Friday, January 4, 2008

A little disclaimer

It suddenly dawned on me that I should perhaps stop using people’s names on this blog, as it is open to the public and some people may not want their personal stuff posted on the internet. So if you are reading this and I’ve mentioned your name in any of my stories, I apologize for that.
Also, regarding the dates and words like, today, tomorrow and yesterday......these may all be wrong. I write my stories off line in Microsoft word and then when I have access to the internet I load them onto the blog, the blog automatically adds the date, it’s the date it is posted not necessarily the date that the story is written. Since I’ve moved to the Island I don’t have internet so I will continue to write my stories and then take my laptop into town and load them all. However, I am going to borrow an antenna of some kind from Al that might help me to get a wireless connection out here. Knowing AL they could very well be tinfoil moose antlers that I have to wear on my head while I’m standing on my roof...wait, I live on the roof....that should work then.

Made a BIG mistake today

Hoooy, I made a big mistake today. There’s a Mexican gentleman that is in charge of making coffee at the church every Sunday and as I am now the new greeter I have gotten to know him a little. Today he casually mentions to me that he stopped to have a taco at a taco stand and it was an awful taco, I say “how can you go wrong with a taco, aren’t they all the same, a taco’s a taco, right?” Whoooo, he said “you did not just say that did you?” I was a little taken back by his huge reaction, “yes, they all seem the same to me from one street vendor to the next” Well, this man reacted as if I had just insulted every person he has ever loved or known and I got a long detailed taconology, apparently it is right up there with rocket science. A Mexican man takes great pride in the marinating, grilling, seasoning and chopping of the beef taco. So, he asked me if I’m up for a real lesson in the “real” Mexican taco, of course I am! Tomorrow night (most taco stands are only open at night) we will travel throughout a few different colonias (about 8) and order the same taco at each stand and see who has the best tacos. Can I eat 8 tacos in one evening? Maybe if we walk from colonia to colonia. I ask him if he would be totally embarrassed with me if I brought my camera, he said to bring my camera, notebook and pen and take notes as I am going to get a rare look inside the Mexican taco legacy. By the time we are done I should have a new appreciation for a “good” taco. I’m charging my camera batteries right now.

Casa Damasco and the meat market

Casa Damasco and the Meat Market
My day at Casa Damasco was rather uneventful. Sometime during the holidays they had a new kid show up, he looks to be somewhere between 18 and 25, a decent normal looking kid, doesn’t seem to have any handicaps and seems bright, I’m not sure why he’s there. Mirana, who always translates for us, was not there today so we were on our own. They had painted the place over Christmas, I love the colors, purple and blue but I wished I could have been there to do some cleaning first. Today we moved everyone inside to eat because it was too cold outside (I thought it was warmer outside than inside) I’m not sure if I mentioned this before but there is one gentleman that huddles with his knees pulled up to his chin in a corner all by himself all the time and never speaks, we could not get him inside. So we served him where he was. This morning I was reading in Matthew chapter 8 & 9 about all the miracles Jesus and his disciples preformed, and all the healing they did and I just prayed that I could see some of that at Casa Damasco, I don’t want to just read about it and tell people about it, I want to see it! Is this wrong, to want to see people set free miraculously? Is this man supposed to huddle in the corner until he dies of old age? What is to become of him? I don’t know what happened to him, or how he came to be in that corner and it shouldn’t matter, I don’t need to know, God knows. Otencia was full of conversation today and I listened intently and occasionally saying “entonces” and “no se”, we seem to be getting along ok. I was hoping she would have shed some of her baggage for the New Year but she was still hanging on to it.
After I got home I made a list of things I needed for my crock pot recipe including the meat I needed, I wrote it down just like it was written on the recipe. I hit the general store first and then off to the meat market, as usual there were about 5 dudes hanging out and I was tempted to change my mind but the thought of supplementing my protein with eggs for another 4 months made me stop, and really..... How dumb of me. So I stepped up and decide to cheat, I asked the biggest guy with the apron on “habla engles?” (Do you speak English?) He smiles with a very friendly smile and says “poco” a little. I say ta bien, mi espanol esta poco” that’s ok, my Spanish is very little. He asks me what I need, I show him the paper, he doesn’t have any today, but by tomorrow morning he will have, he opens at 7 am............him and I must be the only 2 people up at 7 on this Island (I wonder if he has coffee on) I have noticed that Mexicans don’t like to get up early, hard to find a restaurant that’s open for breakfast before 9 am. I don’t have to be in Mazatlan until 10 am so it works for me to come back in the morning. Turns out all the dudes hanging out there were all very nice and no hootchy kissy sounds as I was leaving. I still don’t know why there’re hanging out there, but if he has real coffee on at 7 tomorrow I’ll be hanging out there too. Did I mention I only have instant coffee at my house?

Happy News Years to me

Today is the beginning of a new year..2008. The church was having a New Year’s party last night but I choose to bring the New Year in on my Island. The neighbours next door had a party, with lots of cowboys, beer and music (yes, I was watching out the window) it was rather noisy until about 10 and then all was quite. In the morning after a good breakfast of eggs and potatoes and my fruit shake I settled on my roof top with my instant coffee and creama and just had some quiet time with God (and the birds in the mango tree) I’m praying I can be more focussed on him instead of me throughout this new year. After that I pulled out my Spanish books and did some studying.....I think this will be my morning ritual while I am here. I had lunch and grabbed a book and headed to the beach where I sat on a lounger from 1 – 4, it was a lot warmer today than yesterday. I’m reading “The List” by Robert Whitlow, which I think is a perfect beach read, so far I am really enjoying it. While everything here seems so slow, I am finding that time does pass by quickly and I seem to always be busy, but then everything you do here always takes longer than at home. I have no kitchen or bathroom sink, so to wash dishes I have to carry water up from my laundry room downstairs and heat it up on my hot plate. I have to wash my laundry by hand so I don’t want that to get out of hand so I do some laundry every other day, because of the dust and sand I sweep the floor about 3 times a day and wash it 2 times a day....each time carrying water up......I have to keep up to the lady next door, she sweeps all morning and afternoon, she sweeps her whole dirt yard, so I sweep m y roof. Shopping takes a lot of time as well, for my dry goods I go to the general store, they have produce but it is not very nice, then I have to go for a walk and find the produce truck, if I just hang out at home eventually he does come by, but sometimes I get impatient and go looking for him. There is a meat market if I should need meat, I haven’t ventured there yet, it’s on my list for tomorrow. Every other house has either a store or a restaurant in it and it is hard to tell when they are open for business and when they have decided to take a day off. I like this about Mexico, if you have 1 or more sets of plastic tables and chairs you can set up a restaurant in your living room or on the street in from of your house and open and close as you wish, no permit or license is required and no health inspector will visit you and you can serve whatever you want to cook that day. Should you get tired of it you just put away your plastic tables and you’re done, 2 weeks later you’re a little short on cash and out comes the tables again and you’re back in business. I love this; it makes so much sense to me. I’ve also noticed that dogs and cats are allowed everywhere; a stray dog was wandering around inside the general store today. Today when I was at the beach I went to use the bathroom at one of the palapa restaurants I saw a cat licking off the cutting board in the kitchen....when everything is in the open you can’t keep the outside things out, there’re bound to come in. When I came here with Barbara & Al a few weeks ago they brought their dog with them (Canela) and as soon as we sat down she disappeared, I wondered where she went and Al said “oh, she always checks out the kitchen first to see if she can find any food left out” I expected and angry cook to chase her out of the kitchen but nobody said a word. We get way too excited about stuff like this at home, relax, relax and put a lime on it. I’m being told that a lime works as a disinfectant and that’s why Mexicans squeeze lime on almost everything they eat. Speaking of relax, lime and disinfectant, I have to visit the meat market tomorrow (I said that already).....I promise you a picture of this place hopefully after I have built a good relationship with the meat guys, I must say I am a little intimidated of these guys with the machetes. Usually in front of the market there are about 6 guys just hanging around, I’m not sure if they all work there or if that is just “the” place to hang out. Normally in Mexico if there are 6 guys in a group just hanging out and a women walks by there will be some cat calling and hootchy hootchy kissy kissy sounds being made, (it’s a cultural thing) so that is why I have avoided the meat market......but tomorrow’s the day! I bought a crock pot and it came with a little Spanish recipe book and I plan on making something called “frijoles preparados estilo new England” and I need to get 225 gramos hueso de pierna con carne, according to my translations I need a 225 grams of bone of leg of meat.

Life on the Island

Life on the Island
I tell you, life on the Island is blissful and I don’t want to ever leave. As I am writing this there is a 3 piece matachi band playing next door, it takes me back to my childhood when my father would be in nostalgic mood and bring out his Mexican music. These guys are all dressed up with the hat, the boots, the belt buckles and thick black moustaches, I’m watching them out one window and every once in a while I run to my other window where I am watching my landlady open up coconuts, the way she is chopping at it with a machete I don’t know how she still has any fingers. Getting into a coconut is a lot of work, and she’s got a big pile, not sure what she is planning on doing with all that coconut but I’m watching and learning. This is what I do when I am inside, I run from window to window and spy on all my neighbours, between that and keeping an eye out on all the people coming by selling stuff I can’t keep my face out of the windows. I caught the produce truck again today; I bought a big papaya, 2 avocados, 3 monster mandarin oranges, 6 bananas, 3 tomatoes, 2 apples and 5 limes for 53 pesos. I like having a fruit shake for breakfast or fruit in my yogurt. As well as the regular honking gas and water guy, I also had a guy selling shrimp come by, a young lad selling pastries, a guy on a bike pulling a cart selling cheese and a few others that I missed when I was in the bathroom (I have to leave the window once in awhile). I also headed to the beach in search of my English speaking guy that might sell me a table but of course his restaurant is closed on Mondays, so I just hung out on a lounger and read a book for about an hour and went for a walk and then headed home again where I settled in my chair on my roof top until it got cold...yes cold. The weather has not been the greatest for the last 3 weeks, the Pastor was saying on Sunday that these last 3 weeks have been the coldest he’s ever seen it here in 11 years. Unless you’re sitting in the direct sunlight and away from the wind it is cold enough to wear a long sleeve sweater or even a sweat shirt. I had put a skirt on Sunday morning but I changed my mind before I headed out when I thought of my early morning boat ride and put on pants, good thing....it was cold. Whenever I want to go to the city I have to take a little boat across, it costs 5 pesos and only takes about 5 minutes but when it’s cold and windy it can feel a lot longer.
I love the relaxed feel to this Island, there are more bikes, motorbikes and donkey carts on this Island than vehicles. It is not uncommon to see horses walking by my house. This afternoon when I was walking back from the beach I passed a horse slowly walking up the road, all geared up with saddle and bridal but no rider, he had his head down and was just walking along, didn’t even lift his head when I passed him....there’s one POed cowboy somewhere.

A lot of church

I do a lot of church on Sundays, first I attend the La Vina English service at 9 am where I have also been recruited to be the greeter, at 11 am I attend the Spanish service (same church same building) I do this to help me with my Spanish. Then I have time for a quick lunch and then at 3 pm I head off to Villa Union for another Spanish service. Today while we were setting up the chairs and getting our one man band set up I noticed a gentleman leaning up against our van, (we always drive a van because we always pick up about 3 or 4 Spanish girls that teach the kids Sunday school) I had not seen him before, so I went out and introduced myself and let him know we would be starting at 5 and that he was welcome to join us. He was very clean cut with the standard Mexican gentleman attire, cowboy boots, cowboy hat, big belt buckle but I noticed that his hat was clean, his pants were freshly ironed and his boots were shiny. The people in this neighbourhood are generally a little more worn and torn. I asked him where he as from, turns out he was here visiting from Durango (up north). When we were finally ready I noticed he was still hanging out outside, I ask Pastor Kyle to just go over and make sure he had understood me and that I had in fact invited him (I don’t trust my Spanish) He did join us for our service and when Kyle asked if anyone had any prayer requests he said that this was the first time he had ever been to church like this and that he had felt totally at peace from the moment he walked in and that he wanted to give his life to the Lord....Praise God! Too bad we will most likely never see him again as he is going back to Durango, but he’s going with a lighter and peaceful heart, and a Spanish Bible that Pastor Kyle gave him. Also, the little girl whose father let me use their bathroom last week (after I begged) came to Sunday school this time. Most of the La Vina churches have a very well attended children’s Sunday school, even if the parents don’t come the kids always seem to pour in.

The Hillbilly Move

Today is the day of the big move to Stone Island; I am anxious, excited and just a little scared, not sure of what. I’ve spent the last few days gathering things that I might need, a little plastic chest of drawers, a hot plate, a small rack for my cooking things, and some cooking things, blankets and towels and such. Al helped me pack my stuff into the back of his little truck and off we went on the dreaded road to the Island that’s not an Island. The whole trip took about an hour and wasn’t as bad as we had anticipated. It was very rough and dusty but totally manageable. As we drove through coconut plantations, lush mango groves, chilli and tomato gardens and passing donkey carts laden with coconuts, Mexican cowboys on horseback (they remind me of my father) and dodging the occasional cow on the road I knew I was moving in the right direction. I felt as peace with my decision to leave my comfortable gated upscale community. After Al and I unloaded my meagre belongings I bought him lunch at the restaurant just up the street (every 4th house has a little store or a restaurant in the front) we each had a big monster sandwich with (carne asada) marinated shredded beef (Mexicans like shredding stuff....everything’s shredded), ham, cheese, lettuce, and mayo on a big grilled bun (bigger than a hamburger bun) and a pop for 36 pesos each. Al left with the intent on being back in the afternoon with some Mexican muscle and my new fridge which happens to be Barbara & AL’s old fridge that Barbara swears has shrunk and become to small for them (I hope it doesn’t shrink on me as well) I got set to work organizing and cleaning which didn’t take long as I don’t have a lot of stuff, I did say when I left home I wanted to learn how to live a simpler life and focus on quality instead of quantity. Now will be the test. My fridge did not arrive but Barbara and Al took the boat across and came to let me know they would be coming tomorrow...no problem. I wandered over to the neighbourhood general store and bought some fruit, milk and eggs ......I finally bought eggs, I had been afraid to buy them because I knew with my clumsiness I would break them on my way home. You buy eggs by the kilo just like everything else and they don’t have cartons, they put them in a little plastic baggie. So I bought 2 eggs (I’m going to learn to live by the day, instead of hoarding for the future) as I leave the store I see a lady setting up a hotdog stand and putting the first batch of hotdogs wrapped in bacon on the grill, I make a note to come back in about an hour for supper. She’s also got a big boiling pot of Atole (not to be mistaken for my beloved Alote) Atole is the Mexican version of hot chocolate but made with boiled corn, not totally sure but I believe (and I will look into this) that the corn is boiled and then put through a blender, not sure what else is added but I can taste brown sugar and cinnamon. I head back a hour later and have 2 bacon hotdogs loaded with guacamole, red salsa, green salsa, lettuce tomato and onions and a medium size cup of hot Atole, all for 25 pesos....not a bad supper at all. I’m going to like it here; there is food on every corner. After having my supper on my patio I settled into my nice big comfortable chair that I bought at a second hand store and started knitting myself a dishcloth, I hadn’t done any knitting since I got here. Before I went to bed I made sure all window and doors were locked and I guess I’ll admit, I anchored 2 chairs against each door....I know, silly silly. After I was in bed I opened up bible (randomly) and I read chapter 4 of Philippians, verse 6-7 really spoke to me and I realized how silly I was to expect peace from 2 chairs against the door when I could just call on my saviour to protect me, so I did just that and got out of bed and put the chairs away, and slept peacefully until a rooster woke me up at 2 am....aren’t they suppose to crow in the morning? At about 5 they started crowing again, there is no sleeping in Mexico, noise is a part of the culture. There was however no traffic noise, which had kept me up at nights at Lydia’s. First thing in the morning I jumped in the shower only to find out there was no hot water, my landlady had assured me there was hot water. I toughed it out and was reminded of my 6 weeks in Africa without hot water...it’s doable. Of course I didn’t see her all day so I couldn’t inquire about it. As I was sitting on my patio (which is also my dining room)having my breakfast of scrambled eggs, a fruit milkshake and coffee con creama (yes the general store had my creama) and listening to the birds in the massive mango tree that hangs over my patio I was feeling very content and most thankful. It was finally warmer than it had been for the last 2 weeks, I wore a sleeveless t-shirt for the first time and put sunscreen on my ears (they tend to turn red first) I finally spend some devotional and pray time, my pray was full of thanks giving and asking for guidance as to how to bring glory to God while I’m living in this beautiful place. I also spent some time going over some Spanish phrases I might need during the day, like looking for a broom. I figured I should prepare myself and look up the proper way to ask my neighbour “where can I buy a broom”, up until now I’ve just been calling it a scoobie doo, it’s really a “escoba” sounds like scoobie to me. I tried borrowing a screwdriver last night from them and it was not a successful visit. Who knows what I actually asked for? So I feel I need to redeem myself. My morning Spanish lesson was wasted when I went to the general store first thing in the morning to get some ice for my cooler (since my fridge wasn’t here yet) I notice they have brooms and mops. I thought about pretending I didn’t see them just so I could practise saying “do you know where I can buy a broom?” but I figured I would have plenty of other opportunities to come off as the dumb gringa without doing it on purpose. So now I need to find another excuse to chat with my neighbour lady. (Should I try borrowing an egg?)So I just bought a mop and broom and went on my way...got home and realized I forgot to get ice. I headed to the beach in search of a guy named Chris whom I met about 2 weeks ago when I came out here with Barbara & Al. Chris came to Mazatlan from Toronto on vacation about 10 years ago and just forgot to go home, he works part time at one of the beach palapa restaurants as a waiter, I was hoping (because he speaks English) he could help me find someone that would sell me a plastic table and some chairs. Turns out Chris wasn’t working today and in searching further I got a little side tracked, I ran into my friend Elizabeth and we sat and chatted awhile and then I ran into Hugo (I met him here 7 years ago) and we chatted. I also had another little problem, I had a $100 peso bill that no one had change for (I’ve had it in my pocket for a few days) Hugo solved that for me, he’ll be my banker from now on now. I asked him about a plastic table but he was a little busy at the moment. Hugo’s a tour guide and he had a whole bunch of tourists with him, but he directed me to a Effrehim (whom I also met about 6-7 years ago) Effrehim also works in one of the Palapa restaurants on the beach, but by now I know I should be getting back to mi casa as my fridge should be arriving soon. On the way home I pick up a marlin sandwich, again a big big bun with smoked marlin, lettuce and tomato for 7 pesos, yes 7, which is less than .70 cents, how can this be? No wonder these people are always poor. If I didn’t enjoy cooking so much I sure wouldn’t bother because I’m thinking it’s cheaper to eat out. My fridge arrived shortly after I got home, after seeing the narrow steep stairs going up to my loft in the mango tree the Mexican guy decided that Al’s plan of sliding the fridge on a blanket up the banister was too risky. He had a better plan and between Al and I our Spanish was not good enough to argue, he would park his truck alongside the building and he would simply lift the fridge up onto his shoulders and Al and I would grab it and pull it up. While Al and I are standing on the roof, with our hands in our pockets, rolling our eyes at his plan and shaking our heads we suddenly realize he’s already got the fridge on his shoulders and we need to get pulling! Hurry Hurry! We had just barely got a good grip and were hanging on when muscle man was already on the roof helping us pull it up. The whole process took maybe 2 minutes.....this guy could have peddled this fridge over on his bike. I’m sure the phrase “where there’s a will there’s a way” was invented by a Mexican. I spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in my chair on the roof reading a book; I also bought some vegetables from the vegetable truck that drives around all day honking his horn, as does the gas truck and the water truck. I had a chunk of meat in my cooler that had thawed so I decide to make stew, I bought 3 potatoes, 1 monster sized carrot, 1 small zucchini, 5 limes, 4 tomatoes and 5 small jalapeño peppers for 15 pesos.....maybe it is cheaper to cook, I don’t know, this requires further studying. The rest of the evening was fairly uneventful, put my stew in the crock pot, sweep off my roof with my new scoobie, washed my floors, boiled some drinking water, oh...and fed my chickens, Yes I have chickens, I am so excited about that...well, my neighbour has chickens but they hang out in my yard and I am feeding them. Tomorrow is Sunday so I must head into the city for church even though I would really just like to stay here, during the day I had a list of about 8 different things I wanted to get while in the city but right now I can’t think of a single thing I need. I’m also not looking forward to the cold shower in the morning; I hope I see my landlady tomorrow