Esmeralda

Esmeralda is one of the children at Estancia Infantil.  She just turned 10, has dark skin, short black hair, and a missing tooth.  I find her to be a total delight.  I hate having favorites but she is definitely one of my favorites. 

So…late Friday afternoon, I finally had my tooth pulled.  I was sitting in the town square, waiting for the novaciane to wear off and waiting for a concert to start that I wanted to go to.  As I sat there, I noticed a group of six or seven children.  I was pretty sure Esmeralda was one of them.  But you know how it is when you see someone you know “out of context”.  You´re never really sure if it´s them or not.  Eventually, she looked over my way and I waved and smiled and she smiled back.  But I still wasn´t sure if it was her or just some kid being friendly. 

Eventually, I got up to head to my concert.  In doing so, I passed closer to the group of kids.  The girl I thought was Esmeralda came running up to me.  Yep, definitely her.  I played with her and her friends for a few minutes and then Esmeralda and another girl decided she wanted to go to the store to get some food.  I walked with them down the street, hand-in-hand.  When we got to the store, they loaded up on junk food.  Esmeralda had some money on her but I was happy to treat (it may have been junk food but at least it was vegetarian junk food!). 

I went to my concert which finished at 7:30.  As I walked through the town square, I noticed a gathering of people watching some clowns perform (btw, clowns perform in the town square regularly).  I looked, and there was Esmeralda and her friends at the front of the crowd.  Did I mention that I hadn´t seeen any adults with Esmeralda and her friends and the oldest kid looked to be about 13 or 14? 

So…Saturday night.  I want to a free concert in the town square and afterwards chatted with a girl from Poland.  At 8:30, she decided to leave to go check on her ill friend.  I decided to head to a coffee shop and read my book.  As I´m walking through the town square, there´s another clown show and there´s Esmeralda again at the front.  This time by herself.  No other kids.  No adults.

Sunday.  About 5:30.  I´m sitting in the town square, reading my book.  Guess who comes up to me?  Again, no adults around.  She mentions being hungry and thirsty so I take her to a store and buy her a popsickle and a fruit drink.  I ask her where her mom is and she tells me that she´s at home.  I ask how she plans on getting home and she mentions something about a taxi.  Odd.  Around 6:30, Esmeralda says she has to leave.  I continue reading my book and then a concert starts up.  I listen for a while and then decide to leave.  As I walk through the town square, what do I find but anohter clown show and Esmeralda sitting in front by herself.

This morning, I talked to Clara, the other volunteer.  She was just as puzzled as I was.  She said that whenever´s she´s seen Esmeralda in town, she´s always been with her mom, selling stuff.  Clara said she´d talk to one of the staff members.  I realize that this is a different culture but I find it odd for a 10 yer old to be wandering around town by herself.

Spanish

Sorry for not posting in a while….I´ve been hard at work on my taxes.   

Anyway, I haven´t mentioned this before, but I´ve essentially given up on learning any more Spanish.  Since leaving Guanajuato, I´ve learned exactly two words – tamaño (size) and cascada (waterfalls).  I´ve made some half-hearted attempts to learn more but I was completely exhausted after my weeks weeks studying Spanish in Guanajuato.  Anyway…one last post on why I find Spanish  such a challenge to learn.

First, I should mention that English has a reputation for being difficult to learn.  In some ways, that reputation is deserved.  Because English isn´t a phonetic language, there´s no way to look at a word and know how it´s pronounced.  That´s a problem.  But in many ways, English is a very simple language.  Let´s look at verbs.  Now, I mentioned before that there are only six tenses in English (actually, I said seven…I was wrong…there are only 6).  Here´s the thing…you really don´t need to know much to conjugate verbs in English.

Take the verb “to shop”.  In order to conjugate that you only need to know 4 words – shop, shops, shopped, and shopping.  Now…compare a similar verb in Spanish – comprar (to buy).  To conjugate comprar, you need to know (if I´ve counted correctly) 37 different words.  Holy crap!

Now obviously, that´s not the full story.  If you want to use the verb “to shop” properly, you do need to know other words.  After all, we don´t go around saying “I shopping”.  We say “I am shopping” or “I was shopping”.  But the same holds true for Spanish and once again Spanish has a lot more words you need to know.  The main helping verb in Spanish is Haber.  Well guess what?  In order to use haber properly, there are 35 different conjugations!!!   And that`s just for the main helping verb.

I was going to talk about direct and indirect objects in Spanish but I think I`ll skip that.  I really have no idea how anyone learns a foreign language.  I`m particularly impressed by all the Japanese people I`ve seen studying Spanish.  They seem to do quite well at it despite the fact that it`s obviously very different then their language.  Anyway, I`m glad I learned the Spanish that I did…it`s been helpful on numerous occasions.  I just don`t have the energy to learn more at this time.  Not until someone develops a “language pill” that confirms instant fluency!

Easter in Oaxaca

Easter:  As you probably know, Mexico is a Catholic country.  Based on that, I had two main expectations for yesterday: 1) that most businesses would be closed and 2) that I´d see a lot of people dressed up.  Neither of these proved to be true.  There were lots and lots of businesses open yesterday, both large and small.  I was really surprised.  I can understand a small family owned business being open, a business that may be struggling to get by.  But I was really surprised by all the large businesses that were open.  And I hardly saw anyone who was dressed up.  Over all, it seemed like any Sunday in Oaxaca.

Dentistry in Mexico:  According to a Canadian who has lived in Mexico for a while and whose opinion I trust, Mexico leads the world in two things – salsa (I think he means the condiment, not the dance) and dentistry.  Apparentely,  dentists from the US actuallycome to Mexico to study.  And there`s a growing business of Americans coming to Mexico for their dental care because it`s so less expensive (I read of a Mexican who was upset because his dentist charged him $20 for a teeth cleaning).  Anyway, at 5:00 today I`m headed to the dentist to have my teeth cleaned.  I also need to have a wisdom tooth pulled though I don`t know if that will happen today or if I`ll have to come back for another appointment.  I found this dentist through a quick internet search – someone else spoke very highly of him.  And yes, he does speak English…he actually trained at the University of Michigan.

Movie Titles:  Saturday I went to see the movie Charlie Wilson`s War.  Now I realize it´s not always possible to do a direct translation but this one seems like it would be pretty simple:  Charlie Wilson`s Guerra.  But that´s not what it was titled.  Instead, they went with Juego de Poder.  According to an online translator, that works out to Power Play in English.  Weird….

The Klan???

Klan:  On Friday night, one of the local churches had a slient procession through the streets of Oaxaca.  It`s an annual tradition on Good Friday eve (not sure how far back the tradition dates).  Anyway, a number of people who were participating in the procession were dressed eerily similar to members of the Ku Klux Klan, complete with the pointy hats that covered their whole faces except for the cut-out eyeholes.  I`m sure they`re not Klan members but you`d think someone would tell them that they might want to dress a little differently.

Oops, I did it again: Within two hours of saying I wasn`t going to drink the tap water again, there I was, drinking some more.  Definitely a hard habit to break.  This time, I have to admit, the water didn`t taste half bad.

Mystery Solved:  Turns out that tuna is a type of Mexican fruit that tastes somewhat like a kiwi.  I`m sleepy better at night knowing that they`re not selling fish-flavored ice-cream.

Sandals: I wanted to bring some sandals with me on my trip.  But mine had seen better days and since it was early January when I left the States, the stores didn`t have any in stock.  Right now, I`m really wanting sandals.  Badly.  So I`ve been checking out sandals here in Oaxaca.  The other day, I finally found some in a style I liked for a decent price.  I wasn`t sure what my show size was in Mexican sizes so the clerk started me off with a 7.  They fit, but were a bit too big.  The first clerk sent another clerk off in search of a small size.  He came back empty handed.  I was told to wait a few minutes.  This time the second clerk went somewhere else and this time he came back with another sandal.  I was told this one was a 6 1/2.  I tried them on.  The fit didn`t seem any different than the first one.  I lined them up and sure enough they were the exact same size.  I pointed this out to the first clerk and showed him that they were the same size.  Despite the evidence right in front of him, he continued to insist they were different sizes.  It was bizarre.  I wasn`t sure whether I should laugh or be angry.  Needless to say, I walked out without buying anything. 

drinking the water….

Water:  So the other day, I drank some tap water.  A big no-no in Mexico.  It wasn´t on purpose.  Just one of those things you do without thinking.  38 years of being able to drink tap water is a hard habit to break.  I immediately realized what I had done.  All I could do was wait and hope I didn´t get sick.  Forunately I didn´t.  I probably built up immunity from the first time I was sick or from being here for a few months.  Regardless, I´m going to make sure I don´t drink any more tap water.  It tasted about like what you would expect it to taste like – dirty and filty.

Unusual Sights:

• The other day there was a man dressed in a full body Spiderman costume walking around the main part of town.  He didn´t seem to want anything, he was just walking around shaking kids hands.  Ofcourse, what I´m wondering is this….where the heck do you buy an adult size Spiderman costume???  Not that I want one myself, I´m just wondering.
• Three men in stilts, dressed as clowns, walking through the center of town.  Guess what they were doing?  Handing out schedules for the local baseball team. Obviously!  What else would you expect men on stilts, dressed as clowns to be doing???

Children´s procession:  The other day, there was a small parade of children (probably aged 3-5) who were dressed up in animal costumes and holding signs related to protecting nature and endengered species.  It was nice to see, given that Mexico doesn´t have a reputation for being interested in animals or animal protection.

Balloons:  One of the unique things in Oaxaca that I haven´t seen in any of the other Mexican cities are the balloons that they sell to children.  They´re basically the shape of a cylinder and are blown up to about 4 feet tall (though I´ve also seem them as large as 8-10 feet).

Mexican Drivers:  Mexican have a reputation for being laid-back and carefree, particularly in comparison to their neighbors up north.  Put them behind the wheel of a car though, and they become just as insane as any American driver, perhaps even more so.  As an example, here´s something I witnessed the other day….a car comes around a corner and comes to a stop in the middle of the road.  The two drivers that were behind that car immediately lay into their horns.  Now, it immediately became obvious that the first car was merely dropping two people off.  Even still, the two other cars continued to lay into their horns until the first car started up again.  And by the way, pedestrians do NOT have the right of way here.  I can´t begin to tell you how many times I´ve almost been hit by cars or had to wait at an intersection as car after car turned in front of me.  What is it about cars that turn people raving lunatics???