Week One

I have so many first impressions of Oaxaca it is hard to even begin to describe them. I will start with the family I am staying with. The immediate family is led by Dona Helena and Don Aquilino. The first words that pop into my head when I try to describe them are generous and kind. Dona Helena is an amazing cook with a lively sense of humor. She is always ready to laugh or offer you a second plate of delicious food. She was born here in Oaxaca but her family is from San Pedro Apostile, a town about an hour away (that I had to good fortune to go visit this last weekend). Aquilino as well is kind and simple; he sees a need and does his best to fill it (for instance we were walking under the hot sun for a few minutes and he went to buy Dona Helena and me sombreros to block the scorching sun). Although he is middle aged, he is still effortlessly scales mango trees when the opportunity presents itself! Silvia and German are their two children, who are amazing as well. We work with Silvia in DIJO; she does evaluations of some sort with the teachers and students and has inherited her mother's good humor. She is so generous with her time and energy, and seems to never tire. German is studying architecture and in his spare time among other things plays bass guitar in a band (Im hoping he will let me post one of his songs because they are so good!). He as well is so generous with us, and in fact took a whole evening to go through a list of the cities museums and bars so we know where are the best spots. This last week was a week of orientation so we did not actually start work, instead we went to visit all of the communities and spent time getting to know the city. The DIJO center is very vibrant. There works Socorro, the head administrator, as well as a handful of dedicated workers who handle the nuts and bolts of the operation. They are all very hard working and very joyful, ready to smile from behind their stack or papers or computer screen. We will be working in three community centers (and I guess by now you might be wondering who "we" is. By "we" I mean me and the other intern, Antonio who also lives in the same house and has the same position with AVSI). Each center is very different from the other. The first and largest is Monte Alban, which is in one of the slums of Oaxaca. DIJO has a comedor, or breakfast center, here that gives breakfast to almost 200 hungry children every morning. It originally started as a homework helping after school program, but seeing the need of the children, they changed plans and now the main focus is the breakfast program, although there are also classes for mothers and their preschool aged children, as well as other after school activities for older children. The next center is Tlalixtac which is located in the outskirts of Oaxaca and is like a little town in itself, complete with a plaza and a beautiful church, filled with so many flowers their sweet perfume floats thickly in the dark air. I don't mean a flower or two, this church is brimming with flowers, large colorful bouquets are carefully placed every few feet. The town gives so much attention to the church, and change the flowers every few days. The work DIJO does in Tlalix is that of after school help. The kids that come to the program are generally those that are behind in school work for what ever reason. When we visited some of the children were preparing a dance for the inauguration of a new DIJO building. If you want to see it, I posted the video in photo album. The third program is Xoxo, and it is very similar to Tlalix although a little smaller. The educational system in Oaxaca is in an upheaval. The teachers often go on strike demanding higher wages and better benefits (thought they are the highest payed in Mexico, apparently). They can go on strike for months at a time, leaving the children without a constant, dependable education. This lack of consistency has caused Oaxaca to fall to last place in national educational rankings as many of the children here are left far behind their peers. Upon a recent class resumption many of DIJO's students found themselves ahead of their peers, a huge change from their previous almost dismal performance, as they had not suspended their learning as had the rest of the class. As far as this last week's activities, there are so many it is impossible to comment on them all! I will try to write about a few of them, but for now the senora is calling me, time for lunch ("la comida").