encuestas

this week was the first week of going out and talking to people about their migration experiences. Mario, who is the suplente (kind of like vice president) of the Ayudantia wrote me a list of more than 50 names of people who have gone to work in the United States or Canada, and what streets they live on. what makes it interesting is the houses aren't marked, and I really have no idea which family lives in which house so what I do is go around to the houses, knock on doors, show them the list, and ask if anyone on the list is a part of their family. I was a little intimidated at first to not even know which person I was going to talk to, but actually people are suprisingly helpful and do look over the list, and so far in 3 days I have done 12 surveys. also, i have gathered more information about who lives where, what times I should come back, etc, so I have some good prospects for today. I think actually I will have to do a lot of surveying on Saturdays and Sundays, because that is when people are around the house more. and even saturdays aren't ideal, because most people work.

In terms of what I have going against me (an outsider from the community, and not just an outsider but from the United States, and also asking about maybe a touchy subject) I think people have been pretty receptive. i have met a few more reserved people, a lot of people that are willing to help out, and a also a few who really want to talk about their experiences. most people want to know what is going to happen with the information, so I have gotten really good at explaining that what they say only goes to the Ayudantia and NOT to the United States (one woman wanted to make sure that if she told me her daughter's name, that her daughter wouldn't get deported) and that the goal is to use the information to help people from the town who migrate, immigrate, or are thinking about it. and truth be told, that is the part that I am really looking forward to, because gathering information is good, but not really if nothing is done with that information. I just hope that the surveying doesn't take so long that there isn't much time left for the second part.

a lot of people guess that I am from Canada when they ask where I'm from (I don't know, maybe Minnesota is really more like Canada than I thought) so one time I asked a guy who was really friendly why he guessed I was from Canada, and he said that Canadians are more easy-going and friendly than the US citizens that come to Mexico. so, at least to some people I am coming off as easy-going and friendly! today it rained hard for about 6 or 7 hours... and my rain jacket is still in Cuernavaca... got to get that soon!

also, the mosquitos here are unnaturally fast.. I think I have killed 3 the whole time here, and I usually have pretty quick mosquito-killing moves.