Sweet Days

Ek Chuah, the Mayan God of Chocolate.

The last few weeks have been so sweet. We've been busy -- going places, seeing people -- and in the background remarking to each other about what we love about being here, how much we'll miss it, how wonderful our friends and neighbors are, how lucky we feel to have had this experience.

This week's little visitor reminded us
that time moves on. 

(It's possible I'm manifesting all of these emotions in ways other than the overproduction of superlatives here on this humble web page -- Wilhelmina was recently overheard to remark, "Mom's acting tripolar" -- but I'm not alone, I swear; I think we're all trying hard to make the most of these last days here.)

We went to the Mayan ruin Toninå, in a
Zapatista-governed area. You can see the
pyramids at right in the background.

Toninå was massive, beautiful, and almost deserted.
We poked around in the labyrinths near the
base of the 7 (?) levels of pyramids. 

Then we started climbing. Guess which child
 uses her asthma inhaler regularly?

Up we went... 

...and out we looked...

And here we are, at the top.

We've also explored some depths...we went to the Grutas de Mamut (Mammoth Caves) nearby. We went with a goodly portion of Doña Lesvia's family.

The mamut turned out to be a vaguely mamut-like mineral
deposit of some kind. Our guide also pointed out
a glob (stalagmite? stalactite?) that supposedly
looked like the hero of Mexican independence,
Miguel Hildalgo. (Like we would know.)

Here's Daniela the zombie!

We spent the whole day in the campo near the caves
with the Zuñiga-Aguilar family. We played futbol and
ultimate frisbee and paddle ball -- and ate at least
3 meals by my last count -- and had a wonderful day.

Sweet days -- and here's the snail again (in blue).

Justo Juez

We see a lot of the Santo Justo Juez, the Just and Holy Judge (aka Jesus), around here--he's installed in the Iglesia de la Merced and a few others around town. And por casualidad, there's been quite a lot of judgment in our lives recently too.

For example, last week Oscar participated in a competition to see which school group could produce the best rendition of the national hymn.

The competition was at a school right around the corner,
so Sean and I went there with Memo, our tutor. While we
waited for the event to start, Memo recounted the choral
disappointments of his childhood (denied a solo in
a similar patriotic event). 

Mexico's got decorative talent.

Clever! These are made with napkins
separated by straws, strung on yarn.

These chic choristers deserve some kind
of prize.  Most berrylicious?

These girls did the escolta to kick things off.

Oscar and his peeps Leo and Ricardo,
"backstage" at the Escuela 20 de Noviembre. 

This salute is a little tiring when ALL the
verses are sung.

And here's Oscar's group, soaring to a
sweet THIRD PLACE FINISH!

 The next Friday, Sean, Memo and I drove to Ocozocuatla about an hour away to serve as guest judges at a high school English competition. (One of Memo's friends is a teacher there and asked Memo to round up some native English speakers.) The theme of the competition was English Literature (really, literature in English, it turned out); ten class groups each had to present on a different author. The presentations included autobiographical information, information about the works of the author, "decoration" (creating an atmosphere that fit the moods/themes of the author's oeuvre), and a short play.

The list of literary luminaries included:

• William Shakespeare
• Edgar Allen Poe
• Agatha Christie
• Charles Dickens
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Oscar Wilde
• CS Lewis
• JK Rowling
• Anne Rice
• Stephenie Meyer

We didn't have a lot of time for or between presentations, so we don't have a lot of photos, but here are a few.

Here we are with Memo. Memo's t-shirt says:
How Many Licks DOES it take?

The balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. 

The wonderful JK Rowling room!

More detail from the Rowling room.

The stage is set for a murder that only the
brilliant Mr. Sherlock Holmes can solve!

We tried to be justos and positivos -- we wrote encouraging comments for each group. And then it was time for our decision.

Results? First place: Edgar Allen Poe presentation. Second: JK Rowling presentation. Third: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (or Agatha Christie...I can't remember. Sean and I were arguing about it for a while.)

Last place (not that they asked, but I'm just saying): Stephenie Meyer presentation. It was mostly in Spanish, not English, and the play had more biting and growling than speaking. 

Sean and I got certificates memorializing our service to the community -- plus gas money home. It was a really fun experience. 

Every Day

                                       

The other day, Sean and I were driving to pick up the kids from school in the afternoon, and we had to stop at one of the city's (very few) traffic lights. While we waited for the light to change we watched this woman. She was sitting on the curb, trying to pull out her own front tooth with her fingers. We never did see how it turned out because the light changed and the people behind us started honking. 

"That's something you don't see every day," I remarked to Sean. And then we got to talking about all the things that we DO see almost every day -- things that are still so interesting -- and that we won't see at all, probably, when we go home next month. 

Funeral processions, almost always with a band.

Sheep by the road and in the road.

Weird wide loads.

...And crazy tall loads.

Fantastic dashboards.

...And more fantastic dashboards.

Children at work.

Sad reminders.

...And scary reminders.

Fresh orange juice, almost always!

Fresh everything, almost everywhere.

Dogs on the roofs. 

Woody Allen on the street. (?)

Magnificent moths.

...And caterpillars.

We're going to miss Mexico so much! It has been a beautiful, fascinating, meaningful, and often weird year for all of us.

Weird in a good way.