Development(s)

More than four months have passed in Boliva and I´m settling into a stage where my primary interest is keeping still and finishing what I´ve started, rather than going out to find new things all the time. At work, however, things will be looking a little different. I will be continuing to work with Pro Habitat to finish my project (thanks to all who generously supported), but during the week I will be working in a center which runs programs for children and adolescents who are victims of sexual abuse. Sexual abuse and domestic violence have long been interests of mine, though perhaps that´s not the best word for it. It seems so strange to say- I´m interested in violence, in prisons, in the tragedy that is immigration policy- interested in injustice. I suppose on some level it denotes the fact that I believe that I can change something, do something positive. But then why shouldn´t that be the case? If we believe we can do nothing, we might as well be living at the bottom of a bottle. Reading this reflection on the life of the late Howard Zinn, I was pleased to be reminded that, though we may live with a history of exploitation and injustice, we also live with a history of popular struggle and victory. Everything good in this world we have built ourselves, and what we manage to build with each other is stronger (in the classic words of Against Me) than everything they taught us that we should fear.

I often like to think of Mirah´s old lyrics as well

We´ve got it all worked out the plans all made,
if we believe in the fight then, we´re all saved
it´s gunna hurt for a while but it would anyways,
we´ll stay resolute with our voices raised
we have a right to demand to be free and brave
if that should cease to exist I´ll throw my heart away
so aren´t you gunna come along? aren´t you gunna fight?
aren´t you gunna hold your hands up to the light?

As Brecht wrote, there will be singing in the dark times, oh yes, there will be singing


This in contrast to the fact that my little host sister has been singing Rihanna´s Roulette song about 10 times a day. But don´t worry, in my revolution there will still be an impetus for the production of songs about texting with a martini in your hand and movies where Michael J Fox turns into a werewolf.

In smaller news, the rainy season is finally here in true form, and instead of 95 degree days we have sheets of rain and thunder that wakes me up in the night. Carnival is approaching, which means that teams of youths are stalking the streets, by foot or in car, lobbing water balloons at anyone risking the sidewalks. Between that (which in all seriousness requires me to run, duck behind trees, and peer fearfully into any car with an open window- I even begged three boys not to hit me and escaped only due to their laughter at my state of agitation) and the fact that I was robbed last week at nine am a block from my house by men who pulled up onto the sidewalk in a car and ripped my bag in half, my strolling has been somewhat more stressful as of late. But I only have six weeks left, and then it´s off to travel. I´ll be back in the states over the summer and then will be starting an internship in DC with the World Health Organization. Hope to cross paths with you all, somewhere in that trajectory.

un abrazo

m

ps- thanks so much to all of you who responded with wise wise words to my last post. much appreciated.