Chuck Clay - Wylda (Hannon) Clay's letters from Huandacareo
I was never one of the traveling Amigos, but my wife Wylda (then Hannon) was, for 3 years.
Although she died in 2006, her reports to me via letters (lots of letters!) during the summer of 1967 provide a lot of first-hand information on the accomplishments, experiences, pranks and problems that she reported that year. She wrote every 1 to 3 days.. the letters were usually 3 to 8 pages long.
I took a long walk down memory lane today and extracted from all those letters most of the Amigos-related history as she lived it that year. 13 pages of it. Hardcopy or soft copy on CD (MS Word) is available on request (the same as the attached document), and I have a number of pictures from her various years in Mexico I could send as well.
Chuck Clay
1414 Seminary Ave
Alameda, CA 94502
Huandacareo Mexico Diary, 1967
June 17
Our plane leaves at 11:45 am Friday and we plan to catch the 4 pm bus out of Tijuana. We’ll get in Morelia (1 ½ hour from Huandacareo) Sunday at about 3:30 (Mexican time – 1 Hour difference). We’ll stay in Morelia overnight, get our last hot showers and good meals for a while, then go out to Huandacareo on Monday.
June 19
From all the discussing Dad has wanted to do about Mexico and details, you’d think I was planning a 10 year world cruise. Amigos have a great philosophy – just go and all the details of how to get home and what you’re doing day by day will work out somehow. So what if you get stuck overnight somewhere? So you leave the next morning. It’s a great system – much less wear and tear so you can enjoy what you’re doing instead of worrying about whether all your plans will work out.
June 23
Would you believe the return address now is somewhere up in the sky? We just left S.F. about 10 minutes ago and it’s a beautiful day for flying. It’s really clear and I can see the ground below us.
…
Would you believe “cruising down the airway on a Friday afternoon”? They announced about 10 minutes ago that there is overcast in LA and that they are only landing on one runway at a time so they can use instrument landing. At the time of the announcement there were 19 planes ahead of us waiting to land. Then next thing we know they’re going to have traffic signs in the sky. We still have to land in L.A. before going on to San Diego. There’s nothing like stalling for time in the sky. We’re now below the smog and can see the ground again. At the beginning of the trip we could see the ground so well, but in L.A. there was just grey smog.
June 25
Well, I lived through the bus trip, though for a while I wasn’t sure I was going to. It was really cramped and by the second day I was spending a lot of time standing in the aisles. The second part of the trip was livelier that the first – people in the aisles talking and joking, singing, etc. Lesley (the girl I came down with) had the people around her amazed with her Polaroid camera; she was taking pictures on the bus. We were the only Americans on the bus, but everybody was really friendly. What hit me so hard after I crossed the border was the warmth and sincerity of the Mexican people and their willingness to help in any way that they can. Every time we turned around there were lots of people eager to help. These people are real human beings – it’s a rare American that as all these wonderful qualities.
Even after just the bus trip it was hard saying good-bye to some of the people we’d met. I can see what it’s going to be like at the end of the summer!
Lesley wanted to live it up tonight, so we’re staying in a really nice hotel in Morelea, the capital of Michoacan. We went into the bar here before dinner, but I stuck to cokes ‘cause I knew if I didn’t I’d never get this letter written! There were mariachi’s (guitar players and singers) and they serenaded us. I could have sat there and listened to them all evening. The whole place here, including the bar, is kind of calm and swank. It’s going to be a real culture shock when we hit Huandacoreo tomorrow, though I’m really getting itchy to get there. It’s about a 1-2 hour bus ride from here. Before going there tomorrow, one of the things that I want to buy is a sleeveless blouse. I found out that they’re acceptable in Huandacareo if not worn to church. I brought one down just in case, but I thought I’d try to get another since I won’t have that much of a chance to wash clothes and so the one won’t get too over worn. It sure will feel good to have some of that nice warm sun on my arms this year. Last year I came back with sort of a line at my elbow.
It may be a few days before you hear from me again – the first days are usually pretty busy ones, what with getting settled with our families and getting to know everybody. Our project should be a singing one this year – one of our (Amigos’) main guitar players in on our project. Last year we were lacking guitar players completely and had to rely on the fiestas the Mexicans gave ore our visitors for guitar playing.
June 28
I write this as I wait for everyone to congregate here where the boys live to start out on our afternoon’s work. My moods have been bouncing up and down like a beach ball – one moment I can think that we have a terrific summer ahead and the next I feel so depressed I could cry and I just want to go home. For the last 24 hours, though, my moods have been on the “up” side; I hope they stay that way! I have been awfully tired lately; the worst part of the day is when my alarm goes off at 5:45 am. I’ve tried to get to sleep at a decent hour, but there’s a juke box across the street from where I live t hat blares till 10:30 or 11 pm. I hope that as I get used to where I’m living and the environment that I can learn to sleep to a new type of lullaby. It will be important to rest in the afternoons some. We have from 1 to 4 off each afternoon, of which about 1 hour is spent for the afternoon meal. I’m trying to get out to the baños (about ½ hour walk out of town) a couple of times a week to bathe and wash clothes, which takes a couple of hours. With all the potential disease here and the high altitude, it’s important that we get a lot of rest. I hope it won’t be too long before I get a chance to collapse.
This summer we just want to concentrate on one section of Huandacoreo in all different areas – health and sanitation, gardens, etc. and anything else we can find to work on. This week we’re out talking to people from the different sections so we can decide which one we want to concentrate on. We’ll also probably start a kindergarten in that section and I’ll probably be one of the kindergarten teachers. One of the things the kids want me to incorporate is some simple stuff to my square dance records (the kids asked me to bring them down before we left). I am also the only person working out at the federal school (elem. School level). I’ll go out there two afternoons a week and teach a 6th grade English class and probably play with all the kids for a while. I was out at the school talking with some of the teachers today, and one of the younger men teachers has already seemed to take an interest in me. (He is known to like the American girls..) Help! He certainly isn’t fresh, but it’s just the way they pay a lot of attention to you, keep their eyes on you, etc.
I do have one boyfriend, though – but he won’t give you much competition; he’s only 2 years old. His name is Juan Alberto and he’s my very affectionate little Mexican brother. They couldn’t have given me a better family – you know me and kids. It is really interesting to observe him – especially as he’s learning to speak a foreign language. The family I’m with is really great – there are the parents, my little brother, and a girl of about my age. Actually, the parents never had any kids of their own. Juan and Lupe (the girl) are adopted. They are well liked by the people of Huandacareo and are quite well off for this town. There is no running water in town, but they boil their water or have purified water in the house. Everything there is very clean, including the out-house style baño. I hope to stay relatively well this summer. My room is like a penthouse – I understand the only time they use is when they have an American girl stay with them each summer. I have to climb up some stairs to get to it (its on the roof), so the only drawback it that it might be a little wet in the rain. Actually, though, my living conditions are quite acceptable, for Huandacareo. Because of the lack of water, the stairs, etc. one finds that things take a lot longer to do, but here one has plenty of time. If you don’t hurry and just takes things slowly there’s no real problem. Life here is very simple and countryish. Even to walk to the baños is in a beautiful green area. Here there’s time to walk and look at all the beautiful things around you. Hasta Luego – we’re taking off for the afternoon’s work!
July 1
This afternoon I went out to the baños to bathe and wash clothes. While it feels good to be clean again, carrying all my stuff plus my wet clothes in the hot sun for such a long ways does get tiring. Also the clothes washing doesn’t’ help the back any. I have to bend way over for a long period of time to wash. I guess I’m still feeling like it’s going to be a long summer… My boots have decided to scrape the skin off my ankle and it rains every day around here. Wearing bandaids on my ankle may not be the most convenient solution, but it may be the most proactical. The boots are almost mandatory because of all the mud.
Would you believe that I’m in the shirt ironing business again, but this time with no pay? Our guys have no ironing facilities in the place where they live.
I am beginning to get the feeling that Mexican women (at least the younger ones) are more dominant and loud than American woman, at least from what I’ve seen (maybe I haven’t seen that many American women..). But I guess that with so many kids and the father gone all day they have to be authoritative, though I don’t like it much. Juan Alberto is also being taught how to shoot people with his toy pistol. Only 2 yrs old and he’s already being taught how to play war. I haven’t thought about it too much, but I’m not too sure that I like the idea.
Tomorrow our project is supposed to have a big discussion on birth control. It would be nice if we could get some kind of birth control program going here, but it may be setting our sights a little too high considering all the ignorance here. It is a little saddening when women keep having kid after kid in all this poverty and there’s nothing they can do to stop. Families with 13 or 14 kids are not uncommon here.
Help! This letter has just been interrupted for about an hour by a talk with my Mexican mother. I just found out that I am living in the middle of a war between my Mexican parents and the town priest, Father Pateño. From what I gather, they haven’t spoken to him or gone to church when he’s been here for several years. Apparently, he tried to borrow some money from them several years ago, and later called the father of the family a Communist and that started it. The part about his trying to borrow money from them seems quite plausible; I understand that he tried to borrow some money from the Amigos last year. The part about my Mexican father being called a Communist sounds like the usual unfounded accusation that many people make. My Mexican father seems to be quite a decent guy – he doesn’t drink or smoke, he’s always happy around the house, and is really wonderful to the kids. Usually we get our families through Father Pateño and the nuns here, but for several years my family has not gone to Father, but directly to the Amigos to ask for a girl (they have had an American girl living with them every one of the 4 yrs that Amigos have been in Huandacareo). They didn’t get a girl to live with them to start with this year, but after the Amigos came they asked for one. I was one of two girls to get here a few days after the others (this family had talked to the Amigos in the mean time), and I think that’s how I ended up here. After trying to understand everything she said for about an hour, I’m all Spanished out.
We all just cracked up when their bird made a lot of chirping noise, and I asked him (in Spanish), “Would you repeat that please?” I sounded earlier like I was going to crawl into a hole and die, but I think I’ll live now…
July 4
We had that discussion on birth control, and we pretty much decided that if someone asks us about it, the best we could do would be to refer them to the town doctor. It would be a quick way to get the Amigos thrown out of Huandacareo fast were we to start giving out birth control information or recommending its practice. (In a small Catholic town like this, of course the priest is against birth control. And since we are here at the invitation of Father Pateño…).
Our guys really had a night of it the other night. In the middle of the night they ended up taking a woman who was having a miscarriage to a hospital in a nearby town. Apparently she’s been having it for 1 ½ days and they said she was just a mass of blood in her blankets. The guy who had the key to our truck was not here, so one of our guys had to hot-wire the truck to get it to run. Because of this they said the ignition system was bad and the lights wouldn’t work. So they had to drive through pouring rain with some guys over the hood of the truck holding flashlights as headlights. I understand that they never got to bed till about 4:30 am the next day.
The other day, when we were out talking with the people, I ended up talking with this really old woman. It was really depressing. She said that she hadn’t been able to make tortillas for 6 months, and she didn’t have anything. It was obvious that she was not too far from death, and all she kept saying was, “No hay remido” (There is no remedy). As I said, it was really depressing..
Somehow it just hit me that every moment of this life is precious. In observing all that I do here it hits so hard. It is very depressing and so very discouraging when you see that these people do practically nothing but routine chores every day of their lives. But it has hit hard and it makes me feel strongly that one can’t put off things too long or he will find that he has not life left in which to do them. He must live his life now, and to its fullest. The song “Today” is a favorite of the Amigos and how true; the words are:
I can’t be contented with yesterday’s glories
I can’t live on promises winger to spring
Today is my moment and now is my story
I’ll laugh and I’ll cry and I’ll sing
July 5
The other night Father George (a priest from Boston who is involved with Amigos) said Mass for us here at the boys’ house, and it was really great. It was so unlike the modern church service and so much more like the Last Supper. We all sat around a table together. Father consecrated bolillos (a large roll-type bread that they make here in Mexico) and wine. He broke the bread and passed it around, and he passed around the chalice for everyone to take a sip out of it. It really did a lot to bring the group together.
July 6
It’s 7:30 pm and t he end of another long day. Many Mexicans drink soft drinks which are almost at room temperature, but I am lucky that my family has a refrigerator. I just pulled a 7-up out of the freezer compartment; it’s cold, and does it ever taste good! It’s been a long day with not much rest – my mouth is very dry and my feet hurt a bit. After some running around this morning I ended up typing census forms for a couple of hours. We finally decided on the barrio we’re going to work in, and we’re starting our work out there by taking a census of the area. Then I spent my rest time this afternoon going out to the baños to bathe and wash clothes. I hadn’t been there for 5 days because my foot hadn’t been too happy when it had to walk (it’s fine now), and I must admit that it did feel good to get rid of that dirty, sticky feeling. Then I was out again for 3 ½ hours. My English class of 34 kids is enough to finish off anybody’s voice and make it dry – and then I went census taking, which involves a lot of talking. As I said, the 7-up sure tastes good!
Well, it was just intermission time while I went upstairs to my room, took off my shoes, and put Caladryll on my mosquito bites. Mosquitoes have always loved me, but I’ve always hated them. Right now what I want to do is go to bed, but there is a lot of noise on the street below, and it shouldn’t be long before that piercing juke box starts playing. Ugh! At least the weekend isn’t far away. We also have sort of given up on going to early morning Mass – they like us to go, but it isn’t mandatory. I usually wake up by the Church bells at about 6, but it’s usually 6:30 before I can drag myself out of bed. It’s really hard to get a good night’s sleep during the week because of the noise on the street and the juke box.
July 7
This afternoon it was pouring, so we didn’t go out to our barrio. One of our girls has tourista pretty bad today, so I was at the boys’ house making paper flowers for her. They don’t sell flowers in Huandacareo, so I decided that paper ones would have to do. There was only one hangup – there wasn’t any Kleenex like we used (as materials) at home. So – would you believe paper flowers made out of yellow toilet paper?
Also this afternoon we were putting “decorations” on the wall at the boys’ house. We had a whole bunch of cut out words for the kindergarten that we started plastering on the walls in various ways.
Instead of a 3 day weekend, we’re going to have two 2 day weekends, and so I plan to spend the weekends of July 15th and July 29th in San Pedro. Then there are two weekends that we’re going away as a project because of Saturday meetings – July 22nd we go to Celaya for a study day with all the projects, and Aug 5th we’re all going to the city of Guanajuato for the Mexican priests’ farewell day to all the Amigos. The weekends of Aug 12th and 19th we still get Saturday off and we can go somewhere with our families on Sunday, but we can’t take off for the weekend with the project kids.
We have one big joke going on in the project about the pigs in the back yard of the boys’ house. We swear we’re going to roast them any day now. They keep getting out and invading the kitchen or are known to be running around in the back yard just when someone’s trying to get out to the baño. This morning Father Pateño’s nephew came and tied the pig down with a rope. I wonder how long it will be before he manages to chew the rope off. I think they tried to nail some boards to keep him in too, but knowing that pig, he’d probably find a way to jump the fence. Oh – besides the pig, there are about 5 little pigs running around too.
The kids told me that my Mexican family is not too well liked by the town, especially because of the mother’s attitude, but I am really thankful for my clean living conditions. Apparently they really look down on the poor. I am also beginning to think that it is not all Mexican women who are loud an somewhat dominant, but only a few like this one. Sometimes I feel like she can be a little cold towards me if I am not in the best of spirits, but then when I’m lively and happy she can be quite warm. But let’s face it: I’m out with the people all day, and I do need some time just to be quiet and untalkative. She has been quite a bit warmer lately, especially after she had told me about their family situation with the town priest. I prefer to spend time at the boys’ house, though, although the flies begin to get to you after a while. I feel very close to all the kids on the project this year – more than I even have before – and we do have great times together. We’re always involved in a lot of clowning around and joking, and I always know that I can go to the boys’ house and feel like I really belong. If there’s any place that you need to feel like you’re very much a part of some group, it’s when you’re living so far away from home and in a foreign culture.
We also found out a very interesting bit of information today. First some background: There are two poor ranchos outside of town, one called San Jose Cuaro and the other La Hacienda. Last year one girl and one guy from Amigos lied out at La Hacienda and worked there. This year we plan to send four kids out there every day to work, but not to live there. After visiting both ranchos and much consideration of the pros and cons of going to both ranchos we decided to go to La Hacienda again, despite much pressure from Father Pateño to go to San Jose Cuaro, and we explained our reasons to him. Then we learned today through other sources why Father Pateño wanted us to go to San Jose Cuaro. It seem shat about two years ago Father organized a committee in La Hacienda to collect money from the people, and he told them that the money was going to be used for a church that the Americanos were going to build for them when they came down. Apparently about 600 pesos were raised (1 peso = 8 cents), which is quite a lot for a poor rancho, and nobody knows the whereabouts of the money. We Suspect that Father wanted us to go to San Jose Cuaro so the Americans would not be seen in La Hacienda. For now that we’re out in La Hacienda the people expect us to build a Church for them. This is, of course, the first we ever heard about building a Church and of course the money is nowhere to be seen. It is an interesting situation, to say the least. For the present, when anybody at La Hacienda asks us about the Church we are pretending to know nothing about it. We certainly aren’t going to change our minds and go to San Jose Cuaro just because of this.
A person could drown just trying to get to the baño and back upstairs to her room in this weather! So far I’ve managed to step in a “flood” downstairs, and my clothes are wet too; but now I’ll get in my night clothes and cuddle in my warm bed…
July 10
Last night the Amigos all had cena together, and it was the best meal I’ve had since I’ve been here. We had hamburgers with buns, potato chips, pineapple and cantaloupe salad, soft drinks, and real Milky Way candy bars for dessert. If we keep this up I’m probably going to get fat just on cenas, let alone the rest of the meals we have.
This morning we were out in the barrio and the mud was really bad, approaching what it used to be like in San Pedro, and the solution I’ve found for my boots rubbing is to wear no boots at all. So it should be really delightful when we have kindergarten out there every morning. Our leader said that maybe we can have kindergarten from about 10:30 to 12:30 so the sun will have a little time to dry the mud from the night’s rain, although in August the rains and mud get even worse.
July 13
Well, this has been a day with several little “happenings”. First of all, this morning while we were waiting at the boys’ house for mail, several of us went into “delusions” about the running water and all the different types of food that we missed from home. It was really funny, and we were getting all excited about each item that was mentioned.
My English class has also really begun to perk up. This afternoon the kids were really beginning to show some enthusiasm, and they were asking all sorts of questions, so I could really be more of myself – less strict and with some joking around with the kids. Also, at 5 pm someone was blowing a bugle loud and clear. I suppose that’s the Mexican version of a school bell here!
I was told by (a Mexican, name deleted) that the children of the poor out in the barrios are dirty and it disgusts her. They may not bathe very often but these little kids out there have hearts of gold. As soon as I got out to the barrios this morning some of the kids out there ran over to me and took my hand and went all around the barrio with me while I was talking to people about starting the kindergarten next Monday.
One of the most rewarding moments of the whole summer happened today – but first, some background:
There is a teen-age girl in town who has cerebral palsy and is also susceptible to convulsions. We’ve seen her on the street and she never answers back when we say “Hello”. This morning 3 of us saw her falling out of the door of a store and screaming. She was having an attack and we aren’t sure whether she fell out or whether she was being thrown out in the midst of her attack. It’s really saddening around here – nobody seems to care about her, even her family, and she just wanders around the streets all day long. When she has an attack, no one helps but just look at her. After she had her attack this morning we went over to her and talked to her and helped her get up. We hope that the people around there were able to see that somebody did car about her. She talked to us a little while she was still on the ground, but after she was up and walking she wouldn’t respond to any conversation we tried to start with her. Then, this afternoon, something really great happened: on the way out to the federal school I saw the girl with cerebral palsy and said “Hi” to her. Maybe she remembered me from this morning – but she broke into a smile. Maybe she is finally realizing that we say “Hi” to her because we really want to, and not to make fun of her as I understand the rest of the town often does. On the way back from the school she was still in the same doorway. I stopped and said “Hi” again and asked her her name. It took a bit of being able to understand the language on my part, but she said her name was Lupe. She was also smiling again. Just that one experience has made a lot of things down here worthwhile, and I hope that we’ll be able to give her a little confidence in herself as a person. I can see now that it will be hard when we leave, but if only a part of the town could see this summer that we care about her it would really be great. I wonder if it would be asking too much if we hoped that some of the people here would change their attitude toward her this summer.
July 14
…..Leslie, the girl I came down with, said that her baño is so far away from her house that you have to take a bag lunch to get to it!
…..You may never believe this, but last night when (Mexican “sister”) Lupe and I went to get the pan (bread), we saw a pink dog. No, I’m not crazy – he was pink. He was a little white puppy, but much of his fur was a pink color. I asked Lupe about it and she said that someone had painted him. The pink did not look like sticky, applied paint – except for the color it looked like natural fur.
About Father George: he’s really a character, as are many of the priests associated with Amigos. These guys are as crazy as the kids are. Father George knew Father O’Looney when Father O’ was in Boston for a year. This year we have seven Boston kids on our projects – two of the guys are here in Huandacareo. Lesley came up with the rhyme “Hi, Pad, how’s your bod?” (“Pad” is for the Spanish “Padre” and rhymes with “bod”). Also one of our guys sneaked out and took a picture of Father George on the baño – the distance was too great to see any details, but he was obviously using our renowned baño. So, as you can see, these Amigos priests are involved in as many pranks as the kids. (I think Father George may have tried to get a picture of the guy who took his picture in the same setting.) We’ve also had a Father Miles here – I think he may have something to do with the seminarians because when he first met me he called me Minnie (I think I told you about the Mickey and Minnie Mouse bit that our seminarian on the San Pedro project and I had going last hear.) Father Miles is noted for his swinging guitar playing and singing.
July 16 – San Pedro (Wylda’s 1966 posting)
About San Pedro – I had most of the day in San Pedro before I’d gotten whatever-it-was (allergic attack of some kind – CC) and it was really great. Was I ever getting itchy as I was getting close! I had a great time seeing everybody, and there was no doubt that I was the happiest with the Mexican people since I’d been in Mexico this year. The people were just bubbling when I saw them, and even Father Malagón seemed to be at his most jovial. There’s no doubt about it – I did leave my heart in San Pedro, and I surely wish I were there again. I do hope that once the kindergarten gets going and I get to know the people out in the barrio a little better, that I’ll be able to get more involved in Huandacareo. San Pedro was smaller, and I liked the smallness and the closeness of the town better.
As for why we aren’t back there (and everybody was asking us why) – Elmo (a seminarian who was on the project last year) talked to Father Malagón since Father had seemed somewhat confused about it. Father says that he had asked for twelve people for this year, and up in the States we couldn’t get anything but vague answers from Father and no real invitation to come back. We don’t know what happened. There’s always the possibility that Father didn’t invite us back, but then there were repercussions from the people when no Amigos came and then Father wished he had asked for some, so said he had requested twelve. Or it could have been a big mix-up; I don’t know. Elmo says that Father does want Amigos in San Pedro again next year and that he wants Elmo and me there for the rest of this summer as a carry-over as he thought the years without anybody there would be kind of hard. I don’t know if he’s planning to talk to anybody to try to get us transferred there or not. Elmo and I would sure love it, especially since in all probability neither of us will be back with Amigos next year when maybe a group does go to San Pedro again. I rather doubt that Amigos would transfer us, though. I certainly had a great time there. Everything was just as I remembered it, though, of course, all the kids I had worked with were a year older and a year bigger.
July 18 (Back in Huandacareo)
I just got back from the boys’ house where some of the girls are in a panic. It has been decided that the whole project is to go into Morelia for blood tests to test for active cases of typhoid and typhoid carriers (at least we’ll know if I’m carrying typhoid – so I can be sure not to bring it back as a present). I’m a little apprehensive, as I don’t like needles but the way some of those girls were acting you’d think they’d never had a blood test in their lives. I think I’m supposed to go in with the shift that goes in tomorrow morning.
July 19
I’m sitting in the plaza in Morelia. We still haven’t gotten our blood tests; we got there about 1:30 and were told to come back at 4:00. Almost everything around here is closed from 1 to 4. We can’t even do some of the shopping we need to do. This morning we went to the bank to cash a check for $100. And they told us they’d have to call the bank in Apaseo to check to see if we have money in our account. After waiting for 40 minutes they came back and told us that they hadn’t finished checking it and that we’ll have to come back at 5 pm. This place is unbelievable! I’m exhausted – in 3 hrs all we’ve managed to do is eat comida and do some grocery shopping. The rest of the places we’ll have to go back to.
Well, it looks as if we’re going to get out of our fly trap. The madres said they wouldn’t get rid of the pigs, so that, plus other things, made the guys start looking for another place to live. The old place even had dirt walls in the kitchen. Well, we have one. I haven’t seen it yet but I understand that it’s quite a bit nicer. Hurray!
Last night I had to run the 50 yard dash just to get to the baño and to bed before all hell broke loose. Whe it gets really windy with a cloudy sky, you know you’d better find yourself some shelter for a while or else you’ll drown.
Evening:
Well, when we got our blood tests we found that 3 out of the 4 kids who had the test yesterday were carrying paratyphoid (less serious than typhoid). Actually, we’re not that worried about it, and we’re going to talk to our Amigos doctor (the guy who married an Amigo) on Saturday to see what we should do next. I wouldn’t panic about it, though – Our nurse said that even though I may register positive it would be very unlikely that I’d pass on any of it to you up in the States (conditions are so much cleaner there and it’s carried by the flies down here). The kids who go in tomorrow may be able to get our results from today.
July 20
Today was my first day teaching kindergarten. It looks like it will be a lot of fun and extremely exhausting – a bit on the rambunctious and noisy side at times. Let’s face it: trying to keep 30 or so little rascals in some semblance of a quiet state is an awful lot harder in Spanish than it is in English. Have you ever tried teaching the “Hokey Pokey” in Spanish? That was one of my endeavors for today and t he kids really did seem to like it. The problem with teaching (especially the younger grades) is that you have to out-shout all the students combined in order to maintain any semblance of order. And for the present we’re holding kindergarten out in the hot sun. If today was any indication of what’s to come, though it promises to be quite exhausting, it (kinder) also promises to be the funnest thing and quite probably the most rewarding thing that I’m doing down here. It seems like I can always get the most involved with the kids. Last year it was that show we put on..
My English class is also looking up. This afternoon I taught them “Supercalifragilisticexpialidociouis” in Spanish – they knew some of it but not all. Next week I plan to begin on the English!
On the way to my English class I saw that the girl with cerebral palsy, Lupe, had had an attack and way lying in the street. I went over and sat with her until she could sit up, and several people gathered around. Some of the Mexican girls were talking to her too. Because of the language barrier it was hard to tell if they were being friendly to her or if they were making fun of her, but from the tone of their voices I think there were really trying to be friendly and encourage her.
July 21
I came out OK on my blood test! Out of 8 who have had it, I was one of 3 who registered lowest in regard to carrying any of the Typhoid-Paratyphoid bugs. We may all be taking medicine anyway to make sure we’re not carrying a bit of it when we go back home.
Boy, it’s the end of another exhausting day! Kinder was extremely exhausting, but very rewarding again. All the time they were learning numbers they asked me if they were going to get to do the “Hokey-Pokey”. They must really like it. I also taught them the bit I learned in elementary school P.E. about lying on the floor and trying to wiggle a penny off their nose. They were so anxious to do it that they were almost fighting to get to be the one to do it. They were quite impatient about waiting their turn, but they certainly did enjoy it and were laughing all the time. Ever since the Kinder started I have started to feel some real satisfactions in the work I am doing down here and much more content, though I certainly still look forward to getting home. I also now have a “vaso” in my room (it’s really a glass from the kitchen, but it serves the purpose of a vase). All the kids in the Kinder bring us flowers from the fields and fruit, so it looks like I’ll be keeping fresh flowers in my room for the rest of the summer.
Terry Martin and I spent the afternoon making nine jillion sandwiches for the study day tomorrow in Celaya while the other kids were moving stuff from the old boys’ house to the new one that we’re renting. The new one will cost us (Amigos) 100-150 pesos ($8-$12) per month to rent, but it will be worth it. (I think we got the old house free from Father Pateño.) They cleaned it out this afternoon wit quite a few Mexicans getting in to help. It is big, clean, has our own well, etc. (When we were in the old house the guys had to carry water from the plaza.) It looks too like it will be a much easier job to cook and wash dishes. Also, there are no animals, which means that there will be very few flies. Hurray! It is only about a block up from here, so it’s a lot closer to where most of the girls live too.
Evening Note: There were 8 of us who stayed together in Celaya after the Study Day and we really had a ball. We found these terrific places to eat and I’m sure we all gained a million pounds. We found real toast, milk, lemon meringue pie, pineapple cake, chocolate ice cream, and a Mexican dish that is quite similar to sausage pizza. You’d never believe the ecstasy we were in! The lemon pie was so good last night that we even had it with breakfast this morning. If there’s anything our project gets delirious about, it’s the foods we miss and running water.
July 24
Boy, was kinder ever something this morning! I was the only American out with my class and some young kids who are not in the class decided to come over and harass the class. Both I and the teacher of the other class were really burning inside because of these kids – because of their annoyances I couldn’t start class for about 45 minutes. The guys were out in the fields with the Mexican men today, but both I and the other teacher (our girl project leader) agreed that we just have to have a guy assigned out there each day, to throw those kids out forcefully if necessary. We’re out in the open in a sense, so it’s impossible to lock ourselves in or them out. The few harassers were making more noise than the whole class together, and I really felt sorry for the class. Once we half-way got rid of the other kids the class went fine.
July 25
The rest of the kids got their blood test results, and they said that some of them are carrying typhoid and paratyphoid to the highest degree possible. (They had their tests done at a different lab, though, and knowing Mexico we aren’t exactly sure how reliable any of the results are.) They were also told that the low level of my results was just the indication of the vaccine that we had. We now have all the results, and I’m one out of 4 – out of 14 in all – who are not carrying anything except the vaccine. The other kids aren’t worried about it – we’ve been told that by taking the right antibiotic (a pill) for a few days you can completely clear yourself of it.
I went out to the federal school for my class this afternoon, only to find out that classes had been canceled for the day. It was just as well; there was a meeting scheduled for this afternoon for our Kinder teachers to meet with the Mexican girls who are helping us and who will be taking over the class. None of our kids were there when I got there, so I decided to start without them. We talked about tracking the Kinder, the aims of Amigos, etc. and I taught them several of the games that I had learned in elementary school PE so they could teach the kids. Just as I was taking off at about 6 pm – it looked like it was going to rain – the others came. (They had overslept – or something.. and so had gotten there 1 ½ hours late.) We stayed to talk for a few minutes. Meanwhile it started to pour, so we stayed in one of the girl’s houses for talking for about an hour. When the rain finally let up a bit for a little while we slid home in the mud and light rain.
July 26
This morning we had our guys out at kinder to keep the hecklers away. They did a good job – it almost required policing the hecklers – and the class went fine and is continuing to be a lot of fun. Today we had the Mexican girls who are helping us take over the class. This is the idea – to phase ourselves out – so that they can teach the classes when we leave. The kinder has been extremely popular, with kids from all over the place trying to get in it, so we’re thinking of leaving the present one to these girls and trying to get another one started in another section of town in early August.
We have a new project member – a nursing student from Providence Hospital. Every year we have some nurses who can’t make it down till July – I don’t think Providence classes end till July. We also have a guy that will be joining us for the last few weeks. He is the nephew of the guy who happened to take down the first group of Amigos and he was originally assigned to Huandacareo for the summer. However he had some problems with the draft, so can’t get down till August.
I’ve been working on improvising some simple stuff to some of my square dance records and while I was at it I put on some of the calls and started dancing. I’m alone in my room – which is fairly large – but it’s hard to keep your balance while doing square dance steps without a partner.
July 27
Recently I’ve been teaching my 6th grade English class the song “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” in English. They already have an acquaintance with it in Spanish so now they’ll know it in both languages. They really seem to enjoy it.
I think the time has come to drag myself to the baños again – my feet are on the golden brown side of things and I can’t tell if it’s suntan or dirt! I think it’s about time for the day of truth to arrive. Also, tomorrow I have to finish writing those dances for the Kindergarten kids.
July 28
Last night we had a really good discussion on what some of our aims are down here. It was the most open discussion that we’ve had as a group so far. We had some wine too, and although nobody was drunk, people were feeling pretty relaxed and good. The wine was quite sweet and didn’t taste bad, so I had some too. I didn’t think I’d had that much, but it must have affected me some because at the end of the evening I started laughing and crying with emotion at the same time. I had a bit of trouble getting to sleep later on – I kept having short dreams and tossing and turning.
This morning I woke up with some tourista, but no vomiting. Some of the other kids had been affected too. I think it was probably from the wine.
No sooner was I beginning to get over that at about 11 am than I began to break out in my “purple and pink polka dot measles” allergy again. Lupe went up to the barrio to get Vicki (our nurse) and she gave me an anti-allergy shot. (Note: it turned out that Wylda was allergic to Sulfa drugs. which her state-side doctor had given her to take in case of turista.. We found this out later..)
Yesterday we tried letting the leader of that gang of hecklers we had had into the class. One of our guys had talked to him, and - whatever our guy said – our little heckler was really a little angel yesterday. Partly what these kids need is to have some confidence put in them, so I tried asking his opinion on games the boys could play etc. I think he may work out in the class after all.
July 29
Hi again, and greetings from the old drunk woman (remember the wine Thursday night?)
I witnessed another “shocking” thing this morning. I was at Father Pateño’s looking for the mail this morning, when Lupe (the girl with cerebral palsy) came to the door. (I’ve seen her wander over to Father’s before – I think she comes to see him.) But the big main door is usually open and people can just come in and ask for him. This time when Lupe was coming to the door, one of Father’s nephews (about age 12) tried to run to the door and lock Lupe out. Luckily, someone caught him and gave him a scolding for it. When Lupe was inside sitting down I asked her who she was looking for, and she said that she was looking for Father. However, as I took off before Father got back I don’t know what happened after that.
It’s been a lazy weekend off, so t here’s not too much news. Maybe it’s good that it happened this way, instead of having four big weekends in a row with no sleep. Oh, I finally got out to the baños, and the diagnosis is about half suntan and half dirt. The dirt was so bad that when I was drying my wet leg with the towel the ground-in dirt was still coming off. I simply have to drag myself out the baños more often!
(Wylda and “sis” Lupe had started an apron earlier in the summer..) My apron is finally finished, although I had to give up on the idea of making it myself. My family doesn’t’ have too much concept of patiently helping someone to learn to do something themselves. Granted, I needed to be shown how to do some things (like using a treadle style sewing machine..), but then I had wanted to try it myself.. but, in the process of Lupe showing me how to do things, her mother decided that she didn’t like the way Lupe was doing it, so she decided to take it over and work on it. At first I felt sort of bad about it because I hadn’t intended for the mother to have to make it for me. However, some things that she said while making it changed that feeling pretty fast. I gather that she had wanted to make it for me, but hadn’t because she thought I was going to do it by myself. She sews really well – it hardly took her any time at all to do it – and she wanted me to have it to remember her/them by.
July 31
The highlight of the day was cena. I managed to scrape together the ingredients for a potato salad and was it ever good! I also had the juice of two fairly juicy oranges. They (my family) have caught on to the fact that I like fruits and juices and occasionally I get them. As long as it’s not a fruit I’m not supposed to eat, I’ll eat just about any fruit or juice!
August 1
I’ve been somewhat on the depressed side for a few days. While letting the Mexican girls teach the kinder is not nearly as much work for us, it is a little more on the boring side when you have to sit around more in an advisory capacity. We do help the kids too, but it’s much harder to get involved when for the most part you’re listening to someone else read the stories, do the teaching, and so forth. Being able to help individual kids helps a lot, but it’s the just-sitting bit that gets boring at times.
(Wylda reaches a breaking point.. of sorts..)
I’ve decided that I haven’t been myself this summer. For some reason I’ve felt reserved when I’ve had crazy ideas or sometimes when I’ve had crazy things to say, so I decided that the crazy kid you know in the States had to be around somewhere. I’ve been greatly cheered up in anticipation..
(I was) getting things ready for tomorrow, which included a little bit of simple sowing – a long banner-like thing like beauty contestants wear. (Would you believe that – except for a bit of instruction on how to use this particular machine – I got to make it myself?) Anyway, tomorrow I am going to be myself: “MISS TAKE OF 1945”. (Even I can think of a pun occasionally.) For a description of the finished product (more or less): I’ll be wearing a black pleated skirt with a big guy’s shirt over it, and I’ll have some pink pajama bottoms under my skirt. Over the shirt I’ll be wearing the “MISS TAKE” banner (like a beauty contestant). It will be fastened with clothes pins, and I’m sure there will be a few other old clothes pins clipped to me in various places. My face will be a spontaneous mess of red, black, blue, purple and green colors, although I’m sure my tic-tac-toe game will end up on it somewhere. My hair I plan to have ratted and in some type of pony-tail arrangement (not necessarily one on each side..). Lastly, neatly perched on the top of my head as a hat (and I hope it will stay) will be an old beer can. I plan to tie it down with some scraps of the sash material.
And as for when and where I’m planning to do this? Our jefe (project leader) is making breakfast tomorrow for fun and I’m going to help him. I plan to get there a little early to put my face on, etc. I don’t dare walk through the streets like that (and I hope it all comes off before kinder!). None of our kids know that I’m going to do it yet (not even our project leader) and I think that they’re going to have a bit of a surprise in the morning when they find out not only what’s for breakfast, but also what’s cooking breakfast!
August 2
This morning went beautifully! I just wish that we had a camera so that when each person started to walk into the kitchen where I was cooking it would have taken their picture. The reactions were priceless – everything from just breaking into laughter to people turning around and running in the other direction yelling “I didn’t see it, I didn’t see it!”
Father Pateño’s Feast Day (here they celebrate the Saint’s Day instead of the birthday) is next Tuesday, and t he Americanos have been asked to do something for it. Some of the kids want to do a Spanish version of the Amigo’s song. The particularly mentioned the verses you wrote (I did a semi-parody as a send-off for Wylda’s 1966 year in Mexico – Chuck) and wanted me to write a translation of them. It’s a little hard to do that and keep the rhyme and all, but I’m trying to retain a few ideas if possible. We still aren’t sure yet if that’s what we’re going to do, though.
Kindergarten was looking up today, due to one small thing. During the story one of the little girls decided to rest her head on my shoulder and another ran beside me so I put my arm around her. The love of those kids, communicated by the miracle of one person’s touching another, really made me feel warm and happy inside.
August 3
Well, we decided not to sing the Amigos “theme” song (Spanish version), for Father’s Feast Day, but to sing a medley of American songs, one of them being “Happy Days Are Here Again”. For the last song we are singing “More” – first in English and then in Spanish.
Tomorrow afternoon there is a PTA meeting at the federal school, and then tomorrow night the Americanos are putting on a big fiesta and dance at the boys’ house – it sure will feel good to move to some music again; then this weekend all the projects are gathering in the city of Guanajuato for a reunion-meeting type thing. Word has it that Father O’Looney is supposed to show up there and then spend his vacation down here with us. I’m really looking forward to seeing him.
August 4
I’m not sick and I did get to Guanajuato!
Remember when we let the leader of that gang of hecklers into the class? Well, ever since we let him in officially he hasn’t shown up for class. That’s really kid psychology in action.
August 6
I’m back from a great, but exhausting weekend.
About the party Friday night – it was really fun, but I seem to have a new admirer. His name is Jose and he’s a 3rd grade teacher at the federal school. I finally managed to find an appropriate time to tell him that I HAVE a boyfriend.
August 9
Things have been going great down here – I’ve been all smiles and having a ball. There is so much to do these last couple of weeks that I doubt I’ll have time to write (as much)… I’ve been mostly doing a lot of extra things out at the federal school. Now that the school teacher knows I have a boy friend I feel much more free about being open and friendly towards him. I’ve spent more time in his class just watching him teach and paying particular attention to his methods and how he treats the kids. I’m really glad that I’ve had the opportunity.
I’m hoping that one day next week our project leader will let me spend the whole day at the federal school so I can go through the entire school day with the kids and see the overall picture.
August 13 (Happy Birthday, Wylda!)
Right now I’m sitting and waiting for a bus to Huandacareo on my last transfer point from San Pedro. From what a woman just told me, I think I just missed a bus going from Moralia to Huandacareo – the busses are an hour apart.
Friday I barely got a chance to breathe. I didn’t finish my day’s work until some of us got back from drudging through the mud up by the federal school to see a sick little boy that I’d found earlier in the day. This was about 9 pm and by the time I got my stuff ready to take off for San Pedro early the next morning I was too tired to do anything but fall into bed.
I had a great weekend in San Pedro, but it was both emotionally and physically exhausting and a few tears came to my eyes as I said good-bye. Last year when I said that I knew I was coming back: this year I know that I may never see these people again unless sometime maybe I’m able to come down for a vacation. There are so many mixed emotions during these last few days – and while I’m anxious to get home, in some ways I don’t want to leave. I feel as if I’m losing something that I may never see again. Parting from the people down here is going to be extremely hard – in some ways I wish I were already home so I wouldn’t have to go through it. And today, when I was in San Pedro, some of the kids came over and kissed my hand when they saw me (In Mexico it is the custom to kiss the priest’s hand when you see him, a custom which the Amigos have never thought much of and luckily one which they are not expected to follow.) I really felt a little uncomfortable having these few kids who did it treat me with such “reverence” instead of more on the friend level. There really wasn’t too much that I could say or do that I knew of to let them know t hat it wasn’t necessary to kiss my hand. What hit me the hardest, though, was how much them must of thought of the Amigos to have the kids react in this way when they saw me again.
August 16
This is probably the last letter you will get from Mexico.
Yesterday out in kinder we were playing a game where a certain person chosen by another has to dance in the middle of the circle. Most of the kids just sort of skip around, but as I was in a pretty good mood, I was bouncing around like a nut, quite befitting my nickname “Bouncy Ball”. One of the women who always watch kinder came over to me and told me they were going to remember me well after I left – maybe they aren’t used to seeing a real live kook. It did make me feel good inside and as if I have been appreciated out there.
Today I went back to 3rd grade. Our leader had given permission to go through classes with the kids at the federal school one day, and I really became part of Pepe’s 3rd grade. The kids naturally decided that I was part of the class and the day certainly did have its moments. When we were taking dictation, Pepe’s first word was “aparte”, so I wrote it on my paper. Well, wouldn’t you know that “aparte” means to start a new paragraph? All the kids got a big laugh out of that. Then, when it was time to go outside for recess and the kids marched outside, they naturally put me in front of the like because I was the tallest girl. I did feel a little dumb marching around the schoolyard, but I break into laughter every time I think about it. It was a great day and I’m sure I’ll always remember it.
June 17
Our plane leaves at 11:45 am Friday and we plan to catch the 4 pm bus out of Tijuana. We’ll get in Morelia (1 ½ hour from Huandacareo) Sunday at about 3:30 (Mexican time – 1 Hour difference). We’ll stay in Morelia overnight, get our last hot showers and good meals for a while, then go out to Huandacareo on Monday.
June 19
From all the discussing Dad has wanted to do about Mexico and details, you’d think I was planning a 10 year world cruise. Amigos have a great philosophy – just go and all the details of how to get home and what you’re doing day by day will work out somehow. So what if you get stuck overnight somewhere? So you leave the next morning. It’s a great system – much less wear and tear so you can enjoy what you’re doing instead of worrying about whether all your plans will work out.
June 23
Would you believe the return address now is somewhere up in the sky? We just left S.F. about 10 minutes ago and it’s a beautiful day for flying. It’s really clear and I can see the ground below us.
…
Would you believe “cruising down the airway on a Friday afternoon”? They announced about 10 minutes ago that there is overcast in LA and that they are only landing on one runway at a time so they can use instrument landing. At the time of the announcement there were 19 planes ahead of us waiting to land. Then next thing we know they’re going to have traffic signs in the sky. We still have to land in L.A. before going on to San Diego. There’s nothing like stalling for time in the sky. We’re now below the smog and can see the ground again. At the beginning of the trip we could see the ground so well, but in L.A. there was just grey smog.
June 25
Well, I lived through the bus trip, though for a while I wasn’t sure I was going to. It was really cramped and by the second day I was spending a lot of time standing in the aisles. The second part of the trip was livelier that the first – people in the aisles talking and joking, singing, etc. Lesley (the girl I came down with) had the people around her amazed with her Polaroid camera; she was taking pictures on the bus. We were the only Americans on the bus, but everybody was really friendly. What hit me so hard after I crossed the border was the warmth and sincerity of the Mexican people and their willingness to help in any way that they can. Every time we turned around there were lots of people eager to help. These people are real human beings – it’s a rare American that as all these wonderful qualities.
Even after just the bus trip it was hard saying good-bye to some of the people we’d met. I can see what it’s going to be like at the end of the summer!
Lesley wanted to live it up tonight, so we’re staying in a really nice hotel in Morelea, the capital of Michoacan. We went into the bar here before dinner, but I stuck to cokes ‘cause I knew if I didn’t I’d never get this letter written! There were mariachi’s (guitar players and singers) and they serenaded us. I could have sat there and listened to them all evening. The whole place here, including the bar, is kind of calm and swank. It’s going to be a real culture shock when we hit Huandacoreo tomorrow, though I’m really getting itchy to get there. It’s about a 1-2 hour bus ride from here. Before going there tomorrow, one of the things that I want to buy is a sleeveless blouse. I found out that they’re acceptable in Huandacareo if not worn to church. I brought one down just in case, but I thought I’d try to get another since I won’t have that much of a chance to wash clothes and so the one won’t get too over worn. It sure will feel good to have some of that nice warm sun on my arms this year. Last year I came back with sort of a line at my elbow.
It may be a few days before you hear from me again – the first days are usually pretty busy ones, what with getting settled with our families and getting to know everybody. Our project should be a singing one this year – one of our (Amigos’) main guitar players in on our project. Last year we were lacking guitar players completely and had to rely on the fiestas the Mexicans gave ore our visitors for guitar playing.
June 28
I write this as I wait for everyone to congregate here where the boys live to start out on our afternoon’s work. My moods have been bouncing up and down like a beach ball – one moment I can think that we have a terrific summer ahead and the next I feel so depressed I could cry and I just want to go home. For the last 24 hours, though, my moods have been on the “up” side; I hope they stay that way! I have been awfully tired lately; the worst part of the day is when my alarm goes off at 5:45 am. I’ve tried to get to sleep at a decent hour, but there’s a juke box across the street from where I live t hat blares till 10:30 or 11 pm. I hope that as I get used to where I’m living and the environment that I can learn to sleep to a new type of lullaby. It will be important to rest in the afternoons some. We have from 1 to 4 off each afternoon, of which about 1 hour is spent for the afternoon meal. I’m trying to get out to the baños (about ½ hour walk out of town) a couple of times a week to bathe and wash clothes, which takes a couple of hours. With all the potential disease here and the high altitude, it’s important that we get a lot of rest. I hope it won’t be too long before I get a chance to collapse.
This summer we just want to concentrate on one section of Huandacoreo in all different areas – health and sanitation, gardens, etc. and anything else we can find to work on. This week we’re out talking to people from the different sections so we can decide which one we want to concentrate on. We’ll also probably start a kindergarten in that section and I’ll probably be one of the kindergarten teachers. One of the things the kids want me to incorporate is some simple stuff to my square dance records (the kids asked me to bring them down before we left). I am also the only person working out at the federal school (elem. School level). I’ll go out there two afternoons a week and teach a 6th grade English class and probably play with all the kids for a while. I was out at the school talking with some of the teachers today, and one of the younger men teachers has already seemed to take an interest in me. (He is known to like the American girls..) Help! He certainly isn’t fresh, but it’s just the way they pay a lot of attention to you, keep their eyes on you, etc.
I do have one boyfriend, though – but he won’t give you much competition; he’s only 2 years old. His name is Juan Alberto and he’s my very affectionate little Mexican brother. They couldn’t have given me a better family – you know me and kids. It is really interesting to observe him – especially as he’s learning to speak a foreign language. The family I’m with is really great – there are the parents, my little brother, and a girl of about my age. Actually, the parents never had any kids of their own. Juan and Lupe (the girl) are adopted. They are well liked by the people of Huandacareo and are quite well off for this town. There is no running water in town, but they boil their water or have purified water in the house. Everything there is very clean, including the out-house style baño. I hope to stay relatively well this summer. My room is like a penthouse – I understand the only time they use is when they have an American girl stay with them each summer. I have to climb up some stairs to get to it (its on the roof), so the only drawback it that it might be a little wet in the rain. Actually, though, my living conditions are quite acceptable, for Huandacareo. Because of the lack of water, the stairs, etc. one finds that things take a lot longer to do, but here one has plenty of time. If you don’t hurry and just takes things slowly there’s no real problem. Life here is very simple and countryish. Even to walk to the baños is in a beautiful green area. Here there’s time to walk and look at all the beautiful things around you. Hasta Luego – we’re taking off for the afternoon’s work!
July 1
This afternoon I went out to the baños to bathe and wash clothes. While it feels good to be clean again, carrying all my stuff plus my wet clothes in the hot sun for such a long ways does get tiring. Also the clothes washing doesn’t’ help the back any. I have to bend way over for a long period of time to wash. I guess I’m still feeling like it’s going to be a long summer… My boots have decided to scrape the skin off my ankle and it rains every day around here. Wearing bandaids on my ankle may not be the most convenient solution, but it may be the most proactical. The boots are almost mandatory because of all the mud.
Would you believe that I’m in the shirt ironing business again, but this time with no pay? Our guys have no ironing facilities in the place where they live.
I am beginning to get the feeling that Mexican women (at least the younger ones) are more dominant and loud than American woman, at least from what I’ve seen (maybe I haven’t seen that many American women..). But I guess that with so many kids and the father gone all day they have to be authoritative, though I don’t like it much. Juan Alberto is also being taught how to shoot people with his toy pistol. Only 2 yrs old and he’s already being taught how to play war. I haven’t thought about it too much, but I’m not too sure that I like the idea.
Tomorrow our project is supposed to have a big discussion on birth control. It would be nice if we could get some kind of birth control program going here, but it may be setting our sights a little too high considering all the ignorance here. It is a little saddening when women keep having kid after kid in all this poverty and there’s nothing they can do to stop. Families with 13 or 14 kids are not uncommon here.
Help! This letter has just been interrupted for about an hour by a talk with my Mexican mother. I just found out that I am living in the middle of a war between my Mexican parents and the town priest, Father Pateño. From what I gather, they haven’t spoken to him or gone to church when he’s been here for several years. Apparently, he tried to borrow some money from them several years ago, and later called the father of the family a Communist and that started it. The part about his trying to borrow money from them seems quite plausible; I understand that he tried to borrow some money from the Amigos last year. The part about my Mexican father being called a Communist sounds like the usual unfounded accusation that many people make. My Mexican father seems to be quite a decent guy – he doesn’t drink or smoke, he’s always happy around the house, and is really wonderful to the kids. Usually we get our families through Father Pateño and the nuns here, but for several years my family has not gone to Father, but directly to the Amigos to ask for a girl (they have had an American girl living with them every one of the 4 yrs that Amigos have been in Huandacareo). They didn’t get a girl to live with them to start with this year, but after the Amigos came they asked for one. I was one of two girls to get here a few days after the others (this family had talked to the Amigos in the mean time), and I think that’s how I ended up here. After trying to understand everything she said for about an hour, I’m all Spanished out.
We all just cracked up when their bird made a lot of chirping noise, and I asked him (in Spanish), “Would you repeat that please?” I sounded earlier like I was going to crawl into a hole and die, but I think I’ll live now…
July 4
We had that discussion on birth control, and we pretty much decided that if someone asks us about it, the best we could do would be to refer them to the town doctor. It would be a quick way to get the Amigos thrown out of Huandacareo fast were we to start giving out birth control information or recommending its practice. (In a small Catholic town like this, of course the priest is against birth control. And since we are here at the invitation of Father Pateño…).
Our guys really had a night of it the other night. In the middle of the night they ended up taking a woman who was having a miscarriage to a hospital in a nearby town. Apparently she’s been having it for 1 ½ days and they said she was just a mass of blood in her blankets. The guy who had the key to our truck was not here, so one of our guys had to hot-wire the truck to get it to run. Because of this they said the ignition system was bad and the lights wouldn’t work. So they had to drive through pouring rain with some guys over the hood of the truck holding flashlights as headlights. I understand that they never got to bed till about 4:30 am the next day.
The other day, when we were out talking with the people, I ended up talking with this really old woman. It was really depressing. She said that she hadn’t been able to make tortillas for 6 months, and she didn’t have anything. It was obvious that she was not too far from death, and all she kept saying was, “No hay remido” (There is no remedy). As I said, it was really depressing..
Somehow it just hit me that every moment of this life is precious. In observing all that I do here it hits so hard. It is very depressing and so very discouraging when you see that these people do practically nothing but routine chores every day of their lives. But it has hit hard and it makes me feel strongly that one can’t put off things too long or he will find that he has not life left in which to do them. He must live his life now, and to its fullest. The song “Today” is a favorite of the Amigos and how true; the words are:
I can’t be contented with yesterday’s glories
I can’t live on promises winger to spring
Today is my moment and now is my story
I’ll laugh and I’ll cry and I’ll sing
July 5
The other night Father George (a priest from Boston who is involved with Amigos) said Mass for us here at the boys’ house, and it was really great. It was so unlike the modern church service and so much more like the Last Supper. We all sat around a table together. Father consecrated bolillos (a large roll-type bread that they make here in Mexico) and wine. He broke the bread and passed it around, and he passed around the chalice for everyone to take a sip out of it. It really did a lot to bring the group together.
July 6
It’s 7:30 pm and t he end of another long day. Many Mexicans drink soft drinks which are almost at room temperature, but I am lucky that my family has a refrigerator. I just pulled a 7-up out of the freezer compartment; it’s cold, and does it ever taste good! It’s been a long day with not much rest – my mouth is very dry and my feet hurt a bit. After some running around this morning I ended up typing census forms for a couple of hours. We finally decided on the barrio we’re going to work in, and we’re starting our work out there by taking a census of the area. Then I spent my rest time this afternoon going out to the baños to bathe and wash clothes. I hadn’t been there for 5 days because my foot hadn’t been too happy when it had to walk (it’s fine now), and I must admit that it did feel good to get rid of that dirty, sticky feeling. Then I was out again for 3 ½ hours. My English class of 34 kids is enough to finish off anybody’s voice and make it dry – and then I went census taking, which involves a lot of talking. As I said, the 7-up sure tastes good!
Well, it was just intermission time while I went upstairs to my room, took off my shoes, and put Caladryll on my mosquito bites. Mosquitoes have always loved me, but I’ve always hated them. Right now what I want to do is go to bed, but there is a lot of noise on the street below, and it shouldn’t be long before that piercing juke box starts playing. Ugh! At least the weekend isn’t far away. We also have sort of given up on going to early morning Mass – they like us to go, but it isn’t mandatory. I usually wake up by the Church bells at about 6, but it’s usually 6:30 before I can drag myself out of bed. It’s really hard to get a good night’s sleep during the week because of the noise on the street and the juke box.
July 7
This afternoon it was pouring, so we didn’t go out to our barrio. One of our girls has tourista pretty bad today, so I was at the boys’ house making paper flowers for her. They don’t sell flowers in Huandacareo, so I decided that paper ones would have to do. There was only one hangup – there wasn’t any Kleenex like we used (as materials) at home. So – would you believe paper flowers made out of yellow toilet paper?
Also this afternoon we were putting “decorations” on the wall at the boys’ house. We had a whole bunch of cut out words for the kindergarten that we started plastering on the walls in various ways.
Instead of a 3 day weekend, we’re going to have two 2 day weekends, and so I plan to spend the weekends of July 15th and July 29th in San Pedro. Then there are two weekends that we’re going away as a project because of Saturday meetings – July 22nd we go to Celaya for a study day with all the projects, and Aug 5th we’re all going to the city of Guanajuato for the Mexican priests’ farewell day to all the Amigos. The weekends of Aug 12th and 19th we still get Saturday off and we can go somewhere with our families on Sunday, but we can’t take off for the weekend with the project kids.
We have one big joke going on in the project about the pigs in the back yard of the boys’ house. We swear we’re going to roast them any day now. They keep getting out and invading the kitchen or are known to be running around in the back yard just when someone’s trying to get out to the baño. This morning Father Pateño’s nephew came and tied the pig down with a rope. I wonder how long it will be before he manages to chew the rope off. I think they tried to nail some boards to keep him in too, but knowing that pig, he’d probably find a way to jump the fence. Oh – besides the pig, there are about 5 little pigs running around too.
The kids told me that my Mexican family is not too well liked by the town, especially because of the mother’s attitude, but I am really thankful for my clean living conditions. Apparently they really look down on the poor. I am also beginning to think that it is not all Mexican women who are loud an somewhat dominant, but only a few like this one. Sometimes I feel like she can be a little cold towards me if I am not in the best of spirits, but then when I’m lively and happy she can be quite warm. But let’s face it: I’m out with the people all day, and I do need some time just to be quiet and untalkative. She has been quite a bit warmer lately, especially after she had told me about their family situation with the town priest. I prefer to spend time at the boys’ house, though, although the flies begin to get to you after a while. I feel very close to all the kids on the project this year – more than I even have before – and we do have great times together. We’re always involved in a lot of clowning around and joking, and I always know that I can go to the boys’ house and feel like I really belong. If there’s any place that you need to feel like you’re very much a part of some group, it’s when you’re living so far away from home and in a foreign culture.
We also found out a very interesting bit of information today. First some background: There are two poor ranchos outside of town, one called San Jose Cuaro and the other La Hacienda. Last year one girl and one guy from Amigos lied out at La Hacienda and worked there. This year we plan to send four kids out there every day to work, but not to live there. After visiting both ranchos and much consideration of the pros and cons of going to both ranchos we decided to go to La Hacienda again, despite much pressure from Father Pateño to go to San Jose Cuaro, and we explained our reasons to him. Then we learned today through other sources why Father Pateño wanted us to go to San Jose Cuaro. It seem shat about two years ago Father organized a committee in La Hacienda to collect money from the people, and he told them that the money was going to be used for a church that the Americanos were going to build for them when they came down. Apparently about 600 pesos were raised (1 peso = 8 cents), which is quite a lot for a poor rancho, and nobody knows the whereabouts of the money. We Suspect that Father wanted us to go to San Jose Cuaro so the Americans would not be seen in La Hacienda. For now that we’re out in La Hacienda the people expect us to build a Church for them. This is, of course, the first we ever heard about building a Church and of course the money is nowhere to be seen. It is an interesting situation, to say the least. For the present, when anybody at La Hacienda asks us about the Church we are pretending to know nothing about it. We certainly aren’t going to change our minds and go to San Jose Cuaro just because of this.
A person could drown just trying to get to the baño and back upstairs to her room in this weather! So far I’ve managed to step in a “flood” downstairs, and my clothes are wet too; but now I’ll get in my night clothes and cuddle in my warm bed…
July 10
Last night the Amigos all had cena together, and it was the best meal I’ve had since I’ve been here. We had hamburgers with buns, potato chips, pineapple and cantaloupe salad, soft drinks, and real Milky Way candy bars for dessert. If we keep this up I’m probably going to get fat just on cenas, let alone the rest of the meals we have.
This morning we were out in the barrio and the mud was really bad, approaching what it used to be like in San Pedro, and the solution I’ve found for my boots rubbing is to wear no boots at all. So it should be really delightful when we have kindergarten out there every morning. Our leader said that maybe we can have kindergarten from about 10:30 to 12:30 so the sun will have a little time to dry the mud from the night’s rain, although in August the rains and mud get even worse.
July 13
Well, this has been a day with several little “happenings”. First of all, this morning while we were waiting at the boys’ house for mail, several of us went into “delusions” about the running water and all the different types of food that we missed from home. It was really funny, and we were getting all excited about each item that was mentioned.
My English class has also really begun to perk up. This afternoon the kids were really beginning to show some enthusiasm, and they were asking all sorts of questions, so I could really be more of myself – less strict and with some joking around with the kids. Also, at 5 pm someone was blowing a bugle loud and clear. I suppose that’s the Mexican version of a school bell here!
I was told by (a Mexican, name deleted) that the children of the poor out in the barrios are dirty and it disgusts her. They may not bathe very often but these little kids out there have hearts of gold. As soon as I got out to the barrios this morning some of the kids out there ran over to me and took my hand and went all around the barrio with me while I was talking to people about starting the kindergarten next Monday.
One of the most rewarding moments of the whole summer happened today – but first, some background:
There is a teen-age girl in town who has cerebral palsy and is also susceptible to convulsions. We’ve seen her on the street and she never answers back when we say “Hello”. This morning 3 of us saw her falling out of the door of a store and screaming. She was having an attack and we aren’t sure whether she fell out or whether she was being thrown out in the midst of her attack. It’s really saddening around here – nobody seems to care about her, even her family, and she just wanders around the streets all day long. When she has an attack, no one helps but just look at her. After she had her attack this morning we went over to her and talked to her and helped her get up. We hope that the people around there were able to see that somebody did car about her. She talked to us a little while she was still on the ground, but after she was up and walking she wouldn’t respond to any conversation we tried to start with her. Then, this afternoon, something really great happened: on the way out to the federal school I saw the girl with cerebral palsy and said “Hi” to her. Maybe she remembered me from this morning – but she broke into a smile. Maybe she is finally realizing that we say “Hi” to her because we really want to, and not to make fun of her as I understand the rest of the town often does. On the way back from the school she was still in the same doorway. I stopped and said “Hi” again and asked her her name. It took a bit of being able to understand the language on my part, but she said her name was Lupe. She was also smiling again. Just that one experience has made a lot of things down here worthwhile, and I hope that we’ll be able to give her a little confidence in herself as a person. I can see now that it will be hard when we leave, but if only a part of the town could see this summer that we care about her it would really be great. I wonder if it would be asking too much if we hoped that some of the people here would change their attitude toward her this summer.
July 14
…..Leslie, the girl I came down with, said that her baño is so far away from her house that you have to take a bag lunch to get to it!
…..You may never believe this, but last night when (Mexican “sister”) Lupe and I went to get the pan (bread), we saw a pink dog. No, I’m not crazy – he was pink. He was a little white puppy, but much of his fur was a pink color. I asked Lupe about it and she said that someone had painted him. The pink did not look like sticky, applied paint – except for the color it looked like natural fur.
About Father George: he’s really a character, as are many of the priests associated with Amigos. These guys are as crazy as the kids are. Father George knew Father O’Looney when Father O’ was in Boston for a year. This year we have seven Boston kids on our projects – two of the guys are here in Huandacareo. Lesley came up with the rhyme “Hi, Pad, how’s your bod?” (“Pad” is for the Spanish “Padre” and rhymes with “bod”). Also one of our guys sneaked out and took a picture of Father George on the baño – the distance was too great to see any details, but he was obviously using our renowned baño. So, as you can see, these Amigos priests are involved in as many pranks as the kids. (I think Father George may have tried to get a picture of the guy who took his picture in the same setting.) We’ve also had a Father Miles here – I think he may have something to do with the seminarians because when he first met me he called me Minnie (I think I told you about the Mickey and Minnie Mouse bit that our seminarian on the San Pedro project and I had going last hear.) Father Miles is noted for his swinging guitar playing and singing.
July 16 – San Pedro (Wylda’s 1966 posting)
About San Pedro – I had most of the day in San Pedro before I’d gotten whatever-it-was (allergic attack of some kind – CC) and it was really great. Was I ever getting itchy as I was getting close! I had a great time seeing everybody, and there was no doubt that I was the happiest with the Mexican people since I’d been in Mexico this year. The people were just bubbling when I saw them, and even Father Malagón seemed to be at his most jovial. There’s no doubt about it – I did leave my heart in San Pedro, and I surely wish I were there again. I do hope that once the kindergarten gets going and I get to know the people out in the barrio a little better, that I’ll be able to get more involved in Huandacareo. San Pedro was smaller, and I liked the smallness and the closeness of the town better.
As for why we aren’t back there (and everybody was asking us why) – Elmo (a seminarian who was on the project last year) talked to Father Malagón since Father had seemed somewhat confused about it. Father says that he had asked for twelve people for this year, and up in the States we couldn’t get anything but vague answers from Father and no real invitation to come back. We don’t know what happened. There’s always the possibility that Father didn’t invite us back, but then there were repercussions from the people when no Amigos came and then Father wished he had asked for some, so said he had requested twelve. Or it could have been a big mix-up; I don’t know. Elmo says that Father does want Amigos in San Pedro again next year and that he wants Elmo and me there for the rest of this summer as a carry-over as he thought the years without anybody there would be kind of hard. I don’t know if he’s planning to talk to anybody to try to get us transferred there or not. Elmo and I would sure love it, especially since in all probability neither of us will be back with Amigos next year when maybe a group does go to San Pedro again. I rather doubt that Amigos would transfer us, though. I certainly had a great time there. Everything was just as I remembered it, though, of course, all the kids I had worked with were a year older and a year bigger.
July 18 (Back in Huandacareo)
I just got back from the boys’ house where some of the girls are in a panic. It has been decided that the whole project is to go into Morelia for blood tests to test for active cases of typhoid and typhoid carriers (at least we’ll know if I’m carrying typhoid – so I can be sure not to bring it back as a present). I’m a little apprehensive, as I don’t like needles but the way some of those girls were acting you’d think they’d never had a blood test in their lives. I think I’m supposed to go in with the shift that goes in tomorrow morning.
July 19
I’m sitting in the plaza in Morelia. We still haven’t gotten our blood tests; we got there about 1:30 and were told to come back at 4:00. Almost everything around here is closed from 1 to 4. We can’t even do some of the shopping we need to do. This morning we went to the bank to cash a check for $100. And they told us they’d have to call the bank in Apaseo to check to see if we have money in our account. After waiting for 40 minutes they came back and told us that they hadn’t finished checking it and that we’ll have to come back at 5 pm. This place is unbelievable! I’m exhausted – in 3 hrs all we’ve managed to do is eat comida and do some grocery shopping. The rest of the places we’ll have to go back to.
Well, it looks as if we’re going to get out of our fly trap. The madres said they wouldn’t get rid of the pigs, so that, plus other things, made the guys start looking for another place to live. The old place even had dirt walls in the kitchen. Well, we have one. I haven’t seen it yet but I understand that it’s quite a bit nicer. Hurray!
Last night I had to run the 50 yard dash just to get to the baño and to bed before all hell broke loose. Whe it gets really windy with a cloudy sky, you know you’d better find yourself some shelter for a while or else you’ll drown.
Evening:
Well, when we got our blood tests we found that 3 out of the 4 kids who had the test yesterday were carrying paratyphoid (less serious than typhoid). Actually, we’re not that worried about it, and we’re going to talk to our Amigos doctor (the guy who married an Amigo) on Saturday to see what we should do next. I wouldn’t panic about it, though – Our nurse said that even though I may register positive it would be very unlikely that I’d pass on any of it to you up in the States (conditions are so much cleaner there and it’s carried by the flies down here). The kids who go in tomorrow may be able to get our results from today.
July 20
Today was my first day teaching kindergarten. It looks like it will be a lot of fun and extremely exhausting – a bit on the rambunctious and noisy side at times. Let’s face it: trying to keep 30 or so little rascals in some semblance of a quiet state is an awful lot harder in Spanish than it is in English. Have you ever tried teaching the “Hokey Pokey” in Spanish? That was one of my endeavors for today and t he kids really did seem to like it. The problem with teaching (especially the younger grades) is that you have to out-shout all the students combined in order to maintain any semblance of order. And for the present we’re holding kindergarten out in the hot sun. If today was any indication of what’s to come, though it promises to be quite exhausting, it (kinder) also promises to be the funnest thing and quite probably the most rewarding thing that I’m doing down here. It seems like I can always get the most involved with the kids. Last year it was that show we put on..
My English class is also looking up. This afternoon I taught them “Supercalifragilisticexpialidociouis” in Spanish – they knew some of it but not all. Next week I plan to begin on the English!
On the way to my English class I saw that the girl with cerebral palsy, Lupe, had had an attack and way lying in the street. I went over and sat with her until she could sit up, and several people gathered around. Some of the Mexican girls were talking to her too. Because of the language barrier it was hard to tell if they were being friendly to her or if they were making fun of her, but from the tone of their voices I think there were really trying to be friendly and encourage her.
July 21
I came out OK on my blood test! Out of 8 who have had it, I was one of 3 who registered lowest in regard to carrying any of the Typhoid-Paratyphoid bugs. We may all be taking medicine anyway to make sure we’re not carrying a bit of it when we go back home.
Boy, it’s the end of another exhausting day! Kinder was extremely exhausting, but very rewarding again. All the time they were learning numbers they asked me if they were going to get to do the “Hokey-Pokey”. They must really like it. I also taught them the bit I learned in elementary school P.E. about lying on the floor and trying to wiggle a penny off their nose. They were so anxious to do it that they were almost fighting to get to be the one to do it. They were quite impatient about waiting their turn, but they certainly did enjoy it and were laughing all the time. Ever since the Kinder started I have started to feel some real satisfactions in the work I am doing down here and much more content, though I certainly still look forward to getting home. I also now have a “vaso” in my room (it’s really a glass from the kitchen, but it serves the purpose of a vase). All the kids in the Kinder bring us flowers from the fields and fruit, so it looks like I’ll be keeping fresh flowers in my room for the rest of the summer.
Terry Martin and I spent the afternoon making nine jillion sandwiches for the study day tomorrow in Celaya while the other kids were moving stuff from the old boys’ house to the new one that we’re renting. The new one will cost us (Amigos) 100-150 pesos ($8-$12) per month to rent, but it will be worth it. (I think we got the old house free from Father Pateño.) They cleaned it out this afternoon wit quite a few Mexicans getting in to help. It is big, clean, has our own well, etc. (When we were in the old house the guys had to carry water from the plaza.) It looks too like it will be a much easier job to cook and wash dishes. Also, there are no animals, which means that there will be very few flies. Hurray! It is only about a block up from here, so it’s a lot closer to where most of the girls live too.
Evening Note: There were 8 of us who stayed together in Celaya after the Study Day and we really had a ball. We found these terrific places to eat and I’m sure we all gained a million pounds. We found real toast, milk, lemon meringue pie, pineapple cake, chocolate ice cream, and a Mexican dish that is quite similar to sausage pizza. You’d never believe the ecstasy we were in! The lemon pie was so good last night that we even had it with breakfast this morning. If there’s anything our project gets delirious about, it’s the foods we miss and running water.
July 24
Boy, was kinder ever something this morning! I was the only American out with my class and some young kids who are not in the class decided to come over and harass the class. Both I and the teacher of the other class were really burning inside because of these kids – because of their annoyances I couldn’t start class for about 45 minutes. The guys were out in the fields with the Mexican men today, but both I and the other teacher (our girl project leader) agreed that we just have to have a guy assigned out there each day, to throw those kids out forcefully if necessary. We’re out in the open in a sense, so it’s impossible to lock ourselves in or them out. The few harassers were making more noise than the whole class together, and I really felt sorry for the class. Once we half-way got rid of the other kids the class went fine.
July 25
The rest of the kids got their blood test results, and they said that some of them are carrying typhoid and paratyphoid to the highest degree possible. (They had their tests done at a different lab, though, and knowing Mexico we aren’t exactly sure how reliable any of the results are.) They were also told that the low level of my results was just the indication of the vaccine that we had. We now have all the results, and I’m one out of 4 – out of 14 in all – who are not carrying anything except the vaccine. The other kids aren’t worried about it – we’ve been told that by taking the right antibiotic (a pill) for a few days you can completely clear yourself of it.
I went out to the federal school for my class this afternoon, only to find out that classes had been canceled for the day. It was just as well; there was a meeting scheduled for this afternoon for our Kinder teachers to meet with the Mexican girls who are helping us and who will be taking over the class. None of our kids were there when I got there, so I decided to start without them. We talked about tracking the Kinder, the aims of Amigos, etc. and I taught them several of the games that I had learned in elementary school PE so they could teach the kids. Just as I was taking off at about 6 pm – it looked like it was going to rain – the others came. (They had overslept – or something.. and so had gotten there 1 ½ hours late.) We stayed to talk for a few minutes. Meanwhile it started to pour, so we stayed in one of the girl’s houses for talking for about an hour. When the rain finally let up a bit for a little while we slid home in the mud and light rain.
July 26
This morning we had our guys out at kinder to keep the hecklers away. They did a good job – it almost required policing the hecklers – and the class went fine and is continuing to be a lot of fun. Today we had the Mexican girls who are helping us take over the class. This is the idea – to phase ourselves out – so that they can teach the classes when we leave. The kinder has been extremely popular, with kids from all over the place trying to get in it, so we’re thinking of leaving the present one to these girls and trying to get another one started in another section of town in early August.
We have a new project member – a nursing student from Providence Hospital. Every year we have some nurses who can’t make it down till July – I don’t think Providence classes end till July. We also have a guy that will be joining us for the last few weeks. He is the nephew of the guy who happened to take down the first group of Amigos and he was originally assigned to Huandacareo for the summer. However he had some problems with the draft, so can’t get down till August.
I’ve been working on improvising some simple stuff to some of my square dance records and while I was at it I put on some of the calls and started dancing. I’m alone in my room – which is fairly large – but it’s hard to keep your balance while doing square dance steps without a partner.
July 27
Recently I’ve been teaching my 6th grade English class the song “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” in English. They already have an acquaintance with it in Spanish so now they’ll know it in both languages. They really seem to enjoy it.
I think the time has come to drag myself to the baños again – my feet are on the golden brown side of things and I can’t tell if it’s suntan or dirt! I think it’s about time for the day of truth to arrive. Also, tomorrow I have to finish writing those dances for the Kindergarten kids.
July 28
Last night we had a really good discussion on what some of our aims are down here. It was the most open discussion that we’ve had as a group so far. We had some wine too, and although nobody was drunk, people were feeling pretty relaxed and good. The wine was quite sweet and didn’t taste bad, so I had some too. I didn’t think I’d had that much, but it must have affected me some because at the end of the evening I started laughing and crying with emotion at the same time. I had a bit of trouble getting to sleep later on – I kept having short dreams and tossing and turning.
This morning I woke up with some tourista, but no vomiting. Some of the other kids had been affected too. I think it was probably from the wine.
No sooner was I beginning to get over that at about 11 am than I began to break out in my “purple and pink polka dot measles” allergy again. Lupe went up to the barrio to get Vicki (our nurse) and she gave me an anti-allergy shot. (Note: it turned out that Wylda was allergic to Sulfa drugs. which her state-side doctor had given her to take in case of turista.. We found this out later..)
Yesterday we tried letting the leader of that gang of hecklers we had had into the class. One of our guys had talked to him, and - whatever our guy said – our little heckler was really a little angel yesterday. Partly what these kids need is to have some confidence put in them, so I tried asking his opinion on games the boys could play etc. I think he may work out in the class after all.
July 29
Hi again, and greetings from the old drunk woman (remember the wine Thursday night?)
I witnessed another “shocking” thing this morning. I was at Father Pateño’s looking for the mail this morning, when Lupe (the girl with cerebral palsy) came to the door. (I’ve seen her wander over to Father’s before – I think she comes to see him.) But the big main door is usually open and people can just come in and ask for him. This time when Lupe was coming to the door, one of Father’s nephews (about age 12) tried to run to the door and lock Lupe out. Luckily, someone caught him and gave him a scolding for it. When Lupe was inside sitting down I asked her who she was looking for, and she said that she was looking for Father. However, as I took off before Father got back I don’t know what happened after that.
It’s been a lazy weekend off, so t here’s not too much news. Maybe it’s good that it happened this way, instead of having four big weekends in a row with no sleep. Oh, I finally got out to the baños, and the diagnosis is about half suntan and half dirt. The dirt was so bad that when I was drying my wet leg with the towel the ground-in dirt was still coming off. I simply have to drag myself out the baños more often!
(Wylda and “sis” Lupe had started an apron earlier in the summer..) My apron is finally finished, although I had to give up on the idea of making it myself. My family doesn’t’ have too much concept of patiently helping someone to learn to do something themselves. Granted, I needed to be shown how to do some things (like using a treadle style sewing machine..), but then I had wanted to try it myself.. but, in the process of Lupe showing me how to do things, her mother decided that she didn’t like the way Lupe was doing it, so she decided to take it over and work on it. At first I felt sort of bad about it because I hadn’t intended for the mother to have to make it for me. However, some things that she said while making it changed that feeling pretty fast. I gather that she had wanted to make it for me, but hadn’t because she thought I was going to do it by myself. She sews really well – it hardly took her any time at all to do it – and she wanted me to have it to remember her/them by.
July 31
The highlight of the day was cena. I managed to scrape together the ingredients for a potato salad and was it ever good! I also had the juice of two fairly juicy oranges. They (my family) have caught on to the fact that I like fruits and juices and occasionally I get them. As long as it’s not a fruit I’m not supposed to eat, I’ll eat just about any fruit or juice!
August 1
I’ve been somewhat on the depressed side for a few days. While letting the Mexican girls teach the kinder is not nearly as much work for us, it is a little more on the boring side when you have to sit around more in an advisory capacity. We do help the kids too, but it’s much harder to get involved when for the most part you’re listening to someone else read the stories, do the teaching, and so forth. Being able to help individual kids helps a lot, but it’s the just-sitting bit that gets boring at times.
(Wylda reaches a breaking point.. of sorts..)
I’ve decided that I haven’t been myself this summer. For some reason I’ve felt reserved when I’ve had crazy ideas or sometimes when I’ve had crazy things to say, so I decided that the crazy kid you know in the States had to be around somewhere. I’ve been greatly cheered up in anticipation..
(I was) getting things ready for tomorrow, which included a little bit of simple sowing – a long banner-like thing like beauty contestants wear. (Would you believe that – except for a bit of instruction on how to use this particular machine – I got to make it myself?) Anyway, tomorrow I am going to be myself: “MISS TAKE OF 1945”. (Even I can think of a pun occasionally.) For a description of the finished product (more or less): I’ll be wearing a black pleated skirt with a big guy’s shirt over it, and I’ll have some pink pajama bottoms under my skirt. Over the shirt I’ll be wearing the “MISS TAKE” banner (like a beauty contestant). It will be fastened with clothes pins, and I’m sure there will be a few other old clothes pins clipped to me in various places. My face will be a spontaneous mess of red, black, blue, purple and green colors, although I’m sure my tic-tac-toe game will end up on it somewhere. My hair I plan to have ratted and in some type of pony-tail arrangement (not necessarily one on each side..). Lastly, neatly perched on the top of my head as a hat (and I hope it will stay) will be an old beer can. I plan to tie it down with some scraps of the sash material.
And as for when and where I’m planning to do this? Our jefe (project leader) is making breakfast tomorrow for fun and I’m going to help him. I plan to get there a little early to put my face on, etc. I don’t dare walk through the streets like that (and I hope it all comes off before kinder!). None of our kids know that I’m going to do it yet (not even our project leader) and I think that they’re going to have a bit of a surprise in the morning when they find out not only what’s for breakfast, but also what’s cooking breakfast!
August 2
This morning went beautifully! I just wish that we had a camera so that when each person started to walk into the kitchen where I was cooking it would have taken their picture. The reactions were priceless – everything from just breaking into laughter to people turning around and running in the other direction yelling “I didn’t see it, I didn’t see it!”
Father Pateño’s Feast Day (here they celebrate the Saint’s Day instead of the birthday) is next Tuesday, and t he Americanos have been asked to do something for it. Some of the kids want to do a Spanish version of the Amigo’s song. The particularly mentioned the verses you wrote (I did a semi-parody as a send-off for Wylda’s 1966 year in Mexico – Chuck) and wanted me to write a translation of them. It’s a little hard to do that and keep the rhyme and all, but I’m trying to retain a few ideas if possible. We still aren’t sure yet if that’s what we’re going to do, though.
Kindergarten was looking up today, due to one small thing. During the story one of the little girls decided to rest her head on my shoulder and another ran beside me so I put my arm around her. The love of those kids, communicated by the miracle of one person’s touching another, really made me feel warm and happy inside.
August 3
Well, we decided not to sing the Amigos “theme” song (Spanish version), for Father’s Feast Day, but to sing a medley of American songs, one of them being “Happy Days Are Here Again”. For the last song we are singing “More” – first in English and then in Spanish.
Tomorrow afternoon there is a PTA meeting at the federal school, and then tomorrow night the Americanos are putting on a big fiesta and dance at the boys’ house – it sure will feel good to move to some music again; then this weekend all the projects are gathering in the city of Guanajuato for a reunion-meeting type thing. Word has it that Father O’Looney is supposed to show up there and then spend his vacation down here with us. I’m really looking forward to seeing him.
August 4
I’m not sick and I did get to Guanajuato!
Remember when we let the leader of that gang of hecklers into the class? Well, ever since we let him in officially he hasn’t shown up for class. That’s really kid psychology in action.
August 6
I’m back from a great, but exhausting weekend.
About the party Friday night – it was really fun, but I seem to have a new admirer. His name is Jose and he’s a 3rd grade teacher at the federal school. I finally managed to find an appropriate time to tell him that I HAVE a boyfriend.
August 9
Things have been going great down here – I’ve been all smiles and having a ball. There is so much to do these last couple of weeks that I doubt I’ll have time to write (as much)… I’ve been mostly doing a lot of extra things out at the federal school. Now that the school teacher knows I have a boy friend I feel much more free about being open and friendly towards him. I’ve spent more time in his class just watching him teach and paying particular attention to his methods and how he treats the kids. I’m really glad that I’ve had the opportunity.
I’m hoping that one day next week our project leader will let me spend the whole day at the federal school so I can go through the entire school day with the kids and see the overall picture.
August 13 (Happy Birthday, Wylda!)
Right now I’m sitting and waiting for a bus to Huandacareo on my last transfer point from San Pedro. From what a woman just told me, I think I just missed a bus going from Moralia to Huandacareo – the busses are an hour apart.
Friday I barely got a chance to breathe. I didn’t finish my day’s work until some of us got back from drudging through the mud up by the federal school to see a sick little boy that I’d found earlier in the day. This was about 9 pm and by the time I got my stuff ready to take off for San Pedro early the next morning I was too tired to do anything but fall into bed.
I had a great weekend in San Pedro, but it was both emotionally and physically exhausting and a few tears came to my eyes as I said good-bye. Last year when I said that I knew I was coming back: this year I know that I may never see these people again unless sometime maybe I’m able to come down for a vacation. There are so many mixed emotions during these last few days – and while I’m anxious to get home, in some ways I don’t want to leave. I feel as if I’m losing something that I may never see again. Parting from the people down here is going to be extremely hard – in some ways I wish I were already home so I wouldn’t have to go through it. And today, when I was in San Pedro, some of the kids came over and kissed my hand when they saw me (In Mexico it is the custom to kiss the priest’s hand when you see him, a custom which the Amigos have never thought much of and luckily one which they are not expected to follow.) I really felt a little uncomfortable having these few kids who did it treat me with such “reverence” instead of more on the friend level. There really wasn’t too much that I could say or do that I knew of to let them know t hat it wasn’t necessary to kiss my hand. What hit me the hardest, though, was how much them must of thought of the Amigos to have the kids react in this way when they saw me again.
August 16
This is probably the last letter you will get from Mexico.
Yesterday out in kinder we were playing a game where a certain person chosen by another has to dance in the middle of the circle. Most of the kids just sort of skip around, but as I was in a pretty good mood, I was bouncing around like a nut, quite befitting my nickname “Bouncy Ball”. One of the women who always watch kinder came over to me and told me they were going to remember me well after I left – maybe they aren’t used to seeing a real live kook. It did make me feel good inside and as if I have been appreciated out there.
Today I went back to 3rd grade. Our leader had given permission to go through classes with the kids at the federal school one day, and I really became part of Pepe’s 3rd grade. The kids naturally decided that I was part of the class and the day certainly did have its moments. When we were taking dictation, Pepe’s first word was “aparte”, so I wrote it on my paper. Well, wouldn’t you know that “aparte” means to start a new paragraph? All the kids got a big laugh out of that. Then, when it was time to go outside for recess and the kids marched outside, they naturally put me in front of the like because I was the tallest girl. I did feel a little dumb marching around the schoolyard, but I break into laughter every time I think about it. It was a great day and I’m sure I’ll always remember it.