Stunning Guanajuato

I wanted to tell you more about my trip to Leon and Guanajuato. As you can see from the photos I uploaded to Flickr,( http://www.flickr.com/photos/20264995@N07/ )
Guanajuato is a gorgeous place. It’s a cultural heritage city of Mexico and, like Queretaro, is remarkable for its Spanish colonial architecture. The basilica, theater and other buildings rival those in Europe. None of us expected the sight we encountered when we drove up to the lookout point, and were stunned by the beauty of the place.

We stayed at the Hotel de San Diego, which is in the heart of the city center and next to Jardin de la Union – a beautiful garden surrounded by outdoor restaurants and shops. Tunas, a fraternity of musicians dating back 800 years (no connection to the finned variety) roam the streets in troubadour costumes, along with the ubiquitous street vendors who urge you to buy their rugs, fabrics, handicrafts and Chiclets gum. As I was eating dinner at an outdoor restaurant I watched a rug salesman demonstrate to two prospective buyers that a rug was real wool: he burned the edge with a lighter, then blew the acrid smoke in their faces. They were convinced, but didn't buy the rug. (Maybe that's why "smellavision" never caught on in the U.S.)

The museums, gardens, churches and shops are all within walking distance of the hotel. We visited the museum and home of the Mexican artist, Diego Rivera, who was born in the late 1800s. His work is remarkable and spans a broad range of techniques, from his early works that were cartoonish, to impressionistic, realistic and surreal. The trip to Guanajuato would have been worthwhile for that visit alone.

Leon was less remarkable – more modern than Guanajuato and not what I would describe as beautiful, except for occasional churches. Leon is famous for its leather goods and exports them worldwide. We stopped at an indoor mall that sells only shoes, bags and other items at wonderful prices. I bought a leather overnight bag for a fraction of what it would cost in the U.S.

I passed my first Spanish test! Hooray!!! We have all noticed that as we learn Spanish it’s getting harder to find English words. As one woman put it, “I’m not learning Spanish, I’m losing English.” We are all changing teachers and classes on Monday to shake things up a bit.

We went to dinner at the home of the country director Friday night. They rent a beautiful house in the center of town with an interior courtyard and a killer view of the city from the rooftop terrace.

Last night I attended a fiesta at a fellow volunteer’s host family. It was her 50^th birthday and she invited all the volunteers to come and help celebrate. I learned how to make tortillas on the grill. They buy the tortilla dough at the market already prepared (arena maize, or corn flour, and water), then make a small ball the size of a golf ball, press it into a tortilla with a hand press, then grill it on a flat, ungreased griddle over the coals. They also served guacamole, grilled churizo (sp?), nopales con papas (cactus and potatoes), grilled hanger steak, and, yes, margaritas. There was also a light, rose-colored drink made from hibiscus flowers. I danced the Polka in their back yard to Mexican music and during a brief, out-of-body experience wondered, “Where the hell am I, and is it time to wake up yet?”

Off to the market now and to enjoy Sunday in the town square.

Photos

Hello everyone:
I uploaded some photos of my trip on Flickr, which is easier than adding them to this blog. You can find them at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/20264995@N07/

They include a visit to Guanajuato, brief stops in Canada and Hercules (MX), my neighborhood and downtown Queretaro.

I'll write more about my trip to Guanajuato, which is beautiful beyond words.

Donna

Great food; breathtaking sights

Hello again. There’s so much to tell you, and I’ve only been gone nine days. My Spanish is coming along, which isn’t surprising, since it’s being fed to us through a fire hose. A few of the students are feeling stressed about their language ability. I figure I knew “nada” four months ago so anything is an improvement. And to pay for this kind of instruction would cost a fortune. This is like an all-expenses-paid vacation with language classes included. I haven’t washed dishes, cooked, done laundry or cleaned since I left Wisconsin. I had my laundry washed at a neighborhood lavanderia yesterday for $3.50. I can’t think of a reason to do it myself.

My house is only eight blocks from the Peace Corps headquarters and the nearby university where we have most of our classes. I have learned to keep my eyes down when walking; the sidewalks can be treacherous, and trees seem to be overtaking my part of the city. They break up the concrete with their roots and shove the sidewalks aside, leaving only a few feet of pavement between the trees and buildings to walk on. Rather than cut down one tree, someone constructed a concrete wall with holes to accommodate the branches.

We have many meetings at the PC HQ, which looks just like any other corporate meeting room, but the neighborhood rooster and goat remind us periodically that we're not in Kansas anymore.

This is a charming city, with beautiful Spanish colonial architecture, antique carved wooden doors, opulent gilded furniture and interiors, colorful tiles and fountains. It’s very clean. And, of course, there’s evidence of terrible poverty. I saw one Indian woman wandering through the market with long hair hanging to her waist that was so matted it hung in a thick pad.

The altitude is around 6,000 feet, which doesn’t seem to bother me. There are pastel-colored houses on the hills surrounding the city (another potential picture). On many Sundays the central square is closed to vehicular traffic and vendors line the streets. There are performances on the square with a variety of music for all ages. Outdoor restaurants surround the main square. Some of my friends and I plan to meet at the square this Sunday – our only day off – to enjoy the sights and sip some vino under the shade of the enormous ficus trees that ring the square.

Today we learned about food safety from the resident doctor, who donned a chef’s hat and apron and prepared a salad to demonstrate sanitary food preparation. She washed the vegetables in Clorox soap, rinsed them with bottled water, then soaked them for 15 minutes in a chlorine/water solution before draining and rinsing again with clean water. We all ate the salad afterward -- probably the cleanest salad I’ve ever eaten. It seemed a shame to get it dirty by eating it.

I have yet to meet a food I don’t like, although anything with chilies seems to make me cough. One day for lunch we were served some long, green rectangular things that looked like fat fetuccini. I thought it might be really big green beans, but it was cactus, or nopales – very good and similar to green beans but slightly tart. Today’s agua fresca was made with strawberries. And for you coffee lovers, there’s café de olla, or coffee in a pot. It’s coffee with cinnamon and molasses, which complements the coffee flavor in a surprisingly wonderful way. To make it you boil the water with the cinnamon and molasses, then add the coffee and turn off the pot. Delicioso!

Maru showed me the aqueduct today. I can’t wait to go back with a camera, and to paint a picture of it. The aqueduct was built several hundred years ago to bring water to the city but is no longer used. It’s a breathtaking sight – about .8 mile long and 75 feet high, and illuminated at night. There are purple flowering trees under many of the arches, which I want to capture by camera before the blossoms fade. It’s flanked on both sides with restaurants, shops, busy streets and, of course, there’s a Starbucks with an outdoor patio to enjoy the spectacular view.

I wish you could all be here to enjoy this amazing weather. It hasn’t rained for months, so very few insects, but the rainy season starts in May. I might change my tune when I have to walk to and from school in the rain.

I’ll write again soon. I should have a phone soon, and I have daily access to the internet. You can reach me at dseigen@yahoo.com.

Embarking on the journey

I’m writing this blog entry from my room in my host family’s home. They don’t have internet access, but there are many internet cafes in the area, including a small park about three blocks away with free wi-fi where I can upload my writing.

My adventure began in Washington, D.C. on Monday, March 14^th, where I met my fellow volunteers, had my visa photo taken, learned about travel logistics to Mexico, and did some team-building exercises. The next day a group of us went to a sushi restaurant for lunch. There was a fortune for each person and one for the group, which read: “If a true sense of value will be yours it will come through service.” Mine read: “Your dearest wish will come true.” We all said, “Woah!”

We departed from the hotel on Wednesday at 3:30 a.m. It was a long day; we went by bus to the airport, flew to Dallas, then to Mexico City, followed by a three-hour bus ride to a retreat called a “Christian Kibbutz” outside of Queretaro. We stayed three days, giving us all much-needed time to decompress from our past lives and get ready to move on to the next chapter. The food was wonderful: jicama and oranges with chili salt, guava pudding (wonderful flavor but with impossible little seeds like stone chips), chiliquites for breakfast, agua fresca with cucumber or citrus, and pan leche or “conches,” sweet bread with frosting shaped like bivalves (i.e.: conches) at every breakfast, and tres leches cake.

Every moment at the Kibbutz was filled with preparatory studies, from language and culture to safety, health, policies, money, etc. We’ll get more of the same over the next 2-1/2 months at PC HQ. The language instruction is provided by a Spanish language school called Ole. There is one teacher for every 3 to 5 students, who are matched by language ability. My studying paid off and I’m not at the bottom, but that would have been OK, too: nowhere to go but up.

This volunteer group ranges in age from 21 to 68: Three are in their 20s, more than half are over 50, and six of us are over 60. There are four PhDs (give or take), three attorneys, five or six MAs and the rest BAs; many have double majors. Everyone is intent on doing a good job and sharing their skills and knowledge.

We left the Kibbutz Saturday afternoon and drove to the Peace Corps Headquarters in Queretaro. After a brief orientation about living with our host families we were reunited with our checked luggage and met our hosts. My “mother” and her son called for me wearing the name badge “Eigen.” Later they asked if my name was Donna or Eigen (apparently Donna is an uncommon name in Mexico). I asked them to call me Donna.

Ole contracts with the host families to provide housing for language students who come from all over the world to learn Spanish and live in Mexico. Maru, my host, told me she once had a Chinese student who spoke no English or Spanish, and most of the communication was through pointing and gestures, but after a few months they were able to communicate better. Maru is my age and we made an instant connection in spite of the language barrier. She says we are “simpatico.” She has three grown children, including Javiar, who lives with her and is Jonas’s age. He speaks some English, which is a relief, although they’re supposed to speak to me only in Spanish. She also has several grandchildren, including six-year-old twins. I explained there are two sets of twins in my family – not an easy task with limited Spanish, but they understood when I drew a family tree, connected twins with circles and added birthdates.

I’m staying in a lovely house with 3 bedrooms, 2-1/2 baths, a dining room and an upstairs deck. I have my own bathroom and bedroom with twin beds. It’s very nice and clean, and the people are lovely. I’m doing OK with the language, thanks to some cheat sheets and a translator application on my iPod. And the crash course at the Kibbutz really helped.

Sunday morning I waited for Maru to turn on the hot water at 8 a.m., as instructed the night before, then took a shower. I’ve already been reminded of the many things we take for granted. Electricity is very expensive, and water is scarce. It took me a while to understand Maru’s explanation to put a bucket under the shower to catch the cold water while it warmed up so it could be recycled for cleaning, watering plants, etc. No one drinks from the faucet, not even the locals. Instead, they purchase bottled water with government subsidies.

Although the host families get paid by the U.S. Government to house us for three months, nothing requires them to be warm and gracious. I’ve been lucky on all counts. It’s a great beginning.

Ten days to liftoff

Hello again. It’s been a wonderful four months since my last posting. I have had plenty of time to experience retirement while preparing for my trip. Even the blizzards have been fun to watch, knowing I will not see another one for a while.

I leave in 10 days for Washington D.C. to join about 20 other Peace Corps volunteers (PCVs) headed for Mexico. We will fly to Mexico City on March 16, then drive to the PC headquarters in Queretaro for orientation and language placement tests. Our host families will call for us on Saturday and take us to our respective homes, then bring us back Monday for our first day of school and to show us the route we’ll take for the next three months. I’ll try not to cry when my host mommy leaves.

Our host families have been asked to speak to us only in Spanish, although they can speak English if need be. I have been practicing some useful phrases: “Lo siento, no entiendo” (Sorry, I don’t understand) and “Vino blanco, por favor.” Kidding aside, I have been studying Spanish since November and have learned enough to not be too embarrassed when I show up for training. I’m definitely a beginner, but won’t be starting from rock bottom.

Training will include four hours of Spanish a day, plus classes on safety, health, Mexican history and culture, PC protocol, etc. We will also meet current Mexico PCVs and representatives from our sponsoring agencies and visit our permanent posts. The swearing-in ceremony is on June 1, after which we’ll move to our new posts. I will stay with another host family for about a month until I find my own housing, with their help and that of current PCVs and PC staff.

I have been communicating with several current Mexico PCVs, who answered my many questions and offered valuable advice, including some for family and friends interested in visiting. Brian Johnson, who is currently stationed with his wife in Queretaro, had this to say (reprinted with his permission):

"There is direct service to Queretaro [Note: The ideal arrival city may be different, depending on my assignment] on United/Continental from Houston and I believe American will start flying direct from Dallas this year. Many airlines fly direct into Mexico City (a 3+ hour bus ride from Queretaro) and Guadalajara. Of course all the beach destinations are well served and relatively cheap to fly to from the U.S. I have also heard about a Mexican airline Volaris that is very cheap and flies to a few locations in the U.S. (Chicago is one I think).

"The primary mode of travel within Mexico is by bus. The Mexican government has invested billions in highways and toll roads. There are many luxury bus lines that will get you anywhere you want to go. Some of the lines in the Central region include Primera Plus, ETN, Omnibus, and others. Travel by bus is safe and typically cheaper, faster, and more pleasant than air travel in many cases. There are states that are off-limits without special permission mostly along the northern and southern border due to security concerns.

“If your friends and family want to see a beautiful part of central Mexico within 2-3 hours of Queretaro the central towns of Guanajuato, Bernal, San Miguel de Allende, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, and others are wonderful old colonial towns with a lot to do and see. We are also very close to the Sierra Gorda mountains with many eco-tourism possibilities. If they want more of a beach vacation you can always meet them in Puerta Vallarta or Ixtapa. Both are beautiful.”

I can travel and have visitors after I settle into my new assignment, beginning in September 2011 and for the next 18 months, until around April 2013, when I will be wrapping up my work. There are many beautiful, safe parts of the country to see and explore. Do not let reports about crime in Mexico keep you from visiting – the distance from the PC posts to the high-crime areas is equivalent to the Midwest and LA or New York.

I have been told to expect regular, reliable internet and phone access. You can contact me through my regular yahoo address (dseigen@yahoo.com) after the first week or so. I’ll post my phone number and keep you updated here. My next posting will be from sunny Mexico, somewhere in the beautiful city of Queretaro.

Details

The invitation packet arrived with a bit more information:

I depart March 14th for Mexico and will spend the first three months in training in Queretaro (124 miles NW of Mexico City), where I'll live with a host family. My title will be "business consulting, technology transfer and organizational strengthening specialist."

I'll find out then where I'll be stationed for the next two years. I might remain in Queretaro or go to another state where it is safe, which includes many parts of Mexico. Volunteers in the Technology Transfer program live and work in larger cities.

I'm making some progress with Spanish classes and enjoying my free time, especially now that the waiting and wondering are over.

Here's to a wonderful holiday season and an exciting new year! I'll write more when my new adventure begins.

Adios

It's official -- I'm in the Peace Corps!

I just received an e-mail from the Peace Corps saying a letter of invitation is in the mail with details about my assignment and I will have 10 days to accept. This is for the Technology Transfer Program in Mexico I described earlier, which departs in mid-March.

Finally! It's so nice to have something concrete to go on. I'll add details as soon as I know more.

Yo estoy feliz (I am happy!)

Donna