It's an election year in Mexico. Not a presidential election, but nearly everyone else, from national to state to local officials. This means that posters are everywhere! I'm sure there is also a lot of TV and radio coverage, but we rarely watch/listen Mexican news bc they talk so fast about so many things that we can't keep up. (We do read some newspapers in Spanish, but sort of skim over the topics that aren't interesting to us.) The signs give us a great opportunity to learn spanish, bc they are very repetitive. As in, there are about 5 or 6 different political parties and hundreds of representatives running, but the same sign is reprinted and hung in dozens of locations. So we can pass the same slogan over and over until we understand!
Last weekend, we went walking through the southern part of Mexico City, an area we don't normally visit. *we were looking for the coffee shop that sells my sister-in-law's handmade items, but couldn't find it.* So, we saw lots of new signs. Including someone running on the slogan of "Agua & Paz" or "Water and Peace". Not even a complete sentence, just water & peace. no verbs, either, so I'm not sure what he's going to do with the water and peace. We can only assume that he was promising more of both.
It seemed silly, too simple really, to only offer water and peace. Then again, fresh water and lasting peace seem like the same thing that Jesus offered 2000 years ago, and it's still out of reach of so many peoples.
Mexican Government lesson of the day: the mexican president serves only 1 6 year term, and other national officials serve 3 year terms and can be re-elected (but I don't know how many times). Most state and local officials are elected on a 3-year cycle also, merely because the turnout is so much higher.
I'm surprised by the number of women running for office. It is possible that Mexican law requires that a certain number of seats be held by women; this is common in other countries, but not in the us. (In fact, the US made Iraq write into their constitution 30% female representation, but we don't have that.)
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
God's Ears
Living in Mexico has taught me how to lower my expectations. Harsh, I know, but true. Mainly, living here has helped me to rely on modern technology less and my own creative inventions more. Secondly, working at a small school full of ESL students has helped me to focus on what the kids can do, rather than on what they can't do.
After 2 weeks of swine flu break, we were finally back at school. The kids were so bored that they were actually happy to come back to school. I'm not kidding. Since we're very close to the end of the school year, they likely would have "checked-out" mentally, but we spent nearly 10 hours this week on musical practice.
In my previous experience, Musicals meant: a 10-piece band, 30 singers/actors each with at least 3 costume changes, 15 backstage persons, a pile of props, 20 lights, 10 personal microphone packs, curtains, 2 set changes, 2-way radios, tickets, and an ulcer. This musical meant hand-written posterboards, 5 microphones on stands, a CD with music, silk-screen tee shirts, a tarp, and a final performance on a basketball court, praying for the rain to hold off another few minutes.
Every day, I had to lower my expectations of what this musical would entail. I am used to working with experienced young adults who want to do drama, and who want to have a good production. This musical involved children who did not want to do this, did not care if we had a good production, had never seen a live show of any quality, and did not speak English as their primary language. I am used to running lights, sound, and set changes to maximize the audience experience. I am not used to the wind blowing over our hand-made posterboards.
After a lot of work (well, let's be honest: not nearly as much work as I'm used to), a lot of prayers, and 5 days, we managed a somewhat successful 45-minute musical that impressed the parents.
Lower expectations - achieved.
The funniest part, though, was listening to the kids' songs. Elementary kids are notorious for not pronouncing their words very well when singing. Imagine 30 kids who speak English as a second language singing English songs!
Along with the normal "duh" instead of "the" and "dings" rather than "things" we also had a lot of trouble with "lord" - asians had a hard time with that, so it quickly became "oar".
My favorites:
"hum-boh yorselves be-foe de Oar"
"Lee-mee, oar"
"God's Ears"
Any idea what these songs are supposed to be?
"Humble yourselves before the Lord"
"lead me, Lord"
"God is near"/ "God is here"
After 2 weeks of swine flu break, we were finally back at school. The kids were so bored that they were actually happy to come back to school. I'm not kidding. Since we're very close to the end of the school year, they likely would have "checked-out" mentally, but we spent nearly 10 hours this week on musical practice.
In my previous experience, Musicals meant: a 10-piece band, 30 singers/actors each with at least 3 costume changes, 15 backstage persons, a pile of props, 20 lights, 10 personal microphone packs, curtains, 2 set changes, 2-way radios, tickets, and an ulcer. This musical meant hand-written posterboards, 5 microphones on stands, a CD with music, silk-screen tee shirts, a tarp, and a final performance on a basketball court, praying for the rain to hold off another few minutes.
Every day, I had to lower my expectations of what this musical would entail. I am used to working with experienced young adults who want to do drama, and who want to have a good production. This musical involved children who did not want to do this, did not care if we had a good production, had never seen a live show of any quality, and did not speak English as their primary language. I am used to running lights, sound, and set changes to maximize the audience experience. I am not used to the wind blowing over our hand-made posterboards.
After a lot of work (well, let's be honest: not nearly as much work as I'm used to), a lot of prayers, and 5 days, we managed a somewhat successful 45-minute musical that impressed the parents.
Lower expectations - achieved.
The funniest part, though, was listening to the kids' songs. Elementary kids are notorious for not pronouncing their words very well when singing. Imagine 30 kids who speak English as a second language singing English songs!
Along with the normal "duh" instead of "the" and "dings" rather than "things" we also had a lot of trouble with "lord" - asians had a hard time with that, so it quickly became "oar".
My favorites:
"hum-boh yorselves be-foe de Oar"
"Lee-mee, oar"
"God's Ears"
Any idea what these songs are supposed to be?
"Humble yourselves before the Lord"
"lead me, Lord"
"God is near"/ "God is here"
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Earth Day
Despite the very long drive and gallons of gasoline used to get there & get home, we really appreciated the beauty of God's earth this weekend. Of course, PV is all about the beach. There weren't many people there, due to flu, which was bad for the town, but good for us.
The tourists were all baking in the sun and burning their feet on the sand and fighting the big waves. But the locals were all swimming in a freshwater pool under a bridge with lots of shade and calmer water. So we did, too!
A beach vacation is all about swimming on the beach, but we aren't all about the sunburn ;) so we also went to the PV botanical gardens, which employs local mexicans in preserving the environment and protecting endangered species (rather than subsistence farming, which destroys the ecosystem).
On our last full day Dave took me horseback riding. I've been wanting to do this for a while, but renting a horse for an afternoon is time-intensive and also kind of an expensive date. But I figured riding a horse would be like riding a bike - you never forget. Even though I've forgotten how to ride a bike, I was still convinced I could ride a horse. Which I could. Unfortunately, my butt did not remember the saddle being so hard, nor did my back remember the ride being so jostling. Hmmm.
As we rode our horses up a narrow, winding, rocky mountain path, the sound of their hooves sliding on the rocks, the feeling of falling headfirst under the horse, and the sight of the very steep mountain made me fear for my life.
I had to remind myself of two things:
1. These horses had done this dozens, maybe hundreds of times, and they weren't scared.
2. It was really hot & dusty, and I was thankful that I was riding and not walking up the mountain.
Then, as we left the super expensive condos full of North Americans and Canadians, surrounded by Ice Cream shops and delis and seafood restaurants, we rode the horses through the small town of "real" PV on the mountain: chickens and puppies running through the street, tin roofs and sheets for doors and windows, children wearing only diapers waving at the horses, narrow roads with motorbikes and horses and people crowded on it. I started thinking about how our money could have been "better" spent during our week. But by the end of the tour, I had asuaged myself of guilt. We could have spread our few hundred dollars to the members of that small town, but even then, they would still be living in abject poverty. Or, we could choose to come to a tourist city and spend our money in local restaurants and local hotels and local shops on a weekend when almost no one else was doing that.
There's always more than can be done. For the earth, and the people who live on it.
The tourists were all baking in the sun and burning their feet on the sand and fighting the big waves. But the locals were all swimming in a freshwater pool under a bridge with lots of shade and calmer water. So we did, too!
A beach vacation is all about swimming on the beach, but we aren't all about the sunburn ;) so we also went to the PV botanical gardens, which employs local mexicans in preserving the environment and protecting endangered species (rather than subsistence farming, which destroys the ecosystem).
On our last full day Dave took me horseback riding. I've been wanting to do this for a while, but renting a horse for an afternoon is time-intensive and also kind of an expensive date. But I figured riding a horse would be like riding a bike - you never forget. Even though I've forgotten how to ride a bike, I was still convinced I could ride a horse. Which I could. Unfortunately, my butt did not remember the saddle being so hard, nor did my back remember the ride being so jostling. Hmmm.
As we rode our horses up a narrow, winding, rocky mountain path, the sound of their hooves sliding on the rocks, the feeling of falling headfirst under the horse, and the sight of the very steep mountain made me fear for my life.
I had to remind myself of two things:
1. These horses had done this dozens, maybe hundreds of times, and they weren't scared.
2. It was really hot & dusty, and I was thankful that I was riding and not walking up the mountain.
Then, as we left the super expensive condos full of North Americans and Canadians, surrounded by Ice Cream shops and delis and seafood restaurants, we rode the horses through the small town of "real" PV on the mountain: chickens and puppies running through the street, tin roofs and sheets for doors and windows, children wearing only diapers waving at the horses, narrow roads with motorbikes and horses and people crowded on it. I started thinking about how our money could have been "better" spent during our week. But by the end of the tour, I had asuaged myself of guilt. We could have spread our few hundred dollars to the members of that small town, but even then, they would still be living in abject poverty. Or, we could choose to come to a tourist city and spend our money in local restaurants and local hotels and local shops on a weekend when almost no one else was doing that.
There's always more than can be done. For the earth, and the people who live on it.
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