Dead Guy in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico

This is my most dangerous Mexican experience.

City of Chihuahua - 2 1/2 hours
south of Juarez

When I lived in the city of Chihuahua, I lived close to Los Americos, which is a major thoroughfare.  At the intersection I walked to most days, there was a McDonalds Restaurant on one corner and across the street a Pemex gas station.  There was always a police car parked in the Pemex lot.

Across the street from the restaurant and gas station there was a drug store.  I went to the drug store almost every day to purchase bottled water, and frequently a small package of delicious chocolate covered cherry an alcohol mixture I've not found anywhere else.

I was on my way to the drug store when I noticed a man lying face down parallel to a vehicle. My first thought was that a traffic accident had just occurred.  But the vehicle he was lying along side wasn't damaged, and it didn't look like any other vehicle was involved in the mishap.

My next thought was that he had a stroke or something, and that had caused his accident.  But, the way he was laying, neatly parallels to the vehicle, didn't make sense if he had gotten out and had fallen on his way to get help.

My third thought, he had been shot.  I didn't have my cell phone with me, and so I couldn't call emergency.  Would anyone call emergency?  I sat and watched.  Two men with a cell phone got out of their vehicle and made a phone call.

I noticed, with interest, that the police car usually parked in the Pemex gas station wasn't there.  The street was suddenly empty.  Businesses in the area locked their doors.  The police arrived, cordoned off the area and asked me to leave.

For a while, whenever I needed a taxi I called a particular driver, I'll call him Philip.  When I told Philip about what had happened, he hadn't heard anything.  But, the next time we met he told me what he had been able to glean from his asking around.

He said that the man was an illegal after hours seller of alcohol.  There's a big alcohol problem in Mexico, and one of the solutions to the problem is to prohibit the sale of alcohol past a certain hour.  The dead man, who at first was only selling alcohol, was approached by one of the drug cartels.

 He was told that he needed to add drugs to his product line.  He had no choice.  Once he was doing business with one cartel, another cartel told him that he had to buy from them.  Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place!  The man was a dead guy before he was actually shot.

There weren't any police in the Pemex station because they were informed that the hit was going down.

"How did the drug cartel assassin know he was going to be at that intersection at that time?" I asked.

"That's a good question, " Philip said, " don't know."

I came up with a theory.  Perhaps one of the cartels, the one that killed him, suggested a meeting at McDonalds. 

Philip thinks that the state of Chihuahua was better off before Calderon declared his war on drugs.  That's a story for another day.

Mexico - The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Lately I've been reading a lot of articles posted on an electronic magazine called Mexconnect. Generally, the web site is written by American ex patriots living in Mexico, and written for people who are either foreigners living in Mexico, or people thinking about moving to Mexico, or vacationing here. Collectively the articles have romanticized Mexico rather than giving a true picture of what it's like for a foreigner to live in this the farthest north, and dare I say, most North Americanized Latin American country. There's the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I'll start with the good. The cost of living is much cheaper. I pay $4000 pesos for a very nice bungalow situated at the back of a well maintained garden. Once a week housekeeping, a television with about fifty channels, high speed internet, and all other utilities are thrown into the bargain. $250 pesos, which is an exorbitant amount of money by Mexican standards, will buy a fantastic meal, two glasses of wine included, in Oaxaca's classiest, as far as I'm concerned, restaurant. Some things are more expensive like cosmetics and electronics, but with food and shelter being so inexpensive I can easily save enough to take a once a year trip up north to buy those expensive things at a cheaper price.

The weather is ideal.


Chihuahua


Although Chihuahua, where I first lived, has a harsh climate with cold winters and hot summers, it is not the bitter prairie cold of the north. So, when the Mexican people living in Chihuahua commented on how cold it was, on the cold January mornings when the temperature hovered around 0 celsius, my reply was always the same, "You don't know cold." After all, I spent many years in the harsh Canadian prairie climate where 30 below celsius is an almost typical January morning. Besides, in Chihuahua, I knew that by mid-afternoon the temperature would be a rather pleasant 16 celsius, and I'd be shaking my head as I walked by the school yard where children would be dressed in winter jackets, scarves, toques and mittens.

Zacatecas

Zacatecas, the place of cold, because it's 8,000 feet above sea level, was cold when it rained when I took my mid-May trip to this picturesque city of pink stone buildings and it's silver. But, it was cold like I needed a sweater, not a parka.

Creel


Creel, high in the mountains, was bitterly cold one day, the only day, so far, during my Mexican stay, when I wished I had the lining zipped into my Canadian manufactured winter jacket. But, for the two previous days of my February visit to Creel, I was comfortable wearing a light jacket in the morning and a short sleeved T-shirt in the mid-afternoon sun.

Oaxaca 


Oaxaca, where I now live, is the place of eternal spring. Well within the tropics but at an altitude of 5,000 feet, it's never too hot, and it's never cold. Right now we are in the throws of the rainy season, which means generally the day starts with beautiful sunshine, and then the clouds come. By about 6 p.m. we get a welcome downpour which cools and refreshed everything.

Friendly People


Another good thing about Mexico is the people, they're nice. They just are. In Chihuahua everyone offered a smile and a good morning or good afternoon. Here in Oaxaca people seem more serious, perhaps shyer. But always eager to help when the opportunity to be of assistance arises.

Friendly people, beautiful weather, cheap and comfortable living what more could a person want?

The Bad


Now for the bad. Dog shit. I try not to look at it. I try not to step in it. The other day I actually watched a man pick up after his dog, I clapped and shouted, "Bravo." He smiled. He's the only person in Mexico I've seen pick up after his dog.

Well on the subject of animals. Stray dogs and cats wander the streets, and it seems like every household has at least one dog. They bark. If you can't tune out the noise, it can be so annoying, it will send you packing. There's the other noises too. The gas trucks with their strange noise of identification, like nothing you'll hear anywhere else, the hawkers on bicycle with rigged up microphones loudly announcing what they have for sale. "Stom- bo - lee" is the cry of one. "Ag-ua" sings another. It's a jumble of sounds. It's the music of the street. It's Mexico.

Some people don't think the abundance of graffiti is a bad thing, but I do. I'd be very angry if one of these so called artists scrawled all over my nicely painted building. The graffiti is everywhere. It's a mess.

Narrow sidewalks, or no sidewalks, in Mexico pedestrians get little respect. Here in the south it's worse than in the north. The vehicles stop atop the pedestrian crosswalks seemingly oblivious to the dangers they are creating for those of us attempting to get across the street.

Limited infrastructure, ancient buildings left to fall apart, vacant lots full of garbage, weeds and I don't know what else, but if a person can look beyond the weeds and trash, there is beauty. The gardens, the museums, the art galleries, the well kept houses, the people who everyday go out and scrub the sidewalk in front of their place of business, or their home. Mexico is a paradox.

The Ugly

Now for the ugly. There's a serious drinking problem. Down the street from where I live alcoholic men lie in a drunken stupor under the trees that line the sidewalk. They seem harmless, but also pathetic. They are filthy zombies oblivious to everyone and everything. They aren't alive really. They are the living dead.

Beautiful, quick witted, little children, who ought to be in school, support their families by selling chiclets in the town squares. Elderly women with no means of support either sit and beg on the sidewalk, or wander the streets with their hand out.

I suspect some of the American and Canadian ex-pats living in Mexico, mostly us retired types, feel a little guilty because our lives are so privileged,  in comparison to the Mexicans  that are our neighbours and friends. Then there are the unspoken illegals from north of the border who seem to think it's their right to come to Mexico and criticize the country they are hiding in, but that's another story.

Chihuahua, Chihuahua Mexico

Being a homeless wanderer who takes airplanes and rents cars can be very expensive.  So is having grandchildren. In August, I watched my money fly out of my bank account.

I"m a conservative spender who doesn't like spending more than is coming in, and so, I sent out a couple of feelers, just to see how easy it would to find a job in Mexico.  The university with the name Canada situated in the state of Oaxaca  sent an application after I applied, but that was it.

While I was in El Paso Texas, getting ready to take the bus into Mexico, a small private language school in Chihuahua offered me a job after a twenty minute telephone interview.  I crossed the border into Mexico September 8, as planned, and I was heading for Chihuahua as planned.  The only difference was now I had someone meeting me at the bus station, and a free place to stay if I wanted it.

I've been here for one week and five days, I had originally planned to be here for two days and move onto Creel, a few hours to the West.

I have a pot garden, a room of my own with a bathroom and I've made a few friends.  

So far I'm teaching three classes.  My favorite is at Deloitte where my students are lawyers and accountants.  The children I teach are well behaved and cute but it's heard to say "listen and repeat" over and over and make it interesting.  I added a chant, marching song that seemed to go over quite well.  My third class is the most challenging.  Few of my students are on time.  The school is full and noisy when I'm teaching, and my classroom is the direct route to the kitchen.  

The kitchen is where testing is done, and where school supplies are kept, as other school staff walk through they apologize, but still continue to interrupt my class.  Oh well, I'll adjust.

Because the pay here is pretty good after I finish my year's stint I plan to travel through Mexico for a few months.  By then I'll be somewhat fluent in Spanish.  

Anyway, I'm now an expat living and working in the country of Mexico, in the state of Chihuahua in the capital city of Chihuahua.  Juarez is much bigger but the maquilas are what makes this town, and to be successful the Spanish speaking population must learn English.

Today Cela, our housekeeper/cook took me downtown by bus to buy a cloth bag because every time I go to the store I feel very guilty using plastic bags.  The bus cost 4 pesos and 50 centavos, approximately 45 cents Canadian money.

At one point an elderly man got on the bus with a guitar.  He played and sang  then walked down the aisle for money.  I'm wondering if he paid to get on the bus, if so the ride may not have been profitable.

The photos are of Chihuahua decorated for Independence Day, which was September 16.

Heath, one of the other teachers invited us to his church.  I took him up on the offer.  It was a great time with music, food and competitive mechanical bull riding.  After the party we went up on a hill to watch the fireworks.

Viva Mexico.