Cucapa Camp Report: On Education and Community

The need for teachers for the youth to say the least is drastic. We have seen first hand how careless she is and how sick these politicians can be. They totally disregards the needs of the youth. The other day some gov't official held an assembly at the school and they had folklorico presentations, talked about the need of preserving the Cucapa customs and traditions but like I said they really pushed the issue of them assimilating saying talking about providing the kids with the opportunities to adapt to society and to many of us that means prepping these kids for work at maquiladoras. One job that is abundant here is picking rocks and the community sometimes has to do that when they are not fishing and they get paid 8 dollars a day and get paid bi-weeklys which usually turns into a monthly check and by then they usually owe money to someone who loaned them money to get by.

The other night one of the youth came to me with some math worksheets and we sat down and we worked on them and he learns really fast that in one night we went from addition to subtraction to multiplication to division and his thirst for learning is unquenchable right now. He has taken to playing Olmecas cajon all by watching the rest play it. He comes to us to learn, he helps out A LOT with the installation of the camp. The kids need real teahers and I say that cuz I am in no way qualified to take that on.

The camp community is growing, more and more people from the community are participating but not at the pace most of us would like but we're working on that. We have decided that tomorrow we will split in four groups to help at diff. homes during and after the fishing in order to works towards building a better relationship with El Mayor.

To say the least, fishing is a hard task on the body and it's demands are brutal but today even though they didn't show it their body language shined with joy and relief at the good catch they had today and tommorw we expect a better one.

Sunburned, bruised, blistered and mentally worn I can say this is amazing and I wish you all can share this with us here because even though I can't put it to words I can see this turning the tide in favor of the indigenous communities of Baja and being part of it is something I will never forget and thank all of you for letting be part of this with you all. Today I spoke with the one member of the CNI who is already here and even though they truly don't know our reality his words confirmed that we are on the right path by questioning and analyzing every step even if it means questioning those who most won't.

The last two days have been amazing and I hope things keep going in this direction. See ya soon.

Saludos from those at the camp to you all.

-joel

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