Isthmus and Costa

So, I have to agree with Mike that I'm not really in the mood to sit down and write more in the blog. However, I am two weeks behind, and I finished two essays today, and a project info thing, and I don't want to start on my third essay yet, so I am now writing. : )
Anyway, in my last post, we were heading to the isthmus, so I will go from there. The isthmus is the shortest stretch of land between the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific Ocean. It is the place where the US, and a lot of other countries/huge companies are trying to push the Plan Puebla Panama, which is to create a huge system to transport things there, rather than going all the way down to Panama. This includes a lot of other projects that are skrewing over the people, such as building windfarms, dams, and trains, etc.
We were only there for a few days, but we did tons of stuff in those few days. First we visited windfarms. In the isthmus, it is windy for at least 10 months of the year, with winds up to 130 mph. There are four of them, huge operations, all by different multinational companies. The people are pushed off their land, with promises of payment for rent, but they only recieve $300 a year, if that, which is barely anything. Also, the windmills mess up the water table, and dry the land out, so the people can't farm or ranch. They also catch chemicals in the wind that causes a lot of new diseases for the people that live there, and kill and or injure thousands of migrant birds. Also, rather than having cheaper energy, electricity, etc, they actually have to pay higher taxes to fix up the problems that come with having windfarms there, and all the energy is sent far away to stores owned by the companies. I always liked windmills, and thought that they were our hope for the future. And maybe if we treat people right, and work it correctly, they might work. But hearing all of this, I get kinda depressed. I think our only real hope is to just stop using so much energy. Take some initiative and limit ourselves, rather than just finding other "good" ways to satisfy all the energy that we use. I realize that I'm probably a hipocrite, cause I use lots of energy, even right now on the computer, but I will try to use less.
We also went to a place that got ruined by a dam. The government put it in there for some reason, I guess to provide more energy for somebody. Anyway, the whole town of Jalapa was submerged in water. Sometimes when the water is down, you can see this whole catholic church. So sad. I don't like dams, except for the tiny ones. Although I do like to swim in reservoirs. But seriously, natural reservoirs are so much better.
We also visited a few other organizations there, that were working against Plan Puebla Panama and for indigenous and campesino rights. But then we headed off to the coast. Gorgeous places. They looked like paradise beaches. It was hot, humid, and GORGEOUS! I got kinda excited about the sun, and didn't put on enough sunscreen, so I got burned kinda badly. But I caught a lot of waves, and we had some delicious beach drinks (mainly consisting of Malibu and various tropical fruit juices : ) ) It was great. But it was also kinda funny because their large wal-mart-like chain was called Súper Ché. So ironic.
We had two and a half days at the beach. Those were absolute, pure vacation days. We all really needed it. Kinda funny because at school, I always get excited about a 4 day weekend or something. And here, I'm excited about a 2 day weekend. But it was a marvelous place to rest. (Although I was kinda sad we weren't in Oaxaca for Day of the Dead. Next to nothing happened there, since it was a very tourist town). Oh, and we also met and hung out with for a little bit, with some english speaking guys. Two from British Columbia, one from England, and one from New Zealand. I have to say that it was so nice and kinda weird to be speaking to guys at all, and in English. With 17 girls and 1 guy on the program, we don't get that opportunity very often.
Then we headed back on a 6 hour, long, windy van ride back to Oaxaca. We got back to the hostel, where we were the first week of the program, and were immediately submerged with 3 essays, our final independent project proposals and figuring out our situations. Very stressful. So, on election day, most of us spent all day doing that stuff, then at 7pm our time, we became glued to the TV screen (CNN in Spanish), and the computer screen for the elections in the hostel. ahhhh, so exciting. When it was announced that Obama was the winner, we all hugged each other, screamed, laughed, everything. It was amazing. We sang the national anthem, and a few other patriotic songs at 12ish am. We felt kinda bad for keeping up everyone else in the hostel, but then again, this only happens once, so, we had kind of a right. SO amazing! History! Unbelievably wonderful! So that was on tuesday. and now I think I'm gonna go to bed. I'll continue this later. Good night all!