Was a young girl from Nicaragua
Who smiled as she rode on a jaguar
They came back from the ride
The young girl inside
And the smile
On the face
Of the jaguar
Thanks to Salman Rushdie´s Jaguar Smile, I can tell you that that proverb is a lovely revolutionary allegory. Thanks to the years that have passed since I read it, I can also tell you I am about to mangle it. However, I believe that the jaguar is meant to be the people of Nicaragua, and the girl the revolution. First the revolution rode on the backs of the people, and then the people consumed it, were filled by it, and the people smiled and all were happy. I think the reverse can also be construed, but I prefer it this way.
Where Mexico is stunning, Nicaragua is wild. Where Mexico is difficult, Nicaragua is impossible. I was deathly ill within three days. One cannot even imagine asking about camping places. One sees signs for ¨prospective¨ tourist areas. Yet it’s so gloriously beautiful here, and pure jungle. In Managua, the capital (an ugly city, just what you might expect modernization to force onto the wilds, cement and telephone wires) I saw graffiti celebrating 30 years of Sandinista revolution, and was filled with joy. Until I realized that, as it continued for miles and miles, it could not possibly be spontaneous. but must be paid for and regulated by the party. Perhaps nothing here is real except the banana trees that line the horizon, and the jungle that rises to the sky on the sides of the volcanoes. That might be enough, though. For a country with such a fiery history, what I can see is mostly smoke, dust, bicycles, and green. But I love it here, with my second family, and the constant, massive rains.
I am in the airport. New York awaits me, I suppose. Onwards!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Something about health, something about revolutions
On Revolutions:
It´s possible that, at the bottom line, Carlos and I see the world in the same way, as a disaster with beautiful potential which can be accessed all the time. But our methods of enacting change, and therefore our methods of living, are at opposite ends of pretty much every spectrum pretty much all the time. It´s been good to receive so much to think about, really. Carlos is primarily about inner peace and tranquillity, which of course is a state I can hardly even visualize. But at heart, this idea of living your values daily, and putting your ideas into practice in your life, learning as you construct, is a basic revolutionary principal which we share. Whether we have to be at peace or have to struggle in order to find a better world; that is the point where we diverge. We always seem to find people, in the mountains, in the towns, who want to talk to us about our revolutionary potential. About the youth who will change the world. I suppose it helps that we find ourselves in remote locations, but still, it's heartening to find adults and farmers who tell us we are onto something good.
On top of this general tendency, we get the 2012 legend and all its myriad formulations. I have come to enjoy the interpretation given to it here. In 2012 (the Mayan date for the end of the world), what's to come is not so much global destruction and the elimination of the human race (a la the upcoming film where it seems John Cusack will fly a plane as a giant boat crushes the White House), but as a time of intense changes in social, political and economic structures, in lifestyles and global conditions. Or rather, a word will end, but it will only be this terrible kind of world we have created. Disaster may strike, but it will only mean that we will have to learn to live together in new ways. In fact, basically, this interpretation means that disasters will come and they will force the global revolution, and the anarchist autonomous hippie punk socialist revolution, the better world we've been dreaming of, will be forced into existence, and everything will change. We will have to learn to live together, share, and recreate the modern world. It means that our generation will live to see it. If you know, you buy into that Mayan legend stuff...
On health:
Carlos is obsessed with natural and indigenous medicine. It is one of his primary passions and something we are often reading about, looking at, or trying out. I have actually become rather interested in the practice as well, which seems strange in some ways, because natural medicine is pretty much at direct odds with public health programs. But then, massive social change and activism are also mostly at odds with public health. It seems tragic, really, that things which are so closely tied in reality can be so isolated in both the academic and professional worlds. Natural medicine has its values, and even though it drives me crazy when Carlos tells me that Malaria and Dengue are just health myths invented by those in power which we can ignore, I can see that natural medicine can be healthier, more sustainable, and more honest than dealing with giant drug companies. It is another form of DIY action, I suppose, a means of putting power, once again, into the hands of people. That doesn´t mean that the absence of doctors and lack of access to services can be dismissed, or that there is no need for health systems and planning. It is something to consider though, and so now I'm left with yet another paradigm to think about as I try and do something that I think is positive.
I have also been doing a series of interviews with health providers here in Oaxaca for the Public Health Delivery Project, a venture organized and sponsored by Harvard's medical school and Paul Farmer's non-profit, Partners In Health (my favorite health non-profit ever). The program aims to create an online forum for health practitioners to share best practices and discuss challenges and successes in the health world. The survey project aims to collect data from health programs all over the world in a attempt to aggregate and analyze data and basically look at the way we provide health care and figure out how to do it better. You can join up with this program at ghdonline.org, or learn about it at globalhealthdelivery.org/blog. I interviewed a lady from a project called Puente al Salud, a non profit doing community work in Oaxaca, as well as a doctor at Hospital Carmen, a private hospital in the city. These two interviews provided the perfect example of the gap between community work and health services. While Puente did amazing projects with nutrition, empowerment, training, and community development, they offered no clinical or advanced medical services. The private hospital, on the other hand, provided no social services but had a high capacity for technical health provision. The doctor I spoke with there told me that private care is actually cheaper than the public option, which I imagine is true, but the lack of community connection was striking. The lack of a single organization that can provide both health and justice was expected but somewhat frustrating. It was satisfying to get in some studying time on my favorite subject, however. Onwards, then.
It´s possible that, at the bottom line, Carlos and I see the world in the same way, as a disaster with beautiful potential which can be accessed all the time. But our methods of enacting change, and therefore our methods of living, are at opposite ends of pretty much every spectrum pretty much all the time. It´s been good to receive so much to think about, really. Carlos is primarily about inner peace and tranquillity, which of course is a state I can hardly even visualize. But at heart, this idea of living your values daily, and putting your ideas into practice in your life, learning as you construct, is a basic revolutionary principal which we share. Whether we have to be at peace or have to struggle in order to find a better world; that is the point where we diverge. We always seem to find people, in the mountains, in the towns, who want to talk to us about our revolutionary potential. About the youth who will change the world. I suppose it helps that we find ourselves in remote locations, but still, it's heartening to find adults and farmers who tell us we are onto something good.
On top of this general tendency, we get the 2012 legend and all its myriad formulations. I have come to enjoy the interpretation given to it here. In 2012 (the Mayan date for the end of the world), what's to come is not so much global destruction and the elimination of the human race (a la the upcoming film where it seems John Cusack will fly a plane as a giant boat crushes the White House), but as a time of intense changes in social, political and economic structures, in lifestyles and global conditions. Or rather, a word will end, but it will only be this terrible kind of world we have created. Disaster may strike, but it will only mean that we will have to learn to live together in new ways. In fact, basically, this interpretation means that disasters will come and they will force the global revolution, and the anarchist autonomous hippie punk socialist revolution, the better world we've been dreaming of, will be forced into existence, and everything will change. We will have to learn to live together, share, and recreate the modern world. It means that our generation will live to see it. If you know, you buy into that Mayan legend stuff...
On health:
Carlos is obsessed with natural and indigenous medicine. It is one of his primary passions and something we are often reading about, looking at, or trying out. I have actually become rather interested in the practice as well, which seems strange in some ways, because natural medicine is pretty much at direct odds with public health programs. But then, massive social change and activism are also mostly at odds with public health. It seems tragic, really, that things which are so closely tied in reality can be so isolated in both the academic and professional worlds. Natural medicine has its values, and even though it drives me crazy when Carlos tells me that Malaria and Dengue are just health myths invented by those in power which we can ignore, I can see that natural medicine can be healthier, more sustainable, and more honest than dealing with giant drug companies. It is another form of DIY action, I suppose, a means of putting power, once again, into the hands of people. That doesn´t mean that the absence of doctors and lack of access to services can be dismissed, or that there is no need for health systems and planning. It is something to consider though, and so now I'm left with yet another paradigm to think about as I try and do something that I think is positive.
I have also been doing a series of interviews with health providers here in Oaxaca for the Public Health Delivery Project, a venture organized and sponsored by Harvard's medical school and Paul Farmer's non-profit, Partners In Health (my favorite health non-profit ever). The program aims to create an online forum for health practitioners to share best practices and discuss challenges and successes in the health world. The survey project aims to collect data from health programs all over the world in a attempt to aggregate and analyze data and basically look at the way we provide health care and figure out how to do it better. You can join up with this program at ghdonline.org, or learn about it at globalhealthdelivery.org/blog. I interviewed a lady from a project called Puente al Salud, a non profit doing community work in Oaxaca, as well as a doctor at Hospital Carmen, a private hospital in the city. These two interviews provided the perfect example of the gap between community work and health services. While Puente did amazing projects with nutrition, empowerment, training, and community development, they offered no clinical or advanced medical services. The private hospital, on the other hand, provided no social services but had a high capacity for technical health provision. The doctor I spoke with there told me that private care is actually cheaper than the public option, which I imagine is true, but the lack of community connection was striking. The lack of a single organization that can provide both health and justice was expected but somewhat frustrating. It was satisfying to get in some studying time on my favorite subject, however. Onwards, then.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Endings
The beaches in Mexico are really about as fantastic as any cinematic fantasy might lead you to believe. You really can camp right on the sand, beside some small family´s home and makeshift restaurant, and wake up to spend the day in a hammock, next to the big blue ocean and a line of cold one dollar beers.
You can also wake up on that beach at four in the morning as a gale blows suddenly in, upsets your tent, soaks everything you own, drenches you, forces you to run up the beach under the roof of said family run restaurant, ditch everything you own, and sleep in the car.
Carlos and I both have colds.
But really all of Vera Cruz was lovely, from the beaches (Roca Partida, Monte Pio, and Barra de Sontecomapan, for those who might someday end up nearby) to the monkey filled lagoon, the jungle and the mountains. Carlos and I are always surprised to find ourselves driving over mountains. Going from over 100 degrees into a freezing mist is rather stunning.
Oaxaca is lovely, as is my mother. We have been wandering the city and are off to explore the nearby crafts towns, more ruins, and a famously large tree in the next few days. Tales and pictures to be posted later!
From here I head on and out, which feels strange, but for the best. I have said so many goodbyes in the last four years, they don´t really feel like goodbyes anymore. I have faith that strangeness and luck will bring me back south (still missing out on Chiapas) and back with these various companions once again, in some way, at some point. My flights from here to Nicaragua go in all the wrong directions, first north when I need to go south, then too far south, then back up north... I look forward to being done with planes for a while. Looking forward to being home in the states for a while as well, which will be happening in September. Rambling soon. Seriously, I have actual thoughts on some of the subjects I studied in regards to this place, to be posted later.
m
Monday, August 10, 2009
Southwards
I actually had begun to think we would never escape from Mexico City. First we were waiting on a delivery, then the car mechanic, and then, the day we actually headed out of the city, the police stopped us 15 minutes into the ride and attempted to take away our car because the license plate ended in a 3, and 3s do not drive in Mexico city on Wednesdays. Luckily police bribery case number two of the vacation saved the car, but we had to leave it in a park till the next morning.
We did, however, manage to get out the next day, and after the two hours necessary just to leave the massive city itself, we made our way to Cuernavaca, which was very pretty. From there we went on to Tepotzlan, where we camped in the dark in the middle of a massive thunderstorm, and later climbed up a huge mountain (on a very official and well marked vertical trail) to sit atop a pyramid and look at the lovely valley. We continued on toward Puebla via the national park which hosts two of the largest volcanoes in the region. We drove over the mountains, into the mist, and at the topmost viewpoint I stood in the cold and ate a chocolate bar on the roof of that world.
In Puebla we mostly ate, and pointed at things and said- that’s pretty. Because it all was. We crashed with the family of a guy we picked up and drove around back in Xilitla. They were super adorable and cooked us many massive meals. We stayed in a room that was a shed up until 10 minutes after our arrival. There were cockroach bodies and old engines next to our bed, but we didn’t mind. ´We are in our twenties! In addition, Puebla was hosting an indigenous cultural festival this weekend, which meant lots of music and crafts all the time.
From there we headed to Vera Cruz, where we are crashing at a musical engineering school that Carlos worked for years ago in Monterrey. I thought I would hate Vera Cruz, but actually it pretty much rocks. There was gorgeous music and dancing all over the center until past midnight. We have a whole crew to take us around as well, which is nice.
From here we go in search of deserted beaches. On the 15th we meet up with my mom in Oaxaca, where we will explore and take a few classes and such, after which I head to Nicaragua and Carlos goes on toward Chiapas. I am somewhat sad to be missing the Southern coast and jungles, but this was the only way to make plans work. Of course, now that the trip is ending, I really want to keep going, though who knows how I would feel if I were, indeed, headed onwards. In any case, cheers! Photos at some point. Hope all is well back North.
m
We did, however, manage to get out the next day, and after the two hours necessary just to leave the massive city itself, we made our way to Cuernavaca, which was very pretty. From there we went on to Tepotzlan, where we camped in the dark in the middle of a massive thunderstorm, and later climbed up a huge mountain (on a very official and well marked vertical trail) to sit atop a pyramid and look at the lovely valley. We continued on toward Puebla via the national park which hosts two of the largest volcanoes in the region. We drove over the mountains, into the mist, and at the topmost viewpoint I stood in the cold and ate a chocolate bar on the roof of that world.
In Puebla we mostly ate, and pointed at things and said- that’s pretty. Because it all was. We crashed with the family of a guy we picked up and drove around back in Xilitla. They were super adorable and cooked us many massive meals. We stayed in a room that was a shed up until 10 minutes after our arrival. There were cockroach bodies and old engines next to our bed, but we didn’t mind. ´We are in our twenties! In addition, Puebla was hosting an indigenous cultural festival this weekend, which meant lots of music and crafts all the time.
From there we headed to Vera Cruz, where we are crashing at a musical engineering school that Carlos worked for years ago in Monterrey. I thought I would hate Vera Cruz, but actually it pretty much rocks. There was gorgeous music and dancing all over the center until past midnight. We have a whole crew to take us around as well, which is nice.
From here we go in search of deserted beaches. On the 15th we meet up with my mom in Oaxaca, where we will explore and take a few classes and such, after which I head to Nicaragua and Carlos goes on toward Chiapas. I am somewhat sad to be missing the Southern coast and jungles, but this was the only way to make plans work. Of course, now that the trip is ending, I really want to keep going, though who knows how I would feel if I were, indeed, headed onwards. In any case, cheers! Photos at some point. Hope all is well back North.
m
Saturday, August 1, 2009
A Small Photo Capture of Mexico City
We have been exploring this city in a strange, slow way, but it´s been nice. I love to ride the subway. I somehow have an immense capacity to sit still if I am also in motion. We go one place per day, more or less, and we never have any idea what we´re doing, really. And it´s not terribly obvious, even in areas where it should be, where the things to do and see are actually located. I have been to an assortment of museums and plazas and bars. I like how loud and colorful and cheap the city is. I like catching glimpses of its massive sprawl creeping up the mountain sides. So far my favorite things have been seeing the modern art exhibit at the autonomous university (UNAM) and wandering around Coyoacan. One night we drove home in the rain listening to eighties hits, one night we went to the new Harry Potter movie, one night we watched jazz and argued over peace vs. rage in making social change, one night a very wealthy friend picked us up, drove us around for hours listening to opera, and then took us to an insane club made into a fake cave. There we acquired an even wealthier companion, whose house was, apparently, nice enough to be price-featured on google maps, and who told us the revolution was coming, via civil war, and he knew, because his boss was in the arms trade between the narcos and the government. Mostly I sit still and watch things. It´s warm and the food is delicious.
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