Oaxaca

We have been in Oaxaca for just over one week and finished our first week of our three week Spanish immersion. I like the school but the curriculum and the teachers are not as good as those we had in Venezuela. Andy and I were put on the same level Spanish (although I think Andy is way better at comprehending spoken Spanish!) however I am changing classes next week. Our teacher is from Spain who was traveling around and then landed at this school and got a job teaching Spanish. She is young and inexperienced (although really sweet!) and the Spain spanish accent is very different from the Latin American spanish. I have struggled all week to understand her and have decided to switch to a Mexican teacher. I also don’t want to pick up the lispy Spanish pronunciation that those from Spain use, Latin Americans mock it relentlessly, and often they don’t understand it! Most my travels will be in Latin America so I prefer to not use the vosotros (a form of Spanish not used throughout Latin America.)As if any of this matters, I just want to be fluent and am so frustrated by the grueling language acquisition process. Of course as an interpreter I should know better, it takes a long time to acquire language fluency. I think I am on the ten year track with this Spanish thing and I hope I live long enough to see it through!


Our days are long and full with the Spanish school so we don’t do all that much after classes. We roam the streets, look for the best coffee places, eat our favorite foods from street vendors (elote!) and browse the shops and crafts. It was while I was browsing (something Andy has no patience for!) that I found the socialists who are involved with the political scene and the relatively new political group Peoples Popular Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO.) I spent some time talking to them asking about Brad Will and trying to find out more about APPO. I bought the Nancy Davies book "The People Decide; Oaxaca’s popular assembly" (sorry Ted I couldn’t find the one you leant me, so I can give you the one I bought when I finish!) It’s really interesting to read her book about Oaxaca and the movement while here in Oaxaca. Nancy is an American living in Oaxaca for the past 8 years who chronicled the events of this new movement. We have bought some great local independent films as well and the socialists (Trotsky branch) have been really friendly and helpful but have not led us to the anarchists yet. They said that they would take us to where Brad was killed (in Santa Lucia about 20 minutes outside the center of Oaxaca in a colonial section of town) and introduce us to people who were with Brad at the time.

Later we met a woman (another expat from the states, lots of those here) who knows Nancy Davies and she gave us Nancies contact information! We are hoping to get in touch with her soon and get more information about the status of things and the history from her first hand. Today there was a march of teachers that appeared quite large. Apparently there are weekly APPO marches still demanding the release of political prisoners and accountability for the murders at the hands of the government. We are trying to talk to as many people as we can find about this situation and struggle to understand all the details in Spanish. We really wish we had an interpreter at times when we are meeting with these political groups. They told us about some upcoming APPO meetings so we hope to attend one of those.

This weekend we have plans to get to more ruins and small towns on the outskirts of Oaxaca with more indigenous history and (I hate to say it) crafts. The pottery, painted woodcarvings and woven rugs and clothes are amazing. It’s less expensive to buy it in the towns where they are made than the craft shops in Oaxaca. I struggle with the tourist identity of buying crafts (as you know I am not buying much) but then again this is the livelihood of people here, and believe me, they really want us to buy it! There is also a town nearby known for its alternative healing arts and has some kind of bathhouse type sauna thing. I am hoping to go there and find the good legal herbs and mushrooms! Just kidding!

We went to old ruins last weekend. Remains of old palace walls with amazing designs, tombs and hieroglyphs. Of course the church put a mammoth church right on top of part of the ruins but parts of the ruins were really dramatic. We got to climb down into an old tomb (minus the dead bodies) Andy almost had a panic attack. It was dark and small and the air was thick and moist. Hopefully zarha can post some photos (not tonight as a heroes is on TV and that’s all I have heard about all week from her!) I have told myself I wont go into anymore churches on this trip or maybe ever! It’s a hard pact I made with myself because I am drawn to them and like a car accident in the streets I can’t help but staring.

I tried to organize a gathering tonight of all the students at the spanish school. There is a pretty cool group of students from Portland OR, who seem to have the party animal streak that I would like to tap into for a night. So we are meeting them tonight at the favorite haunt of these students. One of our classmates goes out every night and comes into school (if she comes) hung-over and drooping and somehow manages to go out again the next night! We are usually in bed by 11pm so this is a big night for us!

Well, I could tell you about all the Oaxacan style chocolate I am eating daily and how fat I am getting not doing any yoga! The last time I did yoga was on the balcony of our beachfront hotel and while I was moaning in frog pose (a painful hip opening pose) I turned my head from my awkward supine position to find a very large iguana with a tilted head and curious expression on his face looking at me from about 2 feet away! I gave a surprised reaction to him along the lines of “holy shit!” and he just casually sauntered away probably thinking “hmmph you think Im strange!” I have found some yoga studios in Oaxaca (mostly slow hatha yoga style) but between meals and spanish class I have not made the time! We do walk lots and lots under the bright Mexican sun so hopefully that counts for some exercise.

I wish I could tell you more details about how hot it is during the days and refreshing and breezy at night (I love the heat!) and how much I love to eat every day the abundant cheap fresh fruit. I want to bring you along to the market with the color and the smells but shield your eyes from the chickens with their legs bound, carried upside-down matter of factly by the vendors and buyers. I have wanted to buy puppies, birds, turtles, bunnies AND chickens just to set them free from there horrible bondage. I even saw chinchillas at a pet store here (they are endangered) for $225.

I do miss people that can talk with their hands (I saw and met so many deaf people and interpreters in Venezuela and so few here!) and black people! Seriously, the first time I saw black people in Mexico was in Acapulco, a couple traveling black Americans, it made me realize how my life had been lacking. I almost ran up and hugged them! Here its mainly just lots of pale skinned gringos and Mexicans. That’s not totally true, shades of darker indigenous folk but the beauty of black people is noticeably absent!

I do have a full time work schedule already lined up when I get back and I excited to work!
Tell me what I am missing from your perspective.
Love to all
d