lala land

Sasha is 2!!!!

what a wonderful and extraordinary experience so far...life as parents to our sassy little Sasha! She has quite the split personality these days as she morphs back and forth between angelic girl and screaming banshee. lol! She is amazingly well mannered, saying "pease" "tank you" and "welcome", and with her ever expanding vocabulary she is having a hard time understanding why she still can't get her way ALL the time...even though she's asking nicely and everything! A communication challenge that is funny and exhausting all at the same time ;)

she is still healthy and happy and loves to boogy like all get out. she is fast on her feet and insanely well balanced in her ability to climb...two things that often have our hearts aflutter! she's too independent to let you help her...but doesn't mind if you keep a hand close by in case she wants to grab it. too cute.

more on our lala land with Sasha in the next post, along with an update on her eyes and many new pics, including from her birthday play day. for now...a recap on my biggest adventure to lala L.A. land!!!


Mark and Sasha had 6 days of quality bonding time while I worked and played in sunny california with Tanya and my CPEN colleagues! the run down on LA...an overwhelming experience! still processing and reflecting on it all, and will be for some time. our first day we wandered downtown around the hotel before we could check in. had lunch at a Mexican place in the Fig+7 outdoor mall around the corner.(all the shopping is pretty much outside in LA which is a nice change on malls. but a mall is still a mall, and therefore not so thrilling once the open air concept has worn off) starting the vacation aspect of our journey with a margarita - cheers!


after we checked in we decided to stroll Hollywood Blvd. from Vine on down it's quite run down and there is a few block stretch I dubbed 'pimp and ho' lane as just about every shop is either a men's suit store, women's lingerie or steletto heel 'boutique', or sex toy shop. The stand out building being the L.Ron Hubbard museum where you can take a 40 minute tour of his life and learn all about Scientology. (Actually there are 3 building within a block of each other that cater to Scientology...weird!)


as you progress down the street it becomes more mainstream shopping and chalk full of restaurants and clubs. we saw the Hollywood sign while walking the strip, and this pic was captured from yet another outdoor shopping mall...one that felt very Vegas...never been there, but this place really made me think of it! though you see some traffic in this pic, we were really lucky that every time we got in a car for a ride during our stay (not often) we didn't get stuck in any gridlock. Thankful to miss out on that aspect of LA ;)


much as I expected, the people in los angeles are much friendlier than portrayed in the movies...everyone was nice, approachable and helpful. we learned how to navigate the Metro system (affordable and reliable I might add) with the assistance of at least a couple of helpful fellows. and on hollywood blvd in the evening the dancers and celebrity look-a-likes come out and even on a 'slow' thursday night the place is hopping with activity. when we made it as far as the chinese theatre with all the celebrity hand prints outside, Tanya had the priveledge of being knifed by Chuckie - hahahaha!


we found a few interesting places to drink by asking locals where we should go for a good pint...the winner being the Snow White Tavern and their giant 34 oz pints of 'local' brew from Hawaii. when we ran into a financial 'woops' (another story) and left alone I ended up talking education with an Armenian man who said the old communist Russian public education system was the best ever, but in the USA he had his daughter in a private school as he didn't want her mixing with people of different 'cultures'. interesting is an understatement, but I was soooooo happy when Tanya came back to rescue me! then we had fun at a punk bar we stumbled across. a true mix of people to meet in one day I tell ya!

something I didn't know is that police helicopters are ever present in LA...literally one flies by every 10-15 minutes!! every mural you see around town has a helicopter in it, and then you look up and there's another one! never did get used to it. they are even more noticeable at night when they have their spotlights on - not a total police state...but closest I have personally come to feeling I'm in one so far...


speaking of police - here's another thing that shocked me. on Friday we had a tour of a secondary school - the Santee Education Complex. parked outside was this police cruiser...and you read it right...they have a police force for their schools! granted this is a neighbourhood with about 30 active gangs, but with their aversion to authority I find it hard to believe that having at least 4 cops on site at all times does much to ease that pressure. a year after this school opened there was a full on riot where the kids were penned in the common ground area where they can't escape, and the riot cops in full gear came in to suppress them (I've seen the footage!) To my logic, if you treat kids like criminals they will become criminals. and in a neighbourhood very much lacking in things to do for youth...well a more community developmental model feels more appropriate. just my humble opinion...

and as the school was designed by prison contractors (WTF!?!) there is no surprise that it looks, and feels, very much like a prison. just more colourful, with some new state of the art stuff like an auditorium and sports facilities. Santee was the first school that the LA school district had built in about 32 years, and when it opened in 2005 it became the dumping ground for the overflow of students throughout south LA. It is now dealing with it's own overflow of students. the capacity is for 2400 students...the actual number enrolled is over 3600 students and they are divided into 3 groups which alternate semesters...a schedule that has them rotating 16 weeks on and 8 weeks off all year.

the school is also divided into 'learning centres' which focus the skill development within different sectors. ie fashion and sewing, culinary, restaurant and tourism, trade skills. the students have to choose in grade 9 which stream they want to enter (happy to note they can change streams before graduation, but sounds rare). a high number of these students come from families who work in the sweatshops, sometimes because they are not documented, and they often end up using those sewing skills to get whatever job they can.

bordered by the fashion district and a bunch of brand new public facilities, like the Staples Centre, convention centre and others, there is an abundance of low wage work available for the surrounding community. (the mayor actually ensured the developers of all these new buildings would hire at least 50% of their workforce from the surrounding area) you can feel the struggle for inspiration there.

however, like most communities there is a fighting spirit within, and parents, teachers and students worked together to have an overly authoritarian principal ousted from the school a couple of years back. apparently things continue to improve with the new adminsitration, and the hard work of at least the few teachers and students we met. the fashion teacher helped her students to fundraise for a trip to Paris to participate in some houte couture fashion house tours, in hopes of inspiring them to do more with their skill set than sweatshop labour. funny stories about the best sewers in the class being the football players who only took the class to impress the girls - lol

they have also worked out a unique partnership with the local community college where students can take a few credits there in their last year of high school, and those credits count for both the last year of secondary and the first year of college. it's really hard to summarize all the positive and negative of this, and so many other schools!!!

can you find the crazy big brother symbolism in one of the pics below?






the culinary class (which learn in this state of the art kitchen in the school - though due to red tape they have yet to have their dishwasher installed) prepared a fantastic feast for our conference lunch on saturday. so now a little more about the Tri-National Conference in Defense of Public Education...the event for which I was invited to LA to begin with ;)

I knew I was in for a treat when I arrived on the Friday and was greeted with a warm smile, hug and kiss on the cheek from Mariluz (a delegate from Mexico who also presented in the same workshop as me) Sweet! Like most conferences there were some plenary sessions with great speakers, and thoughtful panels of amazing storytellers. as it was tri-national there were tales of comparison from Mexico, USA and Canada. we had a documentary night where we watched "Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad (A Little Bit of So Much Truth" and I was thrilled to get to know the film maker, Jill, over the next day or so.

I had been invited to be one speaker in a workshop on mobilizing communties, to give an over view of the public hearing process which led to the development of the Charter for Public Education. I always mention that we heard from people of all ages, from the little beans (just one of my many nicnames for Sasha is my 'little beaner' from when she was a kidney bean shaped embryo) to the elders around the province. After 5 years I'm pretty good at summing up the experience now, so had only a mild nervousness about presenting to this group. But the important part of what I said was the reference to little kids...I have a dozen pet names for the word 'kids' - peanuts, tots...but this time I said 'beaner'

Here is the story of my biggest learning curve of the whole trip. After myself, and the other speakers, had our 10 min to present it opened up to a brief round of questions and comments (we were short on time for the morning 1/2 of the workshop). The last person to speak, before the moderator called time for lunch, called me out for using a racist term and demanded I explain myself. I had no idea what he was talking about and was totally embarassed. I was also apologetic for my ignorance and asked him to explain.

He then told me that the term "little beans" or "beaners" was an insult to Mexican-Americans as it is used as a negative slang based on the stereotype that they eat a lot of beans. Well, his tirade and my response, became a talking point for me and every workshop participant I encountered the rest of the conference. I had a few people who pulled me aside and said "I was gonna tell you quietly on the side about the 'little bean' thing" and everyone knew that I had not meant anything by it...they got that I was from Vancouver and wouldn't even have noticed if he hadn't brought it up. But obviously, as equally insulting to Mexicans as the N word is to black people, my use of the term was offensive to some.

I was deeply moved, and became emotional (surprise), from all of the positive support I received. Many people had beautiful things to say and it was the positive outpouring that overwhelmed me more than the embarassment of his verbal reprimand. My tears were those of relief that my ignorance had not upset everyone and that no one thought me a bad person for it. You know I'm a people pleaser, and really don't like upsetting folks, so the experience of being called on a racial blunder had me reeling a bit.

Anyways, I think that I learned more from the shock of experience than I would have if a few kind souls had pointed out my blunder quietly on the side. When engaging people in community dialogue that aims for consensus and relationship building, there are always opportunites for errors in a politically correct and sensitive world. I would rather apologize and learn from it, and have it become an open point of discussion...which is what it became...and I REALLY learned from the experience! And, the man who had been insulted was apologetic for his tactict and we both talked it out and learned from one another. So, it's all good :)


A workshop on sunday brought together those of us representing community groups, parents and students, and I got to report out for this group. The conference attendees passed a resolution based on my summary that "the Tri-National Coaltition work to change the culture which entrenches the enemy images between teachers, parents and students, and that we will do this by increasing our efforts to engage people from the community up" Another big highlight for me! I felt it was really important that we focus on the skills and stories shared by our friends from New Orleans...who really know all about what it takes to organize from the bottom up to rebuild community. I highly recommend you check out their web site www.peoplesorganizing.org for some inspiration of your own!

After the conference we were treated to a boat tour of the San Pedro harbour. Makes Vancouver's port look tiny tiny. The tour was to show the implications of globalization on the USA from the ports, and was generously given by the Longshoremen. The one tidbit I picked up was that of all the ports there, only one is owned by American interests, the rest are foreign owned.

Aside from that, I was distracted by good conversation with my new friends Jane and Jill (windblown beside me here), other folks around us, and my campanero with the fine Tequila (really...like a fine scotch this was!)

Overall, for my work with CPEN and the documentary I made an abundance of great connections with some fantastic people from Mexico (primarily from the Oaxaca region), around the USA - Los Angeles, New Orleans, Mississipi, Atlanta, Chicago, New York and Seattle, and across Canada in BC, New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec. I look forward to seeing many of these folks again down the road, either for the doc or for the next Tri-National conference (tentatively set for sometime in 2010...in Montreal?)

This post does not do justice to the number of amazing people I now feel connected to through this experience. Too many tales to tell...

After all the work came more play time for a day and night, this time with my friend Javier. He hosted us in his cottage home in Sherman Oaks which added to the breadth of our exploration of the LA area. He took us to a great noodle place in Little Tokyo (which is really little) and after an afternoon of play in Sante Monica, (where we got to ride the ferris wheel on the pier and play in the waves a little...too cold for swimming just yet!) we ate at a wonderful little Mexican place.

I have to say that Los Angeles was never on my list of places to see in my lifetime. But I am full of gratitude that I was invited to the Tri-national conference and given the opportunity to see it anyway. And also to my friend Javi for the time and care he gave us too! It is really an interesting place, and full of far more substance than I had imagined. I have always appreciated what we have here in Canada (more specifically for my life in Ontario and BC) but after hearing the struggles of our friends to the south and further south...well...I am 100% more grateful. Our uphill struggle to defend all things public is not nearly as steep as for those in the US and Mexico. I have many great memories, and thought provoking ones, from this journey and hope I captured the best of it all here for you!














The best was coming home to Sasha...who ran up to me when I got home, said "mama hug!" and threw her arms around me. Bliss upon bliss :)