Feliz Navidad...

Well, it's definitely not a white one, but perhaps a bright one instead.

I am reminded, as I am every year, that this day means many different things. For me, right now, it's about home, and for a long time it has been about honoring the spirit of something in our hearts all year, and not just on one day.

Yet, these things are especially brought home to me today.

'When the world ends'

I couldn't help but hum this song over the weekend. I really had no intent to be at the so-called "ground-zero" of the Mayan day of apocalypse, but the NGO I work with had need to be in the north, so north I went. Through no fault of my own I arrived at Palenque--the largest ruins site in the state of Chiapas--where an enormous number of people were gathering (not all with the same intent or purpose) to witness the Solstice.

I am not overly fond of the roads in Chiapas. Some are very poorly planned and are subject to consistent landslides and other mass-wasting events, some are cut through hills with hairpin turns that boggle my mind, and all of them are marked with a extraordinary amount of 'topes' (or speed bumps). The trip from the city to Palenque is about 130 miles, but it is a 5-6 hour meandering bus ride (I dare you to take the "3D tour" on gmaps). So I descended from the highlands at almost 3000 feet into the jungle, which is about 200 feet. It was warmer and sticky. There were bugs, but since it is the dry season, they were fewer and almost no mosquitoes.

Despite the enormous number of people that had descended upon the site, the town, and every inch of possible 'campable' space, it was a moderately successful research trip. Harder, was trying to explain why we were there, if not for the rainbow festival or to pay homage to the red queen (both the one of archaeological interest and the modern incarnation who was accepting rejected rainbowers into her fold). BOT folks will understand though, that as I walked around the loose gathering of huts where we stayed and heard rumors and whispers of where the rainbow was off to next, I couldn't help but giggle. The place was positively overrun with folks trying to make new acquaintance or to find someone sharing/selling something euphoric. However, because we work in communities in resistance, we try to keep a low profile. It really was incredible how many tourists of different shapes and sizes (to not put too fine of a point on it) flocked to the area to find something. The farmers I spoke with about the coming of the sixth sun said that it was of importance to them, but that the end of the calendar/world was a tourist gimmick. The optimist in me hopes that everyone found some meaning...

I did have a couple days off while we were there. The first I used to check out the ruins and the second I spent writing up field notes, reading, and listening to the thundering sound of dry season rain.

I really didn't know very much about Palenque, but I was within walking distance of the site, so it seemed as though I should probably pip over there and see it. I took a number of pictures, and I don't want to lengthen this post overmuch, so here is a link to a slideshow (or you can go to the site where they are housed: PalenqueatSolstice).

Before I left, people asked me about what I thought about the impending world's end and I generally replied that I would be with the Maya, so it would be spectacular. And it was. There seems to be a generally held suspicion that the Maya don't exist anymore. Something that perhaps lends an air of mysticism to apocalyptic tendencies and is no doubt assisted by the fact that they are the most under-served population in the states they inhabit. The ancient Maya abandoned their cities, but the contemporary Maya are carving out a space in urban and rural areas alike.

Of or relating to food:

My experience with food this time round is very different as I have a kitchen (and fridge!) and I can cook for myself rather than relying on prepared foods or dining out.
I am still in shock over the bounty of fresh food I can bring to my kitchen for less than $5. I prefer the outdoor market (no surprises there) and I try to spread out my purchases when I can.

However, I've encountered some interesting food-related advertising in my daily walks in the city and I thought I'd share a couple of the ones I was able to capture on camera.

This first pair of photos boggles my mind (the content, not the pictures); it appears that this company is trying to get farmers to put this gel in their soil to retain moisture (it seems similar to the stuff you can buy at craft stores in the US that holds candles...)

This one is for UJ - the man who wanted a bucket from Phuket...FUD

Wonder = super bread!

Home beer delivery service

A period of adjustment

When I picked my dates for 'going to the field' I had a few very specific things in mind. Namely, the end of fall quarter, the start of the coffee harvest (and dried corn harvest in the highlands), and tagging along with the NGO I'm working with on a delegation of tourists that was being taken to 'see the harvest.' Where I work, an individual asking questions is suspicious, but a group of people is perfectly appropriate. So I rarely venture into the communities by myself. This has several benefits and more than a few drawbacks, as you can probably already surmise.

True to form I have already encountered a drawback in my method: the NGO I work with had to cancel their delegation. Damn. Turns out though that we couldn't have gotten anywhere near the highlands as the road is being blocked by a protest over a violent land dispute. So it goes.

So instead, I have a whole week to re-adjust to my surroundings, instead of a couple days. Plus. Minus.

I tended to my end of term duties (read: grading/submitting my own work) and I decided to play tourist in the city yesterday. I am still slightly hesitant to get my camera out for some things---I just feel like an asshole turning people's places and lives into spectacle.

But first, I must gloat over my living situation:

My view (Templo de Guadelupe)

My door

When I open my door--house

Urban milpa, just a few houses down

The only downside to living in the city is the noise, and you can't get away from that anywhere, each barrio has its place of worship, and each place of worship lights fireworks on a fairly consistent basis. And this is just one example of the noise--there are totally different sound 'pollution' boundaries here that would drive some people I know (like myself) crazy. Some of the noise-related stuff is logical--you can hear the water truck or the gas truck and be outside in time to flag them down to by a garrafón or whathaveyou. But I find it amusing that folks will turn on a song on their phone and then put their phone in their pocket and walk around with it blaring. It reminds me of this bus scene (but with fewer piercings).


The festival of the virgin has been especially noisy and at all hours (although church bells are not so terrible to be awoken to, even at 5:30am). Plus it is such a scene over there right now:

From the church, looking down into the city

About face--the front doors of the church

Inside the church; note the neon x-mas border lights

The festival, this is about 1/10 of what's been set up

There are also some fun--let's call them cultural--things that I noticed too:

This boggles my mind in a city where refrigeration is, well different

It's not just slow food, it's very very slow food.

I like this variation on the shawl as carrier, I think it might mean she's sold a lot of shawls...

And...this is a super interesting project that has been up in the zocalo:

The panorama is not the best, sorry.

Landfall, proper...

I had the lovely opportunity to get up at 3:30am again for a long day of travel. Although, truth be told, this day was really not that long and is coming to a nice close. I am happily installed in my house in the city (p.s. there are two extra beds...)

They were doing a special revisiting EURO 2012 on all the TVs in DF, which made it slightly more crazy to navigate than usual. The general holding area in the main terminal has changed a bit since I was last there two years ago--it appears that they have been sponsored by Samsung. I didn't take a picture though I was too busy watching futbol (on ginormous Samsung TVs).

It is a spectacular time to be in the city, and I am reminded of two things: (1) that the holidays here mean something completely different than in the States (which makes me think I might like them better); (2) that if I wanted peace and quiet I came to the wrong place.

Especially since it's the holidays.

The festival of the Virgin de Guadalupe is over the next week and the entire downtown is dedicated to the effort. The calle de Guadalupe has been turned into a market and parade and whathaveyou. There's even a ferris wheel. There is music and bells and more fireworks (it seems) than usual. To put this in perspective, the Templo de Guadalupe is about 5 blocks from my house. So I'm in the thick of it. (pictures forthcoming)  

Ahhhhhh fieldwork

So far fieldwork has been thrilling. I am now prepared to write-up my ethnography of terminal X.
Delayed flights, missed flights and airline vouchers hoo haha. It's no volcanic eruption (looking at you Leslie)...in fact it's rather anti-climatic!

An integral part of going into the field is a challenge to get there...so I hear.

To another early and long day of flying!

Me, My Dissertation, and I

Fieldwork, it is a right of passage. It is a joy and it is a pain. It is excitement and it is fear.
I'm leaving tomorrow. I will be gone until April.

This doesn't impact that many people greatly as I may as well be on the moon for as much as I've kept up with folks the last 5 years. The PhD had to become more of my life than a job for awhile and it will consume me to some degree over the next year as I immerse myself off and on back in Chiapas. Afterwards though, it will be a job again. I am committed to this. I will write, I will work, I will have a life. I owe a couple of colleagues major thanks for helping me come to this revelation.

That said. I'm going into the field--literally. I will be in and out of touch. This old-fashioned communicating tool, the blog, is what I will do to broadcast myself. Stop in if you care to, follow-by-email, or get updates.

I've been missing people for awhile now. Being away and in the unfamiliar makes the pain of being away more acute--no matter where I am.

So, I'm off to the fields of coffee farmers, I will participate in the coffee harvest, I will observe the sale of beans to cooperatives and to fair trade coffee roasters...and so on.