Saints, Zapatistas, and a few other adventures cont.

Ok, now I will try to continue from where I left off in my most recent post.
So on I think the 3rd or 4th day, we left for our excursion to a community of Las Abejas, and then the government place of the Zapatistas. Both were rather amazing experiences. Las Abejas were a group that started in 1992, because of a conflict going on between the government and the community over some injured people, and some people blamed wrongly for the crime. A group of them joined up, walked to Mexico City carrying crosses, pictures of the Virgin Mary, and praying the whole way, and in a rest time they decided to call themselves Las Abejas (The Bees), because they always work together to save the whole "hive" or community if they were ever in danger, and a few other things as well. The are a totally nonviolent group, and always follow what God tells them to do by placing the bible in the center, and waiting and listening for the word of God. It's very impressive. Also, something that strengthened their movement was a massacre of a community in 1997 by the government military. I don't remember exactly why the military attacked them, but I think it was because they were indigenous, and because they were supposedly causing problems between them and other communities. They knew the military was coming, so set to pray in the chapel, but the military came and massacred them anyway. It was soo sad and hard to hear, and I'm sorry that I have to be the messenger of this really sad, but very real news. It hit very deep. From this especially, they gained a lot of solidarity from other groups in Mexico, and around the world. They're an amazing people.
We went from this to the Zapatista government headquarters area, called el Caracol (the Snail), where their Junto de Buen Gobierno (Joint of the Good Government) meet. The Zapatistas are also an amazing group of people. They decide everything by total accordance of everyone (called an asamblea, and indigenous term and idea), are nonviolent, and are trying to create a whole new world where anyone and everyone of any race, religion, gender, beliefs, etc, can exist without discrimination, and in accordance. There are 7 Juntos de Buen Gobierno in all of Mexico, and each one covers a different area and different communities. In this one, there are 23 communities. There are always 7 people in the government at a time, and they rotate through every week for 3 years. However, they make sure that not everyone leaves office at the same time for those 3 year periods, so that the new people coming in can learn the system from the older members. A really smart idea. Also, everyone that is actually in the office has to wear a ski mask. That way, they will be completely anonymous. As somebody said, it is one of the few jobs where somebody can become important for awhile, and then go back to their house just as poor as they left. It is also for security reasons. It was a little intimidating at first, but on meeting with them, and listening to them speak, we discovered they seemed very amiable, and like really nice people.
It was really interesting because every decision they made, had to be discussed by everyone in the group. For us to be allowed into the community, we had to give them our passports, Julio had to explain exactly what we were wanted to do there, and then they discussed among themselves in an indigenous language, to see if it was ok or not. Also, we had to write questions for them the night before, so that they could prepare their answers. The next day, when we met with them, we also asked if we could tape record them. They said that since they didn't recieve this request earlier, we weren't allowed to do this. It was too rapid a request. They are known for being a slower paced social movement, because they have to wait for everyone to be of accordance, but I think that this is a safer way to work it. They are trying to make a new world, which is a big process. So far, it sounds like it's working at least in their areas. The good thing is that, instead of saying that they are the best organization possible, they admit that they are not the best, and are still developing, and need the voice of everyone to continue, and that it will be a long process. I was very impressed, and encouraged at all the good things they are doing.
This was a great experience, Zapatista level wise. However, for many in the group, that night we stayed there was horrendous. Somehow, in the food we had eaten for lunch that day, there must have been some type of food poisening. I somehow managed to escape getting sick, but a good half of our group (7 or 8 people out of 18), got sick that night. It was rather like a nightmare, and yet also absurdly funny. I've never been in a situation like that. Every hour, another person went down, it seemed. Eventually, they took the sick people in a van down right next to the bathroom, so they could just run there if needed, and it was probably a bit warmer and a little more comfortable than on a cold concrete floor. It was really insane, and really gross.
We went back to San Cristobal de las Casas the next day where we went out a few times, hung out with our families, aaand, on sunday and monday, spent all day working on our Independent Study Projects. That was rather intense. Me and Megan were in the internet cafe for 4 hours monday morning/noon. Luckily, that evening, we went to a really good presentation, right afterward of which, we had a hugging/humming session. A glorious break. And that evening me and Megan stayed in, talked with our family, and our maid (I considered her more of a sister, she was very sweet), and played with some kittens that didn't seem well loved in the household. I was sad to leave them, especially the maid, she was not having a good time with the family. Which was so weird, because they were so nice to us. It was a very strange dynamic.
The next day we all had breakfast together, said bye to Julio, our guide (We were all very sad to leave him), and headed off for the Isthmus, a good 5 hour, rather windy drive.