Ben Quinn, Lia Van Dyke, Mary Washburn, Jack Braidt, Mateo Solberg, Sarah Jean Whelan
No one in our group seemed to know exactly what to expect going into our trip to El Carmen. While we all held preconceived notions about what life was like and what we would experience, these were uncertain at best and were undoubtedly changed by the time we left on Saturday morning. Below one can find the personal accounts of each of the students that spent Semana Santa in El Carmen de Inés del Monte. This experience in a rural pueblo is something that all of us will carry with great regard for the rest of our lives. Each of us developed relationships with people in the community and were initially struck with how many differences there were, but upon our departure what resonated were the similarities. Below, each of us will talk a little bit about our experiences.
At beginning of our stay at el Carmen, I felt very much like an outsider. We would walk down the streets and never once did we not get at least a double take if not a stare by each and every person we walked by. I can’t say I found this at all surprising seeing as I was one of seven white Americans in a town of 700 rural Mexicans. It didn’t take all too long for this to change. After a couple days of playing basketball with the local kids and attending masses and talking to people on the streets, almost all of whom were interested enough to approach and engage us first, I began to feel very welcome here. In talking to the people of this town, I found that all the townspeople there I talked to were very interested in two things: (1) why we were here and (2) once they ascertained that we were from the US, what the political situation was like there. I got the idea that many of these people really believed the US was an ideal sort of place, or at least as good as a place to live could be. My host father was very interested in the differences between government aid programs in the US and in Mexico, and it was also interesting to see, every morning when we sat down for breakfast, our host father telling his 8 month old granddaughter how she is going to learn English and go to the north. Those people in town who knew anything about the political goings on in the US asked me, scarily enough, about Trump. As one can imagine they were not too fond of him or what they knew about his platform. I told them not to worry too much, I doubt he’ll win... One man asked what I’d do if he did. I told them I’d move to Canada :)
Going into El Carmen, I had no idea what to expect. When we got to our house, we made it clear that we wanted to help in whatever way possible, and our family was happy to oblige. Most of our days were spent doing relatively intense manual labor, from picking and sorting through hundreds of tomatoes to be sold to stores, to lugging massive amounts of manure to fill an entire greenhouse. It was a lot of work, and as the days went on I felt increasingly humbled by how privileged I am to have been born into my life. It was hard to see that our family worked so much and received such little pay, how they had little access to clean or running water, and how they had to be very conscious of conserving their resources. At the same time, it was a week full of great learning experiences and connecting to some very interesting people.
Although the manual labor consumed much of our time and initial attention, it was impossible to ignore cultural differences. These people worked more hours than the average US citizen doing physically harder labor too, which is enough to comment on itself, but the role I saw women play in this scenario was so much more. After working in the fields with them for many hours the only thing I could do was collapse on my bed and sleep for an hour. When I woke up, I noticed the men in the family had similarly passed out on the couch, but our host mom, who had done the same work in the fields as the men, had gone straight from farming to the overheated kitchen to prepare us dinner. While it was admirable to see the women in our family working in the fields too, it was difficult for us to see that they still had to pick up household chores after a long day of work. Another cultural difference I noticed was due to the fact that I was one of two vegetarians living in El Carmen for the week. It was nearly impossible to get our family to understand that we didn’t eat any type of meat. Not even chicken or seafood we would tell them. For us, living in the US, a lot of people understand that vegetarian means no meat, and more than that, vegetarians have access to food that’s not meat. Our host mom told us that she had once tried to be a vegetarian because she didn’t eat meat, but stopped because one day the only thing available for her to eat was meat. These cultural differences were very-eye opening. The amount of work they do and the little that they received made me feel so humbled. I had a great time working with them, but was thoroughly exhausted by the end of the week and was astounded to see how much they worked on a daily basis.
The thing that impressed me most during my stay in El Carmen was the pride and generosity that my family exhibited throughout my stay with them and increasingly leading up to our departure. Although they came from extremely humble means, both of our families were more than willing to provide us with as much as their limited resources would allow. We changed houses after a day to move into a house with electricity at the urging of both families. At first I thought that it was no big deal that they were simply looking out for what was best for us. It wasn’t until later that I realized how big of a deal it was for our original family. On Saturday during breakfast we began a conversation about how difficult it was for them to attain electricity. Our original host, Don Antonio, explained that it would be in the neighborhood of about a million pesos in order for them to hook electricity in the house (this is what I heard). It was after that that he took on a more solemn tone. He looked me in the eyes and apologized profusely that his family was unable to provide light for us and that we no longer stayed in their house. The pride and generosity to strangers is something that both myself and others could learn from this particularly generous and kind family.
March Madness was in full effect during our stay in El Carmen. Most days were spent playing basketball at the town basketball court. Often times, a couple different town kids would wander up and we would play some sort of game. Benito and Mateo played a three game 1v1 series, spread over three different days, with Benito coming out victorious. On Friday night, the Madness really came out. Us UVM kids had been hanging out at the basketball court all evening, drinking Coca-Cola and playing basketball. At around 8pm, the church mass got out, and many people wandered over to the court to see what was going on. After a while it was clear what was to happen: all the older teenage boys had evidently gotten out of church, and came over to the basketball court to see what was up. There were about 10 people just kind of sitting around, watching Mateo shoot hoops. Mateo looked around, then decided to organize a game. It ended up being Mateo and four Mexican guys vs Benito and four Mexican guys. It really did feel like an organized game, because the court was lit up, many women and young children were watching us play, people were even cheering for the different teams! Mateo and his team ended up winning, and all of the players celebrated after with some Coca-Cola and a big bag of chips, a typical snack for us during the village stay. 
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