Letter from Oaxaca
I've spent the past two weeks in Mexico. This is the first time I've had more than a couple of minutes on the computer, so I thought I should post a note to the long-neglected blog.
It's been, shall we say, an interesting trip. My roommate Allie and I bought our tickets a month or two ago with a couple of goals. We wanted to visit her boyfriend's family in Cuernavaca, and we wanted to bring new radio equipment to the radio station of the teachers' union of Oaxaca, Radio Planton. On June 14, the state police of Oaxaca had violently attempted to disrupt a then-month-long teachers' strike, arresting demonstrators who would be held and tortured, bombing teachers and their children with mustard gas, and entering the radio station and destroying the equipment.
Allie and I wanted to do something in response, particularly because she had spent time working with teachers in Oaxaca, so we (with lots of help from a few others) organized an event in Pilsen and raised $1400 for new equipment for the station. The station is an important source of information for the teachers and others. Unfortunately events in Oaxaca over the summer made it seem unwise to bring the equipment at the time of our departure--we didn't want to see it destroyed again--so we had to leave for Mexico empty-handed with plans to send what seemed most useful later.
We spent the first weekend in Mexico City, during which we got to visit the huge encampment of protestors calling for a recount of the Presidential election. Then we were off to Cuernavaca. It was a little odd to spend a couple of days with Allie's boyfriend's family--without him. We learned to make tortillas and his mom was very excited when our tortillas puffed up with air on the comal because apparently that means we're going to get married soon. hmmm.
Then we headed back to Mexico City to take the overnight bus to Oaxaca. We got to the bus terminal about 11PM and found out that--oops--all the busses were cancelled. That's what happens when you're trying to visit a strike, I guess. What to do? We stood there looking at the board trying to decide where to go. There was a bus leaving for Aculpulco, so we hopped on that. We arrived in Aculpulco at 5AM and walked to a different bus station, where we learned that there was a bus leaving for the Oaxacan coast in 15 minutes, but from yet a different station. So into a taxi and onto another bus with minutes to spare. Seven hours later we were in Puerto Escondido, where we decided to spend the night before trying to get to Oaxaca. Thus we had an accidental and brief but well-deserved beach holiday!
We finally got to Oaxaca a few days later than expected after spending a good 20 hours on busses. As to what we found...well, that will have to wait for another post!
For now, suffice to say that I am staying out of trouble and experiencing only minimal gastrointestinal discomfort.
It's been, shall we say, an interesting trip. My roommate Allie and I bought our tickets a month or two ago with a couple of goals. We wanted to visit her boyfriend's family in Cuernavaca, and we wanted to bring new radio equipment to the radio station of the teachers' union of Oaxaca, Radio Planton. On June 14, the state police of Oaxaca had violently attempted to disrupt a then-month-long teachers' strike, arresting demonstrators who would be held and tortured, bombing teachers and their children with mustard gas, and entering the radio station and destroying the equipment.
Allie and I wanted to do something in response, particularly because she had spent time working with teachers in Oaxaca, so we (with lots of help from a few others) organized an event in Pilsen and raised $1400 for new equipment for the station. The station is an important source of information for the teachers and others. Unfortunately events in Oaxaca over the summer made it seem unwise to bring the equipment at the time of our departure--we didn't want to see it destroyed again--so we had to leave for Mexico empty-handed with plans to send what seemed most useful later.
We spent the first weekend in Mexico City, during which we got to visit the huge encampment of protestors calling for a recount of the Presidential election. Then we were off to Cuernavaca. It was a little odd to spend a couple of days with Allie's boyfriend's family--without him. We learned to make tortillas and his mom was very excited when our tortillas puffed up with air on the comal because apparently that means we're going to get married soon. hmmm.
Then we headed back to Mexico City to take the overnight bus to Oaxaca. We got to the bus terminal about 11PM and found out that--oops--all the busses were cancelled. That's what happens when you're trying to visit a strike, I guess. What to do? We stood there looking at the board trying to decide where to go. There was a bus leaving for Aculpulco, so we hopped on that. We arrived in Aculpulco at 5AM and walked to a different bus station, where we learned that there was a bus leaving for the Oaxacan coast in 15 minutes, but from yet a different station. So into a taxi and onto another bus with minutes to spare. Seven hours later we were in Puerto Escondido, where we decided to spend the night before trying to get to Oaxaca. Thus we had an accidental and brief but well-deserved beach holiday!
We finally got to Oaxaca a few days later than expected after spending a good 20 hours on busses. As to what we found...well, that will have to wait for another post!
For now, suffice to say that I am staying out of trouble and experiencing only minimal gastrointestinal discomfort.
posted by ellen at 9:47 AM
1 Comments:
I'm glad to hear you're doing well...and I bet your momma is too.
luv, ang
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