A wishin' and a washin'...

December is here and I am back to every-day life now - if there is such a thing here in Manzanillo!

Upon my return from Syracuse I had a very long to-do list - clean the house (my "assistant", Socorro would not be coming to clean for 2 weeks) and then begin washing all the clothes that had gathered in three weeks. I didn’t realize we HAD so many clothes. Although some of it was bedding, most were just regular duds! Some of the combinations my boys and husband were wearing were quite unique towards the end.

You might say, why didn't they throw the clothes in the washer? Because our washer is on the fritz, as I remember saying years ago in Pa. Tronó, chupo faros (I am told this is not too nice of an expression - loosely translated it means it sucked cigarettes! I just like the way it sounds - means nothing to me!)But back to my story - getting it fixed would take half the amount buying a new one would cost. So we were undecided. In the meantime - the clothes just piled up!

We had to come up with a viable option which did NOT include my scrubbing away for several hours on the concrete scrub board that every Mexican home is not complete without. So...

We decided to take a chance on "La Macarena Washing Machine Rental Service", which promised to be the solution to end our dirty clothes situation! Where else but in Manzanillo can you RENT a washing machine, I ask you! This was obviously the cheapest and most logical choice! There were really too many clothes to take to the laundromat. This service costs a mere 50 pesos a day, or approximately five dollars.
We (I should say I!!!) were very relieved.

After putting out our call for help, the following day a pickup truck carrying at least 10 washing machines drove up in front of my house. A heavy-set man came to our door, carrying the machine on his back. "Come right this way," I said and he proceeded to carry it to our service room, which is up a flight of stairs. "Gee, you have a pretty tough line of work," I said. "Sí," was his reply. (Can't talk and carry that thing up the stairs at the same time. What was I thinking?)

The machine was an old-fashioned round tub with no wringer or anything that was going to help get the water OUT of the clothes, apparently. The procedure turned out to be the following: fill by hand, empty into bucket, dump bucket, rinse, repeat, finally wring out by hand and hang up clothes. Oh, and take special pains not to get electrocuted! All the water would be going everywhere in my haste and I would have to plug in the machine to turn it on and turn it off again for each separate step...UGH. The following week we decided to do the same thing. Thankfully, this time my machine had ... AN ON AND OFF SWITCH! Joy!


After two weeks of having a grand time learning how to wash the old fashioned way, I seem to be caught up. I would still like to go through all the clothes in the closets and rewash the ones that smell moldy after the long, especially wet rainy season that we have had, but that would be really obsessive on my part, and can wait another week! Who knows, maybe next week they will send me the wringer! In the meantime, you know where to find me every Saturday morning...there has got to be a nice song lyric to fit this! A scrub-a-dub-dub, I love my old tub...along those lines!'Til next time, I remain,

Your contact in Mexico, Jan

P.S. Any suggestions to improve my technique are welcome!

Syracuse Trip

The Lockerbie Ceremonies

For all of you who may be wondering,

I had a GREAT time on my trip to Syracuse, New York to see my daughter receive a special award! I loved being with my daughter, who is a senior at Syracuse University, I loved being with my Aunt, who is 88 and getting younger every day, seeing my sister. and my brother, and spending time with cousins! I met up with my old pals who are the original world citizens and my heroes. Another special friend drove from Montreal to see me (a 4 hour drive if you don't count her "problem" at the Canadian border - the officer thoroughly searched her car and questioned her extensively regarding her intentions upon entering the country. She was just coming to visit me for the day!


Today I would like to share some details from K's event, which touched me more than anything has in a long time:

(For background information on the tragic plane crash and about the ceremony that is held to continue remembering those who were taken, please go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103 or http://remembrance.syr.edu/content/aboutus.asp)

The day was so emotional and so beautiful. It began when the 35 students who had been selected as Remembrance Scholars came walking down a long sidewalk towards the memorial wall. Carnations had been spread on the special monument and parents of these students and of those who died in crash over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, huddled together in the cold for this special ceremony.

The bell tower chimes set the mood when they began playing Amazing Grace. If this were not stirring enough, at the precise moment the students began their promenade down a long sidewalk towards us, two by two, it started to snow - it was sort of eerie, really, because it hadn't snowed before and didn't for the rest of the time I was there - it stopped when the ceremony began - only 2 minutes later. It was an experience that was other-worldly in intensity and very, very moving. A minister offered a prayer and a teacher gave a short speech.

Then a Scottish student played the bagpipes -oh, it was such a forlorn sound. It was so cold and everyone in attendance was obviously either holding back the tears or openly crying. Next each student went forward and said a few words about the student they were representing and what he or she was remembered for.

Finally, another young girl from Scotland who attends Syracuse on a special scholarship, spoke movingly of the impact on her community, where the accident happened.

To finish the ceremony, the young lad wearing traditional Scottish garb played the bagpipes once again. By that time we were all freezing, which actually seemed appropriate: how could we complain when these poor young people had lost their lives?

Afterwards there was a ceremony inside the chapel. A processional was played as our impeccably dressed sons and daughters walked in. It seemed almost like a wedding; the moment was formal, proper and suitably solemn. This second ceremony was to celebrate the Scholars, who had been selected after careful scrutiny by the organizers, and were found to have the qualities of academic dedication and service to community necessary to carry on this tradition.

The Chancellor spoke, as did the Dean of the School of Communications, and later a teacher from the Sciences Division gave a very thought-provoking talk on what these students are up against in today's society. Many thought that he should not have mentioned politics (this was the Friday before the elections), and that he had chosen the wrong forum to discuss his ideas on the war in Iraq, but I am sure that many of the students appreciated his candor and were left with food for thought.

Award recipients then went forward to receive a pin and congratulations from the Chancellor and other dignitaries. K. works at the Chancellor's office, and her supervisor, L. and another coworker went especially to see her receive this award. L. assured me that, as far as awards go at Syracuse, this is the one that is most highly coveted. Her comments made me feel like a very proud momma!

I am back to every-day life now, but will savor the memories of this special event for a long, long time to come.

Castlemonty Country

Castlemonty CountryMonday, September 25, 2006
So that those of you new to the blog (EVERYONE since the blog is new!) - Monday morning humor, sorry - too much caffeine, too little protein, probably ...as I was saying, for those of you new to the blog and to those of you who are not caught up on our doings, here is a sample of "Our Typical Day" - my mom always loved hearing details from our everyday lives. I really miss her and hope she is looking down on us and appreciates this entry. The rest of you perhaps will tolerate it only, but - it's US!

Our schedule is about like this - I got up at 5:10 and got kids up, packed lunches(ham sandwiches NO mayonnaise for K.A., a wee bit more for the rest of us, o.k., a LOT more) baggie with cornflakes, apple.I had my usual weekday breakfast of cereal and milk - have been doing badly at adding fruit to it -there were apples and bananas, neither appealed to me - why do I crave bread and BUTTER or tortillas and BUTTER or BUTTER and BUTTER instead of fresh fruit and vegetables???? Gotta reprogram my brain, I guess.

We were out the door at 6, walked the ten minutes from our house to the highway to catch a bus. The car needs some repairs, so we are going by bus everywhere -sometimes it feels like a bother, but actually I get in at least 20 minutes of walking every day this way - if I do just a bit more, I have added HOW many years onto my life? according to latest studies? Plus I get a lot of reading and thinking done on the bus, not to mention people-watching. If I buy a few bags of groceries I get my weight-bearing exercise in, as well! (I am saying this only slightly tongue in cheek!)

I arrive at school and boys go on to their school (K. goes in at 6:45, D. at 7:15),I clean - mop classrooms, entrance and lobby, dust all surfaces with "beach-scented" Fantastik (appropriate, I think, since we live in a beach town), wash cups and quick-clean bathroom. This is the second part of my exercise routine for the day. I am up to 45 minutes of exercise and it is not even seven o'clock! I have multi-tasked and, if I do say so myself, I have been extremely efficient. Should I take my message to the millions of people who watch Oprah? Should I publish a book or magazine article about "Everyday Exercise" ? Why pay to go to the gym when you can easily slip your workout into your day, just like I am doing! If I carry a pedometer with me, I can actually document EXACTLY how many miles I am walking, hmmm - I will need a notebook to register all the minutes, and adding weights to my arms and legs will pump up the calorie burning...I must think about expanding on this idea.

Next I make coffee and students arrive at 7 a.m.

Another teacher is giving class this morning, so I am free to check my emails, catch up on correspondence, clean my email boxes (get rid of all the junk!) and read some of the newsletters I subscribe to that I don´t always get a chance to read. Hah! I am also working on my fine motor skills (all this typing) and USING my brain (there may be differing opinions on that!)

Later today I will be calculating costs for books that we will be using at one of our companies, planning my classes for tomorrow and making changes on my webpage. I am so pleased to have started this blog. Is once a week doable? Yes. Is it valuable? We shall see! Will I have fun? Yes!

H. has an appointment at 10 to see a woman about selling her apartment. After that, he will come in - we will eat our lunches together and plan for the week. He will stay here at the school and do our accounting and translating work, do his own real estate work, answer phones, give information to people stopping in and have everything ready for our two evening classes (7-9 p.m.)

At three I will go home with the boys and have dinner (my helper, Socorro, comes today and she will make a batch of chicken soup for lunch with fried Mexican rice (made with canola oil) and salad on the side.

I want to help D.(age 10) with his French lessons today - he is now expected to count all the way to 100. On Mondays I take a stab at speaking French at home in the afternoon and evening, sometimes successfully! K.A. (14) has actually had two years now and will be fluent by the end of high school, at this rate. D. took class last year but did not get too much out of it - I think he needs a bit more help at home to become enthusiastic. It is interesting to see that he has NOT been thrilled about taking French, even though he speaks, reads and writes Spanish and English equally well. French, he says, he DOESN'T understand and therefore DOESN'T like! I am hoping to change that! All the rest of the family, from H. Sr. on down, LOVE French! H., H. Jr.(23) and Big Sis(22) have all been fortunate enough to visit France. Momma, K. and D. are still waiting their turns!

H. will be home by 9:30 and we will have a late supper; boys will have had theirs earlier and, hopefully be in bed by the time he gets there, or close to it, anyway. This late schedule is typical in our shipping city of 150,000 on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. NOBODY works from nine to five. NOBODY gets enough sleep!

Last night we had a spectacular storm - H. was up until three making sure that water was not coming in under some of our windows, which it tends to do if the wind is blowing just right. We have tried various ways of fixing this problem, but none has worked, not even building a concrete step right at the door to the outside service patio (water still seeps under, apparently THROUGH the step!) The normal rubber weather stripping on bottom of windows has not been effective, either! The best way of keeping the water out so far has been placing old comforters and bedspreads or towels at bottom of windows. Tips?
Would anyone like to visit and try our your handy-person skills? Welcome!

Well, I really should get to work. This has been play. I wish all of you a wonderful week and look forward to hearing from you.

I leave you with a verse from Genesis 2:15:
The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

May you work happily and well in your own Garden of Eden this week.

J.