Let the field work begin!!!

The community members see me walking around a lot.

This is me, looking pretty happy walking around, rain or shine as I continue my conversations with different community members on the topic of community health and the town's development of a community clinic. In this picture, I am holding an umbrella and my bag of laptop and packets of questionnaires for semi-structured interviews. I have number of interviews to go...

San Crisanto is a 583-person fishing community on southern coast of Mexico, and though I myself did not grow up in a community by the ocean, San Crisanto reminds me much of my home in Vietnam. From the coconut trees to the cement little houses, I feel a return to my childhood in rural Vietnam. A significant resemblance is in the way that families and community members are connected to one another. Everyone knows each other by name, and community gatherings are a regular activity. I would walk home after a set of interviews that day and encounter neighbors gathered in chairs around a circle, outside their house underneath the stars, discussing a wide range of topics. One night, as I was passing by, I have been offered to join the group and get help in learning Maya language (I mentioned that I have been learning myself and have been struggling with pronunciation). I will be joining them more regularly every once in awhile. Besides learning Maya, I am also excited about of interacting more with community members outside the context of my research and the interviews. Most of all, I am grateful by San Crisanto people's kindness and welcoming presence during my time here.

During the month of December and its festivities, the community gatherings are even more active than before. I have attended everything from the church events to small gatherings among neighbors. These are filled with home cooked meals, songs, prayers, laughter, and children playing. My host grandmother Alicia is one of the most active community members and stewards of the local church so I have been fortunate to be in the loop for these activities :)

During the church gatherings, I noticed that I have not seen brown figures associated with Christianity before, and here I find them in Mexico quite common.

While I have qualms about Christianity and colonization in general, these brown figures are refreshing to see. And I also see the beauty of religion bringing people together in a small town like San Crisanto.

My guide for whose house is which and where to go is 7-year old Yuliana, who took this picture of me above. She loves borrowing my phone to take pictures. This is a picture of her when we went collecting sea shells together.

In the next few weeks, I'll be exploring more of San Crisanto and the people that live here offering their voices to the collective project. I am looking forward to more walks along the ocean, more coconuts, more stories, and more surprises to come.

Sincerely,

Vy