La Vida Oaxaqueña

After about 10 days here, we are settling into a relaxed, very lenient routine in Oaxaca. Before volunteering, we went on a 3-day backpacking trip through the Sierra Madre, outside of the city of Oaxaca. We hiked from one little village to the next, through the beautiful forests. To me it resembled the Santa Cruz mountains, but with different plants including a mysterious-looking light-colored hanging moss that covered the trees, wild orchids, and tree-dwelling Bromelias. When we returned to the city of Oaxaca, David buzzed his head!

We finished our first week volunteering at the Centro de Esperanza Infantil, which was interesting. Dave´s computer-fixing knowledge is MUCH needed and appreciated. When we arrived, only 4 out of 8 computers were functional, and now all but one can go on the internet! Go Dave, super-computer-fixer man! (This is Bria writing, just so you know--he´s too modest to say that). He will start teaching a few computer classes next week. I´m sure it will be good language practice, and with a new set of vocab!

My (Bria´s) work at the center doing art with the kids has been less needed, but fun nonetheless. There is another woman from the U.S. that comes to do art with the kids, so it has fun to get to know a fellow-traveller and watch her interaction with the kids. The kids who come to the center are anywhere from 3 to 18, which makes art projects a little more challenging. I have been trying to incorporate reading into the projects, since they have a decent library of books in Spanish and also English. There are some great readers! They like to draw pictures imitating the book illustrations.

True to the healthy Mexican work ethic, we have certainly not let our work at the center take up all of our time in Oaxaca. We have walked around the city quite a bit, peeked in some beautiful churches, bought fresh produce and tortillas from little old ladies in the markets, found a library to tackle novels in Spanish, and checked out a good pre-historic art museum, among other things. We have also taken it upon ourselves to find the best local chocolate and mole in the Oaxaca mercado (market). We´re getting close!

We have also taken a few day trips. One was to Tule, a pueblito (small town) that is known for its enormous tree in front of the town church. Personally I think redwoods feel bigger, but this was definately the fattest tree I´ve ever seen. We also went to San Bartolo Coyotepec, which is another pueblito that is known for its beautiful shiny black pottery. Unfortunately we missed a demonstration of the process--there´s no schedule :) --but it was fun to peek around and see the variety of pottery.

Today is Día de la Calendaria, which is a Christian holiday that I had never heard of (what do you think, I´m a Jew :) ) But just in case you haven´t heard of it either, it´s a holiday where people dress up a doll of baby Jesús in very elegant clothing and bring him to church, where the priest blesses the dolls. I have seen people in the streets carrying around these porcelain dolls for a week, and everywhere you look there are accessories to buy for the dolls--tiny golden strappy shoes, head garlands, little chairs, etc. What an interesting holiday!

Pictures to come soon! We send lots of besos!