Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Teacher strikes




Wow, I just realized that I haven't written anything about the teacher strikes yet! They just seem so normal to me that I didn't think of writing about them. Anyway, sometime starting in May each year the teachers go on strike. It's an annual event that occurs whether they have a legitimate reason to strike or not. For example, this year the teachers had just received a raise, but they still went on strike. That's one reason why the Mexican school year goes so long; they have a (pretty much) guaranteed vacation in May and part of June.

I don't think that most of the teachers strike out of conviction for their cause, but because their union leaders say they have, even if they teach in some village hours away up in the mountains. They all come down here and take over the Zocalo. This year I think there are about 70,000 of them all camping out on the streets near the Zocalo. They block off those streets, fouling up traffic, and sanitation is horrible since they don't have proper ways to deal with trash. Almost every day they go on marches, blocking off more major streets, blocking (closing down) big stores, and burning political posters. Needless to say, it's a big mess.

Yesterday afternoon, I took a full SAT practice test, well over three hours long. My only big break was for lunch. Most of the questions are pretty easy, but when you have over three hours worth all at one time, it's really tiring. We scored it and I got well above average, so we'll see how I do on the actual test. We leave this Friday to go to Mexico City to take it. We're going to stay until Monday, though, so we can have some fun and explore the city.

First pic: A 'bici-taxi' in Zaachila.
Second pic: Some other kind of taxi in Zaachila.
Third pic: If you enlarge the picture, you can see that the thing in the middle of the road is a 'moto-taxi'. It's just like the bici-taxi except with a motorcycle instead of bicycle.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Last party at church




Well, I guess today was the last party at church. I went out to Zaachila again, today. I had to take a taxi to where I could connect with some friends; from there we took a bus to a place where we could catch a bus to Zaachila; from where the bus left us off, we had to walk to the church. In short, I am of the opinion that a car is a very useful thing to have in Mexico.

The people I went out to Zaachila with are staying for a few days in the house that we lived in when we were here, so it was interesting to see how it's changed. When I got there, we went out to buy some tamales for breakfast from the corner vendor. The tamales de mole are made in banana leaves instead of the normal corn husks, and they always seem to get part of the tamal in every little corner of the leaves, so it's quite a challenge to eat them without leaving anything behing. :) After church we had some kind of stewed chicken cooked with lots of avocado leaves and served with some kind of home made refried beans (no, they're not the same as refried beans from the States). Of course we also went to get nieves after this. This time I tried guanabana with leche quemada. Guanabana is a rather large green fruit with medium sized seeds surrounded by white meat. It has a slightly sweet, tangy flavor. And as a nieve it was quite good.

On the way back from Zaachila we took a bus to one part of Oaxaca where the people I was with had to catch a differnt bus. Instead of me taking a taxi back, I took a bus. Even though I didn't know exactly which bus (I figured that any bus that says Santa Rosa would work since that's where I'm living). And I didn't know exactly where to get off or where it stopped (I kind of remembered, but you never know in Mexico...). Anyway, I did get home okay, and I don't think I will ever take a taxi again. I can save over four dollars one way each time I take a bus over a taxi! This Tuesday I might go back over to the house these people are staying at to have dinner and talk with some Mexican friends of theirs. They do an interchange with these friends each week where they speak both English and Spanish so they each get better at the language they're learning. It sounds like fun!

First pic: Walking down the street in Zaachila. Notice the huge bougainvillea, the tree with oragne flowers, and the adobe wall.
Second pic: The back yard of the house we lived in. Huge in comparison to most yards in Oaxaca. There are more plants and the grass is better now, because they had the phicus tree (the huge one) girdled and killed so there would be more light.
Third pic: When was the last time a guy passed by your church with a herd of cows after the service?

Saturday, May 27, 2006

How many people fit in your car?




How many people do you think fit in a VW Bug? Maybe four? Two in the back and two in the front since it's a little small in there? Nope! Well, what about five; two in the front and three squished like sardines in the back? Still too low! How about six; three in the back, the driver, and two people in the front passenger seat? Come on; you can fit more than that! We actually got seven people in a VW Bug. The driver, two people in the front passenger seat, three in back on the seat, and one sitting on someone's lap in back. Suffice it to say that it was very, very cramped (it was a long drive too since we were coming from the baseball game and we had to drop someone off)! And we kept scraping on the topes (big speed bumps that slow people down since speed limits and police don't).

Also, the people I was with told about a time when they were driving back from camp (annual school camp together with a Christian school in the state north of us) in Puebla, the state just north of us. Apparently their bus driver was drunk. And it was even on a private bus, too. The parent chaperones thought it wasn't too bad since they couldn't smell alcohol. That is, they didn't think it was too bad until he started driving. Weaving in and out of traffic, he hardly knew how to drive he was so drunk. Needless to say, they called the bus company and said, "Hey, you gave us a drunk driver. We're stopping at the mall until we get a new driver!" Another time when I was with them, we were driving on the extremely curvy roads through the mountains in a pretty big bus. There was a big truck in front of us going slowly, so our driver decided to pass him (of course, it just had to be while we went around a bend!). Keep in mind that these roads have very little shoulder, so they are very narrow. Just as we were passing the truck, an eighteen wheeler came around the bend in the other direction! Thankfully we didn't crash, but I think one of the female chaperones almost had a heart attack seeing us, a big bus, between two big trucks on a narrow curve...

Anyway, one week from today is the SAT. I know I don't have to do well since I can take it twice more, but I know I'll be really mad at myself if I don't do really well. I guess I just have to do my best... Tomorrow I get to go back out to Zaachila for church; it's the last week with a part, this time as a send off for a couple that are kind of missionaries but are returning to the States for a while. I try to do something interesting in the next few days so I can have some good pictures to post.

First pic: The VW Bug into which we fit seven people, it has been said nine people have been fit into it, and we think it could hold eleven... :)
Second pic: My plumbing at school. The pipe used to just stick straight out of the wall. I did the same thing for another pipe, too.
Third pic: Baseball game. Sorry about the bad quality. I'm going to see if I can get a mini tripod or something.

Friday, May 26, 2006

More baseball (and new friends)




What a night! Last night we went to another baseball game. We got home really late so I didn't have time to post anything then. I had a great time, though! And as usual, the actual game wasn't the most interesting part. We sat in the very top row close to an opening so you could see out onto the street right outside the ball park. Usually we just watch all the foul balls go over the side of the stadium and comment, "There goes another car!" This time, we actually got to see a ball hit a bus driving by outside. I sure would have hated to be the person sitting at the window where it hit!!

I was sitting next to a couple of my friends, and for the first part of the game we made some kind of comment each time the beer vendor came buy to sell beer to the people sitting around us. So we knew that the guys next to us had had quite a bit. But then, about halfway through the game, the guy two seats down the row from me started talking to me. He actually was very cordial and nice, even with the beer. I found out that he is a teacher from a school in the Mixtec region of the mountains about six hours away. There were around five younger guys about my age with him (not drinking beer) that he said were his students. They were almost all from remote parts of the state; not 'city slickers.' He's actually from Juchitan down on the coast. He's thirty, has five kids, and speaks very, very fast!

It was really interesting to talk with him, and it was great for my Spanish because he talked so fast. They mentioned that they thought my Spanish was really good, so that was encouraging. We talked about the game, about where I'm from/why I'm in Mexico, about Oaxaca, etc. He also asked me if I had been to the bad parts of town like the night clubs and such (When he was on subjects like this, my Spanish struggled most. A slightly different vocabulary than I'm used to...). And of course he said that I should go with them to the clubs because there's lots of beer, dancing, and women. :) :) When in doubt about what to say, smile and shake your head "no."

First pic: My new friends. The guy in white is the teacher and the person I talked to most of the time.

Second pic: Two of the guys with me at the game. The one on the left is visiting from Michigan and the one on the right belongs to the household where I'm staying.
Third pic: Tato, the Guerreros mascot

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Another slow day



Still not too much happening. But I suppose that it's okay to have a break from a lot of action for at least a couple of days...

Anyway, I've been playing around with a new program I found that lets you change the appearance of Windows XP. Right now I have my desktop looking a lot like a Mac desktop, and if I buy the full version of the program, I can make it look even more realistic. :) Probably not of much interest to those who don't care about computers, though.

Yesterday I got to go to the birthday party for one of the seniors at school. It was pretty fun; lots of food, people playing around with electric and acoustic guitars, and eight person Halo 2 going the whole time. When they had the cake, they made him do a mordida, of course. He said not to push his head too hard, but if you have three people pushing, it's still going to be a hard push! They ruined half the cake and his face was covered in frosting and cake. :) :)

Today I got to be a plumber for a few hours at school. They sure think of an odd variety of things for me to do... It wasn't all that bad, but the glue stuff was really, really strong!. I was just adding some big PVC pipe to a couple of rainwater drainage pipes so they would go all the way to the ground instead of just sticking out of the building. I don't think I've ever done anything like that before.

First pic: A rather poor picture of the sun rising from my window. Not much of a view, I know.
Second pic: A screen shot of my desktop. Looks like a Mac, doesn't it?

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

A typical school day for me



Well, since the past few days have been a little slow, I think that today would be a good day to post a brief summary of what my typical school day is like.

First of all I get up around quarter to seven since we have breakfast around quarter after seven. For all our meals we have an interesting mix of American and Mexican food. We almost always have delicious fresh fruit for breakfast, though. It usually takes a while to get everyone actually down to the table and eating since some family members are a little slow in the mornings... :)

School starts at eight, and since we live close by, we leave around quarter to eight. All four or five of us cram into this little, old ('78), dull orange VW Bug. I'm always expecting that one of these days it's not even going to start. As it is, it doesn't particularly like to start, and it does like to stall, so I'm always happy to get to school in one piece... :)

Anyway, first period I sit in on a conversational Spanish class where we basically just talk. It's fun, though. Second period I tutor a junior higher in Math. It's more fun assigning the homework
than it is to do it. :) Thankfully, I'm just assigning it now. Third period is PE, so sometimes I participate or help out. After that my day is pretty much free unless one of the teachers has a job for me. Otherwise, I can just read a lot or play around on my laptop. For lunch I can head over to the cafe across the street from the school to have a sandwich and a Coke. The sandwiches
are delicious! I typically get one that consists of black beans, Oaxacan string cheese (quesillo), some kind of enchilada meat, avocados, tomatoes, and the obligatory jalapenos. It's a great
combination!

After school, we have comida (lunch for Mexicans, which they have between two and four). Then I hang out in my room a lot, reading and doing stuff online, if we don't do something interesting like going to the Zocalo. I'm also studying for the SAT at least a little bit every day. After dinner,
I usually stay up until 10:30 or so. And that is my slightly boring day. Except when we go to the Zocalo or something to make it really interesting. I'm thinking about going out to the town that makes rugs sometime this week, though. That should be fun since I have friends out there from before.

First pic: The classroom where I spent most of my time when I was here before was on the top floor of this building. Being that high made even the tiniest earthquakes seem big. :)
Second pic: On the walk home from school.

Weekly set of pictures

The highly ornate and gilded interior of the Santo Domingo cathedral. It's a lot darker in there than it looks like in this picture.
One side of the Zocalo at night.
Looking across the square in front of Santo Domingo. The colors in Oaxaca are always so bright, especially on the buildings.
One of the many colonial looking buildings in Oaxaca. This one is on the walking street betweent the Zocalo and Santo Domingo.
Another view of the Zocalo, with the gazebo in the background. I can never get enough of the Zocalo. It's beautiful and very relaxing.
The cook at a cafe a few block from school. One day in the conversational spanish class I'm sitting in on we went here to get coffee and some memelas, which are tortillas with beans, Oaxacan string cheese, and some type of meat on them. The lady who runs the cafe is seen here cooking a memela on her comal (griddle). When we ordered orange juice, they squeezed it fresh right there. The coffee came in pottery bowls, and it was a little weak, but made with sugar and some cinnamon. I actually think it's very good, even though I like really strong coffee.
The flowers at Abastos really are beautiful, and the fragrance almost overwhelms you as you walk around that section.
There is also a large selection of decadent fruits available at many stand similar to this one. In here I can see right off hand, grapes, two varieties of bananas, pears, cantaloupe, apples, peaches, pineapple, watermellon, and at least two varieties of mangos.
This is the style of coffee mug I got; only one dollar apiece.
The people that run the stand where we get nieves in Zaachila. They're the same people we used to get nieves from when we were here two years ago. Great memories!

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Another party at church




Today we had another party at church, this time for the pastor, Boni's, birthday. He is going to be leaving the church for a little while so it was also kind of a going away party. He's worked at this church for over three and a half years, and he's watched it grow from about five people to around sixty people or so. During the service, they had a time for people to say goodbye and thank you to Boni, and since he was so well liked, the service stretched to two and a half hours. :( Long services and sermons are one thing I definately don't miss from Oaxaca.

Anyway, after the service we had some kind of egg thing to eat with lots of tortillas. For dessert we had cake, of course, for Boni's birthday. There is a Mexican custom of doing a mordida (literally, biting) where the birthday person has to take a bite out of the cake. While they are taking a small bite, someone is supposed to push their head into the cake. Unfortunately, Boni is too smart to get pushed into the cake too much. It was still fun though.

After the party, the people I went with and I headed over to the Zocalo in Zaachila, the town where the church is, to get some nieves. It's a perfect tradition to always get nieves after church. I had tuna. You would never think that tuna fish ice cream would be very good...
...and it probably isn't! I'm taking about tuna, the cactus fruit. Inside it has a red flesh and small black seeds. Anyway, I had that with leche quemada (burnt milk) nieve. It's almost like plain ice cream, but it has a slight burnt taste in with the sweetness. I thought it was interesting that the place we went was the same place where my family used to go when we were here before. It was even the same people running it!

First pic: Lunch. Some kind of egg thing with jamaica to drink again.
Second pic: Me and Boni. He's a great guy!
Third pic: Nieves!!! The closest one is mine. The one in back is tuna and nuez (walnut).

Abastos





First of all, I want to thank everyone who has read my blog, and especially everyone who has left a comment. It's really encouraging to know that people are reading, and are interested in, my writing. :) :)

Yesterday afternoon we went down to the biggest market in town. I think it is supposed to be one of the largest markets in all of Mexico. It's huge by itself, but certain days of the week are especially big (about three times as big), with people coming in from quite far away to set up a stand and sell their goods. All together it covers several city blocks. It's very, very easy to get lost inside the market because it's so big, so you need to have a good sense of direciton. This is the place to go if you want a leather belt, fresh meat, ripoffs of expensive watches and sunglasses, some pottery, new batteries, a live goat or pig, a CD player, firewood, furniture, shoes, name brand clothes, cheap CDs and DVDs, a new pet, new shoelaces, fresh fruit, a flower arrangement, a toy car, freshly baked bread, a hammock, a woven basket, or (relatively) fresh shrimp. They really do have almost anything.

I was disappointed to find that most music vendors only had Mexican music, but there was one place that had some American music that I recognized. I got five CDs for less than five dollars. It's always kind of funny to think that if there is even one song you like on the cd there, you should get it, because it's cheaper to buy the whole cd there than it is to buy the one song on iTunes. It's almost the same for DVDs. It's cheaper to buy the dvd here than it is to rent it or go see the movie in the theater. It takes some getting used to to get into that mindset. :)

I also got a coffee mug, since I have a collection of them from different places I visit. Well, acutally I got three, since I couldn't decide which one I like better. They are all handmade glossy black pottery with big, handpainted pictures of flowers on the outside. Again, each of these were only a dollar. In the US, something handmade like that would cost at least ten or fifteen dollars! So for eight dollars I got five CDs and three handmade, handpainted coffe mugs. In the US it would have been at least ten times that much. I may not like shopping all that much in the States, but it sure is fun here!!

First pic: One small stall selling a variety of manufactured goods. Unfortunately, most of the people don't like pictures in this market either, so the pictures aren't the best quality.
Second pic: Another very small part of the market, with pottery in the foreground and furniture in the background.
Third pic: Part of the flower section. Almost any kind of flower you want. Again, this is just one very, very small part of the whole market.
Fourth pic: Fresh baked bread at one of the stalls in a permanent building.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Mayordomo

Here are the machines that they use to grind up the chocolate. Cocoa beans in the very top, cinnamon and nuts ground in through that thing sticking out midway up, and the liqiud ground chocolate is mixed with sugar sitting in the big bottom part. A big cocao pod, which holds the cocao beans wchich are covered with a sweet white flesh. You can see some dried beans under the cinnamon sticks in back. Also some almonds. Makes for a great chocolate blend.
A bin of warm, soft chocolate; a bin of powdered chocolate, and a box of chocolate. A kilo of the soft stuff is less than four dollars.
The biggest part of the shop, with the walls covered in different kinds of delectable chocolate. Just out of sight on the counter to the left are jars of different kinds of chocolate to taste. I love that stuff. :)

Zocalo, Market, and Chocolate






The SAT is coming up fast. Really fast. I was just realizing that it's only two weeks from tomorrow and I haven't studied at all, haven't taken the PSAT, nor have I taken any practice SAT tests yet. I guess I know what I'll be doing the next couple of weeks...

Anyway, yesterday we went downtown with some relatives of the people I'm staying with. We took the bus down near the Santo Domingo cahtedral and walked the rest of the way. The cathedral is right on the walking street, which runs kind of betweent the Zocalo and the cathedral. (There's also a coffee shop right across the street. Great place to watch the sun set on the cathedral.) There are also lots of the trees with bright orange flowers giving plenty of shade. Walking down the street to the Zocalo, you pass by many seemingly colonial buildings painted nice bright colors, along with quite a few people selling souvenirs. The whole street is paved with semi finished rock, giving it an almost cobblestone-like quality. It's beautiful.

Getting down into the Zocalo, you pass by musicians playing for people in the restaurants, women trying to sell you fresh, fragrant gardenias and rose, many shoe shining stands, and by people selling all manner of balloons. Continuing on past the Zocalo we went to the Benito Juarez market where you can buy anything from a fresh (hopefully) cut of meat to a leather jacket to any kind of chile you could think of. Unfortunately this is where most of the tourists go so the vendors aren't nearly as nice as other places, and few of them welcome picture taking. Maybe I should tell them that the pictures will go on my blog, which will give them free advertising. As if anyone reading this will ever come down here to buy their products. :)


The people at the Mayordomo shop we went to next didn't mind the pictures, so I have more from there. Mayordomo is the chocolate maker in Oaxaca. They will sell you cooking chocolate, hard eating chocolate, freshly ground warm chocolate for eating or forming into shapes to harden, or powdered chocolate. They will also grind your cocoa beans with sugar and your choice of almonds, cinnamon, and/or maybe vanilla. The also make chocolate milk shakes and hot chocolate. And the very best part is that they are very liberal with their samples!!! I almost bought a pound of warm chocolate for less than two dollars. It's stronger and a little more coarse than American chocolate, but I love it!

First pic: Balloons anyone? Vendors just off the Zocalo.
Second pic: A poor musician who plays for people patronizing the restaurants around the Zocalo.
Third pic: The walking street, looking back toward Santo Domingo cathedral
Fourth pic: Cheese, chocolate, honey, etc. One of the few stalls in the Benito Juarez market that let me take a picture.
Fifth pic: Santo Domingo cathedral and convent turned museum (the back part on the left is just all that's visible, but it's pretty big).

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Weekly set of pictures

A view of a little more of the Zocalo.
Your local, corner store where you can get a surprising variety of things.

Dowtown Oaxaca. The big building on the left covers the whole square block and houses the Benito Juarez market.
Seats as close to the field as can be for only six dollars.
A sidewalk near where I'm staying (not that anyone ever uses sidewalks). Typical of what you think of Oaxaca is like.
Here's the leader of the Covenant churches here in Oaxaca.
The view out my window.
Don't ever complain about the bathrooms at your school. The kids here actually have cause to complain.
And don't ever complain about less than ideal facilities for gym class. These guys from my school here don't have any facilities at school. (By the way, I have first hand experience that says that one should never play football on a dirt soccer field.)