Tonight was me and Simon’s first time going to the night school alone and as we walked down the broken sidewalk as the sun was setting, I was lost in thought about our lesson plan for the night. When we got there, we were told that it was Shenny’s (one of the two teachers who welcomed us into their classes) birthday so she won’t be in class, but we could go ahead and talk to the students for 20 minutes (instead of our usual 40). So we introduced ourselves and MIA, and “Hombres Contra Feminicidio” and we ended up just doing a quick exercise about safety on the streets and how there are clear gendered differences in how each gender is expected to and advised to behave. It was a short start, but the students were happy to participate and I was happy that we had broken the ice with this group. On the way home, which is about a 20 minute walk, I looked around at the homelessness, the cockroaches, the litter, the public urination and human defecation on the sidewalks and the leering men and thought: this isn’t so different from the US. One big difference is I have a car there and can breeze by these things with my windows up and music on.
