diciembre: A trip to Tlamacazapa

Because we never saw Winston’s work site during our orientation in August, we decided to go out to Tlamacazapa one random Saturday in December. It is no short hike either, Tlama is a small indigenous village in the mountains near Taxco. It is about two hours from Cuernavaca, and a good chunk of the trip up a mountain was on a dirt road with potholes big enough to fit lost, local livestock. It was a fun ride reminiscent of elementary and middle school field trips hoping for a bumpy ride in the back of the bus.

When we got there, we went to the Caminamos Juntos volunteer center in Tlamacazapa. The volunteers (including Winston) were there and preparing lunch with some of the members of the community. We ate and chatted with them and then we went with two young teenage girls on a tour of Tlama’s wells. The village has five wells spread around, one of which is basically at the top of the mountain. Well, our tour included all five wells, so this group of gringos started hiking up the mountain with these two indigenous girls. Sure enough, when we got to the top all of us gringos were sweating buckets, breathing a bit heavier than normal, and our guides were barely phased. Then we had to fill a big plastic jug with the water from the well (I’m guessing 10 gallons) and carry it back down. Well, not to promote gender roles or anything, but Erik and Jacob did the heavy lifting. Heidi gave it a shot once we were down on flatter land and for that I give her a lot of credit. It was no easy feat… and the people of the community do that trip a few times every week. Talk about humbling.

Then we went to the home of a local family. It was an open area with several, unattached "rooms" made of sticks and palm leaves. Although I hate to use the term "huts" because of the connotations and superiority complex that often come to mind, it was in essence a series of huts. It was simple living. With the help of the family we made some tortillas from "masa" (the dough) and a tortilla press. Then we cooked them on a fire-burning stove (basically a piece of flat metal over a flame). They were delicious and put our bagged flour tortillas at the grocery store to shame. *my mouth is watering just thinking about it*

The families in Tlama rely on selling palm artwork and baskets, so we learned from some experts (a.k.a. the same local family) how to weave little baskets. We eventually picked up the rhythm, and then after about thirty minutes of mediocre weaving, we found out that these baskets go for about $2.50 pesos (a little less than a quarter) in town and our poorly made renditions probably aren't even sellable. Haha. It was a simple example of Econ 101: when there is a lot of supply (and not necessarily much demand) the price of services/goods will be very low. This seems to be true with a lot of the artisan work and Mexican food – because so many people make the crafts and cook the traditional cuisine, it is all very inexpensive compared to what we might expect or be willing to spend.

The trip to Tlama was a very interesting glimpse at Winston’s reality. He works and sleeps in Tlamacazapa for over half of the week and then spends a few nights here in Cuernavaca at the Caminamos Juntos site here. The volunteers try to educate the people of the Tlama community about health and ways to protect themselves from the contaminated water (lead and arsenic) as well as provide basic education to the children. It was also an eye-opening experience and made me realize that we all fit our jobs well. Of all of the volunteers, I think Winston is the best one to fit the challenges and dynamics of Caminamos Juntos and the Tlamacazapa site. Reflecting on what he does week in and week out, it made me grateful for the work that I am doing and humbled by the recognition that I could never handle the service that Winston is called to do. So kudos to Winston for doing his thing and doing it well and thanks to Heidi for doing a darn good job with our work placements.