A friend's new foal - a fjord, she's 2 weeks.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Friday, December 4, 2009
Christmas Spirit
Our household has turned on Christmas spirit full blast. everything is covered in garlands and teddy bears! Our kitties are definately enjoying having a tree in their house. They wont leave its side.
Roomies!
My roomates, Emily, Schuyler and I! On miss Emily's 21st bday, hence she has on far too much makeup.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
home again
I've been safe home now for about two weeks. I've been doing lots of reflecting, but it's still hard to say how I feel about my experience.
The most meaningful part of my trip was certainly the host family I stayed with in Barquisimeto. It was a big struggle to adjust to their ideas about family, time, language, and responsibility. It soon became more important to me to spend time with my host family than to pursue opportunities in the community. This may sound odd, but I realized it was the only acceptable thing to do. The times I left my family to go to meetings they were completely hurt. They really wanted me to hang out with them everyday, all the time. They wanted to take me places, and show me their community, they wanted me to know their whole family. Their emphasis on family is not something I have witnessed here. Living far away from relatives is unheard of, and their sense of responsibility to their families and community is outstanding.
I believe that this sense of closeness and community responsibility which is so embedded in their culture is what has allowed a revolution. These people really do care about their neighbors, and feel a responsibility to help everyone around them. Their natural hospitality ensures that all will be taken care of, which is a perfect platform for socialism. This country making a move towards socialism is only an attempt to integrate their culture and the reality of their everyday lives into their government. The second component, which is stemmed from their community responsibility is empowerment. Responsibility and accomplishment will always lead to a feeling of empowerment, and these people believe they have the power to run their own communities, not the political power, but the physical and mental power. They are willing to do anything to support themselves and develop their lives and communities. Everything is seen on a community level. So if one person wants a better life, they do not see themselves rising above their community, they see their whole community rising together.
This feeling of empowerment and community combined has led to amazing projects which I saw in many communities. People putting in their own plumbing systems, building solar power systems, recreating the way they buy and sell food, so that everyone can participate and have food in the end, everything done as a community. Most of these people have never been to school, but they will make a decision to build a sewage system for their whole community, and accomplish it.
Community media is another important aspect of the revolution. People have created their own media and their own communications. They can say what they what. A freedom we certainly do not have in our media. They make calls to their governors, questioning about broken promises, about school systems they were told were coming, about transportation that was promised. In many cases mayors and governors make deals with communities, such as; if you build roads we will expand the pubic transportation to your community, but no matter how many roads are built no buses come. In other cases it will be publicly announced that a bill has been passed and money granted to a school program or some such project, and the money never comes. Community built media provides a space for people to correct their government, to let everyone be aware they never got the money, and their problems are not solved. This has moved forward the revolution, and kept officials in check.
Ok, this is all for now...more to come.
The most meaningful part of my trip was certainly the host family I stayed with in Barquisimeto. It was a big struggle to adjust to their ideas about family, time, language, and responsibility. It soon became more important to me to spend time with my host family than to pursue opportunities in the community. This may sound odd, but I realized it was the only acceptable thing to do. The times I left my family to go to meetings they were completely hurt. They really wanted me to hang out with them everyday, all the time. They wanted to take me places, and show me their community, they wanted me to know their whole family. Their emphasis on family is not something I have witnessed here. Living far away from relatives is unheard of, and their sense of responsibility to their families and community is outstanding.
I believe that this sense of closeness and community responsibility which is so embedded in their culture is what has allowed a revolution. These people really do care about their neighbors, and feel a responsibility to help everyone around them. Their natural hospitality ensures that all will be taken care of, which is a perfect platform for socialism. This country making a move towards socialism is only an attempt to integrate their culture and the reality of their everyday lives into their government. The second component, which is stemmed from their community responsibility is empowerment. Responsibility and accomplishment will always lead to a feeling of empowerment, and these people believe they have the power to run their own communities, not the political power, but the physical and mental power. They are willing to do anything to support themselves and develop their lives and communities. Everything is seen on a community level. So if one person wants a better life, they do not see themselves rising above their community, they see their whole community rising together.
This feeling of empowerment and community combined has led to amazing projects which I saw in many communities. People putting in their own plumbing systems, building solar power systems, recreating the way they buy and sell food, so that everyone can participate and have food in the end, everything done as a community. Most of these people have never been to school, but they will make a decision to build a sewage system for their whole community, and accomplish it.
Community media is another important aspect of the revolution. People have created their own media and their own communications. They can say what they what. A freedom we certainly do not have in our media. They make calls to their governors, questioning about broken promises, about school systems they were told were coming, about transportation that was promised. In many cases mayors and governors make deals with communities, such as; if you build roads we will expand the pubic transportation to your community, but no matter how many roads are built no buses come. In other cases it will be publicly announced that a bill has been passed and money granted to a school program or some such project, and the money never comes. Community built media provides a space for people to correct their government, to let everyone be aware they never got the money, and their problems are not solved. This has moved forward the revolution, and kept officials in check.
Ok, this is all for now...more to come.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
aqui, on the playa right now, right now
we went to beach, for two days. it was beautiful. we took boats out to islands, the boat rides were super fun, like roller coasters, and the water was totally clear and blue green perfect. one of the boats capsized, it was not my boat, so it was a little funny.
we played on the beach and tanned and swam about. it was lovely.
we played on the beach and tanned and swam about. it was lovely.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
¡Epa! ¿Que Pasó?
I´m very homesick this week. I´m a little sick of working at the cooperative, it´s very hard and tiring, and I´feel like I could be doing something better with my time. I´m taking the day off today to try to figure out what I´m doing, and organize a new game plan for my last week here. I need to accomplish many interviews in the next week, with many people.
On Thursday we went to a friends music and arts school, it was very cool. He runs the school, which provides the surounding community with free music lessons, instruments, group playing time, as well as singing, dance, painting, arts and crafts and whatever kids want to do lessons. We got a afro - venezuelano drum lesson, and then a big group of kids performed on drums and sang for us. They also tried to teach us to do the tambom dance (drum dance) which is pretty much immpossible to do if you´re white. I think it was more of a joke so they could laugh at us.
There´s an internaitonal solcialist confrence going on this evening and tomorrow, which we were all planing on attending, however when we got there we realized it was very hard to participate when everything is in spanish, so it didn´t really work out.
I´ve observed that when I hang out with my family, all they do, even their teenage kids, and kids in their twenties is hang out together. all the time. Just with their whole family, everyday. It´s a very different dynamic than i´m used to. They all get drunk together and speak really fast in spanish in the evening, and in the mornign they all clean together.
On the other hand all the wealthy families I´ve interacted with take pride in reflecting American culture, and while their families still live together, they do not hang out, but pass their time driving around in their cars listening to music, and swimming in pools, and eating out, or basically making fun of their house helo while they sit in their pool listening to music, and still always drinking.
Everyone here drinks all the time. They think it´s strange we dont drink all day with them. THey start drinking at about 10 or 11 and continue for the rest of the day. I think more money is spent on alcohol than anything else in this country.
On Thursday we went to a friends music and arts school, it was very cool. He runs the school, which provides the surounding community with free music lessons, instruments, group playing time, as well as singing, dance, painting, arts and crafts and whatever kids want to do lessons. We got a afro - venezuelano drum lesson, and then a big group of kids performed on drums and sang for us. They also tried to teach us to do the tambom dance (drum dance) which is pretty much immpossible to do if you´re white. I think it was more of a joke so they could laugh at us.
There´s an internaitonal solcialist confrence going on this evening and tomorrow, which we were all planing on attending, however when we got there we realized it was very hard to participate when everything is in spanish, so it didn´t really work out.
I´ve observed that when I hang out with my family, all they do, even their teenage kids, and kids in their twenties is hang out together. all the time. Just with their whole family, everyday. It´s a very different dynamic than i´m used to. They all get drunk together and speak really fast in spanish in the evening, and in the mornign they all clean together.
On the other hand all the wealthy families I´ve interacted with take pride in reflecting American culture, and while their families still live together, they do not hang out, but pass their time driving around in their cars listening to music, and swimming in pools, and eating out, or basically making fun of their house helo while they sit in their pool listening to music, and still always drinking.
Everyone here drinks all the time. They think it´s strange we dont drink all day with them. THey start drinking at about 10 or 11 and continue for the rest of the day. I think more money is spent on alcohol than anything else in this country.
Friday, February 20, 2009
i have the bombest host family. everyone here in barqui is really great. i´m having a really good time. cecosesola the cooperativa is super hard, but super chevre. i think this is going to be such a good part of my trip. my host mama is really awesome. i live with her, her son, alex, who is four, and sooo coool. we play everyday together and color and stuff. he´s awesome. he crawls in my bed in the morning and kisses me goodmorning and tells me it´s time to come play with with him. I´m sleeping in his bed, of course, as there are only two beds. the house is tiny, with no doors, and walls dont touch the corregated tin roof. they have a dalmation puppy. yadyra, my mama, and i stayed up all last night talking in bed. it was really great, i´m actually just really glad to get to bond with someone that much, especially a woman, as they are harder to get attention from here. I´m sick of men flockign to me! i want actual friends.
i have a new phone... my number is 0412 0570 050. you can call me on it. but not too late (3.5 hours ahead of pacif time), cause everyone will be asleep ( the walls between all of the neighbors on the block also do not touch the roof, so it´s like one big house.. you can hear everyone´s conversations and tvs. there are no floors in the house, well ours is concrete, but most people have dirt. we live very close to my friends grace´s host family, who is also really cool. i had dinner with their fmaily tonight, and her host brothers brought us to the internet cafe. they wont let us walk down the block alone. actually my host mom wont walk down the block alone, she´ll go with me or call her neighbor to walk with her.
the coop is very intereting, my job is basically working in a grocery store. I work in the produce in the morning, cutting up veggies and stocking them for about 6 hours. then lunch, then for the next 7 hours work cleaning up the produce area and then stalking adn putting away the canned/packaged foods and soap n stuff. this is 4 days a week, then meetings two days a week, and another day of just stocking food preparing for the market days, thurs, fri, sat, sun. the meetings are the cool part, because everyone in the coop comes and says whatever they want. they also have workshops, with no teachers, so more like focused conversations on things like mutual respect, trust, work ethic... anyone who needs anything can get it from the coop. members are like family. they need a loan for something, or just need money which they will never be able to pay back, they will get it. no one will be hungry or homeless, and certainley not lose their jobs for such things. everyone is freinds with everyone. they all work together. if you get sick of doing one task at work you just go swtich with someone who´s doing something better and switch back when they´re tired. all workers and visitors are fed lunch (a really good huge lunch), then you wash your own dishes.
My spanish has imporoved tons. it´s very hard to only write in enlglish, i keep writing spanish words adn having to earse them!
overall it´s very hard to be here, i´m very tired, it´s simply tiring to be lost and confused every second. but i never want to sleep, because everyone always wants to show me something new. i met like 400 family members in the last week. my whole family´s cousins and aunts adn grandparetns adn everyone, they all live in the same ghetto together. grace´s family as well, who we also went house to house meeting everyone. they are all so nice, they all say, oh if you get lost, or if you need anything, or if you dont like the house you´re in, you can come live with us.
i have a new phone... my number is 0412 0570 050. you can call me on it. but not too late (3.5 hours ahead of pacif time), cause everyone will be asleep ( the walls between all of the neighbors on the block also do not touch the roof, so it´s like one big house.. you can hear everyone´s conversations and tvs. there are no floors in the house, well ours is concrete, but most people have dirt. we live very close to my friends grace´s host family, who is also really cool. i had dinner with their fmaily tonight, and her host brothers brought us to the internet cafe. they wont let us walk down the block alone. actually my host mom wont walk down the block alone, she´ll go with me or call her neighbor to walk with her.
the coop is very intereting, my job is basically working in a grocery store. I work in the produce in the morning, cutting up veggies and stocking them for about 6 hours. then lunch, then for the next 7 hours work cleaning up the produce area and then stalking adn putting away the canned/packaged foods and soap n stuff. this is 4 days a week, then meetings two days a week, and another day of just stocking food preparing for the market days, thurs, fri, sat, sun. the meetings are the cool part, because everyone in the coop comes and says whatever they want. they also have workshops, with no teachers, so more like focused conversations on things like mutual respect, trust, work ethic... anyone who needs anything can get it from the coop. members are like family. they need a loan for something, or just need money which they will never be able to pay back, they will get it. no one will be hungry or homeless, and certainley not lose their jobs for such things. everyone is freinds with everyone. they all work together. if you get sick of doing one task at work you just go swtich with someone who´s doing something better and switch back when they´re tired. all workers and visitors are fed lunch (a really good huge lunch), then you wash your own dishes.
My spanish has imporoved tons. it´s very hard to only write in enlglish, i keep writing spanish words adn having to earse them!
overall it´s very hard to be here, i´m very tired, it´s simply tiring to be lost and confused every second. but i never want to sleep, because everyone always wants to show me something new. i met like 400 family members in the last week. my whole family´s cousins and aunts adn grandparetns adn everyone, they all live in the same ghetto together. grace´s family as well, who we also went house to house meeting everyone. they are all so nice, they all say, oh if you get lost, or if you need anything, or if you dont like the house you´re in, you can come live with us.
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