The Hillbilly Move

Today is the day of the big move to Stone Island; I am anxious, excited and just a little scared, not sure of what. I’ve spent the last few days gathering things that I might need, a little plastic chest of drawers, a hot plate, a small rack for my cooking things, and some cooking things, blankets and towels and such. Al helped me pack my stuff into the back of his little truck and off we went on the dreaded road to the Island that’s not an Island. The whole trip took about an hour and wasn’t as bad as we had anticipated. It was very rough and dusty but totally manageable. As we drove through coconut plantations, lush mango groves, chilli and tomato gardens and passing donkey carts laden with coconuts, Mexican cowboys on horseback (they remind me of my father) and dodging the occasional cow on the road I knew I was moving in the right direction. I felt as peace with my decision to leave my comfortable gated upscale community. After Al and I unloaded my meagre belongings I bought him lunch at the restaurant just up the street (every 4th house has a little store or a restaurant in the front) we each had a big monster sandwich with (carne asada) marinated shredded beef (Mexicans like shredding stuff....everything’s shredded), ham, cheese, lettuce, and mayo on a big grilled bun (bigger than a hamburger bun) and a pop for 36 pesos each. Al left with the intent on being back in the afternoon with some Mexican muscle and my new fridge which happens to be Barbara & AL’s old fridge that Barbara swears has shrunk and become to small for them (I hope it doesn’t shrink on me as well) I got set to work organizing and cleaning which didn’t take long as I don’t have a lot of stuff, I did say when I left home I wanted to learn how to live a simpler life and focus on quality instead of quantity. Now will be the test. My fridge did not arrive but Barbara and Al took the boat across and came to let me know they would be coming tomorrow...no problem. I wandered over to the neighbourhood general store and bought some fruit, milk and eggs ......I finally bought eggs, I had been afraid to buy them because I knew with my clumsiness I would break them on my way home. You buy eggs by the kilo just like everything else and they don’t have cartons, they put them in a little plastic baggie. So I bought 2 eggs (I’m going to learn to live by the day, instead of hoarding for the future) as I leave the store I see a lady setting up a hotdog stand and putting the first batch of hotdogs wrapped in bacon on the grill, I make a note to come back in about an hour for supper. She’s also got a big boiling pot of Atole (not to be mistaken for my beloved Alote) Atole is the Mexican version of hot chocolate but made with boiled corn, not totally sure but I believe (and I will look into this) that the corn is boiled and then put through a blender, not sure what else is added but I can taste brown sugar and cinnamon. I head back a hour later and have 2 bacon hotdogs loaded with guacamole, red salsa, green salsa, lettuce tomato and onions and a medium size cup of hot Atole, all for 25 pesos....not a bad supper at all. I’m going to like it here; there is food on every corner. After having my supper on my patio I settled into my nice big comfortable chair that I bought at a second hand store and started knitting myself a dishcloth, I hadn’t done any knitting since I got here. Before I went to bed I made sure all window and doors were locked and I guess I’ll admit, I anchored 2 chairs against each door....I know, silly silly. After I was in bed I opened up bible (randomly) and I read chapter 4 of Philippians, verse 6-7 really spoke to me and I realized how silly I was to expect peace from 2 chairs against the door when I could just call on my saviour to protect me, so I did just that and got out of bed and put the chairs away, and slept peacefully until a rooster woke me up at 2 am....aren’t they suppose to crow in the morning? At about 5 they started crowing again, there is no sleeping in Mexico, noise is a part of the culture. There was however no traffic noise, which had kept me up at nights at Lydia’s. First thing in the morning I jumped in the shower only to find out there was no hot water, my landlady had assured me there was hot water. I toughed it out and was reminded of my 6 weeks in Africa without hot water...it’s doable. Of course I didn’t see her all day so I couldn’t inquire about it. As I was sitting on my patio (which is also my dining room)having my breakfast of scrambled eggs, a fruit milkshake and coffee con creama (yes the general store had my creama) and listening to the birds in the massive mango tree that hangs over my patio I was feeling very content and most thankful. It was finally warmer than it had been for the last 2 weeks, I wore a sleeveless t-shirt for the first time and put sunscreen on my ears (they tend to turn red first) I finally spend some devotional and pray time, my pray was full of thanks giving and asking for guidance as to how to bring glory to God while I’m living in this beautiful place. I also spent some time going over some Spanish phrases I might need during the day, like looking for a broom. I figured I should prepare myself and look up the proper way to ask my neighbour “where can I buy a broom”, up until now I’ve just been calling it a scoobie doo, it’s really a “escoba” sounds like scoobie to me. I tried borrowing a screwdriver last night from them and it was not a successful visit. Who knows what I actually asked for? So I feel I need to redeem myself. My morning Spanish lesson was wasted when I went to the general store first thing in the morning to get some ice for my cooler (since my fridge wasn’t here yet) I notice they have brooms and mops. I thought about pretending I didn’t see them just so I could practise saying “do you know where I can buy a broom?” but I figured I would have plenty of other opportunities to come off as the dumb gringa without doing it on purpose. So now I need to find another excuse to chat with my neighbour lady. (Should I try borrowing an egg?)So I just bought a mop and broom and went on my way...got home and realized I forgot to get ice. I headed to the beach in search of a guy named Chris whom I met about 2 weeks ago when I came out here with Barbara & Al. Chris came to Mazatlan from Toronto on vacation about 10 years ago and just forgot to go home, he works part time at one of the beach palapa restaurants as a waiter, I was hoping (because he speaks English) he could help me find someone that would sell me a plastic table and some chairs. Turns out Chris wasn’t working today and in searching further I got a little side tracked, I ran into my friend Elizabeth and we sat and chatted awhile and then I ran into Hugo (I met him here 7 years ago) and we chatted. I also had another little problem, I had a $100 peso bill that no one had change for (I’ve had it in my pocket for a few days) Hugo solved that for me, he’ll be my banker from now on now. I asked him about a plastic table but he was a little busy at the moment. Hugo’s a tour guide and he had a whole bunch of tourists with him, but he directed me to a Effrehim (whom I also met about 6-7 years ago) Effrehim also works in one of the Palapa restaurants on the beach, but by now I know I should be getting back to mi casa as my fridge should be arriving soon. On the way home I pick up a marlin sandwich, again a big big bun with smoked marlin, lettuce and tomato for 7 pesos, yes 7, which is less than .70 cents, how can this be? No wonder these people are always poor. If I didn’t enjoy cooking so much I sure wouldn’t bother because I’m thinking it’s cheaper to eat out. My fridge arrived shortly after I got home, after seeing the narrow steep stairs going up to my loft in the mango tree the Mexican guy decided that Al’s plan of sliding the fridge on a blanket up the banister was too risky. He had a better plan and between Al and I our Spanish was not good enough to argue, he would park his truck alongside the building and he would simply lift the fridge up onto his shoulders and Al and I would grab it and pull it up. While Al and I are standing on the roof, with our hands in our pockets, rolling our eyes at his plan and shaking our heads we suddenly realize he’s already got the fridge on his shoulders and we need to get pulling! Hurry Hurry! We had just barely got a good grip and were hanging on when muscle man was already on the roof helping us pull it up. The whole process took maybe 2 minutes.....this guy could have peddled this fridge over on his bike. I’m sure the phrase “where there’s a will there’s a way” was invented by a Mexican. I spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in my chair on the roof reading a book; I also bought some vegetables from the vegetable truck that drives around all day honking his horn, as does the gas truck and the water truck. I had a chunk of meat in my cooler that had thawed so I decide to make stew, I bought 3 potatoes, 1 monster sized carrot, 1 small zucchini, 5 limes, 4 tomatoes and 5 small jalapeño peppers for 15 pesos.....maybe it is cheaper to cook, I don’t know, this requires further studying. The rest of the evening was fairly uneventful, put my stew in the crock pot, sweep off my roof with my new scoobie, washed my floors, boiled some drinking water, oh...and fed my chickens, Yes I have chickens, I am so excited about that...well, my neighbour has chickens but they hang out in my yard and I am feeding them. Tomorrow is Sunday so I must head into the city for church even though I would really just like to stay here, during the day I had a list of about 8 different things I wanted to get while in the city but right now I can’t think of a single thing I need. I’m also not looking forward to the cold shower in the morning; I hope I see my landlady tomorrow

Christmas Day

In the morning I did some last shopping for my new apartment (yes, I’m moving to the Island) the stores that were open were almost deserted. I just hung out at home and got caught up on my writing; the internet was down so I couldn’t post anything new. In the afternoon Lydia and I decide to hike up to the lighthouse (to see how old and out of shape we really are) The Faro’s claim to fame is that is the tallest natural lighthouse in American Hemisphere. I am not sure what that means but it’s important enough to be written on a big sign at the base. As we huffed and puffed our way up we decide that maybe we were as old as our drivers licence say we are...maybe even a bit older. After we had a brief break at the top and finished taking pictures of the beautiful view of the city we realized it had only taken us 25 minutes...wow, are we in great shape or what? All the way down we complimented ourselves on how a great a shape we were in and how our drivers licence must be wrong...we are much younger than we had thought we were. From there we went to Barbara and Al’s house for another Christmas Supper and we gleefully ate chips and dip and cashews by the handful because we are in such great shape. That is, until we turned our backs to the chips & dip to watch a huge cruise ship come in (we were on the roof) and one of the dogs stole our dip...all of it! Never turn your back on the chip bowl....I don’t know what came over me because I usually don’t do that. ....I keep my eye on the chip bowl at all times. Oh well, probably for the best, we needed room for the feast Barbara had prepared for us, and it was indeed a feast. They had also invited Walter who is here from BC (another Canadian) and Rua who is from Lithuania, we had such interesting conversations and many hilarious stories of travelling mishaps and language blunders, good to know I am not the only one that has mishaps. And so ended another wonderful Christmas.
It’s official, you do not need snow to get into the Christmas Spirit, the Christmas Spirit is something that dwells in you, not in the snow, and if it dwells in you it follows you wherever you go. It has nothing to do with the snow, the Christmas tree or the gifts under it or the candy and tinsel.

Christmas Eve in Mazatlan

In the morning Lydia, I and Raquel’s (a friend of Lydia’s) 2 daughters set off for Stone Island loaded with Christmas presents and food bags for some extremely poor families. All 4 of us were very excited to be playing Santa to these children that were not expecting us. We had to conceal our treasures in back packs and black plastic bags otherwise every child on the Island would have been at our heels. Our first stop was Dona Sofia (that older lady that is slowly going deaf and blind) we gave her a food bag and a nice thick blanket, she had commented the week before that she was always cold and when we would hug her she always commented on how warm we were, and how she liked holding our hands when we prayed for her because they were so warm. She is such a sweet sweet lady (picture above). From there we headed over to a lady that has 2 boys with Muscular Dystrophy (MD) we dropped off blankets and some toys and children’s Bible story books. Off too Chuy’s house from there, Chuy also has MD but is still able to walk as long as someone holds onto him, he is such a cutie and such a sweet heart...he is so calm, polite, gentle and always with such a smiley face. We dropped off blankets, toys and again a Children’s bible story book which seemed to impress him the most; he keep commenting that it was new, these kids are used to always having to made due with other people’s hand me downs, getting something new is fairly special to them. As we made about 6 more deliveries like this the 4 of us kept commenting on how this was the best Christmas ever for us and how we are so fortunate to be able to do something like this....on the boat ride home my heart felt much lighter leaving the Island this time, I did however wish that I could have shared this with my family and friends at home.
Candlelight Service and a Christmas Eve Dinner
At 6:00 pm I went to the candlelight service at the Vina Church, the service was wonderful, music was awesome and Praise God the church filled up completely.
After the service Lydia and I were invited to Chalize’s house for their family Christmas supper, which is about 7 doors down from us. Chalize and her husband are elders in the Spanish Vina church and their whole family is very involved in all church activities. The party was rather lively with quite a few kids, and laughing singing teenagers, and of course music. Then the Piñata came out for the kids and it got really lively, and then the piñata for the adults came out and then it got out of control...pretty much. The food was awesome, turkey, Mexican mashed potatoes (different than ours) 2 different kinds of shrimp, some mixture made with hamburger, carrots, green pepper, walnuts, almonds and prunes, in a tomato based sauce...very different but very good, Chalize promised to teach me how to make it. Once again I was very frustrated at my lack of Spanish; I had to follow Lydia around like a puppy because I always needed her to help me communicate. Other than that is an awesome night, the party was far from over when we walked home at 10:00.

Christmas Posada at Villa Union

Every Sunday after our church service in the Golden Zone Barbara & Al and myself head off to villa Union where we have a service in the church that the La Vina planted there a few years ago. The church building is complete with a suite upstairs for the someday Pastor that God is going to send (he seems to be taking his time with that) Every Saturday they feed about 100 kids in the church building and hold a very well attended Sunday School class (on Saturday) for the kids, but on the Sunday afternoon church service there are many empty chairs, which could be why they can’t find a Pastor, no Pastor likes to preach to an empty church, but will the church grow without a full time Pastor? So for now a young couple from the US who came to Pastor at the Dona Chonita church come with us on Sundays ( their heart is in Dona Chonita and they are only filling in until someone else shows up) from what I’ve seen in the 3 times I’ve been there they are doing a great job. This Sunday were planned on having a little Christmas Posada out there.
Here’s a little side story to this story.......A few weeks before Christmas a lot of people from California drive down here to do their Christmas shopping because it is cheaper here and on Sundays is when they are heading home with all their Christmas treasures. The backs of pick-up trucks are loaded, all the roof racks are loaded to the max and some people even are pulling trailers full of stuff. About 90% of traffic heading out of Mazatlan on Sunday have California licence plates, traffic is brutal and it moves at a turtles pace. The highway out of Mazatlan is a 2 lane highway but when people here tend to get impatient is it very common to squeeze in beside the 2 lanes making it a 3 lane highway (happens all the time) Just past the airport turn off the 2 lanes merge into a single lane road and that happens right at a bridge that is only narrow enough for 1 vehicle at a time (even a Mexican cannot squeeze in 2) so when this merge happens traffic gets backed up. Al’s explanation “there are more cars than there is road”.
So....last Sunday being the last day for weekend shoppers to get out of here before Christmas was exceptionally bad, which we had anticipated so we left early but not early enough. Traffic was squeezed in 4 wide (on a 2 lane road) there were times when we didn’t move at all for 15 minutes at a time and then got to pull ahead about 12 feet. As we’re sitting in traffic Al realizes that he has forgotten the keys to the church building....we’re going to show up very very late for service and we will not be able to get into the church building. He calls young Pastor Kyle to see if he is waiting for us at the church, turns out he is 2 miles behind us in traffic and also doesn’t have keys.
3 hours later we show up at the church (this drive usually takes about 20 minutes and that includes making a few stops to pick up 3 very energetic young Mexican Sunday school teachers). Of course it’s dark by now but the moon was incredibly full and bright so we decide to have a moonlight service out side in the street....there are no yards here, so if you’re not in your house you’re on the street. Amazing enough Al drove a different van this time than usual (for no reason) this van had about 20 plastic chairs in it from a previous function, so we set up chairs and pretend that this was all planned. Meanwhile I really need a bathroom so I head to the nearest house, the houses in this neighbourhood are all built with tar paper, scrap metal, scrap wood and held together by rope, wire and God’s grace. I ask the gentleman that comes to the door “tiene Bano” ...do you have a bathroom? He says no. I say “por favour”...Please. He shakes his head and says no again. I know they have a bathroom and he is most likely embarrassed about crude it is, at this point I really don’t care what it looks like. So I beg “por favour...por favour” Please, please. He finally gives in and calls his little daughter Paula to take me through the back of their compound with a flash light and shows me the bathroom, which was the most beautiful bathroom I have even seen or used, I must have said “gracias” about 18 times to the man and his wife. I invited them to our little posada but they declined. I told them that we had “regales para ninos”...presents for kids, but they still declined. So I just said “gracias” another 18 times and went on my way. We had an amazing service under the moonlight; we even had some new people show up for the first time. (As apposed to our regular 6) Kyle played his guitar and led us through worship, of course we gringos couldn’t sing along as we need the overhead projector so we can read the words, but we hummed along. 2 gentlemen walked by and joined us (it’s very hard to get men here to come to church unless there’s a woman dragging them in) so this was wonderful, after the service we had some cookies and handed out some little toys that had been donated, I gathered up a napkin full of cookies and a 2 goodie bags and headed back to the family that had let me use their bathroom and wished them a Merry Christmas as well. (And said “gracias” another 18 times. On the way home I was just overcome with gratefulness to be able to have this amazing opportunity to be here.

Feliz Navidad

Ever since I arrived here the city has been well lit and decorated for Christmas but I didn’t really get into the Christmas spirit until Thursday. Lydia had recently met an American gentleman by the name of Rick that has set up an orphanage for special needs children in Castillo. Castillo is on the far outskirts of Mazatlan, he’s been there for about 4 years now. He has 27 children, and aside from some kitchen help from some local ladies he does it all by himself. He and his wife had adopted 19 special needs children in the US and aside from 3 of them they have all managed to self-sufficient and move out on their own. His wife is back in the US with the last 3, they have not seen each other in 2 years. This has got to be a very strong marriage to survive not just the separation but the stress of raising so many children, children with needs that require constant attention. I joined Lydia and few other merry volunteers and we headed out there with 27 boxes of new shoes and socks. You have no idea how special a pair of new shoes is to a kid that has either never had shoes at all or at least has never had new shoes. There was a lot of dancing and jumping up and down and of course I had forgotten my camera again, sorry. This man must be an angel sent right from heaven. How many men (or women) give up their life for forgotten and unwanted children?
When I walked in I felt like I was walking into his home (probably because it is his home) and that these were his children, even though he is as white as can be and these kids were as Mexican as can be, it felt like a family. We were there for 2 hours handing out the shoes and trying them on each child to make sure they fit and writing each child’s name inside the shoes and just chatting and laughing with them, they were all so cheerful and excited. During the 2 hours not one child cried or tried to start a fight or had a fit of any kind, Lydia said this was the calmest shoe handout she’s ever done. As we left Rick told Lydia that if she ever run across a big, strong man, that could do some labour, and had a truck or a van that he could drive kids around (most American/Canadians don’t drive here...it’s way too scary), a Christian man with very strong Christian values and morals, a very dependable and reliable man to let him know, because he could sure use some help. I’m thinking...ha, if I find a man like that I’m keeping him for myself. He obviously does not know how many women are looking for that same man. Yeah, I’ll keep my eye out for him (wink wink).

Getting into the real Christmas Spirit

Ever since I arrived here the city has been well lit and decorated for Christmas but I didn’t really get into the Christmas spirit until Thursday. Lydia had recently met an American gentleman by the name of Rick that has set up an orphanage for special needs children in Castillo. Castillo is on the far outskirts of Mazatlan, he’s been there for about 4 years now. He has 27 children, and aside from some kitchen help from some local ladies he does it all by himself. He and his wife had adopted 19 special needs children in the US and aside from 3 of them they have all managed to self-sufficient and move out on their own. His wife is back in the US with the last 3, they have not seen each other in 2 years. This has got to be a very strong marriage to survive not just the separation but the stress of raising so many children, children with needs that require constant attention. I joined Lydia and few other merry volunteers and we headed out there with 27 boxes of new shoes and socks. You have no idea how special a pair of new shoes is to a kid that has either never had shoes at all or at least has never had new shoes. There was a lot of dancing and jumping up and down and of course I had forgotten my camera again, sorry. This man must be an angel sent right from heaven. How many men (or women) give up their life for forgotten and unwanted children?
When I walked in I felt like I was walking into his home (probably because it is his home) and that these were his children, even though he is as white as can be and these kids were as Mexican as can be, it felt like a family. We were there for 2 hours handing out the shoes and trying them on each child to make sure they fit and writing each child’s name inside the shoes and just chatting and laughing with them, they were all so cheerful and excited. During the 2 hours not one child cried or tried to start a fight or had a fit of any kind, Lydia said this was the calmest shoe handout she’s ever done. As we left Rick told Lydia that if she ever run across a big, strong man, that could do some labour, and had a truck or a van that he could drive kids around (most American/Canadians don’t drive here...it’s way too scary), a Christian man with very strong Christian values and morals, a very dependable and reliable man to let him know, because he could sure use some help. I’m thinking...ha, if I find a man like that I’m keeping him for myself. He obviously does not know how many women are looking for that same man. Yeah, I’ll keep my eye out for him (wink wink).
I have a few more Christmas stories but right now I have to get ready for a candlelight Christmas eve service at the church and then our neighbours have invited us to their Christmas Street party....not sure what to expect there.

The Papa Loco (the crazy potato)

Tonight we went out to the Dessert Storm which is to me one of the finest restaurants in Mazatlan. It is famous for 2 things, its crazy potato and for its name because it is misspelled, it should be Desert Storm. It is not open during the day and does not start serving the Papa Loco until around 7:30ish, the reason is they don’t open until 7 pm and then they fire up their BBQ grill and put the potatoes on to bake. The Papa Loco is a baked potato, a really big potato. It is baked on the BBQ and then they scrape the potato out and whip it with creama (my favourite) and Chihuahua cheese and put back into the potato shell. By then the slices of beef are done grilling on the grill and it gets put on a chopping block and chopped into fine strips and put on the potato that is served with 2 tortillas. Then you take your plate to the buffet table where you can load it up as much as you want. I really wanted to take a picture of the buffet table as well but I knew that would really scream “tourist”, although Lydia figure I had already crossed that line when I took a pictures of my potato. Toppings available are, lettuce, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, beans, 2 different kinds of red salsa, green salsa, guacamole, and a few different kinds of peppers....I might be forgetting some stuff but you get the idea. It is really such a simple meal but it is sooo good. There are many street vendors that sell Papa Locos as well which are good as well but they usually don’t have as many toppings to choose from as these guys do and they just don’t seem to be as fresh either. Maybe when I come home I’ll set up a Papa Loco stand on a corner somewhere, I’ll sell Tostitos Locos as well.......I’ll tell you about them next time, when I have pictures....another genius idea. If you have high speed click on the little picture.....it will make you hungry, I dare you.