Surviving Mexico

April 7, 2013 · 4:35 pm

Losing the battle–but not the war

La Yacata is lovely after the rains.

The other day, we were surprised to open our front door to find a taxi parked outside, having not heard it drive up. And even more surprised to find Doña Maria, our now 98-year old colona (property owner) inside. She had come to talk to my husband about selling her 2 lots. They negotiated a bit. She’s still as sharp as anything, even if her physical strength is giving out, although she recovered well from her fall at the last junta (community meeting). Finally she lowered her price to $50,000 pesos for the two lots with the understanding that if my husband found a buyer, she would give him something para la soda (a commission). We put a sign on our front door (Se venden 2 lotes. Informes aquí.) but not with much hope. With the current problems facing the neighborhood, nobody is buying. Doña Maria, however, is not in a position to wait until these things are resolved.

Then I received an email from R asking for the contact information of Super Prez. I forwarded the message to Super Prez and replied to R with Super Prez’s email. Well, guess what? R has left the country. He has gone to the States for an indefinite period of time to work and kindly gave his authorization for us to replace him as secretary (not that he did any work, mind you, but we need a secretary legally to form a mesa directiva). His vocal (understudy) el profe had already left the area and our councils several months previously due to marital problems. And yesterday, el taxista, the vocal (understudy) for the president, left for the border as well. So our official committee that legally must be made up of 6 members is reduced by half.

Desorollo Urbano (the permit office), who canceled their appearance at the last junta (community meeting) chose April 8 at 8:30 in the morning for their visit and inspection. Friday at 3 p.m. (the end of the workday), they called Super Prez to say that regretfully they were required to be in an urgent Monday morning meeting and therefore would not be able to visit La Yacata until April 14. Super Prez immediately called me, however, the volantes (flyers) had already been delivered and the radio announcement had already been paid for. My husband went to see if he could at least cancel the radio announcement, but the office personnel had already left for the day and anyway, there would be no refund given. This is México after all. My husband also said that he would not deliver any more flyers since this is the second time we have promised (in vain) the community that Desorollo Urbano, (the permit office), would be there. Our unity as a community is fragile and I’m afraid this will destroy it.

My theory is that el contratista chueco (the corrupt contractor who installed the stolen electricity system in La Yacata but now is the head contractor under the new president of Moroleón) or Chuchi went to JG the new president and compadre (buddy) and asked that the meeting be delayed. Chuchi is especially adept at throwing roadblocks in our way. (see demanda 1 & demanda 2) He understands that delay will irritate the people, causing them to become downhearted, and throw doubt on the mesa directiva’s credibility. El contratista chueco also has reasons for not wanting an inspection since what he did was illegal and questions will be asked. However, I can’t prove that either one had a hand in the last minute cancellation.

Super Prez and I (as the remaining committee members) now will have to stand with egg on our faces in front of the community tomorrow morning and explain how we weren’t able to deliver on our promise. Any credibility we have painstakingly earned now lies shattered at our feet.

Though we have lost this battle, we have not lost the war. We have not yet begun to fight, it’s just going to take longer. But I’m afraid Doña Maria will not be around to see our triumphs.

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1 Comment

Filed under La Yacata Revolution, Politics

Tagged as La Yacata, Moroleón

April 5, 2013 · 2:47 pm

Failing at your own business–Taco Express

During the time we ran the Crap Shoppe, my husband found himself unemployed again. As he was still recovering from an operation, he needed work that wouldn’t be so demanding physically. He decided he wanted to sell tacos, but since I had all that stuff at the local, he couldn’t use it. So we rented a local in the ‘mercado nuevo’ which was a collection of locales (shops) that sold everything from shoes to meat.

It took a bit of investment, we needed to purchase a mini-fridge, a “comal” which looks like an inverted dish to cook the meat, and a gas tank. I used my aguinaldo (end of year bonus) from the school to get us up and running. I was excited. I even bought little plastic salsa dishes and bright orange placemats.

Not leaving anything to chance, my husband went to see Chencha, the local curandera (healer) to see what she had to say about the taco stand. She read the cards for him and said that things would be painfully slow for awhile, but then it would pick up and he should be patient. She gave him some spray called ‘llama clientes’ that was supposed to attract customers but smelled like old lady to me. She told him to take red and white carnations to the taco stand for luck. She gave him a prayer card.

We took our kitchen chairs to sit at the bar, painted Taco Express on the pillar outside and were ready to go. My husband hired his youngest brother C as his assistant. They were open exactly one week. My husband threw a fit and brought everything home one day in the truck. What can I say, he isn’t a patient man.

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5 Comments

Filed under Employment

Tagged as employment in Mexico, self-employment in Mexico, taco stand, working in Mexico

April 2, 2013 · 8:49 pm

Parenting Challenge–Education as a Discipline

Our vacation education project!

Let the lessons be of the right sort and children will learn them with delight. –Charlotte Mason

During the long 2 week vacation that comes with Semana Santa (Holy Week), I started my 10-year-old son on an educational path that involved the book “The Most Dangerous Book for Boys” by Con and Hal Iggulden. With a title like that, you would have thought that he would have dove right in, but it took a little prompting and finally a stern mandate that he was to read one section of the book and complete the activity (if it had one) each and every day of the vacation period. However, I moderated that he could choose whatever topic he wished. So reluctantly he took the book to his room and thumbed through the table of contents, only to return a few minutes later to ask if he really could choose whatever topic. I responded affirmatively, and his excitement was evident. He went back to reading and came back again asking if he could do more than one section a day. Of course, he could.

As we have already urged, there is but one right way, that is, children must do the work for themselves. They must read the given pages and tell what they have read, they must perform, that is, what we may call the act of knowing. –Charlotte Mason

The first thing he read was about how to make paper airplanes. The house is now littered with the ones he learned from the book and several that he made his own adaptations to. Then he read about building a tree house, although I asked him what he thought he would do with that information since we do not have any trees large enough to support a tree house (cactus is not inherently stable enough to house a tree house.) But he wanted to read it, so he did. I came home from classes and found he had adapted the information to make a second dog house for Cocoa all on his own. (The first dog house, constructed with the help of his dad, has been taken over by 2 kittens and Hershey the new puppy.) Another day, he asked me to bring home vinegar and blotting paper for the newest experiment, a battery made with vinegar, quarters, copper wire, salt, and blotting paper. As blotting paper could not be found, he substituted thin cardboard and set to work. After a failed attempt (he had forgotten the salt) he tried again, his dad looking on. The second attempt also failed, (the light bulb was too large), so he tried again, doubling the number of quarters. He still wasn’t able to make the bulb light up, but he was able to create a spark, so the experiment was deemed a success.

Working on making a battery from quarters and vinegar.

The bad habit of the easy life is always pleasant and persuasive and to be resisted with pain and effort, but with hope and certainty of success, because in our very structure is the preparation for forming such habits of muscle and mind as we deliberately propose to ourselves.–Charlotte Mason

My son’s new found enthusiasm for experimentation has sparked my husband’s mind as well. My husband has retooled our moto (motorcycle) wagon and is now gathering materials for making an attempt at a windmill to provide us with electricity since it seems that the powers that be in this area are not interested in their civic duties. My husband has always been creative but slipped into complacency this past year. I hope that his new projects will reawaken what was once a sharp and agile mind.

Moto-cart. Just the thing for transporting!

Physical fitness, morals and manners, are very largely the outcome of habit; and not only so, but the habits of the religious life also become fixed and delightful and give us due support in the effort to live a godly, righteous and sober life. We need not be deterred by the fear that religious habits in a child are mechanical, uninformed by the ideas which should give them value. –Charlotte Mason

Having myself been raised in a religiously strict household, I have taken a more indirect approach to religion with my son. Instead of attending regular religious services, we look for God in the everyday. Instead of forced bible readings, I present tidbits that prompt his own investigations. “The most Dangerous Book for Boys” contains sections on the greatest battles ever fought since the beginning of recorded history. Of course, this included biblical figures such as Nebuchadnezzar. He read the section covering the conflict in the book, then went off with a bible to gather more details about Nebuchadnezzar’s life and times.

It is as we have seen disastrous when child or man learns to think in a groove, and shivers like an unaccustomed bather on the steps of a new notion. This danger is perhaps averted by giving children as their daily diet the wise thoughts of great minds, and of many great minds; so that they may gradually and unconsciously get the courage of their opinions. –Charlotte Mason

There are sections on scientists, explorers, inventors, poets, excerpts from Shakespeare, The Declaration of Independence, and the King James Version of the Bible. There are readings on overcoming adversity, scientific discovery and reaching out towards self-awareness. I was delighted to find some of my own childhood favorites included. After all, my own life is based on what Frost tried to say “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference” and it is my hope that my son will find his own path armed with all the knowledge and education that I lay before him.

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