird part of the highway. juana pulls me over to the wrong side of the road. apparently now I am part of her quest to find amanda. we get on a bus towards san pancho and when i go to sit down she says no, we have to stay up front in case we see amanda on the road and need to wrangle her into the bus. finally juana realizes that amanda is nowhere to be seen and that i'm not interested in her quest and gets off near where the factories are to search for her there. I continue on. after a nice nap on the first bus, i get on the second. there are no seats left (two weeks in a row), but i don't feel like waiting. so, i plop my bag down and do the thing i only did because i had gotten 5 hours of sleep, waited around for an hour , walked for an hour, and been on 2 buses all by 10:30 AM. I sit in the aisle on my bag. after the snickers subsided i looked around. i had plopped myself down in front of a couple who then proceeded to make out for the entire one hour bus ride.
awkward.


more later if we get internet back. for now i'm running ouuuuuuuuuuut.

the beautiful moments

So, instead of writing about the difficulties I sometimes face on my route, I think I'll write about the beautiful moments I had last week on route.

Now, when I first arrived in Mexico and went on survey, I thought that the land was kind of barren, sort of like a desert== with brown everywhere. In the weeks since it has totally transformed itself and is now filled with tons of different greens and browns and yellows.
On Thursday I needed to get from Mexiquito to the city. The city suspended bus service to Mexiquito about 3 months ago, so there's no 'easy' way in and out. However, I was told to just wait around by the entrance to town and someone would for sure give me a ride. So I waited there for about 30-45 minutes--- but not to worry, i wasn't alone-- there were tons of mexiquitans keeping me company. When a camioneta passed by I asked the family for a ride to San Pancho (the nickname for San Francisco del Rincon-- the city) The driver says, well, I can't go to san pancho but i can go to san francisco... I was amused to note that old men have the same bad sense of humor in mexico as in the U.S.
Anyway, I hop on the back and sit down with a bunch of boxes of empty beer bottles that the man was taking to the distributor (i think he owns a store in town). For the next hour we drove through the fields and finally on the highway to get into town. It was absolutely beautiful--- I don't know what it is about being outside with the wind in my hair, but it's really freeing. I get the same feeling when i'm on a boat in the ocean... Anyway, I arrived in San Pancho totally refreshed (which was good because the last part of my route was the hardest)

On Tuesday night, the kids in tortugas took me to meet Nati, the delegada. (a sort of mayor-type figure) She was amazing. She took us into her house, lit a candle, sat us down on the floor and started playing the guitar for us and singing songs. We were there for hours talking about life-- all of our fears and dreams. It was totally fantastic.

My kids made T=Shirt designs this week for a route t-shirt. We're called the bushitters because of that week when jackie had to go in the bushes. In any case, on the back is a drawing of our route, and in San Pancho it says "kirsten and Mafioso"== because I spend all of my time in San Pancho hanging out with the guy from the government, Juan Carlos, who we call Mafioso. I go into san pancho to get the t-shirt made and I decided to ask juan carlos if he knew where I could get it done. He insisted on getting them made and so asked me for the piece of paper. I'm really hoping he doesn't figure out that Mafioso refers to him.

In other news, this weekend was pretty good-- we have a TON of paperwork to do--- We have to write evaluations for all of the volunteers, close-outs for all of the towns, reviews of senior staff, etc. It's a good thing we all brought laptops! We've been playing a lot of spades and watching desperate housewives... It's still good the second time around!

Anyway, i'm off to go on route again.. I can't believe the weekend is over! I'll be back on Friday with more stories I'm sure. Hopefully more volunteers won't come down with cases of 'tristeza'

GRE's

are awful.

just took a practice test.

it was awful.

that's my thought of the afternoon.

so much for delaying the real world.. i guess i really should have taken math in college!!

back to the realworldgto. an improvement on the realworldgre.

my week on route

This week was a pretty fun week on route.
I thought I'd share a few stories that popped up in my 'route journal'. It's a book that we pass around to each community so that they can communicate with eachother.
This time I asked some questions for them to answer. These involved the funniest language misunderstanding, the best and worst songs, the best and weirdest foods, and what time they've been woken up by what weird food.
I answered them first and I couldn't think of any recent mistakes in spanish, but I wrote about one in french. When I first got to france I thougght it would be reeeally french to say thank you in what I thought was a very french accent-- which, came out sounding like: merci beaucou... little did I know what that actually meant was... thanks, nice ass. I had gone around saying this for a month and a half before charlotte kindly informed me that instead of complimenting shopkeepers rears I should be saying thank you very much... sheesh.

anyway, jackie, is now called jackie chan by her entire community because she asked if she could "ducharse" which isn't used in mexico, it's 'banarse'... the family thought she was saying "lucharme" which means to fight! so now they do punching moves and call her jackie chan constantly.

The vols are cute and the stuff that they write in the journal is really precious. It's interesting how they form these bonds with people that they barely know... I mean the sups have to pass around these notes that they're sending to kids that they have known for 3 days (in briefing)...

All of my vols are doing well.. except for maybe 2. one is really unhappy here, and we talked for a long time about what would make her happy. I knew I'd have to play shrink at some point, and with her is definitely the time... The other one doesn't like kids. weird. since it's a youth to youth project... I think when you're a sup you learn to come up with these wacky solutions to kids problems...

The wedding in one of my communities got cancelled for this weekend. which is a bummer. It was going to be my first mexican wedding.... since I didn't go to the other one. hehe

Anyway, i'm off to get a pedicure today. these feet are nasty.

Community Based Initiatives

So, the kids on my program are doing two projects: Youth to Youth Development and Community Based Initiatives. The Community Based Initiatives (CBI's) are designed to give the community a chance to decide on a project that they want to implement, to fundraise part of the money, and to realize the project. In theory, they are a really good concept.
This week, however, has been a total struggle to get them off of the ground. The people who were sups in San Pancho before me did not do a great job... They got the presidencia, and hence, mafioso, involved in not only the buying of materials but also the 'mano de obra' which is the labor of the project. So everywhere I went this week, the people had this screwbally idea of what exactly was happening. Basically, in the end we're giving 400 dollars to each community for them not to have any true hand in the project...

While annoying, I sort of have to deal with the status quo, especially because in 2 of my communities, the projects never got done last year and the people are pissed. so I've had to deal with appeasing them by doing these projects.
In the end, the projects that we're doing are : fixing up the altar of the church, fixing the casa de salud grounds/putting in a floor, putting up a roof over the back of the casa de salud (health clinic), and putting towers on a church. Do we see the themes here? casa de salud and church...
I was hoping for some more creative projects, that would get the community involved, but oh well. It just feels like these are much more on the 'developme nt' scheme than starting people thinking about projects that they could do themselves without outside help...

The big lime green house is our staff house! You can see it from a lot of different places in the city because of the color and the fact that it's up on a hill.

It's seriously a great house. a little a la real world, especially now that we have internet and there are like 8 computers strewn around!

I've had a really relaxing weekend, which I definitely needed. Got to talk to all of the family on Saturday, which was nice but a little bit sad to not be with everyone. We got lots of time to just hang out.

I go back out on route tomorrow.. which I don't think I'm quite ready for...

By the By. Carrie, Marcus, Anil, and I took a really funny taxi ride in this cab that was blacklighted... The quote of the night was "me: Man, this taxi is PIMPED out" Anil to taxi driver: "Una Fiesta en Ruedas"... The taxi driver thought that he perhaps was... nuts.

anyway, i'm out to play some spades--- we just played mexico monopoly earlier--

love.

Ok, so i'm going to be laz\y and just post the text from an email i wrote.

" The funniest part about this week was that while i was on my way from one town to another (these two are close, so i walk it accompanied by tons of little kids and this time by 3 of the volunteers) we get to this donkey, and one of the kids convinces me to get on it, in a skirt. we took a bunch of photos, and then one of my vols gets on it (also in a skirt) and as soon as she got on it, the donkey TAKES off. leaving her on her ass. guess he liked me better! "

the kids and i were all on the ground laughing... practically rolling in the cow manure that is all over the place in the campo! i swear you have to watch every step you take. all though to be honest, it gets so baked that it probably doesn't stick anyway. gross.

i'm back in the city now. i did my usual friday morning hop in the back of a truck, get dropped in the highway and catch 4 buses back routine.

i think i've finally gotten the money problem worked out in 2 of the towns. I've decided that i got stuck with some really hard towns and have had to deal with the mexican government every step of the way... which is not typically amigos' style.. On top of that, the party that was in power in san pancho lost, so now i really have to work them to get anything done.

my vols are good. 2 of them have gotten nothing done.. but i could write that off to the fact that i visited them in the very beginning of the week.

off to enjoy my weekend. although somehow mexiquito convinced me that i should start route on sunday this week so that i could go to a birthday party.. so it won't be much of a weekend!

Kir

hangin in San Pancho

so, it´s the odd wednesday that i find myself in front of the computer. I emerged from the campo early this morning to search for a bath... no, just kidding, but i do need one of those. The last town that i was in hadn´t had water for 2 days. Luckily, i had showered and used the bathroom before i left the town before... because there was no hope of doing either in el junco.
as per usual, this brings me to my funny bathroom story. The two vols in el junco really needed to go. so we found a way to get away from all of the kids and walk out into the fields. Once there, they seperated and dug holes and went. well, the one girl dropped the role of toilet paper into the hole and then felt the need to go ahead and scavenge for the remaining non soiled paper. i told them that this was a quintessential amigos experience. to think that they had been fooled by the flushing toilet and hot shower when they first got there!

I had really forgotten what it´s like to be 16. It´s weird to feel older than the majority of people here since i´m not actually that old... but the truth is that there are only three people older than me here...

I actually came into san pancho because i have a meeting with juan carlos to discuss the money problem. Now, juan carlos is about as mafioso a mexican man as you could hope for. He´s got a huge stomach (and let me add that his two kids mirror him in appearance, even at ages 4 and 5). He´s totally workable. Last week I ran into him at the capacitacion and got him to find me a bike to ride between communities. This week i´m planning on getting him to give me the money back from last years projects in 2 of my communities, plus probably lunch and a ride to Mexiquito. who knows what i´ll get from him next week! He´s the type that loves to impress. and specifically enjoys impressing my type. hahaha.

anyway, off i go and then it´s the campo for another 2 days...

relief!

This morning I dropped the vols off in their community. phew. what a relief to have them finally there! but Im ridiculously nervous about how theyre getting on. its the mama bear complex i guess. they were all so scared and looking to me for confidence, which of course i gave them... but when we got to tortugas, (the place where i underwent a fast for 24 hours) it was like no one wanted them, and the woman who was in charge of their housing was in the city! so i had to leave them there with the promise that they had to call me and tell me what was happening and id come back and get them if need be... i hope they're ok! anyway, i have to run and try to get my voice back. i lost it 2 days ago and havent had the time to rest up. ill update more about briefing tomorrow hopefully. lets just say that it was typical mexican style. things took forever to happen but when they did happen they were fabulous Kir