I Am Married to my Hero

Here's how it happened:

After nearly two years of struggling to end corruption in the educational system in Tlaxcala, Mexico, my wife (the director of the high school system in Tlaxcala) threw up her hands. She had discovered that education, like so many other agencies in Mexico, are mafia's. Everything she tried to do to ensure transperency, and to fight corruption was blocked by members of this mafia—Union members. politicians, educators. Their only purpose is to ensure the status quo— continued corruption as has been the case for over a hundred and fifty years.

As the director fo teh high schools, her fourteen hour days, and Saturdays away from her family resulted in brick walls. No onein power lifted a finger to protct her or to help her implement much needed changes. She was essentially alone.

In the meantime, I was teaching English at a university in Tlaxcala, which was more of the same—corruption from top to bottom. Although it didn't effect the way I taught, I saw the effect in soaring student fees, and books, prices marked up to line the pockets of higher-ups. I saw professors, many of my friends, working full-time and making the equivilent of about six hundered American dollars a month, which forced them to work other jobs to make ends meet. I saw a change in the top leadership at the university, in which a politician replacied the other politician that had been the previous chancellor. The Governor makes these appointments according to favors he owes, or friends he has that need a job.

My wife recieved threats of harm from the educational mafia. When she tried to remove pedophiles, and other child abusers from the classroom, she hit a brick wall. When the assistent to the Governor was caught siphoning off a teaching salary (she wasnt' teaching) in addition to her goverment salary, she went unpunished. In fact, the person hired as a watchdog for corruption called my wife and asked her to sweep it under the carpet. She also recieved calls from senators, wanting her to place people they owed favors to in classrooms and administrative positions.

One evening, after a typical day of frustration, my wife and shared a bottle of wine and talked about our future, which revolves around our wonderful young daughter. We both decided that it would be in her best interest to return to the USA. We quickly made plans, liquidated our tiny assets, and scraped up enough to return, establish a shaky foothold. We will soon begin work at an underperforming high school, and we are excited about bringing positive change a school filled with marvelous opportunities for such work. With the barrier of corruption removed, we should be able to have a great deal of success.