Vive La Revolution- and Papa's too!

Thursday Nov 22 we celebrated Revolution Day here in La Manzanilla. All the school kids participated in a parade and ended up in the central square (jardín), where they did various dances ranging from waltzing to hip hop.


As part of my PTA duties I got up at 6:30 am that day and walked over to Lupita's restaurant and started making taco's with 3 other moms to sell at the festival. All the money raised from the sale of tacos went to the kinderschool.


Bottom line is I need to get a Spanish tutor! One of varieties of tacos we were assembling was a mixture of chorizo and potatoes. So, potato in Spanish is papa and daddy is Spanish is papá. Imagine the laugh the other mothers hand when I asked how much we sell the chorizo and papá (chorizo and daddy) tacos for.


Here are some pictures of the kids on parade.

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.

Presidential election from 2200 miles away

This is like an out of body experience.

I've been through enough elections in my life to understand what is happening on the US airways at this moment. The talking heads of CNN and Fox news are like rabid dogs in frenzy over exit and early return polling, commercials are full of negative ads and the candidates are running to every state with any electoral vote that might be sitting on the fence.

But I’m in La Manzanilla….and we don’t have a TV. It is so strange, it’s so quiet here.

I’ve already cast my vote, thanks to the mail in ballot and a husband who had to return to Denver for a few weeks.

I guess on Wednesday I’ll just fire up my computer and google the election results. Until then…did I mention it’s quiet here?

Saturdays La Manzanilla Style

We were walking home along the beach yesterday in the late afternoon and the fishermen were out in force. Some leaving by boat and some walking along the shore with net in hand.

North along the La Manzanilla is still undeveloped, there are a couple of campgrounds and some beautiful beside lots for sale. We have some friends who have a trailer under a palapa on the north end of the beach. It's very basic but lovely. We've gotten into the habit of hanging out with them every Saturday.

It's great because they have a son Lyle's age, so they spend the day eating coconuts, climbing trees and playing in the ocean.

PTA meeting in La Manzanilla

It's the same everywhere. I went to my first PTA today. Last year it was a playset for the Kinder, this year it's a sun shade because the dang playset gets so hot the kids are burning themselves when they try to play on it.

We need $4000 pesos for the materials and then the parents need to build it. $4000 pesos, approximately $400 USD. Last year for the Denver International School it was $30,000 USD for a bus.

Sunshade or bus, doesn't matter it all equals fundraising. So, the parents have donated items for a yard sale, there is a movie planned and we all have to sell 3 tickets and donate food or drink to sell at the movie, there is halloween party, a dance in the jardin and few other activities planned to raise money.

After the meeting, conducted under a palapa in the sweltering heat, I approached the "PTA President" you can always tell which mom is the head mom even if you only understand 60% of what was said. So, I approach her, say in my broken Spanish that I know we need money and I know there is work to do so please just tell me what to do!

Come see me Tuesday, in front of the Kinder, where I will be setting up and selling other peoples junk trying to raise money.

I've been on a nonprofit board and headed the pr and marketing committees for various Denver nonprofits, and I have a handful of nonprofit clients, I'm not stranger to fundraising. $30,000 or $400, in the big picture funds is funds!

Mom, this is harder than I thought it would be...

Words from a 5 year old who Monday came home from the Kinderschool with a fat lip and yesterday came home with a small, but still bloody, cut on his head due to a rock throwing incident.



Prior to our move here, Lyle was at The Denver International School in the Spanish program. Full immersion, led teacher from Spain and only spoke Spanish and French, assistant from Mexico, 14 kids in the class, all the kids native English speakers.



The kinderschool here in La Manzanilla has 3 classes of 30 kids each, one teacher per classroom and no one speaks English.



When I asked the teacher about Lyle's fat lip she remarked that it was probably an insect bite. Lyle later told me it was from getting punched in the mouth.



When I asked Lyle about the rock incident he said after the boy hit him with the rock one of his friends went and told the teacher about it. I asked Lyle, "what did the teacher do?" - it's hard to get exact details from a 5-year-old- but my conclusion is the teacher did nothing.



Poor kid says to me, "Mom, this is harder than I thought it would be." I just burshed it off and told him, not to worry and to just ignore those mean boys, but inside my heart is breaking for him.



I'm sure in a month or so he'll have the lay of land and a better command of the language.

La Vena- Playa Los Angeles Locos

This Sunday our landlord, at the lovely Jardines Tropicales, invited Lyle and I to go with he and his partner to La Vena. La Vena is a beach about 25 mins of La Manzanilla. You take the exit for Los Angeles Locos and follow it to the end of the road.

The beach here is gorgeous! The water is crystal clear, a river meets the ocean in this lovely spot. You’ll find lots of small shells on the beach and a small outcrop of rocks provides some interest if snorkeling is on your agenda.

Lots of locals in the water but I wouldn't go too far up the river, it quickly turns to mangrove and that means you could, theoretically, meet a cocodrillo. The water is moving pretty fast, not a favorite of cocodiles, but something to ponder.