"你去哪儿都会get attached，但你还是得keep moving."
~ mi mami
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
(more) lessons learned in Intibucá
The days keep ticking down... In just three weeks my mom will be here, and five days after that I'll be back in the States. "For good." Still hard to imagine saying all of the goodbyes--to my beloved coworkers, cooks, vigilantes, bus drivers and ayudantes, etc. etc. People who I can't just facebook, or email, or text/call when I want--who I literally don't know if or when I'll ever see them again.
I'm also beginning to realize just how little time I have left to finish all that I want to accomplish. We're looking to hire a local education coordinator to direct our education initiatives here, and in that search I've been exposed to a whole new can of worms. That, combined with a few meetings with the local mayor and various conversations with Conce coworkers, have helped me understand just a tiny bit more about the complicated political situation in this tiny little pueblo, and how much everyone--even unknowingly--is embroiled in it all. There are the Nacionalistas, and then there are the Liberales. There is the Resistencia. There are the powerful people from Conce, and then the powerful people who live in but aren't from Conce. There's always a backstory and an old grudge somewhere, but somehow everyone maintains smiling, hand-shaking relations with everyone else. And they do it well enough to deceive us naive gringos, who thinks that everyone just...gets along.
Last week I got to ride Antonio's motorcycle around the campo. It was a trip...meaning, I fell on my ass. Twice. Afterwards, we ended up platicando about my (read: my parents') beloved Maxima, and somehow that turned into them going to the States--how going "mojado" was what Antonio and Edgar aspired to in the future. It definitely wasn't the first time I've heard the idea mentioned; I've heard time and again how hard it is to find a stable job here, how money from America multiplies even if the job is in something like landscaping or construction, how it's a huge risk but often worth it, etc. etc.
But to hear it from these boys--people I work with, who already have jobs, who I know to be relatively well-educated and intelligent, and have seem to have made a place and life for themselves here... Somehow it was so, so different. I just didn't know that there was so much more to the picture. That even beyond the expenses of a higher education, even beyond the scarcity of jobs here, there are still always the obstacle of politics: party politics, but also familial politics. That if you don't align yourself with the right people, your CV can all of a sudden go missing, or your job can be taken away for no reason. To hear that Shoulder to Shoulder is the only organization around here that hires purely on ability rather than connections or politics... I guess I could have felt pride, but instead I just felt sick.
Coming from America, and from a Chinese background, I believe SO strongly that if you work hard enough, with skills, perseverance, and a dash of luck, you can achieve practically anything. The thought that even if someone were smart and worked his/her ass off, it still wouldn't be enough, or that there is absolutely no guarantee that hard work will be rewarded, that keeping your nose clean and out of politics can actually hurt you, or that it's so hard that people here are willing to give up their vocations as teachers, promoters, lo que sea, to become undocumented restaurant and construction workers because that really IS the "better life"... I mean shit, what would you do?
Now I'm on the other side of it all, reviewing applications and CVs to decide who gets a job. Now that word's got out that we're hiring, everyone and their mom is submitting an application to be considered. Chepe told me today that it's "game over"--anyone with the tiniest bit of experience or even interest in education will be coming to find me. And of course, every recommendation I get is that person's friend/relative...
My own little taste of Conce politics. Fantastic.
I'm also beginning to realize just how little time I have left to finish all that I want to accomplish. We're looking to hire a local education coordinator to direct our education initiatives here, and in that search I've been exposed to a whole new can of worms. That, combined with a few meetings with the local mayor and various conversations with Conce coworkers, have helped me understand just a tiny bit more about the complicated political situation in this tiny little pueblo, and how much everyone--even unknowingly--is embroiled in it all. There are the Nacionalistas, and then there are the Liberales. There is the Resistencia. There are the powerful people from Conce, and then the powerful people who live in but aren't from Conce. There's always a backstory and an old grudge somewhere, but somehow everyone maintains smiling, hand-shaking relations with everyone else. And they do it well enough to deceive us naive gringos, who thinks that everyone just...gets along.
Last week I got to ride Antonio's motorcycle around the campo. It was a trip...meaning, I fell on my ass. Twice. Afterwards, we ended up platicando about my (read: my parents') beloved Maxima, and somehow that turned into them going to the States--how going "mojado" was what Antonio and Edgar aspired to in the future. It definitely wasn't the first time I've heard the idea mentioned; I've heard time and again how hard it is to find a stable job here, how money from America multiplies even if the job is in something like landscaping or construction, how it's a huge risk but often worth it, etc. etc.
But to hear it from these boys--people I work with, who already have jobs, who I know to be relatively well-educated and intelligent, and have seem to have made a place and life for themselves here... Somehow it was so, so different. I just didn't know that there was so much more to the picture. That even beyond the expenses of a higher education, even beyond the scarcity of jobs here, there are still always the obstacle of politics: party politics, but also familial politics. That if you don't align yourself with the right people, your CV can all of a sudden go missing, or your job can be taken away for no reason. To hear that Shoulder to Shoulder is the only organization around here that hires purely on ability rather than connections or politics... I guess I could have felt pride, but instead I just felt sick.
Coming from America, and from a Chinese background, I believe SO strongly that if you work hard enough, with skills, perseverance, and a dash of luck, you can achieve practically anything. The thought that even if someone were smart and worked his/her ass off, it still wouldn't be enough, or that there is absolutely no guarantee that hard work will be rewarded, that keeping your nose clean and out of politics can actually hurt you, or that it's so hard that people here are willing to give up their vocations as teachers, promoters, lo que sea, to become undocumented restaurant and construction workers because that really IS the "better life"... I mean shit, what would you do?
Now I'm on the other side of it all, reviewing applications and CVs to decide who gets a job. Now that word's got out that we're hiring, everyone and their mom is submitting an application to be considered. Chepe told me today that it's "game over"--anyone with the tiniest bit of experience or even interest in education will be coming to find me. And of course, every recommendation I get is that person's friend/relative...
My own little taste of Conce politics. Fantastic.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)