I will ask everyone on the trip to write a short journal entry, once each, relating whatever we did that day and whatever is on the writer´s mind. Then, I will type and post it here so that you all can stay updated and feel in touch. I will update the website 1 to 3 times a week. As I have been here just a couple of days, I have been keeping the group´s journal and writing short bits about what I have been doing and some of my thoughts. Hopefully, they will offer you all some sense of La Isla and at least get this site going.
Tuesday 5-13-08
It feels great to be back in La Isla. I arrived late last night after a few guys came into Metapan for a futbol game and Cesar gave me a ride back. All asked me how various CFS students that they remembered from the past were doing. All, or almost all, asked me if I had seen the casa comunal (community center that CFS helped with the groundbreaking of). I still havent seen it but with all the hype I have been hearing, it sounds like a point of pride in La Isla. Seeing it will be exciting.
Today is the Dia de La Virgen, a time to appreciate and honor the virgin mother. The exact details are not clear to me but because, as part of it all, La Isla is also celebrating their community saint, there will be mass today with a priest from Metapan coming. Most of the community awoke to fireworks at 0400hrs (I went back to sleep) to sing to the town saint before sun-up. There will be a procession starting at the far end of La Isla (Llano border) where the last house is (our friend Henaro the mason lives there) and ending at the church. It will be nice to see everyone and confirm host families.
The economy is way down here right now. Lupe, my host mother (the aunt of my friend Yesenia), told me that they have had to change their diet. Gas is over $4.00 a gallon now and everyone seems to be paying. Cesar was concerned host families would be hard to find but I asked him to reasssure families that we would contribute financially - and more so than in the past. I will tell families the same. It is hard, sad really, for me to see the economy tanking like this. In Metapan yesterday, when I was arranging a shuttle from the airport, the line at the remittances (remesas) window of the banks was nearly two blocks long. This suggests that the economy here is increasingly dependent on exterior funds, suggesting little self reliance and decreasing potental for it - at least on a national scale.
Education really seems the only systemic way out of this cycle and La Isla - in all its progressive wisdom (in no small part thanks to Cesar) - is ready to increase efforts in that way. They are looking into bringing internet here, the school will be teaching English, a ride has been arranged for students wishing to take computer classes on Friday in Metapan, and there is talk of raising money to buy computers. Night classes are being offered to adults. Very impressive.
Wednesday 5-14-08
Yesterdays celebration was nice. The Virgin Mother has appeared various times throughout history. One such time was in Fatima, Portugal on the 13th of May, hace muchos muchos anos (many many years ago). She is called La Virgen de Fatima and she is the patron saint of La Isla - the manifestation of the virgin mother that this community has chosen to pay collective homage to and to whom they communally pray as their (La Isla´s) mediator to God. The ceremony was nice and very lively with much singing. The inside of La Isla´s church is so much nicer than I had first imagined it could ever be. Seeing it complete was inspiring - a true testimony to the unity and communal efforts of the La Isla community.
In fact, the whole community´s central area is just a wonder. They have done so much - a basketball court, the church, a gorgeous (beyond everyone´s expectations) community center and a rodeo - now with covered bleachers. I am so touched to have been here when it was just getting underway, and so impressed by the progress. Cesar says the Gringos (referring to CFS) really helped to get things moving. I am so glad.
I went to Metapan today. The city was prettier than I remembered it - the mountains surrounding it higeher and greener than I had remembered. I visited Tio Lucio and his family there (Cesar´s brother, Yesenia´s uncle). He is looking forward to the Gringos coming and decided to come to the airport with us.
The rest of my day will be spent solidifying host families. They are all so concerned that the Gringos wont like their food. They all want to go to Metapan to buy Corn Flakes for them. No matter how many times I tell them the about CFS students´ appreciation for, and desire to be, here (in La Isla), it wont be self-evident until the students are here and demonstrate it. But that will be soon enough.
Thursday 5-15-08
I secured host families for everyone. Much harder than in years past - not because of any resistance to having Gringo-guests in their houses, perse, but because of various things happening in their personal lives (family lives, really... as ¨personal¨ is a foreign concept here). While it was tough to find families, it was neat to hear about all that is going on in various host families of the past as I went door-to-door trying to lock in the last couple of families.
Engracia and Carlos (Joel and Kiernan´s host family in 2005) now have more cows than they know what to do with (a good thing) but it takes four hours to milk them all in the mornings - even with hired help so making breakfast and even lunch sometimes would be tough. Lucia and Ortilio Hernandez (where Lia Dykes and Lauren Berry stayed in 2005 and Virginia and Caitlin Connor stayed there in 2006) have a new family member as of Tuesday. Their fifteen year old granddaughter, Isabelle, had a baby so the house is bustling with that and not really ready for guests. There are a lot of new babies in La Isla! Jasmina and Johnny - the unmarried couple my age (Banks Clark and Collin stayed there in 2005) wanted to host this year but Johnny´s dad has fallen very ill - incapacitated and bed ridden and Jasmina is feeding, washing and rotating him these days. It is a full time job. Milton and Gaudy (Joel and Gabe in 2006) just had another baby three months ago and their second room is occupied by four homeless guys. Dora (Liz and Sachi 2005 and Ben and Tyler 2006) and Pedro (Sutton and Aidan 2005), the siblings that I always think of as Friends School people somehow, are having a major problem with their water (they dont have any). And Pedro´s wife Bellermina has been sick lately. But, they have agreed to host. Students staying there will need to shower and do what must be flushed elsewhere. I am, nevertheless, thrilled that they will host. They are just extremely special people. Some of the closest relationships that CFS students have formed with familes have been with Dora and Pedro/Bellermina. And one new family will host this year. They have offered the past two years but as their house is somewhat far from the others, I have been hesitant to have anyone have such a long walk. But the quality of their house and their welcoming spirit should more than make up for the walking.
Family has definitely been on my mind today. Bonny (a young woman my age who has spent a lot of time with CFS groups of the past) seems so elated with her baby, Alessandra Paola (everyone calls her Paola). The baby, like Bonny, is stunningly gorgeous with dark, full eyes and a slighlty lighter skin tone that make the eyes stand out all the more. Bonny seems completely alive in her groundedness and mission - raise Paola. She is always smiling. Bonny´s parents (Alison Kibbe´s host family) look younger than before, energized they say by Paola being in the house and the return of their son Arturo, who, after spending five years painting houses in Durham, has returned to La Isla to join his wife, Mirna, in raising their daughter Corina, who has many special needs. They have a new healthy baby, Inmanuel, so the house is a full one with lots of new life, recharging that of the oldest generation. Tia Chepa (the grandmother/mother of the house) baked me a special kind of bread today. So sweet.
I think returning a third time, with two years in between, shows the families what a special place we consider La Isla. With so much pressure to ¨go north¨, to ïmprove¨life, having us come here and praise their families, their connection to the earth, their honest, pure and simple - although far from easy - life is one of the best things that comes of our time here. I know they feel good when we tell them that we want to learn from them. I must remember to continue to tell everyone how gorgeous their family is and what a great job they are doing. Because it is not easy here and yet they are doing a great job with their families.