Goodbye---and Hello to Manaña

The suitcases are packed. The goodbyes have been said. Tomorrow is the day I leave for Puerto Vallarta!

Although I am contemplating the trip with some uncertainty, anxious anticipation and cheerful expectation, I am looking forward to visiting with my friends, walking beside the ocean on the Malecon, eating good Mexican food, and enjoying the warm weather.

Mainly I am eager to meet with the teachers again and to see how much the students have progressed in learning English. My uncertainty is in not knowing which schools I will be going to and which teachers I will be working with; whether there be Internet at home or do I have to go back to Telmex to request its installation; and other such details which, of course, will be worked out as the days pass! As my Mexican friends told me: "Poco a poco!". ("Take it easy!")

I hope you will go on this journey with me by reading my blog and thus, live (vicariously) with me in Vallarta . My laptop is ready; the camera batteries are charged; and I am ready to go!

Hasta luego.

Happy Easter and Buen Viaje!

Easter was a beautiful day!

Mr. Neat and I began the day, at 6:00 AM at church, attending the Great Vigil, a celebration in our church which begins in darkness and moves into the light. The service was very inspiring, the Easter flowers were beautiful, and the celebratory music was so welcome after the somberness of Holy Week.

This is the altar of our church. Thanks to my friend, Barbara, for giving me the photos.

Easter Sunday is a special day for baptisms. The baptismal fount is in the foreground of the picture below. During special activities for the kids before the 11:00 service, the Sunday School children "flower" the cross that can be seen in the background.

Following the service there was a continental breakfast in the parish hall where we welcomed a hot cup of coffee and good conversation with friends.

Having entered the church in the darkness, as we left the church, the sun was shining brightly. We experienced a wonderful celebration of the holy day in the Christian church.

We continued to have gorgeous weather for the rest of the day. Our family: MJ, Z and C, AE, C, MA and MD all came straight from their church service dressed in their Easter finery! They all looked very handsome! We missed having CA with us but she had gone to visit her Mom and Dad in Florida for the weekend.

I wish I had a picture of MD's face when he saw the dining room table, set with the spring colors of our Fiesta dishes and decorated with Easter grass, eggs, and bunnies! He tore off his little Eton jacket, hung it on the back of his chair, and climbed up ready to eat! I think everyone enjoyed the pork tenderloin, asparagus and Easter cake with Dulce de Leche ice cream for dessert!

After dinner, was naptime for some, a walk for others, and video gametime for still others. (You can guess just who did what, can't you???!!) Everyone left about 6:00 since Monday is a school day for all.

It was a very blessed Easter day for our family.

I am anxious to hear from my Mexican friends how they celebrated their Easter. I will receive emails from them, but soon I will be able to ask them in person how they celebrated the holiday.

I will be returning to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for six weeks on April 8th. Last November and December I was working with the public school teachers who are teaching English to the kindergarten, 1st and 2nd graders in the new English program that my friend, Lety, began this year. I will continue to work with them, helping them with strategies for teaching English, pronunciation, and English grammar.

These are teachers at the Cipactli kindergarten in Puerto Vallarta, all of whom are now studying English!

I am looking forward to seeing everyone again and working on the language program for next year so the children will continue to have the opportunity to learn English.

Here I am, once again, trying to decide what to take with me and packing the suitcases! I will share with you, by way of this blog, my tasks, activities and life adventures in Puerto Vallarta and I hope you enjoy spending a few minutes with me ocasionally.

Hasta luego.

What A Difference A Day Makes!

About 9:30 in the evening of Friday, March 14th, a tornado hit the city of Atlanta and did a lot of damage to many buildings in the center of town. Two people were killed and 27 were injured. The pictures of the destruction in the city are frightening. Fortunately, Gainesville was spared the terrible storm----until Saturday.

Saturday afternoon severe thunderstorms with hail and 2.3" of rain raged through our town. Tornados touched down around us but Gainesville was spared. Nellie, who hates thunder, was the first one to go to the basement! Mr. Neat and I followed her downstairs and we spent the afternoon reading and watching the NCAA basketball games on TV. Fortunately we didn't lose the electricity.


The hail and rain pounded down. This is our deck with the hail.

It was marble-size, BIG marbles!

In front of our house, the hail collected on the bush and sidewalk.

The next day...

Sunday dawned with beautiful sunshine, blue skies, and warm temperatures.

Here is the bush that had the ice on it yesterday. I was afraid that our camillas would freeze, but they are still pretty.

The pink camillas, on the right, are almost finished blooming, but they made it through the icy weather too.

Look at the beautiful blue sky!

And the forsythia is blooming in the side yard too.

Wow! What a difference a day makes!

Stay tuned for more news about Mexico.

Hasta luego.

Dr. Seuss, Kids and Flowers

Hello everyone! I'm back at it again! It has been 2 months since I
posted a blog. Have you missed reading about my escapades?!! I've missed our communication: my writing and your comments. Thank you for your enthusiastic remarks about my blog. I am glad that you enjoyed learning a little about Mexico.

Since I arrived home from Mexico just 3 days before Christmas, the family holiday celebrations began immediately. I didn't even finish unpacking my suitcases for 2 weeks! After the New Year, I decided to enjoy my "retirement" and some "down time": sleeping late, visiting with the grandkids, organizing my photos from Mexico, and I even joined a gym so I can use the treadmill and bicycle during the wintertime!

When I visited Guadalajara, I saw a poinsettia tree for the first time and fell in love with it. At Christmas, AE, C, M and M gave me my very own "poinsettia tree"! It is in our sunroom and Nellie and I are enjoying it!





For Valentine's Day, Mr. Neat brought me these pretty yellow tulips. Even though it was still cold outside, they made it feel like spring was near. They brightened our kitchen table for a long time.






Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as "Dr. Seuss", is an author of many children's books and this week was his birthday. Elementary schools usually have some fun and celebrate it. Teachers, parents, and even a few community leaders read Dr. Seuss stories to the schoolchildren, occasionally even dressing up as a character from one of the books. I visited Jones elementary school today and all the classroom doors were decorated in a Dr. Seuss book theme. The hallways looked great!

His stories are characterized by rhyming words and unusual illustrations. They are great books for early readers to use. "Green Eggs and Ham", "Horton Hears a Who", "Fox in Socks", and "The Cat in the Hat" are some of his famous books, but the picture shows several more of the Dr. Seuss books that kids love.





Even the IHOP restaurant got into the Dr. Seuss theme with "Whoville pancakes" and "Green Eggs and Ham"! M and M came to visit on Saturday and guess what they ate?

From the smiles, you can see they enjoyed them!

Here is a closeup of the green eggs and ham and the pancakes. They were a big hit with children!

That's all for now but there are some exciting projects being planned so I will be keeping you posted.

Hasta luego.

My Huichol Indian Friend

On the night of December 12th, after the processions for Guadalupe had finished, some teacher friends introduced Lety and me to Guillermo, an Huichol Indian, from Mesa del Tirador, a tiny town in the northern part of the state of Jalisco.

Guillermo teaches English in the high school in his village, which has about 300 people, all Huichol Indians. He is fluent in English (his third language), Spanish (his second language), and his native language of Huichol! The children learn the Huichol language from birth, but when they go to school, they are taught in Spanish since, living in Mexico, they should know Spanish also.

Guillermo was in PV to attend a conference on teaching English. This was his first visit to Puerto Vallarta and he said he liked the city very much. I asked him how far his village is from PV. His reply: I take a 3 hour bus ride to the city of Tepic, where I change buses and continue on the bus for 9 more hours to the town of Tuxpan de Bolaños. Then I have a 2 hour walk to my village because there are no roads where the bus can go."

He and I had a lively dialogue about teaching English and he was very eager to discuss teaching strategies. Even though it was after 11:00pm, we continued our visit at a local restaurant with Lety and 3 of the other teachers from PV.

He invited me to visit his village. I told him I couldn't walk for 2 hours (duh!!!) and that we could email each other. He said he doesn't have a computer---his village does not have electricity! "I have seen computers but I don't know how they work."!!! A classic case of young/old age and previous/present times!

He also explained to us about some of the ceremonies that the Huichol Indians still participate in and showed us pictures which he had brought. He gave me a photograph of one of the ceremonies.

We had such a pleasant evening and I think his students are very lucky to have a teacher who is fluent in English and so enthusiastic about his subject.

Hasta luego.

Día de Reyes / Three Kings Day

The Atlanta History Center had a celebration of the Three Kings Day this afternoon. I went to see the festivities so I can show my Mexican friends, as well as you faithful "blog readers", how the tradition is explained to families here in Georgia.

In the Spanish speaking countries, as well as many European countries, Three Kings Day is the time that the children receive their "Christmas presents". Each country has a little different way they celebrate the last day of the Christmas season.

In certain areas of Mexico, the children receive gifts from the Three Kings who arrive during the night of January 5th. They write a letter to the Kings and on the evening of January 5th, they set out their shoes for their gifts. Sometimes they leave a little food and water for the Kings, and even a few morsels of food for the animals on which the Kings ride.

Here are the Three Kings waving to the crowd!

The children, wearing gold crowns, listen as the story of the Wise Men is told to them.

After the story, each child received a gift from the Three Kings. This little boy holds a puzzle as Melchior (the oldest king!) beckons to the next child who will receive the teddy bear he is holding.

Earlier in the afternoon, there was a piñata workshop and the children made a small piñata, and played some games. In the picture below, the children are playing Mexican Bingo (La Lottería).

They also served tamales and atole to everyone! Atole is a delicious, warm drink made of corn, which comes in many flavors.

The tamale line was long but the food was warm and very good, and well worth the wait! This was a surprise that I didn't expect: tamales and atole---yum!

There was also entertainment! Some members of a church (I don't remember which church it was) are learning Mexican folkloric dances and performed two dances for us.

This dance was from Chiapas, a state in the south of Mexico.

The state of Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico, was represented by this dance.

The two girls on the right carry statues of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus, riding on the burro, and Joseph walking beside her. They placed this in the front on the dance floor. On the left, the young man, carrying a branch, leads the procession of people with candles.

During the dance, Mary, holding the baby Jesus, Joseph and the angel, watch the dancers.

The people bow their heads before beginning the dance.

No Three Kings Day is complete until the "Rosca de Reyes" is cut!

The "Rosca de Reyes" is a round cake and hidden inside is a small porcelain doll. The person who gets the doll must host a tamale party on Candlemas Day (February 2nd). The fun never ends!!

The ladies are serving the Rosca de Reyes. The pink liquid in the cup next to the napkins is atole and a slice of the cake is on the plate next to the manger. Do you see the star over the manger?

This is the Nacimiento (Manager) with the star which was on the table.

The narrator for the day was bilingual so everyone could understand what was being said. It was a nice afternoon and I was pleased to see so many people attending the celebration.

Hasta luego.

Sweet Sixteen

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY!

Granddaughter Z celebrated her big day at our house on New Year's Day. We feasted on a big Mexican dinner: Lety's shrimp cerviche and Emma's enchiladas and had birthday cake and presents. Mom, CA, smiles her approval from the background and Z was very happy.

Her dad and brother wait for their cake!

Afterwards watching the football game on the big TV proved to be a disappointment for these Illini fans but the birthday girl was happy!

Hasta luego.