Border Fence
Dusk at the border - Juarez is at the
base of the mountains
The time has come for me to go. The phase in which you start receiving odd and slightly offensive comments from anonymous readers is a sign that you are ready for round two... the next blog.
I spent seven months of this year preparing to move from Columbia to Colombia. As the "ring before spring" phenomenon hit my graduating class, I watched as women planned their summer weddings. While some dated to find and finalize their fiancés, I speed-dated Colombians. I asked Colombians to coffee, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Applying for the Fulbright in Colombia justified any and every excuse for time within the Colombian community. I thought that by September 2011 I would be writing from a witty new URL that somehow referenced Colombia. However, I am proud to now write from the US Mexico border.
For every anonymous comment, I had a community of bloggers that continued to offer support to a student desperately trying to articulate her experiences in the Global South. Unfortunately, I have to leave this network because I am moving from Blogspot to Tumblr. I would have remained loyal to Blogspot for another three years, but a nice man has the URL I want. I would wait him out, but he has been MIA since the 2008 election.
I am certain that I would have loved living in Colombia if I had been chosen for the Fulbright. I would have been swiftly inducted into the expat community and eventually adopted into the Colombian one. However, it would not have been a perfect vocational fit. My application was strong, but not balanced. I demonstrated a profound interest in Latin American politics and a certain knack for paramilitary activity, but lacked in classroom experience. It was no coincidence that I applied to work in a country that just demobilized over 30, 000 paramilitary troops. Ultimately, it is appropriate that the applicant with no teaching experience was passed over for the English Teaching Assistant. Others are far more qualified to teach in the public schools of Bogotá or Bucaramanga.
However, I have never been more certain of a right decision. The Border Servant Corps is where I belong. The Border Servant Corps is an opportunity for me to work at the margins of the margins. I have been given the chance to live with a view of "exiting empires." Each day I am in between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, I am a witness to the empire of violence, greed, and oppression. However, each day that I go to work, I bear witness as these empires are replaced by communities who defy the femicide in Juarez, the violence less than a mile away, and the fence itself.
My hope is that my new blog, Exiting Empires, will be permanent - that my life and work will always have a view of "exiting empires." I had a strict policy with Ali is Now Abroad that I would try not to regurgitate my daily activities. Instead, I tried to offer a concise and analytical narrative of what I was experiencing in the Global South. Consequently, this blog cataloged not only trips to four continents, but my maturation as I grew to articulate my political consciousness. However, Exiting Empires will be a reflection of my daily life. When you have a front row view of a city saturated with conflict, you have a responsibility to echo the voices who "say no those who invite us to wash our hands of the crucifixions we witness daily" (Eduardo Galeano).
A view from my neighborhood. To my right is Juarez,
Mexico and the border fence.
The URL for my new blog is: http://exitingempire.tumblr.com/
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