FAN MAIL

Well, I guess it's time we start a fan mail question and answer section.

Kyle from Kansas writes:
Hey, I was just wondering when you’re heading out for whatever the first step is in your MCC journey*

Well, Kyle, first of all, I really want to thank you for your generous support and enthusiasm for my blog. It's fans like you from which I draw my inspiration. I'll try and send you that autographed huipile soon. To answer your question though, I am leaving at 10 pm Friday evening for a week long orientation in Akron Pennsylvania. There I will meet up with former BC studs Peter Miller, Joel Krehbiel, and Caley Ortman. I also expect to see Andrea from Cambodia that some from my family may remember.

Jake from South Dakota writes:
Hey man, UR blog is AWESOME! I'm already super psyched about Guatemala and you are not even there yet! U R flipping amazing dude. I hope you are having an awesome time packing all your stuff in order to get ready for Central America.


Wow, Jake, your enthusiasm is a little bit scary. I am almost done with a pre-pack test. I think I can get all that I want into one large hiking bag, another medium size hiking bag, and my miniature green backpack.I could probably leave in 30 minutes and have everything I needed. SO I'm pretty happy about that. I'm bringing more nice clothes than I ever had in Kansas because, as a teacher, I will need to look semi-sharp. Right now I think I only have four T-shirts packed (3 being Run for Relief shirts), which is probably a record low for me. I literally have a dresser drawer and another medium sized duffel bag full of T-shirts here at home... and that's after giving away many T-Shirts back at school. I will usually pack 4 T-Shirts for a weekend trip. However, they say that there are lots of cheap clothes shops in Guatemala, so I figure I'll buy some shirts there and save space in my bags here. The main concern is really that I have enough underwear that I have 100% confidence in.

Peter the Great (1682-1725) from Russia writes:
Jordan, I see you are going on some travels of your own there, from the so called "United States" to a region of Spanish America which you call "Guatemala." Now as I recall, the captaincy of Guatemala (1609) was (in the Spanish administrative ladder) at the southernmost point of the vast territory designated a part of the viceroyalty New Spain. Beneath that began the viceroyalty of Peru, where I hear you have also spent a fair amount of time in the capital of Quito. Now I can understand Quito, being a center for Spanish administration, but I mean, you've gotta be kidding about Guatemala! That place is a backwater, I hear the Spanish have hardly conquered this area and even just to the North, in the Yucatan, the descendants of the ancient Mayan civilization is resisting religious and political domination (see Ambivalent Conquest)... no matter how many heathen ancient Mayan texts the Spanish burn.

In my own secretive journey through Europe I hit all the major centers learning and technology in order to help my backward Russia westernize. Now from your use of English, I gather your "United States" must be some part of the ever growing English empire. As a side note, in my day, I helped along Russia's dreams for empire by finally gaining a warm water port from which our great ships could begin to take part in the long distance trade that was driving the advance of capitalism throughout Europe. Long distance trade was very important, being a major factor in the advancement of banks, credit, bills of exchange, industry, investment, joint-stock companies, stock-exchanges etc etc. see The Wheels of Commerce v. 2 by Braudel. Anyways, in my journey through Europe I learned many great ways to improve my home country of Russia. I instituted a Table or Ranks to gain absolute control of the stupid aristocracy (kind of like Louis XIV in France) and instituted a tax on beards... all to push us towards Westernization. I may have had to, shall we say, crack a few heads to do it, but seriously, before I took over, you couldn't swing a dead cat in Russia without hitting someone with a beard.

So my question to you is, why go to a backwater of the Spanish empire? I mean Spain is already in decline, we all know about the English defeat of the "Armada Invencible" in 1598... I mean, read the writing on the wall, Spain is out! How are you going to learn to make your "United States" a great and powerful nation from an uncivilized speck within the failing Spanish Empire? I mean coooooome on!

Well Peter, first of all I have to say that I was supremely shocked and excited to get your email. That was really great. The United States is actually already a pretty powerful place, so, unlike you, I'm actually not going on a quest to learn from Guatemala in order to make the United States more powerful. Still, I think that there is a lot that we Westerners can learn from "backwater" and "uncivilized" places like Guatemala. Just because western society has come to dominate the world with a combination of military might and economic control doesn't mean that our ideas and cultural assumptions are somehow right, or truthful. I believe I can learn a lot from these people, descended (at least in part) from the Maya. You might not believe it, but in the year 2008, your enlightenment ideal of progress has been sort of debunked. Most don't believe that all civilizations must advance on one straight and arrow path in order to reach an elusive goal of perfection. Those ideas were built upon a racist ideology (like the one that you obviously hold) that placed western civilization as the pinnacle of development. Today, we'd call you a "racist" and a "ruthless dictator" and nations like the United States might invade you in order to save your people (and take control of your vast oil reserves). "Cracking heads" is not acceptable anymore... wait a second...wellll that's what they say anyways...

well, we can continue this conversation later... I got kind of carried away there. Thank you for your fan mail Peter the Great.

thanks to all the fans,

Jordan


*names, places, and questions in "FAN MAIL" posts may be changed or simply made up for the safety of the fans or to keep up the exciting nature of this blog.