Medical Tests and Other Stuff, in Chacala

Today is the Saturday before Christmas. Which is not one of my favorite days of the year. But I like it better in Chacala than in other places I have spent Christmas.

This morning I wanted to make a quick trip into Las Varas to get the results of my A1C glucose test. I got up, had breakfast, and walked out to the road. Someone came by immediately and gave me a ride into town. I walked around the corner to the Analysis Laboratia place. The lab technician had my envelope ready. I can't remember if I mentioned that you can just go in and ask for the results of whatever test you want to take them do on your body fluids. No prescription needed if you know the name of the test in Spaniosh. The results for simple tests are usually ready later in the same afternoon . The actual testing in done in Tepic, about an hour and a half to the north. They fax the results down to the Las Varas office. The results didn’t look good. They are presented in a different measuring system than they use in the U.S., so I need to go do some internet research to see just how bad. I have been trying to get by on some cheaper diabetes drugs without the newly discovered side effect of causing the retinal wall to bleed. They have just this lovely side effect in my regular drug Avantia/Avandia. I guess I will have to take my chances with the side effect roulette. At $45 a week, U.S. that’s $6 a pill. And I am taking the smallest dose. The size I probably should be taking is $10 a pill.
Bizarro. Walked across the highway from the lab, heading back to Chacala. A non-Chacala collectivo, with a load of people heading to work in Chacala, stopped for me. The driver knew my name, as did most of the other passengers. It feels odd but nice to have so many people know my name. They seem friendly, so I don’t think they are making fun of me.
I borrowed Guuillermo’s ladder again, and installed a blue tarp sun screen on the west side of the patio. I hate those tarps, but Dona Lupe likes them, and it’s okay. It was scary installing it. The wind was blowing in gusts and the tarp was flying all around. But it worked out. We are having another crazy weather day. Very unusual for Chacala. Sunny, windy, a little rain, sunny, windy, changing very half hour or so.

I have been invited to a couple of gringo-oriented Christmas Eve festivities this year. Don’t know what I will do. Maybe have some quiet time at home. Some people who were here last year brought me a New Yorker, a new Shambala Sun, and three mysteries that look great. How nice. Really. Last week Marjorie brought me the best chocolate bar I ever had. I had eaten it in about 10 hours. In three pieces. Dark chocolate is soo good. It’s a new treat for me. And I really like it.
The Shamabala Sun is a very easy reading Buddhist-focused magazine. I have kept the copies I brought withme, and also those that have come my way in Chacala. I have re-read the ones I have again and again, so it’s great to have a new one. I have already read a good article by Sylvia Boorstein (?). I always like her stuff. She writes like she’s a friend of mine. One thing she mentioned was how comforting rituals are for graduating, dying, marrying, etc. Maybe because they remind we all go thru these things. Changes, I mean.And another editorial, which I have only read part of, seemed to be suggesting we consider what it would like if we treated everyone the way we treat those we love almost unconditionally: like our babies, for example.

I am going to finish that one after I finish trying to cook a large double chicken breast on the gas burner. The wind is blowing so hard I have to keep checking a burner every minute or two. To make sure it hasn’t blown out, and to re-light it if is has. I have foil wrapped all around the stove sides and the pan, so it’s going okay for the moment.

I have been so overwhelmed with appreciation for my lovely life these past few days. I am so lucky. Tomorrow I am going to mess with plants. Now that some wonderful people brought me a gunny sack of dirt, and I got some more buckets, I am all set. I am ruminating around about planting a few things in the dirt.

Birds in Chacala

I took these photos yesterday, walking home from Majahua. The sand is coming back on the south end of the beach, covering the rocks. This bird was very patient with me, letting me take many photos. I still can't tell what's a good photo, so I am posting all of these. Feedback is appreciated. Thanks.

Jamaica, I Hope I Wrote that Word Correctly

This is my landlord. Actually, it's the husband of my landlady. I have trouble with his name, but it sounds like E-u-low-e-oh.
He collected a big armload of Jamaica plants (I guess that's their name) from the other side of the laguna, near the paved road.
And brought them back to Dona Lupe's restuarant, Fonda Lupita, to clean out the parts of the plant that's used for making Jamaica tea. It's a popular drink around Chacala. Usually served cold, with ice. But not always. Very delicious, even for a Coca-Cola addict, like me.
At least twice a week with someone in Chacala shows me something new about how they use plants that grow around the village. I continue to be surprised at how much people in Chacala still depend on food that grows semi-naturally around here. Besides fruits like bananas, papayas, mangos and various citrus fruits. They harvest a cactus, Nopali, for a vegetable, ...... I am drawing a blank. Various plant leafs for teas. Mostly medicinal teas.

Visiting in Chacala

The churchbell in Chacala

It’s kind of peculiar, or maybe even strange, how important doing this blog has become in my daily life. I started doing it as a replacement for cut-and-pasting the same stories for emails to family. And friends. And now that I have a camera, I am thinking about how to write with illustrations. Sort of.

Now that I have been during this for about 20 months, I personally know very few of the people who read this. That is, I think most people who read this are strangers. And some have become kind of friends, via emails and Comments. Or, if I do actually know them, it’s because we met when they visited in Chacala sometime in the past three years.

Daniel, whacking away at the Pinata

I regularly get emails from people I haven’t met face-to-face. I like it. There are lots of interesting people out there, and it’s very interesting to hear their reactions to things I write, and to the photos I post. And I like getting corrections, like the Jamaica/Jicama thing. I knew I had it wrong went I was writing it. And then published without correcting it. Oh well. Some of the boys, with dog, in the church,

waiting for the Posada to start

I never imagined that I would be getting helpful, interesting, thought-provoking, useful, comments from strangers about what I write. I feel like I have some kind of friendship with some of the people who “Comment” regularly. And occasionally I end up having an email conversation with people who have been following My Life.Natalia as Maria, for the Posada

I also have had two “stalkers”, which can be very, very annoying. “Stalker” meaning people who write weird, compulsion, annoying, or strange emails repeatedly, even with no response from me. It would be hard to stop then from reading, but I can stop them from emailing or Commenting. So it’s okay.Alejandro, hitting his first Pinata

And sometimes people who have been reading this actually come to Chacala. There are about a dozen people in town right here now, that I knew of, who have been reading it, or found Chacala through it. I don't know if that's good or bad, but it's nice to meet them. One couple had never heard of Chacala until they happened onto my blog. They had visited Honduras several years ago. They were looking for Honduras blogs, I think, and found La Gringa's Blogicitio, the blog of American woman living in La Cieba, Honduras. She had my blog listed on her blog, and checked out this blog. They are very nice, and I’m glad they came.

I am sometimes nervous when I met people who have been reading this. Partly because they know a lot about my life, and I usually know nothing about them. Or almost nothing. It’s really good for me to see how many nice people there are in the world. And who come to Chacala. Girls in church, waiting for the Posada to start

I want people who come here to have a nice time in Chacala. Especially if this blog was part of the reasons they were drawn here. But it’s really different being here for a week or two, as compared to being here for an extended period. If you are here for awhile, you have time to learn some Spanish, maybe enough to make some friends, and acquaintances. And people start to recognize you around town. I know that when I actually started to have a life here, as in doing laundry, getting groceries, figuring out how to get what I needed, I started to feel at home. And I felt more comfortable when I had kind of settled in, and was doing the things I like to do: gardening, swimming, drawing, writing, making things, visiting, doing housework, playing with kids and so on.

I struggled at first with finding foods I like to eat, and where to buy them, and how to cook them. And to find English language reading material. But those things have kind of worked themselves out.

And it’s nice to be able to make a homey place for yourself. Of course, some people are masters of that. There are people who bring fabric, and special things, even for a short stay. They know how to make their ordinary room into something special and homey. With just a few things brought from home, and maybe some nice things bought around town, or at the tianguis.

Two best friends, with doggie

Looking back to my first trip here, and then my return trip (when I hoped to stay for a long time), I can see there are some ways to enhance your time here for just a week or two.

One is to pick a place to eat, and eat there regularly. Or maybe two places. Tres Mars and Koko Bongo's are both very friendly and open to chatting with people that keep coming back. And other places too. If you eat at Dona Lupe's more than once you are treated like family.

You can ask for help with your Spanish, tip well if you can, be appreciative, and ask questions about the food, or town, or whatever. When I was first here I spent a lot of time at Chico’s. Mainly because my first landlady’s family owns it. Guadalupe and Chocomille

Lately, since Narcissa mostly retired from restaurant life, I have spending more time at Tres Mars. It’s open later in the evening. “Later in the evening” meaning they serve food after dark. And Marta, the owner is really fun to be around. And the “staff”, and her husband Martine, are very friendly. They have three very nice upstairs rooms on the back of the lot where the restaurant is. Across the street from the beach. It’s possible to call them for a reservation if you speak Spanish. No kitchens, but nice shared patio with hammock, and a good beach view. Or if you come to Chacala without reservations, that’s a good place to start. After the Techos de Mexico rentals, of course.

Going to the same tienda and a little souvenir stop to visit is another way get to know people. Or if you are interested in fishing, going to the muelle (dock) a lot might be a place to start. “Yachties” (what people in Chacala call people who come on yachts), who are here in the winter, sailing thru Chacala Bay. Their crews often hang out at Las Brisas. So if you want to practice your English (just kidding) that’s a good place to go.

Or if you want to spend time with kids in an organized way, you can talk to Viki at the Bibliotecha, about helping out in the after-school program. Some people come prepared to do something in particular with the kids. Having some Spanish helps with doing that. Becky came a few summers ago ready to do a small percussion/rhythm band project with the kids. Culminating in the show by the kids who stuck it out. Other people bring materials for a crafty-project. Kids and moms really like it if you have a camera with it’s own printer, where you can print out photos the same dayMy sign for Dona Lupe's room with shared bath for rent, cheap.

Anyway. It’s a few days before Christmas here, and there are a few lights and Christmas trees around town. The Posada is happening everyday, in the late afternoon. There is kid’s Christmas party, put on by the Scholarship (EBACH) kids on Saturday. Christmas Eve is a night for family/friends parties, usually late into the night. And Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve seem to be pretty quiet in Chacala. Las Brisas is having a gringo dinner and sometimes there are private gringo Christmas dinners around town.

The ocean water is a perfect temparature right now, the weather is wondeful, and even the whales are gathering here. Life is good.

Comida in Chacala, With Friends

Aurora asked me over for lunch today. With Marjorie, a repeat visitor to Chacala who is staying at Aurora's. And with Memo, who lived in Chacala for about 4 months in 2004. A great guy, who volunteered with the kids at the Bibliotecho everyday. He's only back for a short visit during his university vacation, which is a shame.Marjorie and Aurora made us cerviche with Sierra, a favorite fish around here. We had a great lunch, with the cerviche and tostados with Jamaica, the red drink, from Hibiscus, and bananas and apples for dessert.We could all speak some Spanish, (some more than others) so we had a lot of fun. Beto, Aurora’s husband, was there and we laughed alot. The three kids all showed up and it was a lovely meal. Aurora and Beto are so much fun to be around. And they are great landlords. They are both learning some English, so we all practice with each other Spanish/English and English/Spanish.

Nice lunch, and then a nice ocean swim before the Posada started. It was at Juanita's tienda today, with no pinata, but lots of goodies for the kiddos.

My Chacala Home

It’s been fun setting up the kitchen/eating/laundry/hanging out area of my new place in Chacala. I have been here at Dona Lupe’s for a little more than a month. I lived here during my second winter in Chacala, and struggled quite a bit to be comfortable here. But it's much easier and nicer this year. I am really happy here. The view is lovely and I can garden in the dirt, and there's plenty of good water.The Chacala town water system was very erratic here until about five months ago. And it usually had muddy stream water coming in. Now we have clean looking water for three or four hours every day. Well, most days, anyway. Enough to keep the water supply in the tinaco on the roof full, and ready to serve the toilets and showers in this house. One each upstairs and downstairs.

That year I had to buy all my water for cooking, dishes, laundry and housing cleaning in five gallon jugs. It was expensive. I had to fill my bucket from the house when I used house water for cleaning. So I rarely washed the patio floor. But now I wash it every day and I like it a lot better. Things should be okay in the water department until the gated “community” succeeds in stealing Chacala’s water. Again.

And now the walls in my room, which were bright pink, are white and clean looking. I love the space.

The trickiest thing has to been to figure out how to keep the sun off the eating and cooking areas on the patio. Especially where the refrigerator and food are sitting. The sun comes pouring in for a couple of hours in the morning, and then again in the later afternoon. My fridge can barely keep up with the heat here, so I can’t have the sun shining on it.

If I had tons of money in my decorating budget, I would have bought a bunch of those reed curtains with cords to roll them up and down. But they are pretty expensive here, and they require a level place to hang from, which I don’t have.
For part of the east and south facing open areas, I used reed mats for shade and privacy. They are $2.70US each. They don’t roll up so they are hanging “permanently”, to block the sun and view from a neighboring house. For the rest of the south facing area I have some quadruple layer mosquito netting attached to the edge of the roof, which blocks the sun most of the day. It just comes down a foot or so, but it’s enough to keep the sun off most of the patio.
For the west wall, I have tried several versions of hanging old sheets up to block the sun. It’s so blindingly bright on the patio in the late afternoon, I wanted block most of the area, at least during the afternoon. The rest of the day I roll the sheets up and clip them in place with clothes pins. It took me awhile to realize I could attached the top edge of the sheets to the angled roof piece with a long piece of old garden house. It blocks the sun along the roof line completely, and keeps the sun out all afternoon.Eventually I am going to buy a blue plastic tarp, my landlady’s choice. In place of my old sheets. Blue plastic tarps reminds me of junky yards around parked motor homes in poor rural neighborhoods in the U.S. Not my favorite image. But it will surely look better than old sheets.
I have a table for eating and sitting around talking to people. And a table for washing dishes, and storing them. And a stool for the clothes washing tub, and two tables for cooking, with a two burner gas stove, and my food boxes. I use the top of the fridge for my vitamins, sunscreen, and other little things.I guess my patio looks strange to visitors, but it’s working great for me. I am very content here. The main downside is having animals attempt to visit in the night. I now have a big piece of hardware cloth to block the staircase, and that seems to be working. At least for now.

If I am going to be home when I think the town water may come on, I go down to the street and turn on the town faucet. And then the faucet to my hose. The town water line goes directly to my tinaco on the roof, with the one faucet for a hose. I have a string tied around the hose and the other end to a post on the patio.Then I pull the open end of the water hose up onto my patio, so I can hear or see the water went it starts running. Then I fill my water containers and wash clothes etc. Then I let the hose down and run downstairs in the yard and fill the watering container and hand water the plants. And then turn the water off. Works okay. I love being able to count on regular water, and clear water at that.

Ist Posada Night in Chacala

Tonight was the first night of the children’s Posada in Chacala. For each of the next nine nights the kids go from the Church to a different home at about dusk, reinacting Jose y Maria's search for a place to spend the night. Someone just explained to me why Pepe is the nickname for Jose/Joseph. It stands for "Putative Padre" as inn P.P. (of Jesus). Interesting factoid.
Anyway, Trini and Clemen led the group of about 35 kids to Claudia and Pepe’s home.
Some of the children went inside, and pretended to say “no” to the Holy Family when the children outside repeatedly sang to them, asking to be let in for the night.
Finally the door was opened and they were welcomed.
The kids the whacked away at the piñata until the candies feel out and there was a mad dog pile to get the candies. The whacking was organized, smallest kid to largest, and first a girst, then a boy. A teenager managed the crowd. Everyone seemed to make sure the little kids got something.
Then some other treats were passed around and everyone visited for awhile.
My favorite part of the whole event was Trini leading the children in a discussion of the meaning of the Posada.And about appropriate behavior, “con respecto”, at each house.
The children were very attentive, and enthusiastic participants in the discussion. With the exception of Caesar, who displayed his boredom in a unique manner.
Trini told me later she thought it was important for the children to hear the story over and over, and to have some understanding of what the posada was all about. The kids shouted their answers to her questions, as a group.
And then sang loudly down the hill to Claudia and Pepe’s house.

No one seemed to know the destination for tomorrow night. Except Aurora, who is Tepic for the funeral service of a member of her father’s family.

The kids are so beautiful. A number of kids approached me yesterday and today, making sure I was coming and bringing my camera.

It feels good, even though it’s about the camera, not me. Mostly, anyway. Everyone had ideas for the poses they to take for their photos.

Alexis wanted family photos of himself with his Mom, Clemen, and his brother, Caesar.

Junior wanted a photo of him doing a backstand on the floor in the middle of the church.

One of the boys from the Koko Bongo family was very interested in having his photo taken. Next time I am going to show him how to take photos of some of the other kids.

Several girls wanted photos of themselves in front the shrine for Guadalupe in the front of the church.

I was nervous about taking playful photos in the church, but the adults present said it was okay.

My memory is that more and more kids, and some adults, turn up each night, as it grows closer to Christmas. I like ending the way walking around the town with little kids.