June 11th , 2004

At five in the morning we mount the bus to motor back, direction Oaxaca. At seven a lineup of 6 cars gets stuck in the mud and we spend a few hours waiting, getting stuck in the mud and waiting to get unstuck. Back in Oaxaca we hang out at the CIPO and begin to write our articles, we conduct a “formal” interview with the semi famous torture victim Raoul Gatica who is inspired. We talk sitting on the grass between the walls of an extension to the CIPO house that is under construction.

For our tranquility we head back downtown and rent a room in a hostel so that we can sleep easily and write without the constant distraction of CIPOites who come and go. We have a nice two-floored room but seem to be unable to avoid wasting time, our work advances at a snail’s pace, I long for the open road.

My uncle Pepe hooks us up with an old friend Gustavo Esteva , an intellectual in many political activist things and we meet him for a short talk about social justice in Mexico. He opens our eyes about a few things and I for one like his way of looking at things as well as the concepts behind the way UniTierra (University Earth) has been built. (However we only talk for ten minutes so my knowledge is still incomplete) Afterwards we assist a seminar about an Ivan Ilich book which is good and interesting. The next day we return to Unitierra and watch some films that they’ve made about projects in indigenous communities. Afterwards we bike over to Michael’s house. He is involved in a slew of projects at University Earth. We are invited us to spend a few days and we do, mostly writing articles. There’s a beautiful view of the city from the balcony but the mosquitoes kick our ass. During our time here we assist a a couple of folk music parties at the house, a bunch of people come by with their Jaranas (small guitarres from the state of Vera Cruz). Looking back I must say that night was the highlight of our stay with Chivo (goat), we stayed up late into the night enjoying the singing and at the end of it all the guitar came out and everyone took turns playing. Unfortunately we didn’t make much of a connection with Chivo, and Johanne argued with him a couple times. He seemed to be a bit close-minded in spite of many things that initially would have made us think otherwise (chocolate maker, solar oven builder, social activist).