Halloween/Dia de los muertos began Thursday morning.

I'm not feeling well, my throat is sore. I'm tired of not being able to communicate well because my Spanish is so bad. I'm fed up with people who can speak English speaking to me in English when I've asked them to please use Spanish.

O-kay I've gotten that out of the way.

I always walk through the Zocalo on my way to the Oaxaca Street Children Center. On Thursday morning the Zocalo was crammed with costumed children. I wondered what was going on.

Because Halloween falls on a Saturday this year and the schools will not be in session, it was decided that Thursday morning would be the time the schools would celebrate. I wondered why not Friday, but didn't ask.

The children I teach weren't at the center because they were invited to a party that was to take place in the afternoon. No one told me. I spent forty-five minutes walking to the school for nothing. The story was that the invite came after I left for the day, and they had no way of letting me know that the class for the next day was cancelled.

"Don't you have my email address?" I asked the volunteer co-ordinator.

"No"

I knew she ought to have it because when I applied for my volunteer job my email address was on my resume. Oh well, I gave it to her again.

Although I was invited to the party I decided not to go. Walking back and forth, would mean three hours of walking on city sidewalks that in Mexico are a danger in themselves.

This morning I went to the center with a Halloween themed lesson, which took about an hour to prepare. When I arrived I was told there won't be English class today because the children were going to the Zocalo. I was invited to tag along.

Children in Oaxaca were costumed yesterday, today, and I have a feeling they will be costumed on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday as well. The children at the center had made little plastic baskets in which to go trick or treating, which they did in the Zocalo this morning. But, their trick or treating amounted to hitting tourists up for pesos.

I thought the center was suppose to steer them away from this sort of activity. Oh well, they were dressed up and looked very cute. I'd have taken photos but my camera kept malfunctioning.

The photos are from Chihuahua, where last year we had a party for the kids at our school, a more traditional North American Halloween.

Chihuahua barely celebrates either Halloween or Day of the Dead.