Day 23: Writing Writing Writing Like a Madwoman!

9:39 pm

Hi everyone!

Not a lot happened today; I was mostly writing writing writing like a madwoman all day. I knew that sooner or later I was going to have to do some actual work, and today I guess it snuck up and bit me on the ankle. Luckily I got the bulk of it done; I cranked out 9 1/2 pages of my report, and I'm almost out of material to write about.

One cool thing that happened today was that Cliff, one of our teachers (who lives in San Miguel but doesn't speak Spanish-- does that tell you how many Americans live here?) was trying to talk to a guy about the big conference next week, but the guy barely spoke any English. So... they asked me to be their translator! That was pretty cool; that shows how much better my Spanish is getting.

Then tonight we all got together for one last time, because tomorrow morning Erica is leaving. So all six of us interns (me, Simone, Erica, Clea, Aneesha, and Johanna-- Erendira had to leave last week) and the two new high school interns (Daphne and Laura) and Peggy and Mike and Betsy and Bob and Ata and Cliff and Arturo and his wife and Gino, and Peggy's friend Mickey, all got together to have spaghetti and sopes and wine and we talked and talked and talked.

I know I promised to talk more about the campo tonight, but the problem is that I have no idea where to start. I guess what they say is that when you don't know where to start, just start at the very beginning. So I will.

Tuesday, July 4, 2006

Day 14: A Celebration of Independence

We arrived in Cieneguilla mid-morning and our first stop was the house of Doña Vicki, where Simone and Erica ended up staying. Her kitchen was a lean-to shack made of carrizo reeds; dirt floor, the whole bit. A completely separate building from all the bedrooms. She asked us if we wanted any breakfast, and before even waiting for an answer she started up with heating beans and making tortillas on a huge flat metal circle suspended over an open flame. Then she made a sort of egg and vegetable concoction, which looked really good. It made me wish that I ate eggs. Simone also doesn't eat eggs. When Doña Vicki saw that we were only eating the beans and tortillas, she asked what was wrong. As it turned out, Erica doesn't eat meat, I don't eat eggs, and Simone doesn't eat meat or eggs. So she asked us if we wanted nopales. Nopales. I knew that word. What was it? I realized I recognized it from hours of cutting up Lotería cards for projects. Doña Vicki ducked out the side door of the kitchen shack I started flipping through my mental rolodex of Lotería pictures; half-naked mermaids, tall black boots, soldiers, parrots, drunks, and... I landed on the correct picture just as Doña Vicki burst in the side door with a huge smile on her face and two handfuls of... cactus. Yes, cactus. Nopales were cactus. And we were going to eat them.



I was actually very surprised; I liked the way they tasted after they were cooked and cut, though they were unnecessarily slimy and of a slightly disgusting consistency. When you picked up a spoonful, it left behind a long snot-like string, like glue gun cobwebs. Yum. They were especially good with a little lime and salt.

Then, a little while later, we went to the house of Doña Chabel, the lady that I ended up staying with. We walked up to the top of a hill, the edge of her property, and it was beautiful. From there, we could see all the way across the valley. On the far side of the valley, where Tierra Blanca is, there was a message on the hill: Adorado Sea El Santísimo Sacramento; Ave Maria Purísima; 1958. (Adored Be the Blessed Sacrament; Hail Pure Mary; 1958. VERY Catholic.)
Here is a picture I took of the hill later, from Tierra Blanca.




Then they told us that two of us would stay with Doña Vicki and the third with Doña Chabel. Which meant that one of us would be alone. I was a little apprehensive about that, but since Erica and Simone are working together on their project, I figured it made sense for them to be together. I think they were relieved. I really had a great time, there, though, and I think I learned even more being there by myself. My week there was amazing.

The first night, Pera and Anita Karen and I went to the neighboring community of Tierra Blanca for a fiesta celebrating the feast day of Maria del Refugio. It was chaos; a huge grandstand where a bunch of cute boys were playing a cumbia, a dancing expedition, and a huge speaker system playing Reggaeton were all vying for the title of Loudest. There were carnival rides, peddlars of everything you could think of, and kids EVERYWHERE. I was the only non-Mexican face in the crowd, but by now I had grown almost accustomed to stares. First we went to the church to pray for a short time; the church, like all the churches here, was ancient and beautiful. But partway through our prayer time, a brass band came in the back of the church and started up playing. At first I was annoyed; wasn't there a better place for them to be playing? I knew it was loud outside, but really. Until I remembered that feast days were happy occaisions; a time to celebrate the blessings that the Lord has given us. And I couldn't think of a better place for that band to be playing.

This is a cross I saw at the fiesta; more on the significance of these beautiful symbols later.

Little Anita Karen had such a good time on the carnival rides. We all rode the bumper cars together, too. That was so much fun!

I felt a little sad whenever I thought about the fact that it was Independence Day and nobody here even knew. It was my first Independence Day away from the United States, and it made me a little homesick.

"Today is our Independence Day," I told Pera. "My friends are probably watching a fireworks show right now."

I didn't see any fireworks while we were at the fiesta, though there were lots of naval flares the entire week I was there; it scared the crap out of me the first time I heard it, but by the end of the week I barely even heard it. But then, just as we were walking away from the fiesta, one huge green firework went off right above the church. That made me so happy; it was like a little part of Independence Day found me all the way in the Mexican countryside. A way to celebrate my own independence; being alone in a foreign country, staying at Doña Chabel's house by myself; proving that there are things that I can do all on my own.