Wondering the New Year

Jan 28, 2015

Happy New Year!  Those words are a bit stale, but they feel correct for me.  Christmas in Oaxaca lasts until Jan 6, when the biblical Three Kings reportedly arrived with gifts. 
Most folks are not in a hurry to remove the elaborate nacimientos, and I'm not in a hurry to see them packed away, either.  This is prime snow-bird migration season, so in addition to the city excitement, we still have the holiday excitement, and the arrival of old friends.  It seems that this past week life has settled into a New Year routine, with hikes and meals with friends and lectures at the library and adventures.  My last blog post, already a month old, reminds me that I'm going to spend more time on this blog this year.  Taking a cue from Jess and Sally, over at 100 Stories blog, I'm going to try to post about every two weeks.  There.  Now I'm accountable to you all!

I'm wondering about lots of things so far this year.  First, I'm wondering about food pairings.  Studying combinations, even casually, with Jose Luis, has me making a list of recipes and food combinations to try.  He combined guayaba, basil, cream and chocolate to make a memorable dessert.  Catch me while I swoon with the memory!  We had another opportunity to cook, and sample mezcal, with him in January at Michelle's house in Teotitlan del Valle.

We prepared salsas, salads, stuffed squash blossoms and chicken, all made with locally produced ingredients.  Meeting Michelle has been one highlight of 2014, and connecting with the enthusiasm of Jose Luis is another.  I can't wait for Jose Luis to open his new restaurant, location in Oaxaca yet to be revealed.













Friends Joan and Bob arrived from San Francisco, and Joan and I jumped right back into our routine of visiting and exploring textile techniques.  Micky and I had connected through our volunteer committment at the Oaxaca Lending Library, while we talked about sewing and art, and we immediately accepted an invitation to form a sewing group here with Joan and Nancy.  More wondering occured!  We experimented with cloth and beads to build a necklace; wrapped perfectly clean cotton cloth around dirty, rusty metal things just to see what pattern would happen; and dunked more cloth in indigo dye, twisted and pinned and clipped to create resist. The Cinco Senoras wandered through the beautiful Museo de Textiles Oaxaca more than one time, crying becuase of the beauty of the photos and exhibits and words of the people who are working so hard to create beautiful fabrics.

 All the while, wondering, "What if...?".  Micky has me wondering, too, what I'm going to do with the beautiful embroidered aprons I've bought.

 










Wandering in the mountains around Cuajimoloyas and Benito Juarez causes me to wonder about the lives of the people who live in this high, remote place.  We hiked between the two villages, through fields of corn, potatoes, mustard and squash, with beautiful vistas across valleys.  I bought a jar of pickled maguey blossoms from the small tienda in the village.  People living just a few miles away don't eat these local flowers.  The women in Cuajimoloyas serve them with eggs, or with tortillas.  The window of harvest time is small; the maguey grow wild up here, so harvest relies on paying attention.

All this wondering is contagious. No conversation with friends local and snow-bird is complete without wondering why we return, or choose to live in this part of the world.  No one has a single answer.  Stuart and I will continue to wonder, as we board a bus Friday heading for Tuxtupec, and on to Veracruz to explore.  We are sad to leave our friends and our second city, but eager to wander.

Gift a Day

This is the time of year many messages are related to thinking about life in a new, better way; new beginnings; clean-slate sort of thinking. Resolutions and forming new habits.  I guess I like to think of a new beginning as the winter solstice, when the days begin to get longer again. In NC, when the darkness begins by 5:00 in the winter, I look forward to longer days. In Oaxaca, we'd better be on the roof by 5:30, or we'll miss the sunset. But, I also think of spring-green leaves on the oak trees, daffodils, first tomatoes of summer, and picking grapes in September as new beginnings.  And, I think of Jan 2 as a new beginning, when life gets back to normal in places that use the same calendar I use! 

The past couple of weeks have been so fun.  Jess and Sally's visit was a gift.  Two years after meeting them in Peru, they came through Oaxaca on the way south, and it was a wonderful week. They left all sort of other gifts with us:  laughter and conversation; stories of wonderful things they've experienced in the past two years traveling around the world; Sally's minty trail mix; hand-made paper from Thailand (Jess, correct me on that, please!); a watch for Stuart and the box it came in for me to play with; meals and drinks; socks!; and knowledge of all kinds of things! 

www.jsoutofbounds.blogspot.com
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I took one more cooking class at La Cuisine, with my friend Allie.  See the fun we had, after eating one of the best meals I've ever tasted! Jean Michel gave us good food, and he gave us the power to create on our own.  Thanks, Jean Michel!

 Jess and Sally, in the weekly market in Ocotlan, eating empanadas con amarilla y pollo.Rico! 













In the Parque San Felipe del Agua.  It's the mountains above Oaxaca, with trails meandering in multiple directions.  A bread crumb trail might help get you back out, if you don't know north from south!  Stuart and Sally, pausing by the small stream, just before we found the Snuffy Smith part of the trail. 

A hike through the fields of lettuce, cilantro, radishes, state-fair-sized cabbages and flowers, between Zegache and Ocotlan.













Sally and Jess at the San Pablo textile museum.  More about that in another post..












New Year's Eve on top of the ruins at Yagul, one of my favorite places in the Central Valley.  Sally, Stuart and Jess, high above the fields, watching the caracara's flying below us.

New Year's Day.  Dozens of city buses were lined up by the church at Llano Park, decorated with flowers and bows, for the blessing from the church.  A prosperos New Year!  This is Horatio's bus...

 ...and this is Horatio.  Like many young men from Oaxaca, he lived a short time in the US, made some money, and happily came home.  I'll look for bus 336 from now on!

 Adults with giant sparklers on New Year's Eve!  What a great party!  Thanks, Ellie and Carol!

New Year's Day found us at the beautiful home and gardens of Jan and Pierre, in Xoximilcho, where we ate very well, and enjoyed mimosas with friends.  Here, friends who were helping cook and serve show off the beautiful brunch. A perfect way to begin the year!


My New Year's Resolution?  To spend a little more time on this blog.  I'll start with the next post.  Happy New Year!

Christmas Week in Oaxaca, 2014

What a wonderful week it was!  And, more to come.  Here are a few pics from this past week:

Comida at el Quinque....

The beautiful museo de San Augustin Etla.  The waterfall, as seen from the patio above...

My friend, Carol, at the Books and Broads monthly bookclub...

An embroidery at the San Augustin Etla museum, aka Casa.  Two exhibits are up right now:  Oaxaca as the epicenter of native corn production, and the fight to keep GMO corn out of the system.

wool felt corn!

wood-block print, the drawings made by local school children, the printing by college students.  Beautiful work!

I'm partial to the textile portions of the exhibit, and this embroidery was beautiful.

downstairs at Casa, the costume designs of Beatiz Russek.  Costumes, story boards, sketches, more.  Her life's work!

the courtyard at a friend's house.  This was a pile of rubble when he moved in 2 years ago!

ok, out of focus!  The nacimiento at the San Pablo.  Beautiful!

The Alvaro Torres Quartet, playing jazz in the patio of the Belber Jimenez.  A magical evening!

Job and the Cheap Seats, playing rock and roll at Casa Colonial Sunday afternoon.  Rock on!

donde esta mi chef, Jean Michel.  Yes, another cooking class this week.  Salad nicoise (Oaxacan style), ratatouille with fish (Oaxacan style), and chocolate mousse with (surprise!) Oaxacan chocolate!

Cooking class, after the meal.  That's Jean Michel behind me!

Our beautiful zocalo is now mostly cleared of demonstrators, and the Radish Festival is on schedule.  We walked through today, looking at the preparations and displays of radish carvings, dried flower scenes and corn shuck creations.  It really is one of the 100 things you must see!


A terrific week.  And, another one on the calendar.

Zachilla to Cuilapan, Oaxaca

Last week, the Hoofing it in Oaxaca group spent a little time in Zachilla, and then hiked through the fields and across the creek to Cuilapan. Zachilla, a Zapotec village, has been inhabited by farmers since about 2000BC, and farming is still the way of life here.  There are mysterious mounds in the valley around the small village, could be ruins of the same time as Monte Alban, but because the locals respect their history, no digging is allowed.

The street heading out of town is clean, and the wall art is great!  Here are a few pics from the day:

 Notice the door?

 Taking a break from work, having a bowl of tejate.

 "Stand up to the pain."  Notice the  joint and the bottle!

 This was on a grave in the Zachilla cemetery.  Someone hung a bag of mints from Jesus' right hand, and tucked a candy bar behind his head.  I'm guessing family of the man who is buried here is responsible for the snacks.

 One of the mysterious mounds in the milpa, or cornfield.

 In Cuilapan, we passed the school, where the students and their families were gathering for the 40th anniversary celebration of the school.  Young women dressed in festival finery, the band was ready to play for the giant dancing puppets.

Oaxaca Lending Library Bazar 2014

About 20 years ago, Stuart and I were on a walk-about in southern Mexico.  We spent 2 days in Oaxaca, just long enough to find the mercado, the zocalo and the English Language Library.  We returned a couple of years later, and spent an enchanted week here, and that time we determined we'd come back and spend TIME.  So, we returned again and bought a newspaper and began looking for an apartment.  This was in the days before the internet, and we had the opportunity to look inside some walls and gates, to those secret places.  We found our home at Villa Maria, and have returned almost every year.  OK, one year we had a fling with another city, and spent a lovely winter in Merida!  Oaxaca feels like home to us, and apparently to many other people from the US and Canada who return every year.  Some never leave.  The sense of community is strong here, particularly in the comfort of the Oaxaca Lending Library.  There, we can not only check out current books and movies, but we can find books in spanish, meet friends, find local resources for just about anything you can think of,  attend lectures on all kinds of interesting topics, use the computers, and help with any number of community outreach programs the library sponsors. It is a true membership library: it is run from money it raises, and from the reasonable membership fees we pay.  Last year, I had a great time helping with the annual Bazar fund-raiser.  I had so much fun, this year I helped chair it. 

To say that volunteering is about helping others is only a tiny bit of the story.  Any volunteer job I've ever had has returned the gifts to me a thousand times.  The OLL Bazar was Sunday, December 14, 2014.  We raised a record amount of money, because of the incredibly generous donations and the time a large number of people spent preparing and selling those donations.  Many thanks for all my new friends.  You make my life rich!

Bud, who lives here full-time, and worked every day for 6 weeks!  This man knows some stuff about brand names, and I learned a lot last year from him about checking zippers in clothes and suitcases, pockets, hems, and under-arms in clothes, heels and soles on shoes, cracks in dishes and brand names in everything.

 Micky, a modern-day, highly educated nomad, who also worked every day for 6 weeks.  She taught me how to focus, be calm and to enjoy every minute of the day.  And, she's a stitcher.  How can you NOT be a good person when you enjoy a needle, nice cloth and thread?  We bonded.

 Saint Adriana, the ED of the OLL, and her beautiful daughter.  Adriana broke her arm the first week of November, and has kept that beautiful smile and calm demeanor for the past 6 weeks.  No matter how many times I interrupted her work to ask a question, she never lost her smile and ready answers.  Yep, Saint Adriana!

 Ralph and Tom.  Fun, hard-working, funny, talented and giving. Married to women with the same characteristics!  Thanks, Ralph, for the carry-out from the Moroccan restaurant!

 One of my favorite Geeks, Bill, and Jill, who both live here full-time.  Every year Bill and Enrique show up to check out anything that plugs in, turns on/off, has batteries or is hard-wired.  Computers, vacuums, coffee pots.  They work and make us all laugh.  Jill.  The energizer bunny.  I look like I'm on downers next to her!  Funny, too!  And, takes charge of the Boutique with wit and determination.

 Michelle, the acting Volunteer Coordinator, while the VC is away.  Party organizer extraordinaire.  Speaks spanish like I do in my dreams.  Michelle, my kindred spirit.  With brownies and cool aprons.

 Laura and David, both full-timers.  Whatever you need done, they are the people to ask about who/how/where.  In the poor pueblas, the behind-the-scenes jobs, the pick-up people.  Always with a smile and a hug.  Laura and I have been known to be the back-up dancers for the weekend rock-and-roll concerts.  Just sayin'.

 My darlin' husband, who lifted, taped, toted, sorted, bagged, fetched, marked and tied for 6 weeks.  Then, toted and unboxed and listed and was the Hall Nazi during the sale.  He fetches my tamales many mornings, and puts the chocolate in my coffee every morning.  Yep, he's taken!

 Micky and me, stylin' in our donated hats, during one of the many pricing and sorting days.  Yes, we sold them!

Siobhan and Tom (again!).  More of those wonderful people who are always around when you need a hand, people who take charge of other things quietly.  And who love to laugh.  Thanks to Siobhan for taking all these photos...wait, who took this one?!?

The almost full bodega before the sale.  We're grateful to the past few years of fund-raisers that allowed the OLL to make some terrific renovations to the downstairs, giving us space upstairs for sorting/pricing, parties and general purpose, outdoor space.