They don't teach campesino Spanish in college
So I continue settling in here. I haven't traveled further than the nearest town in several weeks now. I am working at two high schools, an elementary school and doing a number of private classes as well. The locals are beginning to recognize me. They still snicker because I don't understand the local speech. This is a subject that brings out the language fascist in me; can't we all just use established norms of communication with one another? Of course, the answer is no, unless you're a fan of strict hegemony and/or academic elitism (which I'm not). So, I've been doing my best to learn a new dialect.
So, last week I had internet through my iPhone and then the iPhone encountered a mysterious "error" and wouldn't boot. To restore it, I had to (according to Apple) upgrade to a new software package, and that software package destroyed my ability to use my phone in Costa Rica. C'est la vie. I'm working on another method of getting internet out to the boonies, but I'm only in the planning stages. Basically it involves a 3G USB modem. And when I get it set up, I am going to use my iPhone to make all the Skype calls I can just to spite Apple and AT&T.
Let's see. So it was the 26th that my phone broke. That was about the same day I got over the cold that my new friend Frenzel gave me. On the 28th there was a big to-do at the school and I was part of the entertainment. I got to play guitar for about 30 visitors from the Ministry of Public Education. They asked for an encore. It was pretty sweet. Everyone in Colonia Libertad is pretty intrigued by my guitar playing. People listen to me play for hours on end. This is because they don't mind country music. In Seattle I'm usually seen as a good guitar player but I seldom play for people for hours and hours because most of the songs I know are country songs. This is a little known fact about me that has now been published. What's to become of my reputation? Maybe I can apply for amnesty in Nashville?
Nobody showed up for the high school/adult evening English classes last week. There is this attitude in the community that has been explained to me as "if someone's neighbors don't do something (like get up in the morning) then they probably won't either." This sort of lack of individual initiative has proven to be a barrier to organizing a coherent schedule for English classes. With the kids, for example, I was going to teach English to them on Thursdays and Fridays so that I could free up the rest of the week for providing help where it's most needed (to the high-schoolers). But, I saw pretty quickly that Thursday and Friday are considered goof-off days and that the majority of the kids are allowed to leave by 11 a.m. or so. I have had a number of talks with community members about the importance of taking advantage of the free English classes.
Yeah, I know. Learning English should not be a prerequisite to survival in a globalized economy. In fact, people shouldn't have to depend on a globalized economy for their survival. What's more, subsistence farmers don't need some gringo to come and tell then about rugged individualism and the values of anglo society. OK. While I am a proponent of these concepts, I have to admit that this trip is definitely testing the strength of my conviction. Yes, Colonia Libertad is full of subsistence farmers. Yes, if all 8 of the bridges leading to their homes broke tomorrow and were never fixed, they would be able to survive just fine. But Colonia Libertad has a major problem, and that is that the non-campesino world is coming to them via satellite and cable, and they are often more interested in that world than they are in their own world. This is a situation similar to that of the Shuar youth who I met and talked with on my visits to Ecuador. The youth here are very interested in the Honda Evo 6, they are very interested in SUVs, they are very interested in PlayStation and Wii and portable computers, they are very interested in American rock & roll and hip hop (especially of the gangster rap variety), and they are not very interested in subsistence farming.
The kids here are playing Metallica and Guns N' Roses on their guitars just like I did a decade ago in high school. They are wearing American clothes. Their parents pay a high price for this, a price that I would venture to say they can't really afford ("afford" in capitalist, protestant-ethic terms). This is an interesting representation of identity given that these same teenagers live in shacks. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with living in a shack, but the aspirations of these young people exceed their means, and at some point I feel like they are going to become very disappointed with their lot and disillusioned with life in general if they cannot find a way to procure the things that they want for themselves.
I know. It's just as well that they become disillusioned with the capitalist system, because that disillusionment will fuel the fire of the multitude and eventually the multitude will band together and create another more equitable empire. And that's pretty easy for me to say coming from a privileged perspective. I make the choice to not have a steady income. I make the choice to be a neo-hippie. I make the choice to be a Marxist. And yet here I am in a motel room that most of my students' families can't afford writing a blog (what's a blog?) on my MacBook (what's a MacBook?) and what hits me more than just the injustice of the situation is the hypocrisy of the Marxist perspective in certain situations.
What I mean is, the majority of the kids I am teaching are perfectly capable of becoming university associates. They are perfectly capable of finding the kinds of jobs here that will allow them to fulfill their material desires. Not all of those jobs require English (some do), but they all require a willingness to conform to the work ethic. We can debate that notion until we're blue in the face; I happen to hate the term "work ethic" because it pertains to a set of ideas that tend to imply that "someone" can make a millionaire out of themselves no matter what class they were born into. This is a sociological falsehood, even if it remains a remote economic possibility. Nevertheless, it seems shameful to deny someone the choice between becoming part of the capitalist rat-race (if that's what they really want) or becoming an individual force of anti-capitalism (if, by their own initiative, they decide that capitalism must end) or, as I do, taking from capitalism only the things that they want while helping to organize communities so that they can demand a greater measure of social justice.
This is not meant to be an apologia pro insignare angleis. It's meant to be a rambling discussion that brings the socioeconomic and educational situation of people who are considered "marginal" or "peripheral" by "first world" economic fascists to the center. These are ideas that I will most likely be struggling with for the remainder of my stay here. Anyone who reads this is welcome to chime in.
Che Gringo
In other news, once I was pretty sure I would be able to sell it and recoup some of my loss at the end of my stay, I went ahead and bought a motorcycle so that I could fulfill my teaching appointments without having to depend on the bus and getting stuck overnight. Of course, it's only sensible to use the motorcycle when it's not raining, which provides another set of challenges, but I am much more mobile now.
The motorcycle is an off-brand "que ni se sabe" (that nobody knows) called ChanLin. It has a Suzuki drivetrain, 125cc. The day I bought it was definitely one of the best days of my life. Riding my new motorcycle was liberating, to say the least. It only took me an hour to learn, and when I was riding back home on the dirt road at 40 km/h with the sun shining and the wind in my hair, with the silhouettes of the mountains around me, I felt unstoppable.
Of course, the next day I found out that motorcycles are anything but unstoppable. My chain broke on a rock and I had to push the darn thing to a local handyman to get help. But since then I have been tearing up the local highway. I can't go very far yet because I don't have the plates and registration stickers. But I do plan to post some pictures of my adventures with it.
I might even be able now to haul out some of the plastic that will otherwise be burned. We'll have to save the discussion on the environment of Colonia Libertad for another time. I gotta go teach!
From Guayabo,
Chaim
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