Leaving for the airport tonight! Pre-flight thoughts.

It's 9pm and we're all getting ready to meet at Anna's in an hour to do last-minute packing and drive to LAX. Today has been a little less stressful in terms of running around getting things done, so at least for me, it's been good to just let what is about to happen sink in.

And there's a lot to think about. Today John Rose presented us with a more comprehensive history of the social justice movement in Chiapas, and how it relates to 16th century colonialism, modern globalization, indigenous rights, and health promotion. Maybe it's because our departure is so imminent that everything seems more palpable right now, but the gravity of what we are trying to do with this project is really finally sinking in. I don't just mean the stove intervention study, but the fact that we are taking ourselves from OC, inserting ourselves into this community with this rich history of structural violence, and trying to "do some good".

On the other hand, I do believe in our study. I didn't know that John Rose had approached Fernando (a member of the group Las Abejas-more on this later-and a key health promotor contact in the first Chiapan community UCI partnered with) three years ago asking if stoves would be something his people would need and/or want. The fact that we are responding to community-driven needs/wants is encouraging.

The cultural differences are going to be challenging. Aside from getting shigellosis, that's probably next on my worry list. It's not like we're tourists in Cancun, where people tell you "the Mexicans are friendly". This is a very different atmosphere, and we are playing a very different role. These are communities that have been massacred (eg, the Acteal massacre of 1997), sterilized (a 2005 government mandate was proposed to sterilize indigenous women), and severely marginalized in the global market. We don't realize that the shifting demand from wheat to meat means that farm workers in Chiapas are out of jobs. Or that when they switch to working on coffee plantations in response to this first devastation, the falling price of coffee due to global competition results in yet more economic violence. We don't realize because it doesn't affect us the way it affects them. Not realizing doesn't make us any less responsible.

Anyway, this is what's running through my head right now. So many people have tried to prepare us for what our experience in Quexalhukum will be like. I don't usually think too much before I end up where I'm going. When I get there, I just figure it out as I go. But today's talk with John Rose about the history of Las Abejas and the state of Chiapas was a welcome reminder of the bigger picture and where we and the community we plan to work with fit in.

I think the next time we update will be from Chiapas!