Today I'm collecting my thoughts for almost the first time since we arrived in Mexico two weeks ago. It's been eight years since we've travelled around like this -- carrying backpack, camera and travel guides, sorting out streets, must see places and this time around finding our way exclusively in Spanish.
Last week we had classes six hours a day with homework later. The intensity kind of bagged us out. So we cut back to four hours this week with time to think and saunter around.
In the evenings we walk ten blocks to the main square, the Zocalo -- or even dare to scout out darkish streets to see what folks are up to in the evenings. Mostly, it's difficult to know because houses have locked metal or wood entrance doors that lead into a courtyard or yet another door. Houses edge right up to the sidewalk. Now I'm finally feeling comfortable in my skin. The Oaxacans are constantly celebrating something and it's not unusual to chance upon a group of people dancing in a park or to hear fireworks or pass a long line of folks carrying placards and protesting low wages or lack of jobs.
At first even something as simple as finding things in my backpack was hard because I kept stuffing things in any old place and couldn't find them later. I'm carrying three items -- purse with wallet, camera and backpack -- so three straps around my neck and until a couple of days ago all the straps got jumbled up together so when I wanted to grab my camera, the strap was under my backpack and so forth -- no end of grief until I got myself sorted out with a system. Kind of stupid eh?
At home in Caledon rabbits, deer and birds keep us company. Oaxaca, though is incredibly congested and noisy -- some sidewalks are wide enough for one foot and to get between a wall and a lamp post with a backpack, you have to turn sideways. You take your life in your hands crossing streets because the signals are somewhere up in God's land where you can't see them. I just follow what everyone else is doing, take a big breath, dash and pray. Big culture shock!
Our school is a gem -- has a super curriculum and excellent instructors who have their own iPads for research, and the curricula. When I asked if the school had a library, the fellow who was showing us around said, "There's no need. We have wi fi." But, just like in old times, a woman walks around ringing a bell to signal the beginning and end of classes.
My mind is full of the new and different and I want to soak it all in. A few nights ago, we passed a theatre advertising healing music. So in we went. The stage was covered in white, with flowers and musical instruments. The singer, a Hungarian, dressed in white and beads, who'd spent many years in India and had toured the globe, invited us to shut our eyes and sink into the music. I slept for an hour. When I woke up Bob wasn't beside me. He was pacing at the back of the theatre. He said, "The fellow could have crossed the street for a drink and you wouldn't have known!"
The photos are of our home stay -- the street, the entrance, the kitchen and the back area plant room cum garage and my classroom. We're moving to another this Friday because the owner is having surgery. Our flight to Tuxtla Gutierrez by Aero Tucan is delayed until next Wednesday. But even though we bought our tickets yesterday, I'm wondering what's up since the government shut the company down two weeks ago as its airport landing fees were in arrears.
Despite the bad press, this part of Mexico at least is safe. People are friendly and helpful. It's a tourist area with people visiting from all over the world. A couple of days ago, we sipped coffee with a couple from Nuremberg -- she was born in the district of Baden Wurtenberg close to Lauf where we lived forty years ago. Small world as they say.
But behind the dance, the theatre and fireworks, is a grim reality. Oaxaca is poor. This state's economy is the worst in all of Mexico. In 2000, 28 % (the last census) of active wage earners earned no income at all. I don't understand how you can be a wage earner and not earn anything. The next lowest wage earners took in $2/day. One half of Oaxacans work in agriculture. The money they earn accounts for only one-tenth of the state's yearly economic output. Many live in shanties made of palm and metal outside of town. Many families of five or six are crammed into one or two room dwellings in el centro. The situation hasn't changed much over the last 10 years. We talk about these issues in class. Fascinating and sad.
More later about food, song, dance and lovers here.
It's fun hearing from you!
Hasta pronto --
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