I'm ok

Had a bout of food poisoning and have also been really busy, but just wanted to let everyone know I'm ok. Leaving Managua tomorrow, thank god.

Robbery Count: 1

After a pleasant 8 hour bus ride from San Miguel to Managua, arriving in what is commonly understood to be the safest country in Central America, Susanna and I grabbed a taxi and went to the hotel that seemed the best fit from the description in our guidebook. It was a little difficult to tell the taxi where to go, since in Nicaragua the streets don't have names and there are no addresses, everything is located by describing its location relative to other things. We arrived at the hotel (the address of which is literally "one and 1/2 blocks west of the Ticabus station"), which is a fine place with a not-exactly-friendly staff, got a couple rooms and unloaded our stuff.

It was around 5pm, and we decided to go on a walk around the neighborhood, and see the nearby lake. We saw a number of different people along the way, saying hi to some, just walking past some others. It's just a normal residential neighborhood. The streets were littered with garbage, and the houses varied from run-down-shack to pretty-nice-place, but other than that, pretty much a normal Central American experience. After a few minutes, we walked past an old man, and some little kids playing. Straight ahead of us was a group of six thuggish looking tough guys who I'd guess were in their twenties. Three of them were coming towards us on bike, and three were walking towards us, but they were all approaching together. I saw them notice us, and then all look at each other. They got really close and one of the guys on a bike gave the others a nod, and then pulled out a gun. Two other guns came out immediately after. One guy with a gun went at Susanna. It all happened so fast that at first Susanna thought they were just kidding around, and then instinctively put up a struggle and tried to keep him from taking her backpack (including her video camera, $100, her reporter's notebook, and all of her contacts), but ultimately he won, leaving her bagless with her shirt a little torn up and feeling quite emotionally distraught, but otherwise unharmed.

The rest of the guys came after me.

The second I saw the guns, I put my hands in the air. I had no doubt about what was going on, and I wasn't about to get shot over some ultimately-not-important-compared-to-my-life objects. Immediately I had memories of stories people had told me about Central American thugs shooting people just for giving even the smallest sign of resistance. They were all over me before I could even get my hands all the way up, though, so it was a fairly meaningless gesture. Everything happened so fast, I can't even remember how it happened, but the next thing I know I'm laying on one of their bikes, which is laying on the ground (not exactly "posturpedic comfort" if you know what I mean.) with someone's foot pinning down my neck so I can hardly breath, and can't really see what's happening because my head is tilted to avoid foot-in-mouth-syndrome (I've had this many times before, but it's never been someone else's foot before).

I may not have been able to see everything that was going on, but they made damn sure I saw their guns, and I definitely paid notice. I don't really know anything about guns, but they looked like six-shooter pistols with BIG chambers. Several times I repeated in Spanish "take anything you want. There's no fight from me. Just take what you want." but, as expected, it didn't really effect their behavior towards me.

They went through all my pockets with great thoroughness, and I have a lot of pockets (9 to be exact). They got my wallet, which had some minimal cash--less than $20--my driver's license, student ID, and some other stuff I can't really remember. They also got my camera, which I just got, along with the 2GB memory card inside. Luckily I have uploaded the vast majority of my pictures to http://picasaweb.google.com/ogoldberg so I only lost the most recent stuff, but unfortunately, due to time constraints, many of the pictures weren't uploaded at their full resolution which is kind of a downer. I also lost my spanish-english dictionary, my sunglasses case, and my notebook with all my notes and contacts. If we've met you along our way through Central America, and you are reading this, please let me know your contact info so we can get in touch with you again. We'd hate to lose touch with anyone.

So, while going through all my pockets, they became aware of the fact that I was wearing a money belt. They started digging in my pants trying to get at it. Suffice it to say, this was rather uncomfortable and unappreciated. Fortunately, something occured a few days before, which at the time seemed like bad luck, but in retrospect was quite lucky. A few days before, the buckle of my money belt broke. At the time I was a little upset, because I didn't know what to do, but then I remembered that I had packed America's favorite tool: duct tape. I covered the strap and the broken buckle with duct tape, and, since the buckle no longer could unbuckle, started putting on the belt everyday like it was a pair of shorts, one leg at a time, before putting my pants on.

What does this all mean? It means that when those assholes tried to snap off my belt and run off with it, they weren't able to. This was very lucky, because I had my American and British passports, $300, my credit card, and my debit card in that little pouch. I would have been in a really, really bad position if they had managed to take that stuff. Go duct tape!

So they gave up on the money belt, but got everything else, and decided they were ready to go....after getting in a couple kicks. When I got up there was a whole bunch of people standing around, mainly kids, and some older people. I don't blame them AT ALL for not interfering. There were guns involved and there was nothing anyone could do.

Almost immediately after the thugs turned the corner, a police pickup drove by with a cop standing in the bed of the truck holding a fully automatic weapon. Everyone started yelling "Policia! Policia!" and there's no way they didn't hear us, put they just kept on truckin'. I asked someone to call the cops, but they told me someone already did. After waiting a good 20 minutes, they finally showed up. The thugs were surely long gone by now. If that first truck had only stopped they definitely could have caught them.

The cops asked some questions, and then asked us to get in the truck so they could take us back to the station. We got in and then the car turned the corner and then stopped. There was a mob of kids hanging around outside a house. The cops talked to some people and then suspected that the thugs and in fact entered this house JUST AROUND THE CORNER. I don't know if there was justification for them to think this, but they started to approach the house, and then decided against it since they are only 2 guys with guns, and the thugs were 6 guys with guns. Fair enough. I didn't think they would just go into some house around the corner anyways--but it doesn't matter. My stuff isn't worth anyone risking their lives for.

So they took us back to the station, we went through the arduous process of filing a police report in a foreign language, and it was done.

There's a lot more stuff I could talk about, catching up over the last few days, talking more about the cops, what we did today, etc., but this has already been a long blog entry, so I'll just leave it at this: Everyone is ok, no one was really hurttoo bad, no one was shot, we still have our important travel documents and credit cards, we both have travel insurance, and we look forward to the next couple days here in Managua, then Granada (Nicaragua), then onto Panama, Venezuela, and maybe Bolivia. We had a tough night last night, and a tough morning today, but things are looking up and we are going to go full steam ahead.

Day 20: San Salvador, some more

Some new pics of San Salvador are up at http://picasaweb.google.com/ogoldberg.

Yesterday was an interesting day. We started things off by gong over to the office of Asociación Pro-Búsqueda de Niñas y Niños Desaparecidos. Pro-Búsqueda is a Salvadoran organization that seeks to reunite families affected by El Salvador's 1980–1992 civil war. We spoke with one of their investigators. There was a nice British girl who volunteered there and was able to do most of the translating so I didn´t have to. It was kind of a relief, as translating these interviews can sometimes be a bit straining for me.

They seem to be a really great organization. As of yesterday they had 779 cases of disappeared children registered with them, 316 of which had been found. Of those 316, 80 were found to be dead. They have managed to create family meetings with 180 of the found children. Beyond this we heard even more stories of government neglect. The government here seems to be motivated only by self-interest. Recently there was even a case of a government minister fleeing to France with $45 million, money which was intended to go towards a potable water program.

Afterward speaking with Pro-Búsqueda, we went to the University of Central America to speak with their Human Rights office. They told us a lot of interesting things about the current state of human rights in El Salvador (very bad).

Later on, we met some folks around campus and hung out for a bit, then went out for a drink with some friends.

Gotta run! more soon. don´t forget to check out that photos link.

Press Darling

Thanks to the extremely kind and talented City Pages writer, Peter S. Scholtes, for mentioning my blog here, and to the Washinton Post for linking to me for linking to them (and thanks to my dad for pointing this out).

Day 19: More San Salvador

Today we tried in vain to meet with some people around town, but failed miserably. We ran late, people were out of town, people were busy, but we don't really mind. By the time we leave San Salvador we will have had some great meetings. We did have a crazy taxi incident today, though.

We flagged a taxi down near the National University. He took us a little way, and then stopped for gas. After "smooth-talking" the female attendant in a most questionable manner, he opened the hood, and we saw that smoke was coming out. He grabbed a hose and started spraying the engine with water. We discussed it for a second and decided that this was not the taxi for us. Any normal person at this situation would have then reached for the door handle and gotten out. Being the normal people that we are, we did this. Unfortunately, the handles were not there and we could not open the doors. We were stuck in the car! I stuck my head out the front window and asked one of the attendants if he would be so kind as open the door for me. He tried, but he couldn't!

A second later the cab driver gets in and starts the car. I told him we do not wish to be in his car for a second longer, but he just pretended not to hear me and started driving.

That really pissed me off.

I reached my hand forward, grabbed the e-brake, and jerked it up. Then I grabbed the stick and pulled it out of gear, and I repeated, very slowly and very carefully so there was no confusion, "We do not want to be in your car. Let us out." To this, he submitted. He did some weird trick to open the door, we got out, and to the gas attendants surprise went to the street and flagged down a different cab. There was no smoke coming fronm this one, and I felt much safer. When we finally arrived to our meeting place, our contact was not there anymore. The waiters said he had left about 5 minutes before--about the time it took to deal with that jerk. Very frustrating.

Also, I want to clarify something. In my Day 18: San Salvador blog, I didn{t mean to give the idea that EL Salvador was more developed than Guatemala, only that it was my first impression, and that the Taiwanese embassy reinforced this impression. After spending some time and talking to some people it is clear that El Salvador has a long, long, long way to go.

One perspective on the new events in the middle east

Below is an email my mom sent me explaining how she sees the current crisis in the middle east (edited slightly) and what life is like for her in that context. I just thought it was very valuable to see a first person account and wanted to share it. War is madness. I'm not interested in taking sides, I'm interested in peace and justice, but I think hearing the different sides in any disagreement is the first step to resolution. I'd love to post any first hand accounts anyone may have from this war, or any side of any war. Please send me one if you have it.

For background, my mom lives in a small town in south central Israel, near the southern point of the dead sea if you are looking at a map, called Arad. In the meantime, it is Northern Israel which is receiving rocket attacks from Hezbollah.

Click here for some of the latest developments.

Not really sure where to send you for a comprehensive analysis, but I'm sure that if you know how to use a search engine, you can find something without any help from me. I really think it's worth learning about (any suggestions?). The more I learn, the more confused I get, but sometimes confusion is a good thing. Often people who have all the simple answers aren't really looking very deep.

Anyways, here's my mom on the matter:

"After I wrote to you, I went to my acupuncture session and to my exercise class. I was bombarded with people asking me if I still have room for people from the north to stay. Apparently, at least half the people I know are hosting families from the north for as long as they can handle. My friend from Afula will probably come with her son. He has Down syndrome , and he is freaking out right now, so she doesn’t want to take him out of his familiar home, but if it continues she will come with him. Apparently, they needed to cancel all his activities but there is a strong support group for him and he is continuosly getting phone calls. He got a phone call today where he was asked to be on the board of the special Olympics or Macabia in Israel.

I glanced at the reports you suggested and was amazed at how one sided the news was. Mainly on Labanon, and hardly a thing about Israels side.

Clearly, we could have given the 3,000 hezbolla a million dollars each and it would have been like dirt cheep solution, but their goal is not to resolve the conflict until Israel is eliminated. If you could have understood the Arabic you would realize that this is not Israeli propaganda but just plain fact. The whole situation started off with rockets from Hezbolla and the kidnapping of soldiers. There was an agreement that the Lebanese army would dismantle them, but instead they have been receiving rockets, including long range from Iran, and support from Syria, who wants the situation to be volatile, because they want the opening for the oil pipes from Syria to the mediteranian to be in their hands.



Lebanon used to be the dream of every Israeli as the first country to be in peace with Israel. There are also Christians and various Moslems sects all living together and we thought that if they can do it, we can do it too.

Unfortunately neither of us are doing a good job.



The UN force that was there in the past just vanished when the attacks against Israel began, so now nobody trusts them.

So what can Israel do?

It could dismantle the rocket launchers, destroy the rockets, and destroy the 3000 army soldiers/terrorists/ etc.

Ask Lebanon to be in control of her territory, by providing them with a destroyed minority army and allow the Lebanese army get control.

All this is the theory. Now - good luck with the outcome.



I wish I could believe we could have avoided the destruction. I feel sorry for all the families in Lebanon that are not involved. The language at wartime is fascinating.

Lebanese that move elsewhere are called refugees, Israelis that are moved are called going on vacation.



We, in Israel have absolutely nowhere to go when we are attacked. Just to each other’s homes, therefore we are afraid to take risks. Like letting the hezbolla get any stronger in Lebanon which will allow Syria to take over. Though my brother thinks it would probably be better for us because then Syria could not pretend she doesn’t control Lebanon through the hezbollah.


In the mean time, Arad is getting crowded and the artist colony are preparing clowns and theater shows in the evenings for the children that are “on vacation”.

The weather is hot so the aairconditioned mall is full. We discovered that some families from the north have absolutely no regard to water shortages, so we are also educating them on the subject of water.

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Day 18: San Salvador

You would not believe the amazing bus we rode from Guatemala City to San Salvador! It was like riding first class in a really nice airline. There were attendants, meals, movies, and incredibly plush, comfortable seats. It was fantastic. $27. Eat that greyhound! The 6 hour trip in that King Quality bus went by sooo fast compared to the 2 hour trip in a cramped "Chicken Bus" between Antigua and Guatemala City. Those buses are left over U.S. school buses (the ones that aren't good enough for Americans anymore) with 3 to every seat and the aisle comleted filled with people standing in cramped conditions the whole way.

From now on it's King Quality all the way.

Our first impression of San Salvador was that the people here have a much more comfortable life than the people of Guatemala City. Things are much cleaner here, and the streets, even though there is barbed wire and protective walls around most of the houses, seem more tranquil. Our suspicions were reinforced by a visit to the Taiwan embassy, who told us that things are really great in El Salvador and that the standard of living is like in the U.S. People even use U.S. dollars here. They have their own currency, but according to the Taiwanese press person (who, I should mention, was unable to even mention the names of 2 important newspapers in El Salvador) it's better for the economy to use U.S. dollars. Can't say that makes a whole lot of sense to me, but please let me now if you are able to follow that logic.

We decided to visit the National University of El Salvador next. 2 Weeks ago there was a peaceful demonstration there aginst the government attack on the autonomy of the university. In reaction, there was a massive repression by the police, involving guns, tear gas, helicopters and a subsequent fear on the part of the students and the professors who spoke out in solidarity with them. We wanted to hear how the students were doing now.

We managed to find the student journalist group and spoke with a representative there. He told us that contrary to what the Taiwanese Embassy may have told us, 75% to 80% of the people of El Salvador live in extreme poverty, on average earning something like $130 per month for a "household" of 4. I put household in quotes, because he said that it is totally normal for most of these people to live in a house made of cardboard, plastic, and branches. Earlier we had eaten at the student cafeteria and been astounded at the low price of $1.25 for a full plate of food and a bottle of water, but now it seems really expensive for someone supporting 4 people on $130 a month. The journalism student told us he would be happy to show us one these poor neighborhoods, and in fact, felt that is very important that we see what life is like for these people and get the word out. We will be going sometime this week, either with him, or with someone from a Buddhist Humanitarian organization that is working with victims of the latest earthquakes.

Before we left, he wanted to show us some interesting murals around campus. Hopefully they will be available by the time I post this blog at

http://picasaweb.google.com/ogoldberg

I'm having some problems uploading though, so you may have to wait a little bit.
As a product of the Civil War in the 1970s and 1980s, the murals are all quite revolutionary, and once again we see Che Guevera's mug prominently displayed everywhere we go, only this time Fidel Castro is quite often up there with him, which is quite interesting as we haven't really seen much of that up until now.

One thing you may also see in those pictures is yet another car with a swastika on it. We asked our friend why we keep seeing swastikas in Central America. Are people here facists? Do they hate Jews? His answer was no. He said that people simply think it's a cool looking symbol, and really have no idea what it means. He says that the people of El Salvador are terribly ignorant, and really need to be better educated. This was circumstantially proven when we subsequently quizzed a passerby as to the meaning of said swastika. His response? "That's the symbol of Russia, right?"

When I told him it was in fact a symbol of the Nazis, he said, "Right. That's what I said: the Russians."

How quickly we forget such important lessons. Don't you dare think that the world will be ok if we just sit by and watch ignorance like this spread through the world's communities like a virus. We need to always be working on the vaccine, and we can't ever stop, because the virus is always changing, growing and getting stronger. We must do the same.

Ok. I'm done with my pedantry now.

Susanna and I want to help our journalist friend here in El Salvador get published. The media and government here are so repressive that only one message has the opportunity to get expressed, the message of the Right Wing. We are going to try to get him and his fellow students the chance to get published regularly in alternative media around the world. Hopefully, using the money from these articles, they can eventually build their own independent media organization to counter the big business and big government monopoly on opinion, and truly educate the people.

Tomorrow we are meeting up with a local poet that our good friends from Guatemala City told us about. They were so nice and told us about so many people and so many things. I hope to keep in touch with them.

The owner of our hotel is also a poet and a journalist with revolutionary tendencies. He says that he was friends with Che Guevera. Awesome...even if it isn't true.

Looks like the whole photo thing might not work out for today, but I'll try to get them up as soon as possible.

Day 17: Antigua, Guatemala (again)

So the Mayan ceremony was very nice, and I learned quite a lot about Mayan culture, both from the experience itself, and from German's in depth explanations. It was a very long ceremony, though, longer than we expected. I was hoping to spend a little more time actually talking with German, but duty called and we had to go.

We went to speak with a representative of ODHAG, the human rights of arm of the Guatemalan Catholic Church. It was quite informative to hear about the church's history of work with the indigenous people, and some of the divisions within the church regarding how these people should be treated.

Afterwards, we decided it was time to deal with a "situation" that's been causing a little stress. Around a week ago, when we left Antigua for Guatemala City, Susanna realized that she left a CD with a bunch of her only copies of several photos in a computer at the internet cafe in the hotel in Antigua (Hotel Posada Angelina--very nice people). She realized this while we were in the shuttle bus to the city. Since we figured the shuttle bus driver probably makes the same trip several times a day, we asked him if he would be so kind as to grab the CD and bring it back on his next trip to Guatemala City. He said he'd be happy to, but suffice it to say, this never happened. He did grab the CD, but he never delivered it to us, thus creating the worst possible scenario. If he had simply left it, things would be much easier, but now we had to track him down somehow.

Last night we came to Antigua to find him. Apparently, we just missed him, and by the time we gave up, there were no more buses to Guatemala City. We decided to spend the night in Antigua rather than paying for a taxi all the way there. This morning, we went to have breakfast at the place next to the travel agency that the driver works with, and in he walks, with disc in hand. We were glad we missed the last bus to Guatemala City, or we never would have gotten the disc back. Another tragedy averted!

By the way, I met some more Norweigans girls last night. What is it with Norweigan girls and Central America? They're everywhere! I thought there were a lot in Minnesota, but this is ridiculous.

We will find out soon whether or not we can meet Rigoberta Menchu. If so, we stay another day, if not, we will be in El Salvador by this evening.

By the way, there are some more Guatemala City pictures up at http://picasaweb.google.com/ogoldberg

New photos

see new photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/ogoldberg.

Hopefully, I´ll have some more photos and explanations for everything later, but I have to go because we are going to meet our new blind-sociologist-Mayan-shaman-poet friend, German (pronounced like Herman--you can see him in the pics. He's the guy reading braile.), because he has invited us to visit a Mayan ritual ceremony this morning. He is a great guy, quite brilliant, and I´m looking forward to it.

Not much time to update

When I have some more time, I'll post some pictures and some updates.

In the meantime you can read this and this.


whoa.

Day 13: Guatemala CIty

We had a great time yesterday meeting lots of interesting people. Today we will meet several more, and each person we meet has so many interesting stories and things to tell us. Everyone is very nice! Lots of cool people coming up.

Fun facts about Guatemala City:

-It´s the biggest city in Central America.

-In Zona 1, I have seen more armed soldiers, policemen, and private security guards then anywhere I´ve ever been (including Israel), and they are all carrying things like uzis, ak47s, and m-16s, while they just stand there for hours on end protecting banks, store-fronts, schools, and government buildings. I'm pretty sure some of them are on drugs, which is probably really good for everyone.

Did the sarcasm come through there?

Speaking of Israel, whoa. Now they are bombing a civilian international airport at the height of tourist season, and the U.S. is all about it. World War 3 anyone? Feels like we're on the brink.

Wish I was kidding. Things are getting crazy up in this.

And in case anyone is wondering, the robbery count is still holding strong at Zero. I haven´t been posting pictures, because, well, Guatemala City just ain´t that pretty.

Day 12: Guatemala City

When we arrived in Guatemala City yesterday, we weren't exactly sure what our agenda was. We only had one person we knew we wanted to contact and neither of us had ever met him, and the only thing we really knew about the city is that everyone told us to be extremely careful and not to go out at night. It's so bad here that apparently people are even known to steal glasses from each other.

No robberies yet though.

We were talking to the guy at the desk of the hotel we are staying at (ironically dubbed the Colonial Hotel, which is surprisingly nice) and it turned out that he often volunteered at a human development organization in town. Lucky us! He gave us the info, and this morning we walked over there. The people there were very nice and taught us quite a bit about the current state of things. They also directed us to some other good resources. One of the places was just a couple blocks away, in the Cathedral. As we walked over there, we noticed there was a whole gaggle of media folks outside the Cathedral covering a story about students and teachers standing up against government attempts to reform the educational system, in what is apparently a negative way. They were meeting with the Cardinal today. It seems that the Guatemalan Catholic Church plays a very prominent role in the the human rights struggle here, and liberation theology is apparently a strong interest of Susanna's.

Well, the Cathedral's human rights office was closed, so we decided to talk to some of these media people. They were very friendly and gave us lots of info. Tonight we are having dinner with some Guatemalan TV news anchor...I didn't catch his name...and we a lot more potential contacts to work with now.

I have to go now because we have a meeting.
More soon.

Day 11: Antigua, Guatemala

Yesterday I went on a trip to see a Volcano. You can see my photos of that, and lots more at http://picasaweb.google.com/ogoldberg.

It was an awesome time. The hike up was gruelling. Our guide has been doing the same hike twice a day for years, so he went really fast, and I'm totally out of shape. But when we got to the top it was totally worth it to see red hot lava flowing right next to me! Wow! It was hot. Some people's soles melted right off their shoes! I lost some of my tread, which made the hike down a little slippery, but I didn't fall so I'm happy. We saw a snake that the guide said is really dangerous. He says that if it had bit one of us, we'd have about ten minutes to live. That was very comforting.

Met some nice people on the trip, and afterwards went out for a drink with a Norweigan girl that had an Australian accent and some of her friends. Good times!

In about an hour we are catching a van to Guatemala City, where we intend to not get mugged. Intentions are worth something, right?

Day 10: Antigua, Guatemala

Yesterday was spent in a van. From 6:45 am to around 6 pm. The ride from San Cristobal de las Casa, Mexico to Antigua, Guatemala is both strikingly beautiful and utterly nauseating. The views that we saw from the bus were awe-striking, looking down from mountains to see lush green forests, mountainscapes, volcanoes, enourmous lakes, and indigeous guatemalans in colorful garments washing vegetables at the top of an enormous waterfall, these were things that I wish I had captured with my camera. Unfortunately, the windy roads, constantly changing altitudes, and cramped conditions of the van we rode in made this utterlty impossible. All I could do for most of the trip was focus on my breathing so I didn't throw up. And, I'm proud to say, I was successful. The trip was vomit free!

Actually, we rode three different vans, and they were quite international. The first and second van had an Italian couple, a Danish couple, and California couple, and two Dutch girls. The third van had a woman from Argentina, a woman from El Salvador, two Australian girls, a French couple, and some more Americans. It was fun talking with and relating to all these people from all these different places. Most of the people in the vans were extremely nice, and we exchanged contact info in hopes of staying in touch. It was nice to get a chance to work on my Italian a bit, too. It's been a long time, and I'm way more rusty than I even thought. I really need to put a lot more work in on my French too if I ever want to be able to hold a decent conversation. I find myself often mixing up languages, especially, peculiarly enough, throwing in Hebrew words when I speak Spanish. That really isn't useful for anyone.

I have to say though, my Spanish has improved dramatically in the last 10 days, and I can really communicate quite effectively 90% of the time, and the other 10% always gets worked out somehow.

Anyways, we are in Antigua now. In many ways, it's almost identical to San Cristobal. Similar size, similar architecture and painting on buildings, comparable amount of tourists. It seems to be a little poorer, and maybe a bit smaller though, and we also saw more people walking around at night who had peed their pants (2).

This afternoon we are going to spend 7 hours climbing up and down an active volcano so that we can look inside and see the lava. Pretty sweet, eh? If I make it back I'll make sure you see some pictures.

Day 7: Takin' it Easy in San Cristobal

Yesterday we didn't really do too much. We explored San Cristobal a bit, hung out at the internet "cafe" (I met a couple of nice Israeli girls who I managed to help quite a bit by knowing both Hebrew and Spanish--they are on a long trip in Mexico and hardly know any Spanish. Good luck, ladies!) and in the evening Susanna and I met with the head of the human rights group, Capise. He was extremely nice and hospitable. He explained how the Zapatista system of government and autonomy actually work, which was extremely interesting.

It would be presumptuous of me to try to break it all down for you in this space, but if you are interested in learning more about the Zapatistas in a more general way, here are a couple of articles you can read:

http://www.narconews.com/Issue38/article1416.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapatista_Army_of_National_Liberation

Afterwards, we tried to find a party that these Norweigan girls told us about. We actually met the girls in Mexico City at the Atenco rally with the Machetes I talk about below. They are human rights observers. We ran into them in town and they told us about this party, but I gave my flyer to the Israeli girls, knowing that Susanna had one too, but she lost hers, and we couldn't find the place at all. We were tired anyways, so whatever...

Today has been extreeeeeeemely relaxed. We went to a Mayan market about half an hour away. I'll put some pictures up later. Then we just hung out for the rest of the day. It was pretty rainy. Lots of internet time today. We also went to a really good Italian restaurant here in San Cristobal.

Tomorrow we are catching a van to Antigua, Guatemala at 6:45 am. Sure hope I can sleep on the bus!

Next chance I get I'll put up as many more pictures as I can.

Hasta luego!

Online Photo Album

From now on I'm going to try to put all the photos I possibly can at

http://picasaweb.google.com/ogoldberg

Check it out!

I also put up a stat counter below, so I (and you) can see how many people are visiting my blog, where they are from, and some other stuff. Don't worry, no one can see any personal info. I just put it up within the last hour and I've already gotten hits from 3 different countries! Exciting!

I'm internationally famous. You have to treat me differently now.

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Day 6: San Cristobal de las Casas and Acteal, Chiapas, Mexico

TONS of new pictures below!

Yesterday we went to visit a human rights organization whose name escapes me at the moment. They gave us some good info and directed us to a few other offices. After stopping by one other office, we took their advice and caught a taxi to Acteal, a little mountain village adjacent to a Zapatista Autonomous Zone in the mountains a couple of hours from the safe, colonial, touristy feeling of San Cristobal:






We were dropped off in the middle of a small mountain road surrounded by trees and some small huts. The taxi driver said that if we give him 70 pesos, he would come back for us at 5:30 pm. We couldn´t imagine a lot of taxis driving up and down this isolated road in the middle of nowhere, so we agreed and paid him.

The taxi left and, as if to prove that we were stuck in some corny hollywood movie, a man in white robes and a sombrero appeared out of nowhere, and led us exactly where we wanted to go.




The main office of the organization that is leading this village was located at the bottom of some winding steps, hidden amongst several rundown shanty houses that the people of this village call home. As we walked down the steps, a few strangely deformed chickens ran in front of us. Never really got an explanation for the chickens, but the man did explain to us that in 1997 a group of para-militaries gathered 45 of the local villagers, mainly women and youth, into a room which he brought us to, and, unprovoked, killed them all. My understanding of his explanation is that this happened because they are Catholics, although this seems incomplete. They have turned the room into a memorial, with pictures of the victims, paintings, and other honorary expressions, including some Catholic symbols. Suffice it to say, this was a sad room to stand in.

These links are both outdated by a few years, but are generally quite informative:

Here is info on the Acteal Massacre.

Here is more info on the Acteal Massacre.

He brought us to the office, where we met "el presidente". He was kind enough to grant us an interview. Up until this moment, we were under the impression that this village was part of the militant Zapatista Autonomous Zone. We were right about one thing: this village is autonomous. But Acteal is far from militant. In fact, they are self-declared pacifists. They believe strongly that the fight for indigenous rights should be a fight of peace. All they want is the freeedom to work the land, have drinkable water, be healthy, and not be required to give up everything they have for nothing. They also want justice for the people who slaughtered them mercilessly.

We wished him the best, and asked if it would be ok to visit a couple families, to see how they live, to see what day-to-day life is like for them. He asked someone
to guide us and introduce us to some families.


The families didn´t speak any Spanish, just their indigenous language, so the guide translated for me, and I translated for Susanna. Tough to say if the conversations that occured went at all the way I thought they did, but there seemed to be a general understanding. Basically, these people are extremely poor, quite sick, and have no help from anyone. They live in unsanitary huts, and are forced to be self-sufficient. They asked us to please get the word out about them so that maybe another country, or some international group can bring them aid, because the Mexican government doesn´t care about them at all, and has provided nothing in the way of aid.

We gave them the small amount of money that we could afford and went to the meeting spot we agreed on with the taxi driver. It was getting a little late, and we became a little concerned. While talking to the people of Acteal, we realized that they have an hour difference from the standard time of the area, and we began to wonder which time the taxi driver went by.

Eventually the driver showed up. He got out of the car and said that we owed him more money. We did not take this well, as we already had a clear agreement about the cost of the trip, but we were in sticky situation because not many cars come through the area. I pointed out that not only had we previously agreed on an amount of money, but that there were now more people in the car and less room available. He opened the door to show me that there was enough room, and Susanna and I jumped in the cab. We told him that if he insisted on charging more that we will simply get out of the car and catch another ride as soon as he returned the money we already gave him for the return trip. At this point he submitted, and we had a nice ride back to San Cristobal.

In the meantime the election rigamarole continues. Obrador has now asked the people to hit the streets, and there is supposed to be a big rally in Mexico City today. We are to far away to check it out, but here in Chiapas, the general attitude seems to be, "who cares?", at least among the indigenous. It seems that none of the candidates talk at all about in indigenous rights. They all ignore the needs of these people, who are the ones who need the most support in this time of repession and corporate exploitation. None of them talk about the political prisoners, the massacres, the stealing of land, the repression. The closest they can do is talk about "the poor", but this is about much more than just poverty, this is not just a class issue. These people are disregarded because of who they are, they are not treated the way people should be treated, and they are fighting for something different, something meaningful.

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