So, what exactly are you doing in Mexico?

A little information about the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching program and my progress...

There are 3 main components to the program:
1) Enroll in up to two university courses.
2) Observe classes, team-teach and/or conduct seminars or workshops in local schools for host country teachers and students.
3) Complete an inquiry project.

Having been here for almost 3 weeks now, here is an update on my status:
1) Classes. My university placement is the Escuela de lenguas, a satellite campus for the UNACH - Universidad Autónomo de Chiapas. Their main program is a bachelors degree in teaching of English. The school also offers language courses for UNACH students in other programs.

My advisor is a coordinator for the bachelors program and an incredibly helpful and well-respected woman, but she does not know much about primary education, and the Escuela de lenguas doesn´t really offer classes related to my investigation topic. After some searching, I decided to take a class at the UNACH campus in Tuxtla, which offers a specialty in Cultural Processes in Literacy. It would involve an hour and a half commute early Thursday mornings, but it sounded very interesting. Unfortunately, the professor is no longer teaching the class, and I have no idea if it will still be happening...

I HAVE, however started a Tsotsil Maya class, which has been both fun and challenging. (More on that later.) I'm hoping it will be beneficial if I ever get into some bilingual schools, which leads me to...

2) Observations. I have been able to set up a day a week to observe in one public school and one private school (El pequeño sol - an idyllic forest refuge outside the center of the city. Adorable.) I have observed a few classes. I am still hoping to make contact with bilingual schools (Mayan/Spanish) - both public and autonomous (Zapatista).

3) My project - identifying instructional best practices for teaching Spanish literacy. I suppose my project will come along as my observations do. The Mexican secretary of education has a wonderful bank of free resources on their website (including downloadable student textbooks), so that has been a helpful starting point for understanding the curriculum. Some potential focus points include use of riddles and wordplay, a progression of intentional grammar integration, and oral reading and recitation practices.

It's a world of laughter, a world of tears. It's a world of hopes and a world of fears.

My first week here, I was talking to the librarian at the Institute for Indigenous Education. She told me about this researcher - a teacher from California - who I just HAD to meet. Well, I finally got to talk to this famed researcher, and it turns out she's from CLAREMONT! Taught for 23 years at an elementary school there where some Pomona students (Liz!) tutored and professors' kids went. And she even went to Pomona. AND she's an RPCV! Very excited to get to know her better.

...There's so much that we share that it's time we're aware
It's a small world after all!

Touristing

I promised myself to be okay with feeling a little sad/lonely/homesick for my first two weeks here. Two weeks ends tomorrow, which is kind of fitting because tomorrow I start my first class, and the following day I do my first official school observation, so I should be establishing something of a routine. (More on both of those activities later.)

In the meantime, besides wandering around San Cristobal...

... I've been doing some site-seeing. My Fulbright friend here scoffs at tourists, but I'm pretty sure, seeing as how we're taking advantage of a cross-cultural opportunity in another country where we don't officially live, we are tourists. And I'm okay with that.

Tuesday we went to an indigenous town close by - San Juan Chamula. The most stunning thing about San Juan Chamula (and given as how I didn't know anything about the place, I was definitely stunned) is the church. It isn't allowed to take pictures in the church, but if you do a google image search, you'll find that some people have. Outside, it's like any colonial church, and inside the walls are lined with glass-enclosed statues of saints. However, there are no pews. The people stand, sit, or kneel on the ground, which is covered with pine needles... and candles. There are candles everywhere! Rows and rows of them stuck to the floor with melted wax and on tables all throughout the church. Some people are participating in religious ceremonies with incense, music, and pox (crazy-strong grain alcohol) and sacrificing chickens. The place is crowded and certainly a fire hazard but stunning.

Graves at a cemetery in San Juan Chamula are mounds covered in pine needles, flowers, and offerings of Coca Cola.

Friday we went to the festival at Chiapa de Corzo. Although it's only about 30 miles from San Cristóbal, it´s about 20 degrees hotter. In the festival, people dress up in traditional outfits, and the men wear wooden masks. They parade to different houses wear they stop, dance, and drink. There is a lot of drinking that happens - every block has several stands selling giant micheladas. With the heat, the heavy clothes, and the quantity of alcohol, I´m surprised we didn´t see anyone pass out. But then, we only stayed until 5.

Even the piñatas are dressed up for the feria.

Las múltiples caras de San Cristóbal

The extensive history of Chiapas book that I have been reading talks about the many faces of Chiapas. My town, San Cristóbal de las Casas, also has many faces.

1. Indigenous

There are two main indigenous groups - Tsotsil and Tzeltal - both classified by language, both under a broader Mayan cultural and linguistic umbrella. The indigenous population in San Cristóbal has grown tremendously over the past 50 years due to religious-political expulsions. Basically, it sounds like Catholic leaders decided to solve an issue with land scarcity by kicking newly-evangelized protestant indigenous people from their rural homes. Thus formed the "cinturones de miseria" (misery belts) around the periphery of San Cristóbal.

2. Mestizo 

Defined in the book I was reading today as "a person who lives according to the cultural patterns of western society and who identifies with a national culture." These tend to be more middle-class Mexicans, generally Catholic. The book cautions against using the word "ladino," because its cultural meaning is "skillful," and could really describe any cultural group.

3. Hippie

Often overlapping with the below categories.

4. Zapatista

Chiapas was and is the heart of the Zapatista movement, which became internationally relevant when revolutionaries took over San Cristóbal and surrounding areas on January 1, 1994. The movement is still alive here and attracts many Mexican and foreign supporters. They are sometimes behind scary road blocks. They also have some progressive, autonomous schools in indigenous communities. Stay tuned to see if I´m able to visit one.

5. Tourist

From everywhere.

6. Expat

Same.

7. Researcher

¡Feliz día de los reyes magos!

Yesterday I met the director and librarian for the Institute for Indigenous Studies at the university. Within seconds of meeting, she invited me to join her and all of her colleagues in celebrating Kings' Day (Epiphany) by sharing a "rosca de reyes," Each person has to cut her/his own piece of the bread ring. Whoever finds a plastic baby Jesus inside has to bring tamales for everyone on February 2. Although I have made tamales once (with much help from Valerie Flores), I was happy not to find anything but bread and candied fruit in my piece. That didn't mean I was exempt from having to wear a silly crown:

After this brief diversion, I returned to the library to start reading some of the books on the history of Chiapas that the director recommended. I have much to learn, and it was somewhat slow-going.

Day 1, in which I make my first impression at the university in hiking clothes

After breakfast this morning, as I was trying to orient myself and prepare for the day, I received the following Whatsapp message from Sinead, the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in my town (formerly known as my sole contact in Chiapas):
S - Tengo que reunir con unos amigos que están visitando a las 9. Si quieres venir a las 9 vamos a caminar al bosque I have to meet up with some visiting friends at 9. If you want to come at 9 we´re going to walk to the woods.
Me - A las 9? Como en 10 minutos? At 9? You mean in 10 minutes?

I was not entirely prepared for a walk in the woods, but following my mom´s advice to accept all invitations, I accepted. I quickly changed into hiking clothes, threw my toothbrush into my purse so I could brush my teeth on the way out, and asked directions to the meeting spot after paying my bill at the hostel.

It was a beautiful hike, even if we got a little bit lost, had close encounters with a barbed-wire fence, and crossed a not-so-secure bridge.

 View of San Cristóbal

Photo doesn't capture full scariness of bridge. This bridge was not included in the airport infrastructure photo contest. 

After the hike, Sinead had to meet with her supervisor at the university, so she asked if I wanted to walk the 40 minutes with her to learn the route. Even though classes don't start until Monday, it turned out that my advisor was there at the university. (So far, she has only seen me after a day of traveling and in dirty, sweaty hiking clothes; it's lucky she's still willing to work with me!) I was able to talk with her and meet various important university figures (still in my hiking clothes). Suddenly, it was 5 o'clock, and Sinead and I got a ride back to the city center to have lunch (?!)

When I finally got back to my room at the hostel, it was 7:30. I realize I am sunburnt (altitude + deceptively cool weather = bad news for gringa skin). Also cold and exhausted, barely able to move, but grateful for a productive day and promising start to my 6 month adventure.

MEX = delays... and cultural exhibits

At the airport in Mexico City, as in US airports, there are screens that show which gate your flight will leave from, except that in Mexico City, that information generally doesn´t appear until an hour before the flight, or in my case, not until AFTER IT SHOWS THAT THE FLIGHT HAS LEFT.

This was mildly distressing, but a few older German travelers and I asked at an information booth and discovered that the plane was probably still there... probably. So, we ran to the gate, and proceeded to wait another hour and a half for our delayed flight to Chiapas.

On a brighter note, there was an exhibit about Mexican diversity.
Here's a cool visual of the indigenous language families in Mexico:

There was also a display of a photography contest for... Mexican infrastructure. I thought my ingeniera friends (Jessica? Julia?) would appreciate that.

And the best news of all was that my university advisor sent me an email that day informing me that - por casualidad - she was dropping her daughter at the Tuxtla Gutierrez airport at the same time my flight was arriving, so she and her son gave me a ride to San Cristóbal.
Lesson learned = everything is gonna be all right.