El Gusano

I arrived in El Gusano last night and already today Adriana, Shaw, Ian, and some of the women and I went into the town of Dolores Hildalgo to get a few things, which is why I ended up in an internet cafe. So El Gusano is completely desolate. There´s a long dirt road that runs through the community. I arrived last night to all the kids hanging out and playing basketball by the school and started to meet everyone and hear tons of new names which I´m so gonna have to write down. I´m staying with this girl Maria and her family which includes her mom, sisters, brother, uncle, and lots of cousins. Their property has a big cement wall around it with different buildings for the bathroom, the kitchen, and different rooms, so there´s a lot of open space in the middle. I´m staying with them because they are one of the 2 houses with a bathroom. There´s no sink though, or shower. So this will be interesting. Once you use the bathroom you have to put water in the toilet to flush it. I asked Teresa, the 10 year old girl there, where I was supposed to brush my teeth and she pointed to the side of the little courtyard. Then I asked where I spit and she said just on the ground. So that´s how super baller my hygiene is, at least there´s water, that´s all I´m sayin. I have my own room and a double bed and it´s pretty nice, but I woke up this morning with little mysterious bites on my legs. Looks like I´ll be using bug spray before I go to bed.

This morning in the city, I got some yummy fruit for breakfast, which Shaw heavily advised against and said I´d be sorry later, but it was fruit that had peels so I should be fine. I haven´t taken any pictures really yet, I´m first trying to get to know as many people as I can right now. That´s all. Take care everyone!

24 hours into the trip

So I´ve been in Mexico for 24 hrs now and have already had quite an adventure. Yesterday evening Kaitlin, a girl who is interning here from Chicago and is staying with Adriana, has been here just over a week so she showed me around the town. It´s a lovely place here with lots of big plazas where people of all ages hang out and sell goods and listen to music. There was this one huge fountain that spouts water along with the beat of the music. Last night the music there reminded me of Disney songs. Muy interesante. Kaitlin and I bought big smoothies and sat in the plaza, the only 2 gringos in sight.

Today I accompanied Adriana to a meeting with a wide range of people from University profesor to people running social businesses and other community organizations. It was hosted at a hotel by a group that helps advise the state government as to the actions they should take to benefit the community. So they hosted all these people as a sort of screening of the community needs. We each had a keyboard in front of us and they asked us to type suggestions as to what we thought the state government should do in the upcoming 3 years, classified them into several different groups like education and or sustainability, and then voted our our top choices in each category. Afterwards, I went with Adriana to a brief meeting with 2 people who are working with her to investigate the depression that many women face in these communities that are hit heavy by migration. Then we drove into the actual city of Guanjuato to stop by an organization that gives grants for projects like this research one so she could say hi to the people who make these decisions (good move, since it´s all about showing up, my dad used to tell me). The city was gorgeous! All cobblestone, narrow roads, beautiful old plazas with lots of trees situated between tall, colorful houses and businesses, withe the whole community embedded in the side of the mountains. We drove through these great stone tunnels that are very unlike those in the states. These are all the natural stone on the inside and have a few lights and not only go straight but turn every which way, with people parking on the side. It was just like a normal street, but underground.

I´ll leave in just a few minutes to go to El Gusano where I will be spending most of my time here. I will also go to 3 other communities for about 3 days each to photograph there as well, but El Gusano is the focus. I will be with Ian and Shaw the whole time (now you can breathe freely, parents) and supposedly I even get to stay in a house that has a bathroom! I can´t wait to see the guys and hear about their adventures thus far, and I especially cant wait to meet the people of El Gusano. It has been a semester building up to this. Even though I dont know them yet, I have so much hope in their capacity to love and I think they have a message to teach the world and hopefully my work will be able to provide an outlet. Adriana and I are both dreamers, so putting us in a car together, we came up with some tight ideas for ways we can use photography to teach in the states and raise money for la Fundacion and El Gusano.

Time to go. I´ll hopefully get internet connection around the 2 or 3 of June, so look for more updates then. Much love, and keep dreaming big and loving recklessly!

Irapuato

It´s time to bring back this blog, although Im not sure how lively it will be or how often I can update because my internet access will be pretty inconsistent. Anyways, Travel was fine. I did a lot of reading and writing and thinking which was fabulous and now Im at Adrianas house, the woman who runs FCB (fcb.org). Her place is lovely colorful and enormous! Shaw and Ian are already in El Gusano, and I will go to meet them tomorrow morning. I can hardly believe it! I confronted a lot of my fears and insecurities on the way over here, just trying to tell them that they are irrational and have no place with me. So I wrote about 12 pages in my journal about liberation. What it means, how God liberates people, how people liberate people, and if and how Mexico can liberate itself. This was all provoked by Jesus for President, a book I{m reading that is coauthored by Shane Claiborne and Chris Hay. Im completely wiped. I slept for 1.5 hrs last night. I guess that could classify as a siesta. Hopefully I can get a nap in before dinner. Hopefully dinner is soon, tengo hambre!

Please email me and let me know how youre doing and what youre up to and ill try to get back to you if i can. time to go rest up. many blessings to you all!