Patchwork Post

Well, friends, I am incredibly tired tonight, after having woken up at 4:30 in the morning the last 2 days (one needs to leave Ricardo & Michel's house by 5 in order to arrive at the feria on time Fridays and Saturdays when it opens to the public). So this will be short, and may or may not be entirely worth the time it takes to read through. That's your disclaimer.

Still, since Ale and I are going to be on the road for much of next week, I wanted to check in quickly before we head out. As usual, I'll keep updating if we happen to have internet along the way.

In keeping with the scattered nature of my thoughts tonight, how about a post in snippets, some things I've been meaning to share but haven't yet had the chance?


1) Cecosesola has published several books, which Ale and I will be buying to bring home with us. One of them, which I read last night at Ricardo & Michel's house, is a truly awesome manual of natural medicine, which was published in conjunction with their opening on The Centro Integral de Salud. This book reclaims traditional indigenous remedies, and puts education about health into a cooperative context. It includes detailed information about herbs, water treatments, parasites, and more.

The other reading I've been doing (besides the guilty pleasure of Agatha Christie in Espanol) has been the entirety of Venezuela's Law of Cooperatives, which is sold in a handy pocked-sized format, and has a nice rainbow-y cover. Did you know, that the government in Venezuela is obligated by law to purchase goods and services first from cooperatives whenever possible? How amazing would it be if that particular bit of legislation was more widespread? As I kept reading this document, I thought, more and more, about how we need better legislation to support collectively-run cooperatives in the United States (the Venezuelan definition of cooperatives is by its nature tied to collectivity...for example, by law, any change in policy must be approved by at least 75% of a coop's workers in a general assembly). At OFC, we have more than once had to struggle with the fact that laws governing our work are written with hierarcical management structures in mind, and in many ways don't have the ability to recognize what we're doing. I would love if we could have a little book of our own that detailed all the ways our government recognized the work of collectively-run coops, and would love even more if, like the our companer@s at Cecosesola, we had the chance to help write those laws.




2) Indigenous and African languages have had a strong influence on Venezuelan Spanish, which means that there are many words and expressions that may be new to those who speak versions of Spanish that originate in other places. To those who haven't had the chance to spend time in the country, here's some Venezuelan Spanish vocabulary for the day:

           cayapa: a group that comes together to work in a cooperative way. For                     example, every several Mondays at Cecosesola, there's a cayapa to clean the ferias, their outbuildings, and entire grounds.

           naguara: (emphasis on the last syllable) an expression that means: "oh my god" or "no way." This expression can be drawn way out for emphasis, or can be inserted into conversation casually and often, like punctuation.



3) As part of the Barrio Adentro program, the health program that has brought thousands of Cuban doctors to Venezuela and has created free and affordable health centers in many poor neighborhoods, there are Cuban fitness instructors in many communities as well. These instructors teach baila terapia, a dance aerobics that incorporates salsa, merengue, and other Latin American dance rhythms. The classes are free and often held in the open air in rural areas, with the teacher on a raised stage. We haven not, unfortunately, located baila terapia here in Barquisimeto, but we know it must exist, and plan to keep our eyes peeled.


4)  Monday, Ale and I head to Senarre, a mountainous region not far from Barquisimeto, to attend a meeting of the producers' coops that are affiliated with Cecosesola. The meeting will be held at 8 del Marzo, a cooperative that produces granola and other grain-based products, and where a number of the Evergreen students have been working for the last few weeks. We will be riding with workers from Tulpian, a cleaning-products and vanilla producers' coop with a factory here in the same area as the Feria del Centro, and with folks from other Cecosesola producers coops in the area.

Well, I have more to say, but I am literally falling asleep at the computer. Until next time, which I hope will be soon.