"Who are the people in your neighborhood?"

These are the people in our (current) neighborhood!
















note the dog


Panaderia, fresh tortillas, neighbor boy by the office, lavanderia, "roof" guard dog, Verduras y Frutas fresca. We love stopping on the way home for fresh things!

Life in the most unlikely places

So, just when you think everything has come to a complete stand-still, it takes off again. That is what happened Wednesday. We had waited Monday and Tuesday thinking we would be going to look for housing again and nothing was happening. Then Roger had an opportunity to go to another community and work with some women on a greenhouse project at about the same time I was offered an opportunity to go somewhere with my counterpart about 2.5 hours away in the truck. So I figured it would be good to get out in the reserve no matter where it was! OH MY! I was in for a surprise. This time I got the long, winding gravel road through the mountains! If you don’t know, I am NOT fond of winding mountain roads, much less gravel ones. I now have a real appreciation of the OS bar in the truck! This place was, I swear, at the end of the world. I don’t think the road went any further. Think Appalachia. Very poor, but the women were interested in the program about the Reserve. They sat in one room of the 2 room schoolhouse and wove hats and bags while listening to the presentation. Meanwhile the children played in the yard and crowded into the doorway. The trip home was almost more than I could handle. It began to storm, a dangerous situation in many circumstances, but made worse in the mountains where the soil rushes downhill with the rain! We traveled at about 10 miles/hour (thank goodness my counterpart is a very good and careful driver!). Then we passed a truck of hombres whose truck had slid off the road and they were stuck! We went in search of a tractor to pull them out. After traveling back and forth on this insane road we were able to get things going and resume our trip home. Only 4 hours to get back.

Here is Roger's story. A bit more satisfying, I think.
While Anne was riding on some challenging roads I traveled to a small pueblo were work a year ago with the women in the community assisted in identifying important native plant species that they use in medicines and other products such as soap production. These same women are now reviving a small plant nursery to grow native plants. All of the labor is by hand...moving gravel with wheel barrows and shovels, raking and leveling the sand in the beds, removing the old concreto shade posts to make room for new steel posts to support shade cloth. I had a choice to go and sit at a meeting for an hour or so or work along with the women on their renovation project. I chose to work in the nursery and removed about 8 of the easiest posts. I suggested using a tractor(there was on in the community but was told that could not happen! ) Oh well. It should be interesting as this site is only about 15 kilometers from our final site and I should be able to maintain a relationship with the project.

Count your blessings

One of our last Sundays in our church in Fort Wayne, a member gave a message in which she reminded us of the story about the man with no shoes who met a man with no feet. We are often being reminded of how easily "things" get in the way of living.

Well, here it is one month since swearing in! We have been in the city where our reserve office is learning the ropes so to speak, listening to Spanish and traveling around the reserve some. We have looked for a place to live in the community where we will be for 2 years and think we have something we like, (the hammock was rented, the hut had no bano and the burro was not available so it looks like an apartment in "town" will suffice) but can't get a ride back to negotiate the details, get approval and plan for the move. Manana! Current options 1,2 and 3 we are leaning toward #3.








We have also are seen how wide a two lane road can be when 1 semi passes another! Thank goodness for shoulders.

We had an interesting Sunday. We had planned 2 weeks ago to attend church with a coworker at the reserve. It turned out she had been invited to a different church so we went there instead. It was pretty Evangelical and therefore different from what we expected. We did get to her church this past Sunday though. We understand it is a branch of the Disciples of Christ (our denomination in the US). It felt very similar and we enjoyed going, but I think it was their Sunday school hour not the worship hour. We will need to go again to the evening service some day. How interesting that in such a large world we would encounter a fellow Disciple in the office.

We have spent the first part of this week catching up on little details and communication with family and friends. The office is pretty quiet as the election is nearing and people are trying to get publications finished and approvals done plus, as everywhere, funds are tight.
We attended the dedication of a related office yesterday and of course forgot our "paraguas" so got wet on the walk back to the office. At least it rained as that cools things down and settles the dust for a while.

I thought this an interesting picture and I hope you can see it well enough. There is a blue jeans factory near us and this is the "employee parking lot" How great is that?? Also the federal government provides kindergarten for these employees.



I have been sitting in on a class for teachers about using didactic materials in the classroom. There were only 7 teachers and they have been very nice listening and tolerating my baby Espanol. They even asked me to do a presentation in Espanol about education in the US. Wow! Was that a challenge and I had to have it ready in 5 days! Needless to say it was VERY sketchy and only possible because I received help from my friend and my daughter-in-law! It went ok and I feel a little more confident now. Here is a picture of them with the adorable puppets they made. (one of the assignments from the professor.) They put on a show at the last class.Remember the "Green Acres" show? Admit it, I know you watched it! Well Tuesday we went to the town where we will be living for the next 2 years to hunt a place to live and if you can imagine that show you will know how it felt bumping over the "roads" in a truck for 5 hours! Oh and we also visited the "outlying farm areas".
Just a few thoughts:
Running water is Great!
Rock vs soil? Rock wins, nothing grows on rock
Living in a small space makes cleaning easy
Good news, Bad news. No rain means the soils doesn't wash away
In everything be thankful and bloom where you are planted!

The Long and Winding Road

So Saturday we left at 7 am with one of the Reserve Managers to travel down through the valley to the other end of the reserve, a trip of about 100 K. (60 miles) Let me first say it took 2.5 hours. The road was barely 2 lanes and with bus traffic, speed bumps ( with me in the back seat of a pickup NOT meant for tall Americans!) AND pot holes! It was interesting to watch the
on- coming traffic dodging the same pot holes you are dodging! Oh and did I mention the peligroso(dangerous) curves! It proved to be an interesting trip though as we drove through the fertile valley growing everything from corn to melons to limones to mangos.
We are finding that we can find just about anything we want, but not always where you might expect. We shop the big box store and then find the tiny tienda across the street has almost the same things. Getting to know the neighborhood.
We have no access to the internet at the house where we are living right now, so we found we can sit on the stoop outside the office after hours and use the wuireless to skype the family. I think we are becoming the "loco Americanos" talking to a box! At least we say "Buenos Tardes" to everyone!
We are starting to think about how to furnish our next home for the coming 2 years. Remember the 70"s (I know some of you do) and how proud you were of that tie-dyed fabric covered couch and the brick and board bookshelf that held your precious TV? Well that is what we may use.

Last, Roger got his first Mexican hair cut Sunday and found it to be pretty rewarding. I'll let him tell the story.
My first Mexican Haircut!
It was Sunday and I needed a haircut. It has been since February and my pelo was getting a little wild looking. We walked past a barbero near the office and I decided it was time to get my first haircut in Mexico. It was a little retro in that it had 1 barber chair-It was an owner operator situation- when the garage door was up he was open and when down he was closed. I waited a few minutes for another customer and then in baby spanish requested he trim my hair
short. It was a good scissors cut and we chatted during the time about Mexico (Si! Mi Gusta!) Did I like the cervaza? (Si! Mi Gusta) etc. Hey guys...when was the last time your barber trimmed your neck and ears with a straight razor? A pretty good haircut all in all. As I was paying the barbero ( the cost was 25 pesos or $2 american) his son - age 11-came running down the dusty street carrying a cold beer and handed it to me as I was about to leave. I could hardly
say no to that and offered to pay for it. No, no. So I sat and visited for another 45 minutes or so with the barbero, his son, and other customers about the Peace Corps, the United States and Mexico. By the way I did tip 20% but I felt bad as the boy reported the Corona cost 8 pesos at the tienda! Oh well I guess I will have to return for another visit and hair cut in a month or so.

To all who read this we appreciate hearing from you and knowing who is out there following us. Feel free to comment!

First week at our current site.

Our first week near our new site has flown by. It has been so busy with lots of meetings, getting resettled again, shopping for some needed things for our room and getting to know the area. Then there was the weekend trip to collect agave flowers and to visit a small community where there are some environmental programs. As happens here, the trip scheduled for Saturday didn't happen on Saturday, but on Sunday and lasted til 8:30 pm. It was interesting, but made for a long day.
Possibly our new home?









and transportation.
I don't THINK so!

Then we also had to get a few things from the local supermarket as we now have kitchen privileges!!!! It was great to fix our own meals Friday and Saturday nights!
The apartment building where we are staying right now has many children and we have begun to make friends with them. We think they are playing a game at night about the "gringos" from los Estados Unitos, but it is hard to pick up all the language. They have a puppy which is an easy conversation starter. And of course they are quite friendly.