así es….de mi punto de vista, pues

There was an earthquake yesterday.  I sat in a doorway for about a minute or so until it stopped.  Nothing really happened…the curtains swayed and light covers shook.  But the electricity stayed on, which was a relief as last week it went out on average once a day.

On another note, I know of one person who has swine flu.  However, I won’t come into contact with her as she hasn’t been in Mexico for the last six months and is living in Washington State.  I find it a little ironic (and fairly amusing) that the only case of swine flu I know about is not actually in Mexico.

PS Why do people from the States not dance more?

Here are some websites I check on a fairly regular basis (in case you’re wondering what I do in my free time):  http://www.aldaily.com/  This website has lots of different articles pulled from lots of different newspapers and magazines.  I thought this article: http://www.slate.com/id/2218650/pagenum/all/  was rather interesting.

I also check this one: http://www.motherearthnews.com/  It’s a back-to-the-land, nature-y type website which I quite enjoy just perusing, but it also has very practical tips for all sorts of things, from composting to how to build a greenhouse out of recycled materials to seasonal recipes.

And I’ve just found this magazine online and I think it’s pretty awesome: http://www.geezmagazine.org/issue13/  Its subtitle is “Holy Mischief in an age of Fast Faith.”

Also, I really liked this salad dressing.  I’ve only made it once, but I got pretty excited about it:

Japanese Salad Dressing

Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant

Yields about one cup

1 sm garlic clove, minced

1/4 med onion, minced (about 2 T)

1/2 med carrot, grated (about 1/4 C)

1-1/2 T grated, peeled, fresh ginger root

1/4 tsp powdered mustard

1 tsp tamari soy sauce

1 tsp apple cider or apple juice

1/2 tsp dark sesame oil

1/2 C veg oil

1/4 C mild rice vinegar*

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a food processor or blender, whirl the garlic, onion, carrot, and ginger for about 30 seconds.  Add the rest of the ingredients, except the salt and pepper and process until thickened.  Stir in salt and pepper to taste.  Japanese Salad Dressing will keep for four or five days refrigerated in a tightly sealed jar.

*Note: If you can’t get mild rice vinegar, use apple cider vinegar, but first bring it to a boil and then let it cool.

**My notes:  I have great faith in my blender, so I didn’t bother mincing the garlic clove or the onion or grating the ginger.  I happened to have grated carrot on hand, but I do not anticipate grating that the next time I make this either.  Also, I just used the rice vinegar I had, which was not labeled ‘mild,’ so I assume it was just regular.  I don’t know much about rice vinegars.  I refrigerated the dressing, but in a…what is that called?  those small jars that you can pour out of?  anyway, it had no lid.  It got thicker as the days passed, but tasted fine.

I was asked a few questions about a couple of the previous blogs, so I will answer them straight away:  

No, I did not wear a mask.  I…um, this is a little vain, but I think they look ridiculous.  And as I was not sick, I was not too worried about infecting anyone else.  Of course, if I had gotten sick, I more than likely would have infected people because I wouldn’t have started wearing the mask until it was too late.  So pretty much it comes down to vanity and a probably unjustifiable faith in my immune system.

Books I’m reading:  I’ve just finished Pride and Prejudice for the umpteenth time.  I do enjoy that book.  At the moment I am currently involved in a number of books.  More than usual, really.  A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.  Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard.  Seven Weeks for the Soul by Gerard W. Hughs.  Home Economics by Wendell Berry.  And, last but not least, My Grandfather’s Blessings by Rachel Naomi Remen.  One reason I can read so many of these at one time is that Seven Weeks for the Soul, Home Economics and My Grandfather’s Blessings and, kind of, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek are all short stories or essays, so they don’t need to be read on too regular of a basis in order to keep up with them.  So far I highly recommend all of them.

And, um, yeah…I suppose you can put the red food coloring in the strawberry soup to make it more red.  Without, the soup is a lovely pinkish color.  I suppose it is a little Pepto-Bismal-ish now that I think about it.  But you can ignore that and just focus on the taste, which is delicious.  Speaking of strawberries, I bought a kilo of strawberries for 15 pesos yesterday!  That’s 2.2 lbs of strawberries for $1.13!  So I made strawberry bread…that recipe is also in Simply in Season.  It’s good, but I like it more in muffin form.  No cutting involved.

Though the general population seems to be getting bored with the flu here, the school systems are not.  There are all sorts of new regulations for schools.  The daughter of my reps goes to a pre-school and the faculty (by mandate of the feds) took the temperatures of every student that entered the school yesterday and today (yesterday was the first day back at school after a two week break).  Many students wear face masks and some parents were not satisfied with just a face mask.  There was a picture in today’s paper of a kid who, unfortunately for him, had a piece of clear plastic over his eyes in addition to the face mask.  Luckily his hair was not disturbed by the plastic eye wear (which do not resemble glasses in the least…more like a windshield) and he could apply hair gel in the normal fashion.

There was an interesting article, also in today’s paper, of how lack of water affects schools, particularly rural schools.  This is the end of the dry season for many parts of Mexico; the rains will hopefully begin at the end of this month or the beginning of June.  As a result of not having a reliable source of water for the last eight months, many schools are out of the water that they would use to clean bathrooms and wash hands.  So what do you do when you don’t have enough water to even wash hands after using the bathroom and following a flu scare?  Cancel school.  You don’t want your entire student body to get sick, however important you think education is.  There isn’t any other option when you can’t afford anti-bacterial hand gel for everyone and kids (though asked) can’t afford to spare water from their homes to bring to school to wash their hands and clean the bathrooms.  It’s scary to think how much water affects every single part of our lives and how little we care for this basically free (financially speaking) resource in the States.

Following is another random photo from my hike in Guatemala.  

We weren’t really too lost…I mean, the path is obvious, right?

The flu scare imposed on many people a forced vacation.  Unfortunately for many, in addition to the loss of income, they were also not able to enjoy their unexpected freedom as everyone else also was not working, meaning, of course, that nothing was open.

 Although I did not experience a loss of income (as I don’t have one to begin with), I was also not able to explore Mexico City as I had been intending.  The flu scare started the day after I arrived in DF, so everything has been closed basically since I’ve been here.  On Sunday I was able to go to an artisan’s market in Coyocan and it was a relief to get out of the house and just wander a bit.

As a result of being in the house so much lately, we also have an overabundance of food.  I tend to cook and bake when I have time and I’ve had lots of time lately.  I’ve got a couple Moosewood cookbooks that I brought from the States, but I’ve also taken advantage of the internet in the office and been perusing sites for recipes.  Here are a few that I’ve made and liked (the website where I got the recipe is at the bottom of the recipe followed by any changes I made, if it’s from a cookbook, the name of the cookbook is at the top.  If there are questions about the cookbooks, let me know and I’ll answer to the best of my abilities.) :

Sven’s Salsa


makes about 4  1/2 pints

2 28-oz cans diced tomatoes, drained*


2 4-oz cans diced green chiles**


1 small/medium onion, chopped fine


1/4 c. fresh cilantro, chopped fine


3 cloves garlic, skinned


3 pickled jalapenos


¼ c. tomato juice*


1 T salt


1 tsp cumin

1
Put the chopped tomatoes in a large mixing bowl and add the chiles, chopped onion and chopped cilantro.  Stir it up.


2
In a blender or food processor, combine the garlic, jalapenos, tomato juice, salt and cumin.  Blend until smooth.


3
Add everything to the bowl.  Stir for a couple minutes.


4
Cover and refrigerate overnight. The flavor definitely improves overnight.


5
Enjoy!

* I just used reserved tomato juice from the canned tomatos to use as the tomato juice the recipe calls for.

** I had problems finding diced chiles, so I just just a combination of the jarred jalepenos and fresh jalepenos and diced them fine.

http://eatmakeread.com/2009/03/09/svens-salsa/

Really good!  I used one fresh red jalapeno instead of the diced green chiles, water instead of tomato juice, fresh tomatoes instead of canned and didn’t chop anything, just put it all in the blender.

Potato-Chickpea Curry

6 LARGE russet potatoes, peeled and cubed (use more if they’re small)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 medium yellow onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

4 teaspoons curry powder

4 teaspoons garam masala

1 inch of ginger, grated

2 teaspoons cumin

1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons salt

1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes

1 14 oz can of coconut milk

1 15 oz can garbanzos, rinsed and drained

1 15 oz can peas

To get started, put the cubed potatoes in a pot, fill with just enough water to cover the potatoes, and boil until soft (about 20 minutes). Drain and set aside.

Warm oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion and garlic, and cook until the onions are soft and translucent. Stir in curry powder, garam masala, ginger, cumin, cayenne and salt. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes, stirring. Mix in potatoes, garbanzos, and peas, then stir in the tomatoes and coconut milk. Simmer 5-10 minutes.

Done!

http://imperrfections.blogspot.com/2008/04/this-is-better-than-any-curry-ive-ever.html

Chilled Strawberry Soup

Simply in Season

1 C apple juice

3/4 C water

2/3 C sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground cloves

Combine in saucepan and bring to boil over med heat.  Remove from heat; cool.

3 C strawberries

1/4 C water

Puree until smooth in blender.  Pour into a large bowl.

2 C plain yogurt

1 tsp vanilla

2 drops red food coloring (optional)

Add to pureed strawberries with apple juice mixture.  Cover and refrigerate until well chilled.  Garnish with additional strawberry halves.  The soup freezes well and is especially good with small ice crystals left in.

I haven’t changed the background to my blog since coming to Mexico and they’ve created all sorts of new options!  So I’ve decided to switch it up.

In response to Jennifer’s comment about the Canby Herald, what I should have done was taken a picture of myself with a mask on in the metro surrounded by people with their masks on and emailed it to our fine local paper to let them know of immediate danger one of their own was in.  Darn.  Missed my chance to headline.

Here is a random photo from my hike in Guatemala:

Girls playing

As we were hiking, we came upon an enormous open field with a couple hundred people playing soccer and hanging out.  A nearby community was having a field day.  It was pretty awesome.

I went for a walk this evening (I am allowed such luxuries here in DF because a) it’s cool enough to do physical activity in the evening and b) I don’t know anyone here so I can walk uninterrupted for as long as I want) to see if the gym had opened after the flu scare.  It still has not, unfortunately.  There was a sign on the cultural center around the corner, however, that announced its re-opening will be on May 11th, the same day all primary kids go back to school.

Aside from the gym not welcoming the public yet, things are, in general, getting back to normal.  There was much more traffic on the road today, the metros were closer to their usual capacity and the juice guy right outside the metro is open again.  Restaurants were allowed to open again for the sit-down service and there were more kids in the park.

The most exciting part of my walk this evening was a family selling strawberries out of the back of their truck.  We get strawberries year-round in Olinala, but they are usually they type I term ’steroid strawberries,’ otherwise generally known in Oregon as ‘California strawberries.’  Or, put simply, flavorless.  These back-of-the-truck strawberries, on the other hand, are small and smell like strawberries and are quite sweet.  I think I’m going to make either the strawberry soup or strawberry bread out of Simply in Season.  Or maybe both…

I went to the closest large grocery store this afternoon, taking the quite full metro to get there.  When I arrived, it seemed that people had gotten over their fear of the flu as the store was full to its normal capacity.  There were a few changes: quite a number of people were wearing face masks (people have gotten creative and drawn different types of mouths on the masks….moustaches, beards, dogs, etc) and they were handing out plastic gloves to all the shoppers entering.  The kind of plastic gloves that are always oversized that people in food service use so their bare hands won’t touch the food.

I also went to the post office this afternoon and the post office ladies (they weren’t busy and I’ve made some embarrassing gaffes there before, so they know me) wanted to know why I wasn’t wearing a mask.  I told them I wasn’t scared of getting the flu and I wash my hands frequently.  They agreed that the masks were annoying (one woman pulled hers off as soon as her boss walked away and told me she hated wearing it cause they make you sweat so much), but they were required to wear them because of all the people that came in and out.

It feels kind of blown out of proportion.  I probably feel like that because I don’t know anyone who has gotten sick and it still feels rather removed (despite it being all over the news and I can’t really do anything in this enormous, amazing city because everything’s closed).  I figure as long as I wash my hands after being out and about and get enough rest, I’ll probably be fine.  There’s only been eight confirmed deaths (seven in Mexico, one in the US).  Granted, there’s still a number of deaths that are being investigated here in Mexico, but most people who have become sick have gotten better.  The vast majority have recovered (or are recovering) and we haven’t (or, at least, the international news hasn’t) known about this disease for even a week.

I’m glad to know that the world is much better prepared for a pandemic (per the WHO’s director-general’s statements), but I’m not convinced that this is the next Spanish Flu of 1918.  Maybe I’ll be  proved wrong.  I hope not.  But I think there’s a lot more health issues in the world that we should probably pay more attention to that affect millions of people everyday.  HIV/AIDS leaps to mind.  I know that if this is a pandemic, than all these precautions will be very well served and many lives will be saved.  I’m just skeptical.

Today’s front page headlines in the paper, La Jornada: The 35 thousand restaurants in the capital have been closed [until May 5th].  There have been 22 deaths in the capital and 12 in the state of San Luis Potosi; there are 150 suspected cases in 8 states.  The price of pork has fallen by 80%.  Classes have been canceled in the entire country [not just in the capital, whose classes have been canceled since last Friday].  The dead number 149 [as of this morning when the paper was published].

The government is taking this very seriously which I find both helpful and alarming.  I’m not particularly scared at this point.  There are a lot of people sick and quite a number of people have died, but we’re also talking about a city of 24 million people.  That’s a larger population than many countries.  And this is just in one city.  

The front page photo was of lines of people with overfilled grocery carts in a warehouse style grocery store.  People are stocking up in case movement is limited within the country in the near future.  There is also a photo of two people kissing with masks on.  I suppose it makes it a safe kiss although I can’t imagine it’s a very satisfying kiss.  I have noticed less PDA in general in public…one of the benefits of this flu scare.  I imagine that the people that make the masks are also making a killing.

There were two deaths blamed on the earthquake yesterday, though both deaths were caused by heart attacks.  

I went on the metro this morning (sorry Mom) and it is still being used.  Less than normal, but it was still fairly full.  The paper this morning said that the director of the Metro system here in DF has not discarded the possibility of a partial or full suspension of the service.  If that were to happen, I think it would pretty effectively shut the city down.  I wonder how this is affecting the millions of people who depend on their day-to-day incomes to eat and put a roof over their heads.  I imagine that a lot of those people are the ones who work in restaurants and in public spaces.

I am now living in Mexico City (I moved up here from Olinalá on Thursday) and seeing as I am now apparently in the middle of an international health crisis, I felt I should end my silence on this site. I am currently in good health with no apparent flu symptoms.  As far as I know the rest of MCC team Mexico is also in good health.  Everyone is being advised to be cautious and wash hands and such things.

I went to the store on Saturday and there were very few people about in comparison to the numbers that are usually packed onto the metro. Quite a number of people are wearing masks, as seen in any of the photos of Mexico on international news sites right now.  Every news site I checked this morning (except for ESPN) had the flu as one of their top stories.  So there´s lots of information out about what´s currently going on, though experts don´t actually know much about the actual flu bug.

Update:  In addition to this flu scare, we also just had an earthquake.  A minor one (magnitude 5.6), seeing as I still have internet access and nothing fell off shelves, but an earthquake nonetheless.  One of the rolling kinds that makes you a tad bit nauseous.

Update reply to Kelsey´s inquiry: I took the metro this afternoon at around 3:30ish.  I haven´t been out in the last couple hours to see if it´s still going.  And it is true that no one was allowed to see soccer games.  There were photos in this morning´s paper of games being played with the stands completely empty.  Also, interestingly, according to this BBC map (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8021547.stm ) there are more confirmed cases in the US (40) than in Mexico right now (20).  Although more than 100 cases are being investigated in Mexico at the moment.

Reply to Pat´s inquiry: I´ll be in Mexico City for the next few months, working in the office here until sometime in July or August.

i went to guatemala for a vacation at the end of february and here are the resulting photos:

http://www.zooomr.com/photos/yoda784/sets/44643/

you´ll have to copy and paste because i don´t know how to make it a link.