Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas

 December 25, 2009

Luke 2:11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a saviour who is Christ the Lord.
Today I am reflecting on the birth of Christ and not so much on Christ Himself but on the Mother Mary and I am reminded of the day I gave birth to my child. Not that I can compare myself to the Mother Mary at all but we are both mothers. I can’t say for sure but I believe that the moment Mary first held her son and looked into His eyes she saw her son as a baby not as the King that He was. The Bible does not go into details about her feelings and emotions at the time or how she felt when people came from far and wide to see her baby. We read in Luke 1:32 that she was told that He would be great and He would be called the Son of the highest. Did she know that people would worship Him and bow down before Him at birth already; did she know people would search for Him for days just to get a glimpse of Him? How did she feel when everyone was crowding around her in the little stable trying to get a glimpse of her little bundle of joy? I remember how I felt when everyone was crowding around my baby and my crowd was not nearly as big as hers. I really just wanted to be alone with my baby, I wanted to hold and cuddle her and tell her all the things I had been waiting 9 months for to tell her, I had been waiting for 9 months to hold her and I didn’t want to let go. I remember when she as about 5 days old her father wanted to go out to eat and I didn’t want to but I didn’t want to tell him why. I didn’t want to share my baby with the world just yet. I knew people would come up to me and say “oh, can I see your baby” and I would have to unwrap her from her pretty pink blanket, and some people would even ask if they could hold her, I didn’t want that. I didn’t like others holding my baby. To this day I still don’t ever ask a mother if I can hold her new born baby because I remember how I felt at that time. Of course I just smiled and let them hold her but was always so relieved when she was back in my arms. It wasn’t that I thought something would happen to her or that someone would drop her or anything like that I just wanted her to stay in my arms. I never said anything because that would have been rude and as she got older it got easier until a time came when it didn’t bother me all anymore. I do still stand back when I see a new baby being passed around at a baby shower or in the middle of a group, I don’t participate. As I remember this time my heart breaks for Mary as she had to share her son with the world right at birth and in the end she had to stand back and do nothing as He gave His life for the whole world. As I think of the pain and agony she must have gone through as she watched her son get torn part and nailed to the cross I have to remember that God never puts anything on us that He knows we can’t bear. She was willing and obedient to the very end and I am grateful to her for that. Mary was chosen by God to be Jesus’ mother just like I was chosen to be my child’s mother. We are all chosen for certain things in certain times and through Christ we can endure all things and through Christ all things are possible....all things are possible, all things.
Merry Christmas
Luke 2:14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men.




Thursday, December 24, 2009

Ready for Christmas

December 23, 2009
My computer tells me it’s December 23, if I hadn’t looked at it I would never have known that it is only two days before Christmas. In the past I would have been a complete basket case today, trying to take care of those last minute Christmas preparations. The people from the trailer park have been collecting donations to put together food and gift hampers for the people of the Island and today they delivered 2 truck loads of hampers, they had 700 hampers made up. God will honour them for that someday. There is another American guy here who apparently has built himself a sleigh that he pulls behind his guad and he fills it with Christmas goodies as well and he delivered his as well today. I didn’t even go and have a look I was too content with my painting, it would have been a sight to see.
Ironically today (which is usually the most stressful day of the year) I finally felt relaxed enough to start on my painting. I went over to see the painter guy and he and his wife were most helpful and we also had a nice long visit. Turns out she’s the lady that passes by my house everyday walking an Alaskan malamute, not a big one like I used to have but a beautiful little cute one. I got my canvas stapled and spent the afternoon prepping it. Until it rained...yup rain in December is unheard of here but it rained. It was not a warm today at all, and at times over cast. I took my long sleeve cardigan on and off all day. It didn’t stop the tourists from going in the water or from renting banana boats and kayaks. At about 2 pm it started to rain, just a wee bit. As soon as I had my canvas and stuff put away in the house it stopped. Of course as soon as it started the power started to flicker, the electricity is just not made to withstand any weather at all. The good thing about a cool day like this is the iguanas are not out, have not seen a single one, although since I started feeding them they haven’t been nibbling on my plants. I am worried they will discover my dill and cucumbers once they start getting taller. I do have a plan if that happens, there is a lot of fish netting laying all about here and I could close off my little garden area with fish nets, it just wouldn’t look very pretty....and my now you ‘al know I’m all about pretty...ha. Which reminds me, I am going to scrub and scrape my toes tonight in prep for any Christmas activities I may be attending.

A few days ago a gentleman came and asked me if it would be ok with me if he and a few friends had a bonfire on my beach. It isn’t really my beach, the beach is public and I am not to sure where the property lines are, I would assume at the high tide line but I really don’t know. So I can’t really stop anyone from partying on “my beach” but he was nice enough to at least ask. I told him I wouldn’t mind at all but I hoped they wouldn’t party into the night keeping me from sleeping. He laughed and said they would be lucky if they could stay awake until 10 pm. I said “well...that’s my kind of party...party on”.  I may not even be here I may go into Mazatlan for a Christmas Eve service at the church; I might catch the tail end of the party. A few days ago a group of about 20 people carrying all kinds of camping gear and drums...yup drums stopped and started to get settled in on “my beach” I was watching and silently praying “please no, please no, please don’t camp and drum on my beach all night long” but something wasn’t right for them and they picked up and moved further up. I saw them later all set up in front of the cantina and when I was lying in bed that night I could just faintly hear the drums...thank-you God

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

About the day I had coconut in my hair and horse poo on my flip flops, and planted a garden

December 23, 2009


Yesterday I decided it was time to be productive so after my 2nd cup of cappuccino (recipe at end of story) I set out to make myself a frame to stretch my canvas on out of an old broken table. I borrowed a hammer and a pry bar from my new friends at the trailer park and for the next 2 hours hammered and pried old rusty nails out of the table. The nails were very old didn’t give up without a fight. I only wanted the table top and had to remove the legs and some of the support pieces under the table top which I did manage. When I brought back my borrowed tools I asked around for a stapler and was told that the guy that has a stapler lives just up the road, in the house with the orange fence. When I was asked what I needed it for and I told them I needed to staple a canvas to my newly build frame I was told that the guy was a painter and had all the equipment and tools to build frames...great, now you tell me after I have laboured for a few hours. I had figured out what I wanted to paint but now I was in doubt about the size of my painting and once it’s stretched and stapled there is no turning back, unless of course you want to go smaller but not if you want to go bigger. I decided I’d wait until I could talk to my friend Kathy who is an artist and is the one who gave me lessons last year, there are certain rules about size and I just wanted to make sure that what I had in mind would look ok. So I moved on to my next projects....oh, let me back up a bit, first thing after coffee I went out back to pony lane and gathered some horse poo and spread it out to dry, some of it was still smelly.....did I mention that I am not the weirdest person around here. Anyway, before I left home I had bought some beautiful wool from www.knitpicks.com I bought some chunky Suri alpaca and some lace weight alpaca and silk blend and was making what I call fat skinny scarves. You use a fat yarn and a skinny yarn and just knit in stockinette stitch for 3 rows with the skinny and then 1 row with the fat, you knit it up on circular needles but you don’t join it this is just so that you can knit from both ends. It’s very fast because the needles are a size 10...yup size 10, making it very holey and loopy and fast. I had finished one for a friend of mine and so I decided that today I would block it on my big concrete counter top and it worked great. I had to keep spritzing it with water because it was so hot it dried in minutes. I brought a lot of this yarn with me and plan on making a lot of these as gifts so far I haven’t knitted too much yet but I am starting to get the knitin itch. All the while I am doing all this I am keeping an eye out for my iguanas because I have put their fresh lettuce out and want a picture of them eating but they are too fast for me, they grab a piece of lettuce and when I have my camera in hand they disappear with it. So I decide it’s time for a break and a stake out. I make myself my 10 am fruit drink (recipe at end of story) and sit down with my camera in hand and wait. To anyone passing by it looks like the lazy Canadian is once again..... Well... lazy. They can’t tell that I am busy here, on a stake out. I did get a shot of the medium size one but I really wanted a shot of the monster one but he was too smart for me. I should have been wearing beige camouflage, oh well. I have no idea how many iguanas I have; I know I have about 4 different sizes plus the little geckos. Are geckos just baby iguanas? After my unsuccessful stake out I decide it’s time to plant my plants into the ground, I’ve had a few weeks now to ponder on where they will go and have a nice supply of dried horse poo. I dig up a spot alongside my palapa and mix the poo into the sand and plant my creeping vines there so they will cover the ugly side that has boards and pieces missing. I also find some plants growing behind my bathroom and transplant them into my new garden as well. I also planted a row of dill, just because I still had some dill seeds that a friend gave me...thank-you friend. Did I mention that my cucumbers and dill that I planted a while ago are up and growing...well, they are and I am so excited. (We won’t talk about my grapes that I planted at the same time just yet) There might just be pickles by mid February and I am not sure why this excites me so much because I don’t even really like pickles but it excites me anyway. I did buy a cantaloupe again today and plan on drying the seeds and planting them as well as an avocado if I can ever stop cutting into the pit, seriously, I eat about 4 avocados as day, I think I mentioned that they are only 4 pesos a piece which works out to about .32 cents each...unreal. Fruit and vegetables here are so cheap and fresh and good that I can’t get enough of them. Taking in my 5 -10 servings a day is not hard here, combine that with my flax seed oil and cinnamon & honey and Jamaica tea and my favourite potato meal my immune system should be rock solid, a real fort knox....there is nothing that will survive in my body long enough to do any damage. The only problem is that when I get home I won’t be able to afford to eat like this unless I grow my own which I do intend to try now that I have a greenhouse in my back yard....but I’ll ramble on about that come April.

I decided today I would shred a coconut, I do want to bring fresh real coconut home, I’ve brought it home before when it was cooked but I think I can bring it home uncooked. So after a rather good fight with the coconut I manage to get the coconut out of its shell and I get out my little hand shredder liek the ones I see the local women use. I see them sitting on their front steps in the afternoon slowly shredding coconut, they make it look so effortlessly and peaceful......I am here to tell you it is not effortlessly, oh no. After almost shredding a finger to shreds and having coconut flying everywhere I decide that there has to be a better way, even though the locals have been doing it this way for a hundred years. Then it dawns on me that my blender has a chop setting, I cut my coconut up into small pieces and give it a whirl and dang it, it works like a dangy dang. Now, my coconut does not look at all like the neat and evenly shredded coconut like the locals, mine is all chopped and chunky but once I have it home there will not be anything to compare it too and it will look fine. I put it into an empty yogurt container but this morning in dawns on me that it is still wet from the coconut water and it seems to me it will get mouldy. So I this morning I laid it out on paper in the sun to dry.....not sure if this is the process but I figured I would give it a try but I didn’t have it laid out there very long and the ants discovered it...good grief, I can’t hover over my coconut all day shooing away ants so I covered it with a tea towel, it should still dry, just not as fast.

On Saturday when I was helping paint the church I was invited to a Bible study on Tuesday at 4 pm, on Monday I ran into one of the ladies and was reminded again “don’t forget, Tuesday at 4”. I had been invited to the ladies Bible study last year and did go once but then decided that my Spanish wasn’t good enough for me to get anything out of it and then didn’t go back. I decided (I decided a lot today) that unless I completely submerge myself my Spanish is never going to improve, it certainly won’t improve while I am sitting under my palapa having a stake out so off I went to the Bible study....or so I thought. AS soon as I walked into the church I knew right away something was off, everyone was dressed in their very very best, and I’m talking wedding attire here. Turns out this is their Christmas Concert and I am very under dressed. This is not the first time I have gone to a Mexican event and found my self very underdressed...down right frumpy. Now I did change out of my horse poo collecting/gardening/coconut havesting clothes into a “nicer” clean pair of capris and a clean “nicer” t-shirt but was still no where near to being appropriately dressed. The lady sitting beside me was not wearing a new dress and I am am guessing it was her best dress and I glanced down and saw her shoes were clean, and very blingy high heels, and her toe nails were done up very nicely, I look down at my feet, which I did give a quick wipe but should have scrubbed and scraped a bit and saw my horse poo gathering/gardening/coconut harvesting/iguana chasing flip flops.....oh my goodness. Hopefully being a new comer will buy me some grace here. I vow to myself that when all this holiday hoopla is over and the store have more regular hours again (ha...nothing is regular here) I will go and buy me some bling, and the next time I am invited to a Mexican event I too will be all blinged up. Looking at me sitting in this church pew you would never know that just days ago I finished reading Kathleen Tessaro’s book on Elegance, and I was going to put some of her advise into practise but haven’t had time yet....been busy you know. Anyway....There is more, I suddenly see out of the corner of my eye a women going to the back of the church where the palapa is and she is carrying a pot. There is food! Is there not going to be an end to me feeling inadequate, stupid and cheap? I of course didn’t bring anything and this is a potluck event. I wonder how much grace these people have, tis the season after all of love and acceptance so I should be ok. I do forget all about (almost) my inadequateness’ and enjoy the program, the Christmas Carols we sang were all familiar making it easier to sing in Spanish and I did even get something out of the message. The kids sang a few songs which was just adorable and then the teenagers did a great job of “Angels we have heard on high” and then the food under the palapa, which of course was awesome. We had tamales, ceviche, macaroni salad and atole. (A brief explanation of food at end of story) As I am sitting there eating all of a sudden something falls onto my plate....what the heck, it’s small chunk of coconut, oh my gosh I have coconut in my hair! I shouldn’t be allowed out in public. (ever)

The children were all given a little bag of goodies shortly after the food was served and I must say I was impressed that aside from one little girl who’s mother was not there, not one child opened his/her candy bag, not one. They all hung on to their bags rather tightly but did not open them. Perhaps saving it for tomorrow, or maybe for Christmas day, not sure, but they went home with their bags intact and still tied with the Christmas ribbon. As I say my good byes to everyone and get ready to head home Mrs Cardenas comes up to me and puts a paper bag in my hand and says “something for breakfast tomorrow”. I peek inside, 2 tamales.....I love these people. Once again I go to bed with a very grateful heart.....and imaging my blingy elegant shoes I will gift myself next week.


My fruit drink varies everyday, it depends what I have on hand but it goes something like this;

Always about a ¼ - ½ papaya

Always a banana

Always water from one coconut

Sometimes some watermelon

Sometimes an apple (cored of course)

Sometimes yogurt (almost always)

Sometimes some pineapple

Sometimes some orange juice

Always ½ tsp flax seed oil

Always a tsp ground flax

Always 2 tsp honey & 1 tsp cinnamon (you can Google the benefits of cinnamon & honey)

I drink a litre of this everyday (always)


My Homemade cappuccino

Put one cup coffee into blender and add;

A bit of powered vanilla (liquid vanilla works too)

A bit of honey & cinnamon)*

A bit of thick cream (you decide how creamy you want it, I tend to be very generous with the cream)

And blend for few second....it gets all frothy and yummy smelling, seriously you have no idea how content and happy and thrilled I am in the morning as I am sipping this and watching the sunrise. You could play with different flavouring if you wanted but this is my favourite.

*At home where honey is the price of gold I use brown sugar instead

My favourite potato meal; This is my version of the Mexican crazy potato, I only have a hot plate so I must improvise.

I put water in a pot and throw in a potato, one big carrot (they are huge here) and an egg and boil, when all 3 are done I cut them up and put on a plate, I add some cream and a dab of butter and cut up an avocado, a tomato and ½ a cucumber (they are huge here) and load on top and sprinkle with a bit of salt. It makes for a beautiful plate; it’s red, green, white and orange. It is so healthy with 5 servings of vegetables and some protein in the boiled egg and so easy and fast to make. You could load whatever vegetables you like on it, you could even use some salad dressing instead of cream, I don’t like salad dressing but am very fond of my cream.


Tamales; I have never actually seen them being made so this is just how I think they are made

They come in all flavours; I’ve seen beef, chicken, shrimp, plain corn, and pineapple. From my understanding the inside ingredients whatever they may be are wrapped in corn flour dough forming a cabbage roll like thing and then it is wrapped in a corn husk and tied at each end and then steamed. There is usually some finely chopped vegetables in with the meat and shrimp ones and the inside is quiet juicy and moist. The shrimp ones are always rather spicy which is my favourite, the pineapple ones are too sweet for me, corn ones are great for breakfast. Chicken ones usually have some rice in it as well.


Ceviche

There are 2 kinds, shrimp and fish, both very delicious and I don’t have a preference. The fish or shrimp is cut up into cubes and set in a shallow dish with finely chopped (very fine) carrots (lots of carrots), a little green peppers, onions and celery, jalapeño peppers and some cilantro. It is then covered with lime juice and it sits for anywhere from 4 – 8 hours and the lime cooks or pickles I guess the fish. Then you stir it with a fork and the fish just breaks right up. You eat this on crackers. It reminds me a bit of antipasto but just with more of a fishy taste.

Atole;

Have never seen this being made but I am hoping that I can get someone to teach me. It’s a hot drink, very filling and warming. It is corn based, corn is pounded (and I will not be fooled into thinking that this is relaxing and peaceful like the shredding of coconut) into a powder and water is added along with cinnamon, and I do believe brown sugar and I am not sure what else. (Sorry but my research isn’t done yet) It is put through a blender and then a sieve and then heated up or maybe it’s heated up first and then blended and sieved, I’m not sure. I would love to learn how to make this, it would be a great drink for up north in the cold, a great substitute for hot chocolate for those weirdo’s that don’t like chocolate. (Me)

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

About deleting my story....which really isn't a story at all

Sorry everyone, but I just spend and hour typing up a long rather interesting story about horse poo, gardening, constructing a frame for a canvas and of me going to a church Christmas concert wearing shoes with horse poo on it and maybe even some coconut in my hair.....and then somewhere inbetween my copy and paste I somehow deleted it...all. But it is late now and I will try and relive this day again tomorrow morning for you all even though it was quit embarrassing.....but just for you.

Monday, December 21, 2009

The day I got Tom Sawyered and the day God blessed a whimpering spoiled soul

December 19, 2009



The morning went by pretty much as usual, vanilla cappuccino, sunrise, a shower, and a little iguana chase. There was not much action on pony lane as there are no cruise ships on Saturdays so the locals aren’t racing around as much. At 10:00 I wanted to be over at the La Vina’s church and see if the ladies there needed a hand with the lunch. Once a week the La Vina people serve a lunch to the kids in the poorer areas where they have a new church plant. You don’t see the starving children here with the big bellies like you do in some other countries because for the most part these kids are not starving but a lot are just living off of tortillas which are affordable to most families because the Mexican government subsidises tortillas because it is the country’s staple food. I wish other countries would do the same. However, the tortilla alone does not provide all the nutrients that one needs so there is a lot of malnutrition. The church tries to feed these kids one nutritious meal a week, obviously they are not reaching all kids but they are doing what they can with what they have. So, Fridays and Saturdays the La Vina feeds kids in 10 different colonias now, Stone Island is one of them. I get there and find out that all is under control; today is a special day because they have cake as well for a Christmas treat and some toys for give away prizes during some fun children’s games. It was fun to watch.

As I am walking home I pass Mrs Cardenas’s (my land lad's mother) in law on a quad, she waves and I wave back and as she passes me I get a glimpse of something in a basket on her quad and I immediately remembered that it is Saturday...Tamale Saturday...the ones with the heads, and she is cruising around selling them for her mother-in-law....I holler at her but she is too far passed and doesn’t hear me. There is no way I can catch up to her and she is coming from the direction of my house so I know she has already been to my hood....I missed the Saturday Tamales :( As I am walking I have a brilliant idea, Mrs Cardenas is always inviting me over to her house and I haven’t been there yet this year, I should go now. She most likely got up really really early to make the tamales, the whole process of making them is obviously done as they are on the street already and so I wouldn’t be interrupting her...yes, a great idea, I’ll get to visit with her and get tamales after all. I’m feeling pretty excited as I am wandering along....then....I get to the little wee Baptist church and see Mrs Cardenas’s sister painting the church. They have been slowly building this church for at least 3 years that I know of; holding a Sunday service under a palapa in the meantime and now the building is up. So I stop and chat and see up on a ladder Mr Cardenas and on the other side Mrs Cardenas’s niece with a paint brush in her hand and one other very friendly lady also elbow deep in paint so I offer to help, what else have I to do...nothing . Mr Cardenas tells me that his wife would love to see me but she is at home making tamales....I whimper deeply and painfully, but silently “I know”. He doesn’t know I was on my way to his house for just that reason. So I start painting and after a few hours I suddenly think of something rather funny. Yesterday I had finally went into the mainland and bought a canvas and had pondered all day as to what I should paint, I had a few ideas but they just weren’t quite right so I decided to wait until something would pop out at me....and here I am painting a church and it feels right, I wish I could say I had forgotten about my tamales but you just don’t forget the Saturday Tamales that easily. At 2:00 it was announced that it was time to break for lunch, I wasn’t sure if everyone was going home or if they had all packed a lunch so I was preparing to run across the street to the store to pick up something and was told that they had lunch already prepared and I was to eat with them under the palapa, they had plenty of food. Mr Cardenas had brought ....... drum roll! Tamales! Oh yes, that man had no idea how much I loved him at that moment...of course I had to contain myself and act like a guest...which I did, a very grateful guest I was. They were not the shrimp ones, they were the beef ones but they were awesome as well, I had never had the beef before I have always just gone for the shrimp or if for breakfast the plain corn ones or the pineapple ones....beef ones were great! We had a great lunch and Mt Cardenas took the time to explain to me how tamales are made. OH by the way, Mrs Cardenas got up at 3 am to start making them. We finished the church at 6 pm, whole church painted inside and out (it’s a very small church) as I am leaving I ask if the paint will come off me (yes I was wearing it) with just soap and water and was told yes but to wait to have a shower for an hour or 2, I assumed it was so that it could dry, perhaps it comes off better if dry. As I am putting things away Mr Cardenas really emphases that I am not to have a shower for 2 hours because my body is hot from working in the sun and then I remember what my Spanish reading tutor had told me last year. When you come home from work and your body has heated up you should not jump in the shower right away, for some reason that is bad for your body. I guess this is why the men here lay in their hammocks right after work, cooling off the body slowly. I do believe this is when you are taking a cold shower; most people here do not have hot water, because that would make sense that your body might be shocked in some way when getting such a fast temperature change. However, I waited for an hour after I got home to have a shower and halfway through the breaker flipped on me...turning my hot water into cold...go figure. Having hot water here is just so finicky it is almost not worth it.

Shortly after I get home a lady from the trailer park pops by, I had met her and her husband at church last Sunday and discovered we were neighbours here. She said she had gathered up 2 other people to come to church tomorrow and was wondering if I wanted to go with them tomorrow. If there are 5 of us and we all share a taxi it would only cost us each 10 pesos, the bus to the Golden Zone is 9 pesos. I was late for church last Sunday because the boat and the bus were not totally lined up and I had to wait for both, making me late and they had had the same problem and were also a bit late. So if we take a taxi we will not be late and as we were talking about how it would only cost us 1 peso more than the bus she laughed at her cheapness and threw in a comment on how the Canadians were always perceived to be cheaper than the Americans and she said throw in a little bit of Mennonite yet too. I said “yes that triples the cheapness”, thinking she was talking about me and she said surprisingly “how do you know about us?” I said in German “I know all about you and your cheapness” and she nearly fell off her chair, she had no idea I was German and I had no idea that she was. How funny is that?

I got a tip from a friend yesterday that apparently the iguanas at the big fancy resort hotels in the Golden Zone are fed daily so that they leave their beautiful gardens alone. So this morning I bought a lead of lettuce from my vegetable guy for my iguanas and set some out for them and when I had come home from my painting adventures they (or someone) had eaten what I had left out and as far as I could see no more plants had been mutilated. I just hope I didn’t feed the rat.

But now, I must get my aching tired and sore body to bed....oh yes, 6 hours of painting did not go unnoticed by this body but I was not about to bail out especially with old Mr Cardenas (old enough to be my grandpa) painting circles around me, but then, the man has never shocked his body over and over again like I have my whole life.