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”.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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