Tuesday, December 29, 2009

And so I am still a geek




I quite often refer to myself as a geek because when I get a new idea or even just a thought I can't let go of it right away without a lot of research, dreaming, and fantasying about it. For instance this past summer a friend and I noticed that it is very hard to buy real wool, hand dyed wool in our area...well not just very hard, down right impossible. So, we started talking about buying raw wool and dying it ourself. I spend some time (ok...a lot) into researching hand dyed wool and collected and photographed different things that inspired the different colors we were going to create....mostly weeds, leaves, water and clouds...as you can see in my pictures. The one on top was to be August Fireweed and the one below September Fireweed and then Morning pond, of course these would have to be variegated wool. All along, knowing full well this was just all talk and wasn't going to happen, but my geekness wouldn't leave it alone. We did do a lot of talking about it. Well my geekness has followed me to Mexico. About a week before I left home I went into a fabric store and saw some beautiful, beautiful quilting fabric, I loooooove quilting fabric, I like to touch it, hold it, pet it and buy it  and store it nicely folded in my drawers. I have quilted with it in the past but not recently. I had no need to buy more at that time, I was leaving for Mexico and would not have time to quilt anything....but ohh, it was all so beautiful. You would think in almost 2 months time I would have "let go", but no. I have been online looking at quilting patterns, and more patterns and more patterns, because I seem to think that as soon as I get off the plane when I get home I will start quilting so quickly that I must have the pattern in my hand at that time. So I have found the pattern that I want to use and so you would think that that would be the end....not for a geek. I have also found the cutest pattern for a summer top that would work for one of the fabrics that I saw (yes I can still see them,,,all) Bear in mind here that it has been a long time since I have sewn clothes and I have actually never sewn anything start to finish that was wearable without some involvement from my mother, but yet here I am sitting under a palapa in front of the beach surfing (hah ha hah) for blouse patterns

for days on end...yup for days I say. And the picture on the right was one of the many winners, isn't it cute. I believe I can make this without my mother's help. The tutorial for this little blouse can be found here: http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=791 although the one in the picture has some modifications, which I would make as well. So I have spent quite some time  imaging this in a few different fabrics and colors...as any geek would. I'm imaging it in many fun summer prints and colors and in a classy white and black or in the modern chic brown and pink and of course my all time favorite..... in all shades of green. This little top can go from a picnic to a wedding with a simple change of fabric......one would need to buy many many fabrics. Now.......If I get home and you all are already wearing one of these I will be so miffed, actually more like jealous, so if you decide to make one (I know you are all just dying to have one) please e-mail me pictures because that would soften the jealousy blow...I think. I think I am pretty safe because right now it's - 30C or something like that and just not summer top wearing weather, but some of you might want to get organized and get ready for summer early. In my days and days of research I did also stumble across another little ditty.

It is the Baktus scarf, and once again can be changed up just by changing the wool and from doing it in a knit stitch like the orange one or in a stockinette stitch like the lighter colored one. Oh the possiblilities are endless. Of course, I had just cast on for some long lacy gloves....yes I need long lacy gloves for those late night boat rides across from the mainland...it's a windy 6 minute ride, a lady needs some lacy gauntlets. Below is the web address for the free pattern for the Baktus scarf.
 http://theknittingblogbymrpuffythedog.blogspot.com/2009/07/add-color-to-your-summer-knit-baktus.html


Here is a picture of the gauntlets I am making, mine are black in a Alpaca/silk blend. I am hoping because the Alpaca packs some warmth that these will be warm even though they are lacy. The book by the way is beautiful with wonderful patterns that are easy to follow...mine you I have only made one pair of mittlets out of it so far (mittens without fingers). Any monkey can make those.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas

 December 25, 2009

Luke 2:11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a saviour who is Christ the Lord.
Today I am reflecting on the birth of Christ and not so much on Christ Himself but on the Mother Mary and I am reminded of the day I gave birth to my child. Not that I can compare myself to the Mother Mary at all but we are both mothers. I can’t say for sure but I believe that the moment Mary first held her son and looked into His eyes she saw her son as a baby not as the King that He was. The Bible does not go into details about her feelings and emotions at the time or how she felt when people came from far and wide to see her baby. We read in Luke 1:32 that she was told that He would be great and He would be called the Son of the highest. Did she know that people would worship Him and bow down before Him at birth already; did she know people would search for Him for days just to get a glimpse of Him? How did she feel when everyone was crowding around her in the little stable trying to get a glimpse of her little bundle of joy? I remember how I felt when everyone was crowding around my baby and my crowd was not nearly as big as hers. I really just wanted to be alone with my baby, I wanted to hold and cuddle her and tell her all the things I had been waiting 9 months for to tell her, I had been waiting for 9 months to hold her and I didn’t want to let go. I remember when she as about 5 days old her father wanted to go out to eat and I didn’t want to but I didn’t want to tell him why. I didn’t want to share my baby with the world just yet. I knew people would come up to me and say “oh, can I see your baby” and I would have to unwrap her from her pretty pink blanket, and some people would even ask if they could hold her, I didn’t want that. I didn’t like others holding my baby. To this day I still don’t ever ask a mother if I can hold her new born baby because I remember how I felt at that time. Of course I just smiled and let them hold her but was always so relieved when she was back in my arms. It wasn’t that I thought something would happen to her or that someone would drop her or anything like that I just wanted her to stay in my arms. I never said anything because that would have been rude and as she got older it got easier until a time came when it didn’t bother me all anymore. I do still stand back when I see a new baby being passed around at a baby shower or in the middle of a group, I don’t participate. As I remember this time my heart breaks for Mary as she had to share her son with the world right at birth and in the end she had to stand back and do nothing as He gave His life for the whole world. As I think of the pain and agony she must have gone through as she watched her son get torn part and nailed to the cross I have to remember that God never puts anything on us that He knows we can’t bear. She was willing and obedient to the very end and I am grateful to her for that. Mary was chosen by God to be Jesus’ mother just like I was chosen to be my child’s mother. We are all chosen for certain things in certain times and through Christ we can endure all things and through Christ all things are possible....all things are possible, all things.
Merry Christmas
Luke 2:14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men.




Thursday, December 24, 2009

Ready for Christmas

December 23, 2009
My computer tells me it’s December 23, if I hadn’t looked at it I would never have known that it is only two days before Christmas. In the past I would have been a complete basket case today, trying to take care of those last minute Christmas preparations. The people from the trailer park have been collecting donations to put together food and gift hampers for the people of the Island and today they delivered 2 truck loads of hampers, they had 700 hampers made up. God will honour them for that someday. There is another American guy here who apparently has built himself a sleigh that he pulls behind his guad and he fills it with Christmas goodies as well and he delivered his as well today. I didn’t even go and have a look I was too content with my painting, it would have been a sight to see.
Ironically today (which is usually the most stressful day of the year) I finally felt relaxed enough to start on my painting. I went over to see the painter guy and he and his wife were most helpful and we also had a nice long visit. Turns out she’s the lady that passes by my house everyday walking an Alaskan malamute, not a big one like I used to have but a beautiful little cute one. I got my canvas stapled and spent the afternoon prepping it. Until it rained...yup rain in December is unheard of here but it rained. It was not a warm today at all, and at times over cast. I took my long sleeve cardigan on and off all day. It didn’t stop the tourists from going in the water or from renting banana boats and kayaks. At about 2 pm it started to rain, just a wee bit. As soon as I had my canvas and stuff put away in the house it stopped. Of course as soon as it started the power started to flicker, the electricity is just not made to withstand any weather at all. The good thing about a cool day like this is the iguanas are not out, have not seen a single one, although since I started feeding them they haven’t been nibbling on my plants. I am worried they will discover my dill and cucumbers once they start getting taller. I do have a plan if that happens, there is a lot of fish netting laying all about here and I could close off my little garden area with fish nets, it just wouldn’t look very pretty....and my now you ‘al know I’m all about pretty...ha. Which reminds me, I am going to scrub and scrape my toes tonight in prep for any Christmas activities I may be attending.

A few days ago a gentleman came and asked me if it would be ok with me if he and a few friends had a bonfire on my beach. It isn’t really my beach, the beach is public and I am not to sure where the property lines are, I would assume at the high tide line but I really don’t know. So I can’t really stop anyone from partying on “my beach” but he was nice enough to at least ask. I told him I wouldn’t mind at all but I hoped they wouldn’t party into the night keeping me from sleeping. He laughed and said they would be lucky if they could stay awake until 10 pm. I said “well...that’s my kind of party...party on”.  I may not even be here I may go into Mazatlan for a Christmas Eve service at the church; I might catch the tail end of the party. A few days ago a group of about 20 people carrying all kinds of camping gear and drums...yup drums stopped and started to get settled in on “my beach” I was watching and silently praying “please no, please no, please don’t camp and drum on my beach all night long” but something wasn’t right for them and they picked up and moved further up. I saw them later all set up in front of the cantina and when I was lying in bed that night I could just faintly hear the drums...thank-you God

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

About the day I had coconut in my hair and horse poo on my flip flops, and planted a garden

December 23, 2009


Yesterday I decided it was time to be productive so after my 2nd cup of cappuccino (recipe at end of story) I set out to make myself a frame to stretch my canvas on out of an old broken table. I borrowed a hammer and a pry bar from my new friends at the trailer park and for the next 2 hours hammered and pried old rusty nails out of the table. The nails were very old didn’t give up without a fight. I only wanted the table top and had to remove the legs and some of the support pieces under the table top which I did manage. When I brought back my borrowed tools I asked around for a stapler and was told that the guy that has a stapler lives just up the road, in the house with the orange fence. When I was asked what I needed it for and I told them I needed to staple a canvas to my newly build frame I was told that the guy was a painter and had all the equipment and tools to build frames...great, now you tell me after I have laboured for a few hours. I had figured out what I wanted to paint but now I was in doubt about the size of my painting and once it’s stretched and stapled there is no turning back, unless of course you want to go smaller but not if you want to go bigger. I decided I’d wait until I could talk to my friend Kathy who is an artist and is the one who gave me lessons last year, there are certain rules about size and I just wanted to make sure that what I had in mind would look ok. So I moved on to my next projects....oh, let me back up a bit, first thing after coffee I went out back to pony lane and gathered some horse poo and spread it out to dry, some of it was still smelly.....did I mention that I am not the weirdest person around here. Anyway, before I left home I had bought some beautiful wool from www.knitpicks.com I bought some chunky Suri alpaca and some lace weight alpaca and silk blend and was making what I call fat skinny scarves. You use a fat yarn and a skinny yarn and just knit in stockinette stitch for 3 rows with the skinny and then 1 row with the fat, you knit it up on circular needles but you don’t join it this is just so that you can knit from both ends. It’s very fast because the needles are a size 10...yup size 10, making it very holey and loopy and fast. I had finished one for a friend of mine and so I decided that today I would block it on my big concrete counter top and it worked great. I had to keep spritzing it with water because it was so hot it dried in minutes. I brought a lot of this yarn with me and plan on making a lot of these as gifts so far I haven’t knitted too much yet but I am starting to get the knitin itch. All the while I am doing all this I am keeping an eye out for my iguanas because I have put their fresh lettuce out and want a picture of them eating but they are too fast for me, they grab a piece of lettuce and when I have my camera in hand they disappear with it. So I decide it’s time for a break and a stake out. I make myself my 10 am fruit drink (recipe at end of story) and sit down with my camera in hand and wait. To anyone passing by it looks like the lazy Canadian is once again..... Well... lazy. They can’t tell that I am busy here, on a stake out. I did get a shot of the medium size one but I really wanted a shot of the monster one but he was too smart for me. I should have been wearing beige camouflage, oh well. I have no idea how many iguanas I have; I know I have about 4 different sizes plus the little geckos. Are geckos just baby iguanas? After my unsuccessful stake out I decide it’s time to plant my plants into the ground, I’ve had a few weeks now to ponder on where they will go and have a nice supply of dried horse poo. I dig up a spot alongside my palapa and mix the poo into the sand and plant my creeping vines there so they will cover the ugly side that has boards and pieces missing. I also find some plants growing behind my bathroom and transplant them into my new garden as well. I also planted a row of dill, just because I still had some dill seeds that a friend gave me...thank-you friend. Did I mention that my cucumbers and dill that I planted a while ago are up and growing...well, they are and I am so excited. (We won’t talk about my grapes that I planted at the same time just yet) There might just be pickles by mid February and I am not sure why this excites me so much because I don’t even really like pickles but it excites me anyway. I did buy a cantaloupe again today and plan on drying the seeds and planting them as well as an avocado if I can ever stop cutting into the pit, seriously, I eat about 4 avocados as day, I think I mentioned that they are only 4 pesos a piece which works out to about .32 cents each...unreal. Fruit and vegetables here are so cheap and fresh and good that I can’t get enough of them. Taking in my 5 -10 servings a day is not hard here, combine that with my flax seed oil and cinnamon & honey and Jamaica tea and my favourite potato meal my immune system should be rock solid, a real fort knox....there is nothing that will survive in my body long enough to do any damage. The only problem is that when I get home I won’t be able to afford to eat like this unless I grow my own which I do intend to try now that I have a greenhouse in my back yard....but I’ll ramble on about that come April.

I decided today I would shred a coconut, I do want to bring fresh real coconut home, I’ve brought it home before when it was cooked but I think I can bring it home uncooked. So after a rather good fight with the coconut I manage to get the coconut out of its shell and I get out my little hand shredder liek the ones I see the local women use. I see them sitting on their front steps in the afternoon slowly shredding coconut, they make it look so effortlessly and peaceful......I am here to tell you it is not effortlessly, oh no. After almost shredding a finger to shreds and having coconut flying everywhere I decide that there has to be a better way, even though the locals have been doing it this way for a hundred years. Then it dawns on me that my blender has a chop setting, I cut my coconut up into small pieces and give it a whirl and dang it, it works like a dangy dang. Now, my coconut does not look at all like the neat and evenly shredded coconut like the locals, mine is all chopped and chunky but once I have it home there will not be anything to compare it too and it will look fine. I put it into an empty yogurt container but this morning in dawns on me that it is still wet from the coconut water and it seems to me it will get mouldy. So I this morning I laid it out on paper in the sun to dry.....not sure if this is the process but I figured I would give it a try but I didn’t have it laid out there very long and the ants discovered it...good grief, I can’t hover over my coconut all day shooing away ants so I covered it with a tea towel, it should still dry, just not as fast.

On Saturday when I was helping paint the church I was invited to a Bible study on Tuesday at 4 pm, on Monday I ran into one of the ladies and was reminded again “don’t forget, Tuesday at 4”. I had been invited to the ladies Bible study last year and did go once but then decided that my Spanish wasn’t good enough for me to get anything out of it and then didn’t go back. I decided (I decided a lot today) that unless I completely submerge myself my Spanish is never going to improve, it certainly won’t improve while I am sitting under my palapa having a stake out so off I went to the Bible study....or so I thought. AS soon as I walked into the church I knew right away something was off, everyone was dressed in their very very best, and I’m talking wedding attire here. Turns out this is their Christmas Concert and I am very under dressed. This is not the first time I have gone to a Mexican event and found my self very underdressed...down right frumpy. Now I did change out of my horse poo collecting/gardening/coconut havesting clothes into a “nicer” clean pair of capris and a clean “nicer” t-shirt but was still no where near to being appropriately dressed. The lady sitting beside me was not wearing a new dress and I am am guessing it was her best dress and I glanced down and saw her shoes were clean, and very blingy high heels, and her toe nails were done up very nicely, I look down at my feet, which I did give a quick wipe but should have scrubbed and scraped a bit and saw my horse poo gathering/gardening/coconut harvesting/iguana chasing flip flops.....oh my goodness. Hopefully being a new comer will buy me some grace here. I vow to myself that when all this holiday hoopla is over and the store have more regular hours again (ha...nothing is regular here) I will go and buy me some bling, and the next time I am invited to a Mexican event I too will be all blinged up. Looking at me sitting in this church pew you would never know that just days ago I finished reading Kathleen Tessaro’s book on Elegance, and I was going to put some of her advise into practise but haven’t had time yet....been busy you know. Anyway....There is more, I suddenly see out of the corner of my eye a women going to the back of the church where the palapa is and she is carrying a pot. There is food! Is there not going to be an end to me feeling inadequate, stupid and cheap? I of course didn’t bring anything and this is a potluck event. I wonder how much grace these people have, tis the season after all of love and acceptance so I should be ok. I do forget all about (almost) my inadequateness’ and enjoy the program, the Christmas Carols we sang were all familiar making it easier to sing in Spanish and I did even get something out of the message. The kids sang a few songs which was just adorable and then the teenagers did a great job of “Angels we have heard on high” and then the food under the palapa, which of course was awesome. We had tamales, ceviche, macaroni salad and atole. (A brief explanation of food at end of story) As I am sitting there eating all of a sudden something falls onto my plate....what the heck, it’s small chunk of coconut, oh my gosh I have coconut in my hair! I shouldn’t be allowed out in public. (ever)

The children were all given a little bag of goodies shortly after the food was served and I must say I was impressed that aside from one little girl who’s mother was not there, not one child opened his/her candy bag, not one. They all hung on to their bags rather tightly but did not open them. Perhaps saving it for tomorrow, or maybe for Christmas day, not sure, but they went home with their bags intact and still tied with the Christmas ribbon. As I say my good byes to everyone and get ready to head home Mrs Cardenas comes up to me and puts a paper bag in my hand and says “something for breakfast tomorrow”. I peek inside, 2 tamales.....I love these people. Once again I go to bed with a very grateful heart.....and imaging my blingy elegant shoes I will gift myself next week.


My fruit drink varies everyday, it depends what I have on hand but it goes something like this;

Always about a ¼ - ½ papaya

Always a banana

Always water from one coconut

Sometimes some watermelon

Sometimes an apple (cored of course)

Sometimes yogurt (almost always)

Sometimes some pineapple

Sometimes some orange juice

Always ½ tsp flax seed oil

Always a tsp ground flax

Always 2 tsp honey & 1 tsp cinnamon (you can Google the benefits of cinnamon & honey)

I drink a litre of this everyday (always)


My Homemade cappuccino

Put one cup coffee into blender and add;

A bit of powered vanilla (liquid vanilla works too)

A bit of honey & cinnamon)*

A bit of thick cream (you decide how creamy you want it, I tend to be very generous with the cream)

And blend for few second....it gets all frothy and yummy smelling, seriously you have no idea how content and happy and thrilled I am in the morning as I am sipping this and watching the sunrise. You could play with different flavouring if you wanted but this is my favourite.

*At home where honey is the price of gold I use brown sugar instead

My favourite potato meal; This is my version of the Mexican crazy potato, I only have a hot plate so I must improvise.

I put water in a pot and throw in a potato, one big carrot (they are huge here) and an egg and boil, when all 3 are done I cut them up and put on a plate, I add some cream and a dab of butter and cut up an avocado, a tomato and ½ a cucumber (they are huge here) and load on top and sprinkle with a bit of salt. It makes for a beautiful plate; it’s red, green, white and orange. It is so healthy with 5 servings of vegetables and some protein in the boiled egg and so easy and fast to make. You could load whatever vegetables you like on it, you could even use some salad dressing instead of cream, I don’t like salad dressing but am very fond of my cream.


Tamales; I have never actually seen them being made so this is just how I think they are made

They come in all flavours; I’ve seen beef, chicken, shrimp, plain corn, and pineapple. From my understanding the inside ingredients whatever they may be are wrapped in corn flour dough forming a cabbage roll like thing and then it is wrapped in a corn husk and tied at each end and then steamed. There is usually some finely chopped vegetables in with the meat and shrimp ones and the inside is quiet juicy and moist. The shrimp ones are always rather spicy which is my favourite, the pineapple ones are too sweet for me, corn ones are great for breakfast. Chicken ones usually have some rice in it as well.


Ceviche

There are 2 kinds, shrimp and fish, both very delicious and I don’t have a preference. The fish or shrimp is cut up into cubes and set in a shallow dish with finely chopped (very fine) carrots (lots of carrots), a little green peppers, onions and celery, jalapeño peppers and some cilantro. It is then covered with lime juice and it sits for anywhere from 4 – 8 hours and the lime cooks or pickles I guess the fish. Then you stir it with a fork and the fish just breaks right up. You eat this on crackers. It reminds me a bit of antipasto but just with more of a fishy taste.

Atole;

Have never seen this being made but I am hoping that I can get someone to teach me. It’s a hot drink, very filling and warming. It is corn based, corn is pounded (and I will not be fooled into thinking that this is relaxing and peaceful like the shredding of coconut) into a powder and water is added along with cinnamon, and I do believe brown sugar and I am not sure what else. (Sorry but my research isn’t done yet) It is put through a blender and then a sieve and then heated up or maybe it’s heated up first and then blended and sieved, I’m not sure. I would love to learn how to make this, it would be a great drink for up north in the cold, a great substitute for hot chocolate for those weirdo’s that don’t like chocolate. (Me)

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

About deleting my story....which really isn't a story at all

Sorry everyone, but I just spend and hour typing up a long rather interesting story about horse poo, gardening, constructing a frame for a canvas and of me going to a church Christmas concert wearing shoes with horse poo on it and maybe even some coconut in my hair.....and then somewhere inbetween my copy and paste I somehow deleted it...all. But it is late now and I will try and relive this day again tomorrow morning for you all even though it was quit embarrassing.....but just for you.

Monday, December 21, 2009

The day I got Tom Sawyered and the day God blessed a whimpering spoiled soul

December 19, 2009



The morning went by pretty much as usual, vanilla cappuccino, sunrise, a shower, and a little iguana chase. There was not much action on pony lane as there are no cruise ships on Saturdays so the locals aren’t racing around as much. At 10:00 I wanted to be over at the La Vina’s church and see if the ladies there needed a hand with the lunch. Once a week the La Vina people serve a lunch to the kids in the poorer areas where they have a new church plant. You don’t see the starving children here with the big bellies like you do in some other countries because for the most part these kids are not starving but a lot are just living off of tortillas which are affordable to most families because the Mexican government subsidises tortillas because it is the country’s staple food. I wish other countries would do the same. However, the tortilla alone does not provide all the nutrients that one needs so there is a lot of malnutrition. The church tries to feed these kids one nutritious meal a week, obviously they are not reaching all kids but they are doing what they can with what they have. So, Fridays and Saturdays the La Vina feeds kids in 10 different colonias now, Stone Island is one of them. I get there and find out that all is under control; today is a special day because they have cake as well for a Christmas treat and some toys for give away prizes during some fun children’s games. It was fun to watch.

As I am walking home I pass Mrs Cardenas’s (my land lad's mother) in law on a quad, she waves and I wave back and as she passes me I get a glimpse of something in a basket on her quad and I immediately remembered that it is Saturday...Tamale Saturday...the ones with the heads, and she is cruising around selling them for her mother-in-law....I holler at her but she is too far passed and doesn’t hear me. There is no way I can catch up to her and she is coming from the direction of my house so I know she has already been to my hood....I missed the Saturday Tamales :( As I am walking I have a brilliant idea, Mrs Cardenas is always inviting me over to her house and I haven’t been there yet this year, I should go now. She most likely got up really really early to make the tamales, the whole process of making them is obviously done as they are on the street already and so I wouldn’t be interrupting her...yes, a great idea, I’ll get to visit with her and get tamales after all. I’m feeling pretty excited as I am wandering along....then....I get to the little wee Baptist church and see Mrs Cardenas’s sister painting the church. They have been slowly building this church for at least 3 years that I know of; holding a Sunday service under a palapa in the meantime and now the building is up. So I stop and chat and see up on a ladder Mr Cardenas and on the other side Mrs Cardenas’s niece with a paint brush in her hand and one other very friendly lady also elbow deep in paint so I offer to help, what else have I to do...nothing . Mr Cardenas tells me that his wife would love to see me but she is at home making tamales....I whimper deeply and painfully, but silently “I know”. He doesn’t know I was on my way to his house for just that reason. So I start painting and after a few hours I suddenly think of something rather funny. Yesterday I had finally went into the mainland and bought a canvas and had pondered all day as to what I should paint, I had a few ideas but they just weren’t quite right so I decided to wait until something would pop out at me....and here I am painting a church and it feels right, I wish I could say I had forgotten about my tamales but you just don’t forget the Saturday Tamales that easily. At 2:00 it was announced that it was time to break for lunch, I wasn’t sure if everyone was going home or if they had all packed a lunch so I was preparing to run across the street to the store to pick up something and was told that they had lunch already prepared and I was to eat with them under the palapa, they had plenty of food. Mr Cardenas had brought ....... drum roll! Tamales! Oh yes, that man had no idea how much I loved him at that moment...of course I had to contain myself and act like a guest...which I did, a very grateful guest I was. They were not the shrimp ones, they were the beef ones but they were awesome as well, I had never had the beef before I have always just gone for the shrimp or if for breakfast the plain corn ones or the pineapple ones....beef ones were great! We had a great lunch and Mt Cardenas took the time to explain to me how tamales are made. OH by the way, Mrs Cardenas got up at 3 am to start making them. We finished the church at 6 pm, whole church painted inside and out (it’s a very small church) as I am leaving I ask if the paint will come off me (yes I was wearing it) with just soap and water and was told yes but to wait to have a shower for an hour or 2, I assumed it was so that it could dry, perhaps it comes off better if dry. As I am putting things away Mr Cardenas really emphases that I am not to have a shower for 2 hours because my body is hot from working in the sun and then I remember what my Spanish reading tutor had told me last year. When you come home from work and your body has heated up you should not jump in the shower right away, for some reason that is bad for your body. I guess this is why the men here lay in their hammocks right after work, cooling off the body slowly. I do believe this is when you are taking a cold shower; most people here do not have hot water, because that would make sense that your body might be shocked in some way when getting such a fast temperature change. However, I waited for an hour after I got home to have a shower and halfway through the breaker flipped on me...turning my hot water into cold...go figure. Having hot water here is just so finicky it is almost not worth it.

Shortly after I get home a lady from the trailer park pops by, I had met her and her husband at church last Sunday and discovered we were neighbours here. She said she had gathered up 2 other people to come to church tomorrow and was wondering if I wanted to go with them tomorrow. If there are 5 of us and we all share a taxi it would only cost us each 10 pesos, the bus to the Golden Zone is 9 pesos. I was late for church last Sunday because the boat and the bus were not totally lined up and I had to wait for both, making me late and they had had the same problem and were also a bit late. So if we take a taxi we will not be late and as we were talking about how it would only cost us 1 peso more than the bus she laughed at her cheapness and threw in a comment on how the Canadians were always perceived to be cheaper than the Americans and she said throw in a little bit of Mennonite yet too. I said “yes that triples the cheapness”, thinking she was talking about me and she said surprisingly “how do you know about us?” I said in German “I know all about you and your cheapness” and she nearly fell off her chair, she had no idea I was German and I had no idea that she was. How funny is that?

I got a tip from a friend yesterday that apparently the iguanas at the big fancy resort hotels in the Golden Zone are fed daily so that they leave their beautiful gardens alone. So this morning I bought a lead of lettuce from my vegetable guy for my iguanas and set some out for them and when I had come home from my painting adventures they (or someone) had eaten what I had left out and as far as I could see no more plants had been mutilated. I just hope I didn’t feed the rat.

But now, I must get my aching tired and sore body to bed....oh yes, 6 hours of painting did not go unnoticed by this body but I was not about to bail out especially with old Mr Cardenas (old enough to be my grandpa) painting circles around me, but then, the man has never shocked his body over and over again like I have my whole life.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Fancy breakfast and shrimp with heads vs without heads

My land lady's uncle eithers owns or manages one of the restraunts on the beach, it's a fairly upscale place and caters mostly to the tour guide companies that bring  tourists over on guided tours from the Golden Zone in Mazatlan and to the crusie ship people. So most of their clients are there with reservations. For 3 years now he stops me on the street when he sees me and ask sme if I have eaten at his place yet, so far I never have, I really have no desire because places like that usually annoy me but yesterday he asked me again I figured that just in case it means a lot to him that I eat there I needed to go over there and have a meal or two, so today was to be the day. I would go over there for breakfast before all their tours got there. I was surprised that they open for breakfast because all the other places on the beach do not...tourists don't usually get here until around 10 or 11 am. As I leave the house I go to grab some money I am thinking that it will be about 3 times more expensive than the places I usually eat at, at first I had a 50 peso bill in my hand, which is kind of what I thought their breakfast would be but then I thought I might not have anything left over for a tip so I grabbed a 100 peso bill instead and put it in my pocket, thinking that would be plenty even for an expensive breakfast. I get there and find out that any breakfast with meat (bacon or sausage) is over 100 pesos...wow, and does not include coffee. So I guess I will just be having eggs and coffee. I order coffee con creama and he brings me just coffee...no cream, so I ask for cream and he bring me the powdered stuff that I call heifer dust, I am not sure what it is made of but cream it is not, and not made of anything close to cream...no closer to cream than the sand between my toes is. Now this is normal in any Mexican tourist restraunt but not in a real Mexican restraunt (memeber....not my first day here) Now I already know what will happen if I ask for cream or milk, he will bring me a glass of milk and charge me another 20 pesos so I decide to just leave it alone and not drink my coffee because I just cannot drink black coffee. I would have liked to just guietly dump it under the table in the sand so that I don't have to explain why I didn't drink my coffee but you cannot do that in these kinds of places because you have 2 waiters standing at each of your elbows hovering....this is why the food is so expensive. Most tourists like this type of catering, it makes them feel important and pampered but to me it is just annoying (and of course it brings up the price of eggs) It's just like when you go into a store in the mall at home and before you have even stepped in the door the sales clerk is in your face asking "can I help you"? And I feel like saying "well gee I haven't had enough time yet to get my self into any trouble so I really don't need help just yet, but stick around I might get myself stuck in a really tight pair of pants yet...then you can help me". So..no slipping the coffee under the table here. The worst part of it all is that uncle isn't even there to see that I am finally eating in his restraunt.....do I have to go again now? Now don't get me wrong here I am not dissing this place it is a very nice place, the place is clean and pretty, the food was very good, the eggs came with the usual beans and rice and tortillas, the service was prompt and polite there was just too much of it for me, but I
can have the same good food for 1/3 of the price elsewhere and get creama for my coffee. Next time I go I will come along the back way and see if uncle's truck is there before I go in. Soon as I got home the watermelon truck came by my house....get this! I buy a watermelon for 10 pesos (that is just under a dollar) and a cantalope for 5 pesos (something like 40 cents) ...unbelieveable! We Canadians must learn to grow out own food somehow otherwise we will forever have to pay up the nose and the hummhum for stuff. Driving down here I saw fields and fields of greenhouses, why can't we have fields of greenhouses? Is it because that would be way too easy and that is why no one has thought of it, or is it because it is way more complicated than my uneducated head can understand?


Yesterday I had a special treat, there is a husband and wife that drive around on Wednesdays and sell tamales out the back of their truck...shrimp tamales, my favorite. There is also a lady ( my land lady's mother) that sells tamales on some Saturdays and they are sooooo good. Her shrimp have the heads and tails and shells on them which is always a bit of work to eat but sort of good for me because it slows me down and lets me really savor the taste if they weren't whole I'd snarf it down so fast and end up missing the enjoyment of eating. I was told that the shrimp taste much better if they are cooked whole instead of headless,tailess and shellless. The Wednesday tamales did not have heads, tails or shells and there is a big difference....oh yes, not as juicy and saucy.....would never have thought that it would make a difference. Had I never had the Saturday tamales I would have been very satisfied with the Wednesday tamale and I will still buy them on Wednesday but I will look forward to Saturday's tamale much much more. I will take pictures next time I promise. I love how everyone drives around here and sells their wares, I always say that if you are patient enough everything will eventually come to your door, the other day a guy was walking door to door selling pillows and a lady was walking around selling dolls. Then I saw a truck driving around selling PCV pipe, all lengths and sizes. 2 days ago I opened the door to my house and the glass in the door fell out and shattered....what a mess I had. I went to find my land lady and asked where I could buy a new piece of glass and she said I had to wait until the glass truck came by some day. So, until then I put in some card board with duct tape. Life here is about relaxing about things, nothing is ever a rush or a big deal. I'll tell you what is a big deal though...iguanas eating my plants, now thats a big deal. I have chased them with a broom for days now, I even put bleach and water in a spray bottle and squirted one in the face but he keeps coming back. So now I am busy all day moving my plants around to confuse him, I play musical plants. This must be why people don't have gardens, too much compitition. I always wondered why when a family is always starving would they not plant gardens. I learned in Africa that is is just way more complicated than that and maybe that is also why we don't have commercial greenhouse at home, maybe it is not as easy as it looks to me just like growing a garden in Africa is just not as easy as it looks, and why having a poinsetta here is hard work. These Iguanas however have picked the wrong garden to eat in because unlike the rest of the people here I have nothing else to do than chase Iguanas around with a broom and move my plants every few hours. But I have to go now it's 4:30 and it is hammock laying time but first I want to quickly gather up some more horse poo for my compost pail.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Gutting my first fish and coconuts

December 12 2009




A few days ago I was sitting in my sunporch watching 3 fisherman as I do every morning,I call them Peter, James and John because it's a scene that just seems to come right out of the Bible, it seems so surreal. One of them comes over to my little abode here and I reconized him as my landlady's cousin, he offers me a fish, I try to pay him but he would not take any money telling me it was a gift. So I accept the fish and anticipate my delicious supper I will have all the while thinking of how I can repay or regift this man, I know it was a true gift and he does not exspect anything in return but at the same time I would love to do something for him as well. I wish I would have brought some manly looking yarn I could knit them all mittlets. They knit up so quickly and I imagine it is cold on the water so early in the morning. All I brought was girly looking yarn....I'll keep my eye open. If I would have thought of this earlier, (I just thought of this now) I have a friend that flew in today from Canada, she could have brought me some. oh well...anyway...the man assumed I knew what to do with a whole fish, I do know what to do with it in the pan but have never been apart of the pre-pan prep, have stood by and watched but have never participated. So I did what everybody else does when they get stuck...google it, yup I found a perfect little video that showed me step by step how to gut, clean and fillet a fish. Not really all that hard either. I fried it up with some potatoes and onions and it was so good. I will not shy away from the fish market anymore, I will have fish on a regular basis now. But now I have a message for you all....Teach your children how to gut and fillet a fish, don't let them end up like me and have to find a video, it was only by luck and chance that I had internet working that day, there isn't always internet (I know....hard to believe that that could happen) so, if you have no children teach someone else's children....teach somebody. It's an important skill to have. If you are a teacher teach your students this, have fish gutting day in school.
By the way, these pictures are starting to make me mad....they won't go where I want them.


I worked hard all year so that I could be here and not work and even though I have now been here for 2 weeks and haven't been doing anything I still haven't relaxed just yet. I'm not doing anything but I am walking around feeling like I should and almost feeling guilty that I am not being "productive". I sit here and read and see all the other people going back and forth to work and I know they see me sitting here reading everyday and not doing much of anything and I wonder what they are thinking of me. I want to explain to them how hard I worked to justify being lazy but I know that is just silly, and not like they haven't worked hard all their life. One of my landlady's cousins (she has many) drives by here 21 times a day doing 21 different things, one day he is building his house and it driving by gathering wood from the plantation, the next day he is building steps for the people at the trailer park, the next day he is driving the brick delivery truck and one day him and a friend (maybe he was a cousin too) are climbing the palm trees along the road picking coconuts. If a coconut falls on a car it can do a bit of damage, can certainly smash a windshield. He deminstrated how to climb a coconut tree, he made it look so easy I even tried and it seems I really really need to practice before I will get to any coconuts. Today as he was driving by he stopped by my house and quickly climbed a tree and picked about 5 coconuts and of course offered me one (as a gift) he pulled a machetti out and cracked it open for me right away, (everyone has a machetti in their back pocket here) I love coconut water, I put some in my fruit juice very morning. I feel bad for him that he has to work so hard and I am swinging in a hammock all day reading a book. I have to get over this. Next week I am going to the mainland (for sure) and buying a canvas and start painting, I did bring my paints. At least that way I can be productive and relax at the same time, making me not look so lazy.

Oh...today my shower worked, there was hot water and there was lights, all at the same time.....a truely great day.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The story about the shrimp, kitties, a new shower, a lot of plants, Casa Damasco and amazing sunsets

December 08, 2009 (sorry, I have not yet located the spell checker button....I might have to hire na editer)
I haven't writen anything in a while and that is not because nothing is happening, lots is happening and I am very busy. It takes a long time to do anything here, sometimes it takes me almost until 2 in the afternoon to do nothing. Let me tell you about my water story and then you will understand why it takes careful planning to do laundry or water plants and flush toilets. I have 3 little buildings with bathrooms in them because this used to be a restarant. One building has 2 bathrooms in it, each with a toilet and sink, on top of the roof is a tanaca (water tank) both those bathrooms draw water from that tank. In the second building is a toilet and finally today a shower (toilet doesn't work) on it's roof is also a tanaca. Beside my house is a laundry area that also has a water bin (not a tanaca) There is also a little pump house that houses my electric pump that pumps water from a well somwhere. Now when I have the pump on water runs to both tanacas and to my laundry station at once. So, if I fill my tanacas to the top and then if I want to use water to do laundry a few days later and I turn the pump on and if I have not left some room in the tanacas they over flow. So when I do laundry or water flowers or do dishes I have to make sure my tanacas are not full. This takes some planning. What I need is some shut off valves so that I can isolate an area and still have water in another area (this comes from my work with irrigation) So, the next time I head into the mainland I plan on stopping at a hardware store and buying some valves for this place. Also when I am filling my tanaca there is water running into my laundry area whether I need water there or not (overflowing my bin and making a mess) and when I mentioned this to my land lady she cut a stick to size and jammed it into the hose....fixed. Why didn't I think of that? So you can see how this all takes time, and going to the mainland to pick up these valve will take time too adn if that hardware store is open the first time I go there that would be a miracle, they will have some hours that will go somewhat like this, closed on Mondays, open from 10am to 11 am closed from 11 am to 3 pm and open from 3pm to 8 pm on Tuesdays and Wednesday, on thursday open from 1 pm to 5 pm and open on friday from 10 am to 11 am and from 1 pm to 5 pm, closed on Saturdays and Sundays and then I will get there at 10:30 on a Friday and they will be closed because it was someones birthday...that is kind of how it will go. I am still trying to make a pedicure appointment, been trying since I got here, on the upside, when I do finally get in she will give me a first class pedicure and it will cost me 100 pesos which is just under $10.00. And really what else do I have to do other then take a boat across everyday, I have nothing else to.....oh hang on!!! I hear water running, something is overflowing again.

Another thing that keeps me busy is my kitties, it all started with one....well, it started by me seeing a rat the first day I was here, hadn't even moved in yet was just helping to clean up. I decided I would borrow a cat then my friend Kathy went to have lunch at one of the beach restraunts and a cat had a unforunate accident in the kitchen and she came to my house with a half dead cat begging me to take care of it, I had wanted a cat but not really a half dead one, but of course I caved in. The first day the cat did not move at all but was breathing, the next morning it did sit up and look at me and lick some tuna water. Unfortunatly that was the day that Kathy and I decided to go to up into the mountains to Copala looking for pottery and plants and we didn't come until late and the cat was gone, she must have felt better and took off. So we headed over to the restarunt where she had come from to see if she was there, she was not, but the cook was very frustated because there was a litter of kitten hanging around and he didn't want them there....did we want them? He said we could have as many as we could catch, I only wanted one, a little cute grey striped one. We managed to catch it after a bit of a chase, we ahd it cornered under some wood and right beside it was a little orange one, wedged in real tight. Kathys says "look, we can get that one too" I say no, I only want one, then the cook says that the ones we don't want he'll kill anyway....so we take the little orange one too. And now I have 2 kitties in cage. We made a nice big confined area for them, it's about 7 feet long by 2 feet wide, the plan is to keep them caged until they love me enough to not run away. That was just yesterday and today already I was able to take each one out of the cage and hold them (individualy) while they did not relax in my arms they also didn't fight or try to get away. They are very cute, they sleep piled on top of one another and give each other baths, they tumble around and do summersaults, I am not sure if they are boys or girls but if one is a girl and the other a boy I will name them Jack and Jill. I am sure they will be very intertaining.

As I said before kathy and I drove to Copala and stopped along the way at nurserys and pottery stands. I am always amazed at how cheap stuff is here and that includes plants, seriously we get ripped of on everything at home. I noticed this is California already that food was so much cheaper but then they grow a lot of our food and it has to be shipped. I think us Canadian need to learn to be more industrous and start try to feed ourselves, like for example lettuce, I saw fields and fields of lettuce, could we not grow something as simple as lettuce, if it grows in my garden we should be able to grow it commercially....am I wrong? And so it should be with plants, I bought 2 huge drapping hanging plants, they already drape about 5 feet down for 50 pesos a piece, pointsettas for 65...thats just under $5.00 (although I think something happened with our dollars in the last few days...I should check on that) Anyway, between the 2 of us we had the back of a Chevy S10 full of plants, they had to give us our own boat to cross, we nearly filled a boat. My half of the boat full only cost me about $55.00 or so. I've been gathering horse manure from the road behind me to mix in my pots with the sand. As soon as I set out the the vine with the bright red flowers I had a Hummingbird, so.....off to the mainland again and bought a Hummingbird feeder, bird is still flying around but hasn't found my feeder yet.
I love growing stuff and can't seem to even think of living somewhere for even a short period of time without growing something. The nurserys that we visited didn't have any vegetable plants so I saved some seeds from a cucumber and from some grapes and planted them in a pot. Another friend stopped by and gave me some dill seeds and then I found some Camomile seeds as well. So that is my garden for now, but I will keep my eyes open for some more vegetable plants or seeds. Trying to do my part to feed myself.

Had some friends over for lunch a few days ago (Saturday) and so I had to hunt around for shrimp and scallops and bacon (time consuming man) I decide to fry them outside and so I haul my hotplate out and amzingly right above it is the plug from the end of a string of Chritmas lights that I had hung around my palapa. So I plug it in there and BISSSSSST! and my lights are out, as I am standing there rubbing head (this is what I do when I am thinking) I notice that all my lights are out, even in the house....oh dear, did I blow everything up. Nope it wasn't me, the whole Island is out. Ok...so I fire the big BBQ up and we still had a fine shrimp fry and a great visit. A tray of fresh homemade buns were also left behind for me and since my friend travels around with Dillweed seeds in her pocket I also got some Dill seeds for my garden...should have Dill by New Years. (maybe) Another great evening, power was out until 9 pm and it was very very dark here....need to get more candles next time I am in.

Yesterday I went to Casa Damasco for the first time to visit, I cannot volunteer but I can visit and visit I did. There were soem different faces and a few missing faces which is always sad. My visit was awesome, the place was very clean, I was impressed. Or maybe I can now look beyond the dirt and just see the people (I struggled with that last time) I did have some gagging reflexes and had to back off a bit a few times, something I really need to pray about (again). Amazing how God sends angels to the right place at the right time, there is a young local lady (about 24) volunteering there and she can handle it all and with a smile and a sense of humor, I sure do admire her, do not know what her story is or how she got there but she was sent....you can tell. We call her Angel. I got a ride to the docks with some friends and on the way we talked about the financial injustice that happens all over the world. How some people retire in 3000-5000 square feet homes and others have the space of a roll up foam pad on the floor with his neighbour being 1 foot away on his foam pad. It's a doom and gloomy subject and people don't like to talk about it because " what can you do about it anyway" seems to be the reaction, but when you see it day in and day out you can't help but think about it. This place relies on donations for food, we fed 24 people on Monday. Donations do not come in as a set amount on a set day, they come in as people donate, so they never know how much money they will have or if they will have any. Us north Americans are here for a time and we do what we can while we are here but we do leave, we come and go...because we can. Most of the people at that house can not come and go, this is their last home before they pass on. There is a part of me that always says "don't go back there, it's too hopeless" when I leave but there is an other part that always says "you can't not go back".

Here is an update on my shower, I have a shower...yeah! I have hot water...yeah! I have no lights:(
oh well...poco o poco (little by little)

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

December 02/09

Laundry day came and went yesterday, once again I found it to be a very relaxing experience, it is such a sense of accomplishment when it is all back in the house washed, dryed and folded. It also smells so good, a mixture of the wind and the sea and I do tend to go a Mexican with the fabric softener as well. I met a Mexican man once that told me that most men work mainly to keep fabric softener in the house......they looooove fabric softener.
Another thing that they love are Emperador cookies, tea is always had with cookies here. The cookies are nothing special, we have them at home as well, I believe the same cookie but with a different name.....I can't remember the name, rarely rarely would I ever buy cookies at home, but for some reason as soon as I get here I have to buy them to have with tea. They are just the plain regular cookies with icing in between, usually available in chocolate, vanilla or maple..like the Oreo cookie. They only come in a package of 8 here (like everything else, no big packages) which is a good thing for me. I ate a whole package yesterday, just because it had been 10 months since I had any. Don't really have an excuss for the package I ate today, I'll think of one for tomorrow's.
Did I mention I am right next to the RV park? ok....I'm right next to the RV park and they got 4 more campers today, 2 with Alberta plates, haven't meet them yet. The manager told me I could use their library anytime I wanted, I will sure will check it out yet. I'm pretty well set for books for a bit yet. I'm reading "The Silver Chalice" by Thomas B. Costain, lately I've been into books writen by people that have long been dead. Just finished reading "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy, I was surprised that I really got into it, I had always thought Mr Tolstoy was just for people with an ancient literature degree, turns out he was just as normal as anyone.....and a good writer, I really liked it and will keep my eye open for more of his books.
Today was fairly unevenful, I just sat around and cranked my neck this way and that way spying on all my neighbours and all the traffic going by. Dud in the trailer park came with his jeep and loaded up his tree stump and took it home to work on, hope I get to see his finsihed art. There were horses running all over the place today, I have no idea why they are so busy galloping by here. Cowboy with the mare and little foal were heading home down the beach when I went for my daily sunset walk and he hasn't slowed down yet and the poor little guy was way behind and crying again, am I am going to have to have a talk with the dud? And the funniest thing this morning, a horse pulling a wagon with a guy on it wearing a cowboy hat and a cowboy shirt unbuttoned all the way with shirt tail flapping in the wind, barefoot in sandels, galloping by at top speed and he was holding a surf board....a long board, a cowboy surfer?.....and what was the rush?
I managed to score a few coconuts which will be great in my morning fruit smoothie, but I don't have a macheti yet so I might have to flag down a cowboy tomorrow morning to open one.
I still don't have a shower in my bathroom, I have 3 toilets and 2 sinks but no shower, Nina was going to have someone come manana, and then they were supposed to come manana and they have still not come. Today her cousin came to check on me and was surprised that I still didn't have a shower, he said he would take care of it......manana.
I thought I made a video today for you all, I thought I did pretty good walking around my little casita, I even narrarated it really nice but when  I went to view it I couldn't find it on my camera....I guess I was just walking around talking to my camera with nothing being recorded. I really should read that big fat book that came the camera some day.
The guy with shrimp truck came by today, I am having friends over for a big shrimp fry on my outdoor stone BBQ on Saturday so I didn't buy any today because I want them to be fresh. Hope he comes by again Friday ro Saturday morning otherwise I have to go hunting for him, I might buy some scallops as well....hope my scallop guy hasn't moved from last year.
It looked like there were lots of tourists here today, lots of horseback riders anyway and a lot of people out in banana boats this afternoon. Cruise ships have been coming in a little more regularly now since the HINI scare has settled down a little. I guess business had been pretty skimpy here for awhile, first the reccession scare and then the flu scare really hurt things here. Ahhh but they can't scare me away! I'm here for the cookies!

Monday, November 30, 2009

A weird day



This morning started off like every morning will...I hope. A beautiful sunrise, me having coffee in my sunporch waiting for Salvador (fruit/grocery guy), I planned on having eggs and toast for my second breakfast. Because I get up so freakishly early I have to have 2 breakfast, the first one is usally just fruit and yogurt, the second one required something more substanial, like eggs and toast. Aside from having fruit and vegetables Salvador also has other nessessities like eggs, bread, beans, rice salt, tostadas, corn husks, and sugar. I really never have any need of going to the grocery store excpet for creama and coffee and meat. He arrives right on time and I get my eggs and bread and as I am frying up my eggs it starts to rain...seriously, unheard of this time of year. It rained for a bit and then stopped for a bit and then it poured for a few hours. As I sat under my palapa (it does keep the rain out) I watched as 3 guys were fishing with a net,(Peter, James,and John?) I've seen them out there before, it is pouring rain and they are in the water up to their necks dragging their net in and out, I would have stayed home but they were very faithful fisherman. Not sure how bountiful the catch was. The horseman came with his horses but he must have been sent home for lack of tourists, it didn't take long and he was heading back, little guy was still galloping alongside. During this pouring rain I decided a hot cup of tea would be nice and then found out I had no electricity, I just can't seem to have all my utilities working at once, so I fired up my nice BBQ and kept a fire long enough to heat up a cup of water for tea. I am reading a book a friend gave me on Sunday called "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer/Annie Barrows, not a book I would have picked up but it has kept me intertained all day, I'm almost done. Every once in awhile I have to jump up and see whats going on, horses going by, 2 duds on a motorbike with a young horse on a lead rope running alongside, I was going to go to the store for cheese and tortillas (Salvador does not have cheese and tortillas) but the road is a mucky mess from the rain and I don't have rubber boots or any shoes other then flip flops, then I see a guy walking by barefoot, when you don't have the right footwear wear none I guess. I stayed home, I'm too busy spying on the guy living across from me (kind of kitty corner form me ) he has his door open and is sitting in front of the doorway painting a pictures, he probably has no electricity like me and has to sit in the doorway for light. I decide I must meet him and see what he is painting, but not today in the rain. I am not the only one that keeps busy with weird activities, there is a guy from the trailer park who has found a big tree stump that must have been uprooted during the storm, it's about 6 feet tall and is all narly and has many cervices and knots in it and he sees that it can be a work of art so he works on it with a chisle and pick getting the ants out of it, can't have ant in your art. There is a restraunt up the beach that has an old worn out ugly sign and he feels that once he has this tree trunk looking all fancy and artsy he will donate it to them and they can put a new sign on it. So, you see we are all very busy being busy bodies.

The rain has stopped and the sun is peeking out once in awhile, might even have a nice sunset and the electricity is back on, painter guy has shut the door to his house, and I will go and find some supper before it gets dark and I have to stumble around in the puddles. Stay tuned for an exciting Tuesday....laundry day. I hope I still have water tomorrow because it has to be laundry day, I'm looking forward to using my fancy laundry facilities.
A little side note; my pictures are scattered all over because I can't seem to figure out how it is supposed to be done, I had this problem last year as well and never did figure it out. I also can't figure out how to put captions under them.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

First night in the little casita by the sea

November 29th (I think)

Turns out I live on pony lane, in front of my house is the ocean and behind my house runs a road alongside the coconut plantation. Somewhere down this road I believe live all the people that have horses. They are constanly galloping by my house and as my friend Kathy pointed out to me they leave a lot of fertilizer behind (horse poo), the composting guru that I am I plan on scooping up some to add to my plants that I plan on buying soon. I figure it's so hot here it will compost in days. I must have a garden, I just can't live somewhere and not grow stuff. I plan on doing the scooping after it's dark out because the locals will think I am completly loco if they catch me out on the road picking up horse manure. So tonight I went out there with my shovel in the dark and guess what...it's dark, I can't see a thing, need to buy a flashlight. I have a candle but the wind kept blowing it out. People often ask me "what do you do all day there" they have no idea how busy I am and I really can't explain it, don't really want either, they might think I'm loco too. Anyway.......I was going to tell a sad horse story.....There is a man who rents out his horses on the beach to tourists for trailriding and every morning he brings his horses in from somewhere up my road. He has them all tied up together and comes galloping up the beach really fast with them and one of the mares has a little foal (cutest little thing) the foal is not tied up, he just runs along side but he always stays behind and the dud does not slow down or look back to see if the little guy is still there, poor little guy just running and trying to keep up. Today at 3:30 (same time everyday) dud goes home with his horse, just at my house he makes a turn into the plantation but the little guy is so far behind he goes straight instead of turning. After awhile I can hear him crying (neighing) and he comes back, confused, he turns, going in the right direction now but soon comes back when he can't see them ahead, he's just crying in such a panicky tone, my heart was breaking for him. He went left and right but kept coming back and crying and crying. He raced back onto the beach and just turned in circles for awhile and then came back and just circled around the corner and crying. Dud must have been all the way home before he realized he was missing the foal, it was about 40 minutes when he came back on his horse with the mare in tow, poor little guy was so happy to see them and finally go home. I sure hope dud slows down from now on. These are the things that keep me occupied all day. Since hurrincan Rick came to visit everyone is rebuilding palapas and the palm branches are being hauled out of the plantations, all day long wagon pulled by horses drive by my house, piled so high with palm branches sometimes you can't even see the driver, pickup trucks full as well. These guys know how to load up a truck or wagon to the max.
I spend the first night in my house and aside from a midnight visit to the bathroom it was pretty uneventful. I had taken all percautions to make sure I didn't have any creepy crawlys in the house.Nina had sprayed some stuff to kill off any bugs they have and I had chalked out all the holes the house to keep out cockroaches. They have a chalk here that cockroaches don't like, if you draw a line with it they will not cross over the line (so I am told) Must work, I have not had a single roach in my house but I forgot all about my bathroom. At 1 am I had to go to the bathroom and so I wander on over there and open the door and the place was swarming with roaches.....all sizes, unbelievable. So back to the house for my spray and sprayed the bathroom and as soon as I could see they were getting drunkin-like I took a broom and swept them out. Today I chalked the door way and any little holes. Will be keeping on top of the chalking from now on. I have geckos and iguanas running around all over the place and I don't mind them because I know they are harmless but at night when it is dark I assume every little scurrying sound is a rat, keeps me on edge a bit. The last bit of my evening was spent just sitting and thinking of how thankful I am to God for everything, it is truely due to Him that I am here and I must never forget that the more I yield to Him the more amazing my life will be and in turn I will not be able to help it but praise and worship Him, and I pray that this will spill out to my nieghbours and everyone around me. Once again I got a lesson this morning in the Spanish service on praise and worship.

My little casita by the sea

November 26, 2009



2 years ago when I was here I found a beautiful little house on the beach, the house is nothing fancy and really not beautiful, it is the yard that is so beautiful and it’s location. The house is just a little square brick building, one room. The toilet and shower are in a separate little building just off to the side of the house and an outdoor laundry area as is common in the Mexican homes. In the past there has always been someone living in it but this year it was empty and I felt it should be mine. Unfortunately hurricane Rick gave it a little beating a few weeks ago and the yard is a mess. It had palapas that came halfway down the beach and beautiful vines, plants and trees and those have all been ripped out and all the debris is scattered all over. The lady that owns it, who happens to be a friend of mine (I rented a place from here last year as well) told me she would have it ready in a week but all week I did not see any work being done there. Meanwhile everyone on the Island has heard that I am back and has a place to rent or knows someone who has. I did go and look at a few house and found some very awesome little houses for rent, all within my budget, I didn’t even look at anything that was not within my budget. All the houses that I looked at were nicer then mine but the yards were not nearly as nice, some had no yard. When my North American friends see the nice little houses I turned down they will think I am crazy but to me the yard and the view is worth more to me. Yesterday when I went for my 4 pm walk on the beach and stopped at my house and finally saw some work being done there. I quickly picked up a rake and helped rake up all the garbage. When we had a few piles made we set them on fire (don’t need permits) She got the inside of the house cleaned and has promised to come back tomorrow to clean the bathroom, which I can clean myself if she doesn’t come back. The yard is a project that will take longer. I told her I can pick away at it while I life there as well. It is a bit yucky though because when you have piles of dried palm trees and old rotting wood laying around here you get rats and all kinds of creepy crawly things living in there. (BIG creepy crawly things) So, there may well be a bon fire every night at my house for the next week or so. I will be slowly moving in over the course of the next few days here. Tomorrow I will go get my things that I have in storage here and see what I have. It’s been 2 years since I put it in storage and I can’t remember what all I have, it will be like Christmas for me. Then I will make a list of things I need and head to the mainland and do some shopping (not my favourite thing to do) I do know I need to buy some lights, the little place is not lit up very well. I also want some plants, a Poinsettia or 2 is a must....there are so cheap here. A friend already lent me hammock which is the key piece of furniture. As we were working out there last night the sunset put on a very colourful show for us and I knew I had made the right choice.

November 29, 2009

This morning I went to get my things that I had stored and moved into my little casita on the beach. Shortly after getting there I discovered that I didn’t have water, what the heck? Had water yesterday. My water is pumped in from a well, I have a pump house and was shown how to turn the pump on and off, it was supposed to be as easy as flicking the switch on and off. The pump burrs and makes noise but no water. So I shut it off and plan on going to find Nina, but first I have unpacking to do and organizing...so exciting. I had gone shopping yesterday in Mazatlan for some supplies. I bought a twin sheet set for 210 pesos, a bath towel for 49 pesos, a twin sleeping bag for 87 pesos (yup that’s under $8)a thick blanket for 79 pesos, these were the big items. I also picked up some smaller stuff like candles and a BBQ lighter, bath mat and such. I organized my little place as best as I could without water, all my stuff that was in storage needs to be washed. Salvador (my fruit and vegetable guy) came by around 9 ish. I had run into him last night at one of the restaurants and had asked him what time he would be by. He drives the same route everyday and does pretty well at staying on schedule. I also caught the water guy this morning; I will be boiling my drinking water but...no water today, so I bought some even though I am against buying water. It hurts me to buy water, even though it only cost me 12 pesos. The water guy was so sweet and had fun with my Spanish; it took me a bit to understand that you can only buy as many jugs as you are returning. I did eventually get that and then remembered that I had gone through that whole ordeal last year only then I didn’t have a jug to return so I could not buy a jug. Luckily for me there was an empty jug in this house that I could return to him. How does one get started when you first move here if someone didn’t leave a jug behind for you, and people wonder why it pains me to buy water. Then I wandered over to get some lunch, a big tuna sandwich and then Kathy came to visit and drop of borrowed water dispenser and some duct tape to tape plastic around my mattress (just in case of creepy critters) then we chatted away the afternoon. I wandered over to the RV Park and met some wonderful fellow Canadian and a nice couple from Quebec  and for a small fee got set up with internet. So for the next few hours I sat under my palapa and updated my blog site as I watched 2 guys do some kind of kite surfing in the ocean....life was great, then I lost the internet connection, just as my pictures were being uploaded....dirty dog! Just then my friend Lydia (missionary with the La Vina ) called and told me she was on the Island and could I met her to give her a book I had brought from Canada for her. The book is “The beautiful side of Evil” by Johanna Michaelsen, very good book on how the evil spirit can disguise himself. The author grew up in Mexico and writes of her experiences of being deceived by the evil one. The things she writes about remind me a lot of things that I see here in the Island. Despite all the darkness here there is hope, today a 12 year old kid came to Lydia and asked to be put into a drug rehab facility. Another kid (these 2 boys were friends) was put into this same facilities 2 weeks ago, he had been there in the past and had run away, had also run away from an orphanage that Lydia had put him in so we just have to pray that this time God will get a hold of these boys. So my day went on and I never did go talk to Nina about my water...oh well, manana. I just finished watching the sunset over the ocean and now have to go over to Miguel’s restaurant and get some supper. Since Miguel’s is just around the corner from my house I’m sure we will get to be good friends. Yesterday I had enchiladas that were awesome, not sure what I’ll try today..

Saturday, November 28, 2009

From Redding CA to Stone Island MX

November09


As I am writing this I can hear the distant sound of a ship coming in, the sound is faint as it is almost drowned out by the sounds of the Island roosters. It’s 4:59 am and I am sipping coffee and waiting for the Island to wake up. It was a long journey.

We left Redding CA at 6 am on Tuesday, (It was time to leave I was starting to talk funny) the van was loaded as high as we could without losing visibility and staying within the manufacturers suggested weight limit, that also included 2 Yorkies and one recued Island beach dog. The drive through central valley California was incredible. It’s known as the “bread basket” of America and I can see why. Acres and acres of fruit orchards like orange, lemon and apple rolling along the highway. You see commercial crops like lettuce, beets, corn and rice. Rice surprised me; I had not expected to see rice. Working in these fields (from what I could see) were Mexicans, whether they were national Mexicans or immigrated I am not sure. The housing as also very interesting, not a lot of upscale housing, mostly old old homes and old run down mobile homes, homes that would have long ago been condemned where I am from. Sometimes in the middle of a tumble weed field you would see a little trailer that looked like it had just not been able to go any further and they had just set up camp and years later are still there. This of course is possible because of weather, no worries of freezing.

(*P3097)We spend the night in Palm Desert which is just outside of Palm Springs, as I got out of the van I could feel the air had gotten warm and the breeze felt soft and cool but not cold (hard to explain) Palm Desert, like it’s name is lined with Palm trees everywhere, had a very Mexican feel to it.

(*3106)We hit road the next day at about 6 am again. As we crossed the border into Arizona the terrain did gradually change a little, now not as lush and green in place. I was still surprised at how green in was, I had expected complete desolate desert. It seems if you add water almost anything grows. Still saw a lot of orchards, and commercial crops like lettuce, garlic, beans, and corn....no rice, and more and more cactus. Saw some cattle ranchers (not many) and some nopales fields. Occasionally on one side of the highway dry dry desert looking fields with dried up tumble weeds and sand dunes and on the other side of the road a green green crop of corn or an orange orchard (being irrigated of course) quite the contrast. Occasionally miles and mile of greenery and then s of dry tumble weeds and sand dunes. It switched back and forth like this until we hid the Mexican border. Another interesting thing was the (*3107) huge RV parks packed full of “snow birds” Canadians and Americans escaping the winters up north, never before have I seen such huge RV parks and trailer parks built just for winter homes. As we got closer to Yuma you would see some upscale neighbourhoods now, built for the “snow birds” and a lot of real estate signs as long the way. I picked up a free real estate booklet at a gas station just out of curiosity, a lot of homes are bank repos and comparing to the cost of housing at home were very cheap, looks like the banks are desperate to unload them. We had planned on stopping in Yuma for the night but we made such good time we carried on to Tucson.

We hit the road at 5 am so that we could be the first in line at the Mexican border at 6 am. I needed to get my tourist permit and there can at times be a 5 hour line up, we wanted to avoid that if at all possible. Although Kathy has crossed this border many times with her van loaded to the top and has never had any problems we weren’t sure what to expect this year. In July of this year the Mexican government replaced all their border security guards with newly trained people, some 700 people were let go and replaced. Turns out they were just as lazy as the last guys, we got a red light and had to pull over to what was supposed to be an inspection but as soon as the guy stuck his head in the window, Katie (big beach dog that had been abused by Mexicans and now doesn’t like Mexicans) popped up and started growling deep in her throat, the guard decided he didn’t want to open the door. He asked what we were carrying and Kathy replied (in Spanish) “women things”. She had purposely packed her under wear on top hoping that when the macho guards saw them they would not want to go through them. He looked at all the boxes and the dogs and just told us to go through knowing it would be a lot of work to search us. As we drove away laughing at the “women things” and promising to buy Katie a steak as soon as we got home I must say I was a little disappointed at how easy it still is to bring illegal things across the border, not that we had anything illegal but we sure could have had. I was asked for my passport when I bought my tourist visa but Kathy was never asked for hers or for her FM3 and we were not asked for our vehicle permit which had taken us 4 hours to obtain days ago in Sacramento and she was not asked for her health certificates for her dogs. Still a very sloppy border control if you ask me.

(*3160)As soon as we crossed the border I could tell we were in Mexico, there was no doubt. I felt at home right away. Even the smell in the air changes right away. They must have had late rains because things were very green and lush for as far as you could see. There seemed to be a lot more of commercial crops than I remembered from my drive through here a few years ago by bus. There were and miles of tomato and corn fields and a lot of crops that I couldn’t recognize from the road. The uncultivated areas were also full of green vegetation like papaya and mango trees, and Morning Glory vines covering everything in a tangles jungle like cover...high and low. Judging by the amount of crops and massive greenhouse all through the state of Sonora and Sinaloa (more so in Sinaloa) it looks like the agriculture sector is in good shape (but what do I know). We spent our last night in Navajo (5 hours (*3121) from Mazatlan) we did not want to be at the Stone Island docks in the dark, we had a whole van of stuff that needed to be loaded onto a boat to take us to the Island and Kathy knows from past experience that it can be a bit chaotic and we would need some Mexican muscle to unload and they don’t have as many guys at the docks at night than during the day. Plus we didn’t want to travel the road from Culiacan to Mazatlan in the dark either as this is drug cartel territory. We arrived in Navajo early at about 3 pm and stayed at the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It was an old Mexican Hacienda type hotel. I felt like I was in a movie. The grounds were green and immaculately trimmed and groomed, (*3129) lined in hedges and Bugumbelia and ivies trailing and covering on walls and ledges. The room had a stone floor and a massive concrete fireplace, old heavy wooden doors, long wooden shutters, a high domed brick ceiling and hand made tiles in the bathroom, crisp white wind dried towels and I believe scented toilet paper, even the pretty soap was whiter than white ...I wanted to stay forever. As I was walking around the grounds taking pictures I apologised to Kathy for giggling like a 12 year old (*3126) school girl in my excitement. This place was stunning. I was glad we got in early as it gave me some time to enjoy this place; I sat in the court yard under a lantern light and read my book (I was reading Tolstoy but I felt like I should be reading Hemmingway) and enjoying the warm soft breeze before I went to bed. One could have enjoyed an evening swim in the outdoor pool but I was content to (*3122) just sit and read and breathe. As I slipped into bed I was in awe of the whiter than white sheets....I love white sheets, and these made me feel like some Spanish Queen (not that the Spanish ever had queens) as I drifted off to sleep. I woke up to the distant sound of roosters. It felt like a true (*3147)homecoming. In the morning I watched as some cows wandered onto the grounds, their visit was short as the grounds keeper who looked more like a cowboy that a gardener in his western shirt and cowboy hat noticed them at once and proceeded to shoo them off. You will not find this true old style Mexican luxury accommodation and hospitality in any tourist zone, certainly not with the cows and the cowboy.

(*3170) The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful, just sat back and enjoyed the scenery. The closer we got to Mazatlan the more excited I got, I read every km sign with excitement as if announcing to the world...

“Mazatlan 280 km!....Mazatlan 180 km!, Mazatlan 65 km!”...ect. Then at last the Welcome to Mazatlan sign, it seemed it was put there just for me. We took a wrong turn and ended up taking the “scenic route” to the docks which was fine by me, I had my head out the window taking in all the smells, mostly sniffing out taco stands (Kathy refused to stop at taco stands. ) Once we got to the docks we took the dogs over first and got them settled in Kathy’s house, then we headed back and supervised the unloading and loading of all the contents of the van. It really wasn’t as chaotic as I had anticipated. We did have a good laugh at watching one of the guys come up the hill (Kathy lives on top of a hill) with 2 boxes on his shoulders and a box in each hand, out of one box, dragging on the ground were Kathy’s bras....for everyone to see. Once everything had been accounted for we headed to the Super and bought fixings for ham and scrambled eggs for supper, the taco stands close by were not open because there was a big party taking place (yes...they threw a party for us) it was a Quinceanos, which is a young girl’s 15th birthday party, it is a grand party that is almost equivalent to a wedding. The key things at this party are the gown, the cake and the flowers, the family will spend as much as they have. We were eating our supper just as the grand march started with a live orchestra band (not talking just a few guitars here) the birthday girl and escort leading the parade down Main Street to the plaza; we had a great view from Kathy’s balcony and enjoyed the music until 1 am. This was the first time I had ever seen a party here on the Island last after 10 pm, and that includes New Years Eve parties for the last 2 years.

The First Day Back

I couldn’t wait to get out of bed and drink coffee and creama (picked some up last night). It was good to find out that the roosters are still healthy and well. I waited for my Antonio, my tamale guys, not too sure when he comes by Kathy’s house. Turned out I missed him somehow, so I went walking to see if I could find him. Not far up the street I met my meat guy, but he is no longer the meat guy, he’s now a mechanic. He told me to let him know if I ever needed a mechanic....for what? Resole my shoes I ask. I told him I was looking for a place to rent, he would get right on that, had a few ideas. I walk a bit further and meet his aunt, we chat, she asks where I am living, told her I am looking for a place, she says follow me, she shows me a cute little house, but there is no bathroom, that’s a problem for me (maybe) I’ll find out how much it costs to build a bathroom. On my way back I chat with my mechanic guy again, he figures a bathroom would cost $200.00 and take a week to build, I ponder about this, but he has found me another house on the beach that already has a bathroom, it might possibly be available, he’ll check and find out. I keep walking and run into another friend, she also has a house that might be available, and she’ll let me know. After breakfast I flag down my fruit and vegetable guys, he asks where I live, I tell him I now have 3 choices, he also knows of a house that might be available, he’ll let me know. I load up on fruit and went to buy some yogurt and hurried home to have a fruit shake. ....it was soooooo good! Then it’s lunch time, (I love how it is always time to eat here) I head over to my favourite taco stand and run into my fruit guy there again(his favourite taco stand too) he tells me the house is available but the rent is a little over my budget. On my way back I stop to see my mechanic, on mechanic business actually, Kathy’s quad has been parked for a few months and now won’t start, could he look at it? Of course, right away. He tells me the little house on the beach is empty but very dirty, hurricane Rick came through here a few weeks ago and beat the place up pretty good. The house it’s self is fine because it’s made of brick but the palapas had all been torn down and it’s a mess. He told me to go have a look to make sure I still wanted it. I meandered on over there and while business is going on as usual along the beach you could still see some of the hurricane damage. My little house was fine but quite a mess surrounding it, a lot of fallen trees, the palapa roofs had all collapsed and there were palm branches everywhere and garbage laying around that had been blown in from who knows where. I’m thinking a couple of big bon fires and it could all be cleaned up, plant a few new plants and good as new. Yes I do still want it. An hour later I am informed that the whole Cardenas family will chip in and help with the clean up, I’m thinking this will be fun, I hope it’s fun for them too. As I was taking my regular 4:00 walk on the beach I suddenly realized it was Saturday, which means tomorrow is Sunday, I get to go to church, I’m excited and remember that my clothes are still vacuum packed...yikes, I need to borrow and iron somewhere. I find out Kathy has one, although I’m sure if I go for one more walk I could find one.

Supper was supposed to be a papa loca but they were down to just 1 when we got there, I let Kathy have it because she had never had one (I know.....who’s never had a papa loca?!) I had 2 vampiros and a Toni-Col , both soooooo good. We were both stuffed ourselves for a total of $7.00....life is good.

Sunday, November 22

Got up bright and early and headed to the mainland for church, I take a boat across and then walk down town (15 min brisk walk) then I catch a bus that takes me to the Golden Zone (the tourist end of town). I get there in time to stop at Panamas and pick up a pastry for breakfast, lots of North Americans are disappointed by the pastries here because they look so good and have such a huge variety but they are just not as sweet as they look and so I, not having a sweet tooth, can eat pastries here too. I don’t like sticky gooey sugary cinnamon buns, but I like buns and I like cinnamon and that is how they make them here....no goo. It was great to finally get to church and see all my snowbird and local friends, always good to find out how everyone spent the winter. I have some amazing and interesting friends here. As I listened to Pastor Dave (a fellow Canadian) give his thanksgiving message I did just become overpowered by thankfulness for having this amazing opportunity to be here and for the amazing people that surrounded me at that moment. I vowed to remember to thank God more often (how often have I vowed this?) for everything and everybody. The first song that the worship team led us in was “God is good” very fitting for me at that moment. After the English service was over I stayed and did the greeting thing all over again with my Spanish local friends, it is so much fun to surprise people. Only people knew approximately when I would be arriving so everyone was so surprised to see me. It is so much fun to tap someone on the shoulder that hasn’t seen you in 10 months and didn’t know you were coming and see their reaction. I think when I come home I’m not going to tell anyone when I’m coming.....I’ll just show up. While the English service put me in a thankful spirit the Spanish service put me in a worship spirit, which it usually does. The Spanish have a way of worshipping so freely and sincerely, just incredibly joyful that you just can’t help but get caught up in it. I have never yet looked at the clock during Spanish worship and wondered “are we done soon?”...never, and yes, I have done that during English worship, at home and here.....haven’t you? Am I the only one? It’s an area that I have to work on, I am aware of that (I have a few of these areas....could use a whole separate blog space for that). After the Spanish church I was so busy talking to everyone and catching up on everything that I missed my ride into Villa Union where I usually attend a late afternoon Spanish service. I was pretty sure that I had exceeded my socializing quota and decided not to take a bus out there and just go for lunch with a dear dear friend. I introduced her to one of my favourite restaurants from my days of staying at the Hotel Lerma, downtown. It’s a little place called “El Mamuca” they have the best empanadas there. I had the marlin and my friend had the shrimp, both were great, as usual. She filled me in on what’s been happening on Stone Island, it always amazes me at how dark this place is but yet I feel so at home here, makes me wonder sometimes if there is something wrong with me. It worries me, why do I fit in so nicely in a place where there is so much darkness? When I speak of darkness I am talking about, witchcraft, demons, physical abuse, sexual abuse, incest, disease, the occult is very alive here, pornographic exploitations, mental diseases and mental abuse, drug abuse, alcohol abuse , theft, kidnappings, people disappearing and of course corruption. This is my beloved Island. All hope is not lost though, because God is also alive here and he is at work and He has changed some people’s lives here and He is not done yet. I believe He has given me a certain peace that lives through this ciaos and everyone on this Island needs to know that they can have that peace as well. I feel that this is the message for these people and me. I need to learn that I can take this peace home with me (another one of my areas that need work). It was 4:15 pm when I got back to the Island and so I rushed off for my daily sunset walk and to go look at my little house again. I have a few reasons why I walk the beach at 4 pm, the sunsets at 4:30 ish now and when it sets over the ocean it can be so beautiful, if it’s a colourful sunset it was just light up the ocean with the reflections in the water. Today wasn’t overly colourful, just a normal sunset. Also at 4 pm all the tourists that came over by guided tours from the Golden Zone get hauled out, literally hauled out, they are loaded up in a trailer that is pulled by a tractor and taken to the docks. There is a separate dock for the tourists that closes at 5 (I think) most tourists don’t know that there is another docks that is open all night on the other side (I just let that secret out..Didn’t I?) And so the tourists are usually out of here by 4 and all the restaurants along the beach close right after they leave.....leaving the beach all for me and a few locals. By 5:30 ish when I am walking home everyone is just home from work and hanging out it their front yards unwinding before they have supper...it’s a lazy time of day, people sit on rocking chairs on their porches or laying in hammocks. There is something so real and honest about seeing a hardworking fisherman stretched out in his hammock at the end of the day; you just know he deserves to be there. It’s peaceful. It’s my favourite time of day here....or was my favourite time here first thing in morning....hummmm. I have to study this more, I can’t decide. I have a few months to conduct this study.

I have also stumbled across a need that I believe I can fill. I have a friend here on the Island that has a severe case of MS (a long story with an amazing testimony) right after she was diagnosed her body became crippled very fast, she now cannot walk, her hands are crippled, her arms don’t move at all, she cannot comb her hair, wipe her nose or turn the pages of her Bible. She loves to read the Bible and has a friend that comes over a few times a week and just sits there and holds her Bible and turns the pages for her. Her friend is going away in December for 2 months. Isn’t the timing perfect? Here am I...nothing to do. I will be happy to that for her, and anything else that she may need. I am also hoping to borrow a cat from her son, he likes cats and always has nice clean cats (most cats here are stinky, dirty and full of worms) but he takes care of his cats. I want a cat for my new house in case of rats...yes there are rats here. Friends of mine who live in the Golden Zone (fancy smancy livin there) were telling me just today how they had a rat in their house last night. (it was quite a funny story though) Me needs a cat.