I'm going to try to post a number of photos on this post, with a little bit of text for context (as there has been so much happening I haven't had the time to write the type of long entries of previous times....)
The above photo is of the kids (ranging in age from 11-23)that are part of the Evolution of Rural Youth ( a very rough translation), which is the youth group that I am somewhat embedded in. The picture is taken in front of the casa de cultura, which is their youth organizing space of sorts (and the locale of the major community wide party they had recently-see photos below)
The above photo is of the half-cow (u know in the US we have 1/2 lb burgers, well here they have 1/2 cows) that the kids got as a donation for the party (better than cash here) and we grilled up! Tasty, although it takes a longgggg time to cook 1/2 a cow, like a long long long time.
and the party itself...
The above picture is meant to announce the new diet that I am pioneering. It is entitled "lose however much weight you want by eating (or not) armadillo). I guarantee rapid (and sustained) weight loss if you adhere to this diet (I haven't had the will to though-for those of you who are concerned about me losing my figure)
The above picture is a product of me having extensive time for "deep hanging out" here, which for me tends to mean playing mandolin for about 2-3 hours a day. People here are very "interested" in the mandolin, and me playing it (what they really think i have no idea). But anyways, I tend to serve as a magnetic force that attracts children who love to giggle as they watch me play. These children in particular were fairly funny, the day before I had been playing and they snuck up beside me, and out of the corner of my eye i saw them, but thought the smallest one, who was first in the sneak train, was a giant rat...i jumped, and so did they! They were much better fans than a giant rat, however, and clapped very loudly after every song!
The following series of photos is from two Misticas that the MST youth performed at the education conference.
Mistica are cultural performances/enactions that the MST does; they usually include some elements of poetry, theater, art, dance, etc, and are used to create spaces for reflection, usually around "generative themes" (to follow Freire) which is basically a big word for issues that are important/of concern to them. These ones, as they took place during the education conference, were about....education!
The mistica are often centered around a collection of physical objects, such as the farm tools, literature, rice....
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And what was very special was that I got to participate in a mistica as well!
I got to be a farm worker using a rake, a pretty small role, but i don't think i'm ready for the big time dances yet! Imagine trying to understand choreographed dance directions in another language...
For those of you who made it to the end of this litany of photos and little excerpts, here's a more meaty blog bite for you, sorry no armadillo here...(it was pirated from an email, so sorry to the original recipient) but thought it was pretty informative.
In other news, potential major research step today (I wouldn’t say breakthrough, but definetly big in terms of physical results, and it’s potential impact for future research questions). Basically, I mapped the front/backyard of the house I’m currently staying at, having the mother/father as guides for plant identification. This is in the context of my previous observation (after having seeing a photo of the settlement 13 years ago right after it was founded, when it was essentially a barren cattle pasture), and my visual comparison of that image with today where it is bordering on verdant forested oasis. Anyways, I used the GPS device to mark the location of each tree that the family had planted….and imported that into GIS. Anyways, in their backyard, they had around 120 fruiting plants (including banannas, which aren’t a tree, sugar cane, and medicinal plants: all of which are hard to specifically quantify because they reproduce from the ground on their own), but anyways the point is that the family has significantly transformed the landscape through the purposive planting of approximately 100 different trees that comprise probably 20 different varieties. This is in marked contrast to the landscape behind their fence, which is an open cattle pasture….should be very interesting to look at with some aerial photos over time, and figure out how this fits into the larger reasearch question…anyways, so that’s neither here nor there….
In short...it's been a busy week or so since i last was able to update my part of the blog (thanks to jo for keeping it up on the other side of the puddle). But my lack of entries is only because i've been busy and away (plus the slow connection)
a parting photo of an impromptu music performance! fun times for all
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