Yet again, excuse any grammar mistakes. I have things to do that are actually worth credit.
Manzo:
My first day Manzo Elementary School lived up to and exceeded my expectations. Moses Thompson, a counselor and the leader of the school’s ecology and sustainability movement, is incredibly charismatic, caring, and visionary teacher. He is really one of a kind. http://www.ediblebajaarizona.com/growing-education-and-edibles/ Oh yeah, he was also in National Geographic http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/news/cultivating-life-sonoran-desert/?ar_a=1 Megan, a BSP student from Oberlin College, and I met Moses Thompson on Monday to plan and to discuss our weekly schedules and tasks. Afterwards, he gave us a tour of Manzo and dropped us off at Mrs. Gonzalez’s class to help 3rd graders with reading games. If I got the whole story, Mrs. Gonzalez specializes in Hispanic and Ethnic studies (She has a graduate degree), but was stopped due to HB 2281 in July 2009 when the state decided to censure and cancel all Hispanic and ethnic studies classes to stop inspiring the Latinos to rise up and to retake the American Southwest in the Aztlán movement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/. She now teaches at Manzo elementary, but appears in many public meetings to lead discussions on Hispanic and ethnic studies. http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/education-vs-fear/Content?oid=2333270
Okay, so after meeting some of the major visionary and political movement leaders for sustainability and anti-racism in Arizona and the American southwest, I met some of the students. I picked up some children names, but right now I have to see them to remember them. The kids were very bright and really cute. In Mrs. Gonzalez’s class, Megan and I helped different table groups with reading comprehension games. One game, ‘Context Clues’ where the kids have to figure out a certain word’s meaning through its context, was pretty fun. Interestingly, the word that always stumped the kids was ‘queasy.’ That is understandable though. The ‘q’ and the ’u’ are curve balls. After working in the class, Megan and I moved to the Cafeteria to assist with the composting system. The system is great! The kids separate the recyclables, from the compost, and the chicken feed. After lunch, several kids who help us mange the station predict how much compost and chicken feed we collected. They make a guess in kilograms and then weigh the buckets to find a difference. They record the data daily and it is a great addition and subtraction exercise. On Monday we only have a half-day, so we left at 1 to bike to the Historic Y for Riley’s Roots and Routes of Migration Class. For lunch we went to Tanias, Mexican Restaurant on Grande. It was delicious! I got a veggie quesadilla and we shared a bag of freshly made chips, guacamole, and salsa. I died.
On Thursday, Megan and I returned to Manzo for a full day of work. When I arrived, I found Moses frantically hiding paint cans, tools, and propane tanks because the safety inspector decided to make surprise visit. I went to work quickly hiding any and all potentially dangerous thing around the school. We passed the inspection and the school did not shut down, so I thankfully still have an internship. After hiding the tools, Moses handed me off to Mrs. Crow who needed my help moving a larger blue bucket full of books from her truck to her classroom. Three boys from her kindergarten class helped us. I handed each of them a stack of books to carry and I lifted the remainder in the bucket. My time with Mrs, Crow lasted another hour because she put me to work helping the kids select and prepare corn kernels to be hung in bags on the window. Hopefully the corn will germinate, but the corn might have been too old. After I help a quite young boy named Vittorio, I asked him to send Violet up next. He seemed a little confused, so I asked him if he knew who she was and if she was here today? He seemed to understand because he promptly left his seat to grab her. As I began to write Violet’s name on a plastic sandwich bag, I caught a glimpse of Vittorio walking straight out of class. I thought he probably just went to the restroom. Confused and fighting off my camp staff mind of “kid on the loose,” I continued preparing another bag with Aaron, a child sitting nearby. Ten minutes later, a woman from the main office escorted Vittorio back to class. Apparently he walked to the main office to ask if Violet was at school. I explained to Mrs. Crow what had happened, and she was amused. Apparently, Vittorio is one of her brighter students.
After Mrs. Crow’s class, I assisted students in their morning gardening chores. Today, like Monday, was recording the important data, aerating it and shoveling it. I worked with RJ and Daniela, both 3rd graders. They were great, and knew how everything worked. Manzo kids are responsible and work hard in the garden. If this were Boy Scouts, from my experience, I would have needed to keep reminding them and pushing them to stay on task.
After assisting the morning chores, Megan and I moved to Mrs. Gonzalez’s class to help out with reading again. We did this on Monday too, but this time around it ran much more smoothly. A girl named Mariah, who needed to go to the bathroom, raised her hand to ask if she could go to the bathroom. I told her that she needed to ask Mrs. Gonzalez if she could go. Since the class was divided into smaller groups, Mrs. Gonzalez, who was working with the slower readers, could not see Mariah. I told her that she needed to go up and ask, but she refused, believing she would get in trouble. Things turned south quick. Mariah threw a tantrum, but Mrs. Gonzalez noticed Mariah’s hand before it got out of control. Moses told me later that Mariah has a hard home life and that he was not surprised.
Megan and I then went to lunch at Pat’s drive in diner. We only got some fries, but they were pretty soft. Pat’s, apparently legendary, pretty much only serves bread in conjunction with some sort of meat. Unfortunately they did not have any Sonoran hot dogs. 
The place was pretty grungy, but Riley, the head of BSP, recommended it. Apparently it’s a local legend. On the way to Pat’s, an electrocuted crow fell with a thud from a telephone pole directly in front of us. The moment was really something. Both Megan and I were shocked. We thought it was a bad omen, but Moses later told us that we should buy a lottery ticket or something. We did not in the end.
After lunch, Megan and I helped to direct the cafeteria lunch composting, which looks like it will forever be a mess. The food scraps normally go where they need to go, but kids were always running into and reaching over each other. Trying to make the line straight and single file would have likely made the process longer. Our student helpers, Heaven, Moses, and Sam, who were special needs kids, were very helpful and kept the area clean. After an hour and a half, lunch was over so another group of kids came to help weigh the compost and chicken feed, which they then gave to the chickens to eat.
After cafeteria lunch, I took a bunch of uneaten grapes to the worm troth and buried them deep for the worms to munch on. The rest of the day was devoted to harvesting foods for the Manzo market, which happens every two weeks on Thursday. Megan and I were tasked with picking the kumquats. For those who do not know, the kumquat tree is designed to fight those who attempt to pick its delicious fruit. There are thousands of small branches and twigs ready to cut and scrap. Megan and I took ladders and climbed through the branches to get on to the school’s overhang that was adjacent to the tree. From there, we were able to pick in peace and catch some rays.
After the picking, Megan and I helped to gather some cilantro and assisted the students in running the after school Manzo market. The local community loves the market. All the food is organic and cheap. Teachers, students, and parents of students only have to pay a dollar for a good batch of freshly pick and organic broccoli. Megan and I just supervised the operation, but really the kids did not need us. They handled the money and ran the show. It was really impressive. 
Homestay:
For the remainder of the abroad program, and when we’re not in Guatemala and Mexico, I’ll be staying with the Ahumada family in Barrio Hollywood, which is the oldest neighborhood in Tucson. Silva, the mom is a single mother and strong Sonoran woman, her mother Nana (I’ve yet to hear her name) only speaks Spanish and is also a strong Sonoran woman. Silva has three children, Jorge who is 14, Gabe who is nine, and Esmeralda who is seven. Both Gabe and Esmeralda go to Manzo, which just so happens to be directly across the road from where I live. I have a great location. I see both of them pretty frequently when I am interning at Manzo. The first night of the homestay, I played basketball with Gabe and Esmeralda at Manzo. It was a balmy 70 degrees even after the sun went down. Gabe is quite the baller. He can drain shots from all over the court; he just needs to get more confident doing it. He is really good rebounder though. Esmeralda is good too, but needs to add a bit more strength before she can really compete. Gabe is a really good big brother; he is really protective and caring. I have actually never heard them fight.
They also have a white lab named ‘Chamey,’ who loves to bark at me. We just need to spend some good quality time together. The family is amazing. Nana and Silva are amazing cooks. I died again. All the food is traditional and delicious. My hot food tolerance is getting better too.
My room is great too. I have a king size bed, plenty of drawers to store my small amount of clothes, and a new desk and lamp. The second day, Silva realized I did not have desk. Concerned, she secretly got a small desk and lamp, and set it up in my room when I was at school. I had told her before that it was not necessary, but I very appreciative of it. I’m actually using the desk to type on right now. Also, Silva randomly got me a box of Reese Fastbreak bars and some yogurt covered granola balls. My family is great!!!!
I spend a lot my time in the city though, which is a short 10 minute bike ride from where I live. Tucson is really bike friendly. There are ton of boulevards and bike boxes. The only downside is that there are some pretty bumpy side streets occasionally. Regardless, it feels pretty safe switching lanes and navigating traffic.
My bike ride to the Historic Y, an old YMCA building converted into office space and theater is only 10 minutes from Barrio Hollywood. The Border Studies Classroom and offices are here. My favorite part of the building is the courtyard/patio space. The space has several tables to work at, trees for shade, a bike shop, and a CSA market every week. On Wednesday, my front tire went flat. Silva graciously gave my bike and I a ride to the Y. After class and a lunch at Pancho Villa, a great Mexican place on 4th Avenue (For those reading from Portland, 4th Avenue is essentially Tucson’s version of NW 23st and Alberta) I patched up my tire, but found there were too many holes to mend it. I ended up buying a new tube for $6.20 at the bike shop at the Y. I also spent some time plucking cactus thorns from my tire, only in the desert.
Class:
Well, class just started, so the first week was spent going over the syllabus and standard introductions. It has actually been a great first week. In my “Towards Social Change” class, we spent the two and a half hours taking time to explain our personal connection to social justice and activism. It was incredibly deep and eye opening. I am really excited to work with this group of people. There are no bad apples here. Everyone is really thoughtful and care a lot. Friday morning, I had my “Critical Issues” class, which was really enlightening. The focus was on anti-immigrant legislation, ALEC (Which everyone should know about. If there is one link you click on in this entry it should be this one) http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-united-states-of-alec-a-follow-up/
, and a SB1070 role-play. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/politics/24immig.html?_r=
Our guest speakers were Rosalva, our homestay coordinator who used to be an undocumented immigrant, and her friend, whose name I cannot remember for the life of me. For the role-play (The entire exercise was in Spanish, which is an interesting reality-reversal), Rosalva and her friend dressed up as a police officer, a Border Patrol agent, and a lawyer. Five of us, including myself played the role of being undocumented. The five us were driving in a car, when indiscriminately we were stopped. The officer approached the car and aggressively spoke to us in Spanish. She demanded our licenses. This quickly escalated to requesting our immigration papers, which subsequently led to being accusing of being illegal. She then, illegally searched the car for other people and drugs. Afterwards, we got out of the car and she handcuffed us. She called the border patrol to process us. Her friend appeared wearing a BP uniform, entered the room and demanded we sign a “processing document.” The document was in gibberish, to simulate what it’s like for people who cannot speak English. Legally, undocumented persons have the right to refuse signing anything prior to seeing a lawyer. Me and one other person had the courage to not sign, but we were incessantly pressured to sign the form. Eventually, Rosalva returned as a lawyer, but informed us that there was essentially nothing she could do to help us. She only had a few minutes to spare since she needed to meet with other undocumented arrests. Currently in Arizona, the state lawyers are overloaded with cases. We were then given a quick trial and deported. The experience was incredibly humbling and scary. I will never know what is going through the mind of a father or mother who came to the United States illegally when they only three or four years olds, only to be racially profiled and deported to Mexico, a country they really do not know decades later. Moreover, they would be separated from their families that rely on them.
Wow. The system seems really unfair and overloaded. SB1070 supports racial profiling, and drives fear. People, who are even documented, are afraid to go outside because they are liable to be stopped and asked for their immigrant papers. Is that fair? Are we really building a safer community? The vast majority of immigrants were talking 95 plus percent, come to the United States as economic refugees (They only want to support their families). Most of the immigrants are uneducated or have had very little formal education. They are not about to take a high paying job at Intel or Nike, especially not after Arizona passed Law 300 in November 2006 to force universities to check student immigration status. Way to take away any hope of an illegal immigrant ‘stealing’ a high paying white-collar corporate job.
Another bill we learn about was Operation Gatekeeper. It was started in the 1990s to fence off urban areas along the border. The idea was that it would deter immigration because people would not try to cross the border through the desert, a natural boundary. They clearly underestimated human will. The flow of immigration from Mexico, Central, and South American has not changed for decades. The only reason people are more aware of it now is because they are crossing and dying in the most dangerous areas of the border. In the past, it was more inconspicuous because immigrants simply passed into urban areas.
Just wow. This is only the tip of the iceberg.
Running:
I ran five times this week, with the longest run being 40 minutes. My knee held up well, so I am thinking about increasing a bit more next week. I also joined the University of Arizona Running Club. The singlets are only 20 bucks, I could not resist. It’ll be good to have a stead crew to train with, especially after the travel seminar in Guatemala and Mexico. The last five weeks here is going to be a ramp up. The goal is 65-70 miles a week by May.
U.S. Mexico Borderlands 