On a Personal Note

El Parque on Three Kings Day

There are so many new things for us to experience in San Miguel - something new everyday! We've met some great people that we can chat with over dinner or join at an event. 

Each morning our built in alarm clocks go off at 6:45am - when the first church bells ring, prompting Catholics to go to mass. At 6:50 the dogs all start barking, and after sleeping all night, they have a lot to say. At 6:55 more church bells, giving us one more chance to get to church. At 7:00 the garbage men lead a parade, whistling and playing their dinner bells, to announce their arrival. There is also the shooting of cannons and the random discharging of firearms - all to greet the day.

Service workers can be seen in the early morning shadows, making their way to nearby restaurants, followed by sleepy-eyed children in their bright blue school uniforms. Next, the dog walkers emerge and other early risers - crazy joggers. The morning begins. Soon, the the hot air balloons are launched. As I make breakfast, I can see them as they seem to dangerously drag across the roof tops and disappear over the hillside.

This past week we attended the Three Kings Day celebration on January 6, where all the children received gifts, just like Jesus did from the three wise men. They celebrate with a beautiful wreath shaped fruit bread. Inside is a plastic figurine of the baby Jesus. Who ever gets the slice of bread with the baby Jesus in it dresses and cares for the baby Jesus and brings him to church for a special blessing. They also have to make tamales for their family on February 2nd, for the Fiesta de Candelaria celebration. I got the baby Jesus, so guess I'll be making the tamales!

Cindy and David at the pyramid

On Monday, David set up working from our casita while I went on the hunt for Lydia, a woman known to teach Tai Chi in the park. Well, no Lydia, but I did meet a woman from Ohio, who was also in search of Lydia. We never found Lydia but had a great time chatting and comparing notes about San Miguel, which is how it happens here. You learn something new about this place with everyone you meet. In the morning, the park is full of people walking, jogging, using the par-course, playing basketball and a big group of people doing a Mexican version of Zumba. No excuses! We quickly settled into our personal activities of yoga, walking and for David, running. I met Tanya, a Mexican yoga instructor, who teaches in a beautiful peaceful space near the park. What a fun way to learn the parts of body, as the yoga is taught in Spanish - yikes.

On Tuesday, David took the day off and we went to see the ancient pyramids of Canada de Virgin. Our guide was Albert Coffee an Archeologist from LSU, who brilliantly told us about the convergence of archeology, geography and astronomy. Amazing! More about this soon.

Natalie Hinshaw Bartholet

On Wednesday, we were lucky enough to be in San Miguel for the first art exhibit of Natalie Hinshaw-Bartholet, who splits her time between San Miguel and Stonington, CT. Wow, what a great Wednesday night out!  She displayed an amazing body of work. It was held at a new restaurant in El Centro called Lily's. Much of the proceeds go to Ojala de Ninos, where I will be volunteering over the next month. Even some of the kids from the Ojala program were there!

Fantastic art, wonderful pre-Hispanic food, new friends and an important charity. A group of us stayed for dinner after. We quickly converted the gallery back into a restaurant and ordered from a great menu of traditional Mexican and Native Mexican dishes. David and I had fried grasshopper and ant larva. - Yum! 

Ant Larva

Lily's with Art from Natalie

New friends and old

In San Miguel, there are fascinating lectures and films about environmental justice topics. on Thursday, I saw a wonderful film called, The Last Mountain, about coal mining in the Appalachian Mountains. Later, David and I went to hear two authors speak about their books, as part of a huge writers conference, featuring Alice Walker and Gloria Steinem. The first book, "The Servant Economy" was written by economist Jeff Faux, who founded the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. Amazing - take home message: our young people will not be as prosperous as we are. The second writer, was John Warley, who wrote "A Southern Girl". Both very entertaining and just an example of the talent San Miguel has to offer. 

We finished the week by me going to Ojala de Ninos to read with the children, eating a farm fresh dinner at home and then going to the local library for Indian inspired flute music that was phenomenal.

So, that was our first week here in San Miguel. Next week starts the real life living experience of David working more and more, and me taking my clay pottery class at Borroco and volunteering at Ojala, as our main workday objectives. Of course we plan a great side trip to Dolores Hildago to see how they make Talavera pottery (from start to finish) and learn more about the surrounding communities, horse back riding and a trip to the hot springs.

Stay tuned!