oaxaca and back in 7 days flat

So I got back from Oaxaca, Mexico last night.  I had an amazing time.  Oaxaca is an amazing place.  It's a pretty small city...around 500,000 people...set up in the mountains.  Like Cusco, there is a large indigenous community around the city, but the vibe of the city was much more "city" than Cusco was.  It wasn't nearly as touristy, there were normal stores, there were things like movie theaters and organic markets and delicious food.  It's just a very cool place.

I spent the first few days in a hotel and going in and out of meetings.  For the first time ever since I've started working for ProWorld, all the executives were there - Nick and Richard.  IEP Abroad's execs, Scott and Troy, also came down, as well as SAE's President, Rich from Barcelona.  It was a really fun group.  Around day 3 or so, I moved in with the Martinez Juarez family - Evi and Samuel and their children and grandchildren.  In between spending time with my family and meetings, we did sneak out to tourist it up in the city - checked out some ruins, tried all the food, did some hiking, partied it up around town, worked out in the communities and on projects.  

Our site in Mexico does very similar work as our sites in Peru.  Health is the most in demand project field and we work with a number of different rural clinics and communities on both clinical health and public health education.  We also work with the Union de Museos, which is a group of community museums, and Vida Nueva, which is an indigenous women's cooperative.  There's a bunch more, but those were the big ones that I experienced while I was there.  Vida Nueva was particularly cool - these women have started this co-op together, working to sell their tarpetes (the Oaxacans are known for their weaving) directly to buyers rather than selling them at low-cost to some middle man.  It's very cool because as they've become more successful, they've begun helping their community in other ways - creating their own social enterprises to provide services to their community.  We spent a day at their cooperative as well as out in a community constructing a "temazcal" which is this little domed sauna type thing that is used in ancient Mayan rituals.

I'll close with my Top 10 Things about Oaxaca:

1. Quesillo.  Amazing.  I need to find some good quesillo here.  It was really funny, because you literally eat some form of quesadilla or tostada or flauta for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  So delicious.
   
2. Mole.  The United States is seriously lacking on the sauces.
   
3. The Zocolo.  It's the "tourist center" but there weren't too many tourists there.  It's always a party there - we saw fashion shows and balloon parties and Oaxaca - palooza with 3 stages of music.  
   
4. Dancing.  We went out dancing a few nights and it's just fun.  I need to start hanging out at some of the salsa clubs here for sure.
   
5. El Pechote.  Fridays and Saturdays there is an organic market called El Pechote near our office.  We went for lunch one day and it was just so amazingly delicious.  Really good juices, coffee, lighter foods.  They had a little movie theater there where they would show free movies every day and a gorgeous courtyard where you could just hang out with a pond.  It was the type of place you could bring a book and go chill out all day.  
   
6. Parades.  Literally every day, there was at least one parade, sometimes 2 or 3.  The first night I arrived, there was a parade that went by our office which I watched from the balcony.  Not sure what it was for, but there were definitely kegs being pushed around in shopping carts, which was very hilarious.
7. Mezcal.  Rough to drink, but you get used to it after awhile.  You have to, it's Mexico.
8. Chupalines.  Grasshoppers.  You eat them.  Some are small, others are big.  The big ones are a lot harder to eat, but put enough chiles in them and they're not so bad.

Ok, I'm tired, I'm leaving with only 8.  If I think of 2 more, I'll update later.  Oh yeah, and check the pictures on Flickr.  Buenas noches!