The Canexican ......as she works in Canada and lives in Mexico: The sand lot kids

My neighbours beside me have been building a garage since before I moved in, I had been told this construction that spills into my yard every once in a while would be done by the time I moved in but as it often happens here...not so, still working on it. They have a pile of sand in the front, half in my yard and half in their yard and half in the street....yes a sand pile with 3 halves.....just making a point here ok. Meanwhile my other neighbours across the street have the cutest little 3 year old named Andre, oh my gosh this kid is so cute, I would just love to show you all a picture of him but for obvious reasons I cannot post a picture of someone else’s kid on the net, just trust me he is so cute, I can’t stop spying on him, and he has the cutest little voice too. Love him. Anyway, he has a little cousin that lives up the street a bit and they have been playing on the sand pile for days now, and I have had so much fun watching them. Andre knows me so he shyly talks to me (if I force him) but his little cousin is too shy, he wouldn’t tell me his name (I know his name is Diego) so I call him the boy with no name, Andre thinks this is so funny. One day there were 4 kids playing on the sand pile for most of the day, I was just amazed at how there was never any fighting, or crying, how do they do that here? What would happen if we put one of our North American kids in the pile, would they still all play without fighting, or is it not the kids? Is it the fact that they are playing without toys; maybe it’s the toys that are causing the fighting at home, mind you today they each had a little truck...still no fighting.

Later in the afternoon my land lady and her son came over to clean the yard, apparently I am not doing a good enough job keeping the yard clean...how embarrassing, I thought I was keeping up with the sweeping pretty good. First thing in the morning all the women are out sweeping up all the leaves that have fallen overnight (Remember it is winter here) then they wash down their houses from the outside and the sidewalk (sand sand sand is everywhere) then they water down the street in front of their house to keep the dust down, then they water down their whole yard. This is usually done in either pajamas or in a house dress, I am too shy to go out in my pajamas and not old enough for a house dress so I get dressed first. But.....next week is Semana Santa (Holy week) and everything has to be spic and span clean and tidy (did not know this). So the back alley had to be cleaned and the road in the back and alongside the road, had I known I would have done this.

So dude and I are working in the back and mom is in the front, all of a sudden she hollers at him to come and help, he goes, I keep raking. He comes back a while later, shaking his head and looking all serious and mutters something about “dangerous”, “what happened?” I want to know. He’s very serious as he tells me that someone’s horse had wandered over and as it was eating the neighbours potted plants little Andre and Diego were hanging on to his tail and using it as a swing. Oh my gosh did I laughed, and then I noticed he didn’t think it was funny, he explained to me ever so seriously how dangerous this was because the horse could have kicked these little guys and hurt them really bad, because horses have sharp hoof and they can kick very hard....yayayay I know, I grew up with horses.... but I couldn’t stop laughing at the sight of little Andre and Diego swinging from the horses’ tail...seriously, is this not funny? If you all knew how cute this little Andre is you would have laughed too. I understand how dangerous this was and how lucky both horse and boys were that he intervened before anyone got hurt but I still have to laugh at the sight. I told him, “why didn’t you come get me, I would have come with my camera” now he really looked at me weird. He did finally laugh with me, when I just couldn’t stop.....or maybe he was laughing at me, I don’t know. I still wish I could have gotten a picture.

My yard is clean, so bring on Semana Santa....I wouldn’t be here, it starts on the 3^rd and on the 4^th I will be on my way to Canada. When I come back Andre will be 4, little baby Julio who drives around in the dessert truck with his dad will be walking, my friend who is pregnant now will have a baby, everyone will be a year older....including me. I just hope my neighbours don’t move, I love them.

Just some random picture;