A2S Keeps Growing: Steve(o) is here.
I made it to Guadalajara! This week was spent adjusting, catching up with my sweet pals Sarah and Arthur. We’ve known each other for nearly 5 years and are incredibly exicted to finally be collaborating after following each others’ work for so long. My name is Steve Fisher and I now coordinate interviews and promote community outreach for A2S (Adapting to Scarcity). I’ll be working with them for at least three months. My background is in Latin American politics, anthropology, and popular education. Check out my bio to learn more about me.
Yesterday we went out to Juanacátlan where I saw (and smelled) why we have to use gas masks to film near the river. I also talked with Rodrigo, an incredible community organizer who explained some of the issues they were dealing with in regards to the Rio Santiago. I’ll be living in Juanacátlan part-time doing the prep work for workshops and filming.
For starters, it’s been wonderful to reunite with my great friends
Looking fabulous!
Sarah and Arthur. I came at just the right time…towards the end of their vacation. The intro has been wonderful and they made me feel entirely at home immediately. They’re good at that. We caught up a bit on our lives and where we’ve been. It had been since the glorious 2008 Thanksgiving that we had seen each other. Its become a bit of a tradition to join them for a week over Thanksgiving. Ahhh…the mead, the homebrew, the turkey that, during its lifetime, was massaged and had a name. I digress.
I also moved into my wonderful little roof top room yesterday! Its fabulous…with a sprawling rooftop veranda. Its super basic and perfect for me.
It was my first time to Juanacátlan, and the introduction to the town was dramatic. “We’re getting close to the waterfall,” Arthur explained. From the way he said it, I assumed that it was the one I saw in pictures with foam building in the pool below like small glaciers. Nothing prepared me for the smell though. Just crossing the bridge made me want to sneeze from the incredible pervasive chemical laden air! Its hard to describe, and one would be hard pressed to exaggerate the intensity. I now understand why we’ll need to use gas masks to do extensive filming of the waterfall. I could have used one just to cross the bridge.
We had a wonderful first workshop where we met with high school students interested in joining the flip camera project. We filmed a few mock interviews with them to familiarize them with the process. Those we met with were pretty clear about their intentions for being a part of the project. “We are here to help be a part of the solution for improving the quality of our river,” they explained. Rodrigo, a renowned community organizer, further supported the need for change. We also discussed plans for me to live in the community for a while and perform interviews with community members. “Go anywhere, knock on any door,” he said, “and you’ll find that someone there has been effected by the river.” He explained that at least one member of each family is a victim of birth defects, leukemia, tumors, or other related sicknesses. It is unavoidable. Furthermore, the youth we worked with live either right along the river or within a few blocks and are deeply motivated to change the situation.
Much of this contamination comes from untreated human waste and the many factories upstream. The factories make anything from computers to tequila. However, our friends could not publicly name the factories because there are few official studies out confirming their environmental impact.
Despite the odds, the hope and resolve of those we met is incredible. This is their river, and they are doing what they can to make positive change.
Rodrigo and I began planning for my stay in the community next week. He said he will have a list of people that I can connect when we return to run our second workshop this Thursday. Starting then, I hope to spend a few days a week in Juanacátlan. I’ll be meeting people in the town and initially just getting to know them. Later on I’ll begin interviewing members of the town to learn about their experience living near the river.
I’m jumping right in, I’m learning so much and am honored to be a part of the A2S team!
And thats my update. I’ll keep ya’ll posted.
Steve(o)
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By Tessa, 12 January 2010 @ 17:28
This sounds like a such a crucial project, I look forward to reading more. Good luck.
By Lynne, 12 January 2010 @ 17:52
Hi Steve,
What a moving experience for all of you, to be there and actually working with people who are affected by the river’s chemical waste. Looking forward to hearing more and wishing you all the very best.