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