One down...

We got some bad news at school today - a teacher is leaving. Effective immediately.

I'm sorry for her students - a small elementary class - but I'm not really surprised. The school had so many vacancies to fill this year that quite a few of the new teachers have no experience and/or no education degree and/or no spanish skills and/or no international traveling experience. Bad combo. Showing up hours before the first teacher meeting, with no idea how to teach or what to teach, no idea how to live in this country, and limited resources (no curriculum, no internet) make for a bad combination.

So now I'm realizing a sharp truth - no matter how badly I feel I'm doing, no matter how crazy things get at school - leaving isnt' really a choice. Not because I can't be replaced, I can, but because the students don't understand that it's not about them. It rarely is.

Reformation, etc.

I like to think that I've become more open-minded in recent years. I thought that I was ok with a variety of biblical interpretations and Christian interpretations. I thought that I was in the "Jesus is still all right with me!" camp, and that I wanted to focus on preaching the gospel to non-believers more than infighting with other Christians.

Until I sat through Baptist chapel this morning.

Besides the poor asthetics (slow, boring music followed by long, boring sermon), I was completely shocked by the message! Our school board director spent 30 minutes reading verses from Psalms outlining how we should "fear" God. Which is a wonderful idea, except that the summary message was that we fear God by being good, making good choices, praying a lot, etc. Ok, also pretty much true. Then Santiago, bless his heart, spoke up.
"But we're just kids! we can't be perfect all the time! What if we mess up?"
Ron's answer (with a perturbed look that said he didn't want to be interrupted) was that we should just pray harder. No kidding.
Then, he gave an example of a time when his family was driving past a car accident where someone had been killed. This was an example of God's faithfulness, bc they weren't hurt. So, my thought was - did the other man not pray enough?
Also, Ron's kids are his step-kids. Their real father died of cancer. So was their 1st dad just not a good enough CHristian, so God had to kill him & replace him with a better dad?

This theology isn't inherently wrong - it's just not Christian. Muslims believe the same thing - pray harder to be good; bad things happen as a punishment for sin. Where's the Jesus? Where's the grace? What's the point of being a Christian if God only loves me as long as I am good and everything bad that happens is a punishment from him?

Temporary Mexicans?

All weekend, we were asked (often in 2 languages) where we were from. We always answered "Toluca" in a straight face. Which often caused a HUGE look of surprise from the person asking us. One Mexican actually said, "so you guys are Mexicans?" Which made us laugh. And made me think.

What makes us Americans? North Americans? United Statesians (which is, btw, the official Mexican term for people from the USA)? Michiganians? Mexicans?
Is it where we live or how we live? Is it what we speak or how we speak it? It it what we do or how we do it or where we do it? It it what we celebrate or how we celebrate it? Is it what we look like or what we look at? Or is it, as I'm suspecting, how we feel and who we choose to be?

I know one thing - I'm at least a little more mexican now. Because the (north) Americans were driving me crazy! (We actually overheard someone say, in English, 'why are there so many Mexicans here?' not kidding)

It's about the journey ... not the destination

Everything seems to take longer in Mexico. Especially traveling. Whether it's going to church, meeting friends, grocery shopping, taking a walk, or taking a great vacation, we always seem to spend most of our time getting somewhere.
Take Los Cabos, which we both totally loved. We were gone for 4 days, in planes and taxis, walking up to 2 hours each day for about 90 minutes swimming in the ocean and 8 minutes of parasailing. And a sunburn.
If we were only going on vacation for the highlights, we wouldn't have had such a good time. But every aspect was wonderful -
new podcasts on the plane
gorgeous ocean views from the taxi
a free upgrade to a jacuzzi room
warm sand
clear ocean water
lunch on the beach, under an umbrella, relaxing on a chaise lounge
Fresh mangoes
sleeping under the moon & stars
English church
fireworks.
So, it's really about the journey. Even when the destination is amazing.

We're not supposed to understand?!

I started my second Spanish class this week, with a tutor from MCCA. I'm taking the class with another teacher, which I was looking forward to, bc I thought it would mean more practice in talking. Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as good - we focused mainly on completeing grammar exercises from a textbook. I can do those in my sleep, bc they look a lot like what I've been creating, using, and grading for the last three years.
Then she said something really surprising -
"you don't understand? Good! You're not supposed to. God doesn't want us to understand each other" I'm not kidding. She went on to re-explain the tower of babel story, explaining that the reason that our languages have completely different grammatical styles and formats, not just different vocabulary, is so that it's impossible for anyone to know a lot of languages very well. Supposedly that's to keep any one group from taking over the world.
Huh.

Working Women

I work with women now!!!!!!!!!!!
This doesn't sound like a huge deal, but it really is. In my last job, I was half of the female teaching staff. I was the youngest person there by at least 5 years, but more like an average of 15 years. The women on staff were more like mothers than friends (which is ok, except that I already have a fabulous mother and mother-in-law, so I'm not really in need of any more). And all of my bosses - department head, administration, principal, superintendent, etc. - were all men. Old men. Men who laugh at sexual harassment training. Which, btw, isn't about sex at all but is about respect.
So this year, I work with women! Almost the entire staff is women, and most of them are my age-ish. There isn't a principal, but 2/3 of the directors are women.
The 2 reasons this is really awesome:
1. Everyone "gets" it. They know what it's like to spend 30 minutes trying to look nice without looking attractive. They know how one stray hair or one nasty pimple can ruin a day. They know where to find great deals on stylish clothing. They know that when I say I want to get home for dinner that I don't mean my husband will starve without me but rather that this is my hour of the day to actually connect with my family and I don't care if we're eating cold pizza I'm only going to miss it for an actual emergency. They know that Sarah Palin isn't automatically my hero, but neither is Gloria Steinem.
2. I have friends! It was very tough to have a real conversation with my prior co-workers - we had nothing in common. We were in different life stages, with different afterschool activities, and very little teaching methods in common. I don't have much in common with these ladies, but we feel more comfortable talking, so we can share about our lives here.

Yippie!

Labor Day or Independence Day?

Last Monday, when all our American friends and family were enjoying the last day of summer (and theoretically supporting the labor movement by not working :), we were actually working! And next week, when those same friends are hard at work, we'll be on the beach in Los Cabos celebrating American Independence from Europe (and theoretically being independent enough to take the day off work). In the wake of US political conventions -and I watched both - this blog is a hodgepodge of thoughts about working, playing, and fighting for a better government.

Celebrating independence day with Mexico reminds me of our shared American heritage - what it's like to break free from colonial dependence, write our own constitution, spend nearly a decade fighting for that independence and another century fixing all the little problems that werent' resolved originally (US - slavery, MX - corruption) and all the while being proud to be an American. Plus, Mexico actually reads their constitution, rings their liberty bell, and has a political parade. Not just fireworks & a picnic :)

Working on Labor Day reminded me of how much our careers define us, as NorthAmericans. I wanted to work here - I asked to work, I searched for work, and I'm thrilled to work. Most of my salary is used to pay for my work related expenses! And even though I'm not exactly qualified to teach math, I'm excited to work at a school that lets me teach kids first and subjects second.

Watching the conventions between labor day and independence day reminded me of how much women have fought for independence and the right to work. (I heard a joke that the republicans nominated a woman for vp so that they could pay her 75% and save the taxpayers money!) While I'm here, I'm often reminded of how blessed I am to work. Most of the int'l women here are "kept women" stuck at home with no job, no car, no money, and a full-time housekeeper. I was happy to work on Labor Day, bc I was happy to work! And I'm happy to support a female VP, as long as she supports working women: equal pay for equal work; paid maternity leave for all workers; access to quality affordable day care, after-school care, and college tuition; and healthcare for everyone. We'll see. In the meantime, I'll just be thankful I can vote, even from far away!

We're not leaving (yet)

We were originally planning to be on a plane home this evening, so that we could be in town for the Delta Chi 10-year weekend celebration. It's been about 2 months since we walked down the street without feeling like outsiders. By all accounts, it's time to go home.

It's time to eat Indian Food, shop Target's clearance sale, watch HGTV, sleep with the windows open, walk around barefoot, use a cell phone for hours, sing along with the radio, smell freshly cut grass, feel the crunch of twigs underfoot, use turn signals correctly, get bombarded with political ads, share a coldstone ice cream, visit costco for the Sunday samples, hear an English sermon, snack on pickles, browse a library full of books I can actually read, pick up all the "stuff" we left behind, meet with friends, print off pictures, and hold our families tightly.

Instead, the DX celebration was cancelled, and our tickets moved to a later time. So this weekend is mainly uneventful - we have nothing planned. We'll likely watch CNN, plan math lessons, take a long walk (uphill both ways), sleep in, arrange for a shipment from the US, and study our Spanish homework. Kinda boring - our new normal. :) But the fact that I'm ok with it must mean something, right?