Surrounded by Widows

We had our first dinner party on our large patio tonight with Mel and Anna. They have entertained us so often over the past year it was nice to finally entertain for them. Mel told us about the new real estate project he is developing in Cabo for a gay clientele. We cooked seafood pasta and a nice salad. Greg and Brenda stopped over unexpectedly and I had bought a cake for Greg's birthday so it all turned out unexpectedly well! We had had our friend, Mary Ellen, over for dinner also this week so we are connecting with our friends here again and it feels very good.

I realized today that the important people in my work life here this year are all widows. Rosie, my boss, is a widow. The owner of the school, Elsa, is a widow with six young children. My team-mate Patty is a widow of 20 years. I got to work today and no one was there except for Katy, the recent high school graduate from Chicago (not a widow) who is taking a gap year before she starts college. She had come to San Jose three years ago during her spring break with her middle school class to paint classrooms at Libertad. I told her we should go out to breakfast at the French Cafe a block away and we did. She is having the usual culture shock, loneliness and adverse reaction to the extreme heat. When we returned to school a few people were around, including my team-mate Patty, the rest being on Mexican time. Patty and I spent the morning telling each other our life stories. She has had a rough one. Widowed at 38, husband an alcoholic. She raised her two daughters alone and now works two jobs. One of her grandsons is severely disabled. She teaches each day from 7:30 in the morning until eight at night. She is two years older than I am. Made me think twice about complaining that I am too old to be teaching full time.

The air con repair guys came back today as we had been without air for two days. The $50 repair job did not last too long. It is working beautifully again and there was no charge. We hope to get to the beach this weekend. Our maid who comes every Friday, Herlinda, did all my ironing today as well as the cleaning so I can have a little fun this weekend with no guilt. Have decide not to do any major school planning until I see what my groups look like next week. I was stressed out about having no class lists or plans and developed a major headache, of course. I came home today from school, had two Excedrin and a mild tranquilizer and felt fine in 20 minutes and have not looked back. I have been trying to adopt the Mexican approach to life and just relax. It is a hard thing for me to do.