El Norte

Today it rained in San Cristobal. Nothing like Vancouver rain. They call it el norte, like it shouldn't even be here. Like a stranger who came to visit. It is a thick soggy mist that saturates everything in its path. And now, luckily, it went back to the north where it came from.

The weather did not interfere with a wonderful day's work. From 10am until 3pm, I was with the women of FOMMA, an indigenous Mayan women's group. They do theatre & are keen to learn more. We did 2 hours of physical exercise & then made masks.

I put the women through several long stretches, some cat & cow, rhythmic name games & taught the Dance of Life. I finished off my first hour with a great aerobic session & a lap sit. We laughed, stretched & sweated together. After that we made two half masks on the faces of two of the women. On Tuesday I will return & we will put elastic on the masks & paint them. We will probably make a few more also.

I have spoken nothing but Spanish today. The immersion is really helping my language acquisition. Last evening my friend Luix translated all the words that I would need for today's class. Each day I am learning a bunch of new words & I think even the grammar is slowly sinking in. Six months & I would be fluent. Alas I will only be here another three weeks, but I am trying to fit in as much Spanish as possible.

Tomorrow I am teaching a group of afterschool daycare teachers. It will be more language & more laughing. The people of Chiapas are warm & friendly. And a lot of them are in a similar situation to me, in that Spanish is not their mother tongue. For instance, the women I worked with today grew up speaking a Mayan language.

Tonight a bunch of us are cooking together at Luix's house. It is American Thanksgiving. I have invited Yakira to come to dinner with us. We will have chicken & chorizo. I have a lot to be thankful for, outside of the state of America. There is a lot of graffiti on the walls here that is anti-Bush. These Chiapecans, they are smarter than all of those American idiots who voted for the moron who sits in the White House. I will be most thankful when that regime is over.

If all of the Democrats & lawyers are content taking the legal route to throw the jerk out of the Presidency, it will take all four years & who knows how many more lives until it gets to court, & then the supreme court judges are all Bush butt-kissers, so it won't do any good anyway. Do the world a favor and take a lesson from the Zapatistas. Viva Zapata!