Death Match

This post is a bit of a potpourri.  I need to leave soon to catch the bus because I am meeting a couple in an hour who agreed to teach me how to make a hammock.  When we first arrived in Oaxaca, I met them at a crafts market that was set up for the holidays.  I said I would prefer to visit their workshop than buy a hammock at the market, so they gave me their number.  When I called on Tuesday to see about visiting, I asked if they could teach me how to make hammocks.  They said they would.  It will be interesting to see if they really plan to.

First item – a picture of our family at the Zócalo (central square) last Saturday.  Helen and Max are holding big arrow-shaped balloons we bought for them to play with.  You punch the balloon into the air and either catch it or practice Spanish by apologizing to the person it hits on the way down.

Second item – we still cannot believe how much we lucked out with this house.  By far the biggest perk of living here is the family that owns it.  They live in the main part of the house, so it is more of a co-living situation.  There is the mother and father, 6-year-old José Andres, plus their maid/babysitter and her 16-year daughter who are here most days.  There are so many nice things to say about all of them.  For now, I will just post this picture of Helen and José Andres, who are becoming good friends.  They play together every afternoon.  Helen took this picture herself.

For another look at Helen’s camera work, check out this video:  Helen Likes Mexico.  Someone suggested we send it to the Mexico Tourism Board, but first Helen needs to practice holding the camera steady.

Third item – Every day we have been making lunches for Max and Helen to take to school.  Yesterday we gave Max 50 pesos (about $5) to try the school cafeteria.  I bet you are thinking, “school cafeteria, not good.”  Here are three things I learned when I picked Max up from school:  (1)  The food is homemade and delicious.  Max had a tostada with fresh vegetables and grilled meat for lunch, and then he made me eat one when I picked him up to prove how good it was.  (But he ate most of it.)  (2)  Max is generous with his lunch money.  While we were waiting for the second tostada, a couple of his friends stopped by to thank him for buying Jello for them.  (3)  It is cheaper for us to give Max money for the school cafeteria than to pack him a lunch.  Looks like he will be eating at the cafeteria from now on.

Food from the school cafeteria never tasted so good!

Fourth, and last, item – Yesterday I visited the Zapotec ruins of Monte Alban.  It served as the capital to a federation of villages and cities in the Oaxaca Valley from about 500 B.C. to 850 A.D.  I went on a tour with an archeologist, Robert Markens, organized by the Oaxaca Lending Library.  The theme was interpreting Zapotec hieroglyphs that appear at the site.  To be honest, I was not very excited to go, but I felt like I should see it since we are here and it was a good opportunity to learn about the site from an archeologist.  I was blown away.  The site is absolutely spectacular.  It is difficult to capture in a picture.

Monte Alban's Central Plaza

Toward the end of the tour, we passed the court where the inhabitants and/or their prisoners of war played a deadly ball game.  The game itself is not deadly, but it becomes deadly if you lose.  Losers often were sacrificed.

Ball Court at Monte Alban

Dr. Markens explained that these ball courts appear in the center of most ancient Meso-American cities.  On the one hand, it seems unusual that ball courts played such a prominent role.  But then again, is it so unusual?  You may want to wait until after Sunday to answer that question.  (Go Packers!)  --Harrison

"Where did it come from?"

That is what we really want to know.  Where did the scorpion Natalie saw yesterday crawling across the kitchen floor come from?

The most likely theory:  Inside Max's soccer cleats, which had been washed and left outside overnight to dry.  Natalie was about to put the cleats in a bag to take to practice when she saw the scorpion scamper across the floor and onto the ledge of a stair.  Did she scream?  Maybe.

If the scorpion dropped from Max's cleats, at least it originated outside.  Other theories about where it was hiding are more disturbing.  Was it in our bedroom?  The bathroom?  In one of our shoes that was inside the house?  In the dirty clothes basket?  Our neighbors/landlords found a scorpion under a couch cushion a couple of weeks ago.  We took comfort in the fact that we have no couch.  Now that sense of security is gone.

People have told us to expect more scorpions because it is getting hot.  But not to worry, they say.  These scorpions are not the most poisonous kind.  Their stings merely hurt, give you a rash, and cause muscle spasms for a day or two.  And to think, we were worried.

I would like to say that we trapped and relocated the scorpion to a place where it will not hurt us.  In a sense, we did.  We cornered it, dropped a rock on it, and relocated its remains to a hole in the garden.

Hand of death

May it rest in peace.  --Harrison

Food for thought

Somebody asked us to post more food photos.  Here are some shots of a couple of recent meals.  The first pictures are from a surprisingly good restaurant that overlooks the Zócalo, called El Asador Vasco.  I say “surprisingly,” because it is located and priced in a way that screams “this will be low-quality tourist food!”  You sit on a balcony with a perfect view of everything happening in the city's central square.  It rivals some of the world's best people-watching spots, especially on a Saturday afternoon, which is when we were there.  The view alone justifies the admittedly inflated prices (that still are cheaper than an equivalent restaurant at home).

Enjoying the Zócalo from our table

A street theatre troop we saw while eating

But in addition to the view, the food is quite good.  Here is what we ate:

Natalie:  grilled meat, black beans sprinkled with Oaxacan cheese, grilled quesillo (a different Oaxacan cheese), tortillas soaked in mole negro

Harrison:  chile rellenos stuffed with meat, peppers and cheese with a red pepper sauce

Max (and Helen):  spaghetti carbonara

The second meal that makes this blog entry is Max’s and Helen’s breakfast.  It is the result of a shopping trip yesterday I took with Max.  We were both hungry when we went to the store -- a mistake.  Additionally, I had just been pelted during our second foray into paintballing, so my resistance to Max's nonstop requests was low.  First I let him talk me into buying sugar donuts.  Then, when he pointed out to me the humor in naming a cereal “Azucaradas,” which is the Spanish translation for “Frosted Flakes” but means literally “Sugareds,” I bought them too.  After all, it was nice to see Max enjoy a laugh about something in Spanish.  The result is that they had Frosted Flakes and sugar donuts for breakfast this morning:

Anyone look excited over breakfast?  Wired?

Max and Helen had plenty of energy when we dropped them off at school.  They probably were asleep at their desks within 45 minutes.

Earning his burritos

Well that is funny.  I logged on to say some nice things about Max, but I see he beat me to it.  I have to concur:  Max is awesome.  He faces some of the biggest challenges here.  Unlike Helen -- who certainly would like to see people from home but who, like any five year old, still lives mostly in the present -- as a ten year old Max truly misses his friends and is sad about not being with them.  His peers at school and on his soccer team in Mexico can be judgmental about his not speaking Spanish or not knowing what he should be doing, and his teachers and coach make no special accommodations.  And on top of the pressures of school, soccer, learning a new language, and being away from his friends, there is hardly a moment we are together when Helen does not want to do exactly what Max is doing.  Natalie and I think it is sweet, and at times Max enjoys it, but it can drive him a little nuts too.  Wherever Max goes, so goes Helen.

Granted, there are moments when Max is a little Focker.

But for the most part he has been a star. 

With friends at our house

Winning superballs for guests at Helen's birthday party

Hauling groceries

Embellishing our salad with a radish carving

As for school, we have told Max repeatedly we could care less about his grades this semester.  The learning he is doing – navigating a new school in a foreign country in a different language – is not measured by grades.  Nevertheless, Max has had tests in every subject this week and, somehow, he seems to be doing fine.

As a reward (for everything, not just the tests), last night we had Max’s favorite dinner.  

Burritos!

From what we can tell, the only way to get a burrito in Oaxaca is to make it yourself.

BTW, if it is starting to seem from the photos like Max and Helen wear the same thing every day, it is because they do.  I am not talking about their school uniforms.  We brought a suitcase full of clothes for each of them.  We could have brought a few pairs of shorts and a couple soccer jerseys for Max, and a couple of skirts and t-shirts for Helen.  Actually, we each could have gotten by with only a few outfits, although Natalie wishes she had more warm clothes for the mornings and for her Spanish classroom, which she claims is “freezing.”   --Harrison

live from Oaxaca it's... Max!

just wanted to say max is awesome and he has a new post on his blog.  His blog is:
http://oaxacamax.blogspot.com/  --Max

Lost and (not quite) found

The Saga of the Lost Kindle

I have spent more time than I probably should have trying to track down a Kindle e-reader my parents forgot on an airplane when they visited Oaxaca last October. They came for Day of the Dead – a trip that was planned, unfortunately, before we decided do come here this year.  My parents lost the Kindle on the flight home.  A representative for Aero Mexico told them the Kindle was found, but that it was in Mexico City.  They were given a case number and an e-mail address and phone number to use for making arrangements to get the Kindle back.  But then they hit a wall.  Nobody answered the phone when they called, and nobody responded to their e-mails.

Before we left, my father gave me the information about the Kindle in case we had time at the Mexico City airport to follow up.  We knew it was a long shot, but why not try?  In Mexico City, we waited 20 minutes for one lost and found office to open, but they sent us to a different office that did not open until after our flight left.  So last week I found the Aero Mexico office in downtown Oaxaca and asked if they could help.  I thought it would be easy to track the item, even if we could not recover it, because it had a case number.  But the man who helped me did not know what the case number referred to.  He spent twenty minutes reviewing an online list of items lost on Aero Mexico flights over the last three months, but he could not find a Kindle.  One of the problems is that we did not know how it would be listed.  Computer?  Electronic reader?  Book?  Personal Organizer?  He said he would keep looking.  I left my number and asked him to call if he found it.

Yesterday I met one of my colleagues and his partner for breakfast.  They are frequent visitors to Oaxaca, and they had given Natalie and me some good tips when we came here in June on a scouting trip.  They needed to go to the Aero Mexico office, so I went with them.  The man who had helped me before was busy.  I decided to start over with a different person.  I just could not believe the case number was good for nothing.  In fact, using the case number the woman who helped me the second time actually found the Kindle in the system.  She tried calling the lost and found facility in Mexico City, but nobody answered.  So she sent them an e-mail asking them to send the Kindle to Oaxaca and told me to check back with her later in the day.

That was yesterday morning.  I stopped by the office again today and still there was no response.  As of this afternoon, still nothing.  So, what do you think?  Will we see the Kindle again?  I have an irrational sense of optimism that we will.  Once it was logged into the system and given a case number, nobody would take it.  Or would they?  Stay tuned.

I have been instructed to include at least one photo with each blog entry.  I do not have a good picture to go with the Kindle story.  If we get it back, I promise to take a picture worthy of the celebratory blog entry that will follow.  For now, here is a completely unrelated picture of Helen lining up with her class.  She’s the third kid from the front of the line.  We had the pleasure of seeing the picture as part of a presentation the teachers did for the parents to tell us what our kids will be doing this semester.  I asked if they could e-mail the presentation to me.  I said it was so I could look up some of the Spanish words, but really I just wanted a copy of this picture.  -- Harrison

Glory without the guts

We have not written much about food, but we think about it all the time.  There is an amazing assortment of food here.  I still cannot tell which foods are unique to Oaxaca and which foods are just “Mexican,” but I can tell you that most menus contain at least as many dishes identified as being Oaxacan as other dishes.

We have approached the food somewhat conservatively.  Most importantly, we have wanted to give our bodies time to adjust to the different diet, and we especially have not wanted the kids to get sick.  We waited about a week to eat food from stands on the street, and we still favor restaurants over “street food,” although that is starting to change.  Just yesterday Max and Helen insisted on getting breakfast at an empanada stand in the market even though Natalie and I voted for a nice looking restaurant we passed on the way to the market.  And while we have not stuck to this religiously, we have tried to eat only fresh fruits and vegetables that we can wash first at home.  That did not stop Max and me from eating the lettuce that came in the tacos we bought at a street market this morning, but we passed on the cucumber slices served on the side.  

We also have used food as a way to combat the kids’ homesickness and as a reward for being such troopers.  For me and Natalie, a reward for being here comes in the form of a delicious omelette from La Olla restaurant like the one we had last week, made with cabbage flowers and zucchini, and topped with fresh tomatoes, the herb epazote, and locally-made cheese.

Omelette from La Olla

But for the kids, it could mean Cocoa Krispies for breakfast or orange soda with dinner, two things they would not get at home.  It also has meant buying imported lox for Helen’s birthday dinner, making Kraft macaroni and cheese or frozen pizza, and keeping a supply of salami in the refrigerator.  On the one hand it feels like a waste of being here to eat those kinds of foods, but anyone who has travelled knows there really is such a thing as comfort food.  And do not think only Helen and Max partake in the comfort foods.  Natalie made me line up the ingredients of my breakfast the other day so she could document it.  (Try it before you criticize it.)

Peach yogurt, bananas, and Cocoa Krispies.   Yum.

What makes it ok in my mind to eat some of the less exotic foods from time to time is that, for the most part, one simply cannot avoid eating the local fare.  Take today, for instance.  We had omelettes in the morning – nothing special, although we did mix in some homemade cheese mixed with herbs and chili peppers.  And we had some leftover macaroni and cheese before bed.  But in between, Max and I had the tacos at the outdoor market, I tried an horchata (rice) drink mixed with a fruit (or flavor?) called tuna, and all of us except Helen ate a variety of empanadas, taquitos, chili rellenos, and other goodies that the owners of our house served in a spread in the backyard this afternoon.  (Helen was in a bad mood and would not leave her room.)  There is no doubt in my mind that the foods we ate today between the omelettes and the mac and cheese are the kinds of food we will remember when, six months from now, we go home.

That is not to say we will take advantage of every local culinary offering.  It is a safe bet we will never buy anything from the stand across from where we ate the empanadas for breakfast yesterday.  (Yes, the kids got their way.)

Visceras Juanita

The stand sells liver, brain, and other unrecognizable parts of pigs and cows.  The name, translated loosely:  Juanita’s Guts Stand.

Changing subjects, briefly -- yesterday we had yet another birthday party for Helen.  We planned this one before we realized there would be a party at her school.  It was at an indoor playground called Poing Poing that offers all-inclusive birthday packages.  My favorite part was when the manager introduced me to our “chica,” a 20-year old who handled everything from serving the pizza to cutting the cake to swinging the piñata.  There should be a chica at every birthday party.  For anyone keeping track, this was the last fifth birthday party we plan to throw.  -- Harrison