Random Descriptions of My Travel Adventures

Gail Collins (appears Monday and Thursday) has overtaken Paul Krugman (Monday and Friday) as my favorite NYT Op-Ed columnist. She has a great way of very sarcastically (hmmm...wonder why I like her) expressing the ridiculousness that has become the American electoral process. She said much more eloquently the same things I was feeling about the equal pay bill. I guess she also probably couldn't post a picture of a guy flipping people off in the NYT. I still heart Paul Krugman ( a recent column ) for economic policy columns though....don't worry Paul. Take it away Gail...

The title of this post is the current headline on the Huffington Post political blog and the image is my current response to John McCain. My political leanings are no secret to anyone but this particular quote and his rationale have me so incensed today (as my poor friend Mike found out earlier as I ranted and raved over email) I have to post something. Women do not need more education and training, we need to get paid the same amount of money as men for the same work. Period. If it results in more lawsuits then so be it, we deserve to be paid equally. More lawsuits is just about the lamest excuse for a "no" vote I have ever heard. Why should I go through the exact same PhD process as my male peers (often having to work harder to prove myself because I'm just a girl) only to be paid less. This man is running for president of the United States and has just told half the population that they do not deserve to be compensated at the same level as men. He has in fact told th...

I have now been on 30 house visits around Oaxaca and should finish up with all of them this week for a total of 34. None too soon as it is the hottest month of the year here in Oaxaca and the temperature during the day when I'm trudging up the sides of hills and sitting in houses made of sheet metal is really quite unbearable. The forecast calls for upper 90s the rest of the week so I will no doubt be the sweatiest gringa around. Yes, I do realize that I'm from Phoenix and I shouldn't be bitching but I also don't scale hillsides during the heat of summer in Phoenix. One of my PhD committee members said something to me once about needing to work in rural areas in order to get respect from other researchers because city life is too easy. Well, I feel that I have paid my dues and any rural researcher who wants to go toe to toe, like Dubya, I say Bring 'em on! Ugh, I can't believe I just quoted that fool. Today I went on two house visits, the second of which was a b...

Each time I go to the local supermarket, Soriana (formerly Gigante), I'm amazed at the music they are playing. It is always American music with selections ranging from the 50s to the present day. The selections are always completely ridiculous and often I can't help laughing out loud. The last song I heard while there was something by the Bee Gees. I will try to remember which songs are playing on future visits and post them here, that way we can all laugh together and then try to analyze the brain of the person that picks these ridiculous songs which motivate (?) people to buy more wonderful Soriana items.

Things are not always depressing, they are very often quite festive! Non-depressing post alert! Non-depressing post alert! This past weekend I went to two birthday parties, one for a 2 year old and one for a 25 year old. There were many similarities between the two. There were pinatas at both parties! Alcohol was offered and accepted by guests at both parties (though only in small quantities)! There were games at both parties! Food and cake were consumed until it made me ill at both parties! The 25 year old is one of my roommates and we had a lovely small brunch for the occasion of her birthday here at our apartment on Sunday. This is a picture of her pinata. I have yet to wrangle the photos of the 2 year olds party from friends so unfortunately you don't get to see a picture of her pinata. It was a lion. Visualize. Also visualize a big pack of 2-5 year olds diving to get at the candy which spilled from the lion's butt. One little girl who couldn't have been older than 2 a...

I knew it was only a matter of time before someone started to cry when telling me their story, unfortunately it finally happened while I was on a house visit Monday. She was such a wonderful woman who was clearly under a ridiculous amount of stress trying to raise her young son alone earning only about 50 dollars a week. She borrows her house and her son's father is apparently off with another woman and offers no support. She bought me some fruit which I tried to dissuade her from doing, the last thing she needs is to spend money on the gringa, but she insisted and so I left with two apples. This is a picture of her borrowed house, it has those aluminum walls and a dirt floor. I try to find something positive to say about their homes as, "Wow! I love what you have done with the place!" might ring a bit hollow. Sometimes the only thing that I can come up with is the wonderful view. Being at the very top of the hill does have some benefits. This woman didn't really ha...

Not much posting lately as I have been quite busy. Between two groups of guests in March, working on my research, and trying to get some paper revisions done by the end of April, I'm busier than anyone should be in Mexico. I have been going on a lot of house visits, this week sometimes two a day. I'm doing these for the Centro, I administer a socioeconomic survey and take photos of applicants homes to make sure they qualify for sponsorship through the Centro. I really enjoy doing this as I get to go all over Oaxaca, especially to areas on the urban fringe which relates to my research, but I also get to (hopefully) help people send their kids to school. The downside is I have to see some pretty upsetting poverty and hear some awful stories of hardship. I'm not complaining at all, but sometimes it can be a bit emotionally draining as there is only so much I can do for these families, the decision regarding whether their children will receive sponsorship is not mine. I typica...