Broken noses, the “Xpujil effect” and more

The Calakmul ruins.

It's incredible how much can your perception of the place you're living at change in a relatively short time. As described before, Xpujil is one of these places where you need to work your way towards liking it. It doesn't come automatically. A part of the young people working here either in some of the environmental organizations or at the university actually consider it only a “half-home” as they live between Xpujil and other places. Also, after staying for a while you notice what we call “The Xpujil Effect”, which basically means feeling overly excited when visiting other places, that are somehow different, beautiful or interesting. Xpujil brings you towards appreciation. That's where my inflection point began. First you appreciate, that you re-learn to appreciate. Then people get used to you and you get used to them. Nobody dares to scream “guerita” anymore. You learn to say “hi” anytime you walk into a store, a taquería or to the people on the street, when your looks accidentally cross. You can't behave as if you were anonymous anymore.

The adults class.

One of the hyperactive moments.

When it comes to the progress of the volunteering, many ups and downs happened over the past weeks. Even though volunteers are commonly motivated by good ideas such as to help, to share, to learn, it's dangerous to have expectations, that are more big, than realistic. My expectations were big and my motivations maybe way too noble. That was a perfect combination, that shortly led to a disappointment and the feeling of impotence. Even though I was trying to do my best, go to the schools, talk with the people on the street, and let everyone know about the possibility of receiving English classes, almost nobody new showed up. In that point I started asking myself what meaning does this all have. As if there was this magic formula to understand how things work and I still wasn't getting it. When sharing this experience with others, the response, that I would be getting was: time and patience. Little bit frustrating. Somehow I realized, that the volunteering is probably just a part of the experience and maybe I can try to learn some other new things, when surrounded by so many beautiful communities and initiatives.

Learning how to do candles out of  the orange
peel in Mancolona.

Ironically, just in the moment when I decided to participate in other projects, new students started appearing. Then we had the “problem” of finding an appropriate group for everyone. Nevertheless, even though it's nice to have more students now in my classes, I definitely learned that it's not about the quantity. Even though it sounds like such a cliché, it's so truth. If you manage to get at least few students excited for learning the language and widening their horizons it's worth it. So it's definitely about the little things.

What you can see when passing by Germina.

Teaching isn't easy. There's no right way of doing it. I believe more in a unique dynamics that happen in every class and in understanding the vibe of each group of students. Personally I realized, that it's more about me adapting to the students, than them adapting to what I want. It's not about imposing what should be done, but more about a dialogue about what we can do together. And as my hands are not tied by any educational system (and that's actually quite a luxury!), it's possible to do it this way. This would be the theory and the lessons I've learned. Nevertheless, the practice can be pretty frustrating sometimes. Especially in the “blackout” moments, when it looks like after weeks of learning, all the knowledge has just evaporated. Then we have to understand and practice all over again. But when one leaves the pressure of “idyllic progress” aside and opens the door for a patience and little steps, everything flows better.

Now I am traveling through the Central America as it's the Christmas/vacation time and I must say that even though I obviously enjoy seeing new places and meeting new people, at the same time, I am really missing Germina, Xpujil and all my students and new friends I've made. It took just month and half and I am already in love with the place and it's people. It's quite a paradox, the more difficult it felt in the beginning, more affinity I feel to Xpujil now.

Running into toucans is quite normal in the Calakmul jungle.

The sweet beginnings of one volunteer's odyssey

Now it's almost two weeks, since I got to Xpujil (Mexico), but it feels like a lot longer. The adaptation process to the new country, a place to live at and a project to be involved in always includes a lot of excitement mixed up with cultural shocks as everything tastes, smells and works different. Additionally, as a woman you find yourself in many offensive situations. Aside of the man staring at you with absolutely no shame while you walk by, you're also occasionally shouted at “guapa” or “guer(it)a”.

The Xpujil (Cat's taill ) ruins. 

When it comes to what I imagined Xpujil to be, and how it looks in reality, there wasn't exactly a match. The naively imagined idyllic jungle village happened to be full of badly placed cement, wires, and, well, civilization, which unfortunately involves lots of reggaeton, dirt and contamination. But to be fair also internet, electricity and running water. And what I definitely learned to appreciate is how safe one feels in here. Even though Xpujil is a little concrete island, the surroundings of it are definitely a jungle. A beautiful lively jungle, that is protected as Reserva de la Biósfera de Calakmul. The whole area belonged to the Mayan empire, and one of the important rulers, the Kaan (or Snake) dynasty used to govern from the nearby Calakmul.

The Chaac, god of rain.

If you wonder what brought me here, it's teaching English as a volunteer in the local cultural center. The NGO that made this all possible is called United Vision. It's a Czech organization receiving volunteers from all over the world. I found them thanks to a friend of mine in a very convenient moment when the “after the summer” times were shaping. What I liked about their philosophy was the long term (3 - 4 months minimum) nature of their projects and the fact, that in future they would like to contribute to creating ecotouristic activities, that support local communities and products. This all made quite a sense to me. The teaching itself was the scary part, but after few classes, I realized, that it's not as traumatizing activity. Besides, it looks like that the previous volunteers did quite a good job as some of the students, that persisted from the beginning of this year already know a lot and are curious to learn more, which is very motivating. What is amazing about the Mexican side of the project are definitely the people. People from whom I am already learning a lot. They are critically thinking activists working in NGOs and within the local communities. It's inspiring to see in them and in others, that surround this community, that understanding and talking about what problems the country and the region has doesn't take away being proud of their roots and appreciation for the culture they live in.

The natural jungle conquering the concrete one.

                                 

And what makes me come here as a volunteer in a first place and a tourist in the second one? I think that traveling is a great thing. You get to know a bit of the world, yourself, experience the life in a more intense way and bla bla bla.. It's not hard to figure the pros of it. And it's even better if you go to some of the places from the Global South where life's so much cheaper, right? But how many travelers stop themselves and think why it is so. We don't realize, that we're taking advantage of an inequality that our Northern/Western lifestyles, economics and politics help to maintain. So, for me personally it's fine to travel around here under the condition of giving something back. I am not trying to show that I know better, nor am I doing this out of any feeling of obligation or guilt. It was somehow a natural consequence and a need to involve myself in something that makes sense inside this world full of contradiction, political chaos and absurdity. It's simply another possible way of looking at traveling and the impact, that you can have while doing it. And, you know, anyways, when you volunteer in a well organized project (cause don't get me wrong, this is definitely not a "all volunteering's good" kind of agitation, there's so much, that can go wrong about it from a bad organization of the whole project, irresponsible coordinators or reckless attitudes to the community), you usually end up receiving more than you give, learning a lot and you're guaranteed to submerge yourself in the culture a bit more, than if you're just quickly sightseeing and passing through.

Other understandings and funky details of the first two weeks are:

• killing the starving mosquitoes is a great training for your reflexes
• the lizards and spiders are friends as they eat the mosquitoes, so you better treat them right
• I named my new bike Guerita, she's as white as I am
• oh... and the Aguacates are as good as I imagined them to be!

My little Granada blues o el arte de saber volver

¿Existe algún arte de saber volver a los sitios? ¿Sería volver al lugar sin demasiadas expectativas y con tranquilidad y paciencia? Quizás, si no se encuentra esa tranquilidad, es mejor convertirse en pleno huracán e ir rompiendo los órdenes antiguos. Pero... ¿que pasa si los órdenes antiguos ya no son lo que conocías y en vez de que los rompas tú, te rompen ellos a tí? ¡Precaución! También suele pasar. Aunque sepas que el cambio es lo más propio de la vida misma.

Cada vuelta es única y proporciona sus propias alegrías y penas. Hay sitios con más cambio y movimiento y otros dónde la vida fluye con más lentitud. Granada es el primer caso por excelencia. Cada año académico abre sus puertas a gente nueva y se despide de los que ya se tienen que ir. Es un sitio de paso, dónde el flujo de gente es muy intenso. Uno se puede encontrar con la subcultura a su gusto. ¿Le apetece un poco de mundo hippie, anarquista, pijo o prefiere la serenidad de los hipsters? Encima, con una gran probabilidad habrán uno o más componentes internacionales en el grupo. Parece ser una maravilla. Lo malo empieza cuando tú te quedas y los otros se van. Entablar amistades estables con gente que se quede más tiempo es parecido a encontrar un tesoro.

Cuando aún estos “tesoros” ya no están, resulta como mínimo inquietante. Cuantas familias de amigos ya se tuvieron que separar y seguir cada uno su propio camino. Y hay tantas historias de amor, o por lo menos muchos microamores pasajeros. Es lo más natural en un lugar con tanta gente joven que vienen a pasar un tiempo delimitado de sus vidas. Por el camino a Granada dejan en los aviones y autobuses el control social, que traían de sus casas, viniendo a una ciudad encantadora dónde nadie les conoce. Las propias calles y alrededores de Granada invitan a perderse en sus rincones pintorescos y descubrirlos sintiéndose uno aventurero. Es combinación perfecta y hace que la ciudad esté cargada con mucha magia. Dicha magia proviene del encanto granaino entrelazado con el hecho de ser un cruce en vidas de mucha gente de todo el mundo.

La vuelta a un lugar así, tan repleto de muchas despedidas y reencuentros, conmueve y desequilibra al principio. Sobre todo si muchas de las “familias” de amigos ya no están. Sin embargo, te enseña. Te enseña que en primer lugar te tienes que dar el tiempo para absorber todo ese cambio y luego abrirse a lo nuevo.