i am back to trying to wrap my head around life here. i know that i should just let go and it will all make sense, but, like meditating, the more you think about it the less likely i seem to be able to do it. and so far i have not managed to just intuit.
some interconnected themes:
1. we went to mari and andres' house for lunch the other day. mari made a tres leches cake. we arrived to watch andres and mari finish decorating the cake. they discussed the colour of the icing: whether it was pink enough, green enough, not pink enough, not green enough, whether there was enough marmelada de fresa in between the layers, enough leche.
i painted nisaa's arm into a crocodile with LJT's face paints. then the two of them painted my arm blue and white with splotches of grey and yellow. washing it off with cold water inthe service sink was not so easy, my arm looked stained with bruises until i thought to use laundry soap.
while we ate pollo con salsa verde andres mentioned that he wouuldn't let men visit their house. i think i must have blinked in response. but he said 'perdon, pero soy muy grosero y no les doy entrada en mi casa'. suddenly the birthday party last march makes complete sense. at the time all that i could think was that either san martin had no men living in it and all the male population were working up north, or, that andres had quite a collection of mujeres and they all seemed to get along peacefully.
mari explained to me that sometimes men went visiting drunk out of their minds and ended up upsetting their hosts with incoherent ranting, loud threats and sometimes violence. after speaking with adelina and chema one night about the whole thing it appears that andres and mari are not in the minority here; adelina agreed wholeheartedly and chema understood the reasoning but was put out just thinking about it.
2. in the centre the municipio plans to shut down two north/south streets to pedestrian traffic only. much like north of the centre. i presume this is to attract tourists to the area south of the centre which doesn't even appear in most travel guides despite the really interesting and beautiful stuff down here too (plus it's proximity to the Periferico and the Central). the two streets in question are Armenta y Lopez and Bustamante.
it isn't a popular decision here in the centre. everywhere there are "no al cierre de los calles" signs especially in the markets. the signs are significantly absent on the two streets in question. property values are goign to go up and pedestrian traffic will flow with lots of rich gringos to spread the money around.
this of course will ruin the reasons why i like living down here. there are actual families here, with little papelerias and tortillerias. neighbours sell tamales out of their front door on sunday mornings. soon these will dissapear for overpriced artisan shoppes, gourmet oaxacan restaurants and art galleries. gone will be the mothers running their children to kinder in the morning, instead we will have the SUV strollers seen north of the centre.
and here i thought i supported the road closures. more pedestrian traffic in my mind is always a good thing. the centre is over-congested and loud; if it isn't the urbanos barrelling down the street breathing out their toxic fumes it is bumper to bumper traffic in the evenings. i want some moto taxis here in the centre. that i can call to come pick us up and drop us at benito juarez. or be able to walk along armenta y lopez to parque san fransisco eating fresh sandia. i want the urbanos to stay out on the periferico and niños héroes where they belong. i want people to admit that most people in the centre don't drive and the markets already uses mostly human powered transportation to get stuff into the puestos. and it isn't like mina and aldama are being closed.
oh like i know anything about urban planning. but it does seem that the business people here prefer the traffic to people walking on the streets.
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