Mexico Journal

    This is a selection of emails I've written since living in Mexico. They are not in context, but largely make sense. Looking back, some of my initial impressions were correct, but not all.
    This also makes me realize how often I've been sick. While I like living here, it hasn't been the healthiest time of my life. My body has yet to adjust to the altitude (I can barely run a mile here), the microorganisms or the food. Fortunately, I don't worry about it too much, so I don't get depressed or anything. In case you are worried: I have seen a doctor. He said to drink more water, eat more vegetables, and avoid walking on the streets at rush hour (car exhaust). Probably good advice anywhere.
    
    

Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2001
Subject: news from south of the border
To: everyone

    i arrived safely in Queretaro, Mexico. i am trying to adjust...
    yesterday david, one of the americans, was to show me how to use the computer at el puente when the computer was available (the computer is in spanish, a bit tricky they say[ but when i came back the room was locked and he was gone (same room with phone[. i got directions to the internet cafe but they were closing. how do you say in spanish *i know you are closing but i will pay for the full hour if you let me send one email very quickly%? (i am at the internet cafe now, saturday morning, and the keyboard is tricky ŋ i keep getting different characters, and i canĻt figure out how to get an apostrophe...[
i am doing well. this place is beautiful, and the air is clean, except when an old car does by = old cars use [leaded[ gas, and make extra pollution = new cars must use unleaded (like in usa< but i hear that many people remove the car}s catalytic converter so it can use leaded gas still (because leaded gas is cheaper[.
    buildings are so old = amazing. and no parking lots anywhere in downtown (they call it [centro^ which makes the buildings seem more crowded. also streets are very narrow, because they were built for handcarts. most streets are one way. sidewalks also narrow, people drive crazy. even on sidewalk is dangerous.
    huge variety of restaurants here. lots of japanese, italian, french... not so much american, but there is pizza hut and a couple burger places. i bet most of the american places are in suburbs, probably they try to keep that out of downtown.
    i did get lost, but found again. many nice people. i will probably be doing individual conversation classes with high school{university students in a couple days. also working with first=grade age, teaching them spanish alphabet and numbers. they speak spanish poorly (they mostly speak otomi language[ and should’ve already started school.
    one boy, Ismael, is ten years old and very friendly, kind of a smart aleck, but has never gone to school. can{t read at all. he is otomi, and comes to el puente with other otomi, but every time he should go to school he leaves, goes back to tribe. el puente can{t make him go to school, only his parents can, and his mother is only 25 or something and has three other children. father is even worse = alcoholic who abuses them all. laws are not good for domestic violence here... also for kids still with tribe, father{s job is only support. el puente can{t get mother to come here...
    they say it is good to be here and walk, talk, play with kids, because these kids have never had a positive experience with adult males.
    i met Mauricio, a guy who graduated from el puente and went to high school in denver. now he is fluent in english and just arrived back = he will look for a job in business, translating. he is staying with his two sisters in town (he has no parents, which is true of some kids at el puente[.
    went with mauricio and some of his friends to a [spanish rock% club last night. band played, did rock songs by american bands like the Doors, Pink Floyd, U2, and similar songs in spanish. this stuff is popular here, but more popular is [ranchero% or [norteno% music, with a bunch of mariachi=looking guys playing fast polka music.
    in the plaza yeasterday there was a big exhibit about the war between the government and the chiapas rebels. said how the government violated the rights of chiapas people, taking their land, destroying their economy, kidnapping their leaders... peace negotiations going on soon. i am told that some mexicans support the rights of the rebels, but many do not, because of the intense media propaganda (government controls several media outlets, but there are very popular non=government newspapers, and freedom of speech is alive and well = at least the chiapas group was allowed to demonstrate here, right?[.
    my time is up = here is my address if you want to send a donation or package for the orphanage (things like children{s clothing, art and school supplies, carpentry/handyman stuff, sewing supplies[. the orphanage has enough money, but they say the more funding they get the more otomi families they can help...
    kip hinton
    El Puente de Esperanza
    OCampo 2B Sur - Centro
    Queretaro, Queretaro 76000}
    Mexico
http://www.mexonline.com/elpuente.htm
i will be in touch = nos vemos
    

Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2001
Subject: bag of drink
To: kathryn

    how ya doin? good here ' a little lonely i had my first english class today. the students call me [maestro[. very strange. that is just teacher in spanish, but i think of a conductor of an orchestra, or at least somebody who is a master of something. am i a master of english? i taught a girl whose english is very poor. she gets very frustrated and she cannot make many of the sounds correctly. [th[, [r[, [L[ at the end of words. also, now in the mornings i play with the kids, and teach them alphabet in spanish and numbers (same in both languages). tonight a guy from seattle, greg, will arrive. i will work with him fixing things in the afternoons.
    this city is so beautiful. i got up early this morning and had a huevo y ahuacate torta (egg and avacado sandwich) at the only restaurant i could find open, [Torta Willy's[. i ordered a drink, i thought it was juice, but it was something vanillaish. and when the person asked if i wanted it in a cup, i thought she meant instead of the bottle. but it was actually coming from a big vat, and if no cup, they give it to you in a bag. literally. just scooped into a clear plastic bag, with a straw stuck in the bag. how weird is that. very tricky to drink, keeps wiggling out of your hands.
    i saw a park yesterday with bells on an old hill. and a gigantic statue of benito juarez, the first good president of mexico, after they got rid of emperor maximilian, that guy who was really unpopular. he was executed in queretaro. i will see the place of his trial and the signing of the constitution.
    i also saw the old spanish aqueduct. very impressive. still looks like new. there is a running-bike track under it. like two miles long, from river to downtown.
    the little kids were watching a tv show with penguins yeasterday. it was in english, i don't think they understood any of it.
    they served a cabbage-carrot-potato stew, with sliced beets as a side dish. practically borsht, huh? maybe i will give em the recipe.
    

Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2001
Subject: trips
To: kathryn

    there is a four year old here named *magi* pronounced mah-gee. short for margarita. maybe we could call margie margarita.
    tomorrow i go on a trip, to a small village where Otomi indians live, to paint a building el puente runs there. the governor of the state will visit the village next week, so it must look nice or something. we will stay the night there, me and two other americans. a guy from washington state named Greg just arrived. he is fifty years old, runs a trucking company. taking a month off to work at el puente. nice guy, parents were farmers. speaks no spanish at all.
    

Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2001
Subject: first week
To: conchita

    i am settled and have begun english classes. tomorrow i will go with David and the new volunteer Greg to paint a building at a place i can't remember (where most of the Otomi are from?).
    My spanish is already improving, and i love the city. so many beautiful churches and plazas, and the aqueduct is incredible. my room is 207, a large room with three bunkbeds. i have it all to myself right now. they say that when a group of volunteers comes, they will be put in that room with me. i was wondering how many and how often - if i must share it often, would it be possible for me to get a different room? i would like to have a private area... nobody here seems to be able to tell me.
    things are going well. the niņos and jovenes are very nice. they have some interesting rules for basketball. i miss America a little, but this is such a great place, and working with the kids is wonderful. i look forward to a succesful year.
    

Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001
Subject: sending
To: Hintons

    i asked about sending stuff... if you are sending a large package, it is expensive; if you are coming to visit, they let each person take two 70 pound boxes as cargo on the plane, and this is the fastest, cheapest, most reliable way to get stuff through customs. mailed large packages, i am told, can be stopped for inspection, and may take up to two months to arrive, probably with the contents intact...
    

Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001
Subject: sick
To: kathryn

    i am sick. from cold in san ildefonso and dust from wind. my throat is bad. congested. headache. want to sleep all day. instead i worked as normal, almost. i just worked slower. painted, avoided dust. took cold medicine, didn't help.
    first english class with Javier. his english is really bad. he has difficulty pronouncing "t", "d", "th", "v", "y", "n", "m", and the last consonant of every word. we had to use a mirror so he could watch his tongue and make it move like mine. going to bed early, hope tomorrow i feel better. if not, i will just stay in bed.
    

Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001
Subject: san ildefonso
To: everyone

    today i am sick. i caught a cold when i went to a cold windy place... i went to little town called san ildefonso. probably 40 people live there. plastic bags blowing everywhere. one restaurant. one bakery, two little grocery stores. no sewer system (only outhouses). the house i stayed in had no water, though others did. electricity yes, but no phones. i painted a sewing room for some women who make dolls and quilts there. the hard part was chisel-ing and sanding off the concrete which the builders spilled on the windows and doors. that took 7 hours with 3 people working. in mexico, the more rural you get the longer it takes to do anything. may have to go back on saturday to finish... i'm supposed to teach english classes, though...
    the restaurant, which only serves one type of food per day, was very good. didn't even make us sick. they had a telephone, a cellular payphone thing. at night, it is so dark, i saw stars that previously only existed in my astronomy textbook. big, colorful turkeys walk around town. i couldn't tell if they belonged to anyone, but there were as many turkeys as people. and it is apparently turkey mating season.
    the town is in the mountains, very high. gorgeous mountains. very cold and arid, has not rained for three months. that is normal - in summer months it rains every day. next rain should be in may. so mostly just cactus and pine trees grow there. everything else is brown. there actually was hail a few weeks ago, which is sort of like rain, but not to the farmers - rain is good, hail is bad - it broke all the stalks of the irrigated corn. cold and windy, thin air, intense sun. guys walking by with maybe 100 pounds of sticks tied to their backs. guys passed out against signposts with tequila bottles.
    one of the other painters got bit by a dog when a pack attacked us. met three residents who used to work in USA, they returned to san ildefonso because they were homesick. even though san ildefonso is only 40 miles from Queretaro, it takes two to three hours by bus up the mountains. next tuesday is their saint day, which means a big fiesta. up to 120 people from the surrounding countryside will converge. one of the most beautiful and alien places i have ever been.
    nos vemos
    

Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001
Subject: discoteca
To: everyone

    howīs the weather? its 70 degrees and beautiful here in querétaro.
    went to a discoteca called "Rock Weiler JBJ". large dance club. lots of metal beams, and murals of american and british rock stars. cuando we got there at 10.30, the place was literally empty. nobody but the bartenders and a DJ. mauricio said "sorry, since i was in the united states, i havenīt been here in a year. i swear this place used to be really popular." we ordered coronas (most popular beer in mexico). they brought us "coronitas", like corona bottles but much smaller. really weird - i drank mine in like 15 seconds. didnīt taste like corona either. i asked the bartender "ŋhay cerveza en las botellas normal?" and he said no, but i could get a different kind of beer, also in a small bottle. the bartender told mauricio the cervecitas cost 12 pesos, thatīs $1.20 US. considering i could drink three at once, fairly expensive. by this time, around 10.45, a couple other people arrived. by 11.00, the place was literally packed. guess we simply arrived early. nobody danced until 11.45, then by 12.00, the dancefloor was packed. i see a trend here. i tried to dance like the mexicans, but the hombres donīt move their hips (the mujeres do, a little).
    most people were dressed up fancy, like at clubs in miami beach (lots of muy caro clothing stores in queretaro). they ordered "buckets" of coronitas to share at their tables - ice buckets with about ten coronita bottles in them. weird thing was the bartender opened them all at once. tiny flat beer. as mauricio has predicted, they played "all kinds of music." every latin dance song that is popular in the united states, lots of house-mix covers of old american pop songs (like "back in black" and "lets hear it for the boy"), and plenty of watered-down salsa-merengue (one song about a "puto", another about shaking your "culo"). about 25% of the songs had a specific dance to them, many of which looked like derivatives of the macarena. if you didnīt know the dance, better to sit down. one dance was, literally, a country line dance. very fast fiddle music, called "bailar al rodeo" or something, with a guy singing in spanish with a twang. the fastest line dance iīve ever seen. one false step and the whole thing fell apart. didnīt help that the dancefloor was literally shoulder-to-shoulder. a weird cover of gloria gaynorīs "i will survive" ended with a 90-second, synchronized, russian cossack-style kick dance. i was awestruck.
    there is a popular cigarros (cigarettes) brand called "boots". "pall mall" and "marlboro" are also popular. almost everyone there had a date. like a discoteca is not a place to meet people, but a place to go with your novia. so the atmosphere did not have the predatory feel i was expecting, with guys all aborrachado and macho.
    no other americans there. there are a couple other places that look interesting in that area, by the aqueducto. one called "carlos y charlieīs", one called "qiu" that is supposed to be fancy and expensive (like 5 dollars admission), one called ranchero something that is a mexican cowboy dance club (para norteņo, corrido and polka music).
    iīve been offered a part time job teaching english for money (i am already volunteering 8 hours a day here at el puente de esperanza). i have plenty of money, but i could earn enough to cover all my expenses... tempting, but would that be too much work? maybe i should just focus on el puente...
    i can buy a cheap guitar here for 260 pesos (10 pesos=1 dollar). a digital pcs phone is 370 pesos then 112 pesos per month for 120 minutes. there are 2 theaters here that show international movies (art-film type) from america, iran, japan, italy, etc for free. 2 pancakes, orange juice, bread, and milk with coffee is 18 pesos. an egg, avocado (best avocados in the world here) and cheese torta (sandwich) is 7 pesos.
    

Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001
Subject: trabajo
To: kathryn

    hola, just working, the computer was in use all last night. going well, fixing up the store (tienda) where el puente sells the crafts made by the otomi mothers. hard work filling holes, painting, sanding the doors, etc. i interview for the additional teaching job at "idioma lincoln" school tomorrow. the director, who i talked to, seems to like me so it should go well.
    a reporter from a catholic news service came to photograph and write here. she in the past has covered bosnia and croatia during the war and chekoslovakia as it was breaking up.
    

Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001
Subject: idiomas
To: everyone

    i got the job at idiomas lincoln school. i will be working abajo la mesa (under the table) as a non-registered, undocumented worker, like many of the housekeepers in miami. i will, like a housekeeper, be paid in cash cada semana (each week). for my first month (starting february 1), i will be a teacher-in-training, meaning i will be supervised, and mostly will be learning, not teaching. i will receive a paltry 30 pesos/hour for this training period (3 dollars, well over the mexico "minimum wage" of 40 pesos/day) (times 7.5 hours, that makes 225 pesos per week- iīll be rollin in it). assuming this goes well, i will become a regular teacher starting with march (classes are held in one-month segments with a final exam for each segment).
    my salary will increase some - depending on how well i do, i will be assigned classes of different sizes and levels, and different pay accordingly. i also just found out that as a volunteer, el puente gives me 80 pesos (8 dollars) per week for groceries. Ąque bueno!
    

Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001
Subject: box for el puente
To: georgeanne

    yes, our orphanage can use many items. the most reliable ways to send boxes are with people flying in, or by federal express (which costs a little bit). regular mail is cheap, slow and less reliable, but usually gets here in one piece.
    items needed: childrenīs clothes (good condition, all sizes) sewing supplies (fabric, tools, needles for singer machines, patterns, etc) construction supplies (tools, nails & screws, bits for black & decker drills, plumbing electrical & painting supplies) educational toys & games (preschool & elementary, non-language specific- example: "memory" picture game) teenager clothes (very good condition, appropriate for office workplace is best) kitchen supplies (new tupperware [with lids], plastic wrap, foil, small appliances) office/school supplies (notebook/copier paper, folders & binders, pens & pencils) in general, donīt send anything broken or worn out- the kids have plenty of that stuff already.
    here is the address:
El Puente de Esperanza
Ocampo 2B Sur - centro
Queretaro, Queretaro 76000
Mexico
    any money donations, in the form of checks, should go to the registered USA non-profit:
Mary's Inn Foundation
Box 389
Hoonah, AK 99829
    thank you very much for your interest in the orphanage - the kids here are happy, because they are in a supportive, caring environment, perhaps for the first time in their lives. el puente teaches them the skills necessary to become self-sufficient adults. depending on the child, el puente provides tuition for high school and business college, tuition for computer or technical school, or carpentry or sewing classes. some classes are held here, in the sewing room, computer room or montessori-type classrooms.
    

Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001
Subject: mexico
To: everyone

    im going to mexico. that is mexico city, which nobody calls mexico city. to mexicans, it is mexico. which makes me wonder what the rest of the country is.
    i went to play billares last night, just like in usa. as the night progressed, and more cerveza bottles piled up, the balls started landing on the floor more often and the games took longer. we played a game starting at 1:00 and lasting until 2:30, hardly ever in the right tira-(order) and with many trips to the "excusado" in between. despues billares, we went to a taquito (little taco) stand, where you get 5 little tacos for approximately zero dolares. nobody was sure what kind of meat it was, but they said with enough picante and lime, even e.coli is safe to eat. so we piled it on. it was plenty cold outside by 3:30, but my mouth was en fuego.
    walked by the aqueducto, 300 year old plumbing high over our heads. when this was built, george washington's parents were not born yet (alright, that’s an exaggeration). and it's in perfect condition, lined with majolica ceramic from uzbekistan, very high tech at the time- the thing would still work if the weight of the city had not disrupted the natural spring that fed the aqueduct (still, it was in service for 200 years). i'm off, a dios
    

Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2001
Subject: ada and jim
To: kathryn

    i just got back from mexico - ada and jim saw hi. good to see them. they go to europe in two months, then move to portland or austin. saw just a few seconds of the superbowl, walking by a taco restaurant - very alien feeling, seeing a football game from a different world - "en fuego" means on fire. it was a popular catchphrase on a tv show in the early 90s, maybe iīm the only person who remembers it.
    but i donīt have anything profound to write. i have not "found myself" or any deep meaning yet. no, i am not sure what iīm doing. but i didnīt expect to after just two weeks. thatīs why iīm staying longer.
    i like it here. i do, already. i feel iīm doing something important. the kids are good, and they deserve to be nurtured, taught, and simply given opportunities to succeed. i believe that (i donīt know if i can love them, but they need that too). i worked for many hours making a pizzaron (chalkboard) for the jugateria (playroom), mostly so the kids would stop drawing on the walls, but also cuz i enjoyed and learned with one, so maybe they would, too. i had difficulty making it stay secure against the wall, and it was warping, so i had to build a strong frame for it, basically making it look just like a chalkboard in a school. it looks really good.
    so sister mary (the "nun" who supervises the kids) said it was great, but "didnīt need to be so fancy", and i said "i was only trying to make it sturdy, and i inadvertently made it look good." the kids wouldnīt have cared if i layed the thing on the floor. they loved it, spent hours writing and drawing immediately. my point is iīm not explicitly trying to make myself "feel good" - iīm explicitly trying to help people, do things that i know are RIGHT (that whole Absolute Moral Certainty thing). because i donīt know how to directly make myself feel good. but if i help people, and end up feeling good in the process, i will be happy to know the two go hand-in-hand.
    if i had only tried to make the pizzaron pretty, it wouldīve been torn to pieces within a week. but i worked hard and made it RIGHT, and now it will probably look good for years and years.
    

Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001
Subject: Happy Birthday
To: Hintons

    el puente accepts volunteers of all ages, skills, and language ability. we have a 55-year-old named Greg who speaks no spanish at all. he is working on electrician and carpentry projects. we had a college girl who spoke no spanish, and helped in the nursery with the young children. in other words, any of yall who want can come to el puente for a couple weeks or a couple months.
    let me know when you want to visit, and i will make arrangements. you will almost certainly be able to stay and eat here for free (you may be asked to talk to/play with some kids).
    

Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001
Subject: mexica and my birthday
To: Hintons

    you mentioned you have money you want to buy things for the orphanage with. it would be better to send the money. not only are many items cheaper here, postage always adds to the cost. you can deposit it to my Ohio Savings Bank account (which i can access by ATM), and send me an email saying what to use it for. this is faster and safer. with clothing, we could even take the kids to walmart or wherever, and get clothes that fit them best. or you can send a check to the p.o. box i gave you, but i donīt think we could manage specific use that way...
    you should come visit the museums in mexico (city, or "mexico"- the country was named after the city, which was named after the aztecs who lived there, who called themselves "mexica"). they are great. diego riveraīs murals of mexican history are amazing- one huge one took him 6 years to finish. there is a copy of one rockefeller paid him to paint at the rockefeller center (in new york)- the original was destroyed by rockefeller because it had a picture of Vladimir Lenin in it. possibly the most valuable artwork ever intentionally destroyed by the owner.
    i didnīt even go to the best one yet, the anthropology museum. and teotihuacán, 2500 year old ruins with the largest pyramid in the world and a slightly smaller one as well. i will do that next month. mexic (city) is so dirty though. i'm just now getting over the smog in my lungs. looking down the street, in the middle of the day, everything is blurry. not muggy or humid, either; just plain dirty. internal combustion cars are bad for your health (even when they are driven safely). if you don't believe me, just visit mexico (city), or los angeles.
    i would rather breath their exhaust than drive there, though. they are so crazy. they put huge speed bumps at intersections because that is the only way people will even slow down. stop signs might as well be invisible. and you couldnīt pay people to use a turn signal.
    iīm going to build three private bedrooms and a bathroom for volunteers who come to El Puente. just gotta get funding approval for the materials. also, it is possible the inside walls will be made of stone and plaster instead of drywall, because labor and stone are cheaper than drywall. weīll see.
    one of my students took me to a big grocery store, "comercial mexicana". exactly like an american grocery store, Kroger or Publix or whatever. only difference is the avocados are fresher and all vegetables are cheaper. very comforting to find.
    i went out with some of my students for my birthday last night. there is a restaurant called "california" (150 years ago, california was a state in northern mexico) serving mexican food, but the place looks like Shoneyīs or Dennyīs. anyway, they give you your entire meal free on your cumpleaņos (birthday), so i had to go there. they had american desserts, like apple pie with ice cream, cheesecake, and carrot cake. my students and the entire staff sang a birthday song called "las maņanitas" (the little tomorrows?), which is much longer than our "happy birthday" song. las maņanitas has like four verses.
    if you go to mexico, somebody might suggest taking travelerīs checks. banks here donīt want to cash them (though they will, if you are persistent and arrive between noon and 2pm, and the bank is large and not busy). better is to use an ATM card. ATMs are everywhere. most any ATM card works here, costs only the $1 US ATM fee and a small peso conversion fee (probably less than $2 US). even after the fee, you could come out ahead of the exchange rate offered at banks.
    

Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2001
Subject: shipping
To: Hintons

    wal-mart here is essentially the same, iīm told. if anything i would guess lower quality clothing, who knows. definitely i could meet boxes at the airport. but i think georgeanne said the boxes will come to the San Miguel de Allende airport, which is actually closer and mexico city. and i think if the 10 pounds of clothing was sent in 1 pound increments (instead of all at once) it would be cheaper. donīt know if fed ex would suggest this... and regular mail is, of course, cheaper.
    tell coree and brittany to come to El Puente instead. only cost is an airplane ticket.
    

Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2001 21:35:41
Subject: constituyentes
To: kathryn

    my first day of paid teaching is tuesday. monday is constitution day, and sometimes the president comes to queretaro because the constitution was written here. we will see if vicente fox shows up. this weekend, i will descansar (relax). maybe visit the queretaro museum, or hang out with vicente fox.
    i like to play futbol (soccer) with the kids. the little kids, in general, donīt have fathers at all. a couple of the little little ones might be starting to think of me as a substitute (as i am the only abult male they spend any time with). a little freaky, i guess. on the bright side, maybe then i can make them spend more time practicing the alphabet.
    

Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2001
Subject: sabado (saturday)
To: kathryn

    i will probably be able to build a jardin de vegetables on el techo (roof) here. talked to people about it. build it soon, growing season is early. went up on el techo today, found a big cactus growing there. no soil, no agua, just growing with itīs roots spread out flat on the roof. very sick looking, but definitely alive. probably a seed landed there during the rainy season once, and it has hung around ever since, too stubborn to know itīs gonna die.
    so i decided to adopt it. it is very large, like two and a half feel tall with roots. i will go buy dirt and a large ollo (pot) for it (iīm curious to know what dirt costs in mexico- sounds like a good folk saying, "cheaper than dirt in mexico". of course queretaro is exceptionally clean, so dirt could be at a premium here). i will keep it by the door to my room. it will turn bright green and happy.
    classes today. now, actually.
    

Date: Sun, 4 Feb 2001
Subject: dragón tigre
To: kathryn

    The "crounching dragon" movie is in mexico city right now, but not here yet. i donīt know how iīd do with chinese sound and spanish subtitles. talk about things getting lost in the translation(s). the onionīs "hollywood outside scoop" guy said "so whatīs up with this 'happy dragon bouncing tiger' movie? is it true the whole thing is not in english? thatīs just crazy!" (http://theonion.com). here they just call the movie "dragón tigre."

the kids play basketball like it was soccer. when the ball is rolling on the ground, they scoop it up with their feet. when you’re dribbling, theyīll use their feet to steal the ball (normally this would be done with hands). when they go up for a rebound, they might even hit the ball with their heads towards a teammate. they shoot so poorly, though, they might be better off trying to kick it through the hoop.
    

Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2001
Subject: ratones
To: kathryn

    i only have had bad dreams about a rat we found in the kitchen here.
    last thursday evening, Pilo found and killed a rat in the kitchen. they said there was another one. it turned up just a few hours later. i found myself in the position of being the "man" available to become the "matador" so to speak. rats, of course, carry diseases and mites and lice and all sorts of bad stuff that should not be in a kitchen, right? so its gotta go. i set up tape-traps. first the rat (which was so fat it could barely run) went around them, then directly into a tape-trap after i scared it with a flashlight. it was trapped in the tape and fighting to escape when Lolis handed me a stick and said "Pilo hit it in the head one time with this."
    i realized then i could not do it. i couldnīt kill the rat. and when i told estéban i couldnīt stop thinking of it as "one of godīs creatures" i wasnīt entirely joking. the struggle made me empathize with the rat. it was obviously trying to escape, trying to bite me, whatever- simply trying to LIVE. i wanted to build a cage for it to live in, or drive it out to the country or something. it was so scared, i thought i was gonna cry. so i told them i was sorry, but i couldnīt do it.
    i walked away and Lolis took the stick and hit it, three times (i found out from Pilo that the one he caught was also huge and actually took SEVEN hits). estéban called her la jefa (the bosswoman) afterwards. i cleaned up the mess, but i wonīt tell you about that.
    i had a nightmare about the rat that night. it did not die, it just stayed for days writhing on the floor in the same spot, and everytime i walked by it tried to bite me, and one by one it was getting itīs legs free from the tape, and i knew it was gonna come after me, but i couldnīt hit it with the stick. its eyes looked like people eyes, staring at me.
    well thereīs a novel for you, but not a happy one.
    went to walmart yesterday. not too far away, and very similar. the differences: they sell wine, beer and hard liquor. best vodka selection iīve seen in queretaro. el centro de visio (vision center) is very small, but has a doctor and optician, and what look to me like the exact frames you sell. the parking lot is actually smaller than the store because many people walk or take buses or taxis (taxis are cheap here). there is a samīs club right next door. very crowded with people and promotional items, same promotional signage as in USA, only in spanish. layout very similar- photolab is a large kiosk next to vision center, and there is a Bancomer (large mexican bank) next to it as well.. they sell computers, but only 3 kinds. they sell many large appliances, like hot water heaters, washers, dryers, refrigerators, and industrial-size ovens.
    seems about half the brands of each product are the same as in USA, and half are mexican brands. they do not sell any of my favorite consumer products (neutrogena, degree, toms of maine, that moisturizer i like, etc.), but in some cases there are mexican substitutes (like "nutrogen" glycerin soap). just like the "Comercial Mexicana" grocery store near El Puente, they have cereal like frosted flakes (zucaritas, "little sugars"), quaker whole grain "complete" (you know, the stuff with lots of fiber, shaped like hexagons, gets really soggy in milk), and "cini-minis" (cinnamon toast crunch- same mascot baker guy on box, same box design, but says itīs made by Nestlé instead of general mills- very confusing), etc. no grape-nuts, cracklin oat bran, or captain crunch, though.
    the president did not come here yesterday.
    today was my first real day of teaching. went very well.
    

Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2001
Subject: alfabeto
To: rick

    i`m doing well, trying to teach first graders the alphabet now- the spanish alphabet. difficult, they have a lot of trouble forming the letters or recognizing their shapes (their first language is Otomi, a native language which is written more like japanese than spanish or english). there`s a 2.5 year old here who only says "da" and "ba". in spanish, da means "give", not "daddy". and ba means "go". in any language, not a real impressive vocabulary (he also gets upset very easily, and is always sick). but he and his mother are a recent arrival, i`m sure he will improve.
    if you (or you, andrea and emma) ever want to visit mexico, our director says you can stay in a room here for free. there`s free food too, but is is usually not exactly gourmet. i guess imagine a school cafeteria, but every day is mexican-food day (sometimes they make really good enchiladas or potato pancakes, though). i have taken a lot of photos, and will hopefully have them posted to the internet within a couple weeks.
    

Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2001
Subject: beaches
To: rick

    unfortunately the beach is not close. like 6 hours on a bus to an okay beach, or 9 hours on a bus to puerta vallarta or acapulco. for cancun, gotta fly, the bus would kill you - best way is two and a half hours on a bus to mexico city ($26 dollars roundtrip for the clean bus with TVs) then 1 hour on a plane to cancun (between $150 and $180 roundtrip). (from the USA, itīs usually cheaper to fly to mexico city, then book a separate flight to cancun.) iīm planning to do just that, and meet kathryn in cancun next month (or possibly some other beach). fortunately, much of the other cool stuff- like aztec and toltec ruins- is much closer (most of the mayan ruins are close to cancun, so i will visit them later). kip

    p.s. maurice the caprice is dead, sold as junk for $60 dollars. R.I.P.
    

Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001
Subject: amor y amistad
To: kathryn        

    happy dia de amor y amistad(day of love and friendship) that`s what they call it here, but the cards, candy, balloons, flowers are all the same as in USA. we were having a candy and card exchange tonight (we all took names out of a hat, i got some girl named paty, not sure who she is), but it was rescheduled for saturday, and nobody told me. turned out they wrote a message on the bulletin board, but it was in sloppy spanish, so i didnīt even try to read it...
    

Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2001
Subject: solar power
To: kathryn

    people (girls) do give me attention here. but (i think) it is not like "wanna go on a date?" attention. most of the girls are substantially younger than me, and hopefully they donīt think of me that way.
    though during the "dia de amor y amistad" (valentineīs day) exchange last night somebody said i would have to dance with Lidia during her fiesta today - today is Lidiaīs quiceaņos (15 year party), and all the other girls went "woooooo!" and lidia got embarassed. then when javier (who is 23) gave candy to lidia for the exchange, everyone started chanting "beso, beso"(kiss, kiss), so at least it isnīt just me.
    my new project here is SOLAR POWER. yesterday i built a horno del son (solar oven), (basically mirrors pointing at a box) and it got pretty darn hot, but didnīt "hervía" (boil). today, after the fiesta, i will build another using better insulation and more precise mirrors to get higher temperatures. there is a bakery in ciudad obregon (around arizona) which runs only on solar heat for their ovens. no electricity in the neighborhood forced them into no cost and no pollution. in San Ildefonso, the people burn wood (which they must walk 45 minutes to the mountains for, then 45 minutes back carrying). if they donīt want to spend half the day finding wood (cause thereīs none in town) they burn plastic, which is readily available everywhere (you could put up a net to "fish" for plastic bags flying around). of course, this is dangerous to breath, and poisons whatever food they are cooking. not much point in giving a family healthy food to eat if they just put poison on it.
    so if we can build hot, sturdy solar ovens, maybe we can get the Otomi to use them (it is difficult to get a fire hot with plastic, and nobody likes carrying firewood for 45 minutes). i have plans, but iīm no scientist, so it could take a while (but as long as i get it done, who cares?).
    i am excited to see the quinceaņos fiesta today. i tried explaining to them that most people in USA only have "normal" birthday parties for 15 years old, and they looked at me like i was crazy. even 16 year parties or 21 year parties cannot compare to what they do here- wedding-type cake, mariachi band, dancing, 100+ people, wedding-type dress, photos- only thing missing is a groom (and if youīre only 15, probably having no groom is a good thing).
    i asked about my missing salsa the next day at lunch, and was happy when somebody returned it (half empty, but itīs the thought that counts). anyway, they told me to install a combination lock on the volunteer refrigerator, and now i have to teach the older kids to use it- they donīt use combination locks here (school locker- type), only keys. often this refrigerator is used to store prepared food for the kids or extra food when a large donation arrives, so the ones who cook need to get in it.
    mary, who cares for the little kids, had an old macrame swing, very complex woven thing. it was broken in 6 places, and she asked if i could fix it. i had no idea but said iīd try. itīs a weird swing, like a hammock with only onerope attached above it. i sorted out what piece went where, and after 6 hours, it looked as good as new. upon hanging it for the kids, i figured out why it had broken- they donīt want to swing in it, they want to swing AND spin around at the same time. not only does this completely change the stress points, it puts them at risk of cracking their heads and causes them to grab tightly to single strands, thereby unraveling all my work. the swing held up fine as long as i was standing there, and as long as they didnīt spin. but kids will be kids. i will find some sort of flexible enamel stuff (or something) to paint/spray on which will hold it in place. maybe i will build additional hanging ropes so it canīt spin, or maybe throw it away and build a normal, boring swing.
    i got my first paycheck from my outside teaching job, at Idiomas Lincoln school. 360 pesos, thatīs 36 dollars. iīm earning an astounding 3 dollars an hour teaching (1.5 hours/day). if my students learn well, i may get a raise in 2 weeks. of course, almost everything is cheaper here- unless you want something EXACTLY the same as in USA. pizza hut is very expensive, but "telepizza" isnīt. big stores like Comercial Mexicana and Walmart have american brands and mexican brands. and i bet you can guess which ones my 36 dollar paycheck can buy.
    i donīt have to worry at all, though, because i get free food every meal at El Puente (and they just hired a cocinera [chef], so now we donīt have rice, beans, and tortillas for every meal). and El Puente reimburses me for 8 dollars of food every week, which goes a long way when you buy huge oranges for like 10 cents each and beautiful avocados for 30 cents each. until i am tempted by the aisle of kelloggīs and quaker cereal; at over 3 dollars a box, cereal is a delicacy. better to drink milk and eat sweet bread, 20 cents a loaf.
    

Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2001
Subject: horario
To: conchita

    my schedule is as follows:

9-12    repair/build things for madre mary, play/read with niņos
12-1    comida
1-3    alphabet class with augustin, isabel, and/or ruben
3-4:30 various maintenance/building projects from david or ligia
5-6    english class with bero, blanca, or javier
7-8:30 iīm at Idiomas Lincoln school
9-10    sometimes bero is at school, so then i donīt have class with her until 9
saturdays: 2-3    english class with xochilt
3-4    english class with blanca (i originally had class with susana from 12-2, but now she says sheīd rather sew.)

    they tell me i will stay in the volunteer bunk room until the new third floor rooms are finished. i came up with a plan for that space, but havenīt heard anything and david thinks materials may not even be bought to build there until summer. so i may be in room 207 permanently, i canīt figure it out. if so, iīll deal with it, but i would like, at least eventually, to have a private room.
    i have been talking with madre mary about solar and wind power ideas she has for san ildefonso. iīve done some research, and i think we could build reasonably cheap, stury solar ovens (that can boil water and cook food). this would mean no more hauling firewood from the mountains, and no more burning plastic. i already build one solar oven, it gets water scalding but not boiling- this weekend i will try some different methods of insulation and stronger reflectors.
    i would like to go ahead and build the new volunteer rooms now. and when we get a reliable design for a solar oven, then to build those for the families that return to san ildefonso.
    lidiaīs quinceaņos was today, very fun and interesting. we danced from 4 until 11.
    

Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2001
Subject: mariposas
To: kathryn

    today i am going to the state of michoacán to see the mariposas (monarch butterflys). most monarch butterflys from the united states and canada are at the Rosario mariposa sanctuary right now, hanging from fir trees and each other. they stay until the beginning of april, when they all leave (all 60 million of them) to go back north. this month is the mariposa festival there. the strange thing is scientists think few butterflies ever live long enough to make the trip twice, and nobody can figure out how they know where to go. i am sick, i have a sore throat. but i`m getting better, which is good because tomorrow morning i will have to hike many miles to see the butterflies, way up in the mountains. WAY up. so high i will have to take long underwear and extra socks. i just got my hair cut and styled at a strange smelling beauty salon. cost 35 pesos ($3.50 us). looks good, at these prices i can`t justify cutting it myself (and it was finished in only 15 minutes).
    i'm sick, all congested and stuff.
    i`m almost finished building a solar oven. on monday i will try to bake something in it, and if it is a success, i will make them for each family going back to san ildefonso. the butterfly sanctuary isn`t that far on a map, but the direct roads are bad, so they a go a different way. it may take six hours or more to get there (figuring stopping time so people can get on the bus). other than being sick, i`m doing well. lots of stuff to keep me busy.
    i haven`t played any music since i got here. i`ve had a beer a few times, but not much at all, really. if i eat out, it`s at a little torta or gordita stand or something like that, and costs practically nothing. and i never watch tv or movies, i never play my computer games, i`ve only been using my computer to occasionally get photos from my camera and read my encyclopedia. i guess my life is completely different already. but i have time to read, and write, and think.
    

Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001
Subject: san miguel
To: kathryn

    i went to san miguel. i didn`t get the box, the housekeeper wasn`t there, though they said she would be. maybe i will go back monday morning. san miguel is pretty, very hilly, similar architecture. there is a gothic cathedral, supposedly built by an indigenous artist who never saw a gothic cathedral- but he had a few postcards of french cathedrals, and tried to make it look similar. every september they have a running-of-the-bulls in san miguel.
    

Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001
Subject: zapatistas
To: carrie

    iīm doing alright, went to see the zapatistas yesterday. they came to Querétaro on their national parade. subcomandante marcos spoke, i could understand some of what he said. there were so many people there, supporters and non-supporters. i donīt know how much it gets on the news there, but the chiapas zapatistas are huge news in mexico now.
    it was very cool to see them, marcos probably used to be a philosophy professor, and now he is a guerrilla leader. but he is an excellent speaker, very good at articulating the plight of indigeneous people (though he is mestizo), and still nobody knows who he really is, nobodyīs ever seen his face. but he is something like che guevara or nelson mandela (though not quite a gandhi, i guess)- it was exciting to see such a dynamic person. tonight i am going to a fancy discoteca with some teachers from my school. it is expensive (100 pesos, 10 dollars), but we have free tickets.
    

Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2001
Subject: Package
To: georgeanne

    the computers have been down here... i went to san miguel on saturday to pick it up, expecting the housekeeper to be there until 5pm. unfortunately, nobody answered the door, and that day their phone was apparently disconnected. very confusing. so i didn't get the box. i called the futch's yesterday, got an answering machine (guess the phone is working again). i will call again in the morning, i plan to go there tomorrow or thursday. i expected to have it by now, but don't worry. i will get it soon, i am sure.
    when a box arrives, sister mary (one of two nuns who work here, though she is nothing like what i expected a nun to be like) sorts through it, distributing the items to the appropriate programs. clothes are sorted according to size and type, and given equally to those most in need. each program, such as the kitchen and the sewing room, has a director to handles the specific donations and figures out the best way to use them. any clothes which don't fit anyone are saved until needed, or distributed to one of the needy families who show up at the door. in other words, it all gets used.
    i look forward to getting the box, and will let you know all about what we do with the donations. next time i write, we will surely have the box already.
    

Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2001
Subject: beets
To: Carrie

    the weather is perfect. i walk around in sandals. it gets a little chilly at night sometimes, so i put on a long sleeve shirt. i'm trying to teach people how to pronounce english vowels right now. they cannot hear a difference between
beet
bit
bet
we have a lot of work ahead of us.
    

Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001
Subject: lagartija
To: kathryn

    the internet connection was broken for a few days here, so i couldnīt email. i gotta email quick before it breaks again.
    i finished me solar oven. i cooked frijoles (beans_) and arroz con leche (rice, milk, sugar, cinnamon) in it. everyone loved it. my oven gets up to 120 degrees celsius, thats like 240 degrees farenheit. well over boiling temperature. i will build another and then try to teach one family in san ildefonso to use it. probably in 2 weeks. im excited. if this works, it will be great for them.
    i have a pet now. a lagartija (lizard). blanca and miguel (her boyfriend, who also lives here) went to piņal de amoles, a place in the mountains in north queretaro, with their university ("escuela normal" for teachers). they were working with indigenous kids there. somebody found a lizard in their dorm. blanca remembered i like lizards (she has a lizard keychain and we talked about it in english during class) and got a kid to catch it (sheīs scared of lizards). it's in a nescafe jar right now.
    there was a thing at the catedral here called "santa teresita del niņo jesus", for yesterday only. i didnīt know what it was, but there was a long line of people (maybe 2000 people, so i decided to see what they were wating for. at first i thought maybe i needed a ticket, but then i realized they all just had small cards with a picture of santa teresita. so i bought a small card for 3 pesos as well. i didnīt know why. after i got inside, there was a choir singing and we all were walked by a small coffin looking thing enclosed in glass. everyone was putting roses on it, and rubbing their small cards on it, saying little prayers. i just watched, not knowing what kind of prayer was appropriate (i shouldīve looked a my card, it was printed on the back). then, after i walked by, a man stopped me. i though maybe i had done something bad. he grabbed the cards from my hand and leaned over to the glass. he pressed them against it, lowered his head for 3 seconds, then returned them to me, saying they were blessed. i thanked him and he said "adelante, hermano" (walk on, my brother). so i left with everyone else, noticing the line had gotten much longer.
    i still donīt know who santa teresita was, but i found out the "coffin" was a box for holding relics of her life, and is considered very holy by catholics (mostly catholics in mexico, because she was mexican, the first sainted mexican or something). the whole thing was a little strange, especially with the glass case, but it was definitely a powerful showing of faith.
    

Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001
Subject: cooking
To: conchita

    i finished the solar oven. i cooked frijoles, then arroz con leche. it gets very hot, 120 degrees celcius (240 farenheit). i can boil water, thatīs whatīs important. i will prepare recipe instructions and build another one. i think it might be a good idea to get lidia to help me try to teach isadora to use it one friday when she comes here. then take it out to san ildefonso, and see if it can work "in the field". iīve been working on fixing stuff up in the tienda, painting things and building things. we will have new signs by the time you come.
    tomorrow morning i go to san miguel to pick up a box of donations from my aunt- a friend of my aunt lives in san miguel. the photo links i sent you have pictures from the quinceaņos (under el puente) if you want to see them.
    i've got a cold, sore throat. nut i'm alright
    

Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001
Subject: we have the box!
To: georgeanne

    we have the box. i went to san miguel this morning and got it. i met and talked to ann and butch futch. we talked about ocala and mexico, and how we both have friends who think we're crazy for coming down here. we think they're crazy for NOT coming down here.
    the school and sewing supplies will be immediately useful. the clothes look great as well. and the thermometers, i already tried out. i built a solar oven. this is a box which has mirrors to reflect the sun inside it, so it gets very hot, hot enough to cook most foods. i just tried it and it got up to 240 degrees farenheit, plenty hot enough to boil water. i will figure out recipes {time and temperature} this week for the food the indigenous people usually eat in San Ildefonso {bread, refried beans, rice with chicken, corn on the cob}. then i will build another solar oven and teach one family there how to use it. it all goes well, it will save them 8 hours of firewood-gathering a week. we hope to build one for every Otomi family returning to San Ildefonso. very exciting.
    thanks for your help with the box. the futch's say they will be returning to mexico again this summer, and would be happy to bring another box. i will send you an update next week after sister mary sorts the items.
    

Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001
Subject: el puente info
To: ann and butch

    here is the information for el puente-
el puente de esperanza
ocampo 2B sur - centro
queretaro, qro. 76000
mexico
    located near the corner of ocampo and madero, by the catedral. 3 blocks west of plaza de la constitucion.
    http://www.mexonline.com/elpuente.htm
    

Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001
Subject: photos updates
To: rick

    iīm using a cheap digital camera. so most of those problems with my photos are unavoidable. cuz it is SO much cheaper to never buy or develop film, and SO much easier to organize my pictures. or touch-up photos. and email them. also, my camera can hold 150 photos. iīd like to see a roll of film like that. except i can fix the vertical mergers thing. also, i didnīt realize until you mentioned it, but this actually is a really yellow-tinted country.
    yeah, iīll participate in the NCAA tournament. my bracket is attached. can i borrow a dollar?
    

Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001
Subject: pin~ata
To: kathryn

    yesterday there was a birthday party . for everyone with a birthday in january, february, or march. i found out they consolidate them so they aren't taking time and making cakes for birthdays every week (there are about 50 people here right now). so there was cake, and singing, and i got a fruit basket with bananas, oranges, mangoes, and guayabas (like a small apple or crabapple, i don't really like them). and a pin~ata. each person got to hit it a few times. including me. it was good. i don't have a photo, though. when i hit it, my stick broke, and a piece of wood flew off, hit me in the arm, cut me pretty bad. bled for half an hour. i'm okay now. lots of things to paint tomorrow.
    

Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001
Subject: fiesta
To: kathryn

    i went to a fiesta at university autonomous of queretaro, where several of the kids here study. they played mexican dance music. there were so many people there, like 400. and they were all drunk. all.
    one fight was being broken up when i arrived, and another started 20 minutes later. it cost 30 pesos (3 dollars) to get in but the beer, which was real beer, only cost 5 pesos for a bottle (that[s 50 cents). the party went from 4 pm until 11.30, and they sure drank a lot of beer. Good thing they most of them don’t drive.
    some guy was completely wasted, speaking broken english, and wanted me to go to a party at his house. i said i had to go back to el puente with the kids, but he would not go away. he wanted everyone to go to his house(i think he knew one of the kids, i don[t know who). he finally was satisfied with giving me his email address, but i can[t read it at all. looks like it says felix.dol@correo.eb.cqn but no way thatīs an email address.
    i also got passes to a discoteca, "van gog", but i didnīt go. it said there was, in english, an "open bar" there, i wonder if that means the same thing here. when i got home, i wanted to take a shower, but the fire in my water heater went out, and unless i want to climb the side of the building, i must wait until tomorrow to relight it. too bad.
    

Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001
Subject: clothes
To: Hintons

    all the clothes are being used. yes, the kids wear different clothes after school and on weekends. maybe i can get specific sizes. unless something is an especially good deal, send money and we can likely take the kids to a store here to get the right sizes. shoes are very cheap here, so youīre better off sending money. then weīll know they fit, as well (not as forgiving as clothes). bathing suits, they donīt get a chance to use much, only maybe twice a year, if that. they donīt own them, they just swim in clothes. i donīt think they need them.
    i donīt need any clothes. there are plenty of irons here. anyway, they are too heavy to send economically. better off sending lighter stuff like clothes. the sewing and school stuff in the box is great.
    we need carpentry supplies: sandpaper, nuts, bolts, & washers (various sizes), nails, screws, concrete anchors, drill bits, metric tape measures (not sure if they sell those in usa- the kids only have inches tape measures, and they donīt know how to use them). 56 7/8 inch sears craftsman bandsaw blades, hacksaw blades, soldering equiment, rasps, liquid wood, and that glue you can put on bolts to make them stay. any of these items would be great to send down.
    

Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001
Subject: paint
To: kathryn

    painted stuff today. worked a lot. tired. gotta finish painting tomorrow, have class with kids, go to the fiesta for Gabisī baptism, and prepare a test for my students to take on monday. my water heater keeps blowing out. very windy in the hallway where it is. so my showers end up cold. i put a shield up today out of exasperation.
    

Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001
Subject: baptism
To: kathryn

    the computers were down for a few days. conchita is here now. things are going alright. i went to the bar where mauricio works on saturday. i met his brother adrian, who is visiting on break from the university of denver. he is a computer networks major. nice guy, likes britney spears. come to think of it, almost everyone iīve met here likes britney spears. many people like an almost stupid assortment of pop music- britney spears, backstreet boys, marilyn manson, eminem. maybe there are people in the united states who like all of those bands, but i never met them.
    also, itīs okay for guys to like backstreet boys here. theyīll even have posters hanging up.
    Went to a baptism on sunday, there was a dance afterwards. they played a lot of different music, including eminem. i saw a nun dancing with a 2 year old girl to an eminem song. later, when we had "tres leches" cake, the same nun said "this cake is so good, i could just die for it." weird, huh? im a little sick, some food problem.
    

Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001
Subject: sizes
To: Hintons

    i donīt know the exact sizes. the older girls are all between 13 and 21, probably all between 80 and 130 pounds, and height between 5 and 5 1/2 feet. the boys are between 15 and 19, 120 to 150 pounds, all around 5 1/2 feet tall. for girls, dresses and slacks are equally good. most seem to prefer slacks, but all wear dresses sometimes. i said office work-type clothes, but the clothes will be worn to high school, university, and church. except for a couple intern programs, they donīt have to have jobs yet (their only required work is cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, etc, but thatīs a whole different set of clothes).
    

Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2001
Subject: jardin
To: kathryn

    i will not be building a garden on the roof here. instead i will build a garden in san indefonso, on land owned by el puente. we (or I) will plant carrots, chiles, bell peppers, tomatoes, corn, and lots of other nice things. maybe some of the kids can come help me with it later. it will be good, it is calming to me to work in a garden. i just hope it doesn't hail and destroy the crops like last year. that wouldn't be calming. but they planted too late last year, we need to start much earlier, like now. so i will go out there tomorrow and prepare it, then next week plant. it is 4 hours roundtrip on 2 buses. i don't want to go every week. after tomorrow, i will only go on fridays, i think, so i still have saturday off.
    tomorrow i think i will go see hannibal. it is in the theaters here now, and is fortunately in english (with spanish subtitles). they are also showing that mel gibson movie "what women want" (lo que ellos cuieren) and the really dumb looking ben affleck-gwyneth paltrow movie, i think called "bounce" in the usa. here they called it something completely different, but i can't remember.
    my lizard is good. i think it is a she. i don't know why. she isn't brown, she was just dirty. her back it brown and black striped. her sides are yellow, and her belly has two blue-green stripes.
    i will either name her colicita (little tiny tail) or mordillo (nibble). i catch flies and she eats them. she's a very good jumper. she won't eat and plants or any insects that aren't moving. i got her to eat a recently dead moth by swinging it on dental floss. she doesn't like me to catch her, but she likes to be held after i catch her. i'm pretty sure she just thinks i'm warm, but she sits relaxed on my hand and closes her eyes while i pet her back.
    

Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2001
Subject: jardinero
To: kathryn

    i worked on the garden. it was really hard. thereīs a lot of work left. i will go back friday. after i got back, i was taking a shower (i had been spreading cow manure, and it was very dry and windy, and- well, letīs just say it was a good thing i had a bandana covering my face). 5 minutes into my shower, i heard carlitos yelling my name, and i figured it was a phone call from you. i hurried up and went to my door, but i guess they had already told you i wasnīt there or something. sorry about that. david, with the password for long distance on the phone, was out for a walk.
    then i left to see hannibal. it was very good. very freaky, and i didnīt mind how long it was.
    i havenīt been able to sleep much, with my new cold.
    the wind blew hard today and knocked over my solar oven. it broke. i will have to design it with legs sticking out.
    i think i mentioned that conchita is here now. for one more week. my friend eustolia will be here for one more week also.
    

Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001
Subject: mordilla
To: kathryn

    i think mordilla is the best name (pronounced mor-DEE-yuh). i put a cricket in there, bigger than her head, and she ate it. her mouth opened all big like a snake we saw on animal planet. i picked basketball teams for the NCAA tournament, and i did really bad. i owe rick a dollar. but i did better than ty did. ty picked almost every game wrong.
    i am making a small website about mexico, it will mostly be an easier way to see the photos. i need to make a final exam for my students. i might help eustolia move out on saturday. not sure, i may need to work here. i got coreeīs letter, i will write her back.
    

Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2001
Subject: vacaciones
To: kathryn

    this isĻ"vacaciones" time, which means that for the next 2 weeks, no school here. most of the older kids are going to visit their families. however, no school means more young kids will be here all day. i will be watching kids for maybe 6 to 9 hours a day. ug. i like them for the first two hours, and the next two are okay, but after that...
    

Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001
Subject: food, bad
To: kathryn

    i got food poisoning, i was sick from 6pm until 4am. didnīt sleep much, vomiting and shitting a lot. i ate beef for the first time since iīve been here, i think that was it. i ate other stuff, like guacamole that i made and fruit salad. it was food cooked by a nun, but who knows. i feel better now. i feel like iīve come back from the dead. still a little out of it, but glad to not be worried that i will display my last meal for everyone. plus I can sleep without a garbage can.
    

Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001
Subject: la vida
To: missy

    Good to hear from you.
i had a station wagon, 85 chevy caprice, 220,000 miles. i junked it when i moved. i donīt live in columbus anymore.
    i am living in mexico now. querétaro, a city in the center of the country, two hours northwest of mexico city. i am volunteering at an orphanage/home for distressed families.
    my spanish is getting quite good. i teach spanish alphabet, to little kids), english (to teenagers), and build & fix things. i stay busy and, unfortunately, stay sick. either some kind of food problem or just a constant sore throat - itīs really dry here, and it wonīt rain again until june.
    this is a beautiful place, and the people are great. after graduation, i was living in columbus, working for a newspaper. i liked my job. i like columbus. but i didnīt feel like i was doing anything GOOD. money wasnīt making me happy (though i momentarily enjoyed spending it). i didnīt feel fulfilled. so i thought about the peace corps, then ended up here (the peace corps wouldnīt let me decide where i went, and i wanted water and electricity, cuz iīm a wimp). i came in january, i will stay maybe until december. unless i want to stay longer or shorter.
    then i go back to the USA (maybe san antonio, probably not columbus), or somewhere like russia, maybe doing similar work there. i just gotta find some meaning, some direction. so thatīs what iīm doing.
    

Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001
Subject: china
To: carrie

    thanks for writing. glad the weatherīs nice. itīs summer here already, but still nice and cool at night and in the shade. for two weeks, the schools here are on "vacaciónes", which means that all the kids with families have time off to visit them. so the house is really empty, only like 4 teenagers. the otomí mothers and their young children are all still here, but overall it is quiet. i have to watch the little kids for many hours a day since everyone else left. very exhausting, especially if you have food poisoning. i was happy to find out i can now read most of the New Yorker online. i was missing it, and it costs so much money to get it internationally.
    i read the news, and was talking to another volunteer here. he thinks the united states is going to war against china. he thinks both leaders are too proud to abmit doing anything wrong, and there will be a big war, and nobody will be on the USA side because itīs so stupid. whatīs it feel like there? big deal or no? bush seems like he wonīt apologize no matter what. china had been challenging those spy flights for months, the CIA and military knew they considered them as airspace violations (china says they own it, USA says itīs international).
    why is the ownership of a place to spy on china from worth going to war over? is bush that unpopular already, that he needs a clinton-type war? is anyone in the US military even prepared at all for invading china? i think no. of course, they had so much success the last time they went to war in east asia...
    today in chiapas, the mexican government kicked 55 indigenous families off some land, because it is an archeological site. in fact, it is where their ancestors lived. so now, the site will be preserved, showing exactly how they lived for hundreds of years, until they were forced to leave.
    

Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001
Subject: siesta
To: kathryn

    i am very tired. i watched kids today. then i took a siesta. i should go somewhere for the weekend - literally nobody but me and estéban will be here. even all the otomí are leaving. so i gotta think of where to go, maybe a beach somewhere. acapulco or puerto vallarta. will cost a bit, but not too bad, i hope. i havenīt gone anywhere for a while.
    

Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001
Subject: scream
To: kathryn

    i had to watch the kids, 20 kids, almost all day, and three hours by myself. i am exhausted. thereīs a baby, Gabis, who screams like a banshee when her mom goes upstairs to sew. she wrinkles her chubby face up while tears and snot flood out. makes her look like a melting cabbage patch doll, really disturbing.
    gabis is also kind of violent. she canīt talk, except to say or scream "mama", but if another kid does something she doesnīt like (sheīs so greedy itīs easy to do something she doesnīt like), she just starts hitting them, with her fist or whatever is handy. when sheīs attacking, her face is SO blank, she looks like sheīs hypnotized. and some of these kids are 8 or 9 years old. they know they are not allowed to hit each other ever, so they just put up their hands to block her or run away (she canīt move very fast). if she hits another baby, that baby of course starts crying, and then i take her hands to stop her and say "no pegas!" (donīt hit!).
    so she gets angry because she canīt hit the person who made her angry, and she gets angry at me for talking mean to her. so she starts screaming and looks like a melting cabbage patch doll, and all the other kids, if they were playing or doing homework or whatever, they arenīt anymore. all i can do is hold her, which she hates because she hates me at the moment, and take her into a separate room. this is bad because then iīm not watching the other 19 kids. after maybe 10 minutes of banshee, she calms down and starts to cry like you expect babies to cry. so then i put her in a crib and leave her to endure the sound of her suffering alone. of course, if someone else in with me, then one of us just stays in the room with gabis, because we donīt have the excuse of watching the other kids.
    gabis is the daughter of Marta, who graduated from el puente and now teaches the younger mothers (18-21) how to sew. so we put up with her kids, and pay her a small salary. she also has three other older kids, who are less greedy and insane. personally, i say we spend money helping her find a job somewhere else. but nobody asks me, and the people on the board of directors are not around when gabis unleashes hell. usually even her mom is not around, because lack of mother is generally why she screams in the first place.
    

Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2001
Subject: blamba easter
To: kathryn

    i will go to a swimming pool with a few adults who work at el puente tomorrow early. it is a barbecue type thing, i think.
    maybe saturday i will go to a beach. mexico is at the beach right now, but i hope they will be returning home for easter so it won't be too crowded.
    they call easter "dia de resurección". makes sense. i was asked what the word "easter" means. iīm pretty sure it is an old anglo-saxon word, which referred to a spring-equinox holiday having to do with the earth mother. made me think about how i tend to label their catholicism as "indigenized", with lots of native american beliefs mixed in (and saints ARE more important here than in the USA).
    but even for this one holiday in the USA, how much of it is actually "christian" at all? the name "easter", painting eggs (from a Slavic earth-god holiday), eating chocolate (didnīt exist except in americas), easter bunnies, pastel colors (a resurrected man would probably be bloody and dirty, not pink or light green), plastic grass, sunrise services (sounds like an equinox observation to me)... hardly anything having to do with Jesus. yet despite my agnosticism, it somehow still means something to ME. some deep sense of hope and overcoming defeat that i still BELIEVE somewhere in my head.
    I should think more before judging their beliefs as superficial when they pray with tiny plastic photos.
    

Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001
Subject: beach day
To: everyone

    iīm back from the beach. i went to Tuxpan or Tuxpam(pronounced "toosh-pan", "tooks-pan", "tooh-pam", or "toosh-pam" dependeding on who you talk to) in the state of Veracruz ("true cross"). it was nice, the weather was perfect. i put on lots of sunblock so iīm okay.
    saturday night there was a small festival for easter in downtown tuxpan. downtown tuxpan is similar to downtown pensacola, but smaller. in fact, with the gulf and all (beach, fishing ships, navy base, tourist trincket shops, good seafood), the entire trip reminded me of pensacola. only a few large buildings, and they were hotels. old technicolor tourist hotels from the 50s and 60s, too, just like pensacola.
    nice little park, where a group of elderly Veracruzanos danced. they were dressed like the old cubans in Miami (cuban wedding shirts, scarfs, straw fedora hats), and they danced to old cuban mambo music. very cool. they even knew how to dance with their hips. the place was all a lot more carribbean than anywhere else in mexico iīve seen.
    veracruz had sugar cane plantations just like in cuba, and likewaise the spanish kidnapped africans to work on the plantations. so, in veracruz, there are MANY mexicans who, in the USA, would be called "black", though they just call themselves mexican or veracruzano. but overall, their hair is not straight- it is wavy or curly, and their skin is darker. they dress very differently. men often wear shorts (most mexicans never wear shorts, even if itīs really hot), women put their hair in braids, wear long flower-print skirts and expose their navals (again, almost unheard of in the rest of mexico). there is even a "mexican-cuban friendship museum", which is actually the house castro lived in for the 6 months before the cuban revolution. 80 other cubans as well as che guavara also stayed in tuxpan.
    but tuxpan was originally settled by spaniards from cuba anyway, and has always, since the 1500s, been influenced by the food and music of cuba. instead of flan, they eat fried plantains with sugar and cream. instead of accordians, they play timbales (tito puenteīs instrument). as the announcer said "this night, we dance with the cuban side of us".
    it was not too crowded, as i heard acapulco was this easter weekend. it was nice. tuxpanīs beachfront itself is not developed at all. there are no buildings except for a few restaurants with palm-frond roofs. there were families swimming and playing soccer, and i met an american, Mark, from maine. really, heīs from tuxpan, because heīs lived there for 6 years now and has no intention of returning to the USA. he married a mexican girl this year. i say girl because she is only 19 and heīs 40. kind of scary. she seems mature, but not that mature.
    the waves were surprisingly aggressive for the gulf. the undertow was massive. but the water felt so good. and the sand was so soft, like walking on flour or baby powder.
    it took forever to get back, because of traffic: everyone else was also returning home from easter vacation. from tuxpan to mexico, normally a 6 hour trip, took 9.5 hours. i thought we would never get there. the babies on the packed-to-the-gills bus agreed, and began to cry quite often. the bus made extra bathroom stops because we shouldīve been back already. insane. then 2.5 more hours and i was back in queretaro. no traffic, fortunately. and i slept the whole time. i was using a little camping towel as a pillow, and i think someone took it. but thatīs okay, at least they didnīt wake me up.
    

Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001
Subject: sleeping outside
To: kathryn

    i neglected to tell you, when i wrote about going to the beach, that all the hotels in tuxpan were full. all of them. since i didnīt know anyone and certainly wasnīt going to leave a day early, i did something i would never do in the united states: i slept outside. i slept on a bench in the park. there were several other bums on other benches. there were people up walking aroung all night because of their festival. i couldnīt tell you why, but i wasnīt really scared. I felt safe. maybe cuz i didnīt have much worth stealing.
    i locked my money inside my bag, then tied my bag around my waist, and put the key in my money belt. but nobody bothered me, and a rooster crowed at 5:30, getting me up in time to get to the beach for sunrise.
    

Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001
Subject: joey
To: kathryn

    at Idiomas Lincoln: one of my students this month is a skater kid. they wear the humongous pants and Skechers here, too. heīs smart but not interested in studying, or at least not interested in letting anyone know about it. he mostly wants to seem too cool to learn, I think his dad, who he claims to hate, must be making him come.
    my other student is an electrical engineer, 33 and still living with his parents. he seems interested during class, but never does his homework and always apologizes for it like 10 times.
    

Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001
Subject: garden/oven
To: conchita

    the garden is planted and being watered by chavelita and esteban. i will be out there this friday and plant more carrots and lettuce(they suggested staggering the plantings so it doesnīt all come at once) as well as beans. i mixed a large amount of organic material (manure, straw, etc) in all the beds so far, so i HOPE there will never again be a problem with the ground turning to brick. i hope this will permanently be useful farmland.
    i have not finished the second oven yet. i am about halfway done - i have been interupted by other things, which are, i guess, important. like the past week and a half iīve spent almost all day in the jugeteria, because everyone else is on vacacion. a big wind actually knocked over and damaged my first oven while i was baking, so iīm trying to make sure this one will be able to withstand a lot of wind. the box is solid wood instead of particle board or cardboard. it will have a simple, strong door on the side and folding supports on the bottom.
   

Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2001
Subject: wrong
To: everyone

    i initially thought there were no parking lots here. turns out there are parking lots, they just have walls built around them so you can't see them except when they open the door to let someone in. they just look like buildings. this is a very good idea, cuz parking lots are ugly.
    i also thought that everyone here was affectionate - but no. only the mestizos are affectionate (they are the overwhelming majority in the cities). the indigenous tribes are not, specifically the Otomí. they do not like to touch anyone. when they shake your hand, they won't hold it, they only lightly touch palms. they are bothered if you grab their hand like in USA. i've never seen them hug each other. some husbands and wives say they never kiss (they do have children, though, so something's going on).
    and strangest of all, you see women walking around with blankets tied around their necks, worn as backpacks. in the blanket they carry beans, rice, fabric, pots, or a baby. at first i thought this was endearing, but now it seems to me they treat the baby as simply another thing to carry. they don't talk to it, don't look at it, and they don't touch it. they could carry it in their arms, instead of that plastic bag. but they choose not to.
    i did find a bank where i can easily cash american express travelers' checks all the time. "banc afirme". why only at this bank? because this is the bank to buy them at - turns out the other banks sell competing brands of travelers' checks (bank of america, visa, banamex, etc). it all makes sense.
    and finally, i'm not having money problems, but money annoyances. thanks to the world currency market. when i arrived in mexico, the exchange rate was around 10 pesos per dollar. but now it is 9 pesos per dollar. what does this mean? this means my $100 US travelers' checks are worth 10% less than when i bought them. and likewise for all the cash in my bank account. in fact, the dollar has fallen against many world currencies, meaning you get paid less than you did two months ago (this will only be noticed when traveling abroad or buying imported goods).
    on the bright side, my paltry Idiomas Lincoln teacher salary is now worth 10% more dollars.
    but the combination of a slowly falling stock market, a few questionable purchases by Fidelity's mutual fund managment, and the slight collapse of the dollar mean my mutual funds (where most of my money is) are worth 25% less than in january. kind of depressing - i'm not earning money here, but i didn't expect to blow my savings that quickly. especially if i'm not spending anything. of course, i was hoping (but not expecting) my mutual fund investment would increase by 4%-10% this year, as estimated by Fidelity. but they do say "past performance is no guarantee of future earnings". considering the 1% i earned all last year, and the negative 25% i've earned this year, i'll have to agree with them on that (supposedly selling a 401k early brings tax penalties, but my capital loss is so bad that if i wanted, i bet i could break even on it, tax-wise).
    nos vemos