Saturday, September 30, 2006
September 28.
I have been in Queretaro a month, a week, and a day. I feel somewhat frustrated, tied to the center of the city because I teach weekday mornings from 7 to 9am, take a course for teacher certification weekday evenings from 7 to 9pm, and teach a second course on Saturday mornings. So I haven`t been a tourist and don´t know the other cities and regions of Mexico. Pity. My Mexico is beautiful, clean, historic, safe, tourist. I do not know Mexico’s poor areas, native areas, either coast, or even its capital. I am living comfortably with Gemma and her family where I receive bed and board, then spend most of the time walking around the Historic District. I would be welcome to spend time there in their home, I think, but I am reluctant to do so. Perhaps from my exaggerated US respect for personal privacy.
And I am alone. The couples Myrna and I met in our last trip here are good friends, but I feel a bit estranged as a single with these couples. I haven´t really formed friendships with the other teachers here at Kennedy, and my Spanish is still too poor to expect close native friendships. During the day I play chess occasionally in a little shop, read Spanish in a park, occasionally try to engage someone in a conversation in Spanish. That ususally ends fairly quickly, unfortunately.
Myrna is still in Guatemala. That is an issue for both of us. She called me again just last night, and complained that I haven´t brought her to Queretaro for even a visit, and questioning whether I have at least done the necessary paperwork for her to obtain a visa to come here. I haven´t. She is still working hard to sell the house, pack up her things, handle the paperwork on the damned truck. There is an issue of money, of course - it is beyond understanding why it should cost so much money to fly the rather short distance from Guatemala City to Mexico City. But also, I just haven´t wanted to get involved in the visa paperwork until it was clear that we could be together for more than a visit – Mexico will want certified proof of marriage, proof of financial resources, a dated return ticket. But it has been a long time apart, and that is not good.
And there is a new issue and opportunity that has just come up. The Crisis Corps is a unit of the Peace Corps in which returned PC volunteers can serve in short term, specifically defined projects. I responded to an opportunity to work in El Salvador for 3 - 6 months, to assist a community that was devastaed by Hurricane Stan and a nearly simultaneous volcanic eruption move to a safer site. It involves planning, coordination and funding, and could lead to additional non-Peace Corps opportunities. This certainly sounds more challenging and interesting to me than teaching English, and is right in line with what I´d hoped to do when I first left the Peace Corps last November. Moreover, Myrna and I could re-unite in El Salvador easily, as there are very few border restrictions on traveling between Guatemala and El S.
So now I am in the waiting game. The recruiter in Washington is telling me that I am ideal for the position, but he is waiting to hear about the details I requested before he makes an official offer to me. I wanted more information on things like what would my SPECIFIC project objectives would be, and who would I be interacting with on a daily basis. He had expected to have the answers for me yesterday, but I am still waiting.
I have been in Queretaro a month, a week, and a day. I feel somewhat frustrated, tied to the center of the city because I teach weekday mornings from 7 to 9am, take a course for teacher certification weekday evenings from 7 to 9pm, and teach a second course on Saturday mornings. So I haven`t been a tourist and don´t know the other cities and regions of Mexico. Pity. My Mexico is beautiful, clean, historic, safe, tourist. I do not know Mexico’s poor areas, native areas, either coast, or even its capital. I am living comfortably with Gemma and her family where I receive bed and board, then spend most of the time walking around the Historic District. I would be welcome to spend time there in their home, I think, but I am reluctant to do so. Perhaps from my exaggerated US respect for personal privacy.
And I am alone. The couples Myrna and I met in our last trip here are good friends, but I feel a bit estranged as a single with these couples. I haven´t really formed friendships with the other teachers here at Kennedy, and my Spanish is still too poor to expect close native friendships. During the day I play chess occasionally in a little shop, read Spanish in a park, occasionally try to engage someone in a conversation in Spanish. That ususally ends fairly quickly, unfortunately.
Myrna is still in Guatemala. That is an issue for both of us. She called me again just last night, and complained that I haven´t brought her to Queretaro for even a visit, and questioning whether I have at least done the necessary paperwork for her to obtain a visa to come here. I haven´t. She is still working hard to sell the house, pack up her things, handle the paperwork on the damned truck. There is an issue of money, of course - it is beyond understanding why it should cost so much money to fly the rather short distance from Guatemala City to Mexico City. But also, I just haven´t wanted to get involved in the visa paperwork until it was clear that we could be together for more than a visit – Mexico will want certified proof of marriage, proof of financial resources, a dated return ticket. But it has been a long time apart, and that is not good.
And there is a new issue and opportunity that has just come up. The Crisis Corps is a unit of the Peace Corps in which returned PC volunteers can serve in short term, specifically defined projects. I responded to an opportunity to work in El Salvador for 3 - 6 months, to assist a community that was devastaed by Hurricane Stan and a nearly simultaneous volcanic eruption move to a safer site. It involves planning, coordination and funding, and could lead to additional non-Peace Corps opportunities. This certainly sounds more challenging and interesting to me than teaching English, and is right in line with what I´d hoped to do when I first left the Peace Corps last November. Moreover, Myrna and I could re-unite in El Salvador easily, as there are very few border restrictions on traveling between Guatemala and El S.
So now I am in the waiting game. The recruiter in Washington is telling me that I am ideal for the position, but he is waiting to hear about the details I requested before he makes an official offer to me. I wanted more information on things like what would my SPECIFIC project objectives would be, and who would I be interacting with on a daily basis. He had expected to have the answers for me yesterday, but I am still waiting.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
In Mexico, Querétaro has Independence Day on its mind. The Revolution started here, and it is celebrated every September 15. So every day now there are more lights and decorations on buildings, lampposts, and hung over the streets. Last night workers were trimming all the trees in Plaza Independencia and Plaza de las Armas. The sidewalk vendors are selling Mexican flags (red, white and green) in all sizes, along with lots and lots of VIVA MEXICO buttons and trinkets. A grand celebration with lots of fireworks has been promised.
Meanwhile the political situation here is in near-crisis, fascinating to follow although it is tough to sort through with my still-limited Spanish. Basically, the unexciting center-conservative (Calderon) won by an incredibly close margin that has just now been certified by the courts after much study and a limited recount of contested election sites. Think about the US experience in 2000, although here there were international observers to say that the election was indeed fair, and from what I can tell the courts have bent over backwards to examine and resolve the claims of fraud and ballot stuffing. No talk about hanging chads.
But, unlike the USA in 2000, there is a sore loser (Oberon, a charismatic leftist bordering on radical) who has refused to acknowledge the results and claims to be the winner. His obstinate rantings have lost him much of his support, but he still has a very dedicated and vocal 10% of the population behind him. In a show of power, his supporters even prevented the President from delivering his annual State of the Union address to the legislature last week. Oberon says on Independence Day he will announce an alternate government of Mexico.
So, is this a revolution or a farce? Will the non-alternative government feel compelled to use force to break up its opposition, risking creating martyrs? The President-Elect is not inaugurated until December, so there is still lots more time for hanky-panky. Stay tuned.
I arrived here in Querétaro a couple of weeks ago, after living uncomfortably with Myrna and her family in Guatemala and teaching English at a private school there, for five months. There were just too many pressures in living there – it confirmed the feeling that Myrna and I had even before, that we would be best off starting our life together at some neutral place, other than my Philadelphia or her Guatemala. So here I am, in the Mexican city that Myrna and I had checked out, hoping that it doesn’t take too long for Myrna to finish all the stuff she still needs to do in Guatemala before she joins me here.
I’m staying with a very nice and friendly family here, in a B&B format. They have been great, but I have to admit that the first week was really pretty tough, as in “Why am I here, alone, and what do I do now? But Myrna and I had made friends in our earlier trip, and they have been very helpful. And now I am teaching English about 25 hours a week at Ingles Kennedy, and it feels good to have this degree of routine and purpose in my life. Not to mention that it pays money too, and that helps.
Things have settled down enough, so that now I am feeling a strong need to find an apartment suitable for me and for Myrna too when she arrives. I´ve seen a bunch of things, almost committed to one but backed out at the last minute because it was farther than I´d like from my school, and a bit expensive. There is another option for a very large apartment at a very desireable price, and it is even at a good location. But it is so big I´m afraid I would roll around in it like a pea in a boxcar without Myrna. Besides, it is unfurnished and I would have to buy a lot of stuff to make it feel liveable.
So for now, my days are pretty much teaching or preparing to teach, apartment hunting, and learning Spanish. Along with enjoying the weather, food, street life, and talking/being with friends here in Queretaro.
Unfortunately, most of our things – like clothes, towels, photos, plates and silverware, books – are in Guatemala and can´t be sent here while I am on a tourist visa without incurring enormous customs charges. And my visa status isn´t likely to change until early 2007. So it looks like several months of scrounge time, using plasticware and making-do with minimum supplies.
And so this is what is going on in my life right now, in a nutshell.
Meanwhile the political situation here is in near-crisis, fascinating to follow although it is tough to sort through with my still-limited Spanish. Basically, the unexciting center-conservative (Calderon) won by an incredibly close margin that has just now been certified by the courts after much study and a limited recount of contested election sites. Think about the US experience in 2000, although here there were international observers to say that the election was indeed fair, and from what I can tell the courts have bent over backwards to examine and resolve the claims of fraud and ballot stuffing. No talk about hanging chads.
But, unlike the USA in 2000, there is a sore loser (Oberon, a charismatic leftist bordering on radical) who has refused to acknowledge the results and claims to be the winner. His obstinate rantings have lost him much of his support, but he still has a very dedicated and vocal 10% of the population behind him. In a show of power, his supporters even prevented the President from delivering his annual State of the Union address to the legislature last week. Oberon says on Independence Day he will announce an alternate government of Mexico.
So, is this a revolution or a farce? Will the non-alternative government feel compelled to use force to break up its opposition, risking creating martyrs? The President-Elect is not inaugurated until December, so there is still lots more time for hanky-panky. Stay tuned.
I arrived here in Querétaro a couple of weeks ago, after living uncomfortably with Myrna and her family in Guatemala and teaching English at a private school there, for five months. There were just too many pressures in living there – it confirmed the feeling that Myrna and I had even before, that we would be best off starting our life together at some neutral place, other than my Philadelphia or her Guatemala. So here I am, in the Mexican city that Myrna and I had checked out, hoping that it doesn’t take too long for Myrna to finish all the stuff she still needs to do in Guatemala before she joins me here.
I’m staying with a very nice and friendly family here, in a B&B format. They have been great, but I have to admit that the first week was really pretty tough, as in “Why am I here, alone, and what do I do now? But Myrna and I had made friends in our earlier trip, and they have been very helpful. And now I am teaching English about 25 hours a week at Ingles Kennedy, and it feels good to have this degree of routine and purpose in my life. Not to mention that it pays money too, and that helps.
Things have settled down enough, so that now I am feeling a strong need to find an apartment suitable for me and for Myrna too when she arrives. I´ve seen a bunch of things, almost committed to one but backed out at the last minute because it was farther than I´d like from my school, and a bit expensive. There is another option for a very large apartment at a very desireable price, and it is even at a good location. But it is so big I´m afraid I would roll around in it like a pea in a boxcar without Myrna. Besides, it is unfurnished and I would have to buy a lot of stuff to make it feel liveable.
So for now, my days are pretty much teaching or preparing to teach, apartment hunting, and learning Spanish. Along with enjoying the weather, food, street life, and talking/being with friends here in Queretaro.
Unfortunately, most of our things – like clothes, towels, photos, plates and silverware, books – are in Guatemala and can´t be sent here while I am on a tourist visa without incurring enormous customs charges. And my visa status isn´t likely to change until early 2007. So it looks like several months of scrounge time, using plasticware and making-do with minimum supplies.
And so this is what is going on in my life right now, in a nutshell.
