Invasion of the creepy crawlies for Halloween 2010!

Hello Blogites (nope, don't like that one at all either... blog readers it is... boring, but tolerable),

Sorry that I have fallen behind with this blog, but it my last couple of Sundays have been full of lesson planning and lesson re-planning (which is what you in case your bosses aren't very good at making up their minds about what they do and do not want). Anywho, this blog promises to be a doozy because I've got 3 weeks to recap. Good luck to me, I can barely remember yesterday.

From Oct 18 - 22nd, my 11th and 12th graders helped translate for the doctors of the 'Healing Eyes Mission' which is a group of doctors and nurses from the US (mainly Colorado and Iowa) who come to Zihua and offer free service to the Ixtapa-Zihua population. They offered a lot of different services including eye exams, glasses fittings, diagnostic exams and different surgeries. My students helped translate for the doctors, helped keep things organized and even accompanied patients throughout their surgeries! Again, I was the proud mama hen watching all my students work! Unfortunately, I had to be at Montessori to teach my other classes (the students went in groups of 3 and each student only missed one day of school) so I was only there in the mornings to make sure everybody got there and got to work so I don't have any pictures. I received tons of positive feedback and the students were asked to participate again next year. I can't help but grin even as I type this because it was such a great opportunity and experience for everyone involved! Many of my students want to be doctors, and one girl, Amy (11th grade), wants to be an ophthalmologist (she was pleased as punch) so it was great for them to get the chance to be in the operating room watching how everything went down. The best part for me, though, was when they all came back to school and we had a class discussion about it and one rather shy girl, with medium level English, raised her hand and said that it was a great experience because she proved to herself that she could SPEAK ENGLISH!!! Ohmigosh, be still my teaching heart!

Jeanne, who go her one of her cataracts one, was gone for the week. She came back for the next week, but was in a considerable amount of pain and definitely crabbier for the week of not being able to read or watch TV well. On Monday, October 25th, we had an event at Montessori for United Nations Day. The kinder babies made flags and put on a parade and I had to restrain myself from reaching down and squeezing all of their cheeks! Man, they are TOO cute! English was not asked to participate and thus Jeanne was in a HUFF, but I felt ok about it because the Halloween event was planned for Friday and it takes up a lot of class time practicing for school assemblies! The halloween event went quite well and my secondary students got some practice speaking in front of a crowd in English. It was a long week, but everyone got through it.


Here are 6 of my 7th graders (L-R): Darien, Eric, Axel, Jennifer, Kenia, Aranza - their skit was about a group of girls who decide to take a short cut through a cemetery and get attacked by zombies!

Meanwhile, outside of Montessoriland (which is definitely it's only little bizzaro world!), Pako went to a job fair and filled out a thousand applications. We're waiting on some calls, but we're not terribly optimistic as the job fair was scheduled for 2 days and Pako, who got there as they opened up for the first day, was flanked by about 2,000 also unemployed friends. The job situation here remains terrible. As much as I complain about Montessori, it does pay the bills (except when they can only afford to pay me half of what I'm due - like this past pay check - then it only pays HALF the bills!). Tourist season is right around the corner though and Pako will find work somewhere. I've been putting him to work as wedding researcher (a job I'm sure he wishes he HADN'T gotten) so he's been quite busy collecting info and getting prices.

Our apartment has been the home to many a non-welcome creature these last few weeks, a trend I'm not sure I can say I'm fond of! In no particular order, we have been invaded by 3 (that I saw, maybe more) large green grasshoppers, a very frantic bat, a Madre de Alacran spider (OMGYUCKYUCKYUCK!!!) and various wasps and scary looking bugs called Chinches... Where are all of these things coming from and why did they choose October to invade our apartment you ask? Well, if someone gives you an answer, let me know because I haven't a clue! I can tell you that grasshoppers fly into walls and make quite a thwacky noise when they stun themselves and fall on the floor, bats do not like to be shoo-ed with tshirts, pillows, hats OR brooms and Madre de Alacrans are seriously scary looking creatures, especially when mobile as they are also scarily fast! The bat got out alive... the others... well, I haven't a clue about the grasshoppers, but I haven't seen them recently and what can I say... could you sleep with a BIG scary spider whose name is Scorpion's Mother alive and roaming about your apartment? I didn't think so.


You might not be able to tell from the picture, but that sucker's legspan is about the size of a softball. I'm told they don't bite and I know they eat mosquitoes and all that jazz, but I'm still not okay with it being in my apartment!

On Halloween Eve, Pako and I went out with some friends. We were lame (and poor) and so we didn't dress up, but others did. Halloween is becoming quite as much of an event as it is in the States. My older students all went to parties and had costume contests and the younger ones planned on trick or treating. On Sunday night I actually had about 10 trick or treaters follow me up the five flights of stairs to my apartment to collect their candy. They chanted 'Halloween' and called me Doña and Señora. I felt relieved (that I had candy), happy (because I love halloween costumes and trick or treating) and weird (because they made me feel old and I am NOT old). It was a good weekend.

Pako and I on Halloween... That's not a mask people, that's how he looks all the time =D

Right now I am sitting leisurely on the couch with my feet up as it is Monday night and I don't have to work tomorrow! And I didn't work today! Woohooo! It's Day of the Dead (Days actually, November 1 and 2) and hence we have a long weekend! I'm about to launch into a mini-explanation of Dia de los Muertos, so if you know this already, skip down a paragraph or two!

Pako puts it like this "In Mexico, we make fun of the dead." And it's true, death is personified as a skeleton with a feathery hat, aka La Catrina. Also as the grim reaper or la Santa Muerte (Sacred or Saint Death) - of whom you can see a large representation on Pako's back...


Anyway, the dead and death are a much more normal and less feared part of life here in Mexico and Day(s) of the Dead is a time to celebrate those who have died. November 1st is Dia de los Niños Muertos (Day of the dead children) and focuses on the young people who have died. November 2nd is Dia de Todos las Animas (Day of all the Souls). In schools, November 2nd is a release day, but when it conveniently falls on a Tuesday (like this year), they often give you Monday as well! There are many Day of the Dead traditions and each state has their own rituals and customs to observe.

One goes to the cemetery and puts flowers on the graves of loved ones. Seems familiar enough, except it doesn't often stop there. Food and drink is brought and left at the graves as well, accompanied by candles and special tokens that remind people of the deceased. The idea is to draw out the spirit and make it feel welcome again among the living. To do this, it's customary to leave the favorite foods and drinks of the deceased. Sometimes people spend the whole day at the grave site, eating and drinking and being merry. People even contract bands to play the deceased favorite music and throw impromptu dance parties.


Last year, Pako and I went to Teotitlan to put flowers on his grandparents graves. Here I am protecting the graves (which are fenced in and covered by white cement slabs - much better to place the flowers on). Note that I am not sad. No one was. Everybody was having a good time and joking around (hence this picture).

Another custom is the making of altars. On the altars people place pictures of the deceased, religious statues and/or photos, water, salt, water, coffee, candles, decorated skulls made out of sugar, pan de muertos (bread of the dead - a special bread made only once a year with a special design on top representing the bones of the dead) and special flowers called cempasuchil (bright orange marigolds). More on that below.

Another tradition is the writing of Calaveras, which are simple rhymes that make fun of the living. Here's a calavera that Pako wrote this year (English translation does NOT rhyme and is not nearly as good as the original!):

estaba Leah sentada (Leah was sitting)
sentadita en su butaca, (sitting right on her desk)
llego la muerte y pregunta (Death arrives and asks)
"comadre, ¿por que tan flaca?" (friend, why so skinny)

...Y q llega Louise apurada (and Louise shows up in a hurry)
con su pelo muy alasiado (with her hair very straight)
y Leah muy sorprendida le dice, (and Leah, surprised, says to her)
"amiga q pelo tan despeinado!!" ("Friend, what messy hair!")

Llega en eso Pakito (At that moment Little Pako arrives)
muy apurado el canijo (In such a hurry, the punk)
xq andaba malo (because he was in a bad way)
le cayeron mal los takitos!! (The little tacos didn't sit well in his stomach!)

This year Pako suggested we make an altar because within the last 12 months, we'd lost 3 very important people: my beloved Grandma Claire (Nov. 7th, 2009), our good friend Federico (April 28th, 2010) and Pako's younger cousin Ada Alberto (July 25th, 2010). I thought it was a great idea because it would be such a cultural experience for me and moreover, it would be a great way to celebrate 3 very special people. I had no idea how cool it would be. Of course buying the flowers, candy skulls and bread was interesting and very culturally awesome for me, but the actual assembly of the altar and lighting of the candles was far more meaningful than I ever thought it would be. I'm not at all a religious person, but something about the whole experience was very spiritual and cathartic for me and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I love the idea of celebrating my grandma and remembering her happily rather than just missing her (which I do, every day, anyway). I think it's a great tradition to have a special day dedicated to remembering and celebrating those who have touched our lives and whom we miss and I hope it is one that we continue even when we live in the States (eventually).


Our Altar with the candles lit. On the left there are 2 photos of my lovely Grandma Claire (on the wall), in one she is playing cards with my cousin Kenny and looks so beautiful and happy and the other is from her younger years when she just plain is a knockout! On the table on the left is Betty, wife of our Scotch Canadian friend and beloved friend of Pako and his family. I didn't have the privilege of meeting her, but Pako remembers her extremely fondly. And if she could stay married to our friend, she was clearly a saint... ahem... just kidding Bambi!

On the right side of the picture are photos of two very dear members of the Las Urracas family. Lucy Coon is on the left and Fred Rahn on the bottom right. Lucy passed away a couple of years ago and Fred passed this April. They were both wonderful people and Pako and I miss them quite a bit. On the wall, the upper right picture is Pako's cousin, Ada Alberto, who passed away this July 25th. He was 18. I suspect it was leukemia, but we don't know for sure. I didn't get to know Ada very well, but Pako misses him a lot.

Today we went to town to meet with a potential caterer for the wedding and walked right into something called "El Cortes." It has to do with the Spanish conquest, but I'm not sure of all the details. One person dresses up as Hernan Cortes (the man responsible for the fall of the Aztec civilization) and others dress up as indigenous Mexicans (Aztecs or other Indians) and they hit each other with sticks, but really hit each other hard! I jumped every time someone landed a blow and know there will be many a bruised participants tomorrow. There's also a man dressed as a woman who represents who knows what, but he walks around and hams it up with the spectators and participants... Anyhow, it's quite the custom and I'm going to have to look into it more because as it stands, I find it quite weird!


Alright folks, that is it for now! I have to prepare myself to go back to work after 4 glorious non-Montessori days! Thanks for reading this mini-novel and please forgive any typos or spelling errors.. I was going to proofread... and then I didn't. Oops.

XOXO! Take care of yourselves!

Leyah