Last Days in Mexico

May 22

Two days after Monte Alban, some of us hiked up another mountain, this one in our backyard.  It was tall and fantastical looking, like something out of a movie, and I (Sophie) had been wanting to climb it since we arrived in Teotitlan. The walk up was hard for those of us still recovering from a stomach flu, but the view was worth it. Picacho looked far over Teotitlan, until it met the next blue mountain in the distance.

After the hike, the group went to do some service work in town. For about two hours we picked up trash along the stream some of us crossed everyday. After that, we all hit the showers (there was some unmentionable disgusting stuff that we picked up) and had some time to relax around the town before our next scheduled event. The next required thing was a talk with a man who lived in Teotitlan part time, and had first come to the town 30 years ago. He had fallen in love with the rugs for which the town is famous, and decided to make a business out of it. Not only was it interesting to talk to a capitalist business-owner, he also had a lot of really great insight into the town, and how it had changed throughout the years.

May 23. Tierra del Sol

Today we went to an organic farm that was really awesome. The people that where running it were super interesting and their goal was to have a farm that was self sustained and could provided everything that they would need. When we got there we worked on making their garden area bigger and planting sun flowers in the garden that was already there. They had animals, goats, chickens, and cows, that provided them with food and milk. After that we went on a tour of the place and went swimming. The pond that we went swimming in was super awesome. There where beautiful flowers that where growing in the pond and a lot of fish.

May 24 The La Villada Hostel outside of Oaxaca

After we left are host house we stayed a night in a really awesome hotel outside of Oaxaca City. It had a pool that was really nice, until the manager decided to super clean and close in 3 hours early, a nice rooms. It was a nice way to rap up the trip. We had a really nice meeting for worship where we talking about how the trip was and how it will stay with us. It had a really nice view of the mountains.

May 25th Puebla 

The last place we stayed in Mexico was a city near Mexico City: Puebla. It is a very unique city because it was under French rule for a very long time. As we drove through it on the way to our hotel, the influences were clear. Of the places we visited, Puebla struck me as being the most European, both in terms of buildings, and people. Though most of us were tired, and ready to go back to the US, most people explored the town a bit that evening. The ice cream wasn't that great actually, but all the other food was delicious. It was made even better by the fact that many street musicians came up and serenaded us during the meal. There were also copious amounts of clowns in Puebla, some of us made the mistake of walking through the middle of a clown show and received some friendly harassment, and laughter at our expense from about 30 Poblanos.

Lynn's Corner

                   Off to Las Cuevas with our home stay/ Weavers' Co-operative ladies.

                           Petrona (Liadh, Drew and Alan's host mother) and nephew Jason (aka Batman).

                            On the walk home from Las Cuevas. Fabulous women all.

 Okay, so on Sunday there was a puppy party (¡Fiesta de Perritos!) at the house where we are staying and the excitement was incredible. Osito (Little Bear) was two months old  that day and his eight brothers and sisters were invited, though one had a prior engagement. There was even a cat piñata hanging from the tree outside, which the daughter of the house (who is around twenty) made and filled with doggie treats and balls for each puppy to play with. There were tamales and ice cream for the people and children, and I took loads of photos because I have never seen anything quite like it, and I don't think you would believe me if you didn't see a record of it. Anna and Shane and Liadh and Caleb came and observed as well, and got to hold a few puppies too.

                                        One puppy found shade under Caleb's leg.

 On Monday we went to see the ruins of the pre-Columbian UNESCO World Heritage Site, Monte Alban.

 There were some lovely gardens if you climbed the furthest pyramid structure. I loved these cacti and their flowers... they make ice cream from them called...Tuna.

                                              How large the tree, how funny the Caleb.

           On the bus: Seth photo-bombs Liadh and Caleb's selfie with a yawn (looking rather operatic.)

                                                        This one was on purpose.

                                        Bradley's new CD cover. Gnome Wizard Rock.

     We climbed Mount Picacho on Wednesday (Caleb for the second time), and look who we were thinking of.... Happy Belated Birthday, Irving! We will celebrate it again when we return.

                                              Bradley has that Ninja stance going on.

                                Liadh, Drew and Alan's host father, Juan, helped us get there.

                                                              From the top, Irv!

 

Bradley made me do this pose. His was more mysterious, less goofy.

 But then, I guess that's who I am.

 Our final dinner celebration fiesta was held at the B&B where we leaders stayed.  ... our ladies are great cooks and they made spicy tamales, crispy rolled-up flautas, their own hot sauce and the best guacamole I have ever tasted. The daughter of the house is a chef and she topped it all off with a chocolate tres leche cake covered in flowers. Class. The granny of the house had spent days roasting almonds and cocoa beans on the outdoor oven and had made her own chunks of the local chocolate, which she presented me with before leaving- seriously yummy.

                                      Butter - or chocolate -wouldn't melt in his mouth....

                                                      Caleb,  Juan and Drew.

                         Liadh, Drew and Alan's home stay family: David, Juan and Petrona.

                                      On to our hostel and a day of pure relaxation by the pool;             
                                                        Rachael found a kitty friend!

                                                         Cards... and more cards.

                                                                  Our final night in Oaxaca.
                                     Our Meeting for Worship looked out over the mountains
                                                          we had come to love so well.

 A modern angelic sculpture in front of the cathedral facing the zócalo, in the city centre of Puebla, City of Angels. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/Savoring-Puebla.html

The cathedral at night.

                                       
                                 

4'4" and not messing around

Teotitlan del Valle, the village in which we've been staying for the last week, is a great place for old ladies.



The tallest are about 4'6'', and all are built to last, game to carry a bundle of firewood on their backs (you've got to cook, after all) or walk 30 minutes straight up to the Zapotec sacred places around town. They get up at the break of dawn, prepare whatever they do for market, and get going (In our house, this is Doña Magdalena making little blocks of chocolate for drinking (starting with the beans); at the homestay across the river it's Assuncion with tortillas). They show up at the market around 8:00* and hang out with all of their old lady friends for the next two hours, gossiping away in Zapotec (tzak shi: hello) and haggling like crazy.



*because this village has had more than 1,000 residents since 400 C.E. the folks are hesitant to switch their clocks just because the government decides there is such a thing as daylight saving time. 8:00, then, is Tiempo de Dios, not Tiempo del Gobierno.

A couple of my favorite old ladies:



Doña Isabela is Bradley and Shane's host-grandmother. She's 78 years old, and still very quick with a joke. She's been spinning yarn for over 70 years, and gave us some lessons, making it look much easier than it was. I asked her for the secret to how she is still so vibrant and awesome. She just laughed, and said that she hoped I would live this long also.



Doña Magdalena is a widow who lives at the house where Lynn, Seth and I are staying. The other day I saw her cooking tamales in a pot that she could have EASILY fit inside. This afternoon she was kneeling on gravel and smashing corn on a rock in our courtyard to make shampoo. She said that it is slower than buying shampoo, but she likes it anyways.



Doña Catalina is the woman who sells Tejate, a strangely addictive cold corn/cacao drink down by the textile market. Today we sat with her for a while and talked with the daughter of a woman at one of the neighboring stalls who likes to hang out with Catalina. Jenni (the 5-year-old) was incomprehensibly cute, showing us her school notebook. Catalina mentioned that it was nice to have this kind of company.





Not all the stories are happy. The woman with the beautiful smile who sells hot chocolate and coffee outside the food market, Doña Gertrudis, got talking to me and Seth about her family yesterday while we ate half a roasted chicken for breakfast. Seth was explaining how it was possible that he wasn't married yet. Gertrudis agreed that sometimes it wasn't wise to get married young. She had been married when she was 15. When she was in her early 20s, her husband went to find work in the U.S. along with their two children (she was pregnant with the third at the time). He eventually settled in Wisconsin, and got married again. Last she heard, he had told her two eldest children that she had died.

At least Gertrudis has a tight community of women to rely on. Watching the women in the market made me think of Gustavo Esteva's dichotomy between the Western individualistic mindset and that of more traditional societies. There is a great difference between thinking of yourself as a fully separate "I," as opposed to thinking of yourself as embedded in a web of relationships. He used the image of a knot in a net.

Because of scheduling, this was the last morning in which I'll be able to watch the old ladies at the market. I can't help but think about how much richer the final years of my grandmothers's lives might have been if they'd lived them out as a tiny woman here in Teotitlan.


-Sam