Felicidades to those of us in PCM09 for reaching the 6-month mark in our sites and 9 months overall in our service as Peace Corps volunteers. For me, it seems like a turning point – a moment in which I am feeling more comfortable, more confident about my abilities, more discerning about where I can and should focus my energy, what I can and can’t eat (Vitamina T in its proper dosages), with whom I should and shouldn’t associate. It’s just like my friend, an RPVC and former country director in Africa, warned me: Don’t do anything for the first 6 months; if you do, you are likely to do the wrong thing for the wrong people, at the wrong time. I can’t say I abided his advice completely. Partially due to the momentum of the Agenda 21 project to which I was assigned (and which was well underway when I arrived), and partially due to my own Norte Americana drive to be useful, I dove into the work from Day 1. I surveyed the needs of the community, analyzed the data, then organized, translated, and delivered 70 hours of team-building workshops across the language and culture divide to the Citizens board on sustainability. I was willing to spend nights and weekends to work around their schedules, if it meant creating good things for the people of Rioverde.
Unfortunately, much of my teachings on collaboration and participation fell on deaf ears. With an election year coming up in 2012 in Mexico, the contenders and their minions are already moving into position. And objectivity, transparency, shared leadership, working por, para y con la gente…these are not exactly topics of profound interest at the moment. I was told candidly, by two different members (who shall remain unnamed), that once I'd completed my formal sessions and transitioned the leadership to the group's defacto leaders (who shall also remain unnamed), they tossed all the decisions the Consejo had collaboratively made into the trash.
Ni modo, what can I do? I am beginning to integrate that Mexican dicho into my vocabulary and being. As disappointing as resistance can be, I know my job as a change agent has its limits – the drive for change must come from within – I cannot force it. Put in the effort, let go of the result.
Now, with some important lessons-learned under my belt, a folder-full of organizational training (translated and tested in the Mexican context), and a bit of Huapango rhythm in my step, I am readjusting my course. I am tapping into the right side of my brain, my artistic sensibilities, to connect with the people of Rioverde through my photography.
I’m planning a Peace Corp 5
0th celebration and photo exhibition at the Casa de Cultura in mid-June - Anneseye on Rioverde . I’ll serve wine and cake, play a mix of Mexican and American music, and open the doors to the kind people I’ve met during the first six disorienting months of service – the crossing-guards and bakers on my street, the neighbors in my apartment building and new colleagues in Semarnat and the Ayuntamiento, students in my yoga classes and the women of Puente del Carmen. And as they walk the gallery and gaze at the images, I hope they see a clearer picture of me (and the Peace Corps) than perhaps I have been able to communicate via words, across the language and culture divide.
Five years ago I embarked on my own personal ‘peace corps’ in Northeast Brazil, in a small, humble coastal city of fishermen, fortunately not on the tourist map, but so stunningly beautiful in its contrasts and contradictions – I was inspired to start shooting photography again. I shot thousands of pictures in my 6 months there, and my final act before my visa expired and I had to leave Brazil and the people of Paraiba behind, was to organize a photography exhibition. It was a ton of work, especially the process of getting com
mitments from printers, framers, the gallery owner, in order to actually pull-off the event – when Brazilians are on their own kind of samba time. But on opening night I knew it was worth the trouble, vale la pena, when I saw the people gathered in hives of conversation, marveling at the images on the walls – a view of the bustling centro, Ponto do Cem Reis, from above, a shower on Praia Maneira blowing in the wind, the line of palms down a rainy Avenida Vargas.
‘This is my city?’ I could hear the wonder and pride in their voices, a renewed appreciation for the riches of their place – the beauty we often take for granted or simply can’t see until someone else points it out.
I hope this Rioverde show has the same impact – connecting me to the people and the people to their pueblo. I want the Rioverdenses to have pride in their city, in the communities, in their culture, work and lives here – instead of romanticizing ‘el otro lado’ and all things consumer Americana – Aeropostale, Lady Gaga, Coke, The Cowboys. I want them to seem me not as a spy or a passerby, but as someone here to stay, to work with them, invest in them, and create positive things together.
Luckily, thanks to this Peace Corps Mexico 50-anniversary fund, and the initiative of a few folks at PCHQ, this door has opened 6-months into my service – and I will have a chance to share my annesye perspective with my new fellow-Rioverdenses. Who knows what doors will open from there? Perhaps a project with the youth to document their truth, their environment, lo bonito y feo – and envision the future. But I will give this time. Hopefully I’ve learned, in my first six months, to take it easy and trust the organic unfolding – if not give it a bit of a push when the time is right.
For more images of both Mexico and Brazil visit my flicker page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/annepellicciotto/ or my foto site (which is in dire need of an update) at http://www.anneseye.com/. The above photo, by the way, is a pan de nata, a traditional Mexican bread made from whipped cream, chewy, not too sweet, and rico. This one from the local fair is the size of a frying pan, and it says, essentially, Take me home to a good Rioverde family.
Note: This article appeared in Peace Corps Mexico's Publication, La Pinata, Number 13, Junio 2011.
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