two rather strange entries for you today.

a few weeks ago i was heading to the beach and, as you may remember, what takes 45 minutes by car requires 2hrs and three buses for those of vehicularly challenged. and that is like 90% of the population of oaxaca, so ya, anyway. on my way out of ixtepec, the bus stopped to pick up a few people on the side of the road and as most people come into town once a week to buy food, they had huge crates to load onto the bus. as i had no choice but to sit and sweat (a moving bus is a bus with a breeze, the stationary buses stink), i looked out the window to view all the trash that has been deposited recently.

a quick side story, which i mentioned months ago, is that the open window of (moving or not) vehicle is the trash can. there are litterally piles and piles of trash everywhere(i am talking 5ft deep in places). this bothers no one and i watch mothers teach their young kids to finish their flavored water(this is sold on the streets in plastic bags that are spun around and tied in a knot so that the top around fits snugly around a straw) and then toss it out the window. eat your elote (corn on the cob with chile powder seasoning- again sold on every street corner) and chuck it. your walkman´s batteries are spent? you know what to do. it gets depressing to watch after a while. even more so bc i walk home at night and have to walk in the road bc the ditches are filled to the tipping point with garbage. ah, the istmus of tehuantepec. a lovely place.

anyway, i was sitting on the bus staring blankly at the trash piles when i noticed an elderly woman in traditional dress (80% of all women wear traditional zapotec clothing that has been around for hundreds of years) tossing a rock at the wall. my initial thought was, well, clearly she is not as old as i thought if she is tossing a rock around as if playing a game. due to the sun exposure and nature of life without running water or electricity, a 25yr old woman often looks 50. no joke. as i looked closer i noticed something move next to the wall. a pidgeon. maybe she is crazy, i thought. why would she throw rocks, over and over as she missed, at a pidgeon. crazy is also not new to the istmus, but then i finally got it. she was hunting. urban hunting (as much as ixtepec is urban, but that is a debate for another day). this dirty bird was dinner. startling to say the least.

the last little tale is from yesterday. arash, another english prof, and i were walking home, when we saw a military humvee, replete with large machine gun and gunner, zoom by. as ixtepec is home to a unit of the special forces of the mexi military, i took no notice. after the 15th hummer went by, arash and i looked at each. looking back we saw a huge line of military vehicles full of either soldiers or large guns, rolling into ixtepec. we looked at each other blankly for a second. then we thought of the teacher strike- in its 5th week- and realized that they were coming to break up a riot.

we were wrong. they are here to protect the presidential voting event on sunday. question: if the military guards the ballot boxes, are these same people allowed to vote? the military backs a certain party publicly, soooo... at what point does there need to be another group guarding the military from tampering with the ballots?

good morning all. hope you had a lovely weekend, mine was quite good.

as you might have guessed, i am taking the job in puebla. it starts officially on august 2nd, but i will probably be there a day or so early. all my hopes of getting 2wks paid vacation before setting off from this job have been dashed. economically, i understand the uni´s point of view. had i just taken the vacation and then quit my first day back, this was a serious consideration, i would have been docked pay in my final check. thus, i am bailing early. or, i am taking an extended vacation, depends on how you want to look at it. thus, the countdown has begun. i leave two weeks from today! i cannot believe it is really time to go, but i am not going to cry about it either. i will leave here next wednesday, go to puebla and drop off the majority of my belongings (although my dad was the only one to see me leave, you might have guessed i am travelling rather light) with my friend´s family and head down to guatemala. i am excited as you might imagine. lots to see and do, and i will be updating the blog as often as is possible over the time period. i foresee myself in some rural places so it wont be too often but at least once a week, hopefully more.

i have also decided to invest in a new camera. i am looking on ebay right now to find something relatively cheap(i am going for 200 dollars or less), possibly used, but there are literally thousands of cameras, so i am in a bit of a quandry. does anyone have any brands that they do or do not recommend? i am guessing i want a minimum of 5megapixels. does that sound about right? any advice you can give me would be great. i am going to search today and tomorrow for some websites that list consumer reports about digital cams, but if you can give me any ideas about where to look, that would be great. also, if you or your friend has a camera that has been shoddy, let me know the brand and i will avoid it. seriously, any help you can give me would be appreciated.

i am not planning on taking the cam with me on vacation because of time constraints getting it down to mexico, so i am in no serious rush on this. i imagine i will make the purchase in august or so.

hope you are all well. drop a comment when you have a chance, i like hearing from you and for many of you, this is the only way we communicate, so... let me know what´s up!

hello all. i trust the weekend was splendid, passing the time with fathers or males in general. my weekend was good. i went to the beach and relaxed and enjoyed a lazy few days. there must be a storm off the coast because on sunday there were 12foot waves. no one was getting in the water, but i was able to watch from restaurant.

the teacher´s strike is still going on. my sis informs me that the link i provided is now dead. here is another one from the bbc: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5082778.stm as you might guess, the foreign press have a different take on the strike than the local mexi press does. in my opinion, the story is not as good when the bbc tells it. however, unless you read spanish, you will not get the other versions. such is life, right? one more reason we should all learn at least one foreign language, so we can read the news in other parts of the world without a filter.

as of this morning, the teachers are now blocking the major roads in and out of the state capital. this is not new, they have been blocking roads for over a week, but now they have simply removed the barriers so that cars can pass through the toll booths without having to pay. not sure how depriving the govt of funds is going to help them gain an increase in pay, but perhaps this move will garner more attention.

the teachers are also blocking local businesses in the town center. from people i know up there, they say the downtown is a ghost town. stores are barred and gated, no one is walking around, nothing. keep in mind that oaxaca is a huge tourist attraction. thousands of foreigners pass through every week. thus, for nearly one month, the city has lost all its business. i would say the loss in revenue is easily into the millions of dollars at this point. the residents of the capital city are furious at the teachers.

the snte, the teachers union, is the largest and most powerful union in mexico. according to many mexicans, especially oaxaqueños, they are incredibly corrupt and in no way are a positive example. this is unfortunate. as part of the highest paid group of teachers in the state, i am effectively ¨the man¨ in this case. we are also not part of their union. so it goes.

just wanted to update you a bit on the goings on down here. can you imagine richmond, va being blocked for one month? over 1 million children have been out of school for over a month now. parents are freaking out. also, no one will be able to pass into the next grade level because they have missed over a month of school. if they make up this time, then there will be no summer vacation. this is a dangerous game the teachers´ union is playing. the worst part is that the kids are getting screwed. of course, they do not see it that way, but many others do.

if you have any q´s about all this, let me know. i have read varying reports from both sides, but i am personally leaning away from the teacher´s side right now. there is a lot of corruption within the union and it seems like a superficial overview of this issue does not in any way show the truth behind what is actually going on.

on the bright side, i have a job in another state at a private school that starts august 2nd. thus, nothing about this will negatively impact me or my job. if anything, private schools will receive more students come fall as parents become more and more wary of public education. so it goes.

happy father´s day pappa dough man! and all the other fathers out there: mike kinelski, euro-paul, others i guess i am forgetting. enjoy your day!

as i do not normally write about the news of area, in a formal sense, i want you all to know that the following link i am about to give you is based on news reports from local, mexican, media. just as with any media, you must realize that this is one side, although it genearlly purports itself to be unbiased. a lack of bias is nearly impossible in any situation.

the teachers in oaxaca strike every year at this time. every single year. normally, they strike for two weeks and then go back to work. the salaries of public school teachers is ridiculously low in this state, the state where i live, so each year the teachers gain a little but not much. this year is an election year in mexico, and unlike the usa, the govt contributes nearly 100% to all campaigns. private funding is unnecessary bc anyone who starts a party automatically receives funding. debating the vailidity of this practice is not what i want to do; however, because this is only the second time in 80 years that mexico has had election with more than one party giving candidates (1999 was the first time ever) and as there are 5 candidates, you might imagine that money is spread thin. thus, this year, the govt cannot afford to increase teachers salaries and give them any money because it has all been spent on other things, not the least of which are the campaigns of the five candidates.

we are now 25 days into the teachers strike. this strike effects all schools in my state. kids have been out of school for over 3 weeks and as the end of the year is fast approaching, none of them will be able to move on to the next level. also, parents are freaking out bc they do not know what to do with the trikes while they have to work. needless to say, not a single complaint has been heard from arcade and beer stand owners.

so, here it is. http://www.mexiconews.com.mx/18754.html. if the link does not work, let me know. i doubt this news has made cnn or any other channel in the usa, although the bbc is covering the story. keep in mind that deaths, disappearances and the like, all with obvious and sometimes covert links to the military and police, are common in mexico. what is not common is people being free to talk about them in the press. also, i do not tell you guys about the bad stuff normally.

a final note. i teach at a university and although we received an invitation yesterday to join our ¨brothers and sisters¨ - hermanos for those who like arrested development- we shall not be travelling to the capital of the state- 5hrs away- to participate. there have been minor scurmishes with the police and military in my town, but as we work until 7pm at night and are located 3 kilometers out of town, we do not feel the effects here.

i am fine. all is well, with me at least, but this is a very interesting piece and so i want you all to learn a little about mexican teachers (the allegation that ak-47´s were seized is startling, but given the access to weapons that just about anyone in the modern world now enjoys, not 100% surprising). also, the elections are just over 2 weeks away. this could get very interesting. ¡bienvenidos a mexico!

We will see if anything comes of it, but for the first time in just over a year, I have started writing critically again. Although nothing is completed, I think I have started coming up with ideas/projects. Maybe I can pull something together into a coherent essay worthy of using as a writing sample for a phd program. If not, what I did with those two years in the high desert is beyond me.

I could of course argue that I have been writing criticism since I set foot in that first internet café in Salinas just over 9 months ago. The gestation period of a child, perhaps that has some significance. That or I simply read too much into things. Bit of both.

I have been listening to a lot of the music I stored on lappy before I came down here. The memories the songs trigger are startling. Almost every song, and at least every band, suddenly immerses me in another place, in another time period. Boarding school days, fourth form and playing lacrosse or swimming. The first time I heard radiohead back in 94 was the fall of my fourth form year, the infamous play that I was in but not in. man with the briefcase. No lines yet in almost every stupid scene. Then there was the black box experience, a one-act play with one other actor who I grew to loathe over the two months of rehearsals. Ah boarding school.

No idea where any of this is going really. Not sure why I am even writing and not simply reading a book.

Well, I wrote the above two weeks ago and the answer is no, nothing has come of it. I look at what I wrote, only about 2pages, as a good start but the ideas are far too broad and not textual based as of yet. What I am thinking of doing is writing a critical comparison of Ralph waldo emerson, octavio paz(mex) and a third, yet to be figured out author- although I am leaning toward ruben dario from nicaragua, in the main of trying to draw something useful from 3 authors writing in 3 different time periods and in two different languages but with similar goals: create or in some way describe the nascent literature of writers looking to identify their country and countrymen through themes, language and rifts with the countries of the mother-tongue. Clearly for the usa it is England, mex is spain and the third country (if Dario and Nicaragua) will be spain as well. however, to some extent, the usa had to break away from more than England, it was Europe as a whole that influenced the writers of the 17^th 18^th and 19^th centuries, and the work of authors as late as Fennimore cooper (last of the mohicans, leatherstocking tales, etc.) directly reflects the narratives coming out of Europe. Instead of “ mak[ing] it new” as ezra pound was famous for declaiming at the onset of the usa’s modernist period-not to be confused, as I definitely was up until a week ago, with latin America’s modernist movement of the 19^th century lead in part by authors like ruben Dario, cooper and others fell in line and tried to make the genre so famous in Europe “ work” in a usa context. And paz and Dario had to contend with not only European work- Dario was highly influenced by French authors, but with the writing, and in a broader context the culture, coming out of the usa. Paz to a much greater extent that Dario in this example because he wrote more than 50 years after Dario when mexico was finally recovering from their own civil war period and in the thick of a serious of presidents who all came from one party and who hand-chose their successors.

All of this is damn broad and I need to narrow down some ideas and flesh out others, clearly, but this is what I am thinking about right now. Funny that taking a two-week break and then writing about how I had not gotten anywhere actually brought me somewhere. That was the genesis, of sorts, but there are still six more days-years?- of work before I can even consider that the idea is solid and I can rest. I do in many ways feel that all my reading is paying off and I am making valid connections that deserve more research (and by this I mean grants-dollars) and could make an impact within my field. Not sure about the last part but if I want a phd I must find some manner of changing or at least adding to the status quo in the states.

I am not happy with the education system in these sense that I believe we need to have more foreign authors in the curriculum- the canon, and not Europeans but Americans-central and southern. We can learn a lot from their struggles with imperialism. The usa went through it all long before the others and we certainly have advanced at a much more rapid pace (although you would be right to question what I mean by “ advance” and if that word has as many negative connotations as positive-which I believe it does by the by), but I think that we must begin focusing on what we all share in order to better see the differences. In order to break the racism that pervades all levels of government and public systems (and I mean against people of the Americas as a whole, not just blacks or indigenous peoples of the northern territory as these groups are (under)represented all over the continent). Public education, and a good deal of private education as well, teaches the future(children) that the lit from England and europe is the aspiration, the goal, and that the north American authors are the fruits of that labor who have cultivated and sowed the fields of lit with works worthy of reading by every student in the country while simultaneously ignoring that a very large majority of the usa has closer connections to central and south american countries than it does to those in Europe. And I am not in any way qualified to mention the authors of asia or Africa or the pacific islands, so I will leave that for someone else. Will I ever be able to convince a grad school of the same and thus secure a position for study and then a tenure-track post? Who knows. I am down here to try my hand at Spanish and learning a new culture. I am succeeding but have not succeeded. Luckily, I am giving myself more time to complete a project that will likely last my entire life- coming to grips with ways to reverse the current cultural paradigms that paint the people from central and south America as migrant workers who may pick our fruit (and bc it is not cotton does not mean I suggest we have necessarily progressed beyond this stage) but in the end are nothing more than immigrants, foreigners, additions that will never be part of the whole, at the moment offers me no true direction.

Hence, I keep reading. And I keep listening to people talk (bad) about the usa because it shows me what it is like to be discriminated against, for really the first time in my life. And despite of this discrimination, sometimes I am afforded more than others simply bc of the color of my skin, but I am learning what it is like to be stared at every time I go out in public. To be watched when I go to the supermarket to see what I buy and what I do not. Every step I make is observed by at least 5 people from the minute I walk out my door until I close my bedroom door behind me at night. I am no longer bitching about this, because, let’s be honest, I asked for it. I came here and injected myself into a society that though the roads are paved, less than 5% of the population of the region has a car (the amount of taxis is one possible sign of a depressed economy). Oxen pulling carts of firewood- not to be used for heat, but for cooking- and slowing down traffic are an everyday occurrence. I have seen drawings of farmers from the region in the 17^th century, the 18^th and pictures from the late 19^th and early 20^th. There is no change in technology. The tools are the same and the ends are, more or less, equivalent. Living in the poorest part of mexico (next to the state of chiapas) has opened my eyes to a way of life I thought was eradicated with the steam engine. Sure there are a few massey-fergusson or ford tractors, but there may be one for every 500-700 farmers. 2006. 1706. 300 years and what?

I have no answers, only questions. There is a great line from Socrates, I think, that says the mark of a truly educated person is that s/he realizes that s/he knows nothing. Education never ends- or as gen Robert e lee said, “the education of a man is never completed until he dies” (I know this bc I used to have a t-shirt from boarding school that said the same). And on that note, once again bringing up boarding school, where I began this ramble in the opening paragraphs, I consider the circle complete. Onwards and upwards gentlemen-and ladies.

i am going to tell you all something which nearly every girl (besides my sisters i hope) who has ever known me would vehemently deny. vehemently i tell you. and you know i reserve such bravado and/or candid language for very serious situations. i am a professional. i am not saying a professional of something particular, mind you, yet i make the claim nonetheless.

it is possible for me to be loved. true, the kind of love i am refering to is an internet-based love, something conceived in the ether of the world wide web. yet, it is love regardless- friends dont let friends use the non-word ¨irregardless¨- and i am here to flaunt it to the world. or those chosen few (feel special here) who read this bloggy-blog.

enough preamble you say. get to the point you decry. quit yer yappin (ups to the suthern boys) you protest. i shant. not when i can milk this for so long. i mean, the best part of the blog is you cannot interupt me. god bless.

anyway, to my current love. she is older than me, i think about 40 years old. she gets around- at least 100 new people ¨get to know her¨ every year and those who know her best leave. her longest relationship with a customer has been 13 years, so there is a future, but i keep optimistic.

ok, enough excitement. i was offered, and accepted, a position in puebla at the american school of puebla- el colegio americano de puebla. yippy. billy has future employment possibilities. ok, my current uni would love to have me back- not something i am sure hulia and katerina de vit would have said upon my departure from the mill in san fran- but i am not a taker. again, others might disagree with that last part, but until you write a response and call me on it, i will continue to proclaim my own fame. willy-nilly. yes i did.

hope you have a bright and sunny weekend. lacrosse is sadly over, the suns lost, and the braves are doing poorly, so i have no sports props to give. here´s to another week of hokies not in the police blotter. onwards and upwards gentlemen (in honor of john reimers, who gave us this benediction- an english teacher (i think he still is) who contends, and will argue, that mickey mouse is indeed the anti-christ. disfuta el fin, cuates!

and there will come soft rains. sadly i dont remember the exact title of the ray bradbury short story (or how to spell his name), but i think that is mighty close to it. if you have not read it, i recommend it. brief and interesting outlook on the who the real survivors of global conflict are. cockroaches wont be alone.

speaking of cockroaches, before i get to the rain part, there are two big ones in my bathroom. i consider them like spiders and many other bugs- they eat other bugs and so i like them. they get to live. ants, not so much. wasps and bees, they get swatted. we have spiders all over the house, sorry ames, five or six in the bathroom and numerous in each corner of my room. i like them, except when they bite me in my sleep. although since i put up my mosquito net two months ago, i dont have that problem. the problem is the taunting by my friends and the fact that i am too long for my bed, so my feet inevitably kick out the tucked part of the net at the foot of the bed. but i like my princess net, and call me what you will: princess, sally, wuss, the lack of bite marks on my person is worth it.

the rains began a few days ago. normally at night, they are quite strong- roughly the equivalent of the monsoons in arizona during july august and september. the mornings are cool, but the afternoon still cooks.

i dont know if you ever get used to the heat, but at some point you just accept it. you sweat all the time- at night, during the day, or pretty much whenever a fan is not directly blowing on you. you never really like it, but you get used to it.

i went to a dance club a few weeks ago in salina cruz with a few friends. one of them was dancing with a guy smoking a cigarette. he turned to say something to me and the lit end touched my shirt. it went out. i never noticed it and it never even left a mark on my shirt. gross, but that is how wet you get at times. true i was dancing, but it was also 230 in the morning. it should be cooler than that. napkins are used a lot , more than hankerchiefs but those are common too, to wipe off faces, and everyone is sweating. i dont think anyone likes it, everyone complains, but what can you do? absolutely nothing. am i used to it? you decide. in the end, i am hot, so whether i am used to it or not is really just an explanation that evades the fact that without this fan directly blowing in my face, i would be sweating. my skin is always sticky from sweat, or the remnants of, anyway. maybe i am used to it.

i dont have a job yet, but i applied for a position in cabo san lucas, baja california. there are worse places to live, and the money is roughly the same as here. it is a high school, but a bilingual high school (read: i dont teach esl/efl, i teach regular high school english as half the day is spanish and half the day is english). i have pretty much made up my mind to be out of here by the second week in august. for better or for worse, it is time to move on. giddy-up.

congrats wahoos. a perfect season in lacrosse is rare and they beat some great teams to do it. i guess dom starsia will get an extension.

where are the hokies? we play club lax. maybe soon we will field an ncaa team. until then, most hokie athletes are just trying to stay out of jail. good luck.

any news stateside?

jimza got married last weekend. congrats to jimmy and the lovely bride, andrea.

that is it for today. no funny stories that i can think. well, i still trouble rolling or trilling an ¨r¨. that provides endless hours of amusement for everyone but me as they mock my pronunciation. sometimes i just spell words i want to say to avoid having to pronounce the trilled r. i have enlisted the help of a thesaurus to avoid saying certain words. but i am practicing and getting better. poco a poquito se va llenando al jarrito. (double r, evil)