Having been in Mexico for only a week, I viewed staying in a community to be an excellent way to acclimatize myself to both the concepts of solidarity work and the various currents running through society. Granted, Las Tacitas is a world away from San Cristobal, but I found my stay to be both a challenging and insightful introduction to Chiapanecan life. I had been told that the majority of my time would be spent with children; I found this opinion to be confirmed within five minutes of my arrival. As the car bounced down the hill towards the town, eventually coming to stop, a crowd of excited children surrounded the truck, ready to pounce on the newcomers. Their curiosity was matched by mine, although I’m not sure that our gazes were representative of the same questions. I found myself wondering primarily two things: how was I being perceived by the townspeople, and what, exactly, would I be doing here? I am envious of childhood´s lack of inhibition, the all-consuming drive to explore that pushes away the annoying person in one´s own head, saying, ¨What am I doing here?¨ It is important to note, however, that this reservation is deservedly stressed while participating in any solidarity work, for reasons that have become more clear since departing Las Tacitas. Before going too far down the self-involved road of reflection, I would like to note a somewhat disturbing aspect of being a rights observer in Las Tacitas: The Zapatista community depends on observers to serve as school teachers, a position I found myself unprepared to tackle for some obvious reasons; I am not a teacher; I do not speak Tseltal and my command of Spanish is conversational at best. My own concerns aside, rights observers (when they are there) are hardly the bunch who should be instructing these kids. At the very least, they should be taught in their own language (Tseltal) and should be given the opportunity to accept instruction from somebody with whom they can develop a lasting bond—somebody who is going to be there for more than two weeks. Another aspect of the classroom that I found to be interesting was the request, by several of the Zapatista spokesmen, that we not allow non-Zapatistas into the school (Pristas and other groups have their own school). This seemed like a somewhat reasonable request, except for the fact that discriminating amongst children is discouraging and difficult, to say the least. Throughout this process, I was acutely aware of a desire not to highlight differences between people (especially children!) and to stay away, at all times, from telling the children what they were allowed to do in their own town. Now that I am back in San Cristobal, I can say definitively that my experience in Las Tacitas has served as an invaluable introduction to both solidarity work and Chiapas. As noted by many other solidarity workers, this work can be as harmful as it is helpful. It is nearly impossible to make these distinctions when one is ignorant of the history and traditions of a certain society and difficult even when one is not.