Sea World and Water Issues

Before we left on our vacation we had yet another Mexico "experience." With lots of laundry to be done, our maid waiting to clean our house, showers to be had, diapers to be washed, etc... we had not a drop of water. On the second day we decided to ask our neighbor if she had water, wondering if it was just us or a village problem. It was just us. We looked at our pump (bomba) and it was old and sounding funny so we decided, instead of waiting for plumber who couldn't come until Saturday (the day we were leaving) we would just do it ourselves. And that's what we did. Here are Esten and Rowan working hard at attaching the new pump.





FAIL. The pump was not the problem, but we have a new one now. We looked at the fuses and they looked old, so Esten went and bought news ones and installed them, FAIL. The fuses were not the problem. So we gave up. We bought 12 5-gallon bottles of water to pour into the washer machine so that we could at least rinse Rowan's diapers and to do the huge pile of dishes that had accumulated over the days. The most frustrating part was that our cisterna, the tank under the house where water is stored until it is pumped to the tank on top of the house, was full but we couldn't get the water from there into our house. Errrggghhh. We arranged for our maid, gardener and neighbor (we figured between all three of them, one of them would run into the plumber) to talk with the plumber when he came on Saturday and get the problem fixed. And thankfully since we've been home our water has been plentiful. It was a filter part and some really old washer-looking things that had been causing the problem.

On a much happier note, while we were home, in the great state of Texas, we went to Sea World. A friend of the family, Clay, works there. He was able to let all of us, mostly cousins and our children, into a part of the park that others don't get to experience. The kids were able to pet a wallaby, a huge tortoise and see an owl, up close and personal. We like owls, remember? It was really hot but we had tons of fun. The cutest thing of the day was when Rowan saw Shamu jump out of the water, he called him/her an "airmee" which in Rowan's language means airplane. We laughed because she kind of does resemble one.







And without further ado, the BIG news. Rowan is using his potty. He mainly uses it in the morning and at night but we're not complaining. He knows what it's for and that's the first step. He is very proud of himself and claps a lot when he pees in it. We're taking it slowly but we are on our way to a potty trained Rowan.



Here is a picture of our "foyer" (it's really big to call it that) where Rowan's GeoTrax train is setup. We play out there a lot in the morning while we drink our coffee. Oh and in case you care to know, under the floor in that room is where our cisterna is, it's like a hidden swimming pool under there.



We are enjoying the cool, wet weather here. The highs are in the 60's and lows in the 40's with rain daily. If you need an escape from the heat, come for a visit.

Krantz/Mason Wedding

This wedding was special for Esten and I since it was a sort of repeat of our own wedding, sans stress. The rehearsal dinner was at the brewery and the ceremony/reception was at Kairos. Bring back any memories from our wedding? While the venues were the same, the parties and the memories were unique and perfect in their own. We had so much fun!

At the rehearsal dinner, Jess and Mic gave Ro a fabulous, pretend guitar. As soon as he pulled it out of the bag, he said, "Out!" As in, out of the box, pronto. I fumbled with the eight thousand twisties and plastic pieces that they bind the toys into boxes with these days and got it out as fast as I could. As I was working, Esten suggested that we get him up on stage with the band and his new guitar. I think there is a photo of Micah as a child playing a guitar onstage with his dad. Before we could take him, Ro was running with his guitar to the stage. He plucked the strings, strummed them with a whole fist, made the lights come on and was beside himself over this little guitar. He continued to put it down and to clap for himself. Perfect gift for a little music-loving ring bearer.



Ro and Mara practiced walking down the isle at the rehearsal and we were all pretty confident they would pull through come show time. Wedding day was different in that we had a princess melt down just before showtime but the diva pulled through, with a little bribery, and had a solid performance. Ro had a goldfish break just before performance to tide him over and luckily saved his melt down for the reception.



Here they are walking together down the isle, like angels, slow angels. While they were walking a few petals spilled from Mara's basket and Ro said, "Uh oh." They started to stop and pick them up before we pushed them on their way. Rowan doesn't like things out of place and it wasn't any different this day.



They made it down the isle and sat, with more bribery, through the short and sweet ceremony. Ro loves to cheer and clap and when everyone applauded the newly weds he wasn't left out. Mara, on the other hand, didn't clap as she wanted to make sure she was looking good in these photos.





After the ceremony the prince and princess were climbing trees with the help of Esten.



And this was just too cute not to post. Ro and Mara playing with the water hose, the day after the wedding. Dah-ling.



Breaking news to come in my next post...

Ro meets Singer and Philly

As promised in reverse order, Philadelphia. We flew to Philadelphia after Mic and Jessica's wedding to visit our friends, John and Jess, and meet their new addition, Singer Nash Noel. This visit consisted of a lot of, "Yes Rowan the baby has eyes, but we don't touch his eyes." Next time when Singer can defend himself, it's on. Jess and I spent most of our time taking care of babies and catching up, while John and Esten spent their time in the basement (aka. The Man Cave) recording a SOLID gold album. I'm still waiting for my check, Jess did you get yours? While we were there our friends, Susan and Bruce, came down from NYC to visit and we also had the pleasure of hanging out with Ava for the 4th of July.

I can't believe I'm posting this picture of myself but the boys are cute.



The boys at the park, I believe they are discussing Singer's hands.



And here is Singer smiling at Ro.



And Ro running to bring me a lily.



We braved the heat and went to see the Liberty Bell. Ro was very impressed :) Here's the fam in front of the cracked bell.



Coming up next, wedding photos.

Home Sweet Home

We made it back home from our vacation. I'm reporting the happenings in reverse order because I want to write about our drive home while it's fresh. We were supposed to have been home earlier but that didn't happen due to the flooding of the Rio Grande (see pic above) and the absence of our title to the fabulous 1997 Pathfinder (aka. P-Funk.) You need the title in Mexico to get a temporary registration permit. While we read Laredo news online and waited for the international bridges to open, we were also trying to secure a new title to the car. You need a release of lien from the bank that financed your car to get a new title and when that bank was bought by another which was then bought by another, this proves difficult.
We waited for 3 days to receive a release of lien fax and once we did receive it we learned that Texas DMV doesn't accept faxes. We needed original papers and Esten needed to get back to work so we had to come up with a new plan.
Plan B. We decided to fly Esten home and Ro and I would stay in Texas until we somehow got a new title, then Esten would fly back to Texas and we would drive. Esten drove Ro and I to Corpus so we could stay with my Mom while we waited. While we were there we found the title. It was there tucked in an old passport I had given my Mom to hold on to.
So we moved to Plan C, pack up and head out early Monday morning. And that's what we did. We left a 6:30am on Monday morning and headed to Laredo to cross the border. Crossing into Mexico took about 10 minutes and then we drove around to find the place to get the temporary registration for the car. The one at the border was closed because it was flooded. We found it after a while and got our paperwork squared away. We headed for Monterrey. As soon as we got going the Federal Police were stopping all traffic and when we took our turn, they told us the highway was closed and the only way to get to Monterrey was to cross back into the US drive to McAllen and cross there. McAllen is 140 miles from Laredo. Crossing back into the US took another hour(which included a long line and an X-Ray of our entire car sans living things) and the drive on US83 was SLOW. We finally got to the border at 4:30pm and crossed again. We drove past Monterrey and stayed in Saltillo for the night. We found a hotel that accepted pets on our second try and took it. In bed by 10:30pm.
Day two of driving started off a little rough as well. First we got robbed 200 pesos at the gas station. We both saw 437 when the pump stopped and then the next second it was 637. Not sure how they did it but they did. Oh well, we just let it go. Next stop, the golden arches, we never eat McDonalds except when traveling. We were heading out to the highway, coffee in hand, when we got pulled over for speeding. Esten was using the miles/hour instead of kilometers/hour on the speedometer. Oops. We successfully bribed the cop with 500 pesos and went on our way.
At lunch we stopped at one of very few gas stations equipped with a food court. There was an ambulance and fire truck there and we saw someone laying on the porch to the food court. After we pulled in we realized the person was dead. He was covered from his head to his legs so we could only see his blue toes and fingers. Freaky. It was one of those situations where you don't want to look but can't help yourself. We suspect he died on the bus that was there. We are not CSI's but we didn't see any foul play. Rowan was oblivious to the entire situation. So we jumped the body and got our sandwich (torta). The rest of the drive seemed extremely long and never ending.
We finally made it home about 8pm on Tuesday night.

Our dogs are loving the yard and the fact that our doors are open all day so they can go in and out as they please. Now to unpack. I'll post pictures soon of the family reunions and of the wedding.

Lessons in Paint

We attempted to paint Rowan's room this weekend. We've never painted concrete before and someone should have warned us. We used an entire gallon and it looks like we did it blindfolded. Uneven and ugly. Lessons learned, use primer next time and pick a better color. Currently you glow green when you walk in the room but we are going to buy a different color to tone it down. I'm calling a re-do on this one. Look at these! Hideous!





I cut the back of Rowan's hair off :( The curls are still there, the mullet is not. Here are pictures after the cut.




And in case you didn't know, it's World Cup time. Check the jersey.



We leave Saturday for our three week vacation. First San Antonio for a Huizar/McGowan reunion, then Fredericksburg for the Krantz/Mason wedding, followed by the Mason/Noel reunion in Philadelphia and finally the reunion of all reunions, we are reuniting ourselves with our dogs and driving back to Mexico. See most of you very soon.

Mañana

That's what I keep telling myself about posting this blog. It's been a long time. How are ya? Let's play catch up. Ro and I gave in and traveled home from Obregón with Esten after I vowed to fly home. This time though I had a few more "tricks in the bag." While we were in Obregón, Rowan took a liking to Elmo and The Wiggles. We didn't have a great outdoor space so I turned to the computer for entertainment. He would watch for 20 minutes or so while I cleaned (Yes, shut up, I did my own cleaning there) or cooked. So before we left I bought two movies on Itunes and put them on my Ipod. Worked like a charm. See below.


We did the trip in two days and traveled an average of 140 kilometers per hour. That's fast. About 100. We came home to a comic welcome. First a dog runs out of the gate when we opened it. Our neighbors we share a yard with got a a golden retriever, TuPac. He knows one command, NO. Then we came in the house, which was very clean, to find we didn't have gas which meant no baths after 14 hours in the car. Ick! Next we find that our refrigerator broke at some point and so we couldn't buy any food until we bought a new one and more importantly our butter stash was in grave danger.



Let me explain our $80 investment. The butter we buy here has a peculiar taste. It's almost gamey and anything you use it in/on tastes the same. In Obregón we found this imported Danish butter and knew we were bringing it home. We did and now half of our new freezer is butter. CIMMYT people bring back anything from flour to beef to butter from Obregón not because you can't get it here but because the quality is better there. It's just what you do.

While we're talking about quality, check these plants out I bought. We found our aloe vera in Obregón and had to bring that back as well. But the pots, just hilarious.



And this was funny too. You can buy individual eggs at our corner store.



We're getting cozy in our little brick-walled hacienda here. Getting used to the electricity going out at night which means showering and reading by lantern. Also becoming immune to the sound of fireworks, they pop them daily/nightly and I'm still not sure why. And trying to make a habit of turning our water pump on to fill our tank on the roof so that in case the power does go out we would still have water. Living off-campus has it downfalls, but are you really living in Mexico when you're protected by CIMMYT? Would you get to run Rowan to the front door to show him a horse trotting down the road with two men riding bare back? Or see the shepherd moving his sheep up the mountain on your way home?
Today we got couches, you know those things you sit on when your legs are tired. Until today we (me, Esten, Ro and my Mom) have all been racing to see who gets to Ro's rocking chair first. I'll post some pictures of our new furniture as soon as Esten gets back from Russia. He is there for a conference and this lovely company would have paid for his family to go as well but we opted out of the 29+ hour travel time there and the 9 hour time difference. Doesn't sound as fun as it would have 5 years ago, toddlers like schedules and slides.




Beece, as Ro would say.

P.S. Esten graduated and is officially Dr. Mason. I need to get some pictures from others since I was bad and took zero.

Mexico thus far

Recently some friends of mine asked me how Mexico was and whether I could clear up any of the ideas and myths they have about the country. I thought this would be a good chance to reflect on our experiences the last four and a half months.

The family and I have driven clear across Mexico twice and lived in two different places, for two months each. The interior near Mexico City where we are currently and will mostly be living is over populated, a bit smoggy, poor, but still very beautiful. The place where I work, about 20km to the East of Mexico City, is surrounded by small mountains, or cerros, two active volcanoes, and is quite beautiful. Its the rainy season so every evening the clouds roll in, it gets windy and if you are lucky it rains for 30 minutes to settle everything. The weather is amazing, with the highs only around 75F, but the sun can be intense at 7000ft. We live in a small village called La Purificacion, up a small hill about 10 minutes from work. The house is Mexican style, large but not too fancy, with an amazing yard about 3/4 an acre full of fruit trees. We have a cleaning lady, Sacoro, and a gardener, Hector. Its a quiet paradise, except around 7pm when all the dogs in the valley start barking. The village is small with many of the same shops that sell the same stuff, like bottled water, fruit and vegetables, hot dogs, etc, only the essentials. There is also a butcher, tortilla shop, and an internet cafe. People are friendly, although they sometimes look at us funny because we are gringos, and dogs roam the streets. The woman and children love Rowan, more so in Obregon that here, but his beauty is obvious to all!

The divide between rich and poor in Mexico is very obvious. You have particle board shacks next to amazing houses on the side of a mountain. La Purificacion is a village within Texcoco, which isn't unlike a US city in that it has two Wal-Marts, Home Depot, Office Depot, I went and saw Robin Hood last night in English. The difference is that it was founded around 1500, the streets are narrow, the roads poor, and the infastructure isn't strong enough for the population. But it manages. This is not unlike Mexico City, which I have only driven through once with the aid of a GPS (which actually worked quite well), but is a complete, for the lack of a better word, clusterfuck!

The country side is beautiful, we drove for three days with mountains the entire way, until we hit the desert. There are nice, empty, toll roads, cuotas as opposed to taking the libre, so you can drive 90mph no problem. You see some Policia, but if you are on the toll roads you are more or less safe. A co-worker of mine from Chile, Sybil, got flagged down for going 100mph and they told her to take it easy. We've stayed in Guadalajara, which Shannon and I both thought was a fun city, and Mazatlan a couple of times. Drove through Tequila and saw Agave being farmed on the side of the mountains. Drove through Sinoloa State which I believe is the largest tomato producing area in North America.

The last two months we lived in Ciudad Obregon, which is just NW of Mazatlan in Sonora state, about 6 hours from Tucson. Its new Mexico, very different, very organized, more like the US. Its a college town so there were good restraunts, sushi, hot wings, bar food. Not a bad place, but its the desert and extremely dusty, dry, and hot. It didn't rain for two months when we were there, but they irrigate the heck out of their crops and get wheat yields in the range of 9 tons/hectare, compared to 2.5 t/h in Texas. Its also about an hour from San Carlos, which is a quaint little beach town on the Sea of Cortez, where we spent a couple of weekends. Its beautiful there.

Obregon is closer to the border and you can feel it some. There are more military check points set-up at random locations and you hear about the violence more. Over Easter weekend Federales were taking peoples door panels off on the way to the beach. The University of Texas actually recommended the evacuation of all there staff and students in Sonora. However, I've never felt scared for myself or my family. I've had two interactions with the Policia. The first was in San Carlos and we paid $200pesos ($18USD) to the cop to let us go after we went the wrong way in a retorno. They were just looking to make a quick buck. The second time I got pulled over for speeding on the way to work on a Saturday. The cop said something in Spanish that I didn't understand, I apologized for not understanding, and he asked me where I worked. I told him CIMMYT and he grabbed me on the shoulder, told me buen dia, got back in his car and drove off. Working for CIMMYT you are considered a diplomat, I have diplomatic plates on my car, and this saves me at least some trouble.

Now we are back in Texcoco, where it actually is starting to feel like home and will even more so when Shannon and Rowan get back from Texas! I'm hoping we can get out and explore this area more. Puebla, Cuernavaca, Acapulco and Vera Cruz are all within in driving distance. Chiapas is a little further, but I have to see Palenque before we leave.

Although, I don't see us leaving within the next few years.