Two Worlds Collide (8/12-21)

My first visitor from home arrived Friday, August 12^th.  It was the start of my descanso.  I supervised jardines in the morning, went with the girls to breakfast, finished my last minute packing, and headed to the airport to pick up Jenna.  Jenna and I have been close friends since 1^st grade when we were on the same soccer team. We remained on the same soccer team through high school and classmates’ middle school through UNC.  It’s been a long friendship and I was thrilled to share my life here with her.  Her flight was on time (although I was a little late) and I spotted her yellow purse before her.  We shared a warm greeting and then headed to Cuernavaca for the weekend.

Jenna was promptly introduced to my fellow descano-ers and we shared a dinner at my favorite taco spot with Bailey, Meghan, and Alli.  Saturday we got an early start with the gang to spend the day in Tepotzlan, a gorgeous little town nearby where I attended a wedding in March.  This is the place where I also attempted to hike the mountain for the gorgeous view and temple.  Where I was unsuccessful prior, I succeeded that day. 

Me and Jenna at the top.

The temple with Jenna taking a photo.

We all made it to the top: me, Alli, Meghan, Bailey, Wesleigh, Monika, and Jenna.  It was a gorgeous day and a really tough hike.  This was not your typical hiking trail: it was mainly rocks in some kind of step form and straight up.  The end goal was totally worth it.  It was a spectacular view, pretty cool ruins, and we even made some new furry friends.

The weird part ant-eater, part monkey, part raccoon animals that live on top of the mountain.  They're very pushy with tourists.

An idea of how steep the trail was in places.

Once we got back down, the gang headed to the market to enjoy some fresh food and Mexican shopping.  Another bus back and we basically called it a day.  Everyone was pretty exhausted.

Sunday was spent exploring Cuernavaca.  We showed Jenna around, first taking a stroll down the street of books, admiring the beautiful paintings in front of the cathedral, and sipping coffee downtown. 

Our delicious looking coffee and strudel.

After our coffee break, I took Jenna to the black market for some educational shopping and then we explored a little of Jardin Borda.  While in the gardens, we discovered some empanadas, Jenna’s favorite Mexican food which is not very common in central Mexico.  It was a nice surprise and delicious treat!  After the gardens, we headed back to the apartment, packed up, and Jenna arrived at Casa San Salvador.  I gave her a quick tour of the place in the fading light, we grabbed some tortas at my favorite place across the street, enjoyed a movie, and crashed.

The next few days were spent enjoying the house and spending time with the kids.  It was their last week of summer vacation before school so activities were no longer happening.  Instead the schedule was very relaxed with a lot of lazing around.  I spent most of it with my section.  Jenna came in and out spending time with my girls, the other volunteers, and with different kids in the house.  Some highlights included: a day of soccer with the section during which Jenna had a lot of trouble as she could never figure out which girls were actually on her team; peces day when she helped us gut and clean the fish for the house; and a lot of pirated movies.

Wednesday night we headed to Cuernavaca again for tamales and tacos and to be close to our bus for our trip to Taxco the next day.  Taxco is another small town close to Cuernavaca that is famous for its silver and silversmiths.  The town is built on the side of a steep mountain.  We thought we had had problems walking in Cuernavaca; Taxco was a whole other ballgame.  We drank a lot of coffee, explored a lot of silver shops, ate a lot of good food (Jenna especially), and purchased a lot of cool stuff.  Unfortunately Jenna was having some ankle problems so we stopped by the house clinic on our way back to the apartment.  The doctor was very sweet and gave her some medicine to help with the swelling.  It was another early night and we got ready to leave for Mexico City the following day.

Jenna with all her food.  She was very hungry.

A view of Taxco on the mountain.

Jenna with our matching yellow purses at our favorite cafe.  We spent a lot of time there that day.

Friday found us again on the bus heading to Mexico City.  We quickly found our hostel, recommended by Monika and located directly in the middle of downtown.  We checked in, dropped our stuff, and headed to lunch.  Jenna’s guidebook recommended a great restaurant near the Anthropology Museum famous for its margaritas so we both indulged a little before heading to the museum.  The Anthropology Museum is the pride of Mexico…and huge.  I had been before on one of my previous Mexico trips, but it had been a while. We did a thorough canvas of the building and entertained ourselves posing with various artifacts. 

Me borrowing the Aztec king's crown.

Jenna, very kindly lending her head to a statue who had none.

My new boyfriend.  I was always told height doesn't matter!

Yeah, yeah, Jenna's an angel.  A photo op statue in front of the museum.

After the museum, we ended up at our favorite café chain for dinner and having nothing but coffee.  The caffeine definitely perked us up and it was with that high that we met our roommate at the hostel.  Her name was Ellie, she was Australian, spoke no Spanish, and was traveling through Central America on her way to spend several months as a vet’s assistant in Costa Rica.  She had arrived in Mexico just the day before and was already frustrated and lost with the language.  We invited her along for our plans the next day, and together headed to the hostel’s terrace to check out the live band playing that night.  They were awful so it was a short-lived trip.


Saturday the three of us ate our free breakfast at the hostel and then headed to Templo Mayor, the remains of an Aztec temple located in the middle of downtown.  That was followed by a trip to Xochicalco, a neighborhood in the southern part of the city.  It’s famous for its canals and the boats which navigate it.  Jenna was again thrilled to find a food stand selling empanadas and together we splurged on a boat ride through the canals.  That was a pretty unique experience.  The boats were very festive and the canals were flowing shopping centers full of portable mariachi bands hoping to hop on board for a song, boats full of food and drink, and floating tiendas of festive tourist gifts.  We kept our trip pretty simple much to the disappointment of our boatman and headed back empty handed. 

The National Cathedral in the background and the original Templo Mayor in the fore.

The boats used in the canals.

Jenna and Ellie during the ride.

Our next stop was to another neighborhood nearby for their Saturday market.  The market itself wasn’t very large by the time we got there and it was quite an adventure finding it, but Jenna and I both made purchases. Back to Centro we went, found a cheap taco place after seeing the disappointing dinner at the hostel, and treated ourselves to some refreshing ice cream.  All three of us packed up that night.  Ellie was moving on the next morning to farther south in Mexico and Jenna had her flight to catch.

Jenna’s last morning was just the two of us.  Ellie had left earlier and so wasn’t around for breakfast.  We dawdled a bit enjoying the bad coffee, checked the room twice, and called a cab.  It was a sad farewell.  We both had had a great time and weren’t quite ready to head back to our normal lives.  The taxi driver was very sweet giving us matching Aztec charms before whisking Jenna away.  I watched them drive out of sight and then headed to the metro for my own return trip to Miacatlan.

Jenna waving good-bye from her cab.  I was sad to see her go!



The Official I Hate Water Balloons Post

I will never look at water balloons the same way again. Yes, they're all fun and games until you're the one making them.  They take an average of 15 seconds to make and one second to break.  You might think 15 seconds is no big deal, but when you're preparing water balloons for an hour long activity that's a lot of seconds (3600 to be exact).  Multiply that by 15 and you've approximated your prep time.  Not mention carrying the suckers.  Water is HEAVY and enclosing it in little rubber shells does make it any lighter.  So the problem of finding a water source as close as possible to the end site is not a hiccup to be scoffed at.  Just 20 feet is a long way to lug and there are no water sources that close to our prep site.  Plus, kids have no respect for the prep time.  They all (regardless of age or sex) fascination with water balloons that causes them to lunge and destroy any water balloon in their vicinity.  A guard must therefore be posted at all times near the water balloon stash to ward off possible culprits.  Ideally, this guard would have five arms and legs to move fast enough and snatch quickly enough at the offending thieves.

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating the gravity of the situation just a little.  But not much.  For four weeks, five days a week, I spent each afternoon dealing with these kinds of problems.  I wasn't alone. Wesleigh and I were partners in this battle and we came up with a pretty streamlined process for dealing with all these eccentricities.  To start, we prepared the balloons in her section's bathroom.  Bottom floor of the girls' dorm, as close as possible to the volleyball court where our activity was held, six sinks, and lots of willing helpers in the form of her girls to help the actual prep time go faster.  To ward off potential thieves, the first two buckets of balloons would be taken out to the court, covered with a towel, and guarded by one of us while the other retrieved the rest of the buckets.  To make the balloons last longer and keep ourselves sane, we limited each section to only two buckets of balloons.  Once the balloons were gone, a real volleyball was produced to entertain them until the end of activity.  Less water was also put in the balloons themselves.  This meant they would usually only break after a few falls to the floor, not the first one. 

All these techniques helped our activity run smoother, but bottom line, we were both so nauseated by the mere appearance of water balloons, we considered having a burning party once activities were over for the summer.  I have lost my water balloon innocence and I will never so casually throw a bomb of aqua again.

Swollen Feet and Off-Campus Trips (8/1-11)

August heralded the start of another secundaria responsibility: serving at meals.  The female sections rotate according to month; one month is primeros, the next segundos, the next terceros, and then primeros again.  August was our month to serve.  This meant going to all three meals early, setting up the serving tables, dispensing food to the entire house, and being the last to eat.  This is all in addition to the regular comedor cleaning they must do after every meal.  All in all, it’s a lot of comedor time for secoundaria mujeres.

August was also my month of excursions.  Due to money (or lack thereof) the house restricted excursions for the summer to two per section.  I accidentally missed their first excursion to the movies my first week back so instead I went with Grandes A and my girls who were still in that section on Thursday, the 4^th.  It was fun to get out of the house for a bit especially since that so rarely happens with the kids.  We saw Captain America.  It was so-so, especially since the movie was dubbed, but lots of fun nevertheless.

Friday my foot started to swell.  And it kept swelling.  It got to be so bad, I determined a trip to the clinic necessary, a trip I had previously avoided for other illnesses/problems.  Saturday morning started normally enough.  I met my girls for breakfast and then headed to the clinic with one of them who also needed to see the doctor.  I finally went in for my consultation and I walked out barely able to walk.  Needless to say, I ended up taking that day and Sunday off.  I underwent some intensive soaking and sitting around so by Monday morning I was able to walk well enough to head back to work.  I wasn’t left entirely to my own devices however; Alli also took a forced sick day on Saturday and kept me company.  We had quite a few laughs about our maladies especially since a good part of the day was spent entertaining ourselves the old fashioned way: without electricity.

That Tuesday was my second excursion of the month: to Temixco with my girls and the rest of the female secundaria sections.  Temixco is a Mexican water part made from an ex-hacienda.  The full name is Ex-Hacienda de Temixco Parque Acuatico.  It was pretty cool.  Some of the original hacienda architecture was reworked into water features or gardens and there were a lot of different pools and rides. 

A view of some of the more artistic pools.  This area in particular was more for parties and entertaining than part of the actual water park.

A bunch of the girls having a good time with some of the bigger rides in the background.

My girls being silly in the wave pool.

A different view of the park.

The ride back on the bus.  The inflated alligator was a purchase by one of my encargadas.  Somehow the ride back turned into a screaming contest to see which side of the bus could sing louder, the front or the back.  The real loser was me: I was stuck in the middle for all 45 minutes of it.

It wasn’t as big as what I’m used to in the States, but enough variety to keep the girls entertained.  Unfortunately, due to my foot infection, I was strictly forbidden by Dr. Dad from entering the water in any way and enjoying myself, so instead I played photographer, read a lot, and got a little more sun (as if I wasn’t dark enough already).  Everyone had a good time and we arrived back at the house exhausted.

The rest of my August time was spent in activities with the girls, getting to know the new volunteers better, watching or participating in the house soccer tournament, and filling up water balloons.  But expounding on that joy will have to wait for my next post.