Adios Amigos

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Arriaga, Chiapas:

Thank you for so generously and warmly welcoming us into your community.  You especially made us feel loved by all your attempts to communicate with us even when it was difficult because we know so little Spanish.  Thank you for inviting us into your homes and feeding us your yummy food.  Thank you for helping us with many simple tasks which were complicated for us by being foreign. 

Thank you for the example you have been to us, in living by faith daily.  We will remember your numerous testimonies of how you . . ."love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. [You] love him with all your mind and with all your strength.  [And you love] your neighbor as you love yourself."
God has planted you in our hearts.  When we are back in Canada, we'll continue to remember you and pray for you.  We are also taking a bit of Chiapas home with us in my belly.  Timoteo, our Chiapaneco baby, will not forget where his life began.

See you again, hopefully soon.

Dios los bendiga. 

Love Sam, Wendy, Hannah, Jude, Jeremiah, and Timoteo

Perpetual August

The other day Sam reminded me that we needed to speak to someone about an event in November.  I thought to myself, "Why would we talk to them now, it's only August.  That's three months away!"

Due to the weather and vegetation here, I have this sense that it is still August, that it is August everywhere in the world, and that it will be August forever.  I can't fathom that the leaves are falling off the trees in Ontario, nor that my fingers and toes are soon to be cold.  Nah, that can't be.  It's 30 degrees out tonight and it's still August.

Chiapas Artistry

One of the workers at the orphanage was bemoaning the lack of art in her culture.  After questioning her, I think what she meant was that there was little art typical of traditional European styles.  I found this a very interesting complaint because it says a lot about her definition of art. 

The truth is, I haven't visited an art gallery while here.  I don't know if one even exists in this town.  But what I do know is that the people here certainly have a sense of aesthetics and artistry. 

I've been enjoying simple messages read in their artistry.  For example, the decorations on this house.  It's nothing complicated, but is is life affirming and it's refreshing for me.















This isn't to say, all the art is naive and simplistic.  Mexico has a huge tradition of printmaking and public art in the form of murals.  Here is part of some recent graffiti recognizing The Night of Tlatelolco.

I don't know.  Perhaps, my appreciation and enjoyment is mostly influenced by the contrasts between two vastly different cultures.  Maybe if it was my own culture, I would wish for something from other parts of the world.  Either way, I know my artistic side has been fed while here, despite fasting from art galleries. 

Update for September in Mexico

October 10th, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving Day, everyone!

  



  View at the ranch from the bunkhouse

 

Well, we have about one week left in Arriaga, Mexico and it is a sad happy time for our family. We are saying tearful goodbyes to dear friends, wondering when we will see each other again. We want to return here, but do not know when that will happen. At the same time, our hearts are eager to return to our family, friends and home in Canada.

The rainy season seems to be coming to an end. The moss and mold in our backyard is beginning to die away, and we have beautiful sunny days with lovely breezes keeping us comfortable. These breezes will grow in intensity as the windy season arrives. The people of Arriaga are called “the people who eat dirt” because so much dirt and debris blows around that it ends up everywhere, including one's mouth.  (After I wrote this, we got 24 hours of steady rain!)

 

September was a productive month at the ranch. The blockhouse is nearly finished. The floor remains to be completed before the block machine can be installed and wired. The bunkhouse has also been moving along rapidly. Plumbing and gas lines are being installed and the walls are receiving a smooth topcoat. Wiring in the previously run conduit will begin soon.  While there is lots of work to be done, it is encouraging to see what was accomplished in one month.

 

 

   

Last month we wrote that El Faro had decided to begin homeschooling all of the children. One big decision about homeschooling, was the choice to make it a bilingual school. Many of the children are able to understand English, but are hesitant to speak it. Through the placement testing, Bill and Tammy got a better understanding of their students' ability in English and were pleasantly surprised by the results. It will still be a challenge for the students to transition into subjects taught completely in English.

 

We enjoyed a two week visit from Andrea and Nick Hourd, a young couple from our church in London. Nick helped with wiring at the orphanage. Two new air conditioners are now working in the classrooms, thanks to his hard work. Andrea helped with painting at the orphanage and blessed me with cooking and grocery shopping. Most of all, we loved being able to spend our evenings talking and playing games together. This is something we've missed, time visiting with other young couples(in English).

  

Sorry, this letter is brief, but we wanted to let you know how we are doing in the midst of packing up. We look forward to seeing you soon and catching up on all that we've missed in the past 9 months.

 

Love Sam, Wendy, Hannah, Jude, Jeremiah and Baby Dieleman

Prayer Items:

• Thanks for the work completed at the ranch.
• Grace and patience for the transition into the bilingual homeschool curriculum.
• Supply of workers and helpers at the orphanage.
• A Mexican worker for the babies is still needed.
• Safe traveling for our return to Canada.

Weiners Mexican Style

When we first arrived, we noticed that hotdogs were a popular item at potluck dinners.  They were popular in the form of hotdog salads.

These salads were served at a Youth event.  We were at the end of the line and you can see that we had to scrape the bottoms of some of these bowls.  Now lest you think this is some new fad for the hip young Mexicans, this is what we found in Walmart today, more than a dozen types of hotdog salads.

 These are not just chopped hotdogs with mayonnaise (con limón), but these are gourmet hotdog salads.

Now I'm not a fan of hotdogs.  I don't buy them or serve them and try not to eat them.  So I hope that my family and friends don't get any bright ideas for next summer's picnics because what I am really looking forward to is lime-jello-marshmallow-cottage-cheese-surprise.

Taller de Lenateros

I have a love for paper.  I like paper making, handmade papers, paper from different parts of the world, different types of paper . . . . In short, I should not be left unattended in a paper shop.  So it was a real treat to visit Taller de Lenateros in San Cristobal. 

Taller de Lenateros is a workshop begun in 1975, where artisans use local materials to make paper.  The paper is printed, made into books or molded.  This short YouTube video gives you a glimps of the artisans at work.



I spent less than half of my birthday money and it was well spent. 

I look forward to using these Chiapaneco papers!



Visible Poverty

Man sleeping on church steps in San Cristobal

In Canada, our children observe very little evidence of poverty, aside from a few individuals asking for money at stoplights.  Here they see examples of it each day, examples which are more extreme than the poverty seen in Canada:

• People risking their lives by riding north to the USA on the tops of trains.
• People sleeping on the streets.
• Inebriated people passed out on the sidewalks.
• People asking for money everywhere.
• Children selling goods to help support their families.
• Elderly and disabled people begging outside the grocery store.
• Children coming to our door, asking for food.
• People walking without shoes and wearing scraps of very dirty clothing.
• One room shacks serving as homes.
• People searching through garbage for salvageable materials.
• Stray dogs wandering everywhere.




People riding the train north, hoping to make a better life in the United States

 
Mostly, our children don't comment on what they see, but I know they are watching and thinking.  As a parent, we try to answer their questions, but the issues are complex.  What is the right answer?  Should Hannah buy bracelets from a girl her age so the girl makes some money, or should she buy it from an individual of a more reasonable employable age?   The answers that work in Canada do not necessarily exist or work in Mexico. 

Recently, Hannah, Jude and Jeremiah were waiting outside a market stand while I navigated the narrow aisles buying vegetables.  Hannah urgently came to find me because she saw a man with a huge stick hit a poor man over the head.  The man sat down on the side of the road holding his bleeding head while people watched. 

It would be simpler if our children didn't witness these examples of poverty, but it is not an option here.  My prayer is that our children will have compassion and not be desensitized.  After the market incident, I asked Hannah what she thought and she said she didn't know, but it made her feel strange.  I interpret that to be a sign of her tender heart, confused by what she is witnessing.

The Spirit of the Lord and King is on me.
      The Lord has anointed me
      to tell the good news to poor people.
   He has sent me to comfort
      those whose hearts have been broken.
   He has sent me to announce freedom
      for those who have been captured.
   He wants me to set prisoners free
      from their dark prisons.
 ² He has sent me to announce the year
      when he will set his people free.
   He wants me to announce the day
      when he will pay his enemies back.
   Our God has sent me to comfort all those who are sad.
    ³ He wants me to help those in Zion who are filled with sorrow.
   I will put beautiful crowns on their heads
      in place of ashes.
   I will anoint them with oil to give them gladness
      instead of sorrow.
   I will give them a spirit of praise
      in place of a spirit of sadness.
   They will be like oak trees that are strong and straight.
      The Lord himself will plant them in the land.
      That will show how glorious he is.

From Isaiah 61 NIRV





Mexican Independence Day

Mexico recently celebrated their Independence Day.

All the school children paraded past the government buildings in formation.

They stopped and saluted the flag and the government officials and then marched on.



The fair was here for the same week. 

"Unfortunately" our children missed out on the fair this year, though I am completely at peace with this for a fair in Arriaga is not for the faint of heart.  (Safety standards are optional here.)   

A Visit from Canadian Friends

We are enjoying a visit from two fantastic friends.  What a blessing it is to share meals together,  laugh together, talk at length, and just be in eachother's presence! 

Guanacaste Tree

This is a guanacaste tree, a local source of lumber.  It produces a beautiful dark redish brown wood which is resistant to water and termites.  Our closet doors are made of this wood, and at El Faro most of the desks, bookshelves, and tables are made from it.

This is the remains of a felled tree at a brother's ranch.  His carpenter cuts off chunks as needed.

This is the carpenter's workshop.

Here are slabs of wood waiting to be turned into beautiful furniture.

This is the highchair that he is making for our favourite local cafe.

Japanese Bound Books are Done!

One by one the older girls at El Faro have made their own Japanese bound books.  The books turned out wonderful and you can see by their smiles that they are proud of their work.

And I am proud of their work too!

A Very Canadian Moment

The other evening I acted like a true Canadian in Arriaga.  

First, a primer in Mexican advertising:  there are no classifieds, no Penny Savers, and no fliers delivered to your door.  Instead, you pay someone who has a speaker on their car to drive around town announcing your amazing iguana meat for sale, or your wonderful Tlyudas from Oaxaca, or the date and time of your spouse's funeral.  If you live in a really small town, they don't bother driving around, they just put a speaker up on a pole and make announcements all day long(often 4 times, once in each direction).  The announcers don't read in boring monotone voices, but dramatize, like sport's announcers.

Until recently I've thought of this as an unusual and loud but a reasonable solution for advertising in this society.  That was until I experienced a stationary announcement . . .  a single announcement . . .  repeatedly . .  loudly . . . with speakers directed at my house . . . at 9 pm . . .  when my children were suppose to go to sleep . . . for more than 20 minutes.  My Canadian ways of thinking began to surface.  "This is crazy!"  "How can they be allowed to do this?"  "In Canada we would call the police for disturbing the peace!"  After fuming to myself, I decided I would take action and tell them to turn it down, as we had already heard their announcement to remember it till we die and maybe even later.

The problem with my plan was that I don't know how to politely (or rudely) tell someone to turn it down in Spanish.  So I asked my friend who works in the cafe next door about my problem.  I asked her if it was permitted to leave the announcements pouring on a few unfortunate houses.  Her sympathetic reply with a smile was, "In Mexico, yes."  But, being a good friend, she went and asked them to turn it down.  The dial was turned down a millimeter and I returned home to marvel at the differences between life in Mexico and Canada.  Eventually they turned it off or left to bother someone else. 

Progress on the Bunkhouse

The bunkhouse is a building on the ranch which is intended to host work teams.  There will be ample room for a team to stay while working on the ranch.  Currently work teams stay in a hotel in town and travel to and from the ranch each day.  When we first visited the ranch a year ago, it looked like this:

It had been looking like this for a few years, and aside from some walls build a year or two ago, not much has changed until last month. 

Now, it is beginning to have walls and soon it will have a roof too!

The above grassy area will be a covered tiled porch where hammocks will be hung.  Ahhhh, lovely siestas after a morning of good work!

Buildings are constructed very differently here than in Canada.  First a wall is built with bricks.  Gaps are left between the sections of the wall.  These spaces are closed in on both sides with wooden panels and cement is poured into the gaps.  After the panels are removed you have your "framing".  Sam hopes to add some blog entrys soon about Mexican construction, for those interested.

For any really keen construction minded persons, the bunk-house is a combination of international building styles. It was started by a team from the US, the leader's experience was in building high rises!  It will be finished by Mexican bricklayers, welders and roofers, and plumbed and wired by Canadians, Americans and . . .?



Turtle from Tlyuda Lady

These are tlyudas, a Oaxacan food.  Since we live just a few minutes from the Chiapas/Oaxaca state boarder, we a blessed to have tlyudas available in Arriaga.  They are so yummy!  They are dinner-plate-sized corn tortillas filled with refried beans, Oaxacain cheese, cabbage, and meat, grilled over a charcoal fire.  Of course there are many variations of tlyudas, but this what is inside "tlyuda lady's" tlyudas.  She is from Oaxaca and comes to Arriaga each weekend to sell tlyudas.  She opens up the gates to her driveway and sets up shop in her courtyard, working from the tiny kitchen.  (Many people will set up small food stands this way to earn extra money.) Once she has made enough money for the weekend, she closes up shop and goes back to Oaxaca.  Too bad for you if you don't come the first night, and she is already gone.

Since we like her's best of all the tlyudas we have tried, her's are "authentic" in our minds.  Each weekend we make it our "duty" to have one meal of tlyudas.  Tlyuda lady keeps track of us.  She knows how many we like to eat and she notices when we don't show up. We know this because she comments to other Gringos about our habits.

Well, a week ago she gave us a turtle along with our tlyudas.  Sort of a treat-of-the-week to go along with our meal, I guess.

I don't know much about turtles, much less Mexican turtles. I had to Google how to take care of him.  Funny thing is he doesn't like to eat what I am suppose to feed him.  He only seems to like the meat found inside tlyudas.  The neat thing about our turtle is the bottom plate of its shell has two hinges.  It can pull up the back and front thirds, completely closing itself inside. 

The kids named the turtle Papaya and a friend has agreed to take over our pet when we leave.  She has a lovely backyard full of plants and I'm sure Papaya won't miss us - that is unless our friend doesn't feed him "authentic" tlyudas.