This week if I had to put it into one word would be crazy. Everything in my life decided to come to a head in the past 5 days. The saying " when it rains, it pours" is exactly my life in the last week. Before I start typing , this will be a long post. I feel that I need to just say it all, but at the same time inform everyone of what I have been doing the past week. So because of that let the long post begin. Expect a good 10 minutes of reading starting here....
Lets go back in time and review the past weeks events. Lets start last Thursday . Last Thursday , I left Cuernavaca for a short travel seminar to Mexico City and then to Atenco. I was to be gone from Thursday until Saturday night . In Mexico City , we had a talk from a journalist who has worked in Mexico for over 20 years and is an expert on Mexican politics , history , drug cartels , and violence . That was very interesting . We got to ask her alot of questions regarding the drug cartels in Mexico and also in Cuernavaca.( More on that later) On Friday we drove to the Boing! plant . Boing makes juice and we got to hear about how they make their products and then get a talk about their history and how they run their company.
After we went to the Boing! plant, we then traveled to Atenco. Atenco has gone through many struggles in the past , and they are now trying to fight the government again to build an airport on their land. In 2001, the government tryied to buy their land and then build another airport for Mexico City , but the residents of Atenco fought back with machetes, and saved their land. Some of the people from Atenco kidnapped other residents , and there was alot of violence. In the end , 32 people got sent to jail. Now there are only 9 left in prison. 6 in the minimum security prison , and then 3 in the maximum segurity prison . The residents of Atenco are trying to fight the government and get the people out of jail , but that is a very long and hard struggle and will take a long time . In addition to our time learning about the struggles in ATenco , we also got to enjoy a one night homestay with a family . Chelsie and I got placed with this really nice older adult , and boy was she feisty.She woke us up at 7 in the morning on Saturday and took us out to her fields where she told us about her vegtables and then we were told she was having someone come and film her in her fields so we were going to have to help her. Chelsie and I were put to work pulling weeds out of her fields. It was alot of work, but now I can say I am an experienced weed puller outer. I already have my first job picking weeds out of a garden. I was hired by my mom to pick weeds out of her gardens when I return in June. In return of me picking weeds I get a bed and food. I should just stop telling my mom things I am doing here in Mexico because it just gives me more to do when I return home.
After we spent our time in Atenco, we came back to Cuernavaca , and then the fun started... I spent the night at Katy's house , and we played Mario and then relaxed after a very long 2 days. On Sunday I went to the Jardin Borda with some friends and then relaxed for a full day. The Jardin Borda is the local botanical garden in Cuernavaca. It is very pretty.
Before I knew it, I was waking up on Monday morning ,unaware of the upcoming events of the week. I spent the day in Spanish classes , then at my internship at Don Bosco, and then finally at CEMAL working on homework and then I had my weekly dance class. The dance class was awsome , but I knew something was wrong when I was asked to come up to the office after I finished dance. I was informed that there was a shooting near my homestay during the Afternoon on Monday. They called Ofelia and made sure that it was safe for me to return home , and since it was I went home . Now yes it scared me , but I live in a large city and just like shootings happen in Chicago, LA, New York City ,shootings happen in Cuernavaca. Now the backstory to the shooting is that it all has to do with drug cartels. Since 2006, the president of Mexico has been trying to rid Mexico of drug cartels and instead of making it safer , the violence rate has excalated. I am sure everyone knows about the violence in Mexico especially at the border, but now the violence has moved further south to the central of Mexico. I am going to keep saying this because I want everyone to understand , that I am not in any danger . Cuernavaca has always been known for the drug cartels , and drug trafficing, and well now it is becoming more known about the events that are happening in Cuerna. Starting back in December when the police killed the top Drug Lord in Cuernavaca , it sparked some violence. The second in command to Arturo Beltrán Leyva ,who died in the shootout , is known as Barbie. Barbie started his own drug cartel, and now Barbie's cartel and The South Pacific Cartel are fighting it out for control of the Cuernavaca territory. I am not going to be naive and say that there isnt shootings and people arent dieing , because there is both of those , but they are not targeting American, Mexican civilans , or people not having anything to do with either cartel. So now that you have the backstory , why does this all matter and what is my school here in Cuerna doing about it?
First , yes the fighting has escalated and they are now killing people in broad daylight , but again they know who they want and they know where to find these people normally. They are not going to shoot a random curly haired American girl , because really they do not want the US government more involved then they already are. So going along with the shooting near my homestay on Monday , I was removed from my homestay on Tuesday afternoon and CEMAL decided they wanted me back in the house and were going to place me with a new family. They have removed in total 7 people from their homstays at this point because of either bodies being dumped near people's houses, a taxi can not take the student right up to their door or in my case and another girl's case there was violence in our neighborhoods. Now even though we got removed I still feel awful because it is a total case of white privileged because we as Americans can move out and live where ever we want, but our families that we lived with can not move. It is a total sticky situation. As of last night ( Thursday) I was placed into a new homestay where I now live on this street. I really like my new homestay and the people are really nice .
Now as for the new rules that CEMAL has put out for us to follow.... We are to only take radio taxis to anyplace we are going , so that we are not on the street walking . We are not allowed to go out to any bars, dance clubs , or any establishment of that kind. We are allowed to go to the movies and to restaurants.They also do not want us hanging out with people who do drugs or hanging out in any weird places. The only strange request that the drug cartels put out was not to drive in any pickup trucks , or expensive cars, like BMW's , or cars that have tinted windows. Since I do not know anyone with any of those type of cars I am safe, and am not worried. My school is taking this violence very seriously , and are putting many rules in place for our safety. They are following the events closely and are in constant contact with people from both Minnesota and Augsburg Collage as well as people here in Cuerna. I am not in any danger and I feel safe . I am not being sent home and at this point I am staying until June. I am still going to go through the daily routine of my life and enjoy my time that I have here in Mexico. The drug Cartels have released a announcement stating that they believe the violence and the fighting will end soon , and they do not plan on hurting any bystanders.
Now my requests who everyone who reads this blog . Please do not freak out and be scared for me or worried about my safety. I am not scared and am not worried about what is going on here in Cuerna. I am taking all of the percausions necessary to not be in harms way. I welcome any questions you have about this , but again , I am not in any danger and feel very safe and am not worried about the events that are happening here in Cuerna. I am not in a war zone , or nor do I think it will turn into that anytime soon.
I was going to write more about the rest of the week, but I think this post got long enough and I think this is enough to read for the time being. Dont you agree? Majorly sorry for any spelling or grammatical mistakes made .
