September 24, 2007

Update on my Living Situation

After not posting for several months, I know it might seem strange for me to post two updates back to back. But fortunately for me, things have taken a turn for the best and I have finally found a place where I like the living situation. I've struggled with my living situation for the past month and a half. So far I've lived in a Hotel, a family home (where about 12 people shared the same house and what I would like to call my closest experience with prison), and now an apartment. Luckily, I think I've finally found what I will call home for the next three months. The funny thing is that my living space has gotten progressively larger and while my costs have done the opposite. As of last Friday I've been living in a giant apartment with my own room, personal bathroom, high speed internet, and utilities included for the low, low price of $100/month. Yes you're eyes are not mistaken $100/month! Best of all I have an awesome view of the city and access to most of the cool places to hang out.

The Reason I'm writing this Blog

Besides trying to update my friends and family about my living situation and life for the past month and a half of almost complete solitude I wanted to write this blog to tell anyone who reads it that I love and miss you all.

Now you may ask – "Why the hell is Eddie being so sentimental? – He's usually not like this".

It's not that I'm sentimental; I just wanted to reflect on something that I learned last night. The only thing that separates life from death is a simple breath of air. In that last second between the tangible and intangible, you end up exhaling that which is most valuable, life.

Last night, a friend that I met while in the semi-prison situation called me. She told me that if I could do her a big favor and escort her to the hospital a few minutes away. I agreed since it was past 10:00 pm and I was in a Taxi on my way home from the movies. When I arrived she told me her cousin had just past away and she needed someone to go with her to the hospital since, aside from her aunt, she was the only family he had in Cali. When we arrived the hospital was a complete chaos. Before we went in through the emergency ward they brought in a man with several gun shot wounds. I didn't even want to look.

As we started walking in we started to see anything you would imagine you would see in a third world hospital and more. In the doorway before we entered the building stood a lady covered in somebody else's blood, it could have been that of her child, husband, or brother, who knows. As we made it into the building we started to see more and more people, some with bandages and others with patches in their eyes. This was no military hospital; this is what is seen in the Cali hospital everyday. As we walked up the stairs to the second floor where she said her cousin was, I felt a small relief knowing that I didn't have to see any of the people in the emergency ward. Then I saw something unexpected. In the middle of the second floor lobby, lying on a stretcher lay the body of her 18 year old cousin. His body was still warm; he had died a little over an hour before we arrived. Beside him lay the frail body of an elderly man, also recently deceased. Christian's body was swollen from his disease, Lupus Erythematosus, he had been struggling with it since the age of 15.

Due to his illness, his cells had practically destroyed his kidneys which caused him to retain massive amounts of fluids. His feet were swollen out of proportion as was the rest of his body from the torso down. Due to this swelling, the only way to provide him with any type of intravenous medication was through his jugular. Several minutes after we arrived we noticed the body was releasing fluids through the small cavity on his neck. None of the nurses did anything. Aside from being a health risk, it seemed so callous for any nurse to ignore someone even if they're dead. Unfortunately, things went on as business as usual in the hospital. I got home at about 2 am.

This got me thinking. If someone who has family here is treated that way after their death, what of those without any one to look after them. I started thinking about the way they would treat my body if it was me on the stretcher. What if I got shot and mugged left with no cell phone or wallet to identify my body, and nobody to claim it. I look like the everyday Colombian; no one would know I'm a foreigner.

This is why I would like to tell anyone who is near to me that I love and miss every one of you. I know I don't say that enough. So, enjoy every breath in this life while you have it, don't fear death, and love your family and friends, I do.

A Much Needed Update

First Week in Cali, Colombia

Tomorrow will mark my first week in Colombia. It's been great since the beginning. My first day in Colombia was Thursday August 9, 2007. It was by far the longest travel day of my life. It started at about 2 am and did not end until about 10 pm. The rest of the days have been a mix of getting to know the local culture, politics, and the city in general. Cali, Colombia is a beautiful city, it has some humidity and most homes don't have hot water, but besides that I can say that it has been a great experience so far.

August 15, 2007 – Government Outsourcing to local NGOs

Today marked my first field day. We traveled to the town of Bolivar, located in the northern part of the Valle de Cauca, about 3 hours north of Cali. Since today seemed to mark a day of firsts, I was also introduced for the first time to the "Chiva", a traditional bus used in the rural areas of Colombia. It's very colorful, as most things are in this part of the world, and you would not be surprised to see passengers riding on the roof of the bus holding a few vegetables or even chickens. Fortunately for me the roads in this part of Colombia match or even surpass those in the United States, the same can't be said about the busses. The trip was very enjoyable, the scenery was spectacular, and it really gave me a feel of the real Colombia. Most of the ride was filled with large sugar cane plantations; every now and then we were able to come across some papaya and tomato crops. It's surprising how mechanized agriculture is in these parts of Colombia.

Our main goal for the day was to see a community recycling project being put in place by a local environmental NGO called Eco-Futuro. The recycling center was very rudimentary but was able to keep the small town and the surrounding community very clean, in total the municipality had no more than 20,000 inhabitants. It also served as the local garbage collection center. All of the refuse was collected and taken there to be sorted and properly disposed. It was amazing to see how much work goes into a small venture such as this and even more surprising to see the great benefit this relatively small project can provide. Most of the garbage was recycled and sold to keep the small enterprise running. Green waste was made into very high quality compost sold to local farmers and recyclables were sold to different companies who buy the waste products.

It's an excellent model with only a few problems. Of course what makes the volunteers life difficult is the apathy of the local community towards recycling. Since the recycling project is kept alive through the NGOs funds and any profit made from the sales, the project is in financial troubles. However, the local management knows these problems can be resolved by simply charging the local community $3,000 pesos a month; don't be alarmed that's only about $1.50. The extra revenues would help pay the workers a living wage and provide some medical benefits. In addition, the windfall profits would also be used to benefit the local community since it's a locally organized NGO with full transparency. It was made very clear to us that the NGOs administration had no intention in using the money for other activities besides helping the environment of the surrounding community.

As a result of this project, the local government was able to brag to other municipalities that their surrounding area was maintained clean simply by outsourcing the task to a non profit. Since the non profit was in it for the environmental and not the financial gains the local government was able to provide a basic service to a community, at almost no cost to itself, it simply had to provide the land for the plant to operate. The local government will soon have to start charging the surrounding communities the small fee to maintain the service however, it will be a fraction of the cost of a private company.

August 28, 2007 – Proyecto de Acercamiento y Participación Ciudadana

For the past few days I have been developing a work program for the project I will be involved with while in Colombia. I am in charge of developing a proposal that would eventually help engender citizen participation in the local political process. I have found it difficult to come up with innovative ideas as to how I will go about in doing this. Luckily I have met some very bright people, one of them being Victor Hugo who has an M.A. degree in Public Policy and is currently teaching a very interesting course on Colombia's historical political problems. The idea that we are currently working on is to develop a mechanism that would engender citizen participation in the local political process. This will be achieved through an education program that will teach the members of local grassroots organizations about their basic political rights. We will also be analyzing the grassroots organizations basic organizational structure, since many organizations may be demanding from their local government what they themselves do not adhere to, democracy.

So far I think my first few weeks here in Colombia have been an excellent experience. I've found it very easy to blend in to the local culture, most people see me as Mexican and not American, I finally found a place where being Mexican is a social advantage. Most people introduce me as "This is my friend from Mexico" and in fact, most of my friends call me something that includes the word Mexican; here they are in no particular order: Mexican Power, Eddie the Mexican, and Mexican Boy. I find it very interesting how Mexico has a very interesting cultural influence on the Colombian people. Most people here know of popular Mexican T.V. shows and movies while most people in Mexico know nothing about Colombia aside from Pablo Escobar and cocaine.

September 5, 2007 – Trip to Combia

Background

After being in Colombia for almost a month I have learned a lot about the political and social situations that grip and tear this beautiful country apart. Aside from the very obvious and ever-present conflict between the government, the FARC and the AUC, the Colombia countryside is filled with many other problems not linked to the military conflict. The problem of landless peasants, evident throughout Latin America, is exacerbated here in Colombia. This is the direct result of many historical problems; however the social situation of many of these landless peasants is also the direct result of more recent events, such as the military occupation of their lands.

ASOCOMBIA – Asociación Campesina Agroecológica de Combia

Today I was fortunate enough to travel into an area where there has been heavy FARC activity over recent years. I visited an association of farmers from the Combia community, about 2 hours west of Palmira. One interesting thing I noticed as soon as I started talking to the people in the community was that many families often have less than half a hectare to cultivate the crops they sell in the local markets. To add insult to injury, most of the small farmers have some of the worst land in the country. It's not rare to see tomato being cultivated in a 30 to 45 degree inclines. The creation of ASOCOMBIA is a direct response to the problems being encountered by the local farmers. They mentioned that the area around their village is controlled by five families, one which has over 6,000 hectares of land throughout the region. This has forced them to cultivate their crops in the most marginal lands available in the area, while the landed families use most of the land for cattle grazing, vastly undermining the lands potential.

The community organization was created nearly a year ago in order to create a mechanism where the families from the Combia region could commercialize their products in the local market. However, in order to gain more market leverage ASOCOMBIA joined three other organizations in the region and created a second level entity called COARA – Campesinos Organizados Ambientalistas del Río Amaime (roughly translated to Organized Environmentalist Farmers of the Amaime River) in order to generate greater benefits for their communities.

Political Awareness

The reason for my trip to Combia was to create a political diagnostic of ASOCOMBIA's members. I am involved in a project that requires me to create a political profile of organizations in the Valle del Cauca region. Once the political profile is created, I will put together a plan of action where I will train the members of the community organizations in basic government functions and methods and eventually create a politically active member of the local community.

The First Week in Mexico

Okay, so this is the first official blog entry for my blog. I think I overestimated the availability of internet connections in Mexico. I've found it very hard to get connected even when I go out into town since I'm always so busy. In any case, I'm going to try my best to recall my adventures thus far. Here goes.

Arrival at Guadalajara

I left the United States at 1:30 am California time and arrived at 6:30 am local time (Guadalajara). I had never been to Guadalajara before; I found it to be more chaotic than any other city I've ever visited. As soon as I got out of the plane things were very different than they are back in the states, people looking to make a quick buck ask you if you need them to carry your luggage or for them to hail a taxi, it's very different. I picked up my bag from the carrousel no problem, the problem I had was when I found my way to the front of the terminal and left the secure confines of the airport. The first item on the list was to get a hold of some Mexican Pesos and that was fairly easy since the same place I bought a taxi ride also exchanged dollars for pesos. It all happened so fast that I could have easily been jipped, to tell you the truth I didn't even know the exchange rate. I knew it was somewhere around 10 to 1, who knows. The next thing I knew a short man had my suitcase and hauled it into a taxi cab. He then asked for a tip, I complied, I gave him a dollar.

The cab ride to the central bus station was pleasing. I found the cabbie to be very pleasant. At first it was kind of awkward being in there, but then we started to talk about the local soccer team, which also happens to be my favorite team, Chivas. After that, he went on about the transfer of some players and how he owns season tickets. Meanwhile, as we drove by the city the smell of smog was overwhelming. Some of the streets where in desperate need of repair and from the large crowds gathered at the different bus stops it seemed like most people where using public transportation. Finally, I arrived at the bus terminal.

The bus terminal was very clean and could be something you find in the United States. It was very easy to buy a ticket and it had a very nice waiting area with couches and a cafeteria near by. Since I arrived so early I had to wait several hours before the busses started to run. I bought a ticket for the first bus to Jerez, Zacatecas. It was very cheap, about 18 dollars for a 6 hour ride in a nice bus. I sat next to an old lady who was visiting some family in Guadalajara. She was very nice and we had a great conversation for almost the entire trip. The only time our conversation was interrupted was when the bus driver sped up on the curves. These weren't ordinary curves. The curves I'm talking about where all missing a guard rail and the drop was at least 3 to 4 hundred feet down, for a while I thought I wasn't going to make it to see my family. Thankfully the scenery was so beautiful that it calmed my nerves just by looking at it. It reminded me of the California central coast near San Luis Obispo, without the ocean. There were rolling hills lush with grass and high cliffs that literally took my breath away. I knew we where starting to get into the Mexico I remembered from my childhood.

Jerez, Zacatecas

My uncle picked me up when I arrived in Jerez at about 3:30 local time. The first thing I noticed was that he was playing Tim McGraw on his stereo, maybe to make my arrival more pleasing or maybe because people in Jerez love bull riding and country music. He knows I don't really listen to country so I think it was the latter. In any case, it was a pleasant surprise. The first thing I did was ask him if he could take me to get some tacos, I hadn't eaten in about 15 hours and I was starving. I don't know why, but the tacos in Mexico are so much better than those you find in the United States. When I arrived at my village, I went and said hi to my family. As I walked around people I didn't know said hi to me. I guess the Mendoza face is a dead giveaway. "You where this little when I last saw you" "How are your mom and dad doing?" "It's so nice of you to come and visit" where some of the questions and comments I encountered. It felt great, I felt like I was home. After a few beers with my uncle I went to bed and got ready for the next day.

The next few days where just like any other day. Everything is so quiet out in the village. I had some great conversations with my grandpa while we worked out in the house. He told me that our family has been living in our village for at least 150 years, but more for sure. If that's not my ancestral homeland I don't know what is. He told me about the great mineral wealth that we have in our mountains. He said he found a vain of phosphorous and iron near by but that he never went and told the government officials since they would surely come and exploit it, as soon as we have time he's going to show me where its at, I'll take my camera. He said that the village land also has deer, mountain lions, wild boar (javali), and lynx. I'm not sure if I want to come head to head with any of the last three on that list.

The trip so far has been amazing. My family is very accommodating and so nice to talk to. I love having my grandma and grandpa there to ask them questions about any thing. It's so good to have them there whenever I need them. I'm going to try to make up for all of the lost time.

Cali Colombia?

Okay so I just finished packing. I'm moving out of I.V. and getting ready to head back to Delano. I'll probably be there for a week before I get going on my internship plans. I think things are starting to look like I'll end up working in Cali, Colombia. If you don't know where Cali, Colombia is but the name of the city still sounds familiar that's because you might have heard of it in the news. A little more than a decade ago Cali was home to the very powerful Cali Cartel who rivaled that of Pablo Escobar from the Medellin Cartel. They have since disbanded and lost power to smaller drug cartels but I'm sure some of their criminal structures still remain.

I have to admit it, I'm kind of nervous. If I do get to go to Cali I'm sure I won't be living in the barrio or anything, but the idea of crime does scare me. In spite of that I'm not really that worried; I'm more excited for the adventures that I'm going to have. I'm still not sure when I will be flying out but it should be within the next few weeks, that will give me time to hang out with the family and catch up on some R&R.

I guess it's all slowly starting to hit me. I'm not going to be in the country for at least 5 months. This will be the first time I will be out of the United States for a period longer than two weeks since I was 4. It will also be my first time leaving the North American continent and traveling to South America. I guess it comes to show you that I am finally achieving my goals. I've always wanted to travel since I was a little kid. I guess its time to fulfill my dream.

The Waiting Game

So here I am again, trying to get used to keeping an updated blog. I was never a fan of writing in journals when I was younger. Miss Witty, my 8^th grade teacher, used to have us keep a journal in class. I have to say that going back and reading all the nonsense I wrote is very amusing, especially when I feel like going back and reminiscing about times past. I’m hoping that keeping this blog will eventually pay off when I look back at what I am doing right now.

Anyway, back to what I was supposed to be talking about, my internship. A few days ago I wrote about how I told my boss that I needed to know what I was going to be doing as soon as possible, he complied. The next day, I got a phone from my boss and one of the network representatives. They asked me exactly what I wanted to do and what jobs I could probably end up doing while abroad. They told me that I would essentially continue to do the training sessions with the clients and that I could probably get a very good idea about what the network does if they placed me in their central offices. I was very happy. The RedEAmérica central offices are in Bogotá, Colombia.

Nothing is set in stone as of yet, but, once we agreed on what I was willing to do the network representative got busy on writing a draft letter to the Colombian office. Within hours I had a draft letter ready for me to translate. I translated it as soon as I could and sent it off this morning. Know all I have to do is play the waiting game.

Aside from the more concrete position in Bogota, which would not pay me by the way, there is also an offer from Brazil. I think I mentioned that in my other post. Anyway, since the network that I will be working with is based out of Latin America, there are also offices in Sao Paolo, Brazil. He said he mentioned the idea to the current RedEAmérica representative there and that he was going to relay the idea to the directors. There may be a better chance of me getting some kind of funding for the Brazilian trip, which is a big positive. However, I speak no Portuguese and it would be difficult to pick up without any formal training in the language. That’s not to say that I would back down from the challenge, but still.

Now, like I said earlier, I have to play the waiting game. I should have some more information by tomorrow morning when I open my e-mail inbox, or so I hope. There is no telling with them. As soon as I hear word as to where I am going to end up, I’m going to have to start looking for a place to stay and figure out a way to pay for all of this. If you did not know, flights to South America do not come cheap. I’m looking at $700 at least and about $1,000 at most, one way. I’m sure I’ll figure it out. All I know is that since I am not going to be in school, I won’t be getting any loans. That means living off of savings and work. I’m also probably going to ask my mom and dad for some money, I helped them out in the summer and now it seems like the right time for them to help me out. Overall, I think I can come up with about $5,000 to start off. As soon as I am there I will be working and making money from there on should not be that much of a problem. If one thing is in my favor is the exchange rate. I can probably get a single person studio for about $300 per month. That’s not bad considering I’m paying $400 to share a room right now. Okay, that’s all for right now. I will try to update the blog as soon as I get word of where I will be working.

The Mañana Syndrome

At the request of Megan Horejsi, it is time for me to update this blog. The reason for not having updated was that I literally just found out new information about my internship a few days ago. I had been waiting for an e-mail with a complete internship description for over a month, but every time I checked my e-mail there was nothing. I was literally just torturing myself. I guess I can’t complain I am going to be working in Latin America a place famous for its ‘mañana’ syndrome.

Anyway, last Thursday I finally got an e-mail from Jack Kerry, my boss. Here he tried his best to explain my internship position; it was obvious he was making it up as he went along. What was included in the proposal was nothing new, all stuff you can literally get off his website. However, what was important was that he finally got to it, and I finally had a concrete idea about his intentions for me this summer. The proposal essentially said that my tasks will not be any different from the ones I currently have. This really surprised me, because I have to write a 60 to 80 page thesis on my internship experiences. Quite frankly, I don’t think what I am currently doing right now is suited for the development of an 80 page Masters thesis.

So after thinking about the internship proposal this weekend, I decided to call my boss. When I got a hold of him I let him know what was going on and how I had just learned from my professors about the thesis. I told him that I was not happy with the proposal. I let him know that I would not want to do the job if he expected me to do any part of my internship from the confines of my home in Delano. Not that I don’t like being around my family or anything, but this is supposed to be an internship abroad and the way I projected this proposal evolving was with me stuck in Delano waiting for him to fly me to DC for a few weeks and maybe Colombia for a few days if I got lucky. I let him know that I am willing to pay for my own flight to South America if it means that I will get to work at the ground level, not from my home in Delano.

He went on to tell me that he had been thinking about sending me to Brasilia, Brazil with one of the Inter America Foundation representatives working with the Brazilian RedEAmérica, that actually sounded pretty cool, but who knows. I told him that I really can’t stay in California for any length of time. I will be finishing school in about 3 weeks and I need to know where I will be living. I need a definitive date so that I can buy a plane ticket to who knows where and even find an apartment since I will probably be living there for an extended period of time.

So I guess at this point I still don’t know where I will be living or going to in the next month. It’s getting close for me to finish school and I still have a lot of things I haven’t prepared for. I’m really worried since I don’t know anything about my own future and that makes me very uneasy. Jack said he would be getting back to me tomorrow after talking to one of the guys from RedEAmérica, maybe then I can get some more concrete information about what I will be doing during the next 6 months.

Waiting for News on my Internship

So, I decided that this will be the official blog for my upcoming internship. I'm new to the blog world, but it seems like there is nothing wrong with writing your thoughts down for people to see. I find it easier to write here than a journal, maybe its the fact that I hate handwriting and find it much easier to type everything, anyway enough of that.

Back to the internship, I am currently enrolled in a Masters program at UC Santa Barbara which requires a six month internship abroad. Many of my classmates are just now finalizing their internship arrangements. Some will be traveling to Europe, others to Asia, DC and who knows where else. I am not sure if anyone but me will be making a trip to Latin America, but I am very excited to have this opportunity. The idea of traveling to far off lands where people have a better grasp on what it means to be human is very intriguing. Not that people in America don't have a sense of humanity, they do, however I feel that much is lost in the 9-5 world that we live here. We have been desensitized to nature, and in a way to our own humanity. Through this internship I hope to gain some of that lost humanity back.

Unfortunately for me, my boss who is supposed to set up my internship arrangement is lagging on his offer. So far he has told me that he would help me get an internship if I work for him during my six months off school. I hesitantly agreed, many of you know that this is the very same man who told me that he was going to send me to Colombia, Ecuador, and Argentina last summer and ended up reneging his invitation. This was an embarrassing set of events for me since I told many people about the trip that never ended up happening. To this day, people still ask me how my trip to South America went. I learned a valuable lesson. I will no longer say any of my future plans to any of my friends. If they want to know about them, they are just going to have to read them here.

So, here I am, this is going to be the first installment of my many adventures. I am about two months away from heading to I don't know where. Mr. Kerry (my boss) has not answered an e-mail that I sent him specifically for him to tell me what my internship will entail. What will I be doing? Where will I live? How long will I be there? How much will my salary be? These are just some of the questions I have asked him; he hasn't answered any of them. At this moment I am starting to get concerned with my precarious situation. From my current understanding, If I don't get an internship, my thesis will be very difficult to write, since it should be based on my experiences there.

What I am hoping that come out of this internship is a better understanding of the Third Sector. I am thinking of pursuing a career in the non-profit world, or perhaps in the Foreign Service, this trip should help me make up my mind. So, I guess I have a lot riding on it. Anyway, the best case scenario is one where I will be able to travel to different foundations and check out their development projects on the field. I would also like to get some free time, at least a few weeks to visit my family in Mexico. I have not seen them in several years and visiting them would be very exciting. I will try to keep this blog up to date with anything that has to do with this internship experience, which seems to be coming closer and closer.