It’s hard to believe that I’ve been back in Tizimin for a month already. In many ways it feels as though I never left. It’s been good to see the people I had gotten to know before. The major difference is the weather. As I mentioned before, it’s the rainy season now, and the weather also tends to be brutally hot. In fact, it’s almost too hot to go out in the afternoon most days. Here women carry umbrellas, but as protection against the sun, not the rain, and there really aren’t many people out and about in the afternoon. Fortunately, the temperatures drop when the sun goes down, and it gets very comfortable outside. After dark is actually the better time to run errands. I have to say that I never thought I’d enjoy cold showers so much. When I arrive home drenched in sweat from wherever I’ve been, it just feels so good to stand under that cold water and let it refresh me.
Another thing I’ve noticed here is that when there’s a torrencial downpour, there is little traffic on the streets. Since many people walk or ride bikes or motorscooters, they simply find shelter and return to their activities when the rain stops. The streets here are much worse than we’re used to and have a lot of potholes, which fill with water. There’s usually a lot of dirt and mud in the streets after a rain as well. The street that the CFCA office is on is at the bottom of two hills. I used to live up the hill on one side. Now I live up the hill on the other. Unfortunately, when there is a heavy rain, that section of the street completely floods, and it’s impossible to cross. Even the cars get stuck there sometimes. About a week and a half ago there was a bad storm that no one could go out in to get to class (including me). After the storm, I left the house for the next class, but the street was completely blocked off, and even the sidewalks were covered with water. Things dry off fast here, though, so the water doesn’t lay long, and it’s gone by the next day.
Classes started on Sept. 6, and I’ve got a pretty full schedule. There are some classes in the mornings, but that’s when most of the students go to school, so most of the classes are in the afternoon from 4 to 7. I’ve got two groups each of high school and junior high students and one each of grades 2 through 6 plus a combined class of 4th and 5th graders, because there were too many enrolled for those grades to do just one class each. As we’ve reviewed the material we covered before, I’m surprised at how much they’ve remembered. Most of the elementary kids have actually forgotten very little, and they seem happy to be back.
Mexico celebrates it’s Independence Day on Sept. 16, so we had a holiday this past week. The kids were off school Wed., Thurs., and Fri., and we didn’t have classes Thurs. or Fri. The holiday starts with what’s called the Grito (the yell or shout), because that’s what they call what started the revolution. It was at 11 o’clock on Wed. night, so I didn’t go, but I’m told they ring the bells. The parade was at 8:00 on Thurs. morning. It starts early because of the heat and was over by 9:3o. There were various groups including most of the high schools, some soldiers, the Red Cross, etc., and bringing up the rear were a number of the men from the ranches on their horses.
Yesterday I ate lunch with some friends. After lunch, they went out into the backyard and picked some oranges and grapefruit. Talk about fresh. Here, however, they are bright green rather than orange and yellow. They also eat them differently from the way we do. They like to peel the oranges, cut them in half, and sprinkle them with salt or chile. One was shredding the grapefruit into a large bowl. Then she was going to add oranges and sprinkle them with lemon juice and chile. I don’t do chile, so I just ate my orange the good old American way – plain. The grapefruit here seem to be sweeter than ours and don’t need sugar. They were surprised when I told them how we usually eat them. They put salt or chile on a lot of their fruits, including pineapple.
I’ve been reading a book on Mexican history, which starts by telling about the indigenous cultures. It’s interesting to see how many of the things have carried over from those early times. For example, the book mentioned that the three food staples were corn, beans, and squash, which is still true today. The corn is usually ground into a dough and formed into tortillas. The book also mentioned that the ancient Mayans did not have utensils to eat but used three fingers of their right hand and tortillas. Even though the people today have utensils, most of the time they eat the same way. They tear off a small piece of tortilla, form it into a scoop, hold it with two fingers and use a third (usually the index finger) to help scoop the food into the tortilla, which they then eat. They even use the tortillas to eat soup, scooping up the broth with the tortilla as though it were a spoon. By the way, the corn tortillas made by hand over the open fires have a completely different and much better taste than the flour tortillas. At least that’s my humble opinion, which is also shared by many others here.
