Tonight, I will be heading to Puebla for tomorrow’s Alternatives Forum (full details in yesterday’s Spanish entry below). I will be displaying Sea Pearls (http://www.jadeandpearl.com/), natural sea sponge tampons, and The Keeper (www.mykeepercup.com), a small cup that holds menstrual fluids rather than absorbing them. I was also hoping to display other more environmentally/health-friendly menstrual products such as cloth pads (http://www.lunapads.com), but I think somewhere between the Canadian and Mexican postal companies, the allowable room for inefficiency was somehow multiplied exponentially; alas, the samples from Canada have yet to arrive...

I don't know how this will go over - I imagine, aside from the taboo nature of talking about bloody bodily functions, the idea of washing out re-usable menstrual products may make some Mexican women squeamish (I know I was when the notion was first suggested to me). Still, I figure a forum like this is probably an ideal environment in which to test the waters.

I remember the first time I heard of the Keeper, in 1st year university, in the SFU women's centre, where I happened upon a demonstration similar to what I plan to give in Puebla… Lightly put, the concept seemed weird and definitely unappealing. Yet, a few months later, the logic (both health and environmental) set in, and I ended up trying out The Keeper – after all, it has a 3-month money-back guarantee. Six years later, I’m still using it.

I am very happy to think that I am not one of the women putting 10 000 to 17 000 disposable menstrual products into landfills over my lifetime, not to mention all the toxic substances in most commercial pads and tampons I’m not exposing myself to. For example, dioxin, a by-product of the chlorine bleaching process used by all major brands of tampons has a number of serious health impacts: the effects of shredding rayon fibers from tampons in women's vaginas, the probable link between dioxin and endometriosis, the possibility of cervical cancer being linked to prolonged tampon use over many years, toxic shock syndrome, headaches and so on.

See http://www.bloodsisters.org/bloodsisters/impacts.html or http://www.mum.org/ or http://www.mercola.com/2002/jul/3/feminine_hygiene.htm or search the internet to learn more.

Ugh, revolting.

Jiggling penis, limp, white. Uninvited. Imposed. Over-exposed. Image burned into brain. Man, respectable-looking, white car. 30 seconds from the office. Took a second to register: he did NOT call me over to ask directions. Pale, hand jiggling, ugh hanging out of dark pants. Wordless noise, mine. Was it ugh? Turn away, sidewalk. Safety zone. Think again, back to the street. Get license plate number. LVZ 60 21.

Still, shocked, heart beating fast.

Penes should not be disgusting. Context is everything.

That was one penis I did not need to see.

Ugh.

[I can't believe I actually have an appropriate illustration for this update. But I just remembered this shot I took back in December of the sidewalk on my way to work one morning... I couldn't believe it at the time; now it just seems like a progression from bad to worse.]

Con motivo de que el sistema actual (neoliberal) nos esta llevando cada vez mas a la destrucción y exclusión del planeta y el hombre, surge la necesidad de crear alternativas, en todos los ámbitos, enfocadas a la construcción de un mundo mas justo, libre, democrático y con preservación y cuidado del medio ambiente. Este Foro es un espacio para dar a conocer y promover estas alternativas con la conciencia de que para que puedan crecer y realizarse estas y nuevas alternativas, deben ser apoyadas por tod@s, ya que de nosotr@s depende la elección del mundo que queremos vivir.

Programa

Educación

11 a.m. -12:30 p.m.

11:00 -11:30 Universidad Sustentable. D. F. (Confirmado)

11:30 – 12:00 Taspolbé: Proyecto Educativo que se realiza en la comunidad indígena zapatista de Polhó, Chiapas. (Confirmado)

12:00 – 12:30 Kgoyom: Centro de Estudios Superior Indígena de la comunidad totonaca de Huehuetla, Puebla.

Desarrollo Rural

12:30 – 1:00 Proyecto de Desarrollo Rural Integral Vicente Guerrero: Ecología, Agroecología, trabajo con niños, comercio justo, capacitación con el método de campesino a campesino. Vicente Guerrero, Tlaxcala.

1:00 – 1:30 Cadem: Proyecto de Turismo y Hotel sostenido por mujeres indígenas de Cuetazalan, Puebla.

Ecología

1:30 – 2:00 Biotono: Cuyo objetivo es promover, patrocinar, captar e impulsar proyectos realizados por estudiantes en materia ambiental.

2:00 – 2:30 Bios Iguana: Preservación del Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable en Colima

Cultural

2:30 – 3:00 Casa de Cultura en Alchichica, Puebla.

3:00 – 4:00 Comida y Proyección de videos.

Platica

4:00 – 4:30 John Holloway (autor del libro: “Cambiar el mundo sin tomar el poder” ): Construyendo otro mundo.

4:30 – 5:00 Espora: Servidor autónomo en internet y software libre. D.F.

5:00 – 5:30 La Guillotina: Revista Independiente y Casa Editorial

Comercio

5:30 – 6:00 Espiral 7: Comercio justo, centro de información, foro cultural, talleres, promueve el autoempleo en diversas áreas por medio del trabajo colectivo, Puebla

6:00 – 6:30 Café Villa: Foro Cultural y social, las ganancias del café son para solventar los gastos que genera el proceso penal de la liberación de los Hermanos Cerezo Contreras y Pedro Alvarado.

6:30 – 7:00 Autonomía en Atenco.

7:00 Cayo Vicente: Cantautor Libertario


Exposiciones:

Productos femeninos altenativos de Canada

Condoneria “El Beso”


Objetivos del Foro:

-Dar a conocer los diferentes proyectos alternativos que se están gestando en el país; el trabajo que han realizado, sus experiencias, problemas y caminos que han seguido para hacerlos funcionar.

-Por medio del intercambio de experiencias, buscar y promover la generación de proyectos alternativos y estructuras de relación necesarias ente ellos para contrarrestar los embates del sistema neoliberal.

-Promover en los asistentes del foro la participación directa o indirecta en los proyectos que se expondrán.

-Crear vínculos de trabajo y comunicación entre los diversos proyectos alternativos, organizaciones e individuos participantes en el foro.


Dinámica del foro:

Cada expositor de proyecto tendrá un tiempo de 15 minutos para exponer, para posteriormente pasar a una sesión de preguntas del público 10 -15 minutos y luego 3 preguntas que le hará la mesa (opcional, dependiendo de la participación del público)

El foro se realizara en la ciudad de Puebla: 7 pte. 509 altos 22, Col. Centro. (espiral 7)

Será este sábado 27 de marzo a partir de las 11 horas.

Habrá comida y hospedaje para toda persona que venga de fuera, solo necesitamos que nos avisen cuando llegan y que traigan una cobija.

Por favor difundan este foro de la forma que puedan y quieran.

Friday morning's e-mail from Julieta saying her dad's girlfriend was in the hospital in the city and they were coming here put a pretty quick halt to the original weekend plans - Julieta Venegas concert in Querétaro followed by a trip to San Luis Potosi.

So, a bit disappointed to still be in el D.F., I made the most and took César up on his invite to the concert (Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Lila Downs) in the Zócalo. It was awesome - so many people, wonderful music, and the colonial buildings forming the square all looking mystical lit up in the darkness. Afterwards, five of us went to a little near-empty cafe-bar in the centro and danced to the music of a keyboardist "accompanied" by two go-go-style girls wearing scant matching costumes.

When the idea of going to Cuatla for the rest of the weekend came up, it seemed too perfect - I already had my bag packed! Xochitl and I crashed at Laura's place, and I awoke bright and early to meet her little daughter, Abril, who is adorable and bonded with me over funny-face-making. César came by and we were off to meet the other cars and caravan to the parachuting place, stopping by my house on the way to pick up my toothbrush, swimsuit, etc. Not to get anyone excited (or Nana worried), I didn't jump - this time. Instead, I stayed on the ground and took pictures of the people floating (mostly) gracefully down towards me. Definitely gave me an appetitite to fly (outside a plane), though.

Next we went to Xochitl's friend Sandra's weekend house, which has a pool (wet), pool (billiards) and ping pong tables, and even a trampoline... We ate well (even though I didn't get to try much of the food, which was mostly carne), socialised and enjoyed the sun/water. At night, we ended up on the trampoline, chatting and looking at the sky. It's so nice to actually be able to see stars. Got all cozy and blanket-covered and ended up sleeping there, under the great open night. Only complaint was the mosquito that kept buzzing in my ear; every time I tried to swipe at it, I rocked the whole trampoline, so eventually I just tried my best to ignore it.

On the way back, we stopped for quesadillas at a road-side joint. I tried a couple bites, but didn't order my own (damn digestive paranoia!). I was pretty tired and really looking forward to hitting the sack; then I realised it was Sunday afternoon and they'd soon be having noisy dance classes in our living space, so I wouldn't be able to relax, let alone sleep, there. Plan B: hung out at César's place until a safe hour for home-coming and, finally, enjoyed a much anticipated my-own-bed slumber.

It's occurring to me how little time I possibly have left in Mexico, how much more I want to do than I'll be able to; how just as I'm starting to feel like this is home (for now), I've got to start thinking about packing up and leaving...

In a safe neighbourhood, clean, furnished, transit-accessible and available – good enough for me! My mind’s eye blinks back images of the four-floor steep rickety staircase suite and the old couple’s toy storage/bed-room normally occupied by the grandkids. This quasi-separate top floor flat above a family home is the best alternative Mexico City’s offered me so far. And I need a place to live ASAP.

As a foreigner alone in the biggest metropolis in the world, unfamiliar with its language and geography, my choices and mobility are limited. After over a week of being passed around from co-worker to co-worker, I am eager to find a place to unpack my bags. When I arrive at San Lorenzo 223, a large house in la Colonia Del Valle, I am optimistic – could this be the one? Beatriz Ijuarte, who lives downstairs with her husband and son (both called Julio), greets me at the door. At first impression, she comes across as warm and motherly, a model homemaker. The two-week trial period (no commitment necessary) seals the deal: I am home (for now)!!

In the days to follow, I establish the terms of the month-to-month inclusive rent: furniture, linens, kitchen appliances, potable water, local (non-cell-phone) calls, cable television and cleaning/laundry once a week. Of the three presently vacant bedrooms in the suite, Beatriz explains she will only be renting out two; the third is to be kept empty for occasional use by her grown daughters when they come to visit. She assures me that, aside from her counselling practice in her office off our hallway and dance classes each Sunday night in our living room, it will be like having a separate apartment. When she concedes that I can, in fact, have guests over (which she’d at first made a big deal about), it takes away my last doubt; I decide to stay.

Things go well for the next couple months. I settle in and get comfy in my new pad. A fridge and stove are installed in the previously bare kitchen. Maria, a Spanish intern at UNIFEM, moves in; we get along great. The daughters stay over a couple times, which is a bit awkward, but tolerable – and part of the deal. Then it all starts to go downhill...

In December, we are told that an Italian girl coming to young Julio’s university on a three-week scholarship will be staying with us for the duration. Hold on… That wasn’t part of the deal! But it’s only a few weeks and she’s pretty inoffensive. Besides, it’s almost vacation time, and who wants to complain when you’ve got travelling on the brain? Maria and I both leave the city for the holidays. We have fun. We get back and the apartment is ours again. All’s well that ends well, right?

Then, less than two weeks later, it happens all over again. I go down to pay my mid-January rent and Beatriz starts acting all phoney-nice-like – when she asks about my vacation, even though we’ve already talked about it at length, I get suspicious. Moments later, the feeling in the pit of my stomach jumps up and says “Told ya so!!”

“Tomorrow a Canadian girl from the university will be moving into my daughters’ room,” she says casually. What?? Less than 24 hours notice that she’s be introducing a third roommate into our happy home, thus breaching our verbal tenancy contract, not to mention totally invading our privacy and stepping all over any illusion of tenant rights??

She is very matter-of-fact, acting like it’s just a big surprise to which we’ll all have to adapt, as though she has no say in the matter and isn’t in any way violating any previous arrangement. I try to raise some concerns – for instance how it was a bit tricky sharing the bathroom between the three of us when Danila (the Italian) was there – and her oh-so-sympathetic response is something along the lines of “You’ll have to deal.”

Later, Beatriz goes upstairs to break the news to Maria, who brings up the possibility of her lowering our rent. Beatriz claims not to know how long CdnGrl (who asked that her name not be used in this story) is coming for and says she will think about it after she finds out. Mañana, mañana?

CdnGrl arrives on Friday. Saturday evening, some people come over to for a birthday celebration Maria is hosting for Anna, another UNIFEM intern. We eat, we drink, we relax, and then, out of respect for the folks downstairs, we all go out. Sunday morning, after the clean-up, the place is spotless. I take CdnGrl to the world-acclaimed Museum of Anthropology and it’s all good; having a third roommate may not be so bad…

That night Beatriz comes up and states authoritatively: “No estoy en acuerda que tengan fiestas aquí.” Wait a second… You’re not in agreement that we have friends over for a few hours every few months, and yet have no qualms about permanently moving in a stranger?

I ask what her problem was with our get-together, thinking maybe we were too noisy or that we hadn’t asked for permission in advance. Instead, she surprises me by blaming it on the extra gas and water used by our guests. Has she already forgotten we both just got back from over two weeks apiece of absentee rent-paying (at the usual inflated price that includes utilities), amounting to a hefty ration of unused gas and water credits?

Flash-forward to March. Maria pays her rent on the 8th, so she’s up first. She comments that, since CdnGrl is obviously around for the long haul, they should revisit the rent issue. Beatriz responds that she knows that Isaac, Maria’s boyfriend, has been staying over a lot and that she won’t lower the rent, but, at the same time, won’t complain about the boyfriend.

I don’t think it’s fair, but on the other hand, since we don’t pay water or gas, I can see the logic. Fine. I barely ever invite anyone over during the day, let alone to spend the night. Besides, I’m rarely even home myself except to sleep and I travel for work and most weekends. So, obviously, she’ll have to lower my rent, no?

March 15th, my turn.

I get home from work to Beatriz waiting with a package slip. Apparently, I’m going to have to find a way to get to the post office between 9am and 2pm before Friday – with work hours being 8:30 to 6 in another part of town, this is going to be nearly impossible. But if I don’t find a way, the package (materials I’ve requested for a forum I’m planning to volunteer at in Puebla next weekend) will be returned to Canada! Beatriz offers to help me look up the address in the map book. I run up to my room and rejoin her moments later, full rent in hand. We chat a while about the package and the problem, and she tells me that if I can’t find anyone else to do it, she would be willing to go get it on Friday. I feel relieved – how nice of her! Onto the next item, the cash getting moist in my palm... I decide to bite the bullet.

“Um, about the rent…” I start out. “Well, you said earlier you would think about lowering it if CdnGrl stays, and since CdnGrl has stayed…”

“Well, how has CdnGrl’s being there affected you?” she starts out, more accusational than defensive.

I have to admit, it’s been sort of cool to have CdnGrl around. There are pros (i.e., Canuck company) and cons (i.e., goodbye to ideal Spanish-speaking home environment, non-television living room time, etc.). But, regardless of any benefits of her moving in, in this context that is not the point! We put up with the dance lessons that evict us every Sunday night and the therapy clients who smoke and watch TV in our living room… That was part of the original understanding! Another (uninvited) resident definitely was not.

“If you’re asking me to lower the rent, I’m not going to do it.” She is resolute, offering no excuses or justification. I can see that, over and above her normally nervous demeanour, she is uncomfortable having this conversation. I can also see that she has no intention of going back on her word (well, on her latest word, that does, in fact, go back on her previous word). Her face looks paler than usual, blanched, blending into the light roots not yet touched up with the bright red dye colouring the rest of her hair; she is not a young woman, but something about her tone, or perhaps her logic, makes me think of a stubborn child.

“It’s not that I can’t, but I don’t want to,” she re-iterates, as though this is some sort of reasonable justification. As though she can just make up the rules as she goes along and treat us however she deems fit. And, really, can’t she? I mean, how can we stop her?

It seems Beatriz, once so accommodating, is no longer interested in fulfilling her obligation to us, her original (less profitable) tenants; after all, she has found a way to make more money off the space by milking exchange students (Cdn Grl pays more because she eats with the family). When I challenge her on the unfairness of her decision, she concedes that I am right and she is wrong, and that next time she will make an effort to inform tenants of the conditions of rental beforehand. Big comfort.

“I’m right and you’re wrong” – now that, I can handle; make sense of; discuss; agree to disagree or compromise. But how do you argue with “I know you’re right and I’m wrong, but I’m still going to do just as I please and you can’t do anything about it!”??

I can’t believe she is actually making me feel guilty for calling her, straight-out, on a pretty clear-cut case of landlord sliminess. To top it all off, she tells me that she will no longer help me out with collecting my package. Suddenly all the kindness shown over the last six months, the invitations to family dinners, the concern when I got sick, the day-to-day small talk, disintegrate into a customer relations blur. Baffled, I take back the package slip.

I trudge up the stairs, bewildered. Did that really just happen? Had I missed some part of the interaction, the piece that would suddenly fit in and reveal a picture that makes sense?

It took talking it over with the roommates to realise there is nothing to make sense of – no more than a simple matter of power, or, more accurately, abuse of power. Aside from find somewhere to move for my remaining months, there isn’t much I can do, no authority I can turn to, to resolve the situation. And Beatriz is perfectly aware of my impotence.

So, if anyone has any bright ideas, I’m all ears. For now, I can only say that I won’t be the one trying to stop any party attempts that evolve at San Lorenzo 223 over the next while. And if anyone wants to come visit, gas and water included, bring it on!

Got my "final" 6 month evaluation from Kaveh & Luis and I did awesome! Yay!

Weird to think that a lot of the other YCLSFers are currently in Winnipeg for the debriefing, coming down, and I'm still here, in Mexico, working at UNEP. Sorta wish I could be there to see everyone and ground...

I will write this up later, but for now, must say, I am in shock at the (lack of) business ethics I have encountered in my living situation, with regard to total disregard of a verbal contract on the part of my landlady and total abuse of the power she has over her tenants.

Just a quicky from Querétaro, where I am visiting Julieta and her little brother, Javier. Last night we connected with Maria J. and wandered the town, marvelling at the little things, like the way the sculptures climbing the churches look when all lit up in the darkness, then came back here and watched The Lover (good movie, incredible scenery) and ate chips and chocolate :) Goodness is it wonderful to be out of the city and enjoying simple pleasures!

Anyways, this is more than anything a shout out to the folks from whom I have been getting the worried ¨are you still alive¨ type letters, and those to whom I owe e-mails from forever ago. So sorry, but keeping in touch has been nearly impossible these days, given the time constraints at work, which is my only reliable computer access... Will try to update in more detail when I have a chance, but for recent history: I now have a permanent Mexican drivers license which, accompanied by an international license (a scam I won´t even go into now), I can use in any country (screw you to the G and L graduated licensing folks in Ontario & BC who don´t let you carry over when you move from province to province without enough time to finish your silly drawn-out money-making systems :P), am very disturbed by the recent attacks in Spain (for the victims and their loved ones, of course, but also in fear of the way the anti-terrorism thrust may be used for political interests & to instigate restrictions of civil liberties in the Latin world similar to the post-9-11 Patriot Act in the US and Bills C-35, C-36, & C-42, etc. in Canada), am planning to volunteer a forum in Puebla at end of the month to demonstrate alternative menstrual products and then travel (Taxco and Oaxaca current liklihoods) during Semana Santa, am almost done with the GEO for Youth in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Capacity Building Manual (the main reason I have been having trouble making time for any sort of on-line journaling or personal correspondence of late), and am slowly but surely getting the Capoeira basics (making me realise I really must do something about my lack of arm and ab strength if I want to improve)...

Okay, Julieta and Javier have been waiting for me for over half an hour, must get out and enjoy some pollution-free air before I get back to el D.F.

Cheers!!