Profe Daniel's Reflection

Mexico Reflection

One thing that was a pleasant surprise to me was to learn about the famous Robert Brady who resided in Cuernavaca. I was inspired by his audacity, particularly that he let the community know he was gay and was still highly respected. This has a personal connection to me since I consider myself a “latino zebra with gringo stripes” and want to believe that a “good Latino” can go against the machismo (sexist) and homophobic stereotypes that are often associated with Hispanic culture.

One highlight of the trip for me was to spend time with my host family. They treated me as a member of the family. My host mom fed me so much delicious food that I gained a few pounds.

Another highlight was to witness my girls’ motivation to learn Spanish increase. I don’t know how much it was due to the attractive Mexican boys whistling and shouting out poetry to them or all the other factors. At any rate, motivation is one of the key factors in learning anything, so I hope to take advantage of the momentum.

I was also thrilled to see our girls take on the monumental task of culturally assimilating to Hispanic culture. It definitely had moments of culture shock, but I believe that culture shock is one of the best teachers, essential for the role of future world leaders that our girls will inherit.

I felt very much at home in every aspect of the Mexico visit. It is striking to me how many similarities there are between Mexico and the rest of Latin America, particularly my second home in Ecuador. Among the similarities are the tightness of the families. This is something that seems to sustain them and give them strength to continually struggle against the economic forces that oppress them. Forgive my political slant here in mentioning that the US is regarded as one of the economic oppressors in Latin America, from Mexico all the way to Patagonia (refer to “The Open Veins of Latin America” if you have any doubt about this.) In spite of this non-reciprocal relationship between our countries, I personally felt safe and respected at all times in Cuernavaca.

My favorite excursion on our trip was the visit to the mostly indigenous (or Native American) town of Tepoztlan. The town is truly enchanting. The practically vertical hike to the pyramid dedicated to the “bunny god” (I forget the diety’s local name) was hard on the legs and lungs, but worth the effort. The view from the top of the pyramid is spectacular, overlooking the town and farmland below as well as the unique rock formations of the surrounding mountains. The people of Tepoztlan still make a pilgrimage to the pyramid every September 7th and spend the night celebrating and playing their traditional percussion instruments which a somewhat similar to the marimba. It’s interesting to see that much of Mexico has converted to Catholicism but have sustained their pre-Colombian beliefs and rituals as well. Additionally, I’m impressed by the stubbornness of the people of Tepoztlan who have refused to let outside giants such as McDonald’s come in to their town. They’ve also chosen to leave their streets the traditional cobblestone instead of allowing the Mexican government come in and put in pavement. They claim that their town is for pedestrians, not vehicles.

Another excursion that was very moving was our visit to a Cuernavacan school of limited resources, “Secundaria Técnica 23”. Of course there was the thrill of the Cuernavacan kids to get to meet our exotic US girls and vice a versa. They presented us with a traditional dance from Veracruz. One girl recited a very moving poem which addressed the economic problems some of the Mexican youth confront, in this case leading to dropping out of school. We presented some supplies for their library. Their principal, Berenice expressed her hope of having a few of her students be able to visit SGS one day, something that would require funds that they lack, but hopefully could be found through some grant or foundation.

It was truly a privilege to experience Mexico with our students, one that I hope will have permanently transformed us.

Finally, I must mention that Encuentros Language School did an outstanding job of coordinating everything to meet all of our needs, even our most capricious needs. The owners of the school, Jeannie and Rudolfo, have established a great network of teachers, tour guides, chauffeurs and host families to receive us professionally and with open arms.

Daniel

photos from the Secondaria (on Weds)

Here are weds photos...from their performance, our performance, our fans, the soccer game, annd our good-bye ceremony.

Photos frm the Agua Park-o...

Agua!

Yesterday was filled with much more excitement than we had even planned--after our morning classes we boarded the "Rutas" (local buses) to the Water Park. Upon arrival I think we were all a little stunned (based on our experiences at Wild Waves) with the beauty and cleanliness of this water park! Add to that that we were practically the only ones there and we were all set for some fun in the sun.

Our excitement was quickly but briefly halted within the first five minutes when Clara slipped while running and fell and hit her jaw. Despite the profuse amount of blood (lips bleed a lot and quickly) the girls who were with her acted swiftly and well to get her to the closest teacher and alert the rest of us at the staff station. Within minutes we had her to the park doctor (a doctor on premises!) and although she was fairly banged up, the injury was caused by her braces whacking into her lip and cutting the inside of it. The park doctor was able to get the wire unentangled and give her some medicine for the pain, and then with the help of the folks here, Ms Ava and she departed to the dentist to get her bent wire removed. By evening Ms Clara felt up to joining us again, and although very sore was very happy to be back apart of the group. Our girls were great in the moment, and following up afterwards, and she was greeted with many hugs and cheers.

The girls who remained at the park seemed to have a blast. The day was hot and sunny (and we have the empty bottles of sunblock to prove it) and the water was wonderful. There were many slides and rides, and an added attraction we teachers had not figured into the mix, lifeguards!
All in all a fun day, despite the accident, and then we headed back to the Zocalo (center of town).

We got back to town and gave the girls more shopping time (!) before we met for supper. We ended up eating all together in an outdoor spot on the Zocalo with some music in th background and some great Mexican food. Clara had rejoined us (although can only chew for now on one side!) but we spent a relaxing dinner visiting, eating, and laughing before heading off in our separate directions home around 8:30 or so.

Today we go to Tepoztlan which loosely translates to "place where we will battle the girls to get them to hike up the pyramid". While some of the girls may have a real physical reason not to hike (like 3) most are already whining--um, I mean, suggesting that they would prefer not to hike...I will offer to stay behind with those not hiking at the bottom of the hill where I have prepared a 90 minute lecture on the philosophical ideologies and implications of different cultural practices on the teaching of sexuality education around the world. That should get them up the hill.

Following our day in Tepoztlan we will return to our families where we will pack all of our new found treasures, clean our rooms, write a reflection on our experiences, and begin to work on a presentation we hope to put together for you, the families, to be scheduled some time once we return. Saturday we head off early with all of our things to explore Mexico City a little before we head to the airport to wait for our flight home.

I will be unable to blog after this morning, so thank you all for reading our adventures and we will all certainly share more upon our return. Daniel will wait at SeaTac until he has seen each girl picked up so PLEASE CHECK OUT WITH HIM BEFORE YOU LEAVE. Our girls will all gather at SeaTac baggage claim once the plane comes in. Daniel will turn his cell phone on--his number is 206-214-5524. Please plan on parking and coming in to claim you girl since some of them may be checking bags (no drive by's please).

Until we see you next--take care, m

Chicos...

Yesterday's adventure visiting the "secondaria" can be summed up in one word--boys! After class in the morning we headed off in taxis to the Secondaria to see a Mexican middle school. Suffice it to say our girls were quite the spectacle. Particular attention was given to the kids who most diverged from typical Mexican coloring--so our blondes, and kids from races other than Caucasian were quite the sight (OK, but lets be real--all of the girls, because they are so beautiful, had more admirers than they could handle!). The girls toured the school in small groups with their host students, were given gifts of Mexican candy (not exactly their favorites--tamarind flavored etc.) and then the school had planned a special performance for us. One boy, in their first form (6th grade?) stood before us and sang "Beautiful Girls" the American song ("you have me suicidal, suicidal when you say its o-ver..."). Another girls stood and pasionnately recited a powerful poem, which I would be lying if I said I understood it all...and finally there was a beautiful traditional dance done, complete in traditional Vera Cruz outfits. This was a very poor school, so they had really turned out their best for us, and not wanting to be outdone, our girls also planned a dance performance as well...sort of.

Led by Taryn and TMike, annd then joined by many of our experts, our girls first performed, then taught, then performed en masse, our rendition of "Crank that..." and since there was no access to anything to play a CD, they had to sing it at the same time! I have to admit, that despite my trepidations, this was the hit of the day--our girls were awesome teachers and clearly spoke enough Spanish and were fluent in dance, that many friendships were made!

Following our dance lesson we were challenged on both the basketball court and the soccer cement (!) to games. Our girls held their own, and the games ended scoreless since we had to leave before they were done. Many, many emails were exchanged, many hugs, a few cheek kisses, even and several proposals of marriage (um, we intervened at this point...) as we left.

We spent our afternoons in back our our host fammilies and in small groups before we were to return to school for our Salsa lessons. We learned an important lesson during this time, which is left with too much free time, our girls do less well...after arriving back at the school we spoke to the girls about being more aware of their surroundings (for instance when they are in a public park) and trying to be aware of the unintentional messages they are sending. While the girls did not like hearing this, and felt "they could handle it" we reminded them our job was to make sure they didnt have to. The situation at the school was safe and contained, but the public places are not, and while we feel they have good sense, we are also wanting to be very cautious. We made ourselves clear going forward, and have filled up the rest of our schedule so that there will be no more unstructured time other than with their host families.

Finally we returned home in time to observe the total lunar eclipse over late supper with our host families.

We are off today to spend nearly the whole day at a water park (shoot me now, please), followed by some late afternoon shopping in the Zocalo, finishing with dinner at a Pasado restaurant (Pasado is a traditional Thursday night meal in some parts of Mexico--its a hominy bsaed soup, not vegetarian, but the restaurant has many other options too).

We are having connection troubles (on and off) so I will try and get some of yesterdday's pictures up but it may take a while...more soon--marja

mucho shopping!

Buenos dias families! we spent a wonderful day yesterday exploring the town of Taxco (silvertown) after lessons in the morning to master our haggling vocabulary and skills. We learned the interesting hisotry of the town from the discovery of a silver mine there to the rebirth of the town thanks to an American (William Spratling) who helped the town find fine through its artisan crafters. After a two hour busride there (in which the girls watched the classic Beatles movie, Yellow Submarine" en Espanol--and now understand my references to being the "Big Blue Meanie") we arrived in the hill top city of Taxco. First we were taken to Zanfield Silver Factory to see silver being smithed and crafted into fine jewelry --although they offered us a 50% discount, the quality and price of the items here was perhaps more than most of our girls wished to spend. But they seemed to enjoy the tour of the actual factory and learned about the process of making silver jewelry.

Oh, about the picture of the armed policia...our girls did nothing wrong--he was the armed guard at the factory and seemed quite tickled when we asked if we could take our picture with him!

From the factory we bused into town, and climbed our way to the main Cathedral dedicated to the Lady of the Storms. After a brief tour there, we were released to do something our girls excel at--shop! Taxco is filled with hundreds and hundreds of stalls of jewelry (at remarkably reasonable prices) and crafts. If you were willing to do all the walking up and down (and dodging cars in narrow streets) then the pay off was well worth it, judging by the amount of things purchased! So after walking and shopping for nearly 3 hours, both your daughters and your wallets were thinner!

We returned to the bus for what we had hoped would be a tired, quiet ride home...little did I know that the girls instead were fired up to sing! We were serenaded with songs from N'sync to camp songs--but not all necessarily on key exactly (and this is coming from ME!). Just when we thought we couldn't take any more I had the brilliant idea to insist that if they wished to continue to sing, it had to be "en Espanol"--HA! Now I had them--I would get the quiet ride we were longing for...NOT. They burst into "La Bamba" followed by every song Daniel had taught them for two years (and Daniel, that traitor, even joined in!). So much for our quiet ride...

When we arrived back home we departed to our host families for late supper and bed, and to review our purchases! A great day by all accounts.

Today we are in classes in the morning them headed to "secondaria", a middle school, to meet some students, take snack with them, and they have a dance to show us. Our girls have also asked if they can show them some of our dances...like "crank that..."; I'm thinking, no. We will return to our families for La Comida, then back to school for our Salsa lessons!

Everyone has gotten healthy and seem to be having fun (shopping will have that effect I hear). I will attach some pictures and write more soon--marja

fresh from the market

marketing and eating

Marja reporting here using Ava's computer..yesterday we spent the morning learning our vocab for marketing and then we descended on the market itself--a huge area with stall after stall of the most beautiful fruits and vegetables, pots and crafts we had eer seen. The colors were spectacular--and I think we were quite the site ourselves--the stalls wound through marketplace and created an intricate maze--so we were careful to stay together--the only two who got lost...well, tricia and I...but eventually found our back by asking which way the group of "chicas" went! With our ingrediants purchased (and a few other items like Mexico football jerseys and handmade bags...) we boarded the bus (their metro) to head back to school. We went back to our "homes" for "comida" and then headed back to school to cook and eat our creations--fresh tortillas with "pollo" and/or cheese fried, then covered with homemade salsa verde and "cremo" (sp?).

Following our meal we had a brief meeting to review the next days agenda (silvertown shopping after lessons in the morning to prepare us) and to chat with the girls about how we were all doing so far. We complimented the girls on their overall behavior--both in school and around town--they have done us all proud. We also spent a fair amount of time talking again (argh) about the dress code. Despite all warnings and requests we are still seeing a fair number of short shorts (often long ones rolled up!) and mini dresses. While the girls wanted to debate the finer pints of arm-length we tried to focus them on the fact that we werent looking everyday, but if we were noticing than the violations were egregious. By the end of our meeting I beleive I made myself clear, and was also everyone's least favorite teacher. Regardless, I am happy to report, everyone has come in this morning quite well dressed, and ready to go.

We also spoke to the girls about time spent with host families and that if they were to go out, their chaperones from the host families had to be at least 20 years old to accompany them. This too was controversial since several families have older teenagers who would happily escort our girls, but acting on all of your behalf we were not comfortable with 16 or 18 year olds as the only chaperones if they were out. I realize I am erring on the conservative side and many of your daughters are not thrilled with that, but ultimately I am thinking about their safety and what would make me feel comfortable as a parent.

So as you can see, even though we are focusing on "all things mexican", we have not left our "all things teenager" conversations back in the states. I let you know all of this simply so you are in on the conversations. However, dont let this overshadow the fact that your girls really are being wonderful and we are having a great time. There will be much shopping and haggling done today as we go to the big marketplace> Their Spanish speaking and receptive abilities are improving exponentially, and I am even learning a wee bit (like you cant just add an "o" to each word...although it does work sometimes--yesterdays great use of an added "o"--"eclectico" and it was right!) so there is hope for me yet.

I will post some market pictures and then shoot more today...one parting thought--we find that the more the girls can sepak with their host families and each other, the better their spanish improves, so if we can wean them a little from texting and calling, they will spend more time in their home developing their "Spanish legs"...I know they love hearing from you and you from them, but do try to let them fly at this point--I think they are ready! More as we have it--take care-m

some early shots

O-la from marja!

hello families! while connectivity here is on and off, I am working on posting some of our pictures--we spent yesterday climbing up a pyramid in the sun, and i was tickeld to hear the girls complain about the heat! we have been pushing the water drinking (something they are clearly not use to) and have had a few who have felt bouts of nausea and headaches from not drinking enough--but all is well--a couple of folks with colds (rose, catherine, and alaina) but all holding up well annd seeming to enjoy themselves anyway. Today was the first day of school and they are learning everything we need to know to go marketing this afternoon and then cook after our "comida" (lunch-dinner type meal at 3 pm). the girls seem to be bonding in new ways which is great, and are extremely well behaved when out in public despite the many horn honks and comments from admiring passers-by (of course, tricia and I are telling them they mean it for us). I willkeepposting when i can get on, and I am letting those girls that need to send emails via my balckberry to you all when they want. feel free to send your daughter an email through me and I will pass it on--more later--

First Day

I'll make this post short--I know Marja is planning to post soon with like, a buhjillion photos.

So, we started off the day with an orientation to Encuentros, our school away from school, and then quickly launched into some reading (in Spanish!) about the sites we were to see for today--Cortes' Palace and the Henry Brady Museum. I made the mistake of checking my backpack with camara at Cortes' Palace, and thus, you'll see no photos from me. But my personal highlight, and I think, for many of the girls, was a mural by Diego Rivera depicting the conquest of the Aztecs.

Afterwards, we ate our snack lunches in the Zocalo (that's Spanish for town square), where I did snap a few photos and where many girls did some of their first shopping from the vendors there.

With a little bit of food in our stomachs, we walked to the Henry Brady Museum, which was actually the home and art collection (over 1200 pieces!) of Henry Brady, an independently wealthy, world-traveling, tapestry-weaving, art-collecting, eccentric man from Iowa. His home was decorated in bold colors, and he mixed artworks from all over the world. This was for many the highlight of the day. I'm posting some photos of the girls resting in the courtyard of the museum.

We then returned home for "comida" (that's kind of like lunch, but many families eat comida around 3 pm and it's the largest meal of the day). I can say for Honore, Lena, and me, we are big fans of our host mom's cooking.

Then back to school for some Spanish language activities so that the Spanish teachers could start to get to know our SGS students and their Spanish abilities. By the way, the teachers from Encuentros have had high praise for our students so far. They have found them friendly, respectful, and lively.

All in all, everyone seems to be in good spirits and excited for all the adventures that lay before us!

-Ava

P.S. Do stay tuned! Tomorrow we'll get the girls to start adding to our blog and a chance to add more photos in case you didn't see your daughter among the ones posted.

Bienvenidos a Mexico!

We have arrived safely in Mexico. The girls celebrated our relatively smooth, five-and-a-half hour flight by cheering and applauding as we touched down. We then stopped and had a late lunch/early dinner at the food court in the Mexico City Airport, where we were comforted by familiar eateries such as Starbucks, Subway, Sbarros, and more. We then headed by bus to Cuernavaca where we were met by our host families. I am writing this post from the bedroom of my host family while Honore and Lena are getting ready for bed. We had a chance to sit and talk with our host families for a couple of hours, sharing photos, gifts, and stories about home and family. All in all, it has been an intense, exciting, and tiring day, and the girls have been absolutely fabulous--relaxed, respectful, and open to all the new sights and experiences.

Tomorrow we explore the town, and I hope some of our students will have a chance to post with some photos!

-Ava

Welcome!

This is the blog site for Seattle Girls School's 2008 trip to Cuernavaca, Mexico. Our goal is to post daily about our experiences and activities while abroad. Stay tuned for photos, stories, and quotes from the students!