Nourish Goes to Mexico

Excerpts from Diary Entries:

May 17th:

Yesterday afternoon we played a huge soccer game with all the teenagers in El Gusano against El Capulin. It was really fun, despite the red dust that flies into your eyes every time you kick the ball. It was difficult playing on the field because I felt as if I were going to slip every time I ran, but I think everyone had an awesome time. That night we watched Lorena’s 15th Birthday on VHS (her Quincinera). Her birthday was a huge celebration full of dancing and partying into the night, so that was a cool to watch. After we were finished watching the VHS, I went outside to look at the stars. There is obviously no light pollution in El Gusano and that makes the night skies spectacular. Chito (my six year-old host brother) and I sat there looking at stars. He told me that he wants to be a cop to take care of all the scary dogs in El Gusano. After my deeply intellectual conversation with Chito, I talked with Lorena (my host sister who is seventeen years old). Lorena told me that she wishes to go to college in Dolores but that she does not know if it will be a possibility. She wants to run in college because she is a phenomenal runner, but she also wants to go to the US. We discussed the differences between colleges in Mexico and the US. Despite all our talks of college and her opportunities, she told me she will probably go “walking” in August, which entails roughly an 8 day walk to the border. When she arrives in the US, she will only have the clothes she is wearing and possibly a small backpack. She wants to reunite with all 3 of her sisters that work in Texas as housekeepers. I did not know what to tell her, I tried telling her that she has similar opportunities here, comparing and contrasting both countries—but Lauren wants to see her sisters because she misses them and that is totally understandable. I think that it is sad she will be leaving behind Chito. He will be alone with his grandmother Lupe, who he calls Mom. He calls his mother by her first name, and sometimes struggles to identify her. Lauren and I finished up our conversation about travels and how she has never been farther than Dolores, but how she wants to see the world.

This morning I woke up at 6:30 am and went to go see the Molino. This was quite a feat in Erin’s wake up history, because I am certainly not a morning person. Lauren and I went over to see how they grind up the corn to make the Tortillas. They have a pretty good program working for them; three women are designated to work one week out of a rotating cycle. Three women man the machine and churn out the buckets of corn dough each week. The other women wait until they have finished using the machine. They drop the corn and some water into the machine (so it runs smoother), and it makes a corn dough-like substance. The Molino (machine) sounds like a massive generator. As a side note, I’m very interested to see the nutritional value in Cactus. It is a staple in our diet here. I asked Lupe that morning if I could help make Tortillas, which was so much fun and very difficult. She would grind the tortilla dough out on a rock platform and then place it between a wooden lever to flatten to it into a small circle. Then she carefully peels the dough from the lever onto the oven which is powered by wood sticks. Then the tortilla is flipped several times as not to burn either side and to cook them fully—they are finally done when you flip them to one side and the tortilla pocket fills with hot air. Then you know to grab the tortilla from the oven and throw it as quickly as possible in a basket and then flip it a final time, so it settles right. This description makes it sound easy, and Lupe and the other senoras make this seem extremely easy. Yet Lupe was doubled over in laughter at my first feeble attempts of making the Tortillas, which turned out crinkled and not edible. Between the smoke that filled room and caused me to tear up and my fingers burning as I tried grabbing edges of the Tortillas to flip—my first time can only be described as a failure. Yet I will conquer this at another time.

The other day, we taught one of my favorite lesson plans that Dustin designed. We taught the 1^st and 2^nd graders which happen to be the most difficult classroom because they are the youngest and largest in number. Lauren and I made the food pyramid on a large poster, while Dustin explained all the levels of the pyramid, healthy versus unhealthy and the varying parts. He asked them to draw what they eat on an average day in el Gusano. What turned out funny here is that no one wrote down Tortillas, which I find hard to believe because I eat about 15 tortillas per day. Dustin then called up each kid, one-by-one and asked them where each item went on the food pyramid, whether it was bread or a vegetable. This was an awesome experience watching the children realize that snacking on all the cookies, chips, soda that were available in the stores, was not a good idea. I’m pretty sure nothing stuck as regards to health concerns, but the kids were able to identify that Doritos had salts and fats which the human body does not need much of.

June 1

The group has watched entirely too much of the Matrix. I will probably never see this movie again, because I believe we’ve seen it 7 times all the way through. It happens to be one of the best VHS movies that Lupe owns. Our other options consist of movies with the Rock and Winnie the Pooh, so you take your pick. Tati and I went horse back riding the other day. At first we were concerned that we were going to break the Delgado’s horse, but everything went smoothly. His horse has little muscle and is not the healthiest of all horses. With the combined weight of Tati and I, we were sure that crushing the horse was a true possibility. Each of us took turns riding bare-back behind the saddle, but we walked into the fields behind the school, which were beautiful and had little green oasis’s. We were able walk in the riverbed and find some grass for the horse. This has probably been one of my favorite side activities, other than teaching.

Teaching in the middle school the first time was very intimidating. We all went into different groups and taught English. These kids hardly new anything and it was difficult to get them to participate. Each of us tried different methods, Sandra’s was my favorite. She made them sing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” song, while threatening the boys that they had to come to the front to sing if did not participate. We talked in groups about differences between the US and Mexico which I found to be the most interesting cultural exchange yet. Almost every student raised their hand to the question if they had family in the US. We compared and contrasted the differences between the US and Mexico and the students were very engaged and interested in asking questions. One of the more difficult questions was, which place to you like better, the US or El Gusano?

June 2^nd

Our trip has almost over. It seems crazy to think that our team left North Carolina only a month ago. This group definitely feels like a family. Working 12 hour days together forces group bonding, haha, but I will miss each and every one of them when I return to the US. I was recapping the trip to myself the other day and feeling very successful. We set up and cleaned the extra classroom, which created the community center. We have selected community members to run the center (and they are all amazing volunteers). We have brought in three computers, and 5 more are still on the way! The computers have an English teaching program on it and also have the Encarta (Encyclopedia) program which has captured all the children’s attention. We taught in Spanish in the mornings to the elementary and middle schools, while teaching English in the afternoons at the center. We established a soccer league, El Gusano Vs El Capulin (hopefully two games a week). And the center alone fosters creativity with our art center and critical thinking with our board games and puzzles i.e chess. Physical education is not a prominent activity in their school systems, so we hope that the balls and athletic equipment we brought will act as a release for the elementary school kids. The kids and community were very accepting of all of us gringos. They treated us like kings which certainly was not necessary. The kids behaved very well for their respective ages and I absolutely loved teaching, working and playing with all of them. They acted up here and there, but truthfully were very manageable and endearing.

So, we have all safely departed from El Gusano, but our blog is lacking some serious entries. I’ll try to update as best I can by sharing a couple of my journal entries from while we were in Mexico.

5.24.2008

So, I have two host sisters. One is 15 years old and finished Secundaria, but decided she didn’t want to go to high school –“There’s no need,” she said. Today I was talking to my other sister, who is 17, for a while about what she wants to do when she graduates from Bachillerato. She had mentioned before that she wants to enroll in CONAFE – a program that would train her to become a teacher for two years and then guarantees a scholarship to attend college afterward. AWESOME! As far as I know, we’ve only heard about one person from this community who went to college – it would be SWEET if she got to go, right?

Well, today her plans have changed. She’s now planning to come to the US to “visit” some relatives live there.

Unlike the other people in our group, I’ve really never had any kind of meaningful relationship or interaction with an immigrant living in the US besides people that I see or speak to in passing. I’ve heard the facts, the numbers, the economic causes and effects. But, to hear my sister say that she planned to make THAT trip in such a matter of fact way was really stunning way of being introduced to a more human side of immigration—as opposed to plain facts.

5.28.2008

Today we went to the Bachillerato to help with a few different classes. Both the Secundaria and Bachillerato are in the neighboring ranch – El Capulin. It’s about a 20 – 30 minute walk from El Gusano, but some of the students that attend school there come from MUCH farther away.

In the morning, Dustin and I got there first to help with a math class – but for the most part, we spent more time figure out exactly what was going on. Somehow, solving for one variable with three variable equations turned into an hour and fifteen minute long mess of numbers and criss-cross multiplying that took much longer than it should have.

After math, the kids had a break before their next class, and most of the girls went outside to play basketball. A bit later, the rest of our group came to work with an English class. Since it was my first time at the high school, I was kind of nervous about working with kids so close to my own age — but I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I had expected. I worked with two girls who were both 17, and they both reminded me of some of my friends from home so that made it a bit easier. The teacher had asked us to work on conversational, functional English, so we spent a while talking and going over basic things like “What is your name?” “How old are you?” “Where do you live?”… Ultimately, we ended up talking in Spanish – about what they want to do after Bachillerato, what they want to study, where they want to live, and so on. I told them about what I study, why I’m studying, where I live, etc. And we had a pretty awesome exchange of experiences and ideas.

I think the most enlightening part of this trip to the Bachillerato, though, happened when we started talking with some of the other girls that had been working with Josh. We talked about immigration and its effects on the communities there, and more specifically, on their families, because every student there has some relative who lives in or has lived and worked in the US. So, this is when I was reminded of why I was nervous about working with teenagers: they ask some pretty challenging questions. One girl whose relative had lived in the US said she had been told that black people in the US hate Mexicans. “Why don’t they like Mexicans?” she asked. Well, that’s a hard enough question to address in English – but I tried to do it justice with a response in Spanish, stumbling over my words but explaining that when two groups of people share a common socioeconomic status and are sometimes competing the same jobs, some ill feelings might arise. At the same time, I tried to make it clear that what she explained was a generalization, and there are a lot of misunderstandings and misinterpretations concerning the immigrant population in the US – but, Black people don’t hate Mexicans.

More to come! Gotta read through the rest of my super awesome journal and find some more stuff to put up.

We arrived in El Gusano on Wednesday morning following a 5:30 AM wake-up call.  The team agrees that the community is very beautiful–we can’t upload pictures right now, you’ll have to wait.  El Gusano is next to a mountain range and is much greener than a community we had visited previously.  The weather is warm and breezy in the morning, but it gets horribly sunny and hot after 10 AM.

On our first day we took all of our materials to the school.  We took over the furthest empty classroom, which has big windows and is full of natural light.  After cleaning up and rearranging bookshelves, desks, and chairs, we managed to make a reading corner and put all of our new books on the shelves.  We also set up an arts corner with all of our new supplies, like pipe cleaners, glitter, construction paper, balloons, and much, much more, all for our projects.  We prepared a book of lesson plans over the course of the last semester that we have been referring to for ideas for things to do with the kids.

The students are really well-behaved, and are really excited about the new equipment we brought.  They love the new soccer balls and basketballs, and this morning we got to teach a gym class.

All of our host families have been extremely receptive and are preparing far more food than we could ever eat.  Almost all of us have our own houses.

This morning Adriana, FCB director, arrived with a group of local government officials, including the representative of the whole municipio, so that they could see the conditions of the school and the new community center.  Several government ministries (Education, Development) are getting involved, so we discussed all of the improvements that could be made to the new community center, such as installing new roofing, lighting, and painting the walls.  FCB just purchased three new computers for the center, and we will be working closely with a community member who is a college graduate and will be in charge of computer training after our project is over.

I have to run to lunch, but we will try to update you again soon!

We made it!

We’re being fed properly, nobody is sick yet, and we are still getting along. Check out the videos and photos to see what we’ve been up to:

The Sun Pyramid – Teotihuacan, Mexico

Descending the Sun Pyramid

The Sun Pyramid as seen from the Moon Pyramid.

Diana Leal, a state government worker, came to talk to us about migration and development in Guanajuato.

A photo with everyone who happened to be in the Fundacion Comunitaria del Bajio (FCB) office in Irapuato, Mexico on Tuesday afternoon. The office is in Adriana Cortes’ house, which is absolutely beautiful.

We are a team of seven undergraduates from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and we’ll be working in El Gusano, Guanajuato, Mexico for four weeks this summer. Project dates are May 10 to June 7, and we are getting very excited to be leaving on Saturday.

Our team has been working hard throughout the semester, writing lesson plans and getting donations in the form of books, jerseys, and computers.

Our partner organization in Mexico is Fundacion Comunitaria del Bajio, which works to connect universities, NGOs and communities to work on development projects that capitalize on communities’ strengths to improve quality of life and initiate income-generating activities. They have been an incredible force behind the project and have worked tirelessly to help it evolve into something sustainable and positive for all members of the community.

As we continue to post over the course of the next month, please feel free to share your thoughts with us. We would love to hear from you!