Goodbye Libertad!

Harry and I went to Libertad today bringing some materials we found at home we thought would be useful in the English Lab when suddenly the whole secondary school turned out to say goodbye. There were lots of hugs, kisses, tears and smiles. I have had many wonderful teaching experiences over the years but this one had to be the high of all the highs. It was so hard and it was so rewarding. I had to use everything I knew and had learned over 34 years of teaching just to stay afloat each day. Harry and I were a team and we fell in love with these kids. It may well be time to say goodbye to teaching. I always admired Johnny Carson, who shares my birthday. He had the sense to go out on a high note. This was probably my high note. I told my friend Linda the other night that it may well be time to re-invent myself. Teaching is a very demanding career, not that other careers are not demanding, but as I near the big 60 perhaps I could try new things to do. Hopefully new things as meaningful as I have always found teaching to be but a little less exhausting. I have been focusing on the gifts that were bestowed upon us here in Mexico this past week as our life suddenly changed. And it is Mexico, so they were not all wonderful gifts by any stretch of the imagination. The culture here is about teaching you things and pain is part of that bargain. Mexicans know pain, but they also believe that personal relationships are the most important things in life. Good personal relationships can buffer all the pain life will undoubtedly hand out. Mexicans are somehow able to hold the good and evil of this world in their psyches without dissonance. Over the past nearly two years I have been bullied, humiliated, made to feel like I was an idiot, loved, appreciated and made to feel like I had much to offer. Mexico: got to love it, and not being a native found their acceptance of cognitive dissonance a real pain in the neck. I also know now that sometimes it is just plain ok not to accomplish everything on your to-do list. It may be more important to laugh, listen to a friend, or just be in the moment, excepting whatever that moment has to offer. So what if you did not get everything done, there is always tomorrow. I remember being home for two wonderful weeks last summer and toward the end of the two weeks something deep inside me began to yearn to be back in Mexico. Maybe I should try to keep Mexico and all I have learned here always in my mind and in my heart. One thing is for sure: dissonance is ok. It is everywhere so get used to it. Mexicans love noise and lots of it, all kinds of noise, noise all the time. Maybe in this world we will never be able to resolve the noisy dissonance that good and evil create. We just have to live with it, love each other, enjoy each other and accept the world for what it is: dissonant.



And speaking of dissonance: Our friend Anna brought over homemade rice pudding tonight, arroz con leche. And yes folks, it was covered and laced through and through with canela, or cinnamon as we English speakers say. As we all know Harry hates cinnamon. Just ask him and he will give you a noisy talk about the evils of cinnamon. (is that spelled cin or sin ?) but he had two helpings of the rice pudding. Go figure!

Up from the Abyss, or It's the Pits

"Rumors of my death," etc.
Really, I am much better, but not as good as what I was when I wasn't as bad as what I am. They took out a lot of the paraphernalia yesterday and I feel great, though for some reason I tire easily. Last night I slept better than I have for -- well, a week, because they took the packing out of my nose. In fact, I am breathing easier than I ever can remember, since I have always had a deviated septum, which has been operated on twice in the US without any improvement. Now at last it is fixed, though there must be easier ways to qualify for the Mexican treatment.
In fact, my nose looks so much better that Jeanne got jealous and went and got this very cute new hairdo from our dear Jennifer. We were going to take a picture of it but she's gone out drinking again. There's a picture of me with my adorable young doctor, but we have to figure out how to get it from her as editor to me.
The Jeanne you all know and love has been absolutely superb (except when they make her look inside my mouth). She held it all together until yesterday, then just collapsed when she could see that I was out of the woods. Just amazing how well she has held up. Still, what's a falling-apart husband compared to a room full of 7th graders? Speaking of which, my 9th graders made me this wonderful get-well card which is extraordinarily creative. I'll try to visit them before we leave.
Jeanne's also looking forward to my getting my teeth fixed, claims that just everybody noticed the little snaggletooth among my lower incisors, poor deprived European that I am, growing up without the benefit of American orthodontics. I just thought it added character. Certainly got a lot of that now. You remember (some of you) the old song:
My jaw bone's disconnected from my ... gum bone
My gum bone's disconnected from my ... tooth bone.

You can actually push on the side of my gums and they wiggle away from the jaw: Jeanne was very impressed with that when Dr. Portillo showed her. And some of my teeth are fastened together with baling wire, which scratches the inside of my mouth. Sounds a lot funnier than it feels, I must say. We have doctor and dentist appointments on Monday, thanks to Linda, and we'll see what they say, but what they are telling us here is that I need at least two operations, besides getting my teeth reimplanted. Looks like a fun few weeks. Or months.

For those of you who haven't seen the big announcement on Channel 5, we arrive very late on Saturday night, and are planning a trip back in October for unfinished business. Everybody here has been great, with one exception. As if we needed any excitement, our landlady has communicated indirectly via the Laguna Vista grapevine that she is disgusted with us, and that we need to get all our stuff out of here because she is not going to store it for us. Works as a Democratic fundraiser, with strong Republican tendencies. We do seem to have a gift for pissing off people we rent from, that's three in a row. Got to get packing.

Well, I'm off to my last poker game, might even drink a beer. Gotta live while you can!

the best doctors

This is one of the many wonderful doctors Harry had working on him here in Mexico. Dr. Omara is from Mexico City and she did her training in Puebla. She was the first to see Harry when Liz and I brought him into the ER. She gave us the ok to fly home and complete all the next series of medical procedures Harry will need over the next months. We have loved them all very much and here in Mexico it is ok to hug and kiss your doctors, in fact they reach out to hug and kiss you! Needless to say I have done a lot of hugging and kissing.

El gallo canta: buen dia para Harry!

We got the ok for Harry to fly home to complete his recovery. His blood pressure is high but they can give him medication for the trip to make sure he is safe. He is looking forward to his bath tub and being home with our loving friends and family around us. While continuing to be grateful that he is still on the planet, I too am looking forward to having my comfort restored by being in my own culture as he completes his medical procedures. I do like being able to hug and kiss the doctors who have been so wonderful here. I did not trying to use my Spanish to communicate effectively.

We will be home next Saturday, March 27, at midnight. I am depending on Linda Mirsky to pick us up. She and Marvin drove us to the airport at Christmas time having to get up at 3 a.m. to catch our flight to Cabo. Linda will also make the doctors appointments for us so when we get back Harry will be ready for the next surgeries. LaShawnda had to cancel her trip to Cabo because of Harry's accident. She was so beautifully gracious, as always. My niece, Lily, asked me why such a dangerous situation at the car repair shop was allowed. I have no answer. The American who owns the shop feels really bad. Harry and I are going to make a trip to see him before we leave and tell him that the 4th person to fall into the pit may not come out alive. If that happened he would feel more than bad.

I took this picture of Harry a month ago in Todos Santos, a small art town near by on the Pacific side. We took Tom and Anne there last month for the historic house tour. I am grateful for all the emails of love and concern. We have been very blessed in every way. Liz said it best, miracles everywhere. I will blog with any updates. I know that often the best of plans might have to be re-planned.

The Patient

Harry fell into an oil changing pit on Wednesday morning as he followed the American owner of the car repair shop across the yard. The sun was in his eyes and the man who always watches his step here in Mexico fell into a concrete hole about nine feet deep. Our beloved friend Liz was with him and she called me after the accident and picked me up at school with my blood drenched husband in the front seat of her car. We got him to the emergency room and an ambulance took us to Cabo St. Lucas. Harry has had wonderful care. He had to wait to have surgery until today because they had to bring his blood pressure down.

He came through surgery just fine, a surgery that was scheduled to take 2 hours took 4 because of all the damage to his face they could not know about until they got inside to look. Three of his doctors told me that the fact he survived this fall was a miracle. They had not seen anything like it before. The good news is his nose has been repaired, the not so good news is that he now needs plates put in his face to reconstruct his cheek bones and jaw. The surgery for these reconstructions can be done in 10-14 days. He will need to have his jaw wired shut for six weeks after jaw reconstruction and then he will have to have his teeth fixed in some way, yet to be explained.

When I went to pick up the car yesterday, the owner of the shop told Liz and I that Harry was the third guy to fall into the oil pit. Liz reprimanded him strongly about the need to cover the pit, I was speechless. It is my hope that after healing for a week or so we will be able to fly home for the rest of the surgeries and treatments Harry needs. It is time to say goodbye to Mexico for now. It is time to be very grateful that my husband is alive.

Highschool Sweethearts Reunite In Cabo

Katie had planned her second trip to Cabo to visit us several weeks back and a couple weeks ago asked if she could bring Zach. The two had re-connected on facebook in December and had been talking nearly everyday after 8 years of not seeing each other. Zach has been living just outside of Phoenix for the past two years. We said of course she should bring him down with her. Katie and her sister Beth are the two additional daughters I would have loved to have and could not have biologically so the universe, in it's infinite wisdom, had them grow up next door to me on Abbott. I love these two girls so much!!

Zach and Katie are pretty adorable together. Today they took a romantic glass bottom boat ride and Harry and I went to see Johnny Depp in the new Alice and Wonderland film. Then they took us out to dinner where we enjoyed a beautiful view of the famous rocks, the Sea of Cortez complete with a cruise ship which, as the sun set, turned on all it's lights and slowly left the harbor. Talk about romantic!!! It has been wonderful to see a pair so happy in each other's company. Us old married folks can learn a lot from watching young folks in love. Although Harry and I looked pretty young ourselves today wearing our 3D glasses at the movie theatre. Harry remembered 3D from the 50's. I had no memory of ever seeing a 3D film. We found ourselves holding hands and grinning ear to ear in delight while watching this film. I say: Harry Potter, eat your heart out! Lewis Carroll could have taught JK Rowlings a few tricks. This movie is now my #1 favorite. I read the book to Alexis several times when she was little. I could not understand her fascination with it. Today, thanks to Tim Burton, I got it. So here's to young love, cruise ships with lights leaving the harbor at dusk and Lewis Carroll. All of it just plain magic.

Lizards aren't the only scary things in Mexico.

I was up very late last night watching Dateline. It was one of those scary crime shows that keeps you glued to set set through all the endless commercials. The show was about a Mexican man who was kidnapped in San Miguel a couple years back. We were in San Miguel for two weeks last summer. The story was horrific. The kidnapped man was the son of a Mexican Newspaper baron from Mexico City. He lived on a beautiful ranch he built with his second wife, an American, just outside San Miguel. I missed the beginning of the program on exactly how he is was abducted, but he was held by the kidnappers for eight months. The ransom demanded for his release was eight million dollars. The wife was able to raise a much smaller amount not disclosed. The victim had lost half his body weight by the time he was released and besides being starved nearly to death he was brutally tortured. The message of the program was that kidnapping is extremely common in Mexico today. Last year at Mission I had a student whose very wealthy family moved to the states because of fear of being kidnapped. I had thought at the time that this sounded a bit dramatic but obviously it was not. The man kidnapped in San Miguel said he and most others in the know believe that Mexican police are sometimes involved in these abductions.

So today when were were pulled over by the police on our way to the airport to pick up my friend Linda, I felt a bit apprehensive. Not that I thought we were at risk of being kidnapped for a traffic violation, but it was scary nonetheless. Harry had passed in a no-passing zone, just like a real Mexican driver and suddenly flashing lights signaled us to pull over. I told Harry not to let on we spoke Spanish. It worked for me once in town when the police pulled me over for something. I had no idea what I had done wrong. The officer asked if I spoke Spanish and I said no, not at all. He waved me off. This time however that plan did not work, the police officer launched immediately into perfect English. I batted my eyes at him and said I was a teacher in San Jose where we lived. No luck either, he told Harry to get out of the car. Harry later told me the cop asked him if we had children and Harry said we did back in the states. I guess this was to break the ice a bit before he subtly made it clear that a bribe would be accepted. Harry read the signals correctly and opened his wallet. We got off for 500 pesos ($5o). No ticket was written, the officer just slipped the bill into his pocket. I felt relieved to say the least.

Cute Minnesota couple spotted freezing in Cabo

Tom and Anne left this morning after a week in Cabo. We went up the east coast, the west coast, cooked some good meals together at home, wined and dined at some great restaurants and played cribbage. Last night we went to one of our favorite places for a beer beach side and our Minnesota pals asked for blankets because it was 70 degrees with a strong breeze. Wimps some of you may say but my theory is that they felt cold just thinking about having to go home today. We miss them mucho. I really love having our friends and family enjoy this place as much as we do.

I learned today that my boss from the dark side last year at Mission was fired by Carla, aka Mexican Oprah. My English coordinator at Libertad told me that a Mission teacher had left her resume at Libertad this week and asked if I might know her. Know her??? Oh yes, I knew her well. I called my friend Mary Ellen when I got home this afternoon and asked her did she know why Danylu would have left her resume at Libertad? That's when I learned the news that Danylu was no longer in charge at Mission! Carla gave her the boot! WOW!!! Life is very sweet sometimes! Or should I say revenge is?