Reintroducing Sustainable Agriculture is Hard, Understandably...

I've had a really positive week, gotten lots of planting done, though have been primarily working alone this week and liking the solitude. This week is registration for classes that begin in January so many of the school's teachers are there, signing students up. Most have been absolutely wonderful. Yesterday a lady bought me a lunch out of her own pocket and many others have come over to talk and learn about the garden project, thanking me for putting so much effort into it without getting paid. I explain that I'm doing it because I like to do it and that I couldn't imagine a healthier way to progress through my pregnancy, digging in soil and breathing the fresh air.

Today, however, a couple of the teachers came over and specifically the woman teacher, were very biting and mean, laughing at me in their native Tzutujil. There are only about 16, so I am recognizing all of their faces and the subjects they teach. For reasons I am not sure of, the female teacher acted very hateful towards me while I was explaining what I was doing, and told jokes to all the younger men hanging around her. I remember her from the first school board meeting, where she caused problems and eyerolling from nearly all of the other teachers and principal.

There is a very interesting dynamic here that I'm learning about quickly. Its like this in the US, too, just a little less obvious. The women, before their childbearing, are very competitive and mean towards other women in the village. They put one another down and laugh and demean each other for the benefit of the younger men. I suppose one could argue that its nature taking course, but I don't believe it. The women who opt out of this cruel self-tormenting system maintain great friendships, I belong to a couple of groups of them, myself--despite being several years older than them.

In any case, I am beginning to understand all of those International Development courses on the difficulties of being an "aid" or development worker....some people despise you because they see, more than you/me as "aid." I understand their anger and am at a loss at how to redirect it (obviously...I am and have been my entire life, broke and struggling...have never tried to live by taking advantage of someone else...I am not the rich people they are thinking of when they think of the USA...in fact, I only know a few of them!) I am not rich, I am not trying to steal any men from their community, I am only working to build food security in the village in a sustainable manner. To emphasize the importance of protecting the environment, to emphasize the ways in which they farmed a thousand years ago was actually the right way, to do away with the Green Revolution mentality and dominant development paradigms that have been applied top down (commercialism, right wing politicians always whiter than the natives teeth, and free trade zones that produce sweat shops and boast of being the only employment available), for the last 50 years. I understand it is hard to trust foreigners at this point...

But I am still angry at the female teacher's attitude: obviously, she doesn't have any children herself and doesn't care what is best for them. I feel like she would ruin the garden when I'm not around just to spite me and that....would make me cry. Stuck in between a rock and a hard place, literally (see pictures of site...)

Anyway, as of today, we can see tiny sprouts of cabbage, 3 types of lettuce, 2 types of flowers, corn, beans, watermelon, sweet peppers, chamomile, mint, perejil and amaranth! Think I may ask for some help tomorrow...Would like to get whole terrain planted by end of next week.
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