Wings~5th grade's Dance from Spring Festival

Mexico is the land of festivals!  In the USA, I don't remember doing this very often.  I remember a Christmas/Winter program sometimes... but that's it.  Here in Mexico we look for and create reasons to celebrate!  And why not?

My 5th graders make my life easy....  I work with them to do things that we all like, but they are kind, smart, and motivated kids.  The atmosphere in the classroom makes it easy and fun to do my job!

I really like this dance because so many of the kids got to have a ****starring**** role!

Police Please.

Well, I've had two very recent run ins with the police here in Mexico.  Let me say it has been an extremely confusing ordeal.  If you have ever been here in Mexico you may be surprised that there is any police action at all, but I'm getting ahead of myself.... one step at a time....

.... the beginning....  about 5 years ago I came back to Mexico...  to live.... again.  At Christmastime I convinced my mom, dad, and brother to come for a visit.  To make a loooooooooooooong story short, we got pulled over on a trumped up charge... I couldn't find my FM3 resident permission as I was freaking out... driving my non-Spanish speaking family from Cuernavaca to Puerto Escondido...  passing through Acapulco on the way.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that I was driving my mommy van with plates from the good óle USA! So the officer wanted money...  I didn't know how much to give him to "make my problem go away" but I figured about half of a ticket should be good.  In the end the Mexican consensus is that I gave him WAY TO MUCH.  However, it was an experience none of us will ever forget so maybe it was worth the $.  Anyways, an experience none of the Americans will forget... I'm sure the poli (rhymes with rolly, slang for officer of the law) has no recollection of me, my family, nor my mommy van...  Anyways, it was about a week later driving around the city of Oaxaca that my brother said...  "geez, now I know why we have so many rules at home".  Basically driving around the market in that city is just one huge game of chicken.  But we can talk about that in more detail later...

So, about a month ago I was driving home after school with my oldest when this "city bus" swiped off my driver's side mirror.  It would appear that the first part of the process is the same everywhere.... make sure the jerk that hit you stops.  Then the crazy Mexican way takes over.  Immediately call the police and your insurance.  If you move the car, you can no longer make a claim...  I did pull over, but most people don't.  Ignore all honking.  Then, you must make sure that you don't leave the other driver alone with the police officer for even a minute, because if you do, a very quick quiet arrangement can be made to make everything suddenly, YOUR fault.  So you stand right next to both of them forever as you wait for the insurance guy to show up. At this point, even if the police officer says it is your fault, the insurance guy will fight for you... ALOT if you have liability. If you don't, I'm not sure that they will care very much.  Anyways, everyone agreed that the bus driver was at fault and they made him pay the cost of having it (the mirror) replaced before the police left.  

What a headache.  Here they are in this picture...  the owner of the bus, because city buses are not owned by the city... but rather independently owned and operated.  Think taxis...  the bus driver, and the police officer whom I imagine is not giving them a fine, but instead accepting a "bite" (mordida) for the infraction the bus driver made.  The motorcycle belongs to the policeman.  The purple car belongs to the insurance guy.  The guy in the light blue shirt is the bus owner.  The picture is horrible because I did not want them to know that I was taking the picture.  By the way, this took about 2.5 hours on my birthday.  

The other truly remarkable thing about the Mexican police is that each police officer is assigned to do a specific job.  I imagine that this is much like the American system, but the strange part is, that if an officer that is in charge of investigations sees you do something wrong when you are driving, THEY CAN'T SAY OR DO ANYTHING.  Isn't that nuts?  

Anyways, part 2 will have to come later because I got some garbage to pick up....  girls... get ready!

Mini Monkeys, Mr. Monkey and Mrs. Mommy Monkey....

There is so much to say about Mexico I don't know that I will ever do it justice.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I will  "si" if I can't get a 100,000 or so covered in this blog! 

This is Mexico *the view from my house!!!!  

I took the picture about an hour ago!

and this is Mexico


Click here to go to a youtube video I made a bunch of years ago.....

and this is Mexico... 

and this is Mexico....

and this is Mexico

and this too...

THE BEFORE

There is so much trash along the roads.  Almost all of the roads.  In the school where I teach, many of the kids (and their parents just throw their trash on the ground.)  Now before you think I'm up on my "high horse," I will let you know that I am from up along Lake Erie...  a small town you may have heard of that is right outside of dreary Erie, the mistake by the lake.  We got that horrible reputation because of all of the pollution that hospitals and EVERYBODY else threw into the lake.  One of the rivers that empties into the lake actually caught on fire in the '70's sooooooo.....  

BUT.... then the litterbug campaign got started, and I didn't care.  I threw trash out of my friends' car windows because I guess I thought it was funny...  or cool... or something else equally stupid.  I don't do that any more.  In fact, I was involved in those Adopt a Highway programs and went with my family every 6 months to pick up what had accumulated.

So, sometimes my Mr. Mexican Monkey Husband chastises me for not bringing enough of the USA to our world here. Two weeks ago, I got tired of seeing all the trash piled up in the circle in the middle of a coldasac type thing they call a glorieta.  I told my family every morning, if it is still there on Friday when we pass by, we're going to pick it up on Saturday.  Friday, it was still there.... so Saturday the girls and I went to pick it up.  

THE AFTER

Today was the first day the four of us went.  The plan is that from now on, it will be our regular Sunday night thing....  

Here is a picture of my team!

Way to go Mommy's Monkeys!!!  I'm so proud of you!

Wish us luck that we can follow through with this, and that today is the first Sunday in a million!  More importantly though, wish for me that my girls grow up to make this (or something like it) a habit, a tradition, a part of their lives for the long haul.  

Supporting Monkeys take on the World!

There are always so many people in need, it is hard to know where to start.  Here in Mexico that challenge is even bigger

than what I was familiar with in the USA.

As an ExPat I'm often confronted with the question of 

exactly what it means to be American.  While I may not have an answer that is complete or even true for everyone, I have found some answers that ring true.  I believe Americans are empathetic and caring.  I believe that we, just as all people, get caught up in our day to day, and may not notice everything that is going on in the world.  However, once we are made aware, once we see a problem, we are moved to swift action.

We have always been taught that we can and must make a difference. One starfish at a time! 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_Thrower

It is our obligation and our delight to find a need and take steps to fill it.  It makes me proud to be an American.  Unfortunately, most of my European and Mexican friends don't know this about us.  I guess it is because they pay more attention to the loud mouth spring breakers or the news about other less than sparkling accounts of what we are, or what we aren't.  Many of those stories are true, but I am going to imagine that the reason that they don't know about all the good things we do is the same reason that we don't know all of the good things our neighbors do.   We are busy and that news, and it most certainly doesn't grow taller as it moves down the line, in fact it doesn't even make it to the line to get passed down.

Well, these hard~working generous souls quietly go about their lives lending a hand when they find one in need.  They rarely mention these acts to anyone else.

My mom's family has always been on top of this in a major way!  I'm so proud of them and I am so proud of all my monkeys for caring about their fellow human beings.

Last year (I taught 3rd and 4th grade) we read about public service projects and they started planning to collect and donate things to kids at a low~income special needs pre~school here in Cuernavaca.

Unfortunately, we were in a situation where the school no longer wanted to take on the responsibility of taking our kids on field trips because of the safety concerns here in Mexico.

The moment things settled down my kids sprang to action.

The had 3 weeks to collect what they could.  They started making beaded bracelets, friendship bracelets, and other small items to sell in exchange for a donation.  This is

not a very common thing to do here in Mexico.  No one can trust that those who say they will donate the money will not actually pocket any cash they get their hands on....

My kids raked in $500 pesos.  Which is a BIG DEAL! $45 may not seem like much, but $500 pesos, which is roughly the equivalent, is!  They kept the records, they did the math, they gave change... they did it all!

The class preside took the money, bought some class supplies, and brought back the reciept.  (open books is another rather new concept)

Here they are with the things that they purchased!

They also collected clothes, shoes, food and toys from the rest of the school.

On Thursday we took the donations to the preschool across town and had the chance to stay and play with the class for an hour or so.

It was beautiful to watch my monkeys bond and enjoy playing with the little ones. 

 They would ask questions about why the children had different things going on.... but accepted the children very easily.  Most of mine got close very quickly to one of the smaller children and took responsibility for getting them water or taking them to the bathroom.  It was so sweet.  They were so happy, and I am so proud of them!

The two groups of children were lovely and happy.

My students also commented on the fact that many of the children have some sort of orthodontic work done.  The reason why is because this Mexican Orthodontist donates his time to visit the school once a month or so in order to help these kids and their families with something that would otherwise not be a priority.

So congrats to my monkeys!  I love them very much and I am soooooo proud!