Thanksgiving with the Comca’ac (Seris)

Friends, 

One of the great things about working in Mexico is the siesta.  After a long morning picking fruit or mesquite beans, you can retire to a cool space, eat, visit, swim, shower, read or nap while you recover from the morning.  After the heat of the day passes,  you are ready to go back to work.  This siesta time allowed me to get to some books I have not had time to read. 

I read the first chapter of The Other Side Of Eden, by Hugh Brody, last summer after seeing it on Gary Nabhan’s bookshelf in Desemboque.  This summer, after a visiting linguist read it, I picked it up again to finish it.  We had many interesting discussions based on this book, comparing our experiences with the
Seri to Brody’s with the Inuit.  The book is full of provocative observations on the effects of government, church and business on hunter-gatherer societies. 

Brody challenged me to completely rethink my role in Desemboque, and, by extension, my role with the Lakota and all the communities I work with.  Are my goals, JSP’s goals, IMYM’s goals, and AFSC’s goals all consistent with the communities’ goals?  And who are the experts on what is best for any community; the elders, the youth, outside experts, historians, visionaries?  And what about the unintended consequences?  And who gets the blame/credit?
And the irony is that the more we do to help, the greater the risk is for harm.  So we have to proceed carefully, as we have always done. The JSP gets input from all sources. We weigh all requests for help. We weigh the risks. We do what we can with what we have to work with. History will show what work was successful. For now, we can only proceed as best we know how. With our Mission Statement in hand and the health, happiness and well-being of the community in mind, we continue  to work with them as allies, with their full participation. 

With your support and participation, you become part of that process.

Thanksgiving week: November 18 - 24, 2007 

We have spent Thanksgiving with the Comca’ac (Seris) for many years now.  This year, I have agreed to paint Berta Estrella’s home. Berta is an unmarried elder.  She shares her home with a wheel-chair bound brother and usually an unmarried sister.  This summer, various relatives from Punta Chueca also lived with her for short periods. Berta supports herself and the house by weaving baskets.  The Council of Elders suggested that we paint her house.  If we finish quickly, we will also paint some other homes.
Weather permitting, we will arrange for a day-trip to a nearby island for a tour guided by some of the para-ecologists from the village to see what they are working on at that season. 

Fee will be $400.00 per person, from Tucson and back.  We will be plan to be back early enough that you might fly out on Saturday evening, rather than Sunday.   If everyone can get tickets for Sunday, we can add a day to our time in Mexico. 

You can also still register for the harvest project this week! 

Mike Gray