Viva Mexico

Dear the blog:

Last weekend we got to participate in some serious Mexican culture. It was Independence Day on Sunday, the 16th, but the main celebrations took place on Saturday. We went down to the centro with some people from church (young single adults), where we wandered around buying snacks. We ended up in a plaza near the municipal president’s office. The crowd and the excitement (and foam squirting throughout) continued to build until about 11:00pm when the municipal president came out and led the grito (shout). This involved the president yelling “¡Viva (something patriotic, like Hidalgo or Mexico)!” and everyone in the crowd responding “¡Viva!” That was pretty much the culmination of the celebration.

During the week, I kept up teaching our students (with Matt), and also worked some more on my research. I also got to keep helping at the kinder (which is like preschool) in el Encino. I don’t know if I mentioned that before, but I’m going there Tuesday and Thursday mornings to help out/enjoy the kids. I’ve observed (once again) that children in the villages get a lot freer reign with what they can play with, i.e. knives, old tires, metal dustpans, etc. I’m really quite amazed that so many of them make it to adulthood, not to mention having all their appendages intact.

On Friday night, Matt and I stayed in Comederito with Brandon and Angela. We had a movie night at Angela’s house, because her family owns a TV and a DVD player. Los increíbles was pretty good. It’s better in the original English, but not bad in Spanish.

As for our weekend in Irapuato, it’s basically business as usual: laundry, internet, blessed shower, perhaps even more blessed toilet. I guess I don’t mind bucket showers and bush toilets, but it does make me appreciate the conveniences of piped water all the more when I get them.

Matt, Angela, and me drinking various mexi-drinks (mine is traditional horchata). This was taken the night we went downtown for Independence Day.

This is me with Brandon, faces painted, and foam-covered. Fortunately the foam melted off pretty quick, or we would have been totally coated by the end of the night.

This is Matt looking at the view from a nice rock we found near our village. It´s much better in person.