Hiatus Over

Here are some news tidbits since my last blog entry.

April, May, and into June, weather in Oaxaca was predictably sunny and hot. We could count on it. Now it's the rainy season, the vegetation that not so long ago was deadly brown is now lively green. Normally what we get in the rainy season are sunny skies in the morning, and late afternoon thunderstorms. This year is different. We're getting rain, rain, and more rain, and when it isn't raining it's heavily overcast. No sun for days now. I don't like it, not one little bit.

July 4 was an historic day for the state of Oaxaca. I don't know how many political parties there are, I think somewhere between ten and sixteen, in order to get rid of the hated PRI, the political party that has ruled the state eighty years, several of the smaller political parties formed a coalition, and won the election.

My time with the kindergarten children ended June 30, I will miss them.

I gave the girls dolls, and the boys hot wheels. I didn't know how cool hot wheels were until I watched the boys playing with them. I wish I would have purchased hot wheels for the girls, but this is a society where girls are girls and boys are boys. And, as much as I hate to admit it, I know the girls liked the dolls far more than they would have liked the hot wheels.

The dolls were manufactured in Mexico, which was why I chose them instead of Barbies. When I was waiting at the check-out line I noticed all the dolls had blue eyes and blonde hair. This was not a good thing, princesses and brides can just as easily have dark hair and eyes. But, I have so much trouble finding gifts for the children that I consider acceptable, I went ahead and purchased the blonde haired blue eyed dolls that didn't resemble the girls who were getting them.

In Oaxaca, baseball is a popular spectator sport, and Oaxaca's team, the Guerreros, is in the Southern Mexicao finals. Last Thursday my friends Tinka, Conrad and myself were planning to attend the final home game of the regular season. It was touch and go whether the game would be on because of the rain. Tinka and I sat in a little restaurant where we had just finished lunch. Because it was raining we had another glass of wine, then another. Eventually the rain settled into a sprinkle. The game began very late because of the rain. The Guerreros lost, but they are still going to the finals.

July 6 was Frida Kahlo's birthday. If she were still alive she'd be 104. My friend Jane organized a birthday party. I went. The last birthday party for a dead person I attended was for the Canadian novelist, Margaret Laurence.

On August 1 I'm off the Mexico City by bus, than boarding a plane headed for Houston. I'm staying overnight in Houston then flying to Vancouver August 2. The ferry trip across Georgia Strait to Nanaimo will be the most boring part of the trip.