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| Servicios Universitarios y Redes de Conocimientos en Oaxaca A.C. |
Bienvenidos a SURCO!
The day has finally arrived… Oaxaca Orientation!
Today, we met at SURCO, un organismo Civil dedicado a la creacion del mundo que
todos soñamos (Engligh translation--Civil Agency dedicated to creating the
world we all dream!). SURCO serves as
our community partner that takes care of linking us to different resources—they
worked with our homestay moms, setting up up transportation to different
weekend excursions, our service placements in the community, different food and
safety resources and much more! In addition to that SURCO is comprised with the
nicest staff ever! Today we met Lindsey, who will be directly helping us with
our program and all the wonderful things will we be doing. We were also welcomed to Oaxaca with a big comida! La comida is the most important meal and the biggest portions of Oaxaca;s cuisines. It was delicious and I tried a very typically dessert called "Crema de Plantanos". If you are flying to Oaxaca anytime soon be sure to try this tasty treat!
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| Mural on the wall of our classroom at SURCO! |
Other cool things at SURCO-----there is tons of food and different drinks in the kitchen/break food! Today, I tried for the first time a guava… and after that it instantly became my favorite fruit! Also, water in Oaxaca often isn’t what you think of water in the U.S… here when they ask you if you would like water more than likely they will be giving you “aqua de savor or aqua de frutas”!! I was able to tried a popular water called Aqua de Jamaica (From the Hibiscus Flower)!! I really enjoyed our breaks in class because of the snacks but, I also enjoyed the classroom environment because of the unique detailed murals on the wall.
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| Inside the beautiful church of Santo Domingo! |
Touring the City!
One of the very first things that we did today was tour the city! The major spots that we checked out were the Santo Domingo church, the Zocolo, Los Mercados, and El Mirador!
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| Outside of Santo Domingo Church with the gang! |
Church of Santo Domingo de Guzmán
On our walking tour we visited the church of Santo Domingo. This church is located in the historical portion of the center area of Oaxaca. It is a great point of reference for traveling and exploring because it's so tall and large that it stands out against everything. When we walked in the church I was speechless by how beautiful the building looked. Everything was covered and lined with gold!
The Zocolo
The historical section of town is located right next to the Zocolo. It seems to me that everything is just a few blocks away and Oaxaca is truly a walking city! The Zocolo is Oaxaca's main plaza or center square as I like to call it! At the Zocolo there were so many people walking around, laughing, enjoying traditional music, sitting on benches, having dinner, and different refreshments all over the place! It was nice to see people come together to enjoy the beauty of the city here.
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| MERCADO DE ARTESANIAS |
MERCADOS
Next on our tour we walked to the Mercados and words cannot express how happy I was to enter those doors into what was seemingly is my favorite place in Mexico! We walked through 3 markets during our tour. First, we visited Mercado Benito Juarez which has literally anything you can imagine. There were handicrafts sections, pottery, bread or "pan", medicinal herbs, candy, textiles, shoes, and tons of traditional Oaxacan food.
Next we walked through Mercado 20 de Noviembre. This market was primarily filled with unprepared food and sections of prepared food where you could sit in and have a meal! At first, I was very shocked with the layout and how pretty much all the food was layout out in the open. I vividly can still remember the smell of walking through that market. Next up was my ultimate favorite market to be... Mercado de Artesanias. Here is where I got my cool backpack that me and my friends are wearing in the picture above! I love this market because it has all the traditional clothes from the 8 regions of Oaxaca! It has beautiful hand sewn blouses and embroidered shirts with tons of vivid colors and patterns. There were so many prints and designs and styles to look at that I knew I could have spent hours in there and still not get bored or tired. All of these markets represent an important part of Oaxaca's everyday life, cultures, and traditions.
El Mirador
In addition to a walking tour of Oaxaca, we took a bus tour to better understand the history of Oaxaca and really get a view at different communities in Oaxaca. Needless to say that this activity left a big impact on me. Throughout the city tour, Oliver, one of the founder's of SURCO, explained different aspects of Oaxaca in terms of historical context vs. present day. He pointed out different communities and there political relationships with the current day government parties. Then, at the end of the trip he brought us up to El Mirador, where you can see the entire city view from this location. There it clicked in my head... it all made sense to me. Looking at the bigger picture of the city I was able to point out various buildings and places Oliver spoke to us about. I was able to understand it on a holistic level rather than the needs of different individuals. I decided that this was going to my new reference for learning for the rest of the trip. I was going to fully immerse in this country and learn in everything I did. I was ready to take on the city!
- Yamila
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