Week 7: ¡Vamos a la playa!

¡Saludos!  

Monday and Tuesday marked our last days of classes with Oliver and Jonathan.  In Oliver’s class we reviewed the major concepts of the course: the history of the economy in Mexico in relation to the US and the world, the militarization of the US-Mexico Border, and overall themes of Neoliberalism, activism and social movements. For the final day of cultural competency, Maximizing the Oaxacan experience, and ISP Research Methods, we reviewed our class discussions, readings, and fieldwork experiences. It’s amazing to think that we are halfway through our program, though it feels as though we are just getting used to life here in Oaxaca. 

While we are all looking forward to starting our track classes in Food Systems, Global Health, and Music and Botany, it is bittersweet to know that soon we will be splitting up and heading in our different directions for the remainder of the program.  Before we do, though, we headed to the beach for an amazing "spring break"!

Playa Carrizalillo, Puerto Escondido

Late Tuesday evening we all left for Puerto Escondido, embarking on the most memorable van ride most of us will (hopefully) ever experience. Armed with Dramamine and advice from those who had taken the trip before, we thought we were prepared for what was to come.  We were wrong.  Seven hours, several mountains, and 2,000 curves later, we realized the futility of trying to sleep on a veritable rollercoaster. We arrived unscathed in Puerto Escondido at about 6am and walked to our hostel near Playa Carrizalillo. On the way we stopped at el Cafecito, a restaurant and bakery that was to provide about 75% of our meals in Puerto. After a night without sleep, Cafecito was a blessing, serving buns fresh from the oven while we waited for our French Toast, scrambled eggs, huevos rancheros, chilaquiles (crispy tortillas with salsa and cheese), and ensalsadas de fruta (fruit salads).

Hostal Vivo Escondido

Our hostel, Vivo Escondido, was a beautiful space.  It was very clean, comfortable and offered a pool, ping-pong table, ocean-view hammocks, and a 10-minute walk to the beach.  The owner, Ross, was from New Hampshire; the English speaking staff and slightly New England feel added to the beautiful ambiance.  During our stay we met an array of travelers and backpackers from India, Israel, Australia, Italy and more.

Caroline, Julianna, and Madeleine with their coconuts

For the next four days we proceeded to take full advantage of the beaches and beautiful Pacific Ocean. For many of us New Englanders, it was the first time we had swum in the Pacific Ocean. Shana, Nina, Heather, Elyse, Kristina, and Spencer learned to surf, impressing us all with their skills. Others enjoyed paddle boarding, swimming, and sunbathing. (Yes we wore lots of sunscreen, and yes, a few people still got sunburned.) Most of us tried our first fresh coconut, and have developed serious addictions to the taste of fresh coconut water.

On Wednesday night we walked to a neighboring beach, Bacocho, for Cine en la Playa (Cinema on the Beach). Taking the drive-in concept to the beach, Hotel Villasol had erected a giant screen and offered weekly free movie nights.  While the odd French movie itself was perhaps not our first choice, the setting, with tiki lamps and waves in the background, was lovely.

Towards the end of our time at the beach, we all celebrated Spencer’s birthday with a trip to a bio-luminescent lagoon about a 20 minute drive from Puerto Escondido. It was an incredible experience!

Mazunte

The majority of students returned home to the city on Saturday, while a few traveled to the nearby village of Mazunte to catch a glimpse of a circus festival and visit some immaculate beaches. By Sunday evening, the whole of the group had reunited with their host families, and enjoyed the luxury of a hot shower.  We're still finding sand in our shoes and shells in our backpacks. Can we go back yet?

¡Que les vaya bien¡  We hope everyone at home is well!

~Nina and Julianna

Week 6: The End of the Beginning and a BIG TREE

Saludos todos!

This week got off to a great start with our trip to Arrazola on Thursday. We traveled by city bus to Arrazola, about 30 minutes from the city center. When we arrived, we walked to a cooperative known as EcoAlebrijes. Arrazola is well known for its primary craft, alebrijes, which are carved wooden animals that are handcrafted and hand painted with precision. While some are made from multiple pieces of wood, others are made from one block of wood from nose to tail.

During the presentation from EcoAlebrijes, we learned about the process of making an alebrije. As one of the representatives spoke to us, a man sat nearby trimming a piece of wood with a machete while a woman sat a few feet away painting a new alebrije. Traditionally, the men carve and the women paint for efficiency purposes. The art is passed down through families, maintaining different styles that are distinguishable when compared with others' work. We were told that the artisans most often use copal wood to make the alebrijes because of its easy-to-carve nature and its resin that becomes incense. In the past, the copal wood had been retrieved from Monte Alban (the archaeological site that we went to), but that area has since been deforested so they have had to search for other options. Realizing that the current consumption of copal wood for alebrije-making was unsustainable, EcoAlebrijes coordinated with the University of Iowa in 2004 to continue their craft in a more environmentally friendly way. With this partnership, there are now a number of tracts of land in the Etla area that the artisans use over time. When they cut down trees from the first tract, the smaller trees that had begun to grow gained the space to grow faster and taller. Over the course of 15-20 years the artisans will have made it through each tract of land, with the first tract fully re-grown and ready for use. The cooperative not only reforests wood for their own use, but also initiates reforestation projects within their community and in surrounding communities. They involve schoolchildren whenever they can to teach them the importance of ecology. After the presentation, we were able to peruse the three tables that the artisans had set up for us displaying their art to buy. There were alebrije animals of various shapes and sizes, as well as jewelry such as earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. Nearly everyone walked away with a treasure that day, if not a whole lot of knowledge!


The next day, we went to Solexico for the last time for Spanish class! We received our grades and a certificate of completion of the course and then did what anyone in our situation would do: had a party! Each set of roommates brought something to share and we had a great fiesta with snacks, drinks, and three pinatas! Everyone got the chance to take a swing and we had a great time watching our teachers do it, too! It was a really fun way to end our time at Solexico, and we were proud to have made it through the class!


On Saturday, some of us took a bike ride to El Tule, where the famous tree is that has the biggest trunk in the world! We met our professor, Oliver, in the city and rented bikes to take to El Tule. Two of the men who worked at the bike shop escorted us on our trip to and from the town, clearing the roads of traffic for us and carrying tools and supplies should we have needed anything. The bike ride took about an hour each way and was along a mercifully shady bike path. When we arrived, we weren't sure if we were in Mexico or Disneyland! Considering that it is currently the dry season, everything was green and pristine. The lawns were perfect and mowed, the fountains flowing, and the bushes shaped into various animals. We immediately walked to the tree and took pictures, looking at it in awe. We could hear the sounds of so many birds chirping, trying to communicate over the others. It was really something spectacular. After the tree, we wandered to the artisan market and food market to explore and grab a snack. Finally, we sat near a fountain and ate fruit while some of us did gymnastics in the grass until it was time to leave. Already a little sore from our ride to El Tule, we climbed on our bikes and made the trek home thinking of the nap that awaited us!


Our weekend ended with a group dinner at the faculty's apartment. On Sunday afternoon, the cookers went to Sánchez Pascua market close to where we live to get ingredients for dinner. We got fresh fruit, vegetables, and bread. Then we walked down to a supermarket not too far from the market to get the dry goods we needed. That evening, the cookers met up at the teacher's apartment to start on our meal. Some of us chopped vegetables while others worked on the sauces for our pasta. In the end, we had spaghetti with avocado basil sauce and a tomato sauce. We cooked broccoli and mushrooms to add to the sauce if we wanted to, and also enjoyed a fresh salad. Everything was made from scratch and we were very proud of ourselves as cookers! The evening ended with oranges and cookies and a great conversation about our reflections on the first part of the semester and our hopes for the next phase.

After our busy weekend, we are so excited to head to the beach for a few days for some R&R before our individual tracks start! The next time you see us, we'll be tan and have some great stories to share from our time at the beach. We hope you enjoyed this week's update!


           Elyse and Heather

Week 5: Exploring Our Interests

Group photo from our weekend away!

Buenas tardes family and friends! Kristina and Amalia here to share our fifth week in Oaxaca with you!  Lately, we've filled our time with field trips, class sessions, and visits to local organizations.  As Caroline and Madeleine mentioned in the previous post, we started this week off with a relaxing and refreshing weekend away from the city. When we returned, we had a day off from classes on Monday because of Mexican Constitution Day celebrations.  There were even more fireworks than usual!

After the holiday, we had our normal schedule of Spanish in the morning and classes with Oliver and Jonathan at SURCO in the afternoon.  Many of us have new Spanish teachers this week, giving us the opportunity to practice and learn from a different spanish speaker.  In our afternoon classes, we have been discussing the history of Neoliberalism in a global context, and then focusing in on how this concept has changed Mexican society. On Wednesday, we began to work more in-depth on our independent student projects (ISP), and discover more about our topics of interest. We were assigned a project to go to a place that would be pertinent to our ISP topic, and observe the surroundings, using all of our senses to describe these places. We had to develop interview questions to ask someone involved, and record our experiences.  Kristina visited a local organic market, called Pochote, and spoke with one of the vendors about his experience growing and selling ecologically-farmed produce.  Fidel, the farmer, gave her some useful preliminary information to start looking deeper into her ISP topic of alternative agricultural practices in the state of Oaxaca.  

Pochote Market 

We usually have a field excursion on Thursday, but since we missed a day of Spanish on Monday, we had our regular spanish class in the morning.  In the afternoon, the group visited COMI (Centro de Orientación del Migrante de Oaxaca), a migrant shelter in Oaxaca City. This project provides resources for Central American and Mexican migrants who are traveling north in search of better living conditions and work opportunities. They provide material items such as food, clothes, and toiletries as well as a place to sleep. They also help migrants find temporary work in Oaxaca if they are staying for an extended period of time. This resource is important for migrants as they are able to learn more about their rights in Mexico, and receive advice about how to stay safe and healthy while traveling north.  Some of the students were so inspired by COMI's work that they decided to focus their ISP on migrant justice and partner with this organization.

Artwork by Espacio Zapata

This weekend, we worked on our Literature Reviews for our ISP topics to gain more background knowledge about our areas of interest before conducting interviews.  We are also studying for Spanish in preparation for our final exam next week!  On Friday, our 6-week intensive Spanish courses will come to a close.  To take a break from homework this weekend, a few of us participated in a practice called Vibration Therapy.  Along with Cara and Elyse, Kristina attended a one-hour session on Sunday morning.  Roberto, the Vibration Therapy specialist, led us through a meditation session using a wide variety of objects that produce soothing sounds.  The purpose of this practice is to meditate and, using the vibrations from the sound, release negative energy or vibrations.  It was a unique and relaxing way to start off the morning!

This weekend, some students also worked with Espacio Zapata, a local artist collective that focuses on political artwork.  See the photo to the left to check out the stenciling project that they completed this weekend.

We are resting up on this beautiful Sunday evening in preparation for the busy week we have ahead of us!

Until next week,

Kristina & Amalia 

Week 4: A week of ecological adventures

Hey there, it’s Caroline and Madeleine! We’re super happy that you’re joining us on our Oaxcan Journey! We’re sitting in our courtyard right now of our homestay, which is full of succulent plants enjoying the beautiful weather. Let’s rewind this mixtape to the beginning and get this party started.

Last Sunday, most of the group went to Hierve del Agua, which is Spanish for “Boil the Water”. We rode a bus to Tlacolula, which is a town outside of Oaxaca city. Every Sunday, they shut down the town to have a giant market. From there, we rode another bus to a town called Mitla, and then rode in a truck (the form of transportation they have to arrive to Hierve El Agua) up a mountain road to find petrified waterfalls with pools of light blue water glistening on top! Dipping our bodies in water was very refreshing, and was a great start to the coming week. We love being in Oaxaca, but sometimes the noises, smells, and crowdedness of the city can be draining. It’s great to spend time outside of the hustle and bustle of the city.

This week was our third week of Solexico Spanish class-it’s crazy how fast time is going. On Wednesday evening, some of us took the opportunity to get to know our Spanish teachers a little bit better at a “café social”. We practiced our Spanish with our teachers and other people in the school from Switzerland and England. We had to call it an early night because Thursday was going to be a big day.

On Thursday, we went for a long excursion. We met the group in a park near our house. For a while, we waited for everyone in the middle but it turns out, they all congregated in a corner. (Who meets in the corner of a park?!?) Then, we went to a permaculture farm that works to restore land, called La Mesita. There were a lot of native plants, and a well thought out wastewater recycling irrigation system and rainwater catchment system. Every year, a group of architecture students from University of Minnesota comes to this farm and builds something new in eight days. One of the structures was an overlook where you are supposed to make a promise to Mother Earth when you go on it, and all of us silently did so.

A highlight of visiting the permaculture farm was getting to talk with and listen to one of the 3 men who care for the farm. His stories added life to the experience, whether it was about the decreasing bee populations, puma cubs or first hand experience with using medicinal plants to treat his ailments.

There was also a sculpture of Mother Earth made by a Oaxacan artist. We learned about Lorena stoves, which are better for the health of the person who uses them because they are higher off the ground and route the smoke away from the preparation area. The name comes from the Spanish words lodo and arena (meaning mud and sand). They are ecological and economical because they are made of all natural materials and by hand.

At our next stop, the house of our professor Oliver’s friend, we got the chance to build one! We used our whole bodies to shovel dirt in to a wheelbarrow and mixed it with clay, hay and water using our feet. It was a great foot massage! We took turns making the stove, constructing a bamboo fence, and concocting a lip balm out of gathered herbs, oil, and beeswax. The afternoon was a great mind-body-spirit experience and we worked up a huge appetite for a late lunch.

This wasn’t the end of our weeks experiences. This weekend we went to Capulalpan, a town of 1,500 people , which is recognized by the Mexican government as a  “Pueblo Mágico”.  This designation is given to towns with cultural significance, symbolism, and in general a “magical essence”. The streets were very steep and the climate was a little cooler than the valley of Oaxaca.  On Saturday we hiked through the woods to a tranquil stream. On our way back we were shocked to learn that this was the last spring in the town due to intensive mining in the past. Currently, a company is trying to mine this area for gold. If they succeed, the entire forest and river will be gone. Luckily, the community is very strong and has prevented mining efforts in the past by quickly organizing to block the Pan-American highway until agreements were made to not mine the land.

Some of us participated in the ritual of a “Temazcal”, which is a cleansing ritual that takes place in a small adobe dome. We went in with the women, there were 7 of us sitting in the structure heated up by smoldering red rocks. We were served tea to hydrate us and were given leaves to put on our bellies. We sang and sweated for about an hour. The circular shape and the warm, dark climate of the Temazcal echoes the womb of a mother, and when you come out, it is representative of being rebirthed. It was an extremely cleansing experience for all of us.

At the hotel, we had scrumptious hot chocolate and handmade tortillas. We returned to the city on Sunday and had a free day on Monday to relax from the long week. And that’s all for this week!