Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Well, a LOT has gone on in the last week or so. Muchas muchas cosas.
The week started off on Monday, when the becarios were still at school. I raided the bodega de Urbano for some costumes and bits and bobs that I could use to create noses and ears and stuff for the play that we did for mother`s day. I spent the whole day doing bits and bobs to do with that, and had a really long conversation with Matías, the head gardener dude, about the rainy season and (yet again) why I don´t have a boyfriend. I swear to god, everyone who works at the camp is obsessed by this subject. There was also a funny moment when I walked out of the tienda opposite one of the fences in the camp, and one of the cleaning ladies shouted at me ý donde esta mi copa?´(where´s my beer?´) I laughed and said that they don´t sell beer or something like that, and one of the gardeners who was nearby wet himself laughing at me.
Tuesday started off being fairly surreal. Lizzie wasn´t back from her travels, so I had to do the farm on my own with Alfredo. Who never shuts up. Anyway, after various topics of conversation, I found myself stood in wellies in duck poo in an empty duck pond, holding a wet bucket in my hands. Two turkeys were getting at bit frisky, and that inspired Alfredo to tell me all about mexican boys and the one thing they are after... etc etc. He went into quite a bit of detail. And I couldn´t escape, or even change the subject. I really wanted to laugh, but he was being really serious, so I had to make a big effort not to. Very bizarre, but hilarious at the same time....!
The becarios showed up again in the afternoon, but we had the dispensa, this time, there weren´t 2000 mangoes to share out, but about 3000 chiles. Flipping heck. My hands stank for the rest of the day. But we managed to get the right number of piles this week, and nobody stole anything, thank god. We arrived back to the becarios to find that they were having a talk with Luis, he told them off about bits and bobs that had happened in the past week, warned them of visitors that were coming in the evening, and told them not to use nick names (sobrenombres) like mosca (fly) japo (japanese) and chino (chinese) that they use for each other. He also announced that there was a canadian girl coming either tomorrow or today who would be working with them for a month (we were fairly surprised, we knew she was coming, just not the exact day) Anyway, after a bit of basket ball, an attempt to practise Cenicienta (argh!), and some hanging round in the evening, Carly came! the new canadian addition to our cabaña family. She arrived with Urbano, and he got her some sheets and stuff, and then I showed her round our humble home and went and robbed some food from the kitchen for her, then we went and sat in the salon and did some reggeaton dancing with the becarios for a bit. It was fun.
Wendesday (after another class from hell at amatlán) we headed back and did some painting of sinks in the garden, and had a very in depth conversation with Matías about national service and guns and stuff like that. Quick shower, then becario time. Just the usual mix of homework and games and another attempted obra practise. Didn´t go fantastically well. I also had a leaf pile adventure with one of the girls, Flor, who lives over the river from the camp, and we climbed over all the leaves so that we could yell her brother (who is called poncho) or her dad, so she could chuck them a dress she needed altering for the mother´s day dance on Friday.
Thursday, we took Carly to town in the morning and showed her round, and of course, took her to the market for some tacos and sopes. Sadly, there must have been something wrong with the salsa... we were all in and out of the loo a lot that night.... But we picked the kids up from school, walked back in the hot hot hot heat, and dined, homeworked, and tried in vain to do the obra. At this point, we did not think that cinderella would go to the ball. It was like controling a pack of animals. The lads in particular liked to wander across the stagey bit whenever they felt like it just for laughs. And they were trying to hit each other with a metal pole, and running round in the costumes that we didn´t strictly have permission to use. Oops.
Friday was a long day. We went up to Ocotitlan in the morning for school, to find that the gates were locked and all the classroom doors were shut. No hay clases. we chatted to a man in the shop across the street who had come out to inform us that there were no classes (oh really) and that they had all gone to a hotel for mother´s day celebrations (it´s a really big thing here). We then hung round in the cabaña for a bit, went and chatted to Jorge,Adrian and Amparo in the salon socail where they were making flowery mobiles for the mother´s day party in the camp, had a swim, then went to town in the evening. We hung round the zocalo, where there was a stage with a (dodgy) band, and they had loads of banners and stuff out, lots of crazy people dancing and stuff. We got some ice cream (pinapple and chilemango for meee) and then went back to camp cos there were loads of creepy people hanging round.
Saturday was actually an even longer day. We got up fairly late because there weren´t any groups coming, and then hung round with Paolina, the consejera of the weekend. We wrote up activities that were on offer to the families that were staying there, supervised in the pool for a bit, but there really wasn´t anything to do. We played crazyfut (football with an american football) with the aspirantes who were there (loads of becarios juveniles this week, they are really funny), but the highlight of our day was getting the lad in the shop to chuck us a coke over the fence. We did however sing in the campfire (konga konga) and it went down well and we didn´t forget the words, so all in all a success.
Sunday, I went on a rally in town with Pao and Carly, we took a couple of families (they paid our bus fair which was nice of them) and we looked round at the seed mural, and the exconvento and the museo. Then they went home, and we showed carly around the market, and all the special things you can buy. I felt like a pro.
In Ixcatepec, the village that is right by the camp, a fiesta had started the night before. One of the main features of a fiesta is noise. This is created (At 3 in the morning I might add) by people setting off fireworks, that don´t have lights or look pretty, but just go BANG really loudly, and echo off all the hills. It sounds like gunfire, and although we are fairly used to it when they use them for funerals or christenings or weddings, the fiesta ones are WAY louder and like every 5 seconds.
But, it was really cool, as we were invited to Adrian´s house in the afternoon for comida. So, after we wound down at the camp on Sunday, we got changed out of our oh so stylish uniforms and headed over to Ixca. There were loads of fairground type rides there and stalls selling traditional sweets and elote (corn on the cob with chile, cheese, lime, salt etc.) and there were just generally loads of people milling about. We walked down the road to Adrian´s, and were sat down with a beer and agua de piña in no time at all. We amused ourselves talking to all of his nephews and nieces, one of them, Alli, is a becario, and he was mega excited to be able to show us all round his garden, and all of his toy cars and stuff. I also had a very in depth conversation with a 6 year old boy (who was really hard to understand) about killer octopusses and films where they grab boats or squish people to death. It was very surreal. We ate something called barbacoa, which is like, meat cooked in a pit in the ground traditionally, very tasty indeed. Then is started to rain a bit, so we moved inside a half built couple of rooms and chatted for an hour or so before we headed back to base. A very enjoyable afternoon.
Monday, although we couldn´t believe it after the fireworks and festivities the day before, we had school in Ixcatepec. After that, we headed back to camp to do our monday morning washing. Even though I may say it myself, I am a bit of a pro at washing clothes with a bar of soap now. The trick is that the clothes need to be wet enough. I washed my white teeshirt so well that I don´t think it was even that white when I first bought it...
Primi, one of the maintenance guys, snook up on me whilst I was washing (I swear, he is camohmila´s very own jeremy beadle - watch out, primi´s about.) and started asking me all sorts of questions about my wind up radio that I listen to whilst washing because, unlike Ipods, it is splashproof. Anyway, later after lunch when we were handing out all the bedding to the becarios from the bodega, he popped his head round the corner and held out a 200 peso note. I didn´t understand what he was after at first, but Adrian explained after much confusion that he wanted to buy my ipod. Hmm. I asked if he meant the thing I had in the morning, and he said, yes! I want to listen to english music. I did attempt to explain that it was a radio, but he wasn´t having any of it, and in the end, I made up something about waiting till we leave cos I listen to it still. Hopefully he will forget and I will be able to keep my ipod for myself....
Monday afternoon was the ensayo general for the mother´s day festivities that were to be on Tuesday. We did some obra practise, sadly it went VERY badly. Nobody listened at all, and I felt like throttling some of them. So, after a quick conference, lizzie and I decided to pack up all of their costumes and tell them that we weren´t going to do it any more. Their faces! They were all completely gutted. But we stuck to what we said, and later on, when Lupe read out the order of dances and stuff, we told her that we weren´t going to do the play any more. haha. They begged and begged. Eventually (at about half 8 at night after cena) we told them that yes, we would do it, and we actually had a really good practise, even if we were surrounded by small boys running up ladders which were supported only by jorge or adrian to adorn the salon with flowery mobiles. It was particularly chistoso when jorge started yelling left a bit right a bit up a bit at david, one of the younger boys, who was putting the letters up on the wall.
After a very late night, we hit the pit, ready for the next day? I think not.
After a free morning, well apart from the farm, we had the dispensa. My god, there was a lot of food this week. Fortunately, not too many fruit and veg, although the ladies there took about 50 minutes to share all the bread out, and they were doing it really slowly and stuffing their faces at the same time. Grr. We got mad at them. After dispensa time, we legged it to the cabaña to get changed and back up to the salon where all the mums were arriving for the show. We checked everyone had their costumes and props and stuff, and sat down to wait for our turn. I was sat on a wall, when Jorge told me to go and help with the words. I looked at him funny, and went over to the door, and realised that we weren´t 6th after all... we were on first!!! Argh. The stress. I yelled at everyone (in hushed tones) to get things ready, as they were all playing, and shooed all the excess kiddies who were standing in the door where they went on and off the ´stage´. A few of them, lizzie and I had to forcibly shove out of the way. Kids here are tough though, they don´t mind, and they actually bounce, I swear. Anyway, everything went really well. The mums particularly liked the bit where marisol and I run on with a big black sheet and a orange cardboard carriage and the mice change into horses with riders, and we put string from the carriage round their necks, and then the fairy godmother says the magic words (after whispering ya? ya? (are you ready yet?) very loudly at us) and we run off with the black sheet, and the lads do donkey style crawling offstage, dragging cinderella and the carriage behind them. It got a BIG laugh. Success.
After that, it was torta and pastel time for the mamas, and there was agua, and then a guy with his raspado trolley thing showed up and we all had oh so good icey drink things. All in all, a big success.
Well, there´s still the story of sports day to come and the hokey kokey disaster, as well as the legendary ´we ate so much we nearly died´ story, and the bizzare dancing in a half built (but gorgeous) house to mexican music.... something to look forward to......
- comments