4.2.

3 Ambitious

She is very ambitious about her goals and it can be seen when she travels to the village of

Zapotec. As she leaves her comfort zone and joins a network of travelers to the village of

Zapotec, she can see herself living in a big world. She wants to travel to the village of Zapotec

where she can stay long enough to connect with the people of the village and experience their

way of life. Although it is not easy to find transportation to visit Zapotec, she does not let that

stop her dream. She starts out walking to find a bus and when the bus ride ends she puts her arm

out with her thumb up to hitch a ride from a passerby. The sun is blistering hot, the road she is

traveling on is hilly as she is almost ready to give up her dreams, her ambitiousness does not

allow her to stop.

A part of me wants to go back to Oaxaca and join my friends; it’s so much

easier being part of a group. I have dreamt for many years living in other cultures
where I am the only an outsider. I want to know what I would do and how I will
go about connecting with other people. I have read dozens of ethnographies over
last few years, vicariously living in the shoes of the anthropologists and sharing in
their experiences. Now all I want to do is to do it on my own.
(Gelman, 2001, p.20)

She keeps trying to hitch a ride until she can make her way to the village. Another moment that

shoes that Rita is ambitious, is when Rita gets to the village and is living with the local people

for a while and the villagers are much different than her expectations. While the time she is

visiting the village, the local people are not greeting her warmly as she expected, they do not

reply her smile, they hide and run when they see her. This makes her frustrated, but she wants to

be acceptance and she never leaves any places until she gets what she wants. So, she decides to

stay there in the village until the locals will finally accept her.

When I wander through the village, none of the women talk or

acknowledge me. After about four days, the only conversation I had is with a
woman named Margarita, and she treats me as though she’s my maid. I’m not
sure what I expected, but this wasn’t it. I keep reminding myself, that I have
vowed to spend a month here. There is little voice (I hear in my hear) that tells me
I’m free to leave whenever I choose.
(Gelman, 2001, p.24)