After our fairly epic journey (I’m under no illusion that it couldn’t have been more epic, as we didn’t end up in the river, a giant pothole, or any other forlorn place), we arrived in 17 do Abril settlement. My first clue that it was more developed than I had expected were the giant stadium sized lights that marked the entrance to the settlement. Upon entering the villa (what the settlement is referred to as), we drove around and found Manoela who had been giving a workshop for teachers during the day. We then went to do culturally/politically appropriate thing: have dinner and introduce me to the leader of the settlement. So we went to the house of Goveio, and had a very nice dinner. The most interesting part was the pre-dinner, where Dan, Goveio, and I sat on the couch, with Goveio literally staring at me and sizing me up, while Dan explained in Portuguese a little bit about me, my research interests, and also the history of social movements and political struggle within the United States, and how I could have insights to share with the youth and the community at large about political struggle and civil rights. It was very interesting, and a little nerve racking, as Dan basically vouched for me, and Goveio stared at me as if I were a strange bird that the cat had drug in, which I guess I am. Everything went well though, I passed whatever screening, we had dinner, and we were off to our next location…..
So a landmark for many of our stories will be the casa de cultura (house of culture) , and house of the Evolucao do Juventud Camponesa (EJC), which is the youth (juventud) group that I have become embedded in (to take a horrible metaphor from the years of he who shall not be named). The EJC was formally organized three years ago as part of the work that Dan and Manoela are doing within the settlement. The idea was to give the youth (of which the number is rapidly growing) a space to make their own, and give them some responsibilities to maintain etc. Approximately 3 months ago the EJC petitioned the “Political Association” (more on this later) of the acampamento, and was given a vacant house to utilize.
Anyways, so we arrived at the Casa de cultura/EJC and kids (between the ages of 10-23) were kind of rushing around between inside and outside. We got out of the car and I was introduced to various youth; the funniest introduction was the little girl who exclaimed “this is the david!?!” (in portuguese). Anyway, I wasn’t allowed into the building quite yet, but Dan and Mano were as they helped the kids get ready whatever sneaky thing they had in store.
After a little while of hanging out they blindfolded me and then led me in along a line of people, and my guide had me stop at each one and they whispered something in my ear, and then led me to the next one, at the end of the line they sat me down in a chair and took off the blindfold, the room was filled with candles, and nice music was playing, and on their LCD projector they had a presentation prepared of photos documenting the last few years in the settlement. ok comuter kyboar dying.....
Monday, May 25, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
India, the land of no-expectations
Hello far-away neighbors and friends.
I have just returned from a lovely weekend getaway to Jaipur, India's desert-city capital. My rooomate/friend and I went there to visit some of our old Hindi teachers and do a bit of shopping. We did just that--and thoroughly enjoyed our sumptuous hotel room to boot (it was certainly the nicest place I've stayed in India). I am thinking about escaping back there one weekend later in June or July for an intensive writing retreat--my NSF grant is due early August, so I will have to buckle down and set the research aside for a bit. What better place to do it than a beautiful hotel room overlooking a courtyard with a fountain for only $30 a night?
Our return to Delhi was a bit overshadowed by an unexpected visit from my roommate's landlord, who came to inform her that I MAY have to leave when she does in early June. i had been planning to stay on in this apartment and have already installed an air cooler and paid for internet...so now I am feeling at loose ends. This incident made me realize how much of my 'feeling okay' about my routine in Delhi was dependent upon the fact that I have a nice place to come home to in the evening, in a neighborhood I know. Finding another place is going to be a bit of a trick because most renters don't want to rent for only a couple of months, but most hotels are too expensive to stay in for so long. I have made several contacts about furnished apartments but they are all in south Delhi (I am now in north Delhi and like it here very much).
I am trying to remind myself that things work out here, even if not in the way one expects--take the research assistant, for example. the first one fell through, but the one I have now seems much better. I'm hoping the same will be true of the apartment.
Otherwise, things are chugging along as before. I interviewed my first patients on Friday, and that went very well. I will meet a doctor this morning and interview more patients this evening. One particularly intriguing pattern that is already emerging is women's tendency to talk about "tension" (they actually insert the English word when speaking in Hindi). This seems to be an idiom for a full range of mental health problems, but people don't differentiate it much beyond that (perhaps because poor mental health is still stigmatized here?). It's interesting also because almost all the women I've interviewed so far have stated that "tension" is a cause of diabetes. This tells me that locally, even if people don't have much familiarity with the medical side of diabetes, there appears to be a widespread understanding that there is a mental health component to diabetes. More to come on that.
Love to you all!!
I have just returned from a lovely weekend getaway to Jaipur, India's desert-city capital. My rooomate/friend and I went there to visit some of our old Hindi teachers and do a bit of shopping. We did just that--and thoroughly enjoyed our sumptuous hotel room to boot (it was certainly the nicest place I've stayed in India). I am thinking about escaping back there one weekend later in June or July for an intensive writing retreat--my NSF grant is due early August, so I will have to buckle down and set the research aside for a bit. What better place to do it than a beautiful hotel room overlooking a courtyard with a fountain for only $30 a night?
Our return to Delhi was a bit overshadowed by an unexpected visit from my roommate's landlord, who came to inform her that I MAY have to leave when she does in early June. i had been planning to stay on in this apartment and have already installed an air cooler and paid for internet...so now I am feeling at loose ends. This incident made me realize how much of my 'feeling okay' about my routine in Delhi was dependent upon the fact that I have a nice place to come home to in the evening, in a neighborhood I know. Finding another place is going to be a bit of a trick because most renters don't want to rent for only a couple of months, but most hotels are too expensive to stay in for so long. I have made several contacts about furnished apartments but they are all in south Delhi (I am now in north Delhi and like it here very much).
I am trying to remind myself that things work out here, even if not in the way one expects--take the research assistant, for example. the first one fell through, but the one I have now seems much better. I'm hoping the same will be true of the apartment.
Otherwise, things are chugging along as before. I interviewed my first patients on Friday, and that went very well. I will meet a doctor this morning and interview more patients this evening. One particularly intriguing pattern that is already emerging is women's tendency to talk about "tension" (they actually insert the English word when speaking in Hindi). This seems to be an idiom for a full range of mental health problems, but people don't differentiate it much beyond that (perhaps because poor mental health is still stigmatized here?). It's interesting also because almost all the women I've interviewed so far have stated that "tension" is a cause of diabetes. This tells me that locally, even if people don't have much familiarity with the medical side of diabetes, there appears to be a widespread understanding that there is a mental health component to diabetes. More to come on that.
Love to you all!!
Friday, May 22, 2009
1st post from the field
Lying under my mosquitero (mosquito net), well fed, and banheiado (bathed), I have no idea how to go about recounting my impressions of the trip to the 14 de Abril assentamento (the settlement where I am) or my first 24-odd hours here. Like any story, I’ll start at the beginning (or at least where I left off, as the pleistocene is a little far back).
As Dan Baron Cohen (hereafter Dan) ((my primary contact with the movement)) told me when we met in the Belem airport, as part of anthropology is about getting to the fieldsite, I was going to have quite an experience just getting there. And quite an experience I did have. Dan and I have been emailing for the last 8 months or so; he suggested the 14 de Abril assentamento as a potential field site, and because he has been working with the community here for the last ten years, he was able over the last 5 months to begin broaching the subject of my visit and research with the community, develop a basic “plan” for my time here, and basically get things set up for me. As it will become apparent throughout this blog post, there is absolutely no way one could get access into a social movement/community as I have without Dan’s help (and more importantly the trust he has developed with this community over the last decade. But more on this later.
So Dan and I met at the airport in Belem; I had originally been planning on taking an overnight bus to Maraba, and then a van to Eldorado das Carajas, and then a truck to “kilometer 2” and then a motorcycle the 45 minutes on the dirt road to the settlement, but when Manoela (Dan’s partner whom I had had dinner with surrepticiously a couple nights before in Belem) had spelled out for me the steps necessary to reach the settlement, I thought for my first time, arriving at night, in the rainy season, with two fairly large bags and a mandolin on a motorcycle, just a little more stress than I needed…..so I seized the lucky turn of events that had Dan coming through the airport in Belem, and booked a seat on his flight. So Dan and I met at the airport in Belem (you can tell that this is going to be a long entry…) and flew together to Maraba. Let’s just say that taking off, flying over, and landing in the Amazon, even on a rainy day (which every day is in the rainy season in the Amazon) is on par with flying over Patagonia or the glaciers in Alaska; put simply, unbelievable. One truly begins to get a sense of scale seing the many tributaries of the amazon merge and split. Additionally, as it is the rainy season there is extensive flooding in areas, and the villages near the runway were just completely inundated, which was literally breath taking (in a bad way) to fly over at a 100 feet.
So we arrived in Maraba (an airport of smaller stature than Bozeman for those in the Boze-know). Dan rented a car, and after a few wrong turns (there are literally no signs) we were off. It was about an hour drive on a paved road to El dorado das carajas. The drive was truly unforgettable; aside from having Dan ( a truly wonderful human being) to talk with, the landscape and the road kept my attention riveted. The road first: it was “paved” although approximately every 20 seconds there was either a pothole that looked like it had just eaten a car (and was still hungry) or the side of the road had washed away in the rain. Dan was literally racing against the impending nightfall, as he instructed me that this was the easy part of the trip, and we still had 45 minutes on a mud road awaiting us….Now the landscape; breathtaking would be one word, although not necessarily, at all, in a good way; basically an hour or so of driving by battle pastures, and secondary growth, with the very occasional giant lone rainforest tree still standing. Truly breathtaking and very depressing, basically to think that 100 years ago the entire area would have been continuous rainforest.
But perhaps more than the landscape (and the amazing rainbow that we tracked for quite a while) what was really amazing was seeing the acampamentos of the MST on the side of the road and in fields. We probably passed 4 or so of these acampamentos on our way down to Eldorado (to remind the reader, within the context of the MST, an acampamento (or encampment) is both spatially and temporally primary, it is the first type of :”settlement” that the MST makes when they try to expropriate land. An encampment becomes a settlement when it becomes legally recognized by the government and landowners (which can take upwards of 5 years). During this time, the people are living in makeshift shelters of whatever materials are around, such as plastic tarps or palm fronds. It was extremely powerful to be travelling towards this settlement (where I knew I was going to be living and forming relationships with the people there) and passing by encampments of people who were struggling for the exact thing that “my” settlement had achieved, namely land.
However, no community should have to experience what it “took” for this community to “win” the land. April 17th is a holiday of resistance of sorts, it is known as Dia do Via Campesina. As the story goes, on this day in 1996 the settlers were beginning an encampment of the side of the road, pressing the government to expropriate and release the land that they were claiming was being unused. What happened next there are many different stories for: the basic story is that the police confronted, and massacred 19 of the settlers encamped on the road side. As one drives towards Eldorado das Carajas, one comes across the site of, and memorial to the massacre. The memorial is quite impressive, it’s a series of 19 castanehda trees that were burnt and then planted in the ground in the shape of Brazil. As one can see by this photo, the trees simply tower over the landscape. Quite an impressive memorial to say the least.
Once we reached Eldorado we got off on a dirt (mud) road and to make a long story shorter, basically battled innumerable potholes to reach our destination…..
O Assentamento 17 de Abril.
As Dan Baron Cohen (hereafter Dan) ((my primary contact with the movement)) told me when we met in the Belem airport, as part of anthropology is about getting to the fieldsite, I was going to have quite an experience just getting there. And quite an experience I did have. Dan and I have been emailing for the last 8 months or so; he suggested the 14 de Abril assentamento as a potential field site, and because he has been working with the community here for the last ten years, he was able over the last 5 months to begin broaching the subject of my visit and research with the community, develop a basic “plan” for my time here, and basically get things set up for me. As it will become apparent throughout this blog post, there is absolutely no way one could get access into a social movement/community as I have without Dan’s help (and more importantly the trust he has developed with this community over the last decade. But more on this later.
So Dan and I met at the airport in Belem; I had originally been planning on taking an overnight bus to Maraba, and then a van to Eldorado das Carajas, and then a truck to “kilometer 2” and then a motorcycle the 45 minutes on the dirt road to the settlement, but when Manoela (Dan’s partner whom I had had dinner with surrepticiously a couple nights before in Belem) had spelled out for me the steps necessary to reach the settlement, I thought for my first time, arriving at night, in the rainy season, with two fairly large bags and a mandolin on a motorcycle, just a little more stress than I needed…..so I seized the lucky turn of events that had Dan coming through the airport in Belem, and booked a seat on his flight. So Dan and I met at the airport in Belem (you can tell that this is going to be a long entry…) and flew together to Maraba. Let’s just say that taking off, flying over, and landing in the Amazon, even on a rainy day (which every day is in the rainy season in the Amazon) is on par with flying over Patagonia or the glaciers in Alaska; put simply, unbelievable. One truly begins to get a sense of scale seing the many tributaries of the amazon merge and split. Additionally, as it is the rainy season there is extensive flooding in areas, and the villages near the runway were just completely inundated, which was literally breath taking (in a bad way) to fly over at a 100 feet.
So we arrived in Maraba (an airport of smaller stature than Bozeman for those in the Boze-know). Dan rented a car, and after a few wrong turns (there are literally no signs) we were off. It was about an hour drive on a paved road to El dorado das carajas. The drive was truly unforgettable; aside from having Dan ( a truly wonderful human being) to talk with, the landscape and the road kept my attention riveted. The road first: it was “paved” although approximately every 20 seconds there was either a pothole that looked like it had just eaten a car (and was still hungry) or the side of the road had washed away in the rain. Dan was literally racing against the impending nightfall, as he instructed me that this was the easy part of the trip, and we still had 45 minutes on a mud road awaiting us….Now the landscape; breathtaking would be one word, although not necessarily, at all, in a good way; basically an hour or so of driving by battle pastures, and secondary growth, with the very occasional giant lone rainforest tree still standing. Truly breathtaking and very depressing, basically to think that 100 years ago the entire area would have been continuous rainforest.
But perhaps more than the landscape (and the amazing rainbow that we tracked for quite a while) what was really amazing was seeing the acampamentos of the MST on the side of the road and in fields. We probably passed 4 or so of these acampamentos on our way down to Eldorado (to remind the reader, within the context of the MST, an acampamento (or encampment) is both spatially and temporally primary, it is the first type of :”settlement” that the MST makes when they try to expropriate land. An encampment becomes a settlement when it becomes legally recognized by the government and landowners (which can take upwards of 5 years). During this time, the people are living in makeshift shelters of whatever materials are around, such as plastic tarps or palm fronds. It was extremely powerful to be travelling towards this settlement (where I knew I was going to be living and forming relationships with the people there) and passing by encampments of people who were struggling for the exact thing that “my” settlement had achieved, namely land.
However, no community should have to experience what it “took” for this community to “win” the land. April 17th is a holiday of resistance of sorts, it is known as Dia do Via Campesina. As the story goes, on this day in 1996 the settlers were beginning an encampment of the side of the road, pressing the government to expropriate and release the land that they were claiming was being unused. What happened next there are many different stories for: the basic story is that the police confronted, and massacred 19 of the settlers encamped on the road side. As one drives towards Eldorado das Carajas, one comes across the site of, and memorial to the massacre. The memorial is quite impressive, it’s a series of 19 castanehda trees that were burnt and then planted in the ground in the shape of Brazil. As one can see by this photo, the trees simply tower over the landscape. Quite an impressive memorial to say the least.
Once we reached Eldorado we got off on a dirt (mud) road and to make a long story shorter, basically battled innumerable potholes to reach our destination…..
O Assentamento 17 de Abril.
Monday, May 18, 2009
aspiring to stardom
Well, my talented blogger-husband has really hit the ball out of the park. I am far behind. This will just be a quick post; having read his, perhaps I will start improving upon my own by adding some photos etc.
In a few moments I have to run off to downtown Delhi to pick up bus tickets for my and my roommate's impending (weekend) trip to Jaipur. We're going to visit there briefly because we both spent some time doing language study (me in the summer of 2007, her in the academic year 2007-08). The best part? An ac hotel room! Two nights of good sleep!
Speaking of the ac front, looks like it's going to be impossible to get it in my place. The alternative would be an "air cooler", basically a big fan that blows air over a pan of water and cools it (sort of) as the water evaporates. This might be better than nothing, or it might send my room into a jungle fever of sorts (ie, humidity). Possibly not worth it. Now that the weather is really hot, they've started doing power cuts around the city. Ours was out for a couple hours in the middle of the day yesterday, and then on and off all night. When the power goes out, of course, the fans turn off. This makes for a very, very sweaty time. My sheets have a sweat stain in the shape of my body. Ewww.
But there's more to India than ac (and the lack thereof)! ...My research is progressing well. I'm meeting with diabetologists all over the city, and last weekend I interviewed two potential research assistants. They were both great, but the one who was available during the week is a man (the other is only available on the weekend). He's extremely qualified for the job, however, so I am considering hiring him, even though I'm a bit concerned about the gender thing. I'll be working solely with female patients and asking them some very personal questions, so I worry that they may not be as forthcoming if there is a man around. Sigh. I am keeping my fingers crossed that someone else may emerge from the tangled web of contacts through which I've been trying to find an RA. We'll see.
Last night I had dinner at Subway. I never eat Subway in America, but it tasted so amazingly good. I felt guilty somehow, though--like I was copping out of the 'real' India. Then again, I have to remind myself that 'real' Delhiites eat Subway all the time....
Okay, off to get those tickets and meet with a couple of doctors. More soon!
In a few moments I have to run off to downtown Delhi to pick up bus tickets for my and my roommate's impending (weekend) trip to Jaipur. We're going to visit there briefly because we both spent some time doing language study (me in the summer of 2007, her in the academic year 2007-08). The best part? An ac hotel room! Two nights of good sleep!
Speaking of the ac front, looks like it's going to be impossible to get it in my place. The alternative would be an "air cooler", basically a big fan that blows air over a pan of water and cools it (sort of) as the water evaporates. This might be better than nothing, or it might send my room into a jungle fever of sorts (ie, humidity). Possibly not worth it. Now that the weather is really hot, they've started doing power cuts around the city. Ours was out for a couple hours in the middle of the day yesterday, and then on and off all night. When the power goes out, of course, the fans turn off. This makes for a very, very sweaty time. My sheets have a sweat stain in the shape of my body. Ewww.
But there's more to India than ac (and the lack thereof)! ...My research is progressing well. I'm meeting with diabetologists all over the city, and last weekend I interviewed two potential research assistants. They were both great, but the one who was available during the week is a man (the other is only available on the weekend). He's extremely qualified for the job, however, so I am considering hiring him, even though I'm a bit concerned about the gender thing. I'll be working solely with female patients and asking them some very personal questions, so I worry that they may not be as forthcoming if there is a man around. Sigh. I am keeping my fingers crossed that someone else may emerge from the tangled web of contacts through which I've been trying to find an RA. We'll see.
Last night I had dinner at Subway. I never eat Subway in America, but it tasted so amazingly good. I felt guilty somehow, though--like I was copping out of the 'real' India. Then again, I have to remind myself that 'real' Delhiites eat Subway all the time....
Okay, off to get those tickets and meet with a couple of doctors. More soon!
Dave's not in right now
We think he's somewhere in here.....
but more likely is hanging with his new friends in a setting more akin to this
He's informed us he'll update the blog with first hand breaking news and photos at his earliest convenience, but people shouldn't expect anything for at the very least one week.
Ate logo,
Dave's computer
but more likely is hanging with his new friends in a setting more akin to this
He's informed us he'll update the blog with first hand breaking news and photos at his earliest convenience, but people shouldn't expect anything for at the very least one week.
Ate logo,
Dave's computer
The offending "pudding"
Now, to be fair (to me), it looked much more pudding like yesterday (see a few posts ago).....perhaps it was that yesterday's was more melted in consistency...VOMIT!
When in Amazonia...
Do as the Amazonians do, or did, at least a few of the very rich ones did(in the late 19/early 20th centuries){wow, talk about some caveats}. Starting tomorrow I'll be doing what the many more of them (the landless and generally poorer peasants) are doing these days, and have been doing since the Amazon was characterized as "A Land without Men for Men without Land" (sic) ((a great future paper title)) by the Brazilian Agriculture and Colonization organization in the 1970s (((remember I told you this blog would be somewhat educational))).
Anyways, per that tangential introduction, I am staying, currently, in the renovated mansion of an Amazonian rubber baron (Amazonia was the epicenter of the rubber book prior to World War 2, when Malaysia took over as a cheap source)
It's a beautiful house, as one might get an idea from these not so great photos...
it's a little hard to get a sense of the scale here, but the ceiling is probably close to 25 feet high (those things in the right are knee high trash cans). It's really an amazing place with gorgeous wood floors (no doubt carved out of what was an even closer Amazonian forest a hundred plus years ago. The place has all sorts of interesting details, such as these wooden windows:
but there are some pretty shady characters here, such as this one individual, who is pretty sad that his female hostel companion is on a far distant shore...
So enough about the hostel, the city it's in, Belem, is quite interesting: founding in the 1600's, it has a mix of colonial and very decrepit modern architecture, actually most of it is decrepit regardless of whether it's 400 or 4 years old, which I'm not sure bodes well...but one thing that is looking quite vivacious is the greenery.
These are giant mango trees that line the road in front of the hostel (no, unfortunately there are no mangoes on them now, although if they were ripe they'd be falling on me, which is a liability, so it's good I guess their not)
The trees here are just, well, what one (might) imagine of the Amazon, covered in bromeliads and lianas (a fancy word for vines).
Aside from the greenery, the city itself is quite nice; for those of us not so geographically inclined, Belem is located on the mouth of the Amazon (i.e. where it flows out into the ocean, not where it starts). Here's a photo of me by the river with the daily storm a-brewing in the background (do I really look this ridiculous, or is it a function of the lens...)
also, there's always time for a dip in ye ole amazon (for those who are braver {read younger and stupider than yours truly)
Aside from the riverfront which has "benefited" from a massive redevelopment scheme, and of which I have benefited from its fine new restaurants...
there are also the beautiful colonial buildings I mentioned earlier....
anyways, well i think that's it for today's blog entry, i hope that wasn't too many photos, i thought it easier for the reader to have them embedded in the blog rather than putting a link to snapfish/picassa where they'd be decontextualized, if you don't like it like this, however, just let me know! I aim to please. Ok, so off to visit a "zoological park" and then to a meeting with remote sensing folks from EMBRAPA! Ate logo!
Anyways, per that tangential introduction, I am staying, currently, in the renovated mansion of an Amazonian rubber baron (Amazonia was the epicenter of the rubber book prior to World War 2, when Malaysia took over as a cheap source)
It's a beautiful house, as one might get an idea from these not so great photos...
it's a little hard to get a sense of the scale here, but the ceiling is probably close to 25 feet high (those things in the right are knee high trash cans). It's really an amazing place with gorgeous wood floors (no doubt carved out of what was an even closer Amazonian forest a hundred plus years ago. The place has all sorts of interesting details, such as these wooden windows:
but there are some pretty shady characters here, such as this one individual, who is pretty sad that his female hostel companion is on a far distant shore...
So enough about the hostel, the city it's in, Belem, is quite interesting: founding in the 1600's, it has a mix of colonial and very decrepit modern architecture, actually most of it is decrepit regardless of whether it's 400 or 4 years old, which I'm not sure bodes well...but one thing that is looking quite vivacious is the greenery.
These are giant mango trees that line the road in front of the hostel (no, unfortunately there are no mangoes on them now, although if they were ripe they'd be falling on me, which is a liability, so it's good I guess their not)
The trees here are just, well, what one (might) imagine of the Amazon, covered in bromeliads and lianas (a fancy word for vines).
Aside from the greenery, the city itself is quite nice; for those of us not so geographically inclined, Belem is located on the mouth of the Amazon (i.e. where it flows out into the ocean, not where it starts). Here's a photo of me by the river with the daily storm a-brewing in the background (do I really look this ridiculous, or is it a function of the lens...)
also, there's always time for a dip in ye ole amazon (for those who are braver {read younger and stupider than yours truly)
Aside from the riverfront which has "benefited" from a massive redevelopment scheme, and of which I have benefited from its fine new restaurants...
there are also the beautiful colonial buildings I mentioned earlier....
anyways, well i think that's it for today's blog entry, i hope that wasn't too many photos, i thought it easier for the reader to have them embedded in the blog rather than putting a link to snapfish/picassa where they'd be decontextualized, if you don't like it like this, however, just let me know! I aim to please. Ok, so off to visit a "zoological park" and then to a meeting with remote sensing folks from EMBRAPA! Ate logo!
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