In Florida: dogs rule

Minnesota dogs are out doing battle with the snow, ice and cold wearing their coats and boots and Florida dogs get pushed around in strollers! Go figure??? Harry and I went down to the beach today, near where Pat and Bill had their first condo on Siesta Key and we ran into this Kodak moment. The owner said people are always asking to take their picture. (probably Minnesotans who find this really ridiculous)

We will be on the road to Cape Coral tomorrow to spend a few days with Marvin and Linda and then back to the battles of Mexico. I am feeling extremely relaxed having been waited on hand and foot here. I ate Sees chocolates, loaded up books on my Kindle, had great food and wine, met some wonderful people, saw great art and a great play and lost consistently at Mexican Train. I also saw 4 movies and hope to finish off tonight with watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Bill taped for me. Needless to say life has been tough the past week.

We have some "goings on" that we have to face once we get back to Cabo. Ivan, my stepson, has a good word for what we need to find: a "workaround." I think part of my Karma lessons in Mexico have been to learn to toughen up a bit. (or a lot as the case may be) Minnesota nice just does not really help a person when things get difficult in life and Minnesota nice is probably dishonest and insincere much of the time anyway. I remember when I lived briefly in Texas how irritating I found what I considered the drippy sweet manners. New Yorkers skip the manners but are really helpful and kind I have found when need be. Mexicans have a genuine loving sweetness about them but can be rather ruthless behind your back when they see fit. Culture, got to love it all.

Cape Coral here we come! Might have to drive to Fort Myers to find some culture though.

Sarasota

Pat and Bill have a lovely home here in Sarasota with their very own pool attached to the house. It is beautiful! We had a fun burst of activity the first couple days here with an old friend of Harry and Pat's: Wendell. Wendell and his wife Greer live near Orlando and drove down for a couple days. We did some of the excellent Sarasota attractions, the Selby Botanical Gardens and the Ringling Art Museum. I bought a book on the history of Venice that I am really enjoying at the museum gift shop after seeing the Canaletto Venice exhibition. I would love to see Venice and Florence someday.

We are relaxing now, or at least I am relaxing, the guys have been preparing for a large dinner party tonight with some of their friends we have not yet met. We have been playing Mexican Train a lot and eating See's chocolates and drinking good wine and port.

It is fun to be back in the states after a very challenging week just before we left. (There may be a need for more details on this topic later, but hopefully not.) I heard from my friend Liz in Cabo today and she said the estuary is burning... again. She said the noise is frightening. A snow storm probably would have been preferable. Merry Christmas to all! Keep in touch!

A field trip to the French Bakery

I took some of my 8th graders to the French Bakery just down the street from our school last week. Most of them ordered cafe lattes which we took back to school for our tea party.

The Mad Hatters Tea Party

Our mad hatter tea party where we read Alice in Wonderland in both English and Spanish while drinking our coffee from the French Bakery. The kids insisted we move the table and chairs outside from our classroom into the courtyard.

Profe Baxter

Profe has a sandwich before we leave for Arroyo Academy.

serious students

We introduced the written English alphabet this week.

Gifts for all!

The kids and their gifts.

Arroyo academy week #2

Today was our second trip to Arroyo Academy. The children had about an hour worth of lessons reviewing what we did last week. Anna and Mel kept the presents in their truck until after the lessons were over. Then we told the kids that we had a little surprise for all of them. They each got a present that Anna said they were not to open until Christimas. Our plan is to get organized in January with some tubs full of different activities that volunteers can use to teach different lessons in the future.

Arroyo English School

The woman in the picture is our Mexican friend, Anna, who asked us to help her develop an English school on Saturdays in the arroyo just to the north of our town,San Jose. The arroyo is a place in our town where very poor families have built tar paper shack houses in which to live. There is no running water or plumbing. Arroyos are a geographic feature that form in areas that have hurricanes. Water rushes down these dry stream beds when tropical storms and hurricanes advance. I knew about the arroyos because there are efforts made to evacuate these people when storms are predicted to hit. Anna took my friend Mary Ellen and me to the arroyo last week after we went to the movies together to see the living conditions. Anna owns a small restaurant here in town and employs people who live in the arroyo. Her dream of starting an English Saturday school came true today. The public schools do not teach English and people who speak some English can get better jobs here in town.

We started today with materials Mary Ellen provided: a couple of books and some flash cards to teach colors, and we made each child a card with his or her name on it. Dennis, also in the picture, taught the kids to count to ten in English. Harry read them one of the books Mary Ellen sent with us, and I taught them some color words. Anna spoke in Spanish to direct the kids on what we wanted them to do and another friend, Priscilla, a retired nurse, made the name tags. When we arrived, about 12 children were patiently awaiting us. As the lessons progressed several more appeared until we had 16 children all eager and well behaved. A few adults appeared as well.

We will go again next Saturday and then again on future Saturdays when we return to Mexico after our Florida Christmas. We are going to try to collect some more blankets from people here at Laguna Vista because nights are cool here now and the children are cold without blankets. Mary Ellen had collected a few blankets that we took with us today. Bill has promised to take me to a teacher store in Sarasota. I have no materials or books for teaching little ones. We really had no idea what to expect today, we only wanted to support our friend Anna. It was an amazing experience to say the least.

The Arroyo Academy

This is what we encountered when we arrived at the arroyo today. The children were so adorable I got a bit choked up. I recovered quickly because the five of us had to get to work. We were a good team and taught them different lessons for over an hour. The classroom space was actually a family's kitchen. If you click on the picture it enlarges and it is even more adorable.

come and gone

Lexi left today after her 6 day visit here in Cabo. We had a good time going out to eat, shopping and talking, a lot of talking. Lexi and Harry also made pozole together, our new favorite comfort food. We felt very sad she had to go. When you see your daughter once or twice a year letting go is so hard. I walked to work today and had a few tears, but then had to stop myself and chose instead to focus on the good times we had together. We took my darling student teacher, Kate, and my darling daughter, Lexi, out for dinner on Monday night. The two adventurous women found much to chat about. (Kate leaves this coming week, going home to Chicago.) We went to a Cuban/Mexican dance recital in town with Kate and Lex after our nice dinner. At the dance performance I appreciated the Argentine tango for the first time. Dancing With the Stars....you have much to learn!! It has to be the most passionate, amazing dance on the planet. I always thought it was only strange and weird.

I am so ready to be in the states again. Pat and Bill and Linda and Marvin will be hosting us in Florida over the Christmas break. When I was in the states last summer for three weeks, for as much as I loved the US of A, I missed Mexico deeply. I could hardly wait to return. I need to reconcile my ambivalent feelings at some point in the near future since we have decided to leave Mexico in early July. I love it here so much and I hate it here so much. I thought today about how lucky I am to have had a second chance at teaching here in Mexico. The road has not been easy at Libertad, but it has been a 360 from Mission. I have fallen in love with my students and although Patty, my team-mate, is not trained or experienced in some of the accepted educational practices in the US, I love and respect her very much.

Mexican culture has turned out to be more complex than I ever could have possibly imagined. I will never understand it, but I will be forever in love with Mexico and fascinated by it. It has been such a gift to have had this time to experience this culture, hating it and loving it as I do. They say Mexicans can hold both the negative and the positive things about life in their consciousness at the same time and feel no conflict. I cannot. Although today at school, as the music blasted all day long as students practiced for the Christmas Posada concert, I was somehow able to tune it all out and concentrate on what I needed to do. The students of course had no trouble doing so. Maybe I am becoming a bit Mexican after all. This place changes you in ways you never thought possible.

Happy Thanksgiving!

No cooking for us today. Mel and Anna invited us for a Canadian/Mexican Thanksgiving tonight. Last year Holly and Kara were the Thanksgiving instigators/cooks and we hosted the meal for a large group at our condo. Today was a half day of classes at Libertad, but Harry and I took the day off, both feeling a bit under the weather. All I have to do is make Jello for tonight's feast so I can just lay low. Tomorrow the kids have the day off and teacher meetings are planned. I plan to feign illness even if I am feeling better. Just am not the dedicated teacher I once was.

I started my Spanish lessons this week with my very own teacher. Marilena is from Uruguay. I had two classes this week and we pretty much spoke only Spanish. Sometimes I think her accent is hard for me, although not as hard as the accent of my Colombian relatives. I am very enthusiastic about the lessons, but I realize my goal to speak Spanish fluently will never happen. I may eventually be able to get by, but only get by. A new waitress at our neighborhood restaurant approached me yesterday with the idea that we should get together and help each other with our respective languages. I have also decided I need to force myself to speak Spanish with all my native speaker friends/co-workers, even if I feel stupid. Last night I took my own advice when I went to the movies with Mary Ellen and Anna. I joined in their Spanish conversation as much as I could. We went to see that vampire flick, Half Moon, (Twilight Series) all the kids are crazy about nowadays, even here in Mexico. It was quite fun!

Alexis will be arriving in Mexico a week from Saturday. (The new Costco blow-up bed is ready.) She is coming without Curtis, having decided to break up with him a couple weeks ago. They have been together for 6 years. Curtis and Lexi came down last year and we all had a great time. Pat and Bill were here then too and all the guys went out fishing. We ate fish for months. This is going to be a difficult transition, for her and for me as well. I love Curtis very much. When Lex and I talked yesterday we laughed about the single Sex and the City girls and all their trials looking for the right guy in the big apple. My advice to her was to start looking seriously for Mr. Big! A really good mother would not be giving her daughter such advice! Ah well....

Keep those emails and photos coming my way.

The Visitors are Coming !!!!!

We had a lovely relaxed day today after a busy week teaching. The classes are all going well. We went to the market just outside of town and there was a table advertising Spanish classes here in San Jose. I decided to enroll and the owner of the school just happens to have a son in Harry's Shakespeare class at Libertad. She told us how much her son, Fabrizo, loves the Shakespeare class. I am very frustrated with my speaking abilities and I need to boost my confidence and skill level. I hope to start classes this week.

Today I booked us a trip to Oaxaca over spring break at the end of March. Our Mexican friends here have told us how beautiful and interesting this southern Mexican city is. The region is well known for it's arts and crafts and food. We plan on making a visit to Monte Alban, the ancient Zapoltec capital that was settled about 500 BC. which is just outside Oaxaca. I got a good deal on tickets and a hotel the week before Semana Santa.

I ran into my dear friend, Nora, who I taught with last year at Mission, also at the Market today. She said Carla, aka Mexican Oprah, had recently instructed the teachers not to give homework or discipline the children because it makes their lives too stressful. I had never met more pampered children in my life than the ones at Mission, but I guess being pampered has it's own kind of stress. Nora said it is hard to teach in Disneyland. Never thought the place could get any stranger but it obviously has. Just so glad to be the hell out of there.

We plan to get out golfing on Monday as it is yet another school holiday. This time we are celebrating the revolution of 1910. (see Wikapedia for details) Ivan and Joanna and Eva have their tickets for Cabo, arriving January 14. Lexi and Curtis arrive December 5th. We now will not be so lonely, eating dinner alone on our lovely patio, because at last we have visitors expected every month from December through April. Harry took the picture from our upper balcony today.

Kate!

This is Kate, the world's best and most adorable student teacher! She leaves to go back home and back to college in Chicago come December. I will miss her so much.

Patty and her beginners class of 7th graders. The other woman is the wife of our discipline guy who wants to learn English. She comes every day for class.

The computers up and running at last! I am not sure who donated these 5 computers but we are grateful to them whoever they are! The kids love their English computer time. No Facebook or My Space allowed!

A boy's 7th grade reading circle. We have started reading circles with the high schoolers as well. When the novels arrive we will have all the middle school and high school students participating in reading circles. Patty says this is very revolutionary for Mexico where typically not much reading and discussion of novels goes on in schools. I have found the kids so far really seem to enjoy it. The books I was able to scrounge up are not the best but we have been making do.

A girl's reading circle. The girl bent over standing up is Michelle. She is fluent in both languages and is a born teacher. She is guiding students in her reading circle.

#10, but who's counting...

Anniversary number 10 for us. We always celebrate that fateful day we met at the Dunn Brothers Coffee shop. The truth is we have not been apart much since that day. Last night we went to a restaurant in Cabo called The Seven Seas. It is on the beach and there was a full moon so the water was twinkling as the waves crashed. We both had seafood and Harry said the sea bass was almost as good as walleye. Harry made a toast, "here's to the next ten years and that's about it." Always so romantic, that's what I love most about him.

After dinner we went into town and joined in the Day of the Dead festivities. A former student of mine at Mission was dancing with her dance troupe on the stage in the town square. One of the altars in the square was for a young man and was quite elaborate. As I was walking away from it I turned and realized that one of my former co-workers was standing off to the side talking with people. I then realized it was an altar for her son who had committed suicide in September. He was 16.

Today, yes, yet another day off and we are going to attempt making the Mexican soup pozole. They make it at our school cafeteria and I love it! It is quite simple; hominy corn, a good stock, pork or chicken, and special peppers of course. You serve it with shredded lettuce or cabbage on top along with green onions and radishes. We invited our friends Mel and Anna to join us for our first dinner party on our lower deck. They are real experts on Mexican food, owning a restaurant here in town. We bought some Christmas lights to string on the awning over the table because it is dark early now.

The English lab is going great guns! The novels are due to arrive this week and the kids are using the computers thanks to the program Patty conveniently "took" from her last job. The reading circles are going well and soon there will be good books to read. I am going to need to find some volunteers to lead reading circles especially since Kate, our student teacher will be leaving at Christmas. There was a bit of drama this week when I thought I would be forced to trade the copy machine for one that is not as good, but I stood my ground and said no! Very un-Mexican of me. I even took the cord from the copy machine home with me this weekend just for safe keeping. Harry started a Shakespeare class with the troupe of highly fluent, highly smart and dramatic 9th graders. One of the girls in the class told me how lucky I was to be married to such a talented man.

my benefactress

This is the lady responsible for my not quiting teaching at Libertad this past week! Elizabeth Dunlap, or Liz as we all call her. Liz taught at Libertad for many years and people at the school know her and love her. Behind Liz and in front of Harry is the new copy machine she bought for the lab on Friday. The books I dreamed of having were ordered too last weekend from Barnes and Noble and will be brought down by a trucker Liz's daughter uses for her catering business here in Cabo. Liz's long time friend, Doug, donated the money and Liz was in charge of how the money would best be spent. So thanks to them, I will now have curriculum I can easily download off the Internet and novels, novels, novels I can teach. Even I, a believer in miracles, found this one hard to believe.

At the gala school event last night the teachers were introduced to the parents. Harry and I were asked to get up and speak about the English program while Patty translated. The high school students sang and played instruments and put on a skit. There was a long prayer from our resident priest who talked about the children at Libertad being like little boats in a safe harbor who would someday soon to be launched into the sea. (Guess that would have to be the Sea of Cortez.) Then the English Lab, now replete with 5 computers, a copy machine/printer/scanner and soon many sets of classic novels, was open for all to admire. There was even a ribbon cutting ceremony and of course another prayer from my boss, Rosie, who said she had prayed for the right teachers to come along and develop this new model for teaching English at Libertad.

Afterwards the owner of Libertad, Elsa, told me as she gave me a big hug and kiss that I must feel like my prayers had been answered with the arrival of the new machine. Harry and Liz had been the ones (earthly angels perhaps?) who spent a good deal of Friday at Office Max exchanging the small machine that had been bought on Thursday for the new mother of all machines. Exchanging things in Mexico is quite a process! Elsa, with Liz's encouragement, coughed up a couple hundred dollars extra yesterday for the upgrade. Liz is now working on getting a nice bookshelf ready for the sets of novels when they arrive in a week. I swear this whole process has been enough to make even an atheist a true believer.

Well, the little boats, when sent adrift, may well be speaking better English out in those rough ocean waters of life thanks to the new English Lab. And the English teacher who was ready to go adrift is feeling very grateful and plans to stay in the port of Libertad where she feels safe. I thought I might take up my neighbor Greg's offer to be a hostess showing time-share properties for the company he works for. I don't think that would be the right job for me anyway. It was a great birthday and more importantly a good day for the wonderful students I have grown to love more and more at Libertad. Guess praying can sometimes do the trick, maybe I should do more of it when I find myself out there in those rough ocean waters of life.

Time to enjoy the view....???

No hurricane, just rain and a day off. I arrived at school a bit late and several Mexican teachers had not come so Patty and I had a room full of 7-12 graders for the first hour of the school day. Then the kids got as smart as the teachers and they started to cell phone their parents to come and pick them up. It was raining steadily a good part of the morning and I hope it will rain all day again tomorrow.

I left school today before eleven and came home and wrote an email to Elsa, the owner of the school, telling her that without a copy machine in the English Lab I would have to quit. She promised us a copier two weeks ago and I have begun to realize that she has no intention of buying us one. I simply cannot teach getting all my curriculum off the Internet without a copier I can depend on each day. The one at school is constantly breaking down or the door is locked so I cannot get inside the copy room without finding the one person on campus who has a key (and believe me she is not easy to find). I really thought Elsa understood my problem and would do something about it, but now I realize it was just the Mexican way of not being able to tell you no. They tell you yes and then never follow through, hoping you will just carry on and make do. Well, too old and tired for that to work now.

Money is scarce at the school, I know, but that is not my problem. This is a much better place to work than Mission but it too has its own brand of craziness that I cannot deal with. So today, just like the day a few weeks ago when I walked out because they did not give me my own classroom, I drew my line in the sand. Working at Mission did teach me some things, I guess. My dear sister made a comment to me over the weekend that I might as well be doing charity work with the amount they pay me and she is right. Other dear friends have told me to try not to be so neurotic, but I am neurotic when it comes to teaching. I have always been so and will always be I'm afraid. I just need to accept my limitations and move on. This experience has been much more fun and certainly very rewarding. However, going in each day unable to have the lessons I need for the day is just not working for me. In fact, it makes me even more neurotic. (Is that possible?)

So my plan is to continue collaborating with Harry on the novel which we have put on the back burner because of our teaching, take some Spanish conversation classes at a language school in town, and sit and enjoy the view. I suppose I will also have to do some cooking and washing up and maybe even fire my maid who comes every week to clean and do my ironing. My god, what a princess I have become here in Mexico. It must be time to go home.

NOAA'S Arc

Even the choice of sources for following hurricanes illustrates a basic personality difference between your primary blogger and her husband. Whereas we both start with NOAA (National Organic Atmospheric Administration, or something like that), we end up on different screens with different degrees of doom and gloom. Mine says something like "Hey, there's time for another margarita, this one isn't going to amount to much anyway". Jeanne finds Chicken Little: "Holy tomoley, Ricky, this is the second biggest chunky-wunky lollapalooza schmoozer of a big-baddy granddaddy Pacific-specific hurricane of all time. Man the lifeboats!!"
Well it seems as if Ricky is now a fizzle, no sizzle in his pizzle, a wandering bark with no bight, and they sent home all the buses they had lined up yesterday on the boulevard below us and all the way into town. On the other hand, it has been raining heavily, and it seems as if the underground storm/sewer system can't cope, so the water is bubbling up and there are lakes in the middle of the streets. We took in some of the deck furniture but not all of it, apparently just for the exercise, and we look out to see how green is our valley; but it seems there is a real danger of a cry wolf situation: we won't go through all the razzmatazz next time and there'll be a real storm and where will be then?
Probably back in the US, since it seems we have reached a point where we have satisfied the urge to teach abroad and now have to figure out how to become snowbirds, since this has really spoiled us for MN winters. And Jeanne has once more threatened to quit if they don't deliver on their promises. We've learned that Mexicans are big on promises: it's easier than saying no.
Ni modo. Mexico: yah godda luvit!

Jimena, Patricia and now Rick....(Ricardo)

It seems a bit late in the season for hurricanes, but what do I know? Rick is headed our way. He is presently a category 5 monster, the second largest in recorded history for this part of the Pacific. He went from a category 1 to a five in less than two days. The storm track has him moving north and then east across the Baja mid week at a category 2 level. We brought out all the lower and upper deck furniture two weeks ago figuring the hurricane season was over. Guess we will be bringing it all in again. Our gas tank is filled and we will need to get water and storm rations Monday because this time the power may indeed go out for a few days. We have our hurricane candles and the little hurricane stove our neighbor Greg bought for us just before the Jimena hurricane in late August. Let's just hope old Rick drops down a few categories as he moves over the cooler water temps which surround the Baja peninsula. For right now, all I can say is: MORE DAYS OFF!!!!

Will write with updates if we are not under water.

ready to go home?

I have had the last three days off from school because of tropical storm Patricia and am wondering if I may not be retirement material after all. I worked a great deal on school work, of course, but I also pondered at great length what it would be like not to have so much to do all the time. I ordered $1600 worth of books for Libertad with the money my friend Liz came up with. It took me many hours, but, with some help from Harry, I placed the order tonight. I am excited to know that the kids will finally have some good books to read in English. I worked hard the last several days also on a system of organization for all the classes I teach every week, I am hopeful the system will make things somewhat easier as far as planning goes. I am very grateful to Harry for teaching the senior high group three times a week. My fantasy for my job this year has, in many ways come true, it is just too damn hard. I love the kids and I love the teaching but running and designing the secondary English program (without an ESL degree) is not at all what I understood was going to happen. But, this is Mexico after all. So here I shall remain, blundering along each day as best I can while making a committment to get to the beach a lot more often.

Harry and I took some time during our brief rainy season this week to talk about perhaps taking a long trip back home next July, going first to the Grand Canyon, then through New Mexico and on to St. Louis to see Eva, Joanna and Ivan. Once home again I know that I will need to create a new life, all the while bemoaning not having a beautiful view to gaze at each day and no ocean to swim in whenever I wish. Looking out over a snow covered Highway 7 will be a let down for sure. We have lots of ideas and lots of time, god-willing, to create new adventures for the future.

We are looking forward to our first visitors; Alexis and Curtis, the first week of December. At the end of her week here in Mexico, Alexis will fly from Cabo to San Diego to get on a cruise ship with her Dad and Bobbi that will then sail back down to Cabo. Just once again prooving my long held belief that you could never ever predict much of the stuff that happens in this crazy life. And no, there are no plans to all get together for a drink at Cabo Wabo when the cruise ship docks. Chances are something even more weird will happen anyway, so no need to make plans.

Tropically Depressed

The main road below us, and many of the little streets in town, are awash with becks, streams, and small rivers from the rain which started Saturday night and has continued intermittently ever since. TS Patricia is now off in the Pacific and heading towards us, destined to reach us at about midnight Tuesday. I didn't know these transsexuals could be so temperamental, with rainy eyes, writing sorrow on the bosom of the earth. We set off for school this morning, however, since we had not heard otherwise, and discovered that only four teachers had showed up, not counting Profe Baxter, the Dickens scholar. Sort of like "what if they gave a war but nobody came?". Elsa, the owner, was standing outside saying school was on while one of the primary school teachers, whose principal function appears to be to squirt chemicals on the kids' hands as they arrive, was waving off the cars and saying there was no school. Rosie, the English coordinator, who might have been expected to be involved in this, was texting the other English teacher to see whether school was on, and there was no sign of Laura, the coordinator of secondary Spanish. So here we are at home, looking out of the window at an unusual sky with masses of clouds but the sun shining through, and since the storm is heading towards us, it might be Thursday before we go back. Not exactly Minneapolis Public Schools standard. We'll just have to find something to do at home. We love Mexico, and how green is our valley.
It may be a lot of fun, getting back into teaching literature and writing, depending on whether they are actually going to do the work. I had to fire a warning shot across their bow last week because they had not read what they were committed to reading, and I reminded them that they had made a contract. Last week, however, was their exam week in Spanish, so perhaps my Expectations were too Great. Now I have to study that monument to American formalism, the diagrammed sentence: I have been aware of it over the years but have never had to confront it up close and personal. On the other hand, I've long ago forgotten the British way of doing it, though its effects remain with me.
Mexican mosquitoes are a sneaky lot. They appear to have some adaptive mechanism here which keeps them low to the ground, perhaps for warmth when the desert cools at night. They're very fast and small, and only attack your ankles -- or rather my ankles, since they don't seem to want to bite Jeanne at all. I can't understand that myself.

October magic

The cooler temps have come at last. We are no longer running the air 24/7. Last year people kept telling us to just wait until October 15 and the weather would suddenly change. The reality was that the change did not happen until late November. The thought of two more months of this heat and humidity had begun to really get me down. For the first time in since we returned in August I am able to sit out on the upper deck feeling comfortable and able to breathe. I must admit, I have not only been feeling hot all the time but I have also been feeling a bit homesick. I think lots of things brought it on; the heat, the job, and missing friends and family.

The tourists are finally beginning to appear in town again. The cruise ships are once again resting in the harbor of Cabo St. Lucas. These are good signs as the economy has been severely depressed here also. Last year the tourists got on my nerves. Now I am happy to see every last one of them. Laguna Vista has not as yet begun to fill up with snow-birds. It is still like living in a ghost town. Some of our new friends are coming down later this year and coming for a shorter time. My dear friend, Liz, came back from her travels last week and spending time with her has been comforting. She is a wise sage. She really surprised me by magically coming up with a wonderful chunk of cash that I can use to buy books for my students at Libertad.

I had a mini-melt down this week as I felt many events at school were beginning to come crashing down upon me. I even had a real crash as I took a clumsy fall at the French Bakery Tuesday, losing my ice cream cone and breaking my thermos full of beet soup all over me and my bag of school papers. I have always been a perfectionist in my work life and this is not the time nor the place to be aiming for perfection. Besides, I can't even exit a bakery with grace. It is the time to appreciate what is. Harry and my team-mate Patty helped me as I began to feel deeply tired and depressed as one of the longest weeks of my life finally came to an end. Today, adhering to their good advice, I chose to relax and enjoy what I have accomplished (not upon what I felt I needed to accomplish) and most of all, I focused on enjoying the best part of this job, the kids. Harry gave me some sound advice at seven a. m. and Patty gave me a good pep-talk as I arrived at school ready to cry Friday morning. Even Rosie, my mostly uninvolved boss, stopped in with an unexpected and uncharacteristic cheery word at the end of the day.

As I have learned in the past, it is important even in the hard times, to count your blessings. I have, once again, let my propensity towards work-alcoholism get the best of me. Granted this school has serious issues, lack of money being the foremost, but there are so many good things about it that money alone could never buy. I can't possibly do what I know could be done for these students. The book money, however, will be a start in the right direction. I just need to do what I can and enjoy the experience. There are no certifiable crazy or evil persons running around lose at Libertad intent on doing bad things to people. (been there, experienced that) It is a safe place to work and sometimes you even feel appreciated. Not bad, not bad at all. Now, if I can just find a support group for workaholics I should be fine.

And no, I have no idea why the word certifiable in the text above decided to go yellow.

Newsflash! Harry has now moved his writing station to the lower deck so we now each can have our own outdoor space! Talk about magic!

Edmundbyers or dreaming again.

This is the outside of the newly refurbished English cottage our friends Eileen and David own and let us stay in when we visit England. Harry had lunch at the cottage last month encouraging his old school chums to come and visit us this year in Mexico and it looks like they are seriously considering it. Eileen and David have always been so kind and generous we are hoping very much they will make the long trip to Cabo this winter from Paris, where they live most of the year, to visit us.

Harry's cold and cough dissipated quickly when he returned to Cabo last weekend. The heat here has miraculous powers. He feels good about what he accomplished for Olga but it was very difficult to see her in such a deteriorated state. She now has carers 4 times a day and her financial worries have been worked out. She sent me a lovely piece of jewelry which I did not expect and will cherish.

Patty and I met with the owner of the school, Elsa, this past week. It was a good thing too because both of us were talking seriously about looking for work elsewhere. Somethings about Mexico will never change and even my Mexican co-worker was fed-up. Prayer did not fix the air con in Patty's classroom, which had been broken for two weeks, and then a week ago the copy machine broke down as well. Patty said we should get our resumes polished up and spread them all over town because it certainly did not seem like English classes were a priority at Libertad. I think a little bird got wind of our serious complaining and that little bird talked to Elsa. She decided to step up, after all, it would not be easy to find 2 English teachers who do the work of the 3 English teachers. The air con is now fixed and Elsa is buying us our own copy machine. Her daughter, Greta, will fly down from the states with the copier on Monday. She also is moving the noisy 7th grade class next to us to another part of the campus. I guess we are appreciated after all. I have always felt that Mexicans (excluding a few I have known here, not mentioning any names) are the hardest working people on the planet and now, after living here for a year, I now know I am right. I am just too old to work like the natives. I continue to adore these students wishing only I was young and energetic.

I am trying to recruit Harry to teach yet another class besides Great Expectations at Libertad. If he agrees he will add a senior high writing class to his schedule. One of the boys in his Dickens class came up to me at lunch last week and said that Profe Baxter was like having the master Jedi from Star Wars as their teacher. I hope Harry will decide to sign on. I did not really expect to be orchestrating the entire secondary English program at Libertad but that is what has happened. They are very short-handed here in Paradise and my supervisior does not have a clue about secondary second language learners. I have had to learn fast as teaching second language learners is not my area of expertise either. I am bumbling through, learning as I go, with the aid of the Internet, Patty, these adorable students and the master Jedi.

Looks like this well may be our last working year here. I do not want to ever say a permanent goodbye to Cabo, just a working woman goodbye. We know many wonderful people down here now and hopefully, in the future, it may be possible to find a reasonably priced place to rent for some of the winter months. It is our second good rainstorm this week, thanks to tropical depression Olaf. The desert landscape here is beautiful after of the rain. It does not take much moisture for things to go green. We are hopeful, after all this rain, that the temps will cool off by mid October which is the usual turning point. Last year it was hot until the end of November. Last night we slept without air con for the first time since we arrived back here in early August. I am currently as sick of the heat and humidity as I would be of the snow and cold in Minnesota. I dream of being one of those Minnesota snow-birds who comes to Cabo in the winter. Seems I'm always dreaming of something.

NEWSFLASH!!! I just booked Brian and Vicki into the Baxter Cabo Hotel from February 5-12

Crazy for the rain!

Rain has been predicted for several weeks here in Cabo and finally yesterday it rained, for about 20 minutes. The clouds darkened, the wind picked up, lightening crackled and the kids went crazy. It reminded me of the first snowfall of the season in Minneapolis. There you are trying to teach your lesson and all the kids are at the windows screaming with delight. I was with my group of 9th graders and they begged to get out of the class to run around the campus in the rain. I, of course, agreed and they were out the door in a flash. I long ago learned you cannot fight mother nature. (Besides I wanted to run and close my car windows.) I was not the only teacher who let the kids out of class. Pretty much all were out dancing and screaming in the rain. Many of my high school kids went home because their clothes were wet, having stood under the downspouts coming off the roof. Oh to be young again!!


Harry comes home later today from his three week trip to England. Not an easy trip this time. Getting there and back took two days on each end including an overnight with Lex in NYC. He got a bad cold/cough once he got to England and has not completely shaken it. Grandma Olga is in very bad shape. She really needs to be in a nursing home setting using a wheel chair but she does not want to leave her home. Harry was able to secure her more and longer visits from care-workers, but she is at great risk of falling and not being able to get in and out of the bathroom, her chair and her bed while alone. Living a long life can be a good thing, but it can also be a terrible thing.


The air con in Patty's classroom has been broken for the past two weeks. We have shared my classroom and we have used other classrooms around the school when we can. Not an easy time. We are getting on each other's nerves a bit. Our styles are so different. It is a good thing she is a Libra and I have Libra rising or we would probably have killed each other by now. We have no idea why they cannot fix the air con. Everyday there is a new excuse. The owner of the school, Elsa, gave me a small purple Bible this week and in my thank you note I told her I was praying hard for Patty's air conditioner to be resurrected from the dead. Yesterday when I was using the 7th grade classroom the lights were out. I said to the kids it was a little dark and it must be hard for them to see what they were doing. They said the lights had been out all week and they liked it dark. Kids are great, much more adaptable than we adults.


We are beginning to book in the winter tourists here at the Baxter Cabo Hotel so let us know soon when you want to come to insure your suite is available. This year's accomodations include your own floor with bed/bath and balcony. Hope to see you soon!

Gifts

Today was full of wonderful surprises. Linda and Marvin packed up Linda's tutoring materials a month ago and shipped them off to Libertad. Patty and I were in heaven as we unpacked the box today. It has been fun to choose and design my own curriculum after being forced to use totally inappropriate curriculum at Mission last year. However it is stressful and a lot of work to create it all yourself. The Internet is full of good material for second language learners but having these materials we can use now at our fingertips is going to make all the difference. Patty having two jobs and no experience finding and using curriculum from the Internet was delighted with all these wonderful materials.

I am really loving my job. The kids are well mannered and so smart!! I find teaching the older students at my age is a lot easier. I have adjusted to the bleak school environment, which was hard after Mission, the most beautiful of schools. I am enjoying myself so much that I forget how stark the surroundings are. For the first time in my life I am living more in the moment and am unexpectedly surprised at work on a daily basis. Today I did a lesson with one of my classes around a short story with the theme of death. I had the students write a journal page on their experience with and thoughts about death. Well, this is Mexico where it is normally to express your feelings openly without fear. As students read their papers aloud many of them were in tears telling about siblings, cousins, parents and grandparents who had died. Pretty soon most of us were crying. Then in the next class the theme of the O Henry short story was gifts and love. I had students write about the best present they had ever received. Several of the students wrote that the best gift they have ever been given was the gift of their families. One boy wrote that he knows that someday in his life he will be given a wonderful gift.

Well I am off for pizza and a brew at the Baja Brewery with friends. Thanks so much Linda and Marv!

H1N1

All the teachers at our school had to go to a meeting today in town about the school closings and the flu scare. The Mexican government and school officials did a two hour presentation about the latest concerning the H1N1 situation here in Cabo. My Mexican team-mate Patty is very critical of what she considers the dishonesty and government incompetence that is rampant here having had experience with H1N1 in her family. Her 6 year old grandson was diagnosed two weeks ago with H1N1 and was one of the lucky ones to get treatment. Patty says the reason he was treated is because her daughter is good friends with a doctor here in town. Her grandson's blood sample was sent to the mainland because of the doctor's intervention. He got the diagnosis and the drug. There are no lab facilities here that can do the analysis required to identify the virus properly. Plus there is a shortage of tamiflu. Patty told a story of her daughter's friend who went very ill to the hospital last week with her sick child. The hospital said they could only give her medication for one of them and she would have to decide who would get the drug. (And we think we have heath care problems in our country?)

There have been 58 cases of H1N1 here in San Jose so far with 12 deaths. We were told the government has purchased a shipment of 20 million flu shots coming from China in December. Mexico's population is 120 million. Nothing was said about the US selling vaccine or flu shots to Mexico. Teachers from the public schools voiced their concerns about poor parents not being able to afford to stay home from work to care for their sick children. Sick leave is not a reality here for most people. If you don't show up you do not get paid. Patty says the vaccine and flu shots will go to the wealthy and well connected first and anything left over will be distributed to those not as fortunate. Harry took our good camera to England so the quality of the photo I took at the meeting today is poor.

School Closes Again

The flu has hit Cabo this time around. In May there were no cases of flu here but there are many cases now. I walk by the hospital on my way to work every day and I noticed earlier this week people were streaming out of the hospital wearing masks with their arms bent the way you do after having blood drawn. My team mate Patty's grandson was hospitalized briefly last weekend, a blood sample was sent to the mainland and it was confirmed he had the H1N1 virus. The locals say several people have died from flu, including children. Wednesday this week is Mexican Independence Day so we have a holiday, but the powers that be decided to cancel school on Monday and Tuesday as well.

Harry arrived in England on Thursday after spending an overnight in NYC with Alexis and Curtis. They went out for Mexican food. Alexis is working two jobs, by night managing and waitressing at Baby Bo's in midtown and working at the Welfare Rights Initiative Project at Hunter college by day. Curtis continues his job with the 311 help line in NYC and he is going to start school this spring at La Guardia Community College. He is taking a trip to his Trinidad homeland next week. He has not been home in many years and is super excited. Lex has taken a pass on Monolo Blonics as her graduation present and is hoping to plan a little trip to Europe this spring before she starts grad school next fall. (Monolos are not good on cobblestones)

Harry says Olga is falling a lot of late. She went over backwards on their first evening together and Harry could not pull her up. She has put on a lot of weight since we saw her last and they had to wait until the carers arrived to get her up. She wears a call for help alarm pendant around her neck so when this happens she can press it and the para-medics come and get her back on her feet. She has caretakers who come three times a day. She refuses to leave her home for a more secure and safe setting. Harry has plans to walk up in the moors where the heather will be in full bloom and to golf with his old school chum Harold. Our friends David and Eileen had him for lunch yesterday in their newly refurbished cottage in Edmund Byers where we have stayed the past three years we have visited. It looks very likely that David and Eileen going to come to Mexico to visit us this winter here in Cabo.

Patty and I decided yesterday we want Harry, the lover of all things Dickens, to come in and teach Great Expectations, the senior novel, for us this semester. (He agreed to do so when I proposed it to him on the phone last night.) I thought he could be a bit of an actor using a thick English regional dialect of some sort so the kids could get used to a hearing a different English accent. He could come in as the retired college professor, unlit pipe and all, teaching a couple days a week. It would free Patty and I up a bit and lessen our heavy class load in terms of planning and student contact hours. It will undoubtedly be a volunteer job as there is not a lot of extra money floating around at Libertad or anywhere else in Cabo for that matter. People here were so hoping this next high season would be better this coming year but now, with a new flu outbreak, who knows what will happen.

I will be home, probably for a week, until this scare passes, or longer if things get worse. There is not a lot of vaccine down here (if any) and I don't think flu shots are readily available either. I'll be washing my hands a lot. My friends Mary Ellen and Doreen and I are driving into Cabo today to go to Costco. When Harry and I went to Costco in Cabo last May all the workers were wearing masks and they greeted us at the door with one of those sanitary wipes. I wonder what things are going to be like now that there really are cases of flu here.

A room of her own

After a week of teaching in other teachers' classrooms, I got my own classroom. It did not come easily of course, because this is Mexico where people are well schooled in hardship. We went back to school on Thursday after the hurricane (Hurricane Fizzle I have renamed her) and my classroom was supposed to be ready. By ready, I mean cleaned up a bit, with tables and chairs. Our English director had told Patty and me for two weeks the rooms would be ready but nothing had happened. I began to suspect there was a bit of bad politics between the Spanish and English departments that was the source of this delay. When I arrived on Thursday and the rooms were not ready and we began scrambling to organize a different space, I decided to apply what I have learned about Mexico: actions will speak louder than words. (That was my Mom's favorite saying in life.) I walked out saying only to call me when the room was ready. Patty, who cannot afford to step out of line, told me she supported me totally. I walked home thinking that at least I have a pension, but then my cell phone rang just as I reached my back door. It was Rosie, the English coordinator, and she said the room was ready. I walked back to school and the classroom was at last set up. As you can see from the photo this is not a high-tech fancy classroom, so not much was involved in the set-up. In fact nothing is high-tech or fancy at Libertad. Yesterday once again the teachers toilet was broken and the kids' bathroom had no toilet paper for most of the day.

The highlight of all this is the kids. They are wonderful and not just because they all do their homework. (Patty says they are good for me because I do not speak Spanish to them.) I had the students write essays about their plans and dreams for the future and I was blown away when I read them. Many students wrote about their dream to have a good career which would help those less fortunate. I guess compared to the public schools this place is paradise but the poverty at Libertad is still very hard to accept. I keep thinking that these bright, hardworking, polite, respectful students should be in a school like Mission.

My schedule was changed so it is not going to be as light as I thought. I think the school thinks that Patty and I can do a good job at this teaching English thing, so the 7-12 students who usually have 5 hours of English a week are now going to have 7. We are going to try to support each other so that we can have a few more breaks in our day. (Either that or we die, being the old ladies that we are.) Our classrooms are next to each other with a sliding door separating us. We work well together although I know my teaching methods seem new and different and probably a little crazy to her. Of course many of my teacher friends in the states would testify that my teaching methods were crazy at times: fun maybe, but crazy. I have done most of the planning for the two of us so far and she seems to be very willing to change some of her methods. I am basically creating all our curriculum because there is very little to be had. Of course nowadays there is an endless supply of curriculum on the Internet and the school lets us make as many copies of things as we wish. My experience teaching immigrant adults English in St. Louis Park is helping me now and just understanding the culture better helps as well. Harry says my walking out was a shot across the bow: it didn't hurt anyone but they know now that I do have a bottom line! I can go without toilet paper (although that's a bummer too!) but not without a classroom.

SUNSHINE RETURNS TO CABO

It's over and it never started...

The hurricane, Jimena, blew by us this afternoon without a big huff or puff. She tracked up the coast of the Baja about 200 miles from the coast, predicted to make landfall at Magdelena Bay and across the peninsula to Loreto tomorrow or Thursday. We had a good rain today, but it lasted only a short time. The winds were stronger than normal but nothing dangerous. I assume that school is back on tomorrow. At least things will look a little greener. The negative in all this I learned on Comcast.net's web page: the sewer system in San Jose, our town, backed up and flooded because of the rain...yes, my question exactly, what would have happened if the hurricane had hit here? I did notice a very bad smell earlier today. The city is currently building a huge bridge to nowhere (we call it Palin Bridge!) on the edge of town. We, of course, wonder why this is a priority and a sewage system is not. Just received a text message that school is cancelled again tomorrow for clean up. Gotta love these hurricanes!

Jimena has become a level 5 hurricane as of this posting but it seems to be tracking up the western side of the peninsula. We are a bit to the east here in San Jose. It is a small but powerful hurricane. At this point it does not look like a direct hit for Cabo but Jimena is predicted to keep moving to the west as she moves north where landfall may occur a few hundred miles north of us on the peninsula. It may stall for a bit, some web sites are saying, off the western tip, which would mean very heavy rain and winds for us. Or, like all hurricanes, it will do whatever it pleases. The temperature has dropped 20 degrees and the rain and cool breezes feel wonderful. In twelve hours or so I probably will be scared to death and not feeling so wonderful. California is burning and Baja California will soon be drowning.

School was cancelled ten minutes after the kids arrived at school today and teachers had to stay until noon. I finally was able to meet with the owner Elsa about my salary just before noon today. I took a major hit like I had expected but my schedule is not difficult and the place is not crazy so my sanity and peace of mind are worth something. The school, as I have said, is very poor and Elsa is paying me what she pays the coordinators.

We cleared off both our patios just before the wind and rain started this afternoon and are stocked up on candles, water and canned goods. All we can do now is wait.

A Democrat World View

While watching the Ted Kennedy wake and funeral speeches the last two days I was struck once again by the fact that I will never understand the Republican Party world view. My soul just resonates with the Democratic Party, it always has and probably always will. I have tried over the years to be more objective in my views, but cannot. I only hope that I have reached across the aisle to my Republican friends like Ted did. I did not realize the true depth of the long legislative career of Senator Kennedy. Upon watching the media coverage of his life, I have been moved by the telling of his accomplishments over the past 30 years. Learning too about the medical traumas and adversities he and his family suffered. I was multitasking while watching television, like every teacher knows how to do, googling to learn more about the female siblings of Ted Kennedy I found their lives were not only ones of privilege but of dedicated public service as well to the poor, the disabled, the gay population, to health care and to the arts. I think the Kennedy family appeal has in part been to do with their mix of optimism and human failings and their ability to sometimes transcend these failings.

I remember, like everyone else, where I was when John and Bobby died. Bobby's death I took extremely hard coming shortly as it did after the murder of Dr. King. I was 17, a high school senior, idealistic and naive. I remember sitting in front of the television unable to stop crying. I think my sense of hope and idealism in the political process was shattered, although not completely. I had hoped to join the Peace Corp after graduating from college but when a hurricane hit Honduras where Jerry and I were assigned to go and teach, we were forced to give up that dream. I spent my career in some of the more challenging public schools in Minneapolis and always felt it a gift that I could be paid to do a job I really loved and felt was worthwhile. Not everyone is so blessed in life.

Ted Kennedy had the same sort of brain cancer my mother suffered from. She lasted only three months, he 14. The kind of medical treatment he received was in it's early developmental stages when my mom struggled against the disease. I remember how devastated she was after she was told first she could have this experimental treatment and then a week later was told she was not eligible. We were never sure exactly what happened. I suppose some of my emotion about health care policy goes back to this personal experience. I wanted her to have the hope of a little more time she so desperately wanted that this treatment might have offered. I also was grateful for the good care she did have. I remember wanting to throw my arms around her surgeon when she told us they were able to take out some of the tumor which gave her a few more weeks of life. Good care, a wish everyone should be able to realize without the fear of financial ruin.

As Kennedy has said....the hope rises again and the dream lives on. Maybe our country will now rise to the challenge of giving all our citizens what some of us have not had to worry about: affordable good health care.

A little postscript: Alexis has just received word that she has completed all her credits to graduate from Hunter College in Manhattan. Her major: political science! Next goal: grad school in social work. Her political world view? A proud mom indeed!!!!

Patty

This is my team-mate Patty. We seem to be a good pair so far. I do think she is rather tired having to work 12 hour days. Her second teaching job starts at 4 p.m. and she works until 8. Our styles are very different but we have much respect for each other. She is the most accomplished bi-lingual person on staff, but is very humble about it. Patty and I have been team-teaching this week in the same classroom. Next week we should have our own classrooms right next to each other. The classrooms are very sparse and bleak but the students are anything but bleak. Their English is very good and they like listening to my Minnesota accent. I find that I am glad to work in these bleak surroundings because of the quality of the students here, When I toured around last spring I had a different feeling about the values at this school compared to Mission and I think I may be right. There seems to be more respect for academics here and the religious part of things I have found to be a rather positive influence. Worshipping Mexican Oprah and the god of materialism did not work for me. I am finding that I really enjoy the older students and am very impressed with their English. I am hopeful this year will be more fun and less crazy. Signs are good so far. I feel it is safe to be myself in this environment. Have not met with the owner of the school, Elsa, as yet to negotiate my salary. (the school accountant did not come today as scheduled so I did not get my appointed time to meet with her.) The workload I think will be lighter and my paycheck will be as well, but I think it will be worth it. It is my goal to enjoy what I am doing this year and so far I really have.