More organizations

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This post is brought to you on the 11th day of this month, due to an interesting series of events... or lack of. Monday nothing really happened since it was a free day and it was so hot that I didn't spend as much time in the Weaver's Market as I would have liked. I thought there'd be enough shading in the market but I was wrong. Tuesday I got home late so no one was awake and therefore no internet, and on Wednesday I abused the free wireless again so I ran short on battery life. I'm in a nice city with nice people, and I -still- have to game and socialize with my online friends :P Maybe I should have got myself a nice translator (not perfect I know but it's better than me trying to translate myself).

This morning the group was supposed to visit an organization by the name of Frayba (for short) which is a human rights organization that K and G have said have become more busier than they used to be (they had trouble arranging for us to visit). When we first got to Frayba, we were told that we'd have to come back later because they were having a press conference so we could come back later, or stay if we wished to. A number of the group decided to head back home or to the HQ, while the rest of us stayed behind for the conference.

I'm not really sure that the conference was about as K wouldn't translate (she didn't want to be background noise). The basic idea I got about the conference was that it's about indigenous land rights (the higher ups are slowly pushing the indigenous off their rightful land behind their backs. Well, not really behind their backs as the indigenous are fully aware that their rights are being trampled on). It was interesting to note that the main speaker was a woman, that the representives of the indigenous people were several elderly women, and that they were in the center of the table (with one male on either end of the table). Intriguing setup isn't it? Anyhow, there's going to be a ruling on the illegal possession of the indigenous land tomorrow so I don't know what the results of the ruling will be for the time being.

After the conference we returned to the HQ where some of the rest of the group met up with us and we had a mini debrief (we couldn't really have a discussion since out of all of us, only two who stayed for it knew what the people were talking about in details). We returned to Frayba for our session to find out more about the organization. We got squished into a small room (there were about a handful other people there for the same session) which I would have to say was a fire hazard. There was almost no leg room whatsoever and a couple people had to stand by (if not in) the doorway. Made it fun to squeeze out to use the bathroom...

We had a bit of Q & A before the presenter started up a video presentation; first in Spanish, then in English. I found it really hard to sit through, as we were packed like sardines and the English version was so monotone. Then I felt like dying when the video started playing again in another language because the representive had wandered off for who-knows-what. She eventually came back and then she got into a nice long speech. Oh the agony... my teacher was trying her best to translate in a quiet voice (as not to drown out the speaker), and it was all speech with no visuals. I don't do well without visuals... In all honesty, I didn't really pick up much because of this. The only thing I got out of it was that she was talking about history of indigenous issues, campaigns, and how they help indigenous people (with contacts and all). At some point I had to take a bathroom break and just hung out by the window for the rest of the presentation.

Later we visited an organization called Nataté which is the organization that K and G were in connection with to get our work projects (I mentioned 3 main ones, but there also is an upcoming 4th one that would fall on Saturday that everyone would be involved with). We were, once again, squished into a room (a kitchen this time, they were nice enough to share some goodies at the end), though not as tightly packed as the session at Frayba. I had one of the worst spots... I had to keep shifting every time my one classmate had to let a volunteer through. The video presentation somewhat lively but I found it a bit too flashy and a lot of pictures were repeated in the video (probably seen a number of pictures at least 3 times in the whole 5 minutes). This organization is heavily focused on volunteers.

When the visit was over, we all headed to a restaraunt to celebrate the birthdays of K and one of my classmates. Well, only one didn't go (darn anti-social :P just kidding, just kidding). Now, this particular restaurant was the location of the celebration as some of the other classmates decided to make a reservation (ahead of time of course) there for the birthday celebration. Hehe... and it's so obvious why. Some of them have been visiting this restaurant a number of times and had befriended one of the waiters who also spoke English (they've even been competing for his attention. How typical... jajaja. It was tempting, but I didn't bother with competing. I had my own interests with no competition :P)

The seating was setup in the courtyard in the shape of an L, and we even got to have a bonfire. My housemate ordered something that wasn't on the menu but he got it anyways (as someone once told me, as long as they have all the ingredients, you can have it. Hey, that's one way to really tell if a restaurant makes its food by scratch...). It got to be really cold here (I had a coat on this morning because it was drizzly out but later on it got hot and sunny so carelessly I left my coat back at home. I forget how cold it gets here at night...) and it didn't help too much that one of my table neighbours accidentally spilled her drink on me (or was it the waiter who did it? either way the drink spilled over as it was being placed on the table). -sigh- why me? It was an alcoholic beverage too... D; I swear officer I was not drinking :O

My housemate left ahead of me so I headed back with my neighbouring classmates (one who kindly shared her Mexican shawl/blanket with me) and another classmate (her housemate's the one that didn't go so she needed an escort. Coincidentally, she's the one who spilled her drink on me). We took a nice sketchy route home (and had to ask for directions at one point), but at least I was told where not to go (especially at night). I don't really need to worry because I stick to the good 'ol familiar, and well travelled, route to go between the city center and home.

By the time we got home, pretty much everyone was asleep thus I didn't have internet to make a posting (oh well, it was pretty late and I do need sleep).

~Kedi~

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