así es….de mi punto de vista, pues

i´m sick.  i´ve got a nasty cough and my head feels kind of woozy and heavy.  yesterday for breakfast i ate the three g´s: grapefruit, granola and garlic.  grapefruit for the vit C, granola so i wouldn´t get hungry in twenty mins and the garlic for my cold.  i slice or chop the raw garlic and mix it in with the cream cheese that i mangaged to (somehow) make while attempting to make yogurt, and put it on top of bread.  last night i also mixed in a bunch of herbs that merideth had dried as well.  i figured if the cough drops i was sucking on had thyme and rosemary in them, i might as well increase my dosage.

i´ve gone out to communities (xitapontla on monday, teticic and tlanicingo on tuesday and chiaucingo yesterday), but i come back extremely tired and coughing, so i´m not going to nuevo paraiso (new paradise) today, though merideth is.  we partnered with a government organization that assists indigenous communities in a variety of things.  they came to us in july and asked if we would be able to help out with two communities that are beginning a project with community gardens and small animal livestock (there´s another name for that, but i can´t remember at the moment what it is) to increase their incomes.  each community split into two groups, gardens and goats, and then we went to the communities and gave a talk on what our support could be, if they wanted it.  the groups decided that they did, so the goat group worked with manuel, one of my co-workers, and the garden group worked with merideth and i.

we did a two-day cram session, of which went fairly well, but we learned a bunch of stuff and will change stuff (it´s all a process, right?) and so we´ve been doing follow-up this past week and the nuevo paraiso group asked us to come back and give a talk on how to build a worm bed.  so merideth is going to do that today.  and i´m going to stay home and drink tea made from bouganvillia leaves (it´s supposed to be good for colds) and read books on how to do community development work better and how to get rid of pests naturally.

so.  i´m going to go do that.

it is hot.  i am burned.  and this is just the beginning of the dry season.  we’ve actually been getting some rain from the hurricanes that are out and about in the caribbean.  this past weekend i played in a basketball tournament and i now have some very attractive tan lines to show for it.  i am not entirely sure what the temperatures were this weekend as i was not in my house in order to record such things, but it was 80 degrees F last night at 10pm.  And at 1 this afternoon it was 100 in half shade.  hot.

there is free posole (the soup in this area, particularly every thursday and every sunday) tonight in the neighborhood in which the basketball tournament was held.  they’re celebrating their saint’s day.  so there are a whole bunch of church services, basketball games, a parade and free food to …actually, to do what, i’m not sure.  celebrate the saint, but i’m not sure why this particular one (st. francis).  

we also celebrated isaiah’s birthday on friday night (his actual birthday) with homemade pizza and strawberry shortcake with just the mcc team and then again yesterday with bunches of neighbors and some more traditional mexican food.  the mexican equivalent of a hobo dinner: chicken or pork with an avocado tree leaf and a delicious sauce wrapped in tinfoil and steamed.  this was served with beans, tortillas, salsa and the not-quite-mexican asian cabbage salad.  dessert was carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (martin’s creation) and someone brought a tres leches cake as well.  all in all, quite delicious.  at any birthday or during mother’s day, you sing las mananitas.  here are the words and the translation, courtesy of about.com:

Las Mañanitas Lyrics:

Estas son las mañanitas, que cantaba el Rey David,
Hoy por ser día de tu santo, te las cantamos a ti,
Despierta, mi bien, despierta, mira que ya amaneció,
Ya los pajarillos cantan, la luna ya se metió.

Que linda está la mañana en que vengo a saludarte,
Venimos todos con gusto y placer a felicitarte,
Ya viene amaneciendo, ya la luz del día nos dio,
Levántate de mañana, mira que ya amaneció.

Translation:

This is the morning song that King David sang
Because today is your saint’s day we’re singing it for you
Wake up, my dear, wake up, look it is already dawn
The birds are already singing and the moon has set

How lovely is the morning in which I come to greet you
We all came with joy and pleasure to congratulate you
The morning is coming now, the sun is giving us its light
Get up in the morning, look it is already dawn

now, about.com says that these following verses are optional, but here in olinala, they are most definitely required:

Additional verses:

El día en que tu naciste nacieron todas las flores
En la pila del bautismo, cantaron los ruiseñores

The day you were born all the flowers were born
On the baptismal font the nightingales sang

Quisiera ser solecito para entrar por tu ventana
y darte los buenos días acostadita en tu cama

I would like to be the sunshine to enter through your window
to wish you good morning while you’re lying in your bed

Quisiera ser un San Juan, quisiera ser un San Pedro
Para venirte a cantar con la música del cielo

I would like to be a Saint John I would like to be a Saint Peter
To sing to you with the music of heaven

De las estrellas del cielo tengo que bajarte dos
una para saludarte y otra para decirte adiós

Of the stars in the sky I have to lower two for you
One with which to greet you and the other to wish you goodbye

here are photos from chihuahua, though they have not yet been titled…

http://www.zooomr.com/photos/yoda784/sets/38723/

let me know if the website doesn’t work…

The vast majority of my muscles are sore.  Merideth and I have spent the last two days working in the garden area next to the office.  It was a jungle (see photos here:  ).  There were the largest weeds I have ever seen in the space that once housed flowers, tomatoes and chiles.  The kale had grown to monstrous proportions and the basil had bush-like proportions.  And, all of these weeds had grown in just over two months.  We cleared everything out (I made pesto with some of the basil) and applied the compost that Merideth had started not long after she had arrived.

In the process of putting the compost on the beds, we discovered the largest grubs ever.  (If you’re particularly squeamish, don’t look at the photos or read this).  They were disgusting (again, see photos).  They were far thicker than my thumb and the same length as my pointer finger.  We took great delight in hurling them at the wall and seeing the resulting splat.  Their back ends exploded amazingly.

Anyway, for those who are a little more weak-stomached, you can continue to read here.  We trimmed back the vetiver grass (grass that is pretty much amazing…more about that in a bit), re-organized the compost piles and did general cleaning of the yard area.  It looks a good bit different and my muscles can tell.  Even my hamstrings are sore from all the pulling of huge weeds.  Today we moved a part of a gravel pile to make room for another compost pile. 

One of my host sisters from the house that I lived in this past year stopped by with her two daughters this afternoon, so we talked and the girls played for awhile.  (This included me lifting the girls up and ‘flying’…one of their favorite activities with me and using more arm muscles…ugh.)  She’s lonely.  She arrived back from the states in March after being in Illinois for three years.  Her husband is still in the states, making money and will come back down here in a year or two.  They will not be able to see each other during that time.  I still haven’t figured out quite why Jessica came back down.  But she hasn’t lived here for awhile and now that she has two kids, she can’t really go out and do things (she’s only 21).  She doesn’t get along real well with her one sister that is still here (I don’t either) and her mom isn’t the most supportive person to be around for long periods of time.

I don’t blame her for not wanting to spend a great deal of time with them.  But family is kind of what you’ve got here.  Especially with kids the age of her kids (4 and 2).  Jessica always tells me to dance for her too whenever I go to dances.  It would be so incredibly difficult to live somewhere without your husband for one to two years.  I would imagine that it would be similar to having a husband in a war somewhere although without the added fear of possibly never seeing your husband again.  I mean, I suppose she might have that fear as well, but she’s not worrying about his getting shot.  But the girls are going to be so much bigger than when they last saw their dad and growing up without him (even if they can talk to him on the phone) for these few years is huge.  I don’t think Lesley, the youngest, even remembers him anymore.  And just for Jessica, I cannot imagine how hard it would be to be separated from her husband for that long of a period of time.

So, Merideth and I are going to have them over for dinner.  And I’m going to try to make an effort to go and see them and just hang out with them.  Jumara, the oldest girl, calls me ‘tia’ or ‘aunt’ even though she knows that I’m not actually family.  They are adorable girls and love to play.  Jumara likes to show me things, especially really obvious things.  “Look tia, a horse!  A cat!  The table!”  Lesley has taken to speaking only in whispers.  And she can’t say my name properly…it comes out more as ‘irara.’  And Jessica loves to laugh and talk and I don’t think she gets the chance to do it frequently enough.  The vast majority of her time is just spent with her kids.  Which is great, but I think she’s pretty lonely for other company.  

Someone asked me what basketball team I’m on and the name of my team is Las Chicas.  I am currently loading photos, so, if all goes well, you’ll be able to see them en un ratito.

I´m back in Olinalá.  I arrived early Thursday morning after a ridiculously long day of sitting on buses for the entire day on Wednesday (nearly literally…it was about 17 hrs of bus riding).  On Thursday afternoon I was visited by one of my basketball teammates who wanted to know if I would be able to play in a tournament with them beginning that day.  She was also worried that I was going to be switching teams.

Basketball in Olinalá…ahh..how do I say this…well, in Merideth´s words (I think I´m paraphrasing a bit), ¨well, nothing happens here, so you have to create drama somewhere!¨ People get mad at other players, at the refs, at other teams, switch teams and then continue the cycle.  And, of course, do a lot of basketball playing all the while.  I didn´t realize all of the drama that goes on when I first got here because I couldn´t understand most of it, so I just ignored things that were not pertinent to my everyday well-being.  Now, though, I get fed up with the politics and drama that goes on.

I was contemplating not playing this season (I´ve missed the first half of the season already) and just doing my own exercises to keep in shape, but then, on Saturday night, after the basketball tournament (of which I did play in), I went to the baptism celebration of a niece of a girl on my team and just hung out for awhile.  And it felt good.  There was nothing special expected of me, they all knew me and it was comfortable and just felt good.  So I´ve decided to play this season.  With the same team.  And I enjoy the competative aspect.  My team, by the way, won the tournament

The fiesta for Saint Francis is over and everyone has returned to their respective colleges and towns, so things are calming down around town.  I, unfortunately, have been going at a relatively fast pace these last few days and the cold that has been threatening ever since I was in Chihuahua has finally latched on with a vengence.  So I aim to sleep a good bit more, eat large amounts of garlic and drink copious amounts of tea.

Exciting news:  I have two thermometers.  My grandma gave me a large one that I have hanging outside and Valerie gave me another that I use for inside temps.  So, after five days of watching the temperatures here I can say with relative accuracy that the temperature (for the beginning of October) rarely gets below 70 degrees F, even at night, and is usually around 90 during the day, 100 in the sun.  The inside temp is usually around 75.  Which explains a little why I thought it was quite cold at home when the high was 75 (a number I normally associate with shorts and tanktops).

All in all, it is nice to be back in a place where I´m familiar with places and people.  It was great to get on the bus to come down to Olinalá and know the person I was sitting next to and go around town and people were seemingly excited that I was back…either that or they were just surprised and I was flattering myself.  Ah well…I´m here anyway