Fund raisers and fiestas

Last Sunday was a big day at Love In Action; they had a garden party as a fund raiser.They got a very good response as we heard that they sold over 400 tickets at 250 pesos each. There were several singers and performers. The little ones sang a song with Anabel, the director, (photo 1) and some of the older girls had practiced a hula dance (photo 2; photo 3 has some kids from the babies house). It was a beautiful day and gave a lot of people a chance to see the facilities.

After the garden party, we stopped at a reception put on by Viva la Música! This group does 5 concerts in the summer, but also organizes bus trips. Some trips are to Guadalajara for concerts, including 5 broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera. This was the group that organized the trip to Morelia that we took last fall. This reception was to give members a chance to renew. Members get discounts on tickets so that it doesn’t cost anything to be members if one is going to the concerts anyway. They gave out tickets for a draw; the prize was 2 tickets to the Northern Lights Festival starting on March 5th. Lo and behold, I won! For entertainment at the reception (it was held at the Anglican church in Riberas), Chris Wilshire, who is the organizer of Northern Lights, had 4 of his students who are preparing for a violin competition play for us. Chris is a Canadian who married to a Mexican and now lives in Guadalajara. Recently, he was presented with a Governor-General’s award recognizing his contributions to cultural relations between Canada and Mexico. Most of the musicians who come to perform in the Northern Lights (over 20 of them each year) are Canadians. They get no pay, except air fares and room and board here. There are 6 concerts over 2 weekends. I shall be away for the first weekend March 5 - 7, but will be going to 2 concerts the second weekend. The 3rd concert is jazz and not my cup of tea; however, lots of other people do like jazz so I don’t think that they will miss me. Last year there was only one jazz concert, but there was so much demand that they are doing 2 this year.

The mid-term exams from my class arrived very quickly. It took just over 27 hours from the time they were picked up at St. Mary’s until they were delivered to our door. I got them graded over the next 2.5 days. There may be 2 more late ones to come, but they should be out of the way before I go to Windsor to see Rosemary. I have reservations for March 4; I intend to return March 9th. I expect that I shall be making more than one trip.

The weather has been returning to more normal and temperatures have been going up, although most still are several degrees below those of last year.

There are a host of charitable organizations down here and they arrange most of their fund raisers at this time of year when the snowbirds are here. Quite a few ex-pats are actively involved and a great many seem to be good about supporting these fundraisers. Besides, they are entertaining. Today and tomorrow, there is a big fiesta called the Chilli Cookoff, just up from us on the highway. It raises money for 7 charities; they said that last year they were able to give each of the charities 35,000 pesos. There are singers, dancers and other performers. Today a number of amateur groups were in competition with their chilli recepies; tomorrow, a number of chefs in local restaurants will be presenting their chillies. We took our 3 niñas there this afternoon. For us, it was easier than sometimes and the girls seemed sufficiently interested and entertained.

Tomorrow, we are going to another fund raiser, this time for a charity called, Los Niños de Chapala y Ajijic. They provide small subsidies for children of poor families to go to school. Our friend Kate is on the board so that we learn a lot about it from her. The families have to pay half of the expenses and be supportive; the kids have to maintain high grades to stay in the program; there are about 200 kids in the program currently.

El Barco in Jocotepec

It is quite a while since my last post. The weather is still surprising us. After a number of days of sun and warming temperatures, this past week we had more than half an inch of rain over 2 days. There has now been 170 mm. (6.7 inches) since Jan. 1. However, while being unusual, such ‘winter rain’ is not unheard of. Our Spanish teacher, Joel, says that there have been about 4 times in the last 15 years for such events. I have been noticing the comparison of temperatures, this year and last. Last year at this time, highs were 25 - 27º C (78 - 80º F). This year we are getting 23º C or less. On cloudy days, only 19 - 20º C. Still compared to eastern Canada and US, we are still lucky.

We had Matthew and Angie with us for 5 nights; they then went in to Tlaquepaque for 2 nights. We had new things to show them since they were here just a month after we arrived. We took them to Love in Action (see Matt with a couple of kids at LIA) and spent Sunday afternoon with the 3 niñas on the malecón in Chapala. The latter has been greatly improved since they were here before. On Monday, they explored Ajijic a bit and we went to a new restaurant on the lake front. On Tuesday, we went to Jocotopec and then to the hot springs spa in San Juan Cosalá to swim. That night we went to the Chac-lan restaurant up on the mountain at the other spa. There was a beautiful sunset to complete the view (in the background behind Matt and Angie at the rail). On Thursday, we dropped their luggage at the hotel in Tlaquepaque and then drove to El Centro Guadalajara; Barb & I had been there last year on a bus tour, but this was the first time we had dared to drive there. However, with Matthew reading the maps and navigating, we made it there and back without any wrong turns. We wandered around the sights there, including the cathedral, governor’s house and the giant Mercado Libertad (Liberty Market). There are hundreds of small stalls and stores over 3 floors. Near the end of the afternoon, there was light rain and drizzle. However, it was a very successful day.

The work is almost finished. The photo below shows the new patio outside the guest bedroom which was finished in time for Matt and Angie. The addition to the bodega adds at least 4 or 5 times as much space as the old part; the center of the driveway is now paved with flagstones. In addition, we got José Luis to install a voltage regulator for the house. We discovered that the little transformer for our water purifier had been ‘fried’. Voltages in Mexico vary dramatically; rather than the standard 120v in the north, it usually runs from 127 to 137v here. In fact when José tested ours, it was 143v! Most appliances made in or for Mexico are built with higher tolerances, but the variation is too much even for them.

Today, we again had the ninas (only the twins, not Fatima) but a young woman named Maribel asked if she could come and we agreed. We decided to go to Jocotepec. Once we got there, we found that the little cruise boat was going out for a 3/4 hour cruise. This boat (they call it a ‘barco’ although that usually refers to a large ship) is less than 2 years old. It is kind of like a railway dining car sitting on pontoons (we forgot to take the camera so no photos). In fact in the evenings, they do dinner cruises. We have been intending to do one, but never got around to it. Barb is insisting that we should do a dinner cruise for her birthday coming up in March.

On a more solemn note, a couple of weeks ago, my sister, Rosemary, in Windsor, Ontario had quite a severe stroke. My class just wrote the mid-term exam and I have had to wait until the exams come for marking next week. I now have reservations to go to Windsor on March 4 for 5 days. Larry & Rosemary’s lives have been turned upside down. I hope that I can help a bit.

Mucha lluvia (lots of rain)

I do have to talk about the weather as it has been extraordinary. My last post was just the beginning as it has been literally raining ever since. I’m beginning to wonder if we have a shot at the record (40 days and 40 nights). On Monday I discovered that there is someone just a couple of miles away in Riberas who has a detailed weather site (http://chapalaweather.net/ ) with all kinds of information. On the site he says that in January 2009, there was no measurable rain and February about 4 mm. (.13 in). From Jan. - May, 2008, there was about 9 mm (.33 in) and in 2009 for the same period, there was 31 mm (1.21 in). The average for this 5 months is 52 mm. (2.1 in) and I expect most of that came in May as there are usually a couple of early rains in May. So far in 2010 (and it is still raining at 7 p.m.), the total is 110 mm. (4.3 in). Without the sun (except for a brief period on Monday), the temperatures outside have been about 13 - 14º C. The indoor temps have been about 17 -18º C. That is not too bad (allthough it is damp and one feels it more than when dry); we have had to put on sweaters and other warm clothes from up north, rather than my usual shorts and sandals! I am not complaining too much as we have been hearing about the dreadful weather that has been unleashed on most of the rest of the continent to the north (remember that Mexico is part of North America). The forecast is possible rain tomorrow, but sunny after that.

During the early morning hours today, the power went out. When we went to the tianguis (the outdoor market) at about noon, it still hadn’t come on. There were only about half as many sellers in the rain and even fewer customers. However, we did replenish our fruits and veggies for the week. We had taken the car because of the rain and dropped in on Kate & Jack for a few minutes to see how they are coping. Kate’s friend of many years ago arrived from Texas on Monday; thus, she has seen nothing but rain. Nevertheless, their spirits were not too bad. When we returned home about 2, the power was on. Because we have gas cooking, we were able to cook porridge and make coffee. The biggest drawback of lack of power is that one doesn’t have power for the water pump and the toilet. Actually, it is not terrible because I can take a bucket out to the ajibe (cistern) and get water for flushing.

After being couped up all day, yesterday afternoon we decided to go to el cine (movie theatre) to see the current Sherlock Holmes movie. As usual, it was in English with Spanish sub-titles. The latter is distracting because I like to see how they translate some of the dialogue, but if I do, I tend to fall behind on what is being said. Very interesting though. Because we went before 4 p.m., the tickets were 20 pesos each (about $1.70 at current exchange rates). We don’t go very often (I missed Avatar when it was here; maybe it will come back after the Oscars). However, 2 Saturdays ago we took the 3 niñas to see Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. It was dubbed into Spanish without English subtitles; thus, we could keep up with the storyline, but didn’t get all the jokes.

Because it didn’t rain on Monday until after 5, the men did get work done then, but have not been able to do anything the last 2 days They are at the stage where they need to weld the steel beams for the roof of the bodega; as they use electric arc welding, it is hazardous to try in rain. One positive thing about the rain is that it is undoubtedly raising the level of Lake Chapala. Because of the lighter than usual rain last summer, the level has been lower this year than last.