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Published: March 2nd 2007
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Hola, buenos dias!
If anyone feels so inclined to call, text message, or write to me, I would love to hear from you!
My new mexican cell phone: 011-52-1-967-122-2379 011 is the international access code
52 is the country code for Mexico
1 is what you put in when calling a mobile phone in Mexico
Mailing Address: (takes 2-3 weeks to arrive)
Maggie Pettit
c/o Antonio Canseco
Centro Cultural Tierra Adentro
Real de Guadalupe No. 24
CP 29200.
San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chis
Mexico And some random observations on life in San Cristobal....
-There are fireworks going off just about every day which apparently signifies people celebrating that day’s Saint
-The trucks that sell jugs of water drive around the neighborhood always play “Raindrops keep falling on my head” and the trucks selling natural gas drag a chain of metal objects to announce their arrival
-There are a LOT of European and American tourists in San Cristobal, which makes it hard not to feel like one - About 5 times a day I am approached by poor women and children selling handicrafts in the town square
-A normal meal
a hike through parque ecologica Huitepec
this is about 15 minutes from San Cristobal... but somehow it took us two hours to get there because the driver forgot to drop us off there and took us to the indigenous village of Chamula instead...oh well, it was an adventure, and i got to use my spanish skills to negotiate our transport back to Huitepec schedule here is: an early big breakfast (eggs, beans, toast, fruit, corn tortilla) a big lunch at about 2pm (soup, meat, rice, corn tortilla) and then a light dinner at about 8pm (sandwich or quesadillas or fried plantains). I eat all my meals with my host family.
-All the stores close between 2-4pm when families go home to eat lunch together.
-Every Sunday evening I go with my host family to the “plaza” (the huge new mall with Walmart-like store called “Chedraui”, movie theater, McDonalds etc) to meet up with my host mom’s five sisters and their families to gossip and sit together in the food court
This semester is already different in every way from last semester in Argentina - its awesome to have such an interesting contrast. The program itself is very small and personalized - there are only eight of us: Me, Leah (NY), Brian (Wash DC), Sara (CT), Lauren (OH), Ann (TN), Amelia (NC), and Patrice (NC). We have Spanish classes at a language school for 3 hours every morning and then in the afternoons we either have a 2-hour seminar about Mexican history and social movements with our professor Maria Elena, or our seminar
yes, that is a life-size jesus in her living room
this is an altar that was set up in a neighbor´s living room for a prayer circle for the niñito saint´s day that was on February 18. They had a big lunch with all the neighbors and then the ladies stayed to drink tequila and chat. later i came back for the prayer circle which consisted of a lot of hail marys and singing on Field Study Techniques with our program Coordinator Antonio. Antonio is the person who organizes everything for us and makes sure we’re alright (he accompanied me to the clinic at 6 am when I had my stomach infection). He’s great. We all get along as a group really well. Amelia’s and my host family are neighbors - we live in a neighborhood called “La Isla” (the island) that is a 20 minute walk from the town center.
My host parents Leonardo and Magda are in their forties, and have two daughters, Daniela (13) and Monica Gabriela “Gabi” (21 this weekend). Leonardo and Magda own the laundry place in our neighborhood (“Coco’s Wash II”), and work there during the day (no, I don’t get a discount). Dani goes to school from 7 to 2pm, she wants to be a Forensic Psychologist. Gabi is married and has a 1-year old daughter, Maria Fernanda (“La Maria Fer”, very cute!) with her husband. They live with her husband’s parents only two blocks away. Gabi and her husband study Business Administration and she is going to start working at a clothing shop in the new shopping mall this week. My host dad Leonardo used
to be a highway cop, and when the girls were younger they used to move about every year when Leonardo would get reassigned to a different state. But Leonardo and Magda are both originally from San Cristobal. I feel very much a part of the family here, and I’ve met about 40 different relatives at various lunches, outings, grocery runs, etc. My friends in the SIT group and I went out dancing with the cousins of my host family last weekend!
Some interesting things we’ve done lately… we visited an NGO called CAPISE that works to promote awareness and gather statistics on the issue of the militarization of indigenous communities in Chiapas (the installation of military bases in many communities has led to increased violence, alcohol use, and prostitution)… we went to Palenque (5 hours north) last weekend to visit the 2,000 year-old Mayan ruins -amazing - and some waterfalls…we watched a video in class last night that detailed the electoral fraud that occurred in last year’s presidential elections (A couple examples: voters in some states were given crayons instead of pens causing their ballots to be annulled due to the wax melting and smearing…Former President Fox (PAN party)
yes, that is a life-size jesus in her living room
this is an altar that was set up in a neighbor´s living room for a prayer circle for the niñito saint´s day that was on February 18. They had a big lunch with all the neighbors and then the ladies stayed to drink tequila and chat. later i came back for the prayer circle which consisted of a lot of hail marys and singing illegally ran commercials denouncing the PRD candidate Andres Manuel Obrador…PAN candidate Felipe Calderon was declared the winner, despite fraud reports in nearly every state that demonstrated that votes had been fraudulently added in his favor by the poll watchers during the election and a recount that was statistically impossible in relation to the original results).
Right now we´re on a trip in Mexico City (el DF, Distrito Federal) from Feb 28 - March 9. We´re staying in a hotel in central Mexico City the first week, visiting NGOs and historical sites, then we move to a barrio to the south of the city called Santo Domingo where we’ll stay with lower and middle-class families. The barrio itself is pretty amazing because the land was an uninhabited area of volcanic rock, but one night 25 years ago 25,000 lower-class families stormed in and took over the land. They fought with the government for a long time to gain the right to stay on the land, and built their houses and businesses themselves, creating their community from scratch.
Well I hope everyone is happy and healthy these days. I´m really content with my experience here so far and very excited
about all that is still to come!
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Aunt Lori
non-member comment
Off to a great start
Hi, Well with the exception of the stomach infection it sounds like you are off to another exciting semester. Your cousin Carl is driving home today from Ohio looking forward to watching the Big East basketball tournament in NYC.Thanks for sharing your travels. Aunt Lori