sophia y vince en mexico

photos

2009-04-15T14:00:00.002-05:00

here are some photos my dad took during his and mom´s visit in march.

enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/tommyk53/JennyAndTomVisitSophiaInMexico#

escoba

2009-01-21T20:13:00.002-06:00

i think that the mexicanos i work with think i´m an idiot. the other day, we were doing some landscaping work. my task was to rake. two of the guys i work with, chato y don lupe, were telling me something. they both were very focused on giving me whatever the piece of information was. i stood there, holding my rake, trying so hard to piece together what it was. i got the word "escoba". i said, "¿que es escoba?" the both simutaneously make a sweeping motion with their arms. i said i didn´t get it. they both laughed and carried on with their work. a few hours later, at the end of the day, i decided i should learn the name for rake in spanish. to chato, "¿que esto es?" pointing to the rake, "escoba."

three stories

2009-01-12T17:56:00.002-06:00

okay, so it´s been a minute. hopefully, i can develop the habit of writing in this regularly. an hour of internet is rather short.

here are three stories from the last month an a half.

1. thanksgiving. we spent our turkey thursday at a pow wow. in fact, the whole week at a pow wow. the gathering was to promote the north and south native communities, and those walking the red path, coming together. eagle-condor. we ate no turkey. probably lentils, rice, and salad, since that´s our standard affair. good times. good people.

2. somewhere between the last post in november and today we had a visitor in our house. our home is a three room, rectangular adobe affair with a lament roof. the adobe, a.k.a. mud, has started to detirorate over the years. so now, there are chunks missing where the roof and wall once connected. one day vincent and i were sitting on the bed. vince was reading. i was knitting. quietly and contently. then, BANG! we heard something smack onto vincent´s night stand. i start yelping, "whop!whop! whop!" vincent keeps asking, "what is it?" i can´t answer only point, at the black and grey spotted snake wiggling around our room, trying to hide behind the fireplace. vincent starts grabbing at it. i yell more and louder. he flings to the middle of the room. i scream even more. he finally says, "sophia, close your eyes!" i hide under the blankets for ten minutes while vince wrangles the snake into a box. the next day vincent asked our co-workers what kind of snake it was. they said coral. that means deadly. yikes!

3. we spent christmas in costa rica with my family. maria is living in san pedro. we spent four fabulous days on the beach then headed to the cloud forest. our second day there we all went on a zip line course through the canopy. i cried before i got on, just standing on the platform, about a ten feet off the ground. everyone loved it. i was separted from the family since i had to wait to go with the guide. i only stopped crying because i was around strangers. it was very beautiful and i will NEVER do it again.

hopefully that cathces everyone up. we don´t miss home, but are very bummed to be missing the excitement in angle and tamara´s lives right now. we love you guys and are with you in spirit.

que chitho!

thanksgiving

2008-11-26T11:22:00.002-06:00

tomorrow is thanksgiving. vincent and i will be speading at a pow wow here with native people from canada, us, mexico, colombia, peru, and holland. the focus of this pow wow is tho bring together the people, the races. we are all people of this world, this earth. we will eat with a very large family and probably it will be rice and beans, no turkey.

I don't want to go to Mexico

2008-11-12T12:14:00.001-06:00

while i was searching for songs for my english class, i found the following.

I don't want to go to Mexico
No more, more, more.

There's a big fat policeman
At my door, door, door.

He grabbed me by the collar,
He made me pay a dollar,

I don't want to go to Mexico
No more, more, more.

cameras.

2008-11-11T19:37:00.002-06:00

so after being here for three weeks, vincent and i finally purchased a desposable camera just in time to take in some ancient temples. we went to the temple-fort above malinalco near where we live and also teotichitilan in mexico city. when i was five, i visited mexico city to see my uncle and my sister, mother and i, went to the latter at that point. this is the home of the temple of the sun and the the temple of the moon. the former, my sister peed off the side when she was three. very sacred place. it was very beautiful and peaceful. both temples for years were spaces for many spiritual rituals. you can still feel the engery today.

nov. 4

2008-11-04T17:34:00.002-06:00

i'm very nervous. i will have to wait till wednesday evening to see who one. everyone here is praying for obama. this is a big election for america. and more than that, it is a big election for the world. i voted yesterday in mexico city, proudly sported my women for obama tee.

semana 3

2008-10-28T18:40:00.002-06:00

my apologies, that last post got cut off quickly because i really had to poop.

new developments... i´m actually spending time in the garden. the first week i was doing random tasks that had nothing to do with farming, but were important to the maintainance of the ranch in general. i also started helping with the english classes at the school here while the english teacher is out of the country.

let try to paint a better picture of neirka. not quite hippie commune. let´s try new agers with a native american spiritual practice that live communily. hmm, what IS the difference. they don´t seem to be stuck in 1968 and relieze fully it is 2008.

this weekend we are going to go to mexico city to vote at the embassy. that way our vote gets there. or at least we get to think it does. we´ll see, since we are voting on monday. we´ll also hit up some of the places we didn´t get to the first time around.

i wish a had some amusing antidote to share. i work with this guy Chato in the jardines and right now i AM his amusing antidote to life. today he picked on my pronounciation of the word ready- listo. i apparently i say leeeeees-to. that´s probably reflective of everything i say in spanish. way dragged out because i´m thinking through every syllable. but the best has occured, i actually try to communicate. well, not in conversations, but during work to offer my help, get directions, and explain i´m finished. Es listo. Que es promixio. sorry again i do not know how to work the keyboard and can´t make a question mark.

malinalco y denver

2008-10-18T16:03:00.003-05:00

hola all. we are safe and happy in chalmita. we arrived sabado pasado. una semana. last night vincent and i stayed in our little casita. it´s name is xouha, which is nauhtl for "to be". some dirty hippie who lives in hawaii owns it. we have no running water or electricity. vince and i will probably set up a tank on top the house and pull water from the arroyo that runs past our house so we can brush our teeth and wash our hands more easily.

our first week of work has included picking fruit, potting tamillo trnsplants, helping in the kitchen and cleaning our casita. and we have made several friends. denver, also know as sean when i can remember his nombre, is among them. he helps us with spanish and is from denver.

i am now writing from a cyber cafe in malinalco, the closest city you can find on the map. it is also a tatto shop.

primera dia

2008-10-14T17:05:00.002-05:00

today was our first day of work on the farm. i don{t think they quite know what to do with us yet since it is the rainy season and you can{t grow things yet since there is a worm that will gobble it all up. so it was random task today. we pick aguave (or some other fruit that sounds likes that), mowed grass, picked lavender, washed buckets and cooked lunch for 10 people. good times.

the main lady that we have been in contact with these last few months was convinently not here when we arrived saturday. at first we thought no one even knew we were arriving, but finally someone had that information. the forementioned woman, anya, will be here tomorrow. boring details.

let{s see... sunday we went to malinalco, which is ten minutes away. we also went to watch benja (more or less the grounds keeper){s futbol game. and yesterday, we walked two miles to chalma to buy towels. luckilywe bumped into marcos, someone we met at the futbol game, who lead us to the towel stand since we couldn{t find it. he also spotted us 100 pesos since between vince and i we can{t remember to bring enought money to buy two towels.

other updates. our spanish sucks. we{re learner. we talk like idiots.

uno mas, this is the most beautiful place on the planet.

besos y abrazos.

dancing

2008-10-10T18:59:00.002-05:00

so for the last two days there have been aztec dancers dancing a block away from our hostel at a corner near the zocalo next to the cathedral. i haven{t found out yet what the ceremony is. even if there is one. it is probably just to make money doing what they know how to do. exploiting their perceived exoticness. this is what i think now since they walk around asking for monetary donations. the performance must have roots of more significance though. if it was all a scam i don{t think people spanning three generations would incorporate so many seeming sacred/important gestures and actions.

so what is this dance is one question. but the question i have been pondering is what are the ritual dances in the usa? i{ve coming with two. the chicken dance and the electric slide/cha cha slide (depending on your ethinic group or other variant). possibly a thrid- the ymca. all people generally know these. you{ll see them performed at weddings, bar mitzvahs, and baseball games. however one would be hard pressed to see them performed in front of audiences in from of the white house. this lack of social dance, which spans generations has always bothered me about the us. i could go dancing most nights, but getting my mother there would be a different story. that dance seems more generation specific. each generation creates its own dance for the night life. other shared dances seem to be borrowed from other cultures. salsa. greek circle dances. i{m sure there are other dances that fit this category.

anyways, those are my thoughts for the day. tomorrow vincent and i head to chalmita. it will be a whole new world.

dia primera

2008-10-09T23:06:00.002-05:00

yay! somos aqui!

vince and i survived our first day in mexico. beyond survived. it was quite a wonderful day. we arrived around 12 pm and got to the hostel around 2 pm. needless to say, sophia was very hungry and trying to keep the krank-o-meter down. we dropped our stuff off in our cozy little room and went in search of a vegetarian restaurant, which we never found. instead we opted for chinese food for our first mexican meal. we spent the rest of the day walking around the centro historico, mainly the zocalo. i have forgotten the story as to why it is called the zocalo, but it was an amusing antidote that i will re-research. the zocalo is like the old town plaza. it is where the president´s palace is as well as the a big beautiful cathedral. there is also the ruins of the templo mayor. basically the spanish came in literally ripped down the aztec empire and built colonial beauties on top. i say beauties since that is what they are despite blood on which they are built. the templo mayor is what little remains of the old aztec empire.

our spanish sucks, but we have gotten by quite well. this i´m sure is due to everyone´s great english. hopefully by the end of this we will be two less americans who don´t speak spanish, let alone any other language.

tomorrow we will go to the museo de anthrolopolia and the bascillica de guatalupe. or something else. saturday we will head to chalmita, where the farm is. sunday we will got to church. and monday we start work. the vacation is over. sad.

much love.
besos y abrazos.
s & v

two days to go

2008-10-06T14:40:00.002-05:00

vince and i will be leaving for mexico in 2.5 days. i should be packing but i'm whinning about this cold i got from my friend. thanks ashley. how funny time is. three weeks ago i was warm in sunny santa fe, well, albuquerque. then came to the rainy east. scooted through baltimore to see my uncle. and this weekend watched my beautiful friends get married alongside the best women i have ever met in my life.

right now, i niether feel anxious or excited because this coming year's adventure does not seem to be real. i don't think i will sink in until we're wandering around the airport confused and lost.

i'm going to nap now and try to get over this virus.

i love and will miss you all.

sophia

Ready to go?

2008-10-05T19:53:00.000-05:00

Sophia y Vince
The big day is soon to come - hope this blog allows you to communicate with your fans!
M&D