charolastra00
11-06-2008, 05:36 AM
Anyone who is my friend on Facebook has probably read this already but I'm going to post my note here.
"I am coming home early from my program in Oaxaca, Mexico on Saturday afternoon. I thought I'd make an announcement and let everyone know why.
Thursday night, my group was in a hostel on the beach at Zipolite close to Puerto Angel on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. It was a gorgeous place with mosquito netted beds basically on covered porches. At 2:30AM, I woke up to a male voice. I thought it was someone playing cards and got really annoyed. About 5 minutes after the voice stopped, I heard a loud scream from the bed at the end of my room of 5 girls.
Turns out a drunk man had come in the room as we were all asleep and targeted my friend Emily. He was saying things like "Amiga, amiga! Ven conmigo. Si quieres." And other ununderstandable things about going to walk on the beach. He also tried to pull his way through the mosquito netting of her bed. Emily screamed when one of the other girls- who was awake and knew the guy was in the room- got out of bed to go see Emily after he left, and her shadow shined on the wall. Several of our bags were rifled through, including mine (my stuff was out of my suitcase when I got to it). I was in the first bed in the room in the hostel. The hostel was in a super safe area and so there were no doors or locks... just open air rooms in the spirit of a hippie beach hostel.
That scream will probably stay with me for the rest of my life.
Two days later, we were in Puerto Escondido at the beach. Wanting to kind of let go and relax, a bunch of us hopped on a banana boat out into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Me and 2 of my friends fell out on the first turn. One was able to get back onto thebanana boat but Morgann and I were asked to get back onto the speed boat. One of the guys running the boat went to pull Morgann on. She told him she had to "arreglan sus cosas" (meaning fix her top) and the guy went ahead and grabbed her by the chest, pulled her up, squeezed, and said "tan grande"... all while I was helplessly floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
I really feel traumatized by both of these events. I am scared of people on the street when I shouldn't be. After 2 months of cat calls, I don't feel emotionally prepared for the independent study project which starts next week where I had planned on being absolutely alone in Mexico City.
So I am going home to get some counseling and rest before I go to London next semester. Its the most empowered thing I can do to get control of my life right now. Everyone has been so supportive of me and I love every single one of my friends here. They're wonderful. However, I'm going to throw it out there that I'm probably going to need an excessive amount of emotional support right now."
I've been struggling with Mexico for the past 3 months that I've been here. Often times I would say that I wanted to go home... but I was stubborn enough to pull through it. In the past few days, I've realized how fucked up this entire thing has left me and made the choice to withdraw and go home to rest and heal. Leaving the people I have grown so close to here- plus the immense amount of work I've put in to building relationships and connecting with people in Mexico- is one of the toughest decisions I've had to make.
What are some of your hardest decisions?
"I am coming home early from my program in Oaxaca, Mexico on Saturday afternoon. I thought I'd make an announcement and let everyone know why.
Thursday night, my group was in a hostel on the beach at Zipolite close to Puerto Angel on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. It was a gorgeous place with mosquito netted beds basically on covered porches. At 2:30AM, I woke up to a male voice. I thought it was someone playing cards and got really annoyed. About 5 minutes after the voice stopped, I heard a loud scream from the bed at the end of my room of 5 girls.
Turns out a drunk man had come in the room as we were all asleep and targeted my friend Emily. He was saying things like "Amiga, amiga! Ven conmigo. Si quieres." And other ununderstandable things about going to walk on the beach. He also tried to pull his way through the mosquito netting of her bed. Emily screamed when one of the other girls- who was awake and knew the guy was in the room- got out of bed to go see Emily after he left, and her shadow shined on the wall. Several of our bags were rifled through, including mine (my stuff was out of my suitcase when I got to it). I was in the first bed in the room in the hostel. The hostel was in a super safe area and so there were no doors or locks... just open air rooms in the spirit of a hippie beach hostel.
That scream will probably stay with me for the rest of my life.
Two days later, we were in Puerto Escondido at the beach. Wanting to kind of let go and relax, a bunch of us hopped on a banana boat out into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Me and 2 of my friends fell out on the first turn. One was able to get back onto thebanana boat but Morgann and I were asked to get back onto the speed boat. One of the guys running the boat went to pull Morgann on. She told him she had to "arreglan sus cosas" (meaning fix her top) and the guy went ahead and grabbed her by the chest, pulled her up, squeezed, and said "tan grande"... all while I was helplessly floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
I really feel traumatized by both of these events. I am scared of people on the street when I shouldn't be. After 2 months of cat calls, I don't feel emotionally prepared for the independent study project which starts next week where I had planned on being absolutely alone in Mexico City.
So I am going home to get some counseling and rest before I go to London next semester. Its the most empowered thing I can do to get control of my life right now. Everyone has been so supportive of me and I love every single one of my friends here. They're wonderful. However, I'm going to throw it out there that I'm probably going to need an excessive amount of emotional support right now."
I've been struggling with Mexico for the past 3 months that I've been here. Often times I would say that I wanted to go home... but I was stubborn enough to pull through it. In the past few days, I've realized how fucked up this entire thing has left me and made the choice to withdraw and go home to rest and heal. Leaving the people I have grown so close to here- plus the immense amount of work I've put in to building relationships and connecting with people in Mexico- is one of the toughest decisions I've had to make.
What are some of your hardest decisions?