First Class

Today was our first day of class. We arrived on time at 5:30pm. 10 minutes later we were sitting in the chairs outside the health clinic waiting…no one had come. I was quite disappointed. I had invited many people that I knew from my strolls through the fields and my time in the health clinic (Many don´t know how to sign their name.) I teased Natalie about how we needed to focus on finding like a missionary, and she gave me a horrified look.

 As we were leaving to look for someone to teach, I noticed a lady hidden under a tree who happened to be there for the Literacy Class. Coni (the teacher) had told them that there would be class, but hadn´t told them that it would be three gringos teaching. She had wanted it to be a suprise. Over the next ten minutes four more students arrived, and we started to teach them. They are all older women from a generation were education was a very low priority. 

Two that I remember particularly well are Manuela and Beatriz. 

Manuela is a little dignified old lady probably around 70 years-old. She has one of those highly wrinkled faces that express a lot of emotion whether it be joy, frustration, or impatience. I was working with her on how to write her name. It was necessary to write it in large letters as her eyes "don´t work like they used to." It was also necessary to explain to her how to write every letter. For example, an M goes- up to the top line, down to the middle line, back up to the top line and then down to the bottom line. At the end of the class she could write her first name on a line and was quite proud of her accomplishment- her clever old eyes twinkling as she asked for her homework.

Beatriz has the look of a smart student who dropped out of school when she had her first child. She is around 30 and actually belongs to the middle school class, but came early for more practice. She is quick to understand and is working on long division and multiplication. She is fast and all of her answers are correct. 

Time flew by and when the hour was over we were complimented on our teaching skills and told that they couldn´t wait until their next class. I don´t think I have ever had such eager students. 

My first week in Trejo

Trejo there is so much to say of this place of 1,400 people. It is a little town with an old metal gate that stretches between two cement building corners. These corners belong to two of the eight buildings that make up the town square. At least three of the eight are food stores, there is also a clinic and a primary school, and I have yet to determine the rest.

It is a slow town. Slow meaning that time has very little value in this place. Time is in excess.

For example, Chris was questioning me other day. He asked me about the people who are sometimes not there until you talk to them.

These are the people who sit on chairs and benches, and sometimes behind store stalls with their eyes glazed over for minutes or perhaps hours. When you start a conversation with them they sort of miraculously wake up.

Where do they go in that in-between time?

Still, I ask myself what would I do, and where would I go if I had to sit without any particular purpose for so much time?

Schedules and days are less important to these people than politeness, security and awareness. These have higher priority than time. In this little small town, time is the one things that they have in excess. So, there is no excuse to not say hello to a neighbor or help someone out. Everyone knows that you have the time to do so. People do not make excuses to not help someone. On the contrary, visiting and helping someone else sounds like a nice diversion to fill the hours of time that are available.

I have had some first hand experienced at this at the clinic where I was told to come in at 8 on a morning when the clinic was not opening. People don't really pay attention to time and in this case they didn't notice or apologize for it later- which differs from the US.


The lady 'Meli (from Amelia) who takes care of us is an exception to this timeless world. She fills her days with activities and people come from out of city to speak her.

She is a beautiful person with quick clever eyes. Eyes that watch and care and sometimes laugh at us as we stumble along learning the culture of Mexican farm life.

She is one of 11 living siblings with one stillborn. Five of the siblings are married. She is not one of them. She lives in this small city and out in the fields with her nephew (Jose) who she cares for as a son. He is her brother's child and was born in the US. He never knew his mother and Meli has cared for him since he was 2. The two of them regularly switch between homes as the one in the city has no kitchen. Sometimes, they stay in the grandparent's home -a farm- with Meli's three siblings and sometimes they stay in the city. Jose is 11 though he insists he is 12, and he has school at 8 am.

He is a full of life and spirit and always looking for things to do and convincing others to play with him. For example at 10pm he convinced us to play uno (a game he had never played before). After promptly winning the first round, he entered a fierce battle with Neal. Where creative insults were traded left and right. He is fast and you can tell from his cleverness that he is used to holding his own with children who are older than him.

My favorite insult of his was "Saliste de la piedra de un caracol" - you were born in the shell of a snail. :)

The land here is full of fields. North, south, east, west- it doesn't matter which way you walk your feet will eventually tread in fields. The fields are beautiful and are like strolling across a scene from Pride and Prejudice with one exception. The irrigation water that feeds these fields is green with bits of trash floating in it. Still, the trash is only a slight distraction the overall impression being beauty.

The clinic... a small five space apartment a sitting room for the patients, an office for the doctor to be, an office for each of the two nurses, a back room. It is run by a -in July I will be a doctor- who is 24 though her nurses are middle aged. They mostly see diabetes and cardiac problems. Everything else is immunization and health/education programs. There is an interesting dynamic between the three of them.

I don't have more time to write.

Coni and the Trejo Adult Literacy Program

During this first week of arrival, we made contact with Maria Concepcion better known as Coni. Coni is the local representative of INAEBA and teaches a small adult literacy group at the health clinic. Coni is lovely. She has a little bit of a crippled arm, but you can see that she has worked hard to make herself a strong and successful person. 

The adult literacy program is only one the programs that she runs in the community. She also teaches a class for new mothers, and a class to help adults receive their middle school certification. Alongside her house is a small internet pub. It is one of the two in the community and shows that she values connections to the outside world and the resource of the internet. It also shows that she has some skill with computers which is rare in this community.

We sat in her small sitting room that displayed pictures of her family, and we spoke about the adult literacy program, and how we could help out. She told us that recently she had dropped her class days from twice a week to once a week due to scheduling conflicts. We said that we could teach Wednesday and that she could continue teaching Fridays. Fridays are the only days that she has available, and it is the only day that we can´t go- we will be traveling to Guanajuato. Still, I find it wonderful that she is teaching here as it means that when we leave the students will continue being taught.

So, we will teach Wednesdays and she will teach Fridays. We start next week at 5:30.

Irapuato- Sick, Centro

In the morning, Marissa, Hannah, and I went shopping for cold medicine and clothes respectfully. We found Hannah a cute shirt and Marissa found a lovely turquoise ring. Afterwords, we got ice cream. Hannah's flavor was the most unique "pinion" which tasted in my opinion nothing like the piniones I was used to from Chile.

We asked the pharmacy lady what she would recommend for a cold and these were it. The graneodinB has some sort of numbing agent in it. Your tongue get this tingly going to sleep feeling if you leave it in your mouth too long.

Our ice cream shop it is literally across the street from where we live.

We went to the centro later. their was a band playing, lot of little stalls, and una Vega full of everything from pig heads to piñatas.

 

Some street grafitti from in front of our apartment.  

Me feeling like a giant bug.  Bleh, I hate being sick.

Irapuato- Inaeba, Nap, sick

I was taking a photo of the sign outside when the lady sweeping asked if I needed a model. I said sure and we took a picture together.

So, once again we are waiting at Inaeba. While we are waiting a man talks to us about how he became part of this government service organization. He worked at a coca-cola company for around 20 years. He did checks on the chemicals and pressures of the bottles. But, there was a change in leadership and they now asked that all the people in his position be engineers. So, he went back to school and continued working. Then God came to him. He had gone back to school at around the age of forty. And he knew that his purpose,what filled him with happiness and faith and a reason to get up every morning, was to help others who are older to gain an education. So, one day he told his boss that he was going to quit. He was in a very prestigious position, and his boss told him to think about it for a week. At the end of the week he quit and started working for Inaeba.

We were told that yesterday Alejandra had forgotten about a conference she had to go to and we would have to wait until 12.

To fill time we were told another story by Manuel. He asked us if we were happy and talked about how important it is to have motivation and purpose.

There once was a man at home who told his wife that he thought he was dead. She grabbed hold of his hand and touched it to his arm, head, and foot and then asked him if his skin felt warm or cold. He said that it felt warm. 

"That's right" she told him.

 "If you were dead you would feel cold not warm."

This idea stuck in his head and a week later he was out chopping wood in the snow when the impression came over him again. "I am dead," he said to himself. He took his glove off and felt his arm. It was cold. he felt his head. It was also cold. Lastly he slipped off his boot and felt his foot. It was also cold. I must be dead he thought to himself. Well, he thought it is bad for the dead to be walking, and so he laid down in the snow. 

Along came a group of wolves from the forest. They slithered around him and attacked and ate his horse. What a pity he thought to himself. If I were alive I would do something to stop these wolves. The wolves slunk off except for one who doubled back and attacked and ate the man laying in the snow. And so the man died.

The moral of this story is that we need a reason to act. We need to feel purpose in our lives or we might as well lay in the snow and die.

Here we are waiting in the office.

We were still waiting at noon so went and got lunch in the Mega grocery story lunch line.

Alena and Marissa eating lunch.

I always try a new candy when I go to the grocery store. I feel that practically all the candies I don't know have this weird chile pepperish flavoring called Tamarindo. This cand winis was no exception. But, it wasn't bad. I really like the Mango flavored one.

Then we went back to the Inaeba and were capacitated on the Language learning program by Alejandra.

We are such serious students...okay maybe not. :)

 Afterwards, we left to the mall. Matt need to get our phones working. We drifted around before heading back. This is some graffiti I saw from the taxi.

I kind of crashed when we got back. I am a bit sick. My throught hurts.
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Notes from Inaeba:

We will be using a system developed by Pablo Freyre. Who developed it in Brazil. It was first sucessfuly used in Chile.

The method is Palabra Generadora = word generator

The model we will be using is called Mevyt.

There are two books.

The purpose of teaching when it comes to adults is to help them use what they learn immediately. Make the lessons very applicable.

The base is to learn to read using 12 words:

Iniciar	Intermedio	Avanzado
Nombre, Presentacion	1-30	31-100
Pala	Basura	Mercado
Piñata	Medicina	Trabajo
Familia	Casa	Tortilla
	Vacuna	Leche
	Cantina	Guitarra
		Mexico

Seven step model:

1. Dialogo sobre la palabra y su significado
2. Separacioon en silabas y presentacion de familias silabicas
3. Formacion de palabras con significado
4. Integracion de elementos funcionales del lenguaje escrito
5. Integracion y produccion de texto significativos
6. Asignacion y revision de tareas
7. Reflexion y evaluacion del avance

Irapuato- Hello Inaeba, chimichuri, walk PRI/PAN

The day started out with us going down to Inaeba. It is the center in Irapauto where we hook up the those in charge of the government adult literacy program.

Most of our time was spent waiting around for them to have time to listen to us.

As we went exploring while waiting, we came across a Domino's Pizza. Neal had been searching fruitlessly for Chimichuri sauce in Mexico City. It is not produced in Mexico city, but they had it here, so we went to Domino's for lunch to try it out. It is like Mexican fry sauce aka fry sauce with a little bit of spice to it.

Finally we got to spend some time with Gabby our director. She arranged a training meeting for us the next day at 10 am.

We went home. It was already late in the afternoon. I made arroz con leche, and in the evening I went on a walk with Marissa. 

It is close to election time and splayed across many of the walls are political agendas. The two main parties are PAN and PRI. The PRI party has always dominated since the 1920s, but from 2000-2010 the PAN party ruled the county. Now it is back to the PRI party.

Irapuato- Blogging Day, Laundry, the Avengers

I haven't really taken an off day since I came to Mexico, but I took this day to write up this blog, do laundry, and start cooking. It was nice to take some down time after going for so long.

Spent a little time making jello and Chilean salad/ Pico de Gallo.  Yumm.

The laundromat is like 7 houses down, and they give you your clothing within hours folded and wrapped in plastic. It cost us around 4 dollars apiece.

In the evening, we went and saw the Avengers. It only cost us a little less than $2. I wonder if it is because they don't make a profit at any higher cost? 

Mexico City, D.F. / Irapuato- so long Landes, Prof. Turley, Hello Irapuato, food

In the morning, Hannah and I left to search for a charger for her I phone before we left Mexico City. We also bought some chocolates for Landes and Prof. Turley. They would be leaving us today, and we appreciated how much they had helped, loved, and served us. 

Afterwards we went to lunch and I ordered a taco and a checkboard cake. It was delicious. Hannah had Pozole. Pozole is a traditional indigenous vegetable soup.

The rest of the day we spent on the bus to Irapuato.  I passed the time watching the 2nd Thor movie and suffocating slowly of heat exhaustion. Here is an awkward photo on the bus. Neal is fake sleeping and I am probably eating the complimentary cookies they gave us when we boarded.

It is funny, even as we were arriving in the city. Matt was taking to the Dueno of the apartments securing that they are still available. It is not for lack of planning. It is just that Mexico runs on a different system of rules.

Here is some street are I could see from the taxi on the way to our apartment in Irapauto. 

The room I am sharing with Marissa. Hannah and Alena are sharing a bed (I didn't volunteer. I move around too much in my sleep) and Natalie volunteered for the couch. 

Before we tucked in for the night, we ran across the street to the Mall to pick up some food. I chose all cold foods. It is boiling here. I have ingredients for Chilean Salad, Toast and eggs, arroz con leche, and smoothies. 

Teotihuacan

I am not even sure how to start this day. It was awesome.  Because we are strange foreigners we were assigned a tour guide who taught us things like if you clap your hands in front of certain platforms you can hear the sound of the Quetzal bird. 

 This is some carved figures from the temple of Quetzalcoatl. He is the God of duality. It is thought that this temple may have been intentionally buried in the past. Of all the temples it is in the best condition and contains quite a bit of paint. There is a platform in front of this temple. And from that platform if you raise your voice it can be heard throughout the whole plaza bellow which is the size of several large football fields.

We really wanted to climb the pyramids of the Sun and Moon though supposedly the pyramid of the Sun probably isn't the pyramid of the Sun, but the pyramid of a God named Tlaloc the rain god.

This is that pyramid. I should have worn a hat. Despite it being a cloudy day and the application of sun screen. I still burned my scalp line (it is now pealing) and the tips of my ears.

The steep stairs.

I jogged around the third highest level. If I remember right it was approximately 42 jogging steps on all sides.

We all made it to the top even Prof. Turley who had knee surgery last semester. Guess who is taking the picture...the missionaries :). There is a small fleet of butterflies that hover at the top of the pyramid silently mocking the ever climbing stream of people and their difficulties with gravity.

Here I am on the pyramid of the sun? with the pyramid of the moon behind me.

Group shot

 We then visited the Museum close by.

I like this figure an acorn or a face?

These bones are pink. According to the sign large quantities of cinnabar were put over the shroud of the dead when everything decomposed and only the bones were left the cinnabar was absorbed into the bones turning them pink.

This guy here taught us all about the strange cactus plant behind him that the indigenous used to make string and paper. He also showed us sparkly rocks and artwork.

Afterwards we drifted around a gift shop.

We then ate lunch while seranaded by a man with a guitar and our tourguide. 

This is what I ate. The green thing is cactus. The cactus was used in all sorts of ways. It is super slimy and was also used in the limestone mortar on the temples.

 We were running out of time, so we quickly climbed what was accessible on the temple of the moon. Here I am on top. Part of the temple is currently not accesible as a tunnel has been recently discovered underneath it.

Here we all are together after we went up the pyramid.

Cuernavaca/ Mexico Ciry, D.F. - Church, Mass, Bus, Jake, Mother's Day, Chris' Tia's house

Sunday morning we went to church. It is very peaceful hearing church held in Spanish again. 

We skipped out of church early to go to the famous misa of Cuernavaca which is done using a Mariachi band. 

Sunday afternoon, I skyped with jake, and talked to Michele and some people from Chile.

In the evening, we went to Chris' grandmas house for Dinner in Mexico city. I love how she decorated the roof of her car.

Here we are together at dinner. The food was amazing far better than anything we had eaten all week. Being in a house also felt nice and we felt nothing but welcome from Chris' family. Landis commented to me that he wanted a family here in Mexico, and I can't help but agree. They are lovely.

I had a nice conversation with Chris' uncle about employment and his work as a doctor.

After dinner, Chris' uncle put on Kansas' "Dust in the Wind" and Hannah and I started-off a karoke night that lasted for hours and was full of teasing and laughter. Dr. Turley has a suprising lovely voice, and I particularly enjoyed his rendition of "Michelle my Belle" by the beetles.

Here we are all together.

Our favorite recipe of the foods we tried that night.