Thanksgiving

Piña Palmera

This is a game played with a ball that makes noise by means of a bell inside. The game is called "GolBol" (Goal Ball) and if you aren't blind, you have to wear a blindfold to play. Nobody plays it competitively here, but a few people at Piña organize exhibition games in surrounding communities.

I'm rethinking a lot of what the word "disability" has come to mean for me. Before coming here, I had never had a real conversation with someone with cerebral palsy, or someone who couldn't see or hear. I'm surprised every day by the new realities I'm finding here, and the barriers to living what I would consider a "regular" life. Surprised, impressed and honored to be here redefining what a life is and what my own life is worth.

Talleres de Rescate

The past two weekends, two of the most experienced lifeguards have been organizing lifesaving workshops on the beach to train younger recruits for the high season of December and January. A highlight of the experience was learning how to place my microphone on the camera mount to keep it out of the shot.

Salvavidas

Things are developing on both of my main fronts here. I've started volunteering at Piña Palmera to understand the organization and the people that work there better, and I've started meeting with the Salvavidas as well, informally and spontaneously in the afternoons and on the weekends.

I'm taking lots of notes. I feel like an anthropologist. I'm telling people that this project is 3/4 investigation and 1/4 filming.

I had an interesting experience the other day, however. Augila, a lifeguard, invited me to a lifesaving workshop and told me to bring my camera. I told him that I didn't want to start filming right away and thought it best to go to the workshop and observe, and to film later on at a different workshop. He seemed pretty insistant on my filming the workshop so I actually decided that, weighing the benefits of having him as an informant, I'd better bring my camera. Worst case scenerio, I wouldn't film anything good and I'd waste one tape. It actually ended up being quite interesting and I got a few great shots of people diving into the water and talking about lifesaving back on the sand. It also helped integrate me in with the rest of the group, as they all saw me filming and asked me questions about the project. So I learned something.

Zipolite

Today has kicked my butt in many different ways, but the experience has not diminished the power of this place for me. I’m finally back! I took a nap midday to escape the oppressive heat and have since acquired a fan for my room. It is a must for Death Beach living. The good news is that I met Flavia from Piña Palmera and we have a date to meet tomorrow to start the conversation about this project. The great news is that I found Aguila! I had been worried for a couple of months in the back of my head that my (possibly) key informant had left Zipolite and would not be here when I arrived. He hadn’t returned my various ecstatic emails I sent him soon after I learned the project was funded. Today I saw him on the beach, exactly how I remember him, lean, tan, tattooed, except this time with a little facial hair. Our interaction went very smoothly, he was happy to see me too and remembered the project well. We sat and chatted for a half hour or so, interrupted now and again by his whistle as he directed surfers away from a dangerous current.
Aguila told me that the lifeguards (of which there are 15 now, but only 3 hardcores) are trying to start teaching swimming/lifesaving workshops with the cooperation of the town. I told him I was afraid of the ocean now. He told me we’d fix that. I plan to go back and talk to him tomorrow morning.
As a anthropological field work side note, I’m following the advice of one of Brandeis’ visiting anth professors and buying something from every store in town. The idea behind the advice was that it would avoid forming alliances early in one’s research. It’s at least a way to get to know what is available here and what I’ll need to get in Pochutla.

It´s definitely strange thinking about this as fieldwork or research. What it feels like, is what I am always trying to do anyway: understand what people do and why, but now with a super legitimate reason to ask people questions! I would be very curious to hear what other filmmakers say about this process. It seems very singular to me.

Anyone who has moved to a new place and relied on others to orient them to the rythm of life must have an idea of what this feels like. It´s a constant state of learning and questioning. I imagine that after a while, this could start to feel quite unnerving.

Nevertheless, I assume that, with time, I will feel less like a curious visitor and more like an experienced scribe. More to come on my state of mind.

Dr Nemesio

I visited the local office of UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autonomo de México) today and talked to a researcher named Nemesio Rodriguez. He supplied me with some contact in Zipolite and also offered some hermenutical devices to use in constructing this analysis. He advised that I look at intergenerational understandings of how the town (or towns--he advised me to look at Mazunte and other neighbors as well as Zipolite) has changed from a sector 1 (agricultural) to sector 3 (service-based) economy. Sector 2 is comercial and industrial.
He also said that Indonesia and Vietnam entering into the global coffee market affected coffee production on the coast much more than Huricane Paulina did in 1997. That did not negate, however, coffee growers from soliciting federal money for "losses".
The last thing he told me was to pay attention to three infrastructure projects that will affect the future of these towns imensly. Hotel chains, iron ore mining, and a huge transnational highway will all become more present in this region over the next 10 years or so. I should pay attention to how people think about these projects.

VOTE

Although geographically displaced from the election hubbub, I feel very close to the events. I don´t remember a more contested election. Maybe it´s just because I´m older now. I got an (hundreds of) email(s) from Moveon yesterday and it was a short list of reasons to vote in Massachusetts, despite the certainty of a democratic victory there. One of the reasons was a reference to the historic importance of electing the first African-American president. I was hoping that I wouldn´t hear something so simplistic so far into the campaigns at a stage where it is clear that there are substative differences between the candidates´ideologies and desires for the country. I suppose that many still see the two as emblematic of two opposing forces, demonstrated by everything from their speech to their appearance- which I admit it is hard to get past in politics as in the rest of our lives.

It´s also clear that many see this as a social movement in itself (especially due to the way the Obama campaign has been sloganing), and feel like the work will be done once Barak is elected. I hope that if he is (as it appears he will be) he will make it clear that the work is now just beginning.