Dear friends and family,
I’m afraid this week’s entry may be a little drab. For some reason, there was a dearth of picture-taking this week. I also used up all the Mexico City excitement last week, and the rest of the week was basically normal. After changing my survey a bit, I restarted the interviewing process; all previous interviewees have to be revisited. So far I’ve done nearly 20. My goal is still to get 100 done by the end of the semester, and I think it will be possible. I’m not going to lie, interviewing total strangers is a mixed bag. For the most part, I really do enjoy meeting new people, but sometimes it is a little awkward. I think the good experiences outweigh the bad—I’m really quite amazed by their willingness to talk to me.
Matt finally got a nickname this week (the rancheros are all about nicknames, especially our family, I think). Now they’ve started calling him Moto (which is their nickname for another Mateo in the extended family), and they usually call me Cami (which derives from Camila, which derives from Emilia), or sometimes Milo. So Moto and Cami it is. I would nominate these villages for use in the witness protection program, since they’re difficult to find and get to, have no organized record of residents, and anyone who lives there long enough will almost inevitably get a nickname that may or may not resemble their given name (examples: Luz goes by Chalino, Erminia sometimes goes by Ermes, Luis is known as el Chiquis, etc…There’s no method to the madness).
Sorry not to have more excitement to report from this week. Stay tuned for next week’s installment, in which all four of us get to be some sort of obscure godparents at the baptisms of Giovani and Alina (babies in Martín and Martina’s household).
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Mexico City
Hello, non-commenting blog readers. There has been a famine of comments on the blog. As my dear brother pointed out, it is less natural to comment on a blog than to reply to an email. I like emails more than blog comments, but both is even better J
So this blog comes to you from the lovely D.F., which is Mexico City (D.F. stands for “Distrito Federal”). We came here from the villages on Thursday, and it’s been pretty awesome, I’d say. We’re staying in a hostel near the Zócalo (which is the most prominent plaza in the downtown area of Mexico City). It’s a ton cheaper than a hotel, and so far I’m enjoying the experience. Angela and I are in one of the normal dorm-style rooms, taking up two of the six beds. They aren’t usually all full, but so far our roommates have been from Argentina, Italy, and Israel. They’ve been super-interesting to talk to, especially Liat from Israel, after spending the summer working with Afghanis. I think the hostel is exactly what I thought it would be: a bunch of young people from different countries, many with large backpacks and hiking shoes. The average hair length for guys is definitely above the average for their respective native lands.
On Friday we took an all-day tour offered by the hostel. Our tour guide, Eric, was really personable, and full of the sort of information you expect the tour guide to have. We stopped first at the Plaza de Tres Culturas, where there is architecture from three different cultures: an indigenous culture whose name I forgot, the Spanish conquistador culture, and modern Mexican culture (represented by the ever-picturesque office building of the foreign ministry). From there, we went to see the Basilica of the Virgin Guadalupe, which I think is the most culturally significant religious structure in all of Mexico. There are an old and a new basilica, because one end of the old one has sunk several meters since it was built, and it’s structurally unsound. The new one went up in the 1970s, I think, and it houses the most famous image of the Virgin Guadalupe, which supposedly appeared miraculously on the cloak of a man named Juan Diego several centuries ago.
Our final stop was Teotihuacán, which is the site of ancient pyramid ruins. It’s pretty amazing how they’re all lined up in terms of the suns movement, etc. We climbed to the top of the sun pyramid, which is pretty dang tall. From there we had a great view of the rest of the ruins. It’s amazing what archeologists have been able to discover about these ancient cultures, but it’s equally amazing how much information is still unknown. The name Teotihuacán comes from the Aztecs, who discovered the ruins abandoned, and thought that it must have been made by the power of the gods (the name translates to “place of the gods” or something like that…Anyone else think it’s interesting that “teo” means god in the Aztec language?). So the original culture, their language, and their name for the place are all quite mysterious. On the tour we befriended Dana, an Australian girl traveling by herself before meeting up with a friend. We spent the movie hanging out with her, which was a lot of fun.
On Saturday we went to the Anthropology Museum (tons more than you can see in a day), and the Palacio de Bellas Artes, which had an extensive Diego Rivera display up. His murals are pretty intense. A lot of social commentary and harsh criticism.
Sunday (today), we went to church with some friends from Iowa, the Garvins. Elder Garvin is the director of the temple visitors’ center, when it’s open (sadly the visitors’ center and temple are both closed right now). Their apartment is inside the temple compound, and the chapel is next door. It was a nice ward, and it was really great to see the Garvins. They had us over to dinner after church, and I think we all enjoyed some good American fare (mmmmm, apple crisp with vanilla ice cream). After that, we headed back to the hostel. We’ll be going back to Irapuato tomorrow.
Oh, I almost forgot…The main excitement from the villages is that Matt and I got to tumbar maíz this week. That means cutting down the corn stalks so that the corn can be removed later. They do this by hand, using a sickle. We both got a bit blistered and sliced up by the corn stalks, but I’m really glad I went. You don’t realize how much skill supposedly unskilled labor takes until you try to do it yourself.
All of us on one of the pyramids at Teotihuacán (Matt, Angela, me, Brandon).
So this blog comes to you from the lovely D.F., which is Mexico City (D.F. stands for “Distrito Federal”). We came here from the villages on Thursday, and it’s been pretty awesome, I’d say. We’re staying in a hostel near the Zócalo (which is the most prominent plaza in the downtown area of Mexico City). It’s a ton cheaper than a hotel, and so far I’m enjoying the experience. Angela and I are in one of the normal dorm-style rooms, taking up two of the six beds. They aren’t usually all full, but so far our roommates have been from Argentina, Italy, and Israel. They’ve been super-interesting to talk to, especially Liat from Israel, after spending the summer working with Afghanis. I think the hostel is exactly what I thought it would be: a bunch of young people from different countries, many with large backpacks and hiking shoes. The average hair length for guys is definitely above the average for their respective native lands.
On Friday we took an all-day tour offered by the hostel. Our tour guide, Eric, was really personable, and full of the sort of information you expect the tour guide to have. We stopped first at the Plaza de Tres Culturas, where there is architecture from three different cultures: an indigenous culture whose name I forgot, the Spanish conquistador culture, and modern Mexican culture (represented by the ever-picturesque office building of the foreign ministry). From there, we went to see the Basilica of the Virgin Guadalupe, which I think is the most culturally significant religious structure in all of Mexico. There are an old and a new basilica, because one end of the old one has sunk several meters since it was built, and it’s structurally unsound. The new one went up in the 1970s, I think, and it houses the most famous image of the Virgin Guadalupe, which supposedly appeared miraculously on the cloak of a man named Juan Diego several centuries ago.
Our final stop was Teotihuacán, which is the site of ancient pyramid ruins. It’s pretty amazing how they’re all lined up in terms of the suns movement, etc. We climbed to the top of the sun pyramid, which is pretty dang tall. From there we had a great view of the rest of the ruins. It’s amazing what archeologists have been able to discover about these ancient cultures, but it’s equally amazing how much information is still unknown. The name Teotihuacán comes from the Aztecs, who discovered the ruins abandoned, and thought that it must have been made by the power of the gods (the name translates to “place of the gods” or something like that…Anyone else think it’s interesting that “teo” means god in the Aztec language?). So the original culture, their language, and their name for the place are all quite mysterious. On the tour we befriended Dana, an Australian girl traveling by herself before meeting up with a friend. We spent the movie hanging out with her, which was a lot of fun.
On Saturday we went to the Anthropology Museum (tons more than you can see in a day), and the Palacio de Bellas Artes, which had an extensive Diego Rivera display up. His murals are pretty intense. A lot of social commentary and harsh criticism.
Sunday (today), we went to church with some friends from Iowa, the Garvins. Elder Garvin is the director of the temple visitors’ center, when it’s open (sadly the visitors’ center and temple are both closed right now). Their apartment is inside the temple compound, and the chapel is next door. It was a nice ward, and it was really great to see the Garvins. They had us over to dinner after church, and I think we all enjoyed some good American fare (mmmmm, apple crisp with vanilla ice cream). After that, we headed back to the hostel. We’ll be going back to Irapuato tomorrow.
Oh, I almost forgot…The main excitement from the villages is that Matt and I got to tumbar maíz this week. That means cutting down the corn stalks so that the corn can be removed later. They do this by hand, using a sickle. We both got a bit blistered and sliced up by the corn stalks, but I’m really glad I went. You don’t realize how much skill supposedly unskilled labor takes until you try to do it yourself.
All of us on one of the pyramids at Teotihuacán (Matt, Angela, me, Brandon).
Angela and me with Liat, the Israeli girl we shared a rom with for a couple of nights.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Cervantes and false eyelashes
This week went by incredibly fast. On Tuesday I got my second batch of enchiladas for the semester, this time from my host family. I think these were the best ones I’ve had so far, probably because they didn’t make them too spicy. We brought the ingredients back from the city, and the women in the family prepared them for us.
Lupe is still pretty sick. She’s been off-and-on sick since June, but it is increasingly more on and less off. I think they’re all resigning themselves to the idea that she’s dying, because no doctors (medical or supernatural) have anything left to do for her. Martina (Lupe’s grandmother) told me that she hopes God will remember Lupe and either take away her pain, or take her home to him. I think that’s a pretty good statement of how we all feel, I think.
On Friday night, we came back to the city early so we could go to a festival in the city of Guanajuato. It is supposedly the Cervantes festival, but now it’s just a smorgasbord of cultural events from all over the world. The four of us went with some of the Young Single Adults from church (I think that title is self-explanatory, for my non-LDS readers). We wandered around the streets for a while, stopping to buy fake eyelashes (see the pictures below) or to watch street performers. We ended up paying to join a recorrido of the city by a group of musicians. They took us touring around some streets, leading singing and dancing, and performing some mini-plays and songs for us. According to the Mexican friends we were with, this is a really classic experience, and I think it was well worth the 50 pesos. After the recorrido, we went to a plaza for some late dinner. I ate some of the most amazing Argentine empanadas. The ones I ate were filled with corn and cheese, but they come with lots of different fillings. By the time we finished eating, got to the bus station, waited for the bus (which was late), and got home, it was well into the wee hours. The whole thing was a good time, though, and worth the lost sleep.
This is me with a bowl of the best enchiladas I think I´ve ever had. I´m sitting at the table in the kitchen (in one of the new chairs--note the intact backing).
This is Martina with a pile of peanut plants from the peanut field she´s sitting in the middle of. My main regret about this picture is that she´s not smiling, because she usually is.
This is me with Lupita, Chepe, Lina, and Paulina (left to right). We´re sitting outside Lola´s house, and all the children are miraculously looking at the camera.
Me with some of our Mexican friends, sporting our fake eyelashes, or fake beard, in Jorge´s case: Jorge, Teren, me, Laura, Adriana, and Ruby (left to right).
Lupe is still pretty sick. She’s been off-and-on sick since June, but it is increasingly more on and less off. I think they’re all resigning themselves to the idea that she’s dying, because no doctors (medical or supernatural) have anything left to do for her. Martina (Lupe’s grandmother) told me that she hopes God will remember Lupe and either take away her pain, or take her home to him. I think that’s a pretty good statement of how we all feel, I think.
On Friday night, we came back to the city early so we could go to a festival in the city of Guanajuato. It is supposedly the Cervantes festival, but now it’s just a smorgasbord of cultural events from all over the world. The four of us went with some of the Young Single Adults from church (I think that title is self-explanatory, for my non-LDS readers). We wandered around the streets for a while, stopping to buy fake eyelashes (see the pictures below) or to watch street performers. We ended up paying to join a recorrido of the city by a group of musicians. They took us touring around some streets, leading singing and dancing, and performing some mini-plays and songs for us. According to the Mexican friends we were with, this is a really classic experience, and I think it was well worth the 50 pesos. After the recorrido, we went to a plaza for some late dinner. I ate some of the most amazing Argentine empanadas. The ones I ate were filled with corn and cheese, but they come with lots of different fillings. By the time we finished eating, got to the bus station, waited for the bus (which was late), and got home, it was well into the wee hours. The whole thing was a good time, though, and worth the lost sleep.
This is me with a bowl of the best enchiladas I think I´ve ever had. I´m sitting at the table in the kitchen (in one of the new chairs--note the intact backing).
This is Martina with a pile of peanut plants from the peanut field she´s sitting in the middle of. My main regret about this picture is that she´s not smiling, because she usually is.
This is me with Lupita, Chepe, Lina, and Paulina (left to right). We´re sitting outside Lola´s house, and all the children are miraculously looking at the camera. Me with some of our Mexican friends, sporting our fake eyelashes, or fake beard, in Jorge´s case: Jorge, Teren, me, Laura, Adriana, and Ruby (left to right).Monday, October 8, 2007
Odds and ends
Alright, here are some highlights from the week:
1. We (Matt and I) made hamburgers for dinner one night. Angela and Brandon came from Comederito to enjoy them with us. We got most of the family members who were around to at least try one. The only bad thing was that Daniel (Martin and Martina’s son-in-law) who had originally told us how much he likes hamburgers, ended up taking his daughter to the doctor that evening, and didn’t get back in time to join us.
2. We helped out one of the family dogs. We saw her (they call her la negra) limping around one afternoon while we were eating. When she passed by again, we could tell that her front paws had been tied together. Although the cord between them had broken, one of the knots had slipped and cut deeply into her paw, probably at least an inch. The cord was still tied onto her foot, so we decided to get it off. This was sort of a delicate process, involving two pairs of scissors (the first pair wasn’t sharp enough) and a stack of tortillas for confidence-winning (they feed their animals tortillas). I held the dog’s head while Matt got under the cord and cut it. I was really impressed with the dog: she just whimpered a little and pushed against me, but she didn’t growl or snap at us. Once the cord was cut, we thought we’d have to hold her again to pull it out, but she quickly discovered that it was loose, and got it off herself. Now she’s walking a lot better, and she also starts wagging her tale madly whenever we’re around.
3. We went to las Adjuntas, a neighboring village, to get Pedialyte for Lupe, Daniel’s two-year-old daughter. I mentioned in #1 that she’s been sick. She was born prematurely, and has some permanent mental/physical disabilities because of that. Sometimes she gets additionally sick on top of that, and she’s been in pretty bad shape recently. As it turns out, the family actually thinks that she’s cursed (I’ve had some seriously fascinating conversations with people here about witchcraft and superstitions), and that’s why medicine doesn’t cure her. Anyway, she hadn’t really kept any food down since Monday; all she’d had was Pedialyte, and they were running out. The stores in Santa Rosa don’t sell it, so we made the trip to las Adjuntas for them. The only hitch was a little puppy that wanted to follow us out of town. Fortunately we outran it, and I’m hoping that someone there took it in.
4. Erminia, Daniel’s wife, asked me if I would paint a picture on the front of their house. I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be painting. I am well aware that my taste is quite divergent from theirs, so I’ll just try to figure out what they like, and get it as close to that as possible. It’s also possible that they’ll have lost enthusiasm for the painting prospects by the time the house is ready to be painted, in which case I guess I won’t have to worry about satisfying their ranchero preferences.
5. We watched General Conference this weekend. For any of my non-LDS friends who may read this, General Conference is when the general leadership of the church (comprising the prophet, his two counselors, the twelve apostles, and other general authorities, as we call them) addresses church members around the world. Conference takes place in Salt Lake City, but it’s broadcast by satellite and translated into quite a few languages. Fortunately we tracked down the American missionaries here, who were watching it in English, and watched with them. I really got a lot out of it.
I love this picture...Alright starting with the woman in the red shirt and going clockwise, we have Beatriz, Martina, Erminia holding daughter Lupe, Daniel holding son Giovanni, Chepe, and Lola holding daughter Alina.
1. We (Matt and I) made hamburgers for dinner one night. Angela and Brandon came from Comederito to enjoy them with us. We got most of the family members who were around to at least try one. The only bad thing was that Daniel (Martin and Martina’s son-in-law) who had originally told us how much he likes hamburgers, ended up taking his daughter to the doctor that evening, and didn’t get back in time to join us.
2. We helped out one of the family dogs. We saw her (they call her la negra) limping around one afternoon while we were eating. When she passed by again, we could tell that her front paws had been tied together. Although the cord between them had broken, one of the knots had slipped and cut deeply into her paw, probably at least an inch. The cord was still tied onto her foot, so we decided to get it off. This was sort of a delicate process, involving two pairs of scissors (the first pair wasn’t sharp enough) and a stack of tortillas for confidence-winning (they feed their animals tortillas). I held the dog’s head while Matt got under the cord and cut it. I was really impressed with the dog: she just whimpered a little and pushed against me, but she didn’t growl or snap at us. Once the cord was cut, we thought we’d have to hold her again to pull it out, but she quickly discovered that it was loose, and got it off herself. Now she’s walking a lot better, and she also starts wagging her tale madly whenever we’re around.
3. We went to las Adjuntas, a neighboring village, to get Pedialyte for Lupe, Daniel’s two-year-old daughter. I mentioned in #1 that she’s been sick. She was born prematurely, and has some permanent mental/physical disabilities because of that. Sometimes she gets additionally sick on top of that, and she’s been in pretty bad shape recently. As it turns out, the family actually thinks that she’s cursed (I’ve had some seriously fascinating conversations with people here about witchcraft and superstitions), and that’s why medicine doesn’t cure her. Anyway, she hadn’t really kept any food down since Monday; all she’d had was Pedialyte, and they were running out. The stores in Santa Rosa don’t sell it, so we made the trip to las Adjuntas for them. The only hitch was a little puppy that wanted to follow us out of town. Fortunately we outran it, and I’m hoping that someone there took it in.
4. Erminia, Daniel’s wife, asked me if I would paint a picture on the front of their house. I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be painting. I am well aware that my taste is quite divergent from theirs, so I’ll just try to figure out what they like, and get it as close to that as possible. It’s also possible that they’ll have lost enthusiasm for the painting prospects by the time the house is ready to be painted, in which case I guess I won’t have to worry about satisfying their ranchero preferences.
5. We watched General Conference this weekend. For any of my non-LDS friends who may read this, General Conference is when the general leadership of the church (comprising the prophet, his two counselors, the twelve apostles, and other general authorities, as we call them) addresses church members around the world. Conference takes place in Salt Lake City, but it’s broadcast by satellite and translated into quite a few languages. Fortunately we tracked down the American missionaries here, who were watching it in English, and watched with them. I really got a lot out of it.
Sorry this is sideways...I don´t have the time or patience to mess with turning it around at the moment. Here I´m holding Martin and Martina´s granddaughter, Alina.
And it´s sideways once again. This is me painting the ceiling on a house for one of my students. I think she should have left it the original color, personally, but whatever makes her happy.
I love this picture...Alright starting with the woman in the red shirt and going clockwise, we have Beatriz, Martina, Erminia holding daughter Lupe, Daniel holding son Giovanni, Chepe, and Lola holding daughter Alina.
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