It Finally Happened

Let me tell you about the doors in my house, they are the typical Mexican doors that you will find in most of the homes here. They have no door knobs on the outside, just a keyhole. On the inside there is just a latch. So, as soon as you close the door it is always locked. I have two of these doors, one is my front door on top of the stairs and the other is the door that leads to the roof which is my fine dining room. When I first moved in I quickly made note of the fact that if I was on the roof and the wind slammed the door shut I would be locked out of my house and be stuck up on the roof. So I put a plan in place, whenever I would go into my dining room (on the roof) I would open the window in the door (the doors have a shutter window in them) so that if the door would slam shut I could reach my hand through the window and pull the latch, Such a clever plan. Today I forgot a step in the plan, because I only stepped into the dining room for 3 seconds to get something I didn’t open the window first. I tell it was a horrifying sound when that door slammed shut behind me. I was stranded on my roof...yep. I did have some options to consider though so I was not totally without hope, 3 of them to be exact. I was pretty sure I had left my front open when I came in, so all I needed to do was get off the roof and come back in through my front door. 2 ways to do that, one....jump off the roof, it isn’t very high but I was afraid of breaking an angle since I do have very weak angles. Option two would be to shimmy along side the edge of the roof, possibly 10 – 12 inches wide and I would loose about 3 inches where the windows are although by the windows I would have the bars to hang onto, the rest of the way I would just be hugging the wall. This is how the cats get up on roof, and get into my garbage; I call it the cat walk. Or there is option three, get the attention of someone walking by and ask them to walk up the stairs and walk in my front door (which I am still assuming is open) and open the door from the inside, this would of course all have to be done in Spanish which I was pretty confident I could do. I knew Senor Papa would not be by as he had already been here this morning, sometimes he comes more than once or at least he drives by sometimes but that would of course not happen today. So I weight my options and right away cross off jumping off the roof and decide that the whole Island doesn’t need to know how foolish I am (so I post this on the internet for the whole world to read instead) so I opt to shimmy along the catwalk which really wasn’t as scary as I had thought, it was rather easy, and sure enough the front door was open...what a relieve. Lesson learned is to always stick to the plan and put a backup plan in place, which is to get a rock to put in front of the door from now on. Just never a boring day here on the Island.

How Popular Am I

I’m not sure if I mentioned this before or not but Mary is a very popular name in Mexico, almost every house has at least one. Yesterday I met a lady whose name is Mary Lena, (this is also my name) but she goes by Lena because she has 2 sisters who are Mary Guadalupe, and Mary Rosa. Yep her mother named all her daughters Mary. Speaking of Mary, a lady from the Spanish church named Mary invited Lydia and I to her house last week for supper. I had an awesome time, and the food was awesome...oh it was so awesome. There are a wonderful, beautiful family of 3 girls, age 21, 17, 6 and one adorable little guy age 10. They are a family of 6 living in a little 2 bedroom house. Their kitchen is as big as my bathroom at home, take my bathtub out and put a fridge and stove there....now that I am picturing it my bathroom might even be bigger. The living room was a bookcase up against the wall and 2 chairs, the kitchen table as a small square table with 4 chairs. They seemed quite happy and did not have a problem inviting 2 guests over for supper. I think that families at home don’t even get to know each other because they don’t have to spend time together in the same room anymore. They sleep, eat and watch TV in separate rooms. I think we all have too much space and I am including me in this as well. I don’t even have to share a bathroom with my daughter and have certainly never had to share a bedroom with her. In two weeks my mother and daughter are both coming to visit me and we will all be sharing a bedroom and one bathroom....should be interesting. Mary knows they are coming and told me that she wants to have all of us over for supper when they come. The people here don’t mind being crowded; they have no problem with that at all. They are not used to ever having their own space. Before I lived in this little loft there was a family of 4 living in here. I can’t imagine having two little kids running around in here.

The Lord Taketh and He Giveth

A few weeks ago we had a lady dropped off at Casa Damasco by the police, there were a few different stories as to what happened to her but the end result was a broken back, an arm in a cast, a dislocated shoulder and a few stitches in the other arm. The first day that we met her she took a few teaspoons of water but no food, just swallowing the water seemed to be painful to her. We redressed her stitches and tried to get her to take more water but she would not. The second time we were there her condition had not changed a lot although they told us that she had eaten some baby food during the week. Last week she was awake and alert the whole time we were there and she ate about 2/3 of a jar of baby food, our hopes were high that she would recover. The very next day she passed away. I was surprised as she had looked so much better and had been so responsive to us. I really thought she was on the road to recovering, but I guess we really didn’t know what she was recovering from and what kind of life she had had. The pastor assured us that God had brought her back to us briefly so that she could prepare herself for going home, home where she will be forever safe in God’s loving arms. This is the second death like this that we have had there since I’ve been here. The sad news of her passing came the same day that we heard that money had been raised in the English Church to purchase a permanent home for Casa Damasco, a home that is much more suited for a long term care facility (which is what Casa Damasco really is) There is a 12 room house in Francisco Madero right beside the Red Dragon (prostitution house) The owner is serving a 25 year sentence in prison, for what I do not know but I could give a pretty good guess. In Mexico a 25 year sentence is actually 25 years, none of this early parole, getting out on good behaviour or any of those other get out of jail early cards that you can draw in Canada. Now we just need to pray that all parties involved will have the patients and knowledge needed to endure the long paper trail of purchasing property here; I’m hearing it’s a very complicated process and the seller being in prison could make it worst. Here is a link for Casa Damasco www.casadamasco.com

Update on a few things

The worms.....a few weeks ago I wrote about waking up one morning and finding a lot of worms in my house. They have never come back, I have not seen one single worm since then and I still do not know where they came from.

My plants......my plants that a neighbour gave me are now 3 weeks old and are all doing just fine. The plants that I planted from seeds that I had bought are not growing at all and 3 of the 4 plants that I bought in Mazatlan at a green house died.

Tranchilla in the water tank.......Who knows? What’s in the water tank is none of my business any more.

Alote.......is very good with chilli powder on it; corn will never be the same again when I go home.
Water Issues.......We are still on a 5 days with water and 8 days without water schedule but I have learned that during the 8 days without water I can still fill my tank at night and that way I don’t run out of running water. The problem with the hot water is that sometimes the pilot light on the hot water heater gets blown out by the wind (its outside) and then I have to wait until my land lady comes as she is the only one that has a key to get at the hot water heater. Right now I’ve had hot water for about 2 weeks straight....that’s a record.

Knitting...... I brought a whole suitcase of wool with me thinking I would just be knitting up a storm for lack of other things to do. I am almost finished my first project, a shawl. I seem to have found a lot of other things to do. I met a lady on the Island here that is in a wheel chair and I was surprised to see that she was knitting; it doesn’t seem to be very common here. When I leave I plan on giving her all my wool instead of dragging it back with me. I had 50 lbs of wool with me.....what was I thinking? Maybe it was brought especially for this lady in the wheel chair, yes, that’s right that was my plan. Oh wait, I already confessed that I came here without a plan. I ‘m so glad God’s in charge and not me.

Caldo.....is a sauce that goes on almost everything, tacos, enchiladas, tostadas, chilaquiles, and some other things that I can’t spell. I’ve been trying to learn how to make this sauce and keep getting a different recipe from every person I ask. Today was my 3rd attempt and it was very good, finally. I think I’ve got it. Although I think this is like making bread, even though you use the same recipe each time sometimes it’s great and sometimes it‘s just not. I was hanging out at meat market this morning and a gentleman that owns a restaurant on the beach stopped by (just to hang out) and he gave me his recipe and I raced home immediately before I could forget anything and it was a success. By the way, the Spanish words for garlic and eyes are different by one letter only....an easy mix up.

The José saga......I now have 3 José’s in my class, we spend about 10 minutes at the beginning of each class deciding who will be who. They are a rather funny bunch.

The Scallop guy, the Meat guy and dinner guests

I am having my first dinner guests over today. A wonderful couple from British Columbia whom I met at church are coming for dinner tonight. I when to the meat market yesterday and bought hamburger to make meat balls and ended up hanging out there for about an hour. Two of the guys there want to learn English and I need help with my Spanish so a chair was pulled up for me and we just started conversing, once in awhile getting interrupted by customers. One lady bought a whole pigs head and I had to ask “what do you do with that?” Turns out it has many uses but mostly used to make tacos, which would explain all the “head taco” signs I see everywhere. I ask the guys where I can buy scallops and they tried their best to give me directions to a guy that sells them out of his house (of course) but I could just not understand the directions. It was decided that I could just buy the scallops from the shrimp market downtown Mazatlan; I wanted to get some shrimp as well anyway. Before I headed off one of the meat guys wanted me to see his piece of land where he is starting to build a house, he was too busy with customers so he gets his cousin to take me up the hill on his guad (which is the meat delivery vehicle) We go way up the hill, he will have the tallest house on Stone Island. He figures he will be safe up there even if a tsunami comes. The view took my breath away, he had told me about the great view but I thought he had been exaggerating, wow, it was amazing. I could see the north side of Mazatlan and all the way along the Stone Island beach and all 1700 hectares of coconut plantations. He has a lot of work to do, so far they are just digging his foundation which is done by men with a spades. I hope I get to see the process of this house going up, I’m currently watching one being built across the street from me.....most interesting. Anyway, I head off to the docks to go to the shrimp market and run into Senor Papa, he asks me where I am going, I tell him I am off to buy scallops and shrimp. He says no need to go all the way to the market he knows a guy that sells scallops right here, tells me to get into his truck and off we go. We arrive at a house that is right around the corner from my house and a girl comes and gets into the back of the truck and we go a little further and she runs into a house and comes out with 2 bags of fresh scallops....money and scallops are exchanged and I get driven back home. Quite happy that I now have a scallop guy living right up the road a bit. I am really enjoying buying my groceries from individual people instead if shopping at a big store where you never actually have to speak to anyone if you don’t want to. This is so much more personal. I have a guy that I buy my fruit and vegetables from, he comes to my door everyday, I have the guy that I buy tamales from almost everyday, he also comes to my door. (He also has cheese and cactus) I have the lady that I buy my peanuts from, and of course the meat guy. There is a guy that walks door to door selling pastries and bread whom I have not bought anything from yet....I should get to know him as well. I found a lady that makes bread in a stone oven everyday....No, I don’t buy bread everyday. Of course we cannot forget the lady that sells me my tortillas and the alote lady. What will I do without tortillas and alote when I get home? I’ve learned how to eat tortillas with almost everything.
My trip to the shrimp market was uneventful; I came home with ½ kilo of great big shrimp and set to work getting ready for my guests. Meatballs had been put into the crock pot this morning and were ready. Usually bacon wrapped scallops would be done in an oven but since I don’t have an oven I fried them and they turned out great. I fried my shrimp in garlic butter.....so good! We had a great time just sitting on my roof and eating and chatting and eating some more. I am so blessed. I have some more friends coming for dinner next week and I think we will do the scallops and shrimp again...maybe chicken instead of meatballs. Or should I attempt to make head tacos?

A Visitor from Home

How exciting, I have a friend coming to visit from home. She`s coming for 1 week which will be very short but we`ll make due. I`ve made arrangement to borrow a blow up bed and sheets. I`ve checked my water schedule and we`ll have hot water for most of her visit. I`ve gotten used to not having hot water for days at a time but for someone visiting that might be important. I`m interested to see how she perceives this place because most of my acquaintances on the mainland still think I`m crazy for living here. One lady who says she`s been to the Island asked if I was the only one living here, she was not aware that people actually lived here.....hello, did she not see the houses and the people...we`re not hidden up in the tree tops. How could she not have heard the honking of the gas guy and the water guy, they cruise around all day long.
I ran into Luis at the fish market today on the other side by the docks, I wasn`t shopping, I have not been that brave yet. (Maybe I`ll take my visitor with me) Of course I didn`t have his seeds on me, I told him my plants were fine although a few of them still look quite sad. He was holding a fish that was about 3 feet long and I didn`t understand whether he had just bought him or caught him, he was still totally intact. I need to learn some fish related words in Spanish. I asked my meat guy what kind of fish I should buy and he wrote down the name of a fish that he thought was a good frying fish (pargo) I just haven`t made time to go get it and when ever I happen by the market I am not ready to have fish or am on my way somewhere and don`t want to carry fish with me all day. It`s just not something you want to have in your backpack all day. Speaking of backpacks, I had a little scare last week. There was a gentleman at church on Sunday that had been stabbed (not fatality) in a neighbourhood not too far from the street that I always walk on my way to downtown. Two thugs wanted his backpack and he had fought for it, and lost. He was lucky; the knife went in just above his heart just barely missing a main artery. I always thought that if I was a man walking alone I would feel completely safe and I didn`t think that thugs would knife you for a backpack unless they knew for sure there was something of value in it. So this bothered me for a bit because I do carry my laptop in my backpack to the Golden Zone to post my stories onto the net because I don`t have internet in my house anymore. I was bothered until I heard that he had been walking and taking pictures with his camera in full view of anyone and everyone and then put his camera back into his backpack. Plus it was the week of Carnival and thugs from all over the world came to Mazatlan to pillage from the 1 million tourists that have come for the event. However, not to push my luck I will be taking a bus instead of walking when I have my backpack on from now on. I believe God has taken care of me and he will continue to do so but I feel I have been given a warning and I would be foolish not to heed to it.

Sewing in Fransico Madero
I`ve been recuited once again for something new. I am assisting in teaching some ladies in Fransico Madero how to sew with sewing machines. About 4 old and I mean old, sewing machines have been donated and a wonderful lady from Saskatwan (who happens to speak German) came with a few boxes of fabric, patterns and notions. What a gift that was for these ladies here. Our first project is to make a pair of capris, the first day they all picked out fabric and we started cutting out the pieces. While the fabric lady speaks German she does not speak a word of Spanish but would you believe it we made out just fine, these women were so patient and easy going. We had so much fun; it is like sewing and playing charades at the same time. At one point a lady was asking me why one piece of her pants was cut bigger than the other, I tried to explain that the back is always bigger as we have to leave room for the butt, I didn`t have a Spanish word for butt, or for the behind so I was trying to figure out other words that could be used for butt as I am pointing to my butt she suddenly got it and said ``ah da boom boom`` I said ``si, da boom boom``. This is how it continued on all evening. Once again I feel so blessed to be here.

The start of a roof top garden

I`m on my way to the beach again and I run into a friend and as we`re walking and chatting I mention that I would like to buy some plants for my roof and would he know of anybody that would sell me some. Yup, he does, about 6 or 7 house up from where I live is Luis, who is a bit of a gardener, a bit of a fisherman and a bit of a taxi driver and who know what else. Amazingly enough on the side of a hill, amongst the rocks and sand is the most beautiful little garden. Luis started yanking plants out of the ground, yes yanking and put them in a box and assured me that all I needed to do was stick them in the ground, even though most of them had just been ripped up without roots. I tried to pay the man but he would not take any money so I decided that I would stop by with a gift of some sort within the next week. I get home and realize that once again I never made it to the beach ...oh well, and I also have no dirt to put in my pots. So I grab my water bucket and start wandering around the Island looking for dirt, turns out there isn`t any, this whole Island is made of sand. I head over to another friends house and ask her where I can buy dirt, she shows me her plants that are all in pots of sand and are doing just fine. She tells me I don`t need special dirt, as I head home with my empty bucket I realize that now I am walking around with a 5 gallon bucket just like the locals that I had been wondering about. Soon I`ll get me a wheel barrow too. Being the North American that I am, I head into Mazatlan the next day because I am convinced that my plants will grow much better with some good potting soil. I pick up a big sack of dirt and find some Delphinium seeds that I think would make a great gift for Luis and for me too. I like Delphiniums because they grow very fast and I don`t have much time left. (I should have done this a month ago) I`m excited to give Luis his seeds but he is not home, I`ll try again later. By the afternoon I have an assortment of sad looking plants on my roof, celery, cilantro, a Boston fern, some petunias, some mint, some pink impatients, some dill and some others that I don`t have names for. I also started some delphiniums from seed. I`m hoping that once they sprout roots and discover their fine soil (I did mix it with sand) they will grow nicely. I `m excited about my little garden.

Walking the beach, I never finished this story because I got side tracked

I’ve started to walk on the beach, or at least try to walk on the beach. It is very easy to get side tracked when you are on a mission with a plan. Today I decided no one was going to send me veering off my path, so when I approached the beach I snuck along the edge for a while so that my friend that works at one of the restaurants didn’t see me because that usually results in me sitting down and having a fruit drink and perhaps him introducing me to some more of his friends which is all great but I end up there until sundown. As I’m walking on the beach that is so long that you cannot see the end I am always am reminded of how incredibly blessed I am to be able to be here. I am literally living in my dreams. Walking along the ocean is also a reminder to me of how big God is. It is amazing to me to hear the thundering roll of the waves coming in and suddenly they roll over as if unfolding and slowly curl in to shore and gently lap up against my feet. They sound so powerful and scary at first but as they get closer they become so gentle. Kind of like God, until you get close and built a relationship with Him he can also appear scary and perhaps intimidating. Once you get close to him you will find his ever loving arms always open to you, and you will feel his gentle love always. I walk for an hour and the only people I encounter are two local surfers riding the waves and one lone gentleman walking his dog and the guy that rents out his horses was herding them home, 6 of them altogether. Out on the ocean I see a big tanker anchored, possibly waiting for his turn to dock....apparently there’re only so many ships allowed in at a time. I also see a little fishing boat, this is my favourite, with one lone fisherman casting out and hauling in a net. I love watching these boats; they seem so peaceful out there on the big ocean. I admire these fishermen; it seems like such a noble profession. As I come off the beach and head home I am just in awe over how different and simple life is here. I see hammocks hanging from trees and roof over hangs and they actually have people in them, on almost every front step there is someone either just sitting or someone bashing coconuts or a fisherman mending his nets (a common sight) someone scrubbing clothes or kids running around. People use their homes for sleeping and storing their stuff not for living in, for the most part life happens outside. If you live like this you really don’t need a very big house at all. As I continue on home I pass a baseball game, not a little league game, just some kids on an open lot with bases marked with pieces of trash and rocks, except for home plate, it’s so worn from sliding in it doesn’t need a marker. There are no uniforms, no adults standing around with clip boards and whistles, no bleachers and no hotdog stand....although there is a chicken stand just up the street. Judging from the boyish banter and hooting and hollerin it looks like fun is being had by all. As I get to the chicken stand I find a volleyball game going on right beside it with grown men and perhaps a few teenagers also hooting and hollerin and having a blast, parked on the side of the street are a row of motos and bicycles and one lone, very bored looking horse tethered to a pole. As I walk on I pass people coming home from work, (it must be about 4:00 ) fisherman carrying buckets, people pushing wheel barrows, men on bikes with spades and shovels and ladies carrying backpacks...possibly beach vendors. Young men with their black cases that they sell jewellery and watches and you name it out of on the beach. I see the hotdog stand in front of the Big City Deli being set up and across the road the taco stand that I had very good papa locos at a few nights ago is also in full swing with a small crowd gathering in front of it. I pass a stand that is just closing that I had not seem before (I do miss some things) I ask her what her hours are and was told they are only open during the day, she tells me they do still have tamales left over if I want, I decline as I already have a tamale guy....he comes by my house every morning and I don’t want to cheat on him. (it`s a small place, he will find out). I keep on my way home and pass the peanut stand, I search my pockets, I have no change....too bad, I love fresh roasted peanuts and they roast them right there. It took me a while to figure out what the funny looking contraption was, it`s a peanut roaster. I continue limping on....I`m wearing my thongs again.
Then I pass the cutest little Hansel and Gretel house, it is so tiny but so perfect and I can totally see me retiring in a little house like that (I`ll take a picture some day for you) this house looks very out of place as it is completely finished and very neatly painted and obviously loved and adored by it`s owners. The little front porch is just dreamy. I must get myself invited into this house sometime. The lady that sells fresh coconut cookies greets me and I stop to say the usual Buenas tardes, I don`t buy a coconut cookie because I have no change and although I really really love coconut I find them a bit too sweet for me, I wonder if I can ask her to make some for me with less sugar. Maybe I`ll just make my own, there`s an idea. I pass by the little confectionary store that I can sometimes buy a great big Marlin sandwich for 7 pesos at. On the front porch there are the usual 5 or 6 men playing Dominoes, they always seem to be here at about this time.
I get home just as the sky is turning pink, it`s sundown, I debate if I want to walk just a little further so that I can see the sun set over the ocean but I decide that since I don`t have my camera I better not, I would be so disappointed if it turned out to be a magnificent sunset and me with out my camera so I just head on upstairs to my little loft. This little place is really starting to feel like home when I walk through the door. I really didn`t think I would feel so at home here, I knew I would feel at home here in Mexico but I didn`t think that this house would ever feel as homey as my house at home does. I always though that my house at home was special in a way that it made me feel very comfortable and safe and I always loved going home to it, even if I was only coming home from work. I somehow thought that if I moved I would never have that comfortable feeling again but I guess I was wrong. I already love coming home to this house and I`ve only been here 2 months. My things aren’t even in here, all my wonderful things that I`ve collected over the years that I felt I had to have in order to make my house a home, they`re not here and yet I feel perfectly at home... Interesting.