Dia de los Muertos

Day of the Dead is a tradition unique to Mexico, which I have wanted to see since I first started learning Spanish when I was 14. A decade later and I finally got to experience this amazing custom firsthand. The roots come from a mixture of Spanish and indigenous Mexican culture. It seems that different cultures across Mexico held traditions honoring their dead during late summer until the Spaniards decided to combine the local holiday with their All Soul’s Day on Nov 2^nd. The Spanish holiday was meant to pray for the souls in purgatory, but after being combined with the local celebrations it has become the one day of the year when locals believe that souls of the dead are able to return to the land of the living.

An offering by the middle schoolers to honor a
tennis instructor who had recently died.

The math and science teacher from the middle school offered to take us to a village, Chilac, just outside of Tehuacan which is famous for maintaining the authentic indigenous traditions. In Tehuacan most people will visit the cemetery on November 2^n, leave some flowers, and then go home. However, in Chilac most people arrive on the night of the 1^st to clean and decorate the graves and then spend the night in the cemetery sleeping, eating, praying, and laughing.

I expected the celebrations to be somber and respectful, but was surprised and happy to find that everyone was smiling and joking. It felt more like entering a carnival than a cemetery with vendors selling food, mariachi bands playing, and whole families gathering to eat a meal together. 

1.       Doing laundry by hand always takes longer than you think.

2.       If the waiter tells you something isn’t spicy, don’t believe him

3.       The spicier the food, the worse my hiccups.

4.       Chili salt lime seasoning may just be the most genius invention ever.

5.       Always be prepared for the gas to run out when you plan a dinner party.

Oaxaca

Finally a weekend trip to somewhere new. One of my students told me she loved to go to a different city every Sunday just for fun and invited me to go along. When she let me choose where we went I knew I had to finally see this amazing city. It’s world famous for its amazing artists and its international community. As an old colonial town it’s full of old churches, cobblestone streets, and museums.

Above the city on the highest hill are the remains of Monte Alban, one of the oldest cities in Mesoamerica and the center of Oaxacan culture from around 100 BC to 500 AD.  There were temples, tombs, carvings, an observatory, and even tunnels through the hills that reached the city below.  It was the perfect day to explore the site and get a good look at the city below.  

My lovely guides for this adventure

Things I learned this week:

1.       It’s ok to spend 2 hours on a meal.

2.       Cars always have the right of way.

3.       You shouldn’t be concerned about canon fire at 2 am

4.       If there’s a river 8-inches deep running down the street, school isn’t cancelled

5.       5-gallons of water really does feel heavy after 3 blocks

The Apartment

Front View

Just a few words about our humble abode. There are five of us staying in the teacher’s apartment this semester, which is located right downtown just 2 blocks from the main plaza. We’re located between a night club and a church so when the music stops blaring at 4 am on Saturday we have until 8 am when the church hymns start blasting on their amplifier. So, not much sleep expected on the weekends, but the location is great for getting errands done in the afternoons and for walking back and forth to school, which is about 20 minutes away. 

Laundry-line next to the kitchen.

Some definite pluses here include consistent electricity, (mostly) drinkable tap water, and a boiler for hot showers.  On the other hand we’re pretty much doing laundry by hand and we’re vulnerable to all manner of pest invasions since there are so many open spaces for crawling inside. We’re not infested by any means, but waking up at 6 am to find a cockroach in your kitchen is never pleasant.

By far my favorite part of our apartment is our rooftop. Even though our building is only 4 stories tall, it feels like one of the tallest buildings in town. You can see over the town to the hills surrounding us and get a feel for the valley we’re centered in. A great place for a lunchtime nap, a good book, and a nightcap.

Things I learned this week:

1.       Gutters are a luxury

2.       Toilet paper doesn’t go in the toilet

3.       If there’s a river 8-inches deep running down the street, school isn’t cancelled

4.       Always bring a towel

5.       4-months is a long time to wait for good beer

Upon arrival it was all too clear that things in Mexico are a little less organized and much more relaxed . . .

Oh, are you missing a key part of your curriculum for Monday? Don’t worry – I’m sure we’ll have it in a week or two.

Oh no, you’ve locked the door to that classroom and we seem to have lost the key. Don’t worry – I’ll have my husband climb onto the roof and through the window.

Main School Building

On the first day of class the new supervisor and her husband decided to skip town without saying a word. Strange since they had several years of experience in Poland in China, but I guess that Mexico just wasn’t what they expected. It’s taken a while for things to be re-worked, but I think everyone finally has all of their extra classes in place. Right now I’m teaching 27 hours a week and prepping for 2 different levels of students. My first class starts at 8 in the morning and my last class ends at 9 pm. Even with a 4-hour lunch break my day doesn’t seem nearly long enough to get ready for the following day.

Fortunately my classes are quite small. My fifth grade class only has 7 and my biggest class, adults at the end of the day, can get as big as twelve when everyone decides to show up. Compared to when I was in grade school this seems tiny, but the sizes of our classrooms here couldn’t really handle more students. I usually have to borrow a chair or two if someone wanders in late.

As a whole I’m really enjoying teaching here. 4/5 of my classes are sheer joy and the 5^th is just going to take some behavior management skills to make my rowdy 6^th graders settle down. It’s so strange teaching children since my behavior management skills have been mostly confined to adults up until now, but in the long run I’m sure this will make me a better teacher. If anyone has any suggestions to keep these kids interested or get them in line please let me know.

Things I learned this week:

1.       The mud is always deeper than it looks.

2.       When you step on a cockroach, make sure it doesn’t pop.

3.       Recycling doesn’t exist in Mexico.

4.       No one is immune from Montezuma’s Revenge.

5.       Medicine in Mexico does not come with instructions or warnings. 

One of the four classrooms we share.

Staff Lounge/Technology Center

Why on Earth are you going to Mexico?

Nothing will burn you out faster than Corporate America. Need I say more? Instead of doing the logical thing and switching jobs or going back to school I decided to run away to teach English around the world. I’ve always been interested in exploring Central and South America so when I was offered a 4-month contract in Mexico I jumped on the chance to explore. The town I am living in is called  Tehuacan  and is about 3 hours Southeast of Mexico City and 2 hours West of the Gulf Coast. The population is just under 250,000 and the elevation here is about 5200 feet. Weather here is temperate and the people are all friendly so I feel like I’ve been pretty luck so far.

Getting started on this grand adventure was an adventure all on its own. Apparently there's a new rule about 45-min check-in time that I missed since my dear  friend Paulina and I were trying to find a second suitcase for me (new charge for over 50 lbs is $200 per flight that I discovered at 4 am that morning - so I was desperate). I wouldn't have made it anyways since the security line was about an hour and a half long. Apparently that day there were some cancelled flights in addition to back to school traffic so people were missing their flights before they even cleared security and were being sent back to the check-in counters. In the end it all worked out and I was placed on standby for my flights, which I made. It just pushed things back so I arrived in Tehuacan at 2 am.