Sunday, December 30, 2007

Good Bye 2007

The Oaxacans know how to say good bye. In all things celebratory, they outstrip Americans by about 10 to 1...if you can measure such a thing as the spirit of celebration.

Here, you see an old stuffed man. He currently resides on our neighbor’s roof. This character symbolizes 2007 and tomorrow night he will be set aflame and destroyed…and if we know anything about Oaxacans, it’s that they love shooting off fireworks, so most likely a few firecrackers will be put in his beard…and a bottle rocket or two stuck in his pant legs.

Hello 2008 and a Prospero Año Nuevo to you all.

Friday, December 28, 2007

Warm Days and Lots of Play




Abraham's new chess set from Mitla artisan's market. Abby and Shaina getting some morning cuddle time and Joey exhausted after trying to keep up all day with the cousins. He fell asleep tonight on two beanbags.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

The Christmas Parade

Roxy's birthday dinner and the Christmas parade we stumbled upon. Kids dressed up as the holy family and angels and shepherds, puppets twirling and countless Oaxacans celebrating on the square. Christmas is a wild affair in the centro. No snow, but plenty of joy.





Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Cousins Visit


Neuwirth cousins visit from Denver. First photo...kids are catching grasshoppers at Monte Alban...the beautiful Zapotec ruins above town. There is not limit to the kids' creativity and energy. They love being together, can you tell? Here they are on a bus to the centro. Nothing so exciting as a bus ride together. After the tour of the main plaza in town, we enjoyed an art class with Abby's art instructor. We've also been visiting Tulle, the village that brags the largest and oldest tree in the world, played soccer, baseball, gone to an art auction (bought nothing this time) and eaten some delicious Oaxacan food together. We miss you, Grandma and Grandpa, but we're having a lot of fun!

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Folk Remedies and Advice From a Pilates Instructor

If you've spent time among the locals in Mexico and especially if you've become ill while here, you know how various folk remedies flow from a Mexican's lips in an attempt to help or cure you.


Recently, our good friend, Daniel told us the key to staying healthy in Oaxaca. It involves imbibing a blended drink of red onion, lemon and honey. Daniel's wife, Marisol is the one who had a baby in October (their 3rd). For the health of the baby and mother, she was to stay home for 40 days following the birth. Her mother came to assist her during that time and though she is a modern working woman, and had grown incredibly bored by 20th day or so, she stayed home all 40 days.


However, Jason and I were taken aback when our pilates instructor (by the way, we love our pilates class and our instructor, Judy--pronounced WHOODEE) lectured us on the dangers of bathing in hot water (warm water is acceptable, but not hot). Apparently, from what she told us, hot water turns your skin and muscles prematurely flabby. She went on for a while, even giving us the example that she had seen 18-year-olds with flabby legs and rear ends.

On each occasion, she had asked the young woman. “Do you bathe in extra hot water?” and each time, the woman had said, “Yes…I do."


What a relief. Flabbiness has nothing to do with aging, eating too much or living a sedentary life…but watch out for hot water! We thought you should be warned.


Photo: The kids had the day off school, so we did our own pilates class on the roof of our house. This was a couple of weeks ago...winter in Oaxaca.


Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Thursday Market


One of the fantastic pleasures of living in Oaxaca is descending on the markets that are held daily throughout the city and in the surrounding pueblos. While Bruce was visiting we went to the “famous” (because it will often be featured in travel books) Zaachila Thursday market. We rented a car, drove across town and down a winding road in a low-lying farm area. We emerged in Zaachila. At first, the town appeared empty, but we followed the red and white motorcycle taxis and found life in the centro. In front of the 300-year-old Catholic Cathedral, awnings and tables and blankets and booths spread out as far as the eye could see and everyone in town, it seems, was at the market. The market in Zaachila ought to be filmed…its colors strike you immediately as well as the smells. Meats, poultry, fruits, vegetables, grains, beans (including raw cacao…pictured here…mole paste is in the background in the stainless steal bowl, bought by the kilo, you add chicken broth and…Voila!..instant gourmet mole!) breads, flowers, cloth, wares of all types are sold at a price that would be hard for Super Walmart to beat. We bought 2 kilos of fresh strawberries (a luxury item for us) at 20 pesos (about 2 dollars) and five delicious avocados among a few other necessary items.

The most unexpected sight for me, was the presence of numerous elderly Zapotec ladies holding their live, fattened turkeys at key intersections within the market. The women had tied their birds' feet and were holding them upside-down. The turkeys stayed remarkably calm despite the crowds and looked around their surroundings with seeming disinterest. A friend said that roasted turkey is a common holiday meat. No frozen turkey here, just the one that you buy at market, keep in your yard until the morning of the big feast and then…well, the meat is fresh and you didn’t have to waste any freezer of refrigerator space.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Steroids and Baseball…

By the posting of this entry, even those of you who are not baseball fans have heard about or read something of George Mitchell’s report on steroid use in baseball. For me, the most startling find had to do with performance enhancing drug use among youth.

In the report, Mitchell cites surveys that show 3 to 6 percent of adolescents have used performance-enhancing drugs, which translates into hundreds of thousands of children.

"Every American, not just baseball fans, ought to be shocked into action by that disturbing truth," he said.

I would hope so!

And it’s not just a male issue. Recently Marion Jones’—also tied in with BALCO, Barry Bonds’ notorious supplier—pleaded guilty to lying to the feds, when she denied using performance-enhancing drugs. She made an apology outside the U.S. District Court.

“It’s with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust. I have been dishonest and you have the right to be angry with me. I have let my family down. I have let my country down, and I have let myself down. I recognize that by saying I’m deeply sorry, it might not be enough and sufficient to address the pain and hurt that I’ve caused you.

Therefore, I want to ask for your forgiveness for my actions, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”

Throughout her comments, Marion was clearly emotional. Her mother stood behind her the entire time, a supportive hand on her shoulder. Marion Jones also returned her Olympic medals. Though lying to the feds might land her in jail, I appreciate her public comments. It took a lot of courage to say those words.

So now I try to imagine Bonds or Clemens making a Marion Jones style apology, their families gently urging them on in the truth-telling and then the topper...the giving up of their awards and lauds. For this fiction writer, that’s a scene I cannot imagine.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

First Visitor From the North...Bruce Arrives


The season of visitors begins. Bruce Hansen, our colleague and friend from Berkeley arrived this afternoon. Abby and Gabe made the welcome sign. Hi...Stasia, Kayla! We wish you were here, but hope our postings will help you feel like you're participating somewhat in your dad's time in Oaxaca.

And Have You Gotten Sick on the Water or Food?

A friend recently asked me this...

It is an interesting question and I’m not sure every reader wants to know all the details, so skip over if you're grossed out by this kind of thing…but we've done a bit of research recently...and I won't say anything more about what we saw, where we saw it and why it prompted this research.

Suffice it to say that 100s of millions of people in the world live with and see few or no symptoms of round worm (just one example of what Oaxacans probably host in their digestive tracts). We assume, since we’ve lived sort of like the locals that we do have a variety of freakish microscopic and/or not so microscopic creatures living in us. We’ve eaten meat cooked in a street taqueria (except Abby who is a vegetarian)…we take showers without keeping our mouths taped shut. Moreover, we’ve had various digestive issues move through us (so to speak). Gabe threw up once. The rest of us, just the runs here and there…but overall we’ve been healthy and happy and maybe our intestines are perfect, clear of all alien life forms...but maybe not.

The adults in the family are thinner and the kids could use to be fattened up as well. We'll frequent the Cheese Board when we return to Berkeley and buy the bread we've been pining for all these months...The Bread Garden's sour dough loaf.

But back to worms. Our theory on the matter is this: we will go in for physicals when we return home and do the big kill there. Why bomb the creatures now when they’ll probably move back into the neighborhood, but with more friends and possibly more sinister ones at that?

I call this approach…Don't worry, be happy you're not having to count Weight Watcher points!








Monday, December 10, 2007

Art

Misael Mendez is a contemporary artist in Oaxaca. I love his work and if I had a couple of thousand dollars at my disposal, I'd come home with two of his paintings, at least.

Misael is also the novio of Abby's art teacher, Rosalba Gonzalez. They live and work in the same space. Today, when Abigail was at her art class, Misael passed through the room and saw a monotype that she had created. It's quite abstract, but right away he nailed the image...exactly what Abby had intended.


He said(in Spanish, of course), "That is a dog on a boat in the ocean and the dog is happy. I like that very much."
Is that what you see? If I hadn't told you what it is, would you guess and dog on a boat in the ocean...Go Dog Go!

So what is it with these artist types? What makes them think the way they do? I am reminded of the book, the Little Prince. I remember how the boy draws a picture of a snake after is has swallowed an elephant whole, but most everyone who looks at the drawing cannot see the true image. And actually, it does sort of look like a hat.



Saturday, December 8, 2007

One Month and Counting

It is strange to write this, but we have a month left in Oaxaca. On the 9th of January, very early in the morning, we walk on a plane and will eventually step out of airport-land in Denver, onto fresh, cold dirt, or snow, or pavement. Well...you catch my drift.

Today, I post a photo that caught my eye early on. Rod iron fences abound in Oaxaca and many are coiled and bent into artistic forms...if not kitschy designs. This one surrounds a house that doubles as a preschool. If I hadn't seen the movie, Donnie Darko, I'd think it was kind of cute, but because there is a creepy man in a bunny suit in that film, I only think of him when I walk by, which I usually do two or three times per week. Maybe it is because the bunny wears a frown.


Note to grandparents...though I love the film Donnie Darko, for it's weird time-bending redemption, I don't recommend that you see it.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

More Swim Photos







I thought I'd indulge the grandparents and include a few more Huatulco photos. Here is 3/4 of the family about to ride on what our kids called the "banana boat". This tube gets pulled around the bay for 5 minutes or so, then the driver of the boat races back toward shore and turns, leaving the occupants of the banana boat at the mercy of certain laws of physics...that is...Abby, Gabe and Jason get tipped into the bay at the end of the ride.
Two other photos...Abby at the start of her 100 meter backstroke and what you see above is Gabe watching her photo finish. She is in the center lane. Her arm is about to go over and touch the wall...barely clinching that gold medal. She won by a hairsbreadth...her only close race.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Huatulco







This past weekend, we traveled to Huatulco with Abby's swim team. Day 1, a 1K race on the beach, day 2, a swim meet at an aquatic center.


What an interesting experience! Absolutely, Huatulco is an amazing coastal area. Of the nine Bahia’s (or bays) in Huatulco, we visited two. It was a short trip (much of which was spent on a “first class” bus…I’ll write more about that below). The team, the coach, all the people with whom we traveled were wonderful. There were plenty of jovenes (teens) travelling without families, but a few like us, travelling as families. We were 40 people.

The first Bahia we saw was Santa Cruz, a marina area, plus beach. Abby and many others swam the 1 kilometer race here. The distance wasn’t awful, but standing from shore, it was very far out into the Bay, to the point that you could hardly see the swimmers at the halfway mark. Basically, they swam around an orange buoy and back to shore. Abby swam like a champ, despite the fact that her goggles broke right at the start and she had to borrow someone else’s, a lame start that put her in the back of the pack where everyone was kicking water into her face. Also, she is terrified of heights and deep water (she says they’re similar fears). She almost quit the race because of it, but didn’t and finished with an okay time. I was happy she overcame the fear, a bigger deal in my mind than placing in the top three. (Abby finished sixth...photos show after, before and during...I'm still terrible at arranging photos on this blog program...sorry!)


Later that day, we went to Bahia Maguay, a popular snorkeling destination. Snorkeling was good. Jason and I have seen better reefs in Cozumel and Akumal, but kids don’t remember those so well, so it was fun to witness them seeing that underwater world for the first time, making their own discoveries and feeling confident in the water.

The next day Abby won 4 of her 4 races, though I will say the competition wasn’t too stiff and Abby could have performed better had she felt other swimmers breathing down her back. Still, fun and such a unique experience. Similar and yet very different than how a meet would run in the states. The coaches here are fighting a lot of cultural barriers to get folks to sign their kids (especially daughters) up for a swim team and competing on a world stage becomes an almost staggering proposition.

I read an article about the young woman who trains at the pool where Abby swims…a triathlete named Ruth. She just won won her first world competition (she’s seventeen and she placed first in the junior world women’s triathalon…later competed with elite triathletes of all ages and came in 19th.) Her coach wrote a piece that I found online, on a website called Goswim, interesting rambling writing style…but very compelling story in terms of how everything from Oaxacan diets (kids here eat a lot of packaged junk food and candy) to a prejudice against walking or riding a bike (reveals poverty…so why ride to school or jog, when you have a car…no middle-class person in their right mind would choose that mode of transportation)…Her coach feels that training is more integrated in US, Canada, Europe…places where there is a culture of fitness.

I do know that about ½ of the best high school distance runners in Southern California were Mexicans(back in the 80s when I was running competitively)…they’re natural athletes, many of them, with amazing endurance. Eugenio Cruz was on our team, our fastest senior when I was a sophomore running cross country. He would always joke with us after winning a race, saying, “That was nothing. You should have clocked my time when I was crossing the border…” and then he’d laugh, but there was a glimmer of truth in his eyes. I’ll always remember that line.

As for the bus ride. I don’t know what to say, except that I’ll wake up in a cold sweat for the next four months, imagining I’m on that long and winding road utterly dependent on a bus driver who likes to stop at a fruit stand and buy fruit for his family back home…or stop for coffee…or stop to make a cell phone call…thus, turning an already grueling 7 hour trip into a 10 hour trip. The kids were awesome…did not complain at all. I was miserable…

I emailed these details in a letter to my parents yesterday and my mom wrote back, saying..."In 10 hours, I'm in Copenhagen..." She does that trip a lot, on the way to Sweden to visit my grandmother. Somehow, that comment put so many things in perspective. High-powered American lives compared to the simple lives of most Oaxaquenos. An alternate universe. A place where we have received rest for our souls.