Moving my Blog

Hi everyone! I'm moving my Blog to my own host. I hope you continue to read my musings on life in La Manzanilla. Here is the the feed address http://feeds.feedburner.com/Visitlamanzanillacom

and here is the site address
http://www.visitlamanzanilla.com/blog/

We're Back in La Manzanilla!

We arrived in La Manzanilla Saturday the 4th at 5:00 PM to cloudy skies and drizzle. Around midnight it stared really raining and thundering and lightening. At 6:30 we had water seeping into our bedroom from the lot next door and a river running down the street that nearly as wide as the street. The river ran for 24 hours.



After the initial shock dealing with the seeping water and worrying about the chance of the water jumping our sandbags and really flooding the house we joined in the fun of the river! In the afternoon the kids built dams and played in the pools of cool, clear water. Video was shot in the late afternoon on Sunday, the flow was about 1/4 of that in morning.

Monday morning the river was dry but the street and those streets around us look like a war zone with huge crevices, some as much as 7 feet deep. We can’t get our truck out of the car port and even if we could it’s doubtful we could make it off our block without falling into a crevice. So, we walked Lyle to and from his first day of school in the rain, walked to Juan’s to buy tamales for dinner and were happy we still have electricity and internet! It’s the little things after all….

Lyle builds a bonfire!

We’ve been in La Manzanilla for 3 years now and last week was the first time we’ve been to a bonfire at the beach! Lyle has been bugging us for months to go to the beach and have a fire; basically because he wants to roast these HUGE marshmallows we bought in Patzcuaro (to roast in the fireplace at the hotel we stayed!) It doesn’t get dark here until 7:30, the only nights we could do a fire at the beach would be Friday or Saturday (school and all) and something always comes up.

Last week my friend Alex, chef at La Manzanilla’s Café de Flores, invited us to a bonfire to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Well, it was a Thursday night and lo and behold no school on Friday so we accepted.

I can’t believe we waited this long to have a bonfire. It was a blast! At sunset we light the fire and the hot dogs and marshmallows came out accompanied by the sounds of guitar and drums. Lyle was the only kid there but that didn’t seem to bother him. He usually goes to bed at 9:00, but this night he was dancing by the fire and roasting mellows until 11:00 pm.

The next morning it was all he could talk about!

La Manzanilla Primavera

We have the most beautiful Primavera tree in front of our house in La Manzanilla Mexico.

Actually, I think it’s the most beautiful tree in town. About 3 weeks ago all the leaves fell off the tree, 2 weeks ago the yellow buds started to appear, 1 week ago the tree was glorious, bright yellow flowers about the size of a child’s hand filled the branches and were juxtaposed against the deep blue sky.

I watched each day as people walked by with camera in hand trying to capture the beauty of the tree.

The flowers are now fading and gracefully falling to the ground. I’m not sad at all to see it go, it was so gorgeous in its prime that it had to be fleeting! Looking forward to next spring already.

What is Patriotism?

Today, Lyle’s elementary in school in La Manzanilla, Mexico offered a flag presentation. Once everyone was lined up and in place the 6th graders marched out replicas of the various flags Mexico has had over the years. Then director approached the microphone and announced he would recite the Pledge of allegiance.

All the children and parents dutifully raised their hands to their chests (including Rick and I) and recited the pledge. Lyle raised his hand and half-heartily mouthed the words (afterwards he told me he didn’t really know what the words were). But as I watched him, it occurred to me Rick and I had never talked to him about pledging allegiance or patriotism.

After the ceremony, as the children raced back to their classrooms, I started thinking about patriotism, countries and flags. Do we really need to pledge an allegiance without understanding the meaning? How do we balance Lyle’s US heritage with a worldview? How do we convey allegiance to principles of liberty and justice, humanity and generosity, to all regardless of birth nation?

If I teach him to pledge, just to be dutiful and polite then I’m sending the wrong message. Duty and politeness over principles is never the correct choice.

A Lost Marathon

We don’t have a TV in our La Manzanilla house. Well, we don’t have a TV that gets reception we use the TV just to watch movies. Most movies are available on DVD here within a day or two of their theater release. But that’s another post.

This is about our recent Lost Marathon. I have to admit I’m addicted to the series Lost. On a recent trip back to the US for business, Rick bought season 4 and 5 on DVD. I’m not sure if you’ve ever watched a series on DVD but it’s the only way to go! Just when that anticipated commercial break happens….boom, you are on to the next scene, its commercial free heaven.

I feel terribly guilty admitting to doing something so wasteful as watching TV all day, but alas, Rick and I watched 5 episodes on Saturday!

Any other Lost fans out there?

A quiet moment….and chips

Usually when the kids are playing here in La Manzanilla it’s a herd of them out in the street playing soccer, hide and seek, or war games. The common denominator of any of these games is that they are loud, raucous and wild. Lots of screaming, “da me lo!” translation- “give it to me!” “el me pegó” -translation “he hit me!” Followed shortly by a parent yelling “no, peleando!” translation-“no fighting!”

Imagine my surprise when I looked out the window and witnessed Lyle and Gael sharing a conversation, a quiet moment…and a bag of chips.

The ice cream man cometh.

In La Manzanilla there is a never ending stream of ice cream trucks and wagons. They take turns parking outside the school at 1:00, walking around town and driving down the beach. For 5 pesos a scoop, including sprinkles, we treat the neighbor kids to ice cream pretty often.

Here's Lyle and his compadres enjoying and ice cream treat.

Let’s make cookies!

It’s raining in La Manzanilla; the locals say it’s been at least 10 years since we’ve had rain in December. A couple of nights ago is poured so hard the streets were flooded up to the sidewalk.

Yesterday, Sunday, we decided since it was such an overcast and winter like day we should make cookies! I was all about sugar cookies, but Rick and Lyle turned up their noses and voted for chocolate chip. Ok, so we need 1 more stick of butter and some chocolate chips. Rick heads into town. He returns about 15 mins later with the news that there are no chocolate chips to be found in town. They still say, “no thanks” when I chime in about sugar cookies.

Not completely deterred the boys decide it would be fun to bake a cake, a cake from a box. Ok, so Rick and head down to our nearest corner store while Lyle is playing with the neighbor kids. No cake mixes. It’s now about 4:30 on Sunday afternoon and Rick is determined. He goes back into town. He returns 15 min later empty handed and bearing news that everything in the 3 block town is closed!

Guess baking wasn’t in the cards.

Yes, but we don’t have a key

On Friday all the children (147) left the primary school in La Manzanilla with a note stating that today, Monday, parents needed to come to the school at 5:00 pm to clean.

Lyle had received this same note 3 weeks ago, I showed up at 5:00 and waited with 2 other mothers until 5:45 before we decided to leave. No one ever showed up to open the gate so we were locked out.

Rick and I get there at 5:00 to find one man with a machete and one other woman at the school. The man with the machete goes to the edge of the school and starts hacking down the grass. The other woman has a list of all the parents, she checks off our name from the list and tells us we need to clean the garden area. So Rick and I look around and ask if there are any tools and she tells us, "No, but you can put the grass, that you pull by hand, in the trash dumpster by the gate."

We brought gloves.

We started pulling grass and after about 5 minutes I say to the woman, “this would be a lot easier with a lawn mower.” To which she replies, “yes, the school has one, a push mower, but it’s locked in the bodega and I don’t have a key.” I'm thinking, "geez they can produce 147 slips of paper with the note to come to clean but no one can think to come and unlock the door of the bodega..."

We pull grass, by hand, for another hour and leave. No other parents show up, but at least our name is check-off as doing our cleaning duty.

FM3 at last!

After 2 phone calls to the Manzanillo immigration office, 3 trips to the office, mailing Lyle’s birth certificate back to the US to get an apostil, having the birth certificate and apostil translated, and two months later…..We are now legal!

Yeah, happy dance.

Only problem, when we started the process we lived at one address, we’ve since moved. Supposedly you have to notify the office within 30 days of a move and show them the last bill from your old address and the new bill from you new address. If the two bills are more then 30 days apart they can fine you up to 50 pesos a day per person.

We are still thinking about how to handle this issue. For now we are just celebrating our new status!

La Manzanilla kids don't like carrots

Every 24 days we are responsible for bring "Refugerio" or lunch for the 24 kids in Lyle's kinder class.

We've done Spaghetti- big hit.

Chicken and rice- not such a big hit-we didn't cook the rice correctly and is was mushy.

This time my husband and I thought we'd do PB&J sandwiches on whole wheat, apple slices and carrot sticks. Yes, before you gasp about the peanuts, I talked with the teacher peanut allergies, she'd never heard of such a thing as an allergy to peanuts.

We show up with our lunch and served it up. Only 2 of the 24 kids opted for the carrot sticks and one was our kid!

Conclusion- Kinder kids in La Manzanilla don't like carrots and you are not going to make any friends by serving them.

When I shared this story with a client, her advice, "Twinkies, baby!"

Futbol with 5 year olds!

The kinder hosted a futbol turny today at the campo and about fifty 4-6 year-olds took part in the national sport, soccer or futbol.

Lyle had a grand time first running after the ball and second as the goalie. I have no idea where he learned the rules of soccer but he knew not to pick up the ball, when the tall guy with the whistle blew the whistle it was time to stop kicking the ball and the point was to kick the ball between the goals.

His team managed to score and as goalie he blocked a dozen goal attempts.

All in all very cute to watch.

Cállete perro! Sounds of La Manzanilla

It’s 9:00 pm and I’m rocking to the grooves of some techno trash music…as I sitting in our apartment. It’s coming from the neighbor’s house behind us. These neighbors have a cacophony of sounds emanating from their location.

Around 6:45 am the music starts, usually not very loud, and I find it pleasant.

We return from dropping Lyle at school around 9:15 am. That’s when the pet bird starts doing its thing. The parrot whistles, like the whistle steelworkers give to passing women. Then when he’s bored of that he switches to his cat imitation and begins meowing loudly.

Around 10:00 am the family leaves the house for the day….but they leave a big black dog tied on very short rope in the backyard. Our bedroom/office window looks down into their backyard. 10:10 am the dog starts barking.

My husband and then spend the next two hours taking turns going over to the window and yelling, “callete perro!” in between conference calls and emails, that is.

12:00 we pick Lyle up from school, neighbors come home for the afternoon meal, dog stops barking and music comes back on.

Oh- it’s 9:15 pm and all is quiet.

Hey, I'm not on vacation!

My great friend of nearly 20 years just came to visit my here in lovely La Manzanilla.

Guess what? This is my life and I’m not on vacation. She asked me how much money she should bring. I told her she couldn’t possibly spend more then $25 a day. I buy a ¼ kilo of tortillas every other day, a few eggs, some cheese, fruits, and vegetables every day, eat out at the taco stands a couple nights a week, drink a beer or two every night, no more than $25 a day.

WRONG! When you’re on vacation you drink margaritas at the beach, snack on shrimp ceviche, and have eggs Benedict at Café Risa. - $25 a day ain’t gonna cut it. Who knew?

And, we have school, homework, oh and did I mention I work! It was a great visit but I have a lot of catching up to do.

Duh, when people come to visit they are coming for a vacation. Not sure why I didn’t get that…but now I do.