Just Talkin

Hi All,

I´m stuck in a small town on the road to Oaxaca (I know I´m jumping ahead) because Alfred is under the weather. Dan Dan if you read this before he can call you, don´t worry. He got hit by Moctezuma´s revenge pretty hard. Yesterday I took him to what passes for a small hospital in an even smaller town than this where after I was sent to the pharmacia for an IV kit they pumped him full of fluids for several hours before he was able to ride to this town, the exact name of which I can´t remember how to spell, which is slightly bigger with slightly better medical care, if needed. Yes, you read correctly I had to leave the hospital and drive through town to find an open pharmacia and buy an IV kit. The hospital didn´t have one. Anyway, Dan Dan Alfred´s fine he just can´t stray far from a toilet.

So here we are day two in Tehuantepec (I just asked a schoolgirl who is doing some kind of class project what the name is and she typed it for me) without much to do but sweat (it´s damned hot here) and try to catch up on this blog. Before I do I wanted to offer some observations.

Before sitting down to this computer in this non-air conditioned internet cafe I strolled through the town market. Most of the market is indoors in a poorly lit warehouse of a building the other half is outside with the more successful vendors in covered stalls and the poorer out in the open fighting for shade. Maybe they move around as the sun does, I don´t know. I try to wander the market in each town because I´m amazed each time at the variety of fruits, vegetables, dry goods and especially the open air meat stalls. I´m an open minded guy but each time I see fresh meat, chicken and pork sitting out in the open without refrigeration in stifling heat I´m just amazed and a little nauseated. Every single part of the animal is for sale. Parts I didn´t know existed. Maybe they have different parts in Mexico but they don´t resemble anything I´v seen in our mega marts or the Mexican Mega marts for that matter. Something else that facinates me is the lack of flies around the meat. I think the meat is so fresh, most likely butchered that morning that the flies can´t smell the flesh decaying yet. In the market there are flies but not nearly the number one would expect. In fact there are more bees than flies. The bees hover around the sugar fill fruit that the vendors cut open to show how fresh they are. One more item worth mentioning are the dogs that hang out near the meat vendors stalls. At this time of day they are sleeping while the people step over and around them. Apparently there are no scraps to be had during the normal business hours so they sleep until it´s time to eat. More about the dogs in a moment.

As I walk through the markets, if I make any eye contact with the seller of fruit or meat they call to me as if I´m a prospective buyer, which I am. ¨Guerro (not sure of the spelling)¨then they speak incomprehensibly fast, but I understand what they are saying. ¨White man (guerro) would you like some fresh papaya? Just picked yesterday, you won´t find better¨. A side note to the guerro. It´s the polite word for a white person. Gringo is used as an insult or to make a little joke about a white person. We often introduce ourselves as gringos to show we have a sense of humor and to let our new friend know we aren´t offended by the term. In most of Mexico ice cream parlors are know as ¨a la Michocana¨a state slightly NW of Mexico City. Not quite sure why. But in Veracruz many of the ice cream shops were known as Guerro shops, with the workers outside calling ¨guerro, guerro, guerro¨. At first I couldn´t understand why the kept calling to me, even though I was two blocks away.

More about the dogs. This is for my Mom who is forever trying to rescue dogs and cats. There are stray dogs everywhere. Anywhere they are people here, you see dogs in various levels of health. Except for in Chiapas most looked to be in good health and quite content. Not sure why the dogs in Chiapas looked worse for wear. Maybe I just saw the worn out ones. You see dogs at gas stations and in the streets and the town squares. They are everywhere. In the afternoon they sleep while people walk around them. The rest of the day they do what dogs do. They commune with one another, they pee on any surface not moving for two minutes, sniff around for food and mostly they try to stay out of the way. The dog/people relationship seems to be completely symbiotic. The dogs stay near the people because people feed them. The people respect the dogs because they´re well behaved and don´t inhibit the people in any way. Dogs are great survivors if they´ve learned this life while still a pup. There are those that keep dogs as pets and from what I´ve seen the dogs are very well cared for. Remember that many or most Mexicans are subsistence people. Earning just enough to care for their families in a level that would shock most of us. They can not care for an animal which they know can care for itself.

Cats are a different story. We simply don´t see a lot of them. Again, I think this is due to the nature of the cat. Quiet, self sufficient, a natural hunter and not necessarily needing human contact. Cats and dogs hunt vermin. An important part of the symbiotic relationship. That´s all I´ve got to say about that.

Alfred and I because we´re mobile weave in out of everyday Mexican life in and out of towns which simply don´t see many guerros. It never gets old seeing the look on an old woman´s face in a remote mountain town where many have never seen a guerro up close. The children are the best. Some are shy while others are curious and want a closer look. Lately we´ve been through villages where little or no Spanish is spoken. The kids come up and jabber away in their spoken language. Some of the language is ancient Mayan. According to linguists these languages have changed little since the Maya ruled Southern Mexico. They ruled other countries and areas as well but this is not a history lesson. Get a book and read for yourself.

OK, that´s all for now. I´m going to get back to the regularly scheduled blog. I´ve got to get caught up while I have the time.