Gandhi

No, not the Gandhi who lived and died in India, and believed in passive rebellion, my friend Gandhi.

Gandhi is the executive director of the Oaxaca Street Children Center. She feels that her name gives her a lot to live up to. She has a Masters Degree in public administration, and continued her studies in Texas learning more about non-profit development.

She works full time at the center, teaches a university class for two hours each weeknight and has set-up a classroom in her house where she teachers kindergarten and elementary school children English weekend mornings.

She invited me to visit her home school. I had no idea it was so far from Oaxaca, about a forty-five minute drive one way to a small pueblo, and she makes the communte everyday. Like most unmarried young people in Mexico she lives with her parents.

I was amazed at how much English she had taught the children in the few months that she's been teaching them. It's wonderful that she's given these small children an opportunity they would otherwise have not had.

Gandhi's fiancé, Sinuhe, is studying to be a surgeon. He works in Veracruz, and makes the long communte home once a month, to spend the weekend with his family. During his vacations, which occur once every six months, he's busy taking care of the medical needs of the families who are part of the center.

He was home this weekend, and he and Gandhi were charming hosts, who after school was out, showed me the sites around their part of Oaxaca.

Ghandi's parents are both teachers with part-time businesses they run on weekends. In Ghandi's house, one wall is filled degres and diplomas. Everyone in her house is intelligent and well educated. And yet, the bathroom light doesn't work, there's no toilet seat on the toilet and to flush the toilet you put water in the bowl.

The accountant who did my income taxes last year couldn't understand why I live in Mexico. The answer is simple, because as far as I'm concerned Mexican people have their priorities straight.

Here we are

Kindergarten class  at Oaxaca Street Child  Christmas 2009

Here we are at the Christmas concert. Izabela, the kindergarten children and me.

Onto another topic, my friend Jane Robinson held her monthly Jazz recital last Sunday at Casa Colonial, the beautiful boutique hotel she owns. Eighty people were in attendance and chairs were scarce.

When I arrived there were plenty of seats but people were saving them for their friends. This is annoying. I asked Jane what could be done, did I have to sit on the grass.

"No," she said. "Go into the diningroom and bring out two chairs. Others will also bring out chairs and there will be enough" And so I did. One of the chairs had a soft cushion, one did not. I took the one without the soft cushion. I asked someone if they could save it for me while I went to the bar for a glass of wine. "No," they said, because they needed two more chairs to save for their friends. Now, I think that was very rude.

I asked a kindly man if I could borrow his hat for a few minutes to save my seat. "No," he said. But I wouldn't take no for an answer. When I returned I placed his hat back on his head.

"That was awfully forward of you", he said.

"You were dealing with a desperate woman," I said.

"Tell me your name and all will be forgiven, he said.

"Oreen," I said.

"I'm Jim," he said. And we shook hands.

I overheard his conversation with his neighbours, apparently he had looked high and low for exactly the right hat and was very proud of his recent find.

"If I had known how important your hat was I wouldn't have insisted," I said.

He was a courtly gentleman who drew sketches of the Jazz trio and the people in attendence while others took photos.

I was most annoyed because I had my camera all ready to go, but accidently left it at home, and I so want to take photos of Jane's beautiful gardens and lovely hotel.

Oaxaca Steet Children Christmas Concert

The pinata was loads of fun

Children sang in both
 English and Spanish

It was a fabulous event and a good time was had by all, except about half the North Americans, and one Northern Italian, who aren't use to Mexican culture.

The concert was to begin at 4 p.m. "Where's Denis, Andrea, Crisael and Israel?" I asked Isabela. Half the children were missing.

Whistles were handed out and the very loud, piercing sounds began. The Americans who were unaccustomed to Mexican revelry plugged their ears and wished the noise would stop.

"When was this suppose to start?" they asked.

"Four o'clock," I replied.

"What are they waiting for?"

"The rest of the children to arrive. This is Mexico, time has a different meaning."

By four-thirty or so all the children had arrived and they put on white T-shirts so they would have a similar appearance and off they went to sing carols around the block before starting the concert.

By this time some of the American volunteers left instead of staying for the concert, but many stayed. In fact some of the seasoned Americans didn't arrive until 4:30, or so. The children returned and their performance began. They danced and sang took a few swings at the first piñata and then sang their only English Christmas song, which was Jingle Bells. They performed fabulously. There is a photo of all the children, Isabel and me, but I didn't take it. I'm going to try and get it though.

We ate frijoles, avacados, tamales and gelatin for dessert. It was a very good meal especially considering the limited budget. Everyone went home with enough candy to last the entire Christmas season because there were plenty of piñatas and gifts of candy dishes.

First it was the cockroaches, then the bumble bee, now it's a scorpion. What next

I'll start with the scorpion. I was surprised to see it because they are plentiful in Durango, where it is dry, but this is the tropics where cucarachas rule, I didn't think I needed to be concerned about scorpions.

Erik was busy putting the scopion, using pincers, into a bottle with alcohol in it. He wanted the scorpion to die in the alcohol because, he said, the venom from the scorpion mixed with the alcohol is a great medicine to help the pain caused by arthritic joints.

We discussed scorpions and he said this one was on the sidewalk outside, he sees about three a year. If he sees three I'm wondering how many there are that he doesn't see.

Independence Day was unofficially yesterday. But yesterday there was a parade in the Zocalo. The children had their concert and I forgot my camera. They were so cute, again a lot of little Pancho Villas and no Zapatas, I asked one of the mothers why, she said she didn't know. Zapata, unlike Villa was from the south of Mexico.

For those of you that have gotten the impression I've been frustrated with my work at the Oaxaca Street Children Center, things are going very well. My time teaching has moved to the beginning of the day because the children are more alert. They are learning English, and their mothers are noticing. I like having the opportunity to tell a mother that her child is very inteligent and could go to university.

I've never seen a father, and one day I used the word "tomar", which means to take, but in Mexico can also mean to drink. I meant I was taking something, don't remember what. This opened up a conversation about drinking. Many of the children stated their fathers drank too much cerveza, one of the boys, Jonahan, proudly and loudly announced his father did not drink cerveza. I think many of the men feel overwhelmed, drink, and leave all responsibility to the mothers, who sell things in the zocalo, or clean houses, to make ends meet. I wonder how much of the money the women earn goes to cerveza instead of housing, food and clothing.

I keep thinking, women don't hold up half the sky, they hold up a majority of it. All anyone has to do is spend a week with me and you'll be convinced, women are the stronger gender. I admire tremendously the strength of these women.

Oaxaca and Oaxaca Street Children

I didn't leave Oaxaca after all. I'm not going to bother with the details. Let it suffice to say the greatest thing about having an independent income, and a skill thats in demand, is that I can for the first time in my life pick and choose how I spend my time. If it doesn't feel right, I won't do it.

Since I wanted to work with children, who would not get an education without assistance, my first item of business, when I decided to stay in Oaxaca, was to pay a visit to the Oaxaca Street Children organization. The organization was started by a Missouri couple, and people sponsor a child from kindergarden through their school years.

I'm teaching preschoolers for one hour a day. (Sherri Owens, if you are reading this blog entry, I don't know how you maintain the energy, by the end of the hour I'm exhausted.)

My FM-3 Independent needs to be renewed in October. I've heard so many stories about problems people have with Mexican immigration, although I haven't experienced any difficulties, I decided to get the correct information. I've hired a lawyer.

I didn't like my apartment. It was too dark. The advantage to a place with little sun coming through the windows is that it keeps cool. But, I'm a person who has lived my life in the north. I like and need a lot of light. My new bungalow is full of light. I live in the back of a garden. The family who own the property live in the front of the property. They are very nice people.

Erique, the son, is getting married in October, and I've been invited to the wedding. Erique is busy helping his mother run the family boutique. Madre Ruth is Oaxaca's Martha Stewart, only a much nicer person, and she has decorated my two bedroom garden apartment very nicely. Daughter Ruth is a pharmacist, who improved her English by spending five months in Victoria British Columbia. I've signed a one year lease. This will satisfy immigration. The rent is approximately $350 a month Canadian. I would have paid more, and was surprised at the M$4,000 rent, which was cheaper than any of the other apartments I looked at, and I didn't like any of the others.

I've enrolled in a Spanish grammar class, which takes up two hours of my day. I've been speaking Spanish using English grammar. So I've got a lot of bad habits to break.

Because I'm walking everywhere an hour and a half of my morning is spent walking from my bungalow/garden apartment to my Spanish school, to the Oaxaca street children organization and then home again.

The photographs are of my new apartment. It's two bedrooms - so to my friends - if you'd like to pay me a visit let me know.