My Spanish is growing by leaps & bounds

Hola amigos. I am finally finding myself able to follow a conversation. And expressing myself is becoming much easier as well. Good for the old cabeza.

I have moved into town for a week until I go to Tuxtla Gutierrez for several days. On Dec. 2 I hope to see a performance of the group of Mayan women from FOMMA. Then on the 4th & 5th I will give a workshop to local actors in Tuxtla. I love it here.

Tomorrow I teach at FOMMA, the day after for the day care teachers & on Wednesday I will go to see El Senor de la Tierra. It is a local performance, in a grand old theatre on the Andador, the walking street, not unlike Granville Mall, but much smaller in scale & no buses or vehicle of any sort except the bicycle wheel variety, of which there are many. The show has more than 20 actors in it. Many of them are people who were in my workshop in March. After I return from Tuxtla, I will do two days of workshops for the actors in this play.

Two nights ago we went to an opening of a new restaurant in San Cristobal called La Pera. There was excellent live jazz & we danced into the night. It was big fun. I find myself dancing all of the time here.

Before I left Vancouver I made 4 compilation CD's designed for my Memorobics classes in February. I have been using them here for my classes & so many people have asked me to copy them for them. They are each an eclectic mix of music from all over the world, in many languages. They all start slow & build up to a quick paced boogy & quiet down again at the end for a cool off. I dance to at least one CD every day here. Between dancing, walking, teaching & Gim Apolo, where I work out, I can honestly say I feel that I am in the best shape I have ever been in in my life. Not too shabby for sixty.

Back to immersing myself in the local cultura. Hasta luego.

Cada dia aqui hay una otra aventura

I just finished my second day of teaching & successfully downloaded the first bunch of pictures from my camera to my friend Alejandra's computer. Believe it or not, you are closer to seeing photos on this blog than you were yesterday.

Yesterday I spent 5 hours at the offices of FOMMA, an organization of indigenous Mayan women. They have a theatre group & I did an hour of stretching, Dance of Life & aerobics with them. Following that we had lunch together. After our sandwiches I demonstrated a technique for making quick half masks. We made two & will make more on Tuesday when I will teach there again.

The first hour at FOMMA I had the privelege of taking the class being offered by Yakira Teitel. Yakira is a young woman that I know for the past 14 years, ever since she was a camper at Camp Winnarainbow. It was touching for me to see her as a grown young woman, pursuing her dreams, bringing so much of what she learned at Camp with her. Yakira then stayed & participated in my class.

Last evening we made abig dinner at the house of Luix. It was American Thanksgiving & three of us were Americans. The other three were thankful they weren't Americans. I made chicken & chorizo, like I do in Vancouver. We danced, laughed & ate well.

Today I taught teachers in an after-school day care program. That too was much fun. It is exhausting teaching in Spanish, but each time I do it my language skills take a monumental jump. I spend the evening before each class researching words that I will need for the workshop & come away with another pocket full of palabras.

After today's class I went to the gym & lifted weights before going to lunch with friends. Tomorrow we have a party for the opening of a new restaurant, so more dancing, laughing & eating are in store.

Next week I am scheduled to go to Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas to do a long weekend workshop with professional actors that I worked with when I was here in Feb/March. Tuxtla is at sea level & warm, unlike San Cristobal, which is quite high in the mountains. The house I am staying in is even higher than the town of San Cristobal de las Casas, where I spend my days. Alejandra's home is up the highest mountain in this area.

Those of you who are emailing me, my request is to use my axion.net address, as it is the easiest for me to access in internet cafes, something that San Cristobal de las Casas is full of. We joke & call it San Cristobal de las Internet.

El Norte

Today it rained in San Cristobal. Nothing like Vancouver rain. They call it el norte, like it shouldn't even be here. Like a stranger who came to visit. It is a thick soggy mist that saturates everything in its path. And now, luckily, it went back to the north where it came from.

The weather did not interfere with a wonderful day's work. From 10am until 3pm, I was with the women of FOMMA, an indigenous Mayan women's group. They do theatre & are keen to learn more. We did 2 hours of physical exercise & then made masks.

I put the women through several long stretches, some cat & cow, rhythmic name games & taught the Dance of Life. I finished off my first hour with a great aerobic session & a lap sit. We laughed, stretched & sweated together. After that we made two half masks on the faces of two of the women. On Tuesday I will return & we will put elastic on the masks & paint them. We will probably make a few more also.

I have spoken nothing but Spanish today. The immersion is really helping my language acquisition. Last evening my friend Luix translated all the words that I would need for today's class. Each day I am learning a bunch of new words & I think even the grammar is slowly sinking in. Six months & I would be fluent. Alas I will only be here another three weeks, but I am trying to fit in as much Spanish as possible.

Tomorrow I am teaching a group of afterschool daycare teachers. It will be more language & more laughing. The people of Chiapas are warm & friendly. And a lot of them are in a similar situation to me, in that Spanish is not their mother tongue. For instance, the women I worked with today grew up speaking a Mayan language.

Tonight a bunch of us are cooking together at Luix's house. It is American Thanksgiving. I have invited Yakira to come to dinner with us. We will have chicken & chorizo. I have a lot to be thankful for, outside of the state of America. There is a lot of graffiti on the walls here that is anti-Bush. These Chiapecans, they are smarter than all of those American idiots who voted for the moron who sits in the White House. I will be most thankful when that regime is over.

If all of the Democrats & lawyers are content taking the legal route to throw the jerk out of the Presidency, it will take all four years & who knows how many more lives until it gets to court, & then the supreme court judges are all Bush butt-kissers, so it won't do any good anyway. Do the world a favor and take a lesson from the Zapatistas. Viva Zapata!

Gim Apolo

Gim Apolo is what it says on the door to the gym that I work out in here in San Cristobal de las Casas. This is my third visit here & they know me at the gym. It costs me 70 pesos to work out for a month. It is a lot different from the fitness centre at Kitsilano Community Centre, where I work out at home. For one, the man who owns the gym has made a lot of the equipment himself. It is a bit too easy to get greasy from the equipment, but otherwise, it works.

I received several bits of news today that I will share with you. My son Adad & daughter-in-law Linda are coming back to Vancouver a week early on Dec. 21, the same day I fly to San Francisco. However my sweet son has promised to reserve some time to spend with me after the 27th, when I return to Vancouver.

The next bit of news is that my housemate Varya has been accepted to Langara's brand new Film Arts course which begins in January. She is excited & I am sure it will further enliven my already lively house.

And finally, from the news front, last week two tantric teachers spent three days in my bedroom. The day before their wedding, the day of, & the day after. I am not sure what residual energy that might impart into my futon & what of it might rub off when I return to that bed, but I am looking forward to checking it out once I am home. I will keep you posted.

Now I am going to go to have a meeting with Alejandra's sister Maru. She is opening an after school day care kind of a place in January & I volunteered to train her teachers in some good things they can do with the kids. I am looking forwardto that & to the two workshops that I will probably give while I am here. Maybe even three, if we can organize something in Mexico City with the help of Clay Hastings & his Alejandra.

Hasta luego, abrazos y besos, y un titipuchal de amor,
Txi

La Granada, the pomegranate

Yesterday Luix drove myself & his friend Patricia, an architect, out to his ranch in the hills, some 30 kilometres outside of San Cristobal, in the direction of Comitan. It is called La Granada, named after the fruit pomegranate. We took a long hike. Almost at the top of the hill we got to a rushing waterway, cutting through limestone to descend the mountain. On the way back to Luix's ranch house we walked through milpa, cornfields. The corn has been picked already & the rest of the plant is still standing, drying in place, to be cut down for animal feed soon. Amongst the corn were many flowers growing, much yellow, red & purple.

I have been going wild with my new camera. I would share the pictures with you right now if only I knew how. Maybe soon. Still, I will have these photos to show you some time in the future. I like the pictures my camera takes & there is so much here to photograph.

The sun was setting a deep orange as we finished our hike & we built a fire, ate chicken & chorizo & drove back to San Cristobal de las Casas. Ale picked me up at Luix's & we went home. When I walked up into my room & opened the door I was met with something akin to a biblical plague. There were wasps all over the floor, bed, window sills, bathroom, & the shower floor alone must have had about 50 wasps lying there. When they are inside like that they get kind of drowsy, but can still sting wickedly.

Ale had told me the night before to make sure to close all the windows when we leave in the morning, because there is a worldwide overpopulation of the wasp, due to a lack of natural predators. She said that once it gets warm outside they come indoors. I had showered & opened one of the bathroom windows a crack to let the steam escape & stupidly, forgotten to close it.

Alejandra & I spent an hour squishing wasps, chasing wasps, spraying wasps & praying not to get bitten in the process. I did get one bite on my thight, but that was the extent of the damage. I think Ale & I now qualify as natural predators to the wasp, as we must have killed about 100 of them at least. Good for taking out any agression or frustration. Still this morning I found a few more, but I made sure every window was tight before we left this morning & I hope for a different reception when I return home tonight.

Now I am going to begin phoning people I know here & see if I can make some appointments & book some workshops. I hope you all are doing well. I shall blog in again in a few days to keep you posted as to my activities here in southern Mexico. Much love to you.

Rides to Airports

I was extremely fortunate when leaving Vancouver, because my wonderful friend Carol Naconeckny was willing to wake up at some unearthly hour to get me to the airport by 5:30. The flight to SF was a cinch, & the flight to Mexico City also came off without a hitch. They have stopped going through my things, so I can just enjoy the ride.

Having been at a Green Day concert at Vancouver's coliseum the night before we left, I had the lyrics of Don't Want To Be An American Idiot going through my head all the time while I waited on line to pass US immigration. It worked! I think.

In Mexico City I was met at the airport by Clay Hastings & his sweetheart of a girlfriend Alejandra. They took me home, fed me a great dinner & gave me the bed of a princess to sleep in. Thanks Clay & Ale.

The next morning was the first time that I had to endure any discomfort so far on this journey. I had a flight to Chiapas scheduled & caught a taxi to the airport. The taxi driver was non-stop on his cell phone as we negotiated the viaduct highway. That was scary enough, but, he also had a television in his taxi. It was just to the right of the steering wheel. It was playing a movie in which he was obviously quite involved in the plot outcome. Me, with my stomach in my mouth, sat in the back seat & prayed. We did get there & I was so relieved when I finally exited his cab.

The flight to Tuxtla Gutierrez was fine & I was met by my friend Alejandra, not to be confused with Clay's girlfriend. With her was her sister Maru & my friend Luix. We all drove the 2 hours to San Cristobal de las Casas & I settled into my bed for a good sleep.

All Packed & Ready To Go

The time of departure is almost here. My room is clean. I am packed & the excitement level is peaking. It looks like I might be going to Guatemala as well. So tomorrow I hope to fly out of here, before anyone reading this is awake. My first stop will be an overnight with Clay & Alejandra in Mexico City. On November 19th I fly down to Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of the state of Chiapas. I will be met at the airport by a friend & driven the final two hours up into the mountains to San Cristobal de las Casas, where I will spend most of my Mexican stay. So my next blog posting will probably be from an internet cafe. Until then, I hope all is well with you. Stay well & play hard!

Developmentally Stunted

I must continue to apologize for the fact that there are no pictures on this blog yet. You see I have been too busy trying to clean my room in order not to leave a mess behind on Thursday, when I leave for Mexico. Actually, I have done a lot of skilled procrastination, but the vacuum was heard briefly yesterday.

I mean well. 'Clean my room' is an item on every list I make. I have a problem getting this to happen easily. I am developmentally stunted in this way. However, today it looks better. And knowing that it gets worst first, better is a promising place to be.

I am also spending time scheduling work for 2005. If you want to talk to me related to a project in your community, or with a group, this is a good time to talk. And that will be another good reason not to be cleaning my room.

Txi, la tia de la sombrilla

Soaking Up Vancouver

I find myself soaking up the stunning scenery around me so I am full of it by the time I leave for Mexico. I am hyper-observant and hyper-appreciative of my good fortune to live in this environment. All of Vancouver is cooperating by showing off its billion shades of autumn. The maples are flaming. And the far mountains, on a clear day, have that snowy topping glistening in the sun.

Now that's key. You see the sun hasn't seemed to glisten for more than a few hours over the last several days & we don't see the mountains when the rain is falling. And my clothes are damp. But this morning, for a few minutes, the sun shone hard on the ornamental cherry trees outside my bedroom window, on all their luscious pumpkin orange and squash gold leaves. It was glorious.

Six months ago, light pink was the background color out of my window. Than we had 4 months of lovely green, & now, flaming orange. Vancouver is a great place to come back to, especially when the sun is shining. Maybe I shouldn't say that too loud. Let's just keep it our little secret. Vancouver, the city at the end of the rainbow!

Ouch!

I have been listening to Americans all week on CBC radio. The amazing thing is that so many of them TRUST the lying, greedy, megalomaniacal idiot they have just elected. So what does that say about Americans?

Me, I'm just an honest, poor, humble idiot, living in Canada, trying strenuously to figure out how to post photographs to this blog. They haven't made it simple enough for me yet. It appears to take me three attempts. And we are talking about serious spendage of time. I started this second attempt this morning. With the exception of the frustrations of Cyberbots & Jesusbots, all is well.

Preparations continue. Whatever happens, prepared sounds like a better place to be; better than in fear - or feared, for that matter. I'm sorry America. By my next posting I hope to have figured out how to send pictures, so when I get my new camera on my daughter Kefi's birthday, I am closer to sending you photos of my travels.