Mexico

All is Transformed

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Frank And Kids In The Zocalo

For nearly 15 years Frank sat at the same table every day in front of a coffee shop in the zocalo…often making friends with passersby, vendors…and especially the children. He had a Ph.d in French Lit but lived the life he wanted…poorly and close to the people.

At 5pm he played chess in front of the cathedral. The players loved him and looked up to him. Ivan, his friend and competitor, organized a chess tournament in Frank’s memory in the Zocalo last night with about 30 players receiving a medal and photo. Thank you Ivan! His ashes will be scattered on Sunday the 26. He was an irascible old goat sometimes but had a big big heart that not everyone saw and I miss him terribly.

As an old Marxist, Frank was a non-believer. The last book he was reading when he died was a book about Einstein. Underneath a framed photo that Ivan gave me of Frank, Ivan had this inscribed:

NADA SE CREA NADA SE DESTRUYE TODO SE TRANSFORMA

NOTHING IS CREATED NOTHING IS DESTROYED ALL IS TRANSFORMED

HASTA SIEMPRE FRANK

Frank Died Last Night

Posted on by Laughingnomad

He was “just” a friend…an eccentric friend…but a good friend with heart. For years he spent $70 a month living here. He sat at the same table in the same coffee shop in the Zocalo every single day with one cup of coffee…then moving in front of the cathedral to play chess with the best players around. If I was ever lonely or wanted company I knew he would be there.

This is a poem he gave to another friend a year ago around his birthday on September 23rd. He knew.

so wonderful the decline
how sweet the lowering
crumbling asundering

ebbing delightfull
sliding toward stilness
unrevelling simply
secretly tumbling
fading along down
reaching under
slipping ever

Expats Take Care

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Well, my friend Jayson Heckler who drove down to Oaxaca from the States to Oaxaca with me in 2010 was the next one. Fell and injured his leg and hip. Doc said to go home and stay down. He did. And died.

Barely over the fatigue of traveling…Earl, my friend and escort (he says I am his “chick”) says to me one thursday night walking away from a progressive jazz jam in a small cafe…no rhythm…no beat! I laugh. He seemed tight all night. Then half a block away he says he’s got to get into a taxi and go home. The driver drops me off at my apartment and takes off with Earl.

The next morning he emails me: “I’m scared. My leg went to sleep.” By that afternoon his hospital room was full of his friends.

Long story short he had some blood clots in his leg. Two days later, after a failed angioplasty at another hospital he has his leg amputated above the knee. His daughter who had flown down from Minneapolis, and a friend who was the translator, spent the night with me in case we got a call from the hospital. Desperate for sleep…three times they called. The third time was to find out if we wanted the leg…

Please, jesus and allah, I never want to be in a Mexican public hospital. But I was encouraged by the way everyone pulled together…each contributing help and coordination. I don’t want to be the next one.

In Oaxaca…Finally!

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Ahhhh! No more alarms. No more packing and unpacking! No more late and cancelled flights.  And after four months on the road, I’ve got my own coffee pot and old friends in Oaxaca! Life is good!

But I don’t want to do ANYTHING for awhile…or go ANYWHERE! I just want to crash! In my own apartment!  In my own bed!  As I’ve said before, I am getting too old for this shit!

Oregon Thailand Hong Kong 2013-14

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Need new crowns on implants I got last spring while in Bangkok. Need to see my son Josh and his lovely Significant Other, Polly, in Hong Kong. And spend some time down south in Krabi Thailand with my son Doug and his little fishing boat.

On my yearly trip to Asia, I flew from Oaxaca to Oregon for a week where I picked up 6 months of mail and paid property taxes and ran a myriad of errands. Then Nov 9 spent 8 hours on a cramped Delta flight to Tokyo and another 5 hours to Bangkok. Every trip seems to get more and more uncomfortable. Hard seats make my butt bones hurt even with a pillow. Jet lag and culture shock makes me feel like my body and soul is rubber…stretching out over continents. Getting too old for this shit. But what better to do with myself than visit adult children scattered all over the world. 😉

In the metro on my way to the dentist I see this lovely ad.

Details here are not especially for my readers (if there are any) but a kind of diary to remind myself where I go when and what I do. Memory going fast! But while I am on it, dental work at the Bangkok International Dental Center is excellent and VERY affordable. Dr. Preeda completed dental school at the Univ of N. Carolina and spent a year teaching implant technology there. And for health care you can’t do better than Bumrungrad Hospital. Want a face lift? Ask for Dr. Poomee who spent 30 years practicing in Atlanta Georgia before retiring with a part time practice in Thailand. I asked for a partial but he wouldn’t do it for me. Said I wasn’t ready! Not ready? If I’m not ready at 69 when will I be? He said if you are not ready then results would be disappointing. Oh well. I don’t care anymore anyway. My life is in my face anyway. However I did get upper eyelids done to keep them from falling into my eyes a few years ago.

Have spent 3 days in a dental chair with 3 more to go this week. But the weather is wonderful. Dr. Preeda said winter got here 2 days before I arrived. It is 30F 27C!

I asked him if he had been out in the street protesting and blowing his whistle. He said no but that his 2 year old has been blowing his whistle constantly for days! My yellow-shirt friend will take me to the protest sites. With ear plugs. Hope it’s better than the hand-clappers in 2009-10! But I’d rather be here or in Oaxaca than the U.S. any day where the political drama makes me sick.

Read this morning that the Street Art is getting painted over in Oaxaca. Probably the most egregiously political stuff. Apparently Oaxaca will host the World Congress of World Heritage Cities, a major event bringing together mayors from five continents to discuss the problems of their cities and promoting comprehensive strategies, in order to protect the heritage and promote human development … So they paint over the Street Art??? Arghhhhh! Ruined my morning.

Meanwhile In Oaxaca

Posted on by Laughingnomad

My friends always remember my birthday because that is when the municipal police tried to clear out the striking teachers from the Zocalo in 2006. Every year they have a memorial walk to commemorate it.

June 14 Memorial March

Oaxaca Re-entry April 2013

Posted on by Laughingnomad

I arrived “home” April 19, 2013 after a 6 month RTW trip to Oregon, Thailand, Oman, Turkey, Oregon, Las Vegas and finally Oaxaca again. As I’ve recently said to friends, I’m getting too old for this shit! Figuring out the logistics in an unfamiliar country is exhausting even though exciting. Supposedly this kind of activity is supposed to at least delay Alzheimers. It better do something. Since retirement, and after more than 10 years on the road and living in Mexico, I’m beginning to feel like my friend Tim:

Just this year I started thinking that some travels closer to home would be nice, or a hotel room reserved for me by somebody else, or a pick up at the train station, a nice affordable meal that i haven’t had to search for, working out new currencies and languages, the certainty that my bed is gonna be quiet and comfortable, the knowledge of where I am gonna be tomorrow and the relaxing certainties that come with that. Even so there are a few places that I’d [still] like to see.

Sigh.

Well, now I’ve come home to a complete change in not only Mexican visa regulations but also rules regarding whether you can keep your foreign plated car in Mexico if it is less than 10 years old. Well I have a Residente Permanente visa now which apparently means I can’t keep my foreign plated car because it is less than 10 years old. What they want is for you to take your car back across the border, sell it and come back in and buy a car in Mexico. No way. My car is a rugged 2010. I will just drive it until I get stopped. Don’t think they are going to hassle foreigners and no one else follows the rules anyway. We’ll see what happens.

This has been my life for the last 3 weeks. But I feel ashamed to be complaining as I read about the Boston Bombing, Syria, Bangladesh, Iran, Israel, Mali and a host of other places around the world. And BTW, there was a horrible bombing a couple days ago at the Turkey/Syria border very near Antakya where I stayed for 4 days in a guesthouse.

It seems strange to be thinking about what to do with myself. The U.S. is boring without the street life I’ve come to love around the world, at least in warmer climes, where people are not sequestered inside their homes all the time and I am free to interact with them. I love going to the zocalo and sitting at one of the outdoor sidewalk cafes and drinking coffee or lemonade or mescal for hours over good conversation with simpatico friends.

I am very fond of Oaxaca and the capacity of the people to enjoy life and each other in the face of poverty and a government that sucks. (Well, my government sucks too and I am happy to not be living there.) I would miss the indigenous customs and art, the music, processions, political marches, dancing, ceremonies, celebrations, fireworks and even the rockets. And waking up to church bells and birds chirping in the courtyard at 6am. And the wonderful self-deprecating sense of humor. And walking to the corner at 7am to buy freshly steamed red and green or chicken mole tamales. And the comida corridas that serve a full home-cooked meal for 30-40 pesos (about $3.00US) And the street performers in the intersections. And the Street Art!

I would miss even the horrible karaoke in the community center for elders down the street. And even if the people have no sense of time whatsoever. And even if I’d like to give the finger to nearly every driver on the road…which I did once. And even though I left behind a beautiful home and my apartment is old and the grout is dirty. And I have to buy 5 gallon jugs of water for drinking and cooking. But I am free to choose where to live and enjoy my life…which is a lot more than can be said of many people the world over.

A Mayan New Beginning

Posted on by Laughingnomad

My Christmas this year was quietly spent in Oaxaca. As with any holiday season I get many greetings from friends. But the ones from Patty are always especially rewarding.

A bit about my Mexican-American friend. She married a Mexican National in the states, left all her family there, gave up her home and moved to Mexico with Jose to begin his legalization process. This entailed a hefty fine for his being in the States as an undocumented person and a long drawn-out and expensive and bureaucratic process. It has been 6 years and they are still in Mexico with little hope of getting the money together. So they are barely making it with Patty teaching English to young folks in her home and Jose trying to get work as a mechanic even though he has a college degree in it.

Patty’s Christmas letter 2012
“Well, we’ve made it to the end of the year and despite all of the dire predictions, we partied like it was…going to be 2013 in a matter of days!

With the help of some of my 40+ past and current students and their families we celebrated with as much hope and joy as possible and in the process consumed 150 cupcakes; 400 cookies (sugary stars, frosted Christmas trees, chocolate chip and strawberry filled); 60 quarts of piping hot homemade fruit punch (guayabas, apples, whole sugarcane, tejocote, raisins, plums and piloncio boiled for about 4 hours); and bowls of mole, beans and rice, and just about anything else that happened to wander by.

Thank you all so much for the wonderful e-mails and prayers that have been great company this entire year. I always look forward to hearing from you. When things get particularly tough I gather all of your Love close to my heart, and always seem to find myself on the other side.

The Mayans didn’t predict the end of the world, but rather the end of one cycle, and the beginning of another. In this New Beginning I pray that all of your days are filled with enough Love, Joy and Laughter to get you through whatever difficulties you may encounter along the way. And, as always celebrate the good stuff and kick the junk to the side.

Patty’s “letter” on behalf of Jose:

“What Jose Roberto Did While I Was Busy Trying Not To Get Whacked By The Crazed Mob That Was Chasing Swinging Piñatas…”

“This is what happens when you leave a guy alone for way too long, with too many loose ends-or metal pieces.

Though Jose comes from a long line of stone sculptors (endless cousins and uncles with a multitude of workshops in the neighboring town of Escolasticas) most of whom make a livingselling their beautiful artistry around the world, Jose has never shown much of an interest. As most of you know he works as a mechanic alongside his brother, Carlos. Unfortunately, lately there hasn’t been as much work as we could hope for. Usually, he and his brother sell damaged car parts to a local recycler, but unexpectedly, Jose said he was bored and starting to get a little stressed-out, when he decided that he would take some of those used car parts and create something else.

As you can see he has been busy even if he hasn’t had too many cars to repair.

The first piece he made was Don Quixote which he just sold on Christmas Eve for $300 pesos-about $24 dollars. He has another request for Don Quixote’s sidekick, Sancho Panza.

Jose was nice enough to create a statue of a figure seated with a book (actually a small, rustydoor hinge) in its hands, aptly named the “Student.” I raffled off the Student at our students’Christmas party. Each attendee received a ticket, including their family and friends. The interesting thing is that of the dozens of people present, the statue went to one of my younger students who really struggles to read and to retain information (I suspect he is autistic). God knew what He was doing. The little boy was beyond thrilled and was absolutely beaming with a smile that could hardly fit on his little face!

I don’t think I could be prouder of Jose, and if nothing else, he brought a bit of joy to my little student and his family.

Once again, Jose has shown me that when things look the bleakest, it’s the perfect time to do something for pure pleasure. And, within that, there might just be something more, something beyond the obvious. Something unexpected, and really sweet and good, for more than just ourselves.

I hope your Holiday Season is as Blessed and Joy-filled as ours.

My response:
I wish more people in the world were as good and unselfish as you and Jose. You are wonderful models for the Mexican people around you. As with our Latino high school drop-outs in our alternative education program, we just felt like we were planting seeds. You may not always immediately see the happy results of your labors…just know that you are indeed making a difference in people’s lives. They will think back on what you have modeled for them. It’s what makes life worthwhile.

I may have told you this. A baby sitter in LA from a Chinese family a couple doors up from us found me on FB about a year ago. She called me and told me what an influence we had on her at the age of 12. She used to go through our books and skim them while sitting the kids which she said opened up her world. She expressed such gratitude, it made tears come to my eyes. She since went to college and is now married to a pediatrician (!) and has a lovely family. We never know how we affect people. It was almost scary to me to realize why it is such a great responsibility to model healthy behavior. I get similar feedback from former CREATE students who are on FB with me. (Thanks to modern technology) It makes my life worthwhile. 🙂

And thanks for being such a good partner for each other.
Abrazos,
Zoe

A Birthday in Oaxaca

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Richard, Lulu, Carlos and Lumina

I’m counting my blessings that couchsurfing has given me this morning. I had the best birthday ever yesterday!

A lovely couple (she from Uh Merca and he from Britain) has been staying with me for the last couple of weeks because their landlady refused to pro-rate their last month of rent. Did my heart good because she (the landlady) was a conniving one!

Lumina went out and bought delicious heirloom tomatoes, hand made corn tortillas and flowers. Then a former couchsurfer from Guadalajara (says he left “the machine” behind) showed up with flowers and chapulines (fried grasshoppers). When Carlos, from Guadalajara, came, he left his bicycle and said he was going to the ATM…a five minute walk away. Came back more than an hour later. He had gone to one market about 6 blocks up the hill for flowers and it was closed. So he walked all the way to the big market on the other side of the zocalo (8 blocks) and back just to get flowers. And I’m not even a young chica! An example of the heart that resides in a Mexican. It’s why I’m here and why I stay.

Then a Chilanga (what they call you if U R from Mexico City) couchsurfer showed up with a gift of four lovely Mexican coffee cups. She works for the health department driving into remote mountain villages to take information and meds to the little clinics. Diabetes is endemic here and she says they are trying to get people to change their diet and behavior instead of just giving them pills. Good luck with that, I thought.

In Mexico, when you have a birthday, you stay at home, people just show up and everyone eats food you have prepared. I had made Pork Ribs with Green Sauce and rice and we drank lots of mescal. No face pushed in the cake thank goodness. Lumina had purchased some Mexican pastries she stuck a candle in.

They have been my friends for the year they spent in Oaxaca…he a writer and she a yoga instructor. Having met in S. America a couple years ago, they are going to be married in Ohio in July and then live in England.

I dropped Lumina and Richard off this morning at the bus station with a lump in my throat.

#Yosoy132…I am #132 In The Face of a Mexican Election

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Meanwhile, as teacher strikes continue in Oaxaca and all over the country, it has became clear that the PRI (the corrupt political party that has had a strangle hold on the country for more than 70 years) candidate, Pino Nieto, is the front-runner for the up-coming election for national president. The government controlled TV media is supporting him with impunity and bias. So the young people, mostly university students and others, are demonstrating peacefully in Mexico City and other cities. They are saying that Peña Nieto takes “historical responsibility, moral and political” for the human catastrophe of Atenco. (Read: crimes, rape, abuse, missing, devastated families, political prisoners ….). when he was Governor of Mexico State. When they asked him which books he read he bragged that he doesn’t read. During a speech at a library in Mexico City the students railed against him with jokes and demands for him to get out.

Then, Pedro Joaquin Coldwell, president of the PRI,” gave a radio interview demanding “punishment to the rebels and expulsion of students.” The students responded with cries of “we have changed…you haven’t!”

However the university authorities’ response was unequivocal: the Universidad Iberoamericana guarantees its students the full right to freedom of expression with the “same integrity of the authorities” that, in 1968, (after over 200 students were gunned down in a university soccer field) led the Rector Javier Barros Sierra to protect UNAM students against the intervention of government power. Now, police authorities are not allowed on any university campus. However, now, only one university, so far, is unconditionally protecting the right of students to be critical…the prestigious Universidad Iberoamericana.

So 131 students of the Ibero, “despite the siege and the threats that are reported in the media,” decided, through twitter and Facebook, that “it is dignity which makes possible the bonds of community.” One by one, the 131 students, ironically mostly from affluent families, took responsibility as members of their society. Now, all my young Mexican friends on Facebook are posting “#YoSoy132” which is the twitter hashtag for what is becoming a movement. Face after face, name after name, identity number after number, “together-we-stand” is transforming the political consciousness of a young generation who are sick of death and corruption and just want to get on with life.

The problem, though, is not just refusing to be intimidated by power. But how to disarm it.

My god, they look young!