Valentine's Day in Tlaxiaco

Every day in Tlaxiaco, vendors set up their goods alongside the main plaza. Recently, in and among the regular vendors selling fruits, vegetables, clothes, pirated cd’s and movies, have been vendors selling Valentine’s Day items. Fake roses with perfume, stuffed animals, bags of candy, and heart-shaped balloons saying Kiss Me. Which all seemed funny to me. Apart from being overly cheesy, it all seemed out of place... so very American in a place with relatively little outside influence.

At Casa Hogar, we had our own Valentine’s Day event. Students chipped in 10 pesos apiece to have some carne asada and refrescos. Also there was a gift exchange planned, and an evening campfire. Before all that, though, we had a short prayer, Bible study and sang a couple songs.

As I was standing by the campfire, I looked around at everyone enjoying their carne asada, saw new pink blossoms on a nearby tree, watched people bring their presents for the gift exchange… it was all quite festive… in a way that seemed somehow familiar, yet entirely different at the same time. It seemed to have a little bit of a summer BBQ atmosphere, plus springtime, plus Christmas gift exchange…. all around a campfire. It was good.

For the gift exchange we stood in a circle around the campfire to give the gifts. One person started by saying a mí, me tocó a (person’s name), and then gave the gift and a hug to the other person. The person who received the present did the same thing until everyone had a turn. There were always oohs and ahhs when the gift was exchanged between a boy and a girl, along with chants of beso! Beso!

All in all, a good way to spend Valentine's Day.

Lots of onions!

The carne asada, onions and cactus were all grilled up over the campfire.

I'm on a bus!

Ah, the bus. Considering I don’t take busses for my daily transportation, I sure have spent a lot of time on busses. Most of the time if I go to Puebla for the weekend, I take the bus. Which takes anywhere from 5 to 6 hours. Luckily, the busses are really nice. They have comfy seats that recline, they play movies… in fact, on one trip into Puebla it occurred to me that spending the day on the bus wasn’t so bad. Warmth, comfortable chairs, movies… kind of nice. Especially since I don’t watch very many movies at Casa Hogar, and I do sometimes miss having a couch.

So for the most part, being on the bus is pretty relaxing, and when I look out the window, I’m paying much more attention to the scenery than the traffic. However, once on the way to Guadalajara, I noticed that we were turning onto a different freeway… and then I realized that we were facing the wrong way… a glace over to the other side of the bus told me that yes, cars were headed straight at us. (There weren’t very many.) As I watched the cars easily move over to the other lane to accommodate for the bus going the wrong way, I couldn’t help but think that if this were in the US, there would certainly be a wreck! Anyways, then the bus reversed down the freeway a little before crossing the median to the correct side of the road. No one was concerned at all.

All that being said, over vacation I think I had just about reached my limit for time spent on busses. A bus to Puebla, 10 hour bus ride to Guadalajara, then another 10 hours back to Puebla, then 4 hours to Veracruz, then an hour to the site each day in Veracruz, back to Puebla, back to Tlaxiaco. All in all, we’re looking at 50+ hours of bus time within 3 weeks.
And what did I do with all that time? Well....

1. Watch movies
2. Take naps
3. Read
4. Do Sudoku
5. Write in my journal
6. Watch the world go by
7. Talk to the person sitting next to me
8. Eat some snacks
9. Daydream
10. Take pictures at random stops

And there it is, in all its glory...

Waiting

Check out this fantastically orange bus... with a little live music as well.

The Half-Way Point

I am officially past the half-way point of my time here. Overall, I will be here about 7 ½ months, and as of now, I’ve been here just over 4 months. Although this isn’t my first time living abroad, it will be my first time being gone for such a long stretch of time. I decided to stay in Mexico for Christmas break and visit the Amayas in Guadalajara. I am so glad that I decided to do that; it was a great to see them and to experience Christmas in another culture. Also, I joined a mission team from California on their trip to Veracruz, which was also a really good experience. But… as I neared the half-way point of my time in January… it dawned on me. Even though I had a good vacation, and a good Christmas, I still didn’t get to see my friends and family. And 4 months is a long time to be gone. It felt like it should be time to see friends and family… except it wasn’t, and I was only half way through. Stuck in the middle, and stretched between the beginning and the end, both equally far away. May seemed a long ways off.

May still seems a ways away. But, I have a sneaking suspicion that the next few months will go by quite quickly. Besides, I am past the half-way point now. Three more months? No problem. The end is in sight, and I have momentum again. Time to re-evaluate, make some goals and, in general, aprovechar the remaining time that I have.

So, here are some things I intend to work on/do more of in the next few months:

1. Speak in English with the students. At first, I wanted to be able to build relationships with students, and because of their low English abilities, Spanish seemed the best way to do that. However, I think it’s time to switch to English.
2. Use a rewards system to try to get students to come to English class more often.
3. Hold bi-weekly vocab bees to encourage students to learn basic vocabulary.
4. Travel more. It turns out, I do enjoy travelling more than spending the weekend in Tlaxiaco with no real plans. And I want to see more of Oaxaca.
5. Read new books on my new kindle. (Yay for e-books and birthday presents!)

And…. Go!

Monte Alban

While we were in Oaxaca, we took a side trip to Monte Alban. It was pretty amazing. I had been to Teotihuacan to see the Aztec pyramid of the sun and pyramid of the moon. But what impressed me most about Monte Alban was the size of the site. The pyramids maybe weren't as tall, but there were many buildings spread over a large area. Situated on a hill, it also had great views.

Me, Nithim and Katie.

The ball court.

An image of a danzante.

Visitas y Viajes

Last weekend Nithim, Katie and I went to Oaxaca City. Although it isn’t that far away, (about 2.5 hours), I hadn’t gone yet. I don’t know anyone in Oaxaca City, and I think Agustin and Irene would have been concerned if I went on my own.

Who are Katie and Nithim? They are the two people who found my blog and decided to come and help out for a couple weeks. Our main project is putting together a volunteer handbook for future volunteers at HEI. When I first started looking into Casa Hogar, I couldn’t find any information about it at all. (Luckily, I was able to e-mail with a past volunteer!) We’re hoping that with the new website and a handbook, more people will know about HEI, and more people will decide to come. I guess there was no volunteer last year. Obviously, it would be nice if every year there was a volunteer. In the handbook, there will be information about Tlaxiaco, Casa Hogar, and what it is like to live and volunteer here. The other project is putting together some curriculum for teaching English. Also, Nithim is studying digital libraries and is collecting various things to use as resources on our new computers. It’s been really great to spend time with them, have a good project to work on and not be the only extranjera at Casa Hogar.

Anyways, we went to Oaxaca! It is a really beautiful city. I loved having breakfast in the zocalo, listening to musicians, and watching the vendors set up under the tall trees. It was a very relaxing place to be, and even though there were lots of people out and about, no one seemed to be in a hurry. It was also significantly warmer than Tlaxiaco! Not that it was that much different during the day, but it was so nice to walk around at night and not be cold. And to be able to eat dinner outside wearing a light sweater instead of eating inside wearing a coat!

I really enjoyed traveling, seeing a new place, being a little more independent. Perhaps I’ll be able to do another weekend trip sometime. If nothing else, it will be fun to plan something for Semana Santa!

Oaxaca is famous for its textiles and other handiwork.

Mmm... churros.

Queso Oaxaqueño- we ate a lot of it while we were there!

A really big tree in Tule, and possibly the largest biomass in the world.

Traditional huipils still worn by some in the indigenous community.

Esperanza

I meant to write this post in December, but I didn’t. So, this is more or less an update on some of the changes at Casa Hogar.

First of all, the boiler hadn’t really been working and I was stuck taking short, excruciatingly cold showers. When I told Priscilla and her family about this they immediately went out and bought me something to tide me over until the boiler was fixed. Here it is:

I think I had a smaller version of one of these in my dorm room. You know, one of those things that you plug in and put in your tea cup to warm up the water? Only this one is mas grande- and will warm up an entire 5-gallon bucket. When I showed my mom the apparatus via skype, she said, “Oh, it’s a trough-warmer! It’s so that the cows’ water doesn’t freeze!” While it would have been pretty entertaining to attempt using it, I actually haven’t yet. When I got back, I found out that the boiler had been fixed! Yay for hot water!!!

Some other things:

• Roberto made a website for Casa Hogar. Eventually I will be translating it, but for now at least it is up in Spanish. http://www.tlaxiacoestudiantil.org/


• With money donated from a church in Mexico as well as from some people in my home church of Montesano, we bought two new computers! Patronato will be bringing them at the end of the week, and soon students will be able to more of their homework at home. (Instead of paying to use an internet café)


• The internet situation is still a big question mark, but not necessarily impossible.


• A couple months ago, someone looking for volunteer opportunities in Latin America, found my blog. After some e-mails and discussions, she is coming! Soon! She and her fiancé will be helping with several projects. She and I will work on a curriculum/framework for teaching English to Secundaria students. (That way the next volunteer will have something to work off of) And her fiancé will be working on creating digital libraries. Very exciting!

I definitely feel very blessed to be a part of all of this, and to get to see some of these changes unfold. Basically, I’m so glad to be here. Glad that my presence here is at least a small contribution to the improvements that are being made. And glad that I get to see and experience God at work in the world.

Christmas in Guadalajara

For Christmas I went to Guadalajara to spend time with family friends, the Amayas. I had stayed with them when I studied abroad in college (like 8 years ago-yikes!), but really our families have been friends since the 60’s. So, this seemed like a good opportunity to catch up and spend Christmas with my “other family.”

I couldn’t help but reminisce about my time there before. Whenever people ask me where I learned Spanish I always say that I took classes in school, but that I learned how to actually speak it in Guadalajara. Which is true- but it took me awhile to be comfortable speaking. I know that much of the time, especially towards the beginning, I was quiet, and didn’t understand all that much. By the end of the semester I was fairly confident, but what a difference to arrive this time and jump right into conversations! And of course, this time I was meeting old friends, instead of people I didn’t know all that well. I know that this first living abroad experience was really important in my life. It was my first time truly being away from home, and it was hard. But it was also the start of being able to use Spanish, traveling, living in another culture; things that I am doing now.

This year was my first Christmas away from home. I was excited to spend it with the Amayas, but also a little worried about not being home. Turns out I didn’t really need to be… The whole evening felt very Christmas-y; everyone walking around with shining eyes and happy faces. We had a big turkey dinner (that started around 11:00 PM!) with candles and Christmas music in English. There was 24-hour salad courtesy of a recipe Maga was given by a friend in Montesano 40 years ago, as well as ponche with a choice of adding vino, whiskey or tequila. I felt welcomed by everyone- less of a guest and more of a family member (albeit one who doesn’t always come). I forgot how nice it is to talk to people who know and love my family. People who have lived in or visited Montesano, and who spent Christmas with my grandparents in Monte. For years the Amayas called us on Christmas Eve. The phones were passed around at both houses, and lots of Merry Christmases and Feliz Navidades were exchanged. Maybe that’s another reason it didn’t feel weird to be there. I had been a part of their Christmas before, just as they had been a part of ours. I’m so glad that the tradition has continued, and that I actually know them. They are more than names and faces to me.