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.