I killed my first turkey.
That is, me, and the two other gringos living here at Pina Palmera: Al, a slightly obnoxious man in his 40´s whose sole source of knowledge about cooking comes from a book called Fanny Farmer, and my friend Jeff, a vegetarian who has no experience meddling in the lives of animals. I as well did not have any experience in this area, but upon realizing this a little image of Lucia Norris popped into my head saying ¨its a once in a lifetime opportunity!!!¨ And so it goes. Blood, feathers and turkey drippings later we prepared a beautiful thanksgiving meal to share with the community at Pina Palmera. (Side note: we actually saved the feathers to make dream catchers. crafty? yes.) Before eating the meal everyone went around and said one thing they were grateful for, and then, we ate. and sang, and danced, and ate again, alllll through the night.
Friends, I am so grateful that bearcatz sup-sup is in my life and that I have the opportunity to listen (well read, but really I hear all your voices) to all of your beautiful stories! And while I have been listening attentively, I have failed to write anything myself. So here are some stories.
I have been living on the coast of Oaxaca for about 3 months now, volunteering at Pina Palmera - a center for rehabilitation for people with disabilities. My role here? Changes everyday but could involve anything from working in our handicraft store, to chopping things with a machete en la huerta (what a wonderfully satisfying tool) to playing goal ball (a sport invented after WWII for blind war veterans. check it out ) to dancing to U2 with Jose (one of the adults here with autism whose two favorite things in life are cars and U2) and the list goes on.
Overall, life is very tranquillo here and I have grown to be quiet content spending my afternoons simply reading in a hammock or perfecting my sand castle skills at the beach with Elsa. (Fun fact: the beach I am living at is a nudist beach! I haven´t fully taken advantage of this liberty yet, but Elsa and Dana are planning to visit this coming week, in which case we will go WILD!
As far as the spring goes, I am planning to study abroad with a program based out of Chiapas that focuses on social movements throughout Mexico. I`m pretty excited about getting back into the academic scene and learning more about what I think to be some of the most interesting social movements going on in Mexico. My program ends May 2nd in Ciudad Juarez, in which time I plan to return to Oaxaca to visit the people I have been working with here at Pina. Then, travel! I am still planning to dance in Lucia Norris`s kitchen with her mom and eat lots of peanutbutter, so I will have about a month to get over to Ecuador by late May to see her graduate! I encourage and support you all to come!
A word I really like using is spanish is YA. translation: that`s it, enough, no more, YA.
entonces... YA! that´s it for now bearcatz.
Lots of love, feathers and turkey drippings,
HalesWeed
2 comments:
Oh, Hayley, you are a crafty nutter butter. I can't wait to hear more and also...be careful in Ciudad Juarez. I had no idea you were going.
hayley... one of my travelling proffesors, an economist from Oaxaxa, was telling me about Pina Palmera, i told him that i had a friend volenteering there right now and he seemed pretty stoked and in support of the program. thought that was a rad connection. Also i wasnt sure if you were planning on staying in Mexico for the spring semester. Im flying to Mexico a little after the start of March (6th i think) and will be predominatly in Oaxaca and Chiapas, lets be in touch to meet up dude.
timmy
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