at a library again

I have started working at the library at Escuela Manuel Dublan. I work every tuesday and then as a substitute for other days. It's wonderful. The children are so cute, with their heavy spanish accents and their big brown eyes. It is helping me learn a little more spanish. Rus is going to come sit with me sometimes and repair old books. There is a small library in Casas but the elementary school library is actually better. There is also a Mennonite resource center in Casas where they have German, Spanish, and English material. We have made friends with the family that is running the center. They are here from Winkler, Manitoba on a two year contract.

the kids

I am really amazed at how quickly our kids have adapted to their environment, especially Ila and Mei.
The first picture above is taken during Escuela Manuel Dublan's monday flag ceremony. This monday, Liam's first grade english class did a presentation on honesty. Liam is the blonde kid holding onto the letter N.
The second picture is of Mei at preschool. She told me yesterday that all of the kids at preschool have brown eyes and that Ila and Mei have blue eyes.
The last picture is of Ila with our neighbour Isaiah. They used to be best friends and get along so well but now they always fight and pinch each other and Isaiah gets along with Mei instead. He tries to kiss them. He's about six months younger than them and they all share a love of caballos (horses).

love it, hate it

Likes: apple pop, hawaiian pizza with coconut, the large selection of yogourts and granola bars, mexican eyes (dark and friendly, with long lashes), the houses (the variety in colors and shapes), the warm weather, the people

Dislikes: all the stray dogs that sometimes run after us and hang out in packs, the road kill (usually stray dogs) that don't get removed for days and sometimes weeks, the houses (how cold they are inside when it's so warm outside!), cactus needles, not having a car

I will add to the list later I'm sure.
Oh, and the water is not so bad here. It's drinkable in most parts, although I prefer not to drink it, just to be safe. So far, we have not gotten sick from drinking it. I think if we were to go much farther south in mexico it would be different.

Good news: there is going to be a free spanish class for us to take soon. I think Rus will also be helping teach an english class and I am supposed to be starting at Liam's school library soon.

Okay, I have made up for not posting in so long by writing four posts in a row.

houses

I have to stop myself from filling my camera with pictures of houses, there are so many beautiful homes here. They are so varied. The nice yet ridiculously huge house above is only a block away from the tiny house with the dirt yard. The third picture is of our house, right beside the door frame, so you can kind of see what the houses are made of.

random pictures

1. That's me standing in front of Nuevo's version of MacDonald's. I thought it was amusing. It is one of the only reminders of home. It is actually nice to be away from that sort of thing. I'm glad that I don't know what the Top 40 songs are and I am especially glad that I'm not constantly told how many shopping days are left until Christmas!
2. Ila (pink shirt) and Mei are watching a lady sew a skirt. Ila is wearing one that she made. It's kind of like the traditional skirts here; long, full, two-tiered, and flowery. Mei got one exactly like Ila's.
3. We were just at a birthday party. That's Mei taking some rather weak swings at a piñata. Notice how huge the piñata is! There are quite a few stores here dedicated to piñatas.

ruins and mountains

This past Saturday we went to the old town of Casas Grandes and to the Paquime ruins. Nuevo Casas Grandes formed where a railway was built, making it the center of activity instead of Casas Grandes. There was a museum at the ruins that was quite interesting, displaying Paquimian pottery, jewelery, lifestyles, etc. These buildings were once the major trading center in Northern Mexico in AD 900 until 1340 when the city was invaded and abandoned. You can kind of see the T-shaped doorways still that were supposed to slow invaders. It was a hot day when we went. I was worried we would get sunstroke. There was no shade there. That's Ila in the picture above, taking a rest. We weren't actually supposed to wander off the path but she needed a little shade for a few minutes.
On Monday we went to the mountains, past Colonia Juarez. They are nothing like the Rocky mountains...more cacti than pine trees. My batteries ran out on my camera that day so I took pictures with a friend's camera so those I will have to post another day when I can get them from her. We spent all morning and afternoon there wandering the desert mountains, eating burritos cooked on a campstove and helping our friends gather firewood. We all got some pokes from cactuses. They hurt! They are not like slivers; when you take them out, they leave a little bit of poison that stings for a while.

Rus So Far

This is actually Rus, although I signed in as Liz.

So, I like the wheat and walnut and apple yogurt here, and the coconut yogurt. And the Fresca is good here too, it´s not diet, just grapefruit.
Actually, I like the food generally, but I suppose that is no surprise to those who know me.

I have been surprised at how many mennonites there are here, I was aware that were lots south of here, but not here necesarrily. We´ve made some friends with a couple from Winkler, Manitoba who are volunteering here for the MCC (Mennonite Central Commitee) Resource Centre here. They´re kind of like the Manitoba Mennonite counterpart to us. We helped out at the resource centre writing prices on german colouring books the other day.
Incidentally, they are looking for a nurse here at the centre, someone who speaks low german - so put the word out around there for them please.

I am not a fan of adobe houses, I tell people that in Canada it is cold outside and warm inside, here it is the opposite. But, maybe if we were in a house that had more south windows it would warm up better.

A few people have assumed that there is not much daylight now back at our home in Canada, and it seemed pretty close to here actually, so I checked it out to be sure. The sun rises about an hour earlier here, but it sets only about 15 minutes later. I don´t know how or why that is, but that´s what the internet tells me. Oh, Great and Mighty Internet!

Anyway, we´re really tempted now to get a bike that is like a reverse tricycle that vedors haul stuff on in the front, I´ll try to put up a picture soon. (you can google kristiania bike, they´re kinda like that.)

It´s getting colder at night, but the afternoons are shorts weather still.

Adios, amigos.

farming

Rus and Ila tagged along with the owner of a farm one late afternoon a few days ago. His farm produces cayenne, chili and peaches and they lease out some land for potatoes. There is also a big turkey farm close by. Busloads of workers come to these farms every morning from Nuevo, Dublan and other areas.

pictures: Ila playing in sand with a friendly worker (They put the seeds in the sand to keep them dormant before planting. They need a certain number of dormancy hours before they can be planted.), and a truck load of cayenne peppers

bathtime and poisonous candy

Rus did a little internet research to confirm his suspicions about lead in the candy here and it turns out he is right. They are not just rumours. Unfortunately for Rus, the poisonous ones are the ones that he likes the best - the spicy chili kind. We would bring some of these delicious candies home for friends and family to try, but we wouldn't want to posion anyone.

food, sombreros, bug sightings, etc.

spider sightings: 4 black widow spiders, 1 tiny tarantula, otherwise nothing scary. in the middle of summer there are more scorpions and stuff
food: a lot of the same food here only more Mexican...burritos, quesadillas, etc. A lot of people pushing carts around selling mexican hot dogs (dogos) and burgers and stuff. I got sick from a fish taco.

There are also lots of people who have set up little stands on the sidewalks selling food (we had some freshly made potato chips with lime and salt- we said no to the salsa), clothing, hats (sombreros), movies, music, etc. There's a stand outside one of the grocery stores that we like to go to that sells cd's and the guy is always blasting loud spanish music. It makes me wanna boogie.

Sorry there have been no pictures of us wearing the classic mexican sombrero yet. This place isn't as "Mexican" as you can get. It's sort of half-way between American and Mexican. Probably if we went to some of the bars and clubs, we would see more Mariachi bands and stuff. So far we have just seen one band as they were leaving a club. The accordian player let our kids push some buttons.

pictures: Ila and Mei with their caterpillar balloon toys (finally purchased from one of the two ballon guys in town after two weeks of promises to the balloon guy and to Ila and Mei. They broke them after an hour but are still playing with the various parts.), an old juicy fruit sign outside the corner store (mini super) half a block from our place, Liam in front of a hat/wallet/belt stand.

just pictures

each blog entry only allows me to post three pictures at a time, so these are some that i really like that I haven't posted yet. Ila being happy and cute, Liam, Ila and Mei on Halloween, and the last one is Ila looking out the window of the bus somewhere between Butte and Helena.

home sweet home

We moved in around noon on saturday. It feels so good to have a place of our own again. Liam has a tiny room to himself and Ila and Mei sleep in a bigger bedroom with us. There were two beds when we moved in and our neighbour lent us two more. The house is divided in half. We live in the back half and our neighbours in the front. They are a young spanish family, with a two year old boy named Isaiah. The mom, Nancy, speaks very good English. She went to the school that Liam is going to (Manuel Dublan). She took me shopping on Saturday and taught me some spanish. She has always wanted to learn French so I am going to teach her a little bit. She took me to this big piece of property where her father has been building a mini theme park, with go-carts, a batting cage and stuff. It was pretty cool to see something like that in progress. He is doing it mostly himself, with the help of his family. It is a good idea because there is nothing like that around here for kids. Nancy keeps telling her dad that someone with a lot of drug money will steal his idea and build it in no time, ruining it for him but he believes that everything will work out because his is with honest money and honest work. Today Nancy is taking me to a second-hand store to get some blankets and other living essentials.
There is a pre-school between our house and the school that takes three year olds. We are going to investigate it tomorrow. Maybe Ila and Mei can learn some spanish.
I had a real conversation today in Spanish with the pharmacist at a drugstore about cough medicine. I feel so proud. I am finding that I can understand a lot but then I don't know how to respond.
Pictures: good-bye hotel Juarez!, front view of the house (we live in the back half), and a picture of the bathroom and the peach colored walls of our bedroom (an excellent example of decorating color schemes here in Mexico)

optimism

Things are looking up again. Just when things were looking bleak, we found a better rental. We went to view it today and it is perfect. It is two blocks from the school and it's already furnished. We move in tomorrow at 6:00pm. Much better than the other place and also in a good neighbourhood. It costs 1500 pesos a month, which is about 150 canadian dollars a month. Rentals are very cheap here. The water will cost us about 60 pesos a month and I don't know about electricity yet. For gas, we buy canisters.
We had a change of heart this morning too and sent Liam to school after all. Maybe we subconsciously knew that things would work out by the afternoon.
Pictures: Ila splashing in the irrigation water outside the church, Mei and Liam wrestling in the hotel room, Liam outside his first grade english classroom.

Pessimism

Things have changed a bit since my last post. Rus walked from the school to the house we will be renting and it took him 45 minutes. That is pretty far to walk every morning and afternoon. Rus or I would have to walk him to school and back home morning and afternoon so that would be a total of 3 hours of walking per school day. That is more than us spoiled americanos can take. There doesn't appear to be any buses going past there and the place is unfurnished as well, which means we would have to find furniture. We have heard that there are furnished places to rent somewhere but haven't been able to find the guy that rents them. We are feeling bored and tired and dirty. We have not had a real bath in almost a week, which wouldn't be so bad if this place wasn't so dirty. Ila and Mei tell us every day that they want to go home. Liam misses his friends. The novelty of this place is starting to wear off, the dirt is starting to bother us and the language barrier is frustrating. After a lot of thought we decided to forget about trying to find a convenient place to rent and felt that we should just live in the moment. Instead of taking Liam to school tomorrow, we are going to see the Paquime ruins, which are about 8 kms from here. Then on the weekend, we will probably go check out Colonia Jaurez. We will be doing all this by bus. One of our biggest regrets is not taking our car with us. I think if it was just Rus and I maybe it would be easier to just live out of a backpack but our kids need more than this. Anyway, enough with the negativity. After deciding that we didn't care whether we stayed or left, we started enjoying ourselves again. Enough with the stress, we have embraced the roles of tourists. Here Mei and Liam are picking oranges (they were very sour but delicious) somewhere between Nuevo and Dublan. The house is just one that we thought was









cool. There are a lot of beautiful houses here. We didn't get a picture of the house that we thought of renting but it is pretty cool too. The last picture is of a castle that the town of Dublan built once when it had a lot of drug money. Now it is just used for community events and discos.

spicy candy

Mario (in the picture) gave the kids each a bag of candy yesterday for halloween. Some of it was chili flavoured. Spicy!
It was Liam´s first day of school today. He made some friends already in the first few minutes he was there. If you know Liam, you know that this is normal for him.
We got a house! It´s not vacant until the middle of November so we will have to stay in hotels for another couple of weeks and catch a bus into Dublan every day for Liam to go to school. The house has two bedrooms, a livingroom, kitchen, bathroom and a little backyard. It is in the southwest corner of Dublan in a complex called Vista del Sol, within walking distance from Liam´s school, Escuela Manuel Dublan.
There is internet access accross the street from our hotel and it only costs $20 pesos per hour but it´s a little slow. This is Ila sitting on the sidewalk on the same street as our hotel room. In the background you can see some Tarahumara natives sitting together. There is a family or two that is always hanging out in the area. They have beautiful woven blankets and baby carriers and the girls and women wear big colorful skirts that Ila and Mei and I envy. Here is Ila again, in front of a cowboy boot store. There is a cowboy boot store on every street here and there are also a lot of odd taxidermied animals in the windows of some of the stores. There is an appliance store that has a couple of wild boars in the window display among other animals.