Last group of pictures from the summer

These were on my camera and I have only just now downloaded them.  Some great shots in here of the city and our neighborhood.  Enjoy!

Last shots

The farewell shots of the kids with new friends.

We’re home!

Our plane arrived this morning at 1:00am without any glitches.  Mom and Dad had left the minivan parked at the terminal just a few hours before, and after loading up all our gear, we were on the road.  First impressions: hot and muggy – even at 1:00 in the morning!  By the time we got everyone in bed it was probably 3:00 or so.  Waking up this morning was delicious, if strange: the feel of the old bed, the sound of breezes blowing through the open windows, the quality of light.  As I speak, Maggie and Rinny are excitedly going through all their toys, both in dress-up dresses, while Susi and the boys sleep (it’s almost 10:00).  

Being home comes with a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment for me.  I remember back in April of last year, when I first met my program’s director, John Sullivan, at a workshop in Albany, thinking how cool it would be to attend his program and spend the summer in Zacatecas with the whole family, and now we’re home again after doing just that.  It went by in a flash (in retrospect; there were times when it wasn’t going so quickly when we were there!) and now it’s a part of our family history.  Time will tell it’s fruit, but I have a hunch that this will end up being a milestone in each of our own personal stories.  

Currently I am working on a slide/video show to share with all our friends and family.  Hopefully, if you’re reading this, you live close enough that you’ll be able to see it.  If not, let me know and I will send you a copy.  Thanks to all for being a part of our Summer in Zacatecas!

Final Blog Post from Mexico

Well, folks, this is it.  The last blog post from Mexico.  For all those who have followed us via the blog this summer – thanks for reading and posting your comments.  We have really loved hearing from you.  We can’t wait to see you and talk with you in person!

My last day of classes was Friday and since then we have been relaxing, resting, and trying to enjoy our final days in Zacatecas.  Currently everyone is healthy – thank God! – although Saturday I thought I was coming down with the flu.  I think my body was just crashing after a very intense six weeks: 210 hours of class, 38 hours of walking to and from class, and a year’s worth of language instruction!  (Not that anyone’s keeping score, but it’s only fair to mention Susi’s tally: 300 hours of being a single parent with four kids couped up in one house.  Dang.  Payback’s gonna be a ___.)

Last night Susi hosted a farewell dessert for the neighbors.  She worked all day Saturday baking batches of chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and peanutbutter cookies, one apple pie, and a carrot cake!  She had written invitations and delivered them around the neighborhood, but we weren’t sure who would show.  When 7:00 rolled around, a stream of kids rolled in, all eager for the desserts.  We figured the adults were too shy to come, but by 8:00 there was a whole crowd of ladies (no men).  They stayed till about 8:45 or 9:00 and had a wonderful time.  It was really great.  Susi is amazing.  How she pulls these events off…and enjoys them, too!  But you already knew that.

The kids are doing great.  Definitely looking forward to coming home, sleeping in their own beds, seeing their friends, going to Rivers camp next week, but they are also really going to miss Mexico.  Asher has already said he wants to come back to visit his friends Diego, Manuel, and Carlitos.  Maggie and Caleb have also expressed  that they will miss Mexico.  We’ve had our round of “what will you miss most?” at the dinner table, as well as “what are you looking forward to most” about coming home.   

We arrive home early Wednesday morning (something like 2:00 am).  Pray for our safe travel.  Love you all!

Last day of classes

Yesterday evening I was able to catch about 20 minutes of this performance by the dance group from the state of Puebla.  It was like going to the circus, as you can see from these amazing costumes.  The dancers were decked out with sequined and tassled capes of brilliant colors, each one depicting an Aztec deity or some pre-Columbian imagery.  They all wore masks and plumed hats, which added to the aura of mystery and magic.  As you will see from some of these pictures, another ever-present feature were three or four costumed devils who danced always around the periphery of the dancers, sometimes taunting them, sometimes being chased off by the dancers.  In one dance, the devils were joined by witches carrying plastic baby dolls, which they held aloft and gestured at with knives.  I feel like I need an anthropologist to explain these dances which are a pastiche of pre-Hispanic, early colonial and European influences.  

I don’t know the significance of these incredible costumes, but the way the dancers twirled and spun was mesmerizing.  

The music was very different from the mariachi style favored by the dance groups from further north in Mexico.  It was very loud and brassy with a deafening percussion section.  The musicians had the most fantastic costumes covered with thousands of sequins, beads, and baubles.  

Today is my last day of classes.  Hard to believe it’s here so fast.

Zacatecas Dance Festival Video

See highlights of the street parade Sunday evening which opened the annual folk dance festival here in Zacatecas.  Click here. 

Yesterday afternoon we had an incredible rain storm that culminated in hail so heavy and thick that it looked like a winter white-out back home.  The hail was the size of marbles and collected in “drifts” along the side of the road and in corners.  I was in class at the time and everything came to a halt as we all raced to the windows to watch.  I actually went outside (for a brief second) to see what it felt like, and yeah, it hurt!  The indigenous instructors I don’t think had ever seen such a thing (being from the tropical coastal region) and were like kids with the first snow of winter (or first snow ever?)  I reached out the window and scooped up a handful of hail pellets – sizes which ranged from pea-size to marble-size – glassy and clear like crystal.  So cool.  

The dance festival looked like it was going to be rained out, but the sun eventually returned and the shows went on.  I left my evening class early to join Susi and the kids to see a local music and dance group from Zacatecas perform.  They were all teenagers.  The music was so fantastic and the dancing wonderful.  Earlier that day I made an audio recording of the rehearsal for this performance which you can listen to here.  

This is a picture of the teenage dance group rehearsing for Tuesday night’s performance.  The band was also made up of kids.  They were amazing.

Maggie and Rinny took to the dancefloor, unable to resist the mariachi music.  Leave it to the Leeming kids…always stealing the show.

I hope to have an interview with Asher, Caleb, Maggie, and Rinny posted in the next day or two.  Stay tuned.

Winding down

 

It’s hard to believe we will be leaving in a week!  Walking to school this morning though the quiet streets and the old waking market, the air cool, made me realize how special this time has been for us and that we will certain miss Zacatecas when we return.  I happened to take a peek at the weather report for Massachusetts and had another realization: I’m really going to miss the weather here!  Currently it’s 56 degrees and slightly cloudy (a rarity); at home it looks like it’s already 76 degrees on its way to 90!  Yikes.  

Here are some updates & pictures:

Saturday:  We had a pretty lazy day Saturday.  As per custom the kids had a “jammie morning” (which means staying in PJs as long as possible) and didn’t venture out of the house until after lunch.  Susi was working industriously on the computer hammering out details of her business plan, I was reading on the roof in the beautiful morning sun (and getting burned, as it so happens…) and the kids were their usual creative selves; making forts on their beds, playing games, etc.  In the afternoon we jumped in a taxi and set out to view some of the reputedly nicer neighborhoods in the city, with an eye to see if we could imagine coming back to Zacatecas for a longer stay.  (If we DO live abroad for my 2010-2011 sabbatical from Rivers, we definitely would need some more green space, a quieter neighborhood, and proximity to a good school – all of which we saw in Guanajuato but not here in Zac.)  First we toured the very exclusive “Club de Golf” neighborhood of Bernardez (apparently the location of a couple of drug-lord safe houses, according to the director of my program!)  It was exactly what you’d expect of an exclusive gated community: gorgeous big houses, manicured lawns, nice cars, pretty people…basically NOT for us.  Then we drove to another neighborhood called Agronómica, which lies on the shoulder of La Bufa and has beautiful views of the city, nice breezes, and very quiet streets.  It wasn’t as DELUX, but I liked it a lot more.  Who knows.  We’re leaning toward Guanajuato.

 

Sunday saw the kick-off of perhaps the biggest annual cultural event in Zacatecas (next to the Feria, of course): the International Folk Dance Festival, in it’s 16th year (?), and a source of huge pride for Zacatecanos.  Dance groups from literally all over the world and tourists from all over the world descend on the city for a couple of weeks of dance.  The entire city has been transformed: every plaza has stages and bleachers set up in them, and there is dance and music coming from every corner of the city.  It’s wonderful!  Sunday afternoon we watched the opening parade down in the center.

 

From our vantage point we watched probably thirty dance groups from places as far-flung as Russia, Slovakia, and France parade by.  Each group had its own band or musical group, and they stopped right in front of us to perform for the viewing stand of dignitaries.  What a show!

At first on Rinny could see (she was on my shoulders for two hours!)  The other kids were mad and made all kinds of noise until finally they shoved their way through the crowd and sat down right in the street, front and center, and had an ABSOLUTE blast!  It seemed like in every other group there was some performer who stopped to shake the hand or tossle the hair of the white kids.  Many of the Mexican groups (which were BY FAR the best of the show!) had people dressed in fantastic costumes – devils, witches, saints, skeletons, etc. – and many of them took an interest in the three big kids.  I got a lot of it on video and will post it as soon as I edit it down.  It was such a fantastic experience for the kids.  I can’t begin to describe the colors, the swirling dancers, the costumes and masks and music.  

The different groups will be performing every day all over the city and even the state.  They perform in pairs: one group from Mexico with one group from abroad.  (Again, in my opinion, the Mexican groups are by far the best!  Such amazing colors and vivid mix of Indian and Mexican and European.)  Yesterday evening Susi took the kids to one of the performances and stayed a full 2 hours.  I will try to get her to interview the kids so you can hear their reactions.  They were really excited about what they saw.

Yesterday (Monday) my classmates and I worked with our native-speaking teachers to prepare a meal typical of the Huasteca region where they come from.  Unfortunately, my stomach has not been liking Mexican food, so I really didn’t eat anything, but it was fun to watch!  

Sabina, Ofelia y Eduardo (some of our instructors from the Huasteca).

 

Chowing down on mole chicken, Mexican rice, and tortillas.  The drink was atole (a corn-gruel that is central to Mexicans’ diet…)

Sabina (my tutor) standing in front of the mole chicken.

Our long weekend with Mom & Dad

(I have just enough time to post pictures right now.  In the next couple of days I will come back and add more stories.  Stay tuned!)

Asher hamming it up as…Pancho Villa?

Mom and Dad et al up on La Bufa.  Beautiful day with spectacular views of Zacatecas.

Dad and Mom with me at the Quinta Real – a luxury hotel created out of the former bull ring in Zacatecas.  Dad and I were trying two different kinds of tequila.  Very nice!

Family style dinner: pozole.  Delicious (and for some reason bad for Ben and Mom’s tummies

Asleep on the way back from Jerez.

Listening to the Mexican conjuntos battling it out along the plaza in Jerez Sunday afternoon.

Posing for a pic in Jerez.  (Rinny was just about to unleash holy terror on the city after waking up from a nap in the car…Here come the Americans!)

More good food!

Lunch at the top of the Bufa.  

Rinny and Grammy riding the double-decker tour bus seeing the city on Day 1.

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Hablando Español huan niquitica ica Nahuatl (and speaking English, too!)

One of the challenges of this summer has been navigating three languages, typically at the same time. Here’s an example. In my afternoon classes I am studying the form of Nahuatl that was spoken and written during the 16th through the 18th centuries in Mexico, usually referred to as classical Nahuatl. In the class as students are not only Mexicans and estadounidenses (United-Statesians), but a number of the native-speaking instructors who teach the modern form of the language in the morning classes. Our teacher is the director of the program, John Sullivan, who is an Irish-Catholic native of Lowell, MA who has lived in Zacatecas for 30 years and is also fluent in Nahuatl. The result ends up looking like this: the majority of the class is taught in Spanish, however, some students ask questions in English, which in turn John answers in Spanish or Nahuatl. The native speakers ask questions to John in Nahuatl, which very few of us can understand well enough to follow, and John then answers in Nahuatl and then Spanish. The homework assignments and tests all have directions written in Nahuatl, but our answers may be written in Spanish or English depending on our preference. Whew! Outside of class, the situation is similar. A typical interaction might sound something like this:

“Piyali.” (Hello.)

“Queniuhqui tiitztoc?” (How are you?)

“Bien” (Fine.)  ”How was your weekend?”

“Good. We went to see La Quemada (an archaeological site nearby). ¿Y tú? (And you?)

“Nada mucho. Me descansé y estudié para el exámen hoy.” (Not much. I rested and studied for the test today.”

“Timoittazceyoc.” (See you later.)

“Piyali.” (Adiós.)

Sometimes my tongue gets completely tied in knots. Often I feel like I am speaking all three languages poorly and walk away from an interchange like the one above shaking my head and thinking, “What an idiot I must be!” Still, it’s invigorating and challenging…which is invigorating and challenging. Time is flying by with just two weeks left in Mexico!