9/25
I felt dizzy this afternoon, but I didn’t think I’d actually get sick. Perhaps its the rain. Perhaps I ate something bad (I don’t eat street food often though!). Or perhaps my immune system is not as strong as I thought it was (I refuse to believe that).
I came home tonight feeling incredibly feverish. Maybe I won’t be able to go to clinic tomorrow. But I don’t want to miss a single day of rotation!
9/25
Bug bite count: 27 bites + 33 healing
I didn’t even know it was possible to have so many bug bites at once. Oddly enough, I have many on my feet. How do they even bite me there?
After clinic I headed over to Centro Cultural San Pablo to study, which is a block away from my house. Explored the museum a bit and got a little reading done. I went back to study after la comida. I was writing in a patio outside the museum when I heard music. Being the curious kid I am, I went back into the museum to try to figure out what was going on. Apparently, they were rehearsing for a concert tomorrow night! I talked to the event manager for a bit, and he urged me to attend the concert Friday night. Unfortunately, our group has a dinner. He told me to check out the group and the cultural center’s Facebook page. I ended up going upstairs to record them for a bit. It was nice to hear a different kind of music than what I usually listen to. So the rest of the night, I ended up studying and reading to the sound of opera.
9/22
There was a parade today! Not anything too crazy. It was for the 10th anniversary of Universitario de Oaxaca. And they had a band! I think this will be the closest I will be to finding a marching band here in Oaxaca. I really enjoyed the girls wearing traditional clothing and dancing. I guess that will also be the closest I will be to seeing color guard in Oaxaca.
9/21 8PM
Circus at Centro Cultural de San Pablo. This was a collaboration between Pasatono Orchestra, Maroma Company of San Miguel Amatitlán’s Mixtec community, and Transatlancirque France. The act tries to converge different cultures and different circus acts, including traditional rope, pantomimes, cantatas, music and acrobatics. Another goal is to promote cultural exchange between Europe and Latin America through artistic performances including circus, music, theater, dance, visual and other disciplines.
According to a webpage on Marona intercultural, the rope has a significant meaning in Oaxacan culture.
“La vida es como la maroma. ¿Y qué es la maroma? Es como la vida. /La maroma es como la vida, ¿y qué es la vida?, es como la maroma”. (“Life is like a rope. And what is the rope? Like life. /The rope is like life, and what is life?, It is like the rope.”)
-Rubén Luengas Pérez
I understood about 20% of the jokes. I’ll be able to understand fast Spanish soon! I’ll practice more! I felt a little worried for the acrobat on the swing because I saw that they had to use people to hold down the structure with ropes. I understand that it may be a just an extra precaution, but it still made me very nervous! It was like an warning sign for me for me that the structure is not as solid as I would like it to be or at least not as secure as I’m used to seeing structures in circuses in the U.S.
9/21
Past the one week mark. I’ve actually not been sleeping well. I keep waking up around 3AM. Today, Becca, Tony, and I ran 8K race this morning at 8AM. Or rather, in more correct terms, I attempted to run the race. After about twenty minutes, I decided to just run back home. I was dying at that point!
I ran back home got took a shower, got dressed, and met up with my group at 10AM to visit Centro de Salud-Colonial América, the first clinic I will be going to. I’m so excited! We start volunteering on Wednesday. We wanted to check how long it will take to walk to the clinic. For me, it took forty-five minutes to walk there. Once we got to the clinic, we decided to split up; whoever wants to figure out how to use the bus to get home went to the bus station. Irfan and I decided to walk back, trying to figure out if we can find a more direct route to get to the clinic. We ended up overshooting our destinations. We nearly walked twenty minutes more than we needed to. I felt so bad for dragging him along with me! I was really grateful that he kept me company during the walk though. I’ll just treat him to coffee some time.
After la comida today, Becca and I played Spoons, or Cuchara with the girls in our host family. Unfortunately, I was the first one to lose! Today is not my day! We played seven rounds, with Becca and I as a team against the girls. Eventually, Becca lost too, so the girls won! Becca and I secretly plan to get them a prize for winning, but we still haven’t decided what to get them. We’ll get it some time next week. Their prize, to be announced. The girls got some neopolitan ice cream for all of us. How sweet! It’s nice to bond with them. I feel a lot closer to the host family!
9/20
Bug bite count: 40
When Becca and I went to Café Kioo, she ordered a frappe and I ordered a chamoyada, a savory drink. I didn’t know that. I took a few sips and had to abandon the rest. Well, now I know what not to get!
We visited Centro de Esperanza Infantil A.C. or Oaxaca Street Children Grass Roots. It was a nice, little place where students come for tutoring and additional classes. We will start volunteering on Saturday, October 4. We will be in groups teaching a class about whatever subject we want until the week we leave. The lesson plans will be all up to us. How exciting! I was thinking either math, since that’ s something I know really well, or computers, but I only know the basics, or maybe even art. I think art would be very fun!
At 4PM, the group met up at Santo Domingo to take a taxi to a soccer field to play. While we were waiting for everyone, Bonnie and I saw an event going on in the church, so we walked over there to check it out. Maybe it was a wedding or a ball, but the guests were dressed really fancy, like prom status. There were even indigenous dancers at the venue!
After a bit of confusion, change of location, and long walk, the whole group was able to meet at a soccer field in Gimnasio Universitario UABJO.
Later in the night, the group met up for dinner. We all dressed up a little bit, in case we were going to a fancy restaurant, but we ended up getting some of Nicho’s hamburgers and some elote, or corn on a cob with a stick. It was my first time eating an elote! For dessert, we got ice cream. I got a vainilla con romero y fresa con jamaica (vanilla with rosemary and strawberry with jamaica). Not too creamy like Cold Stone, but just right. It was super good!
9/19
Friday night! That can only one thing in a Latin country–salsa! We went with our host mom’s brother, Edgar. He dances for a dance company in the U.S. We went to Candela, a restaurant bar that has salsa dancing on the weekends. We danced with Edgar and his friends. Rebecca learned bachata! Later in the night, Tony from our program came around too! I taught him how to salsa. I missed dancing so much! They played Prince Royce! I was so happy! ♫Yo solo quiero darte un beso y regarlarte mis mañanas♫ ♫Eres mía, mía, mía, no te hagas la loca, eso muy bien ya los sabía♫
At one point, Edgar introduced me to one of his friends. We greeted each other and then I asked, “Baila?” I’m not sure if he heard me or not, but he just stared at me, and I proceeded to take my seat again. I realized later in the night that, unlike in the U.S., I can’t ask guys to dance. I asked other people about this and they confirmed my assumption. It makes sense that there would be a traditional role involved. Girls usually wouldn’t take the initiative, and it might be weird to do so in this country. I felt a bored and even a little unproductive as I sat, only dancing when a guy would ask for a dance. I’m not going to lie; I didn’t like that idea very much. Much in line with the idea of personal control and equality present in American culture, I wanted to take charge of when I dance and who I dance with, not be dependent on the guys’ actions.
After we got tired from dancing, Rebecca, Tony, and I went to a bar, Matlacihua and took a shot of strong mezcal. We walked to Santo Domingo and ended the night with the “infamous” burgers from Nicho’s stand.
9/19
After returning from Monte Albán, I didn’t think I had any bug bites. I thought, oh, how lucky of me! Wrong! I woke up this morning to find thirty two bug bites! Time to stock up on more anti-itch cream!
We started off at San Bartolo, at a Doña Rosa’s barro negro workshop. Doña Rosa was an artisan who invented the technique for barro negro, or literally, black clay. Barro negro is a type of pottery known for its black color and its luster shine. Barro negro pottery used to be gray, but Doña Rosa found that by heating the pottery for less time and decreasing the amount of oxygen in the oven, the pottery turned black and shiny. Javier, the grandson of Doña Rosa, showed us how to make a cántaro, or a pitcher and taught us the prehistoric technique to make the pottery. It’s rather long process! It includes slowly drying the pottery in the shade, wrapped in plastic, before putting it in the kiln.
Next, we went to Ocotlán de Morelos to visit a sword workshop. Taz curved sword, When the sword’s heated metal is a glowing violet or blue, They use a Japanese technique–by dunking the heated swords in a bucket of water, the metal crystallizes and makes the sword brittle. After the sword has been forged, they use sanding dust to shine metal. They also use spinning cardboard wheels to make a different kind of shine. To shine the natural wooden handles, one would only need to cut the wood and rub the handle with another piece of wood. The friction from the two woods makes the wooden handle shine.
After visiting the sword workshop, we visited the famous Friday markets in Ocotlán, Mercado Morelos. Many indigenous people sell their goods here, because they do not have access to transportation to central Oaxaca. For this reason, the prices in the market are really low.
9/18
We hiked all the way up to Monte Albán at 6400ft! Just kidding. We were dropped off about two miles away from the main excavation site, and we hiked for about thirty minutes to get to the museum. There were really nice views!
At the museum, we saw skeletons, various artifacts, and tablets that were excavated from the ruins. After the hike, we were treated with several drinks: agua de limón, horchata, and agua de chilacayote. I didn’t try the limón. The other two tasted so good! The horchata had walnuts and cantolope in it. The chilacoyote drink had pumpkin seeds and the flesh of the squash. I took a picture of horchata with tuna (cactus fruit).
I mainly stayed home tonight. We had chayote with cheese and vegetable soup. I love it when we have soup; it makes me think of home a bit. I joked and played around with the two girls in my host family. It’s good to get closer to the host family. 🙂 We’re going to have a Spoons (card game) competition on Saturday. Things are going to get intense!
Finally, got some money from the bank and bought my readers. Gotta crack down on my reading tonight!
9/15
Today, we had a culture competence discussion. I found it very interesting. Culture is what drives me to travel to different countries. Culture is what caused me so much confusion as a child. Culture is something that plays an important factor in delivering health care.
We first started with trying to define culture in our own words. To me, culture is a lifestyle. It’s how one dresses. It’s how one is affected by their religion. It’s how one lives day to day, from transportation to food. According to Dr. Edward Adamson Hoebel, a Regents Professor Emeritus of anthropology at the University of Minnesota, culture is “an integrated system of learned behavior patterns which are characteristic of the members of a society and which are not a result of biological inheritance”.
We first read an excerpt about American culture patterns according to Dr. Robert Kohls. Some patterns mentioned:
When I first read this I felt a little bit indignant. I didn’t agree with what Kohl. I was displeased when I read, “If Americans even admit to having a philosophy, it would be that of pragmatism: Will it make money? What is the bottom line? What can I gain from this activity?…Americans belittle emotional and subjective evaluations …” There were not true. I thought these were all stereotypes of Americans that hardly do justice in representing all Americans. In regards to this, someone pointed out point number five, that Americans “resist being thought of as representatives of any homogeneous group”. Touché. Someone else responded, saying that they don’t agree and proceeded to explain her perspective. Nick, the CFHI program director who was leading the discussion, pointed out bullet number eight: Americans are blunt. Again, touché.
After discussing, I realized that Kohls pattersn were not as extreme as we perceived it to be. Perhaps it was because we were biased, being Americans ourselves. His patterns were merely in relation to other people’s cultures. In that light, it makes sense. I would agree that Americans are more action-orientated. I would agree that Americans value individualism more than other cultures. In the end, I did accept Kohls patterns.
Next, we did a quick assessment where we marked up scales according to our home culture, Mexican culture, and our own values. The exercise used spectrums for values like individualism–collectivism, taskcentered–person centered, informality–formality, change–tradition, equality–hierarchy, direct communication style–indirect communication style, and flexible gender roles–set gender roles. Interestingly, I found the I held values that were similar to American stereotypes and sometimes different than Chinese/Mexican culture. The biggest difference was on the scale of equality–hierarchy. Chinese and Mexican culture emphasizes more hierarchy. America’s culture has a foundation in equality and freedom for all. As an American, I feel the same way and value equality. My values were on the opposite end of the spectrum. In America, we attempt to establish equality between male and female, and also between social class. I remember as a child, my grandparents would talk about the importance of hierarchy in China. They often would use the example of the access of hospital care. Even if there were many people waiting for treatment, if you’re rich, if you have status, or if you’re a foreigner, you would get preference and get treated first. I always thought that was unfair. A life a life. I feel pained to see that people are assigned a value in society.
Another interesting discussion was when I stated out the difference between tradition and religion. In Mexico, nearly everyone is Catholic. When someone once mentioned that he couldn’t stand the sight of public display of affection on the stairs in front of churches, I can’t help but think of the difference between the tradition and religion. My reaction is proclaiming that those people are not religious. Though they may go to church, I wouldn’t consider them religious. When everyone around you does something, you most likely would do the same thing. Most Mexicans go to church, and younger people would most likely follow suit. However, in this scenario, I consider going to church an act of culture. They are not choosing to go to church because they are religious or because they completely believe in the teachings of the Bible, but rather, because it is culturally what is expected. It is something that is a part of Mexican lifestyle. That makes me think of when people ask me what religion I am. I used to say Taoism. I know we have put incenses up for Tao deities. I know we go to taoist temples. But I also go to the cemetery for 清明节 (Qingming festival) or the Chinese equivalent of Día de Muertos because my family goes too. And I don’t actually know the teachings of Laozi. Therefore, could I still call myself a taoist? No. Like I mentioned before, I consider what I do something more of tradition and culture than religion.
We also talked about gender roles. Growing up in the U.S., I was used to equality talk. “Everyone takes turns.” “Treat others like you would like to be treated.” “Boys are not necessarily better than girls.” With a childhood in the U.S., I have thought of equality as a given, so I was a bit shocked to learn about the gender roles here. Apparently, after family dinners, it is expected that women stay inside and clean up the dishes, while the men would go outside and socialize. Nick told us that one time, his female cousin from out of the country went outside to socialize with the guys instead of staying inside to help with dishes. The women were flabbergasted. They thought she was rude and ungrateful; They didn’t like her actions, and according to Nick, they “made sure she knew”. Even though I’m second generation, I have never encountered a situation with such rigid, traditional gender roles. As a female, I never felt like I was less than males, and throughout my life, I have never been treated otherwise. It is hard to put myself in their positions, in a traditional female role. It is hard to not think about how unfair the situation is. I could understand how women may not be able to do anything against gender roles in certain cultures, but I would feel so restricted and discontent. It would be hard to resign myself to doing things expected for a female role.
At night, some of us went to the Zócalo again for Mexican Independence Day round II. Even though I live really close to the Zócalo, I still have to find a buddy to walk those mere three blocks home. I understand it’s better to be safe than sorry, but it’s frustrating to be dependent on others. I am used to being independent and doing things my way, even if nobody else is doing it. I should learn that life is like that. Throughout career and personal life, I would need to rely on people because I am not invincible and I don’t have all the knowledge in the world. It is only natural that I would have to depend on others for some things. Part of the reason I am hesitant to rely on others is because I am afraid of being a burden to others. I wouldn’t want to inconvenience others.
Embarca En Oaxaca 