Zorro

This is a busy time as many concerts and events are squeezed in before the snowbirds leave. A number of our Nova Scotia friends are leaving this next week: Kay and Paul from Kentville, Cathy and Gary from Waverley, and Sonia. Kate and Jack have another month. Steven and Heather, who own the house next door and have been renting it out, are here for a few days. They wanted to see LIA; we took them on Thursday morning. Many of the kids are at kindergarten in the morning, but about 6 or 8 little ones were there. The kids are pretty well looked after as far as physical needs are concerned, but they need contact and attention. Heather and Steve didn’t hesitate, but plunged right in playing with the kids (see photos); the latter had a whale of a time. We introduced them to Anabel, the director. Heather and Steve are avid bicyclists and are planning to go to LIA frequently in the mornings to play with the kids while they are here.


The weather has been outstanding recently. Highs have b een 25 - 28º C (78 - 82ºF) and about 14 - 17 (58 - 62) at night. Today, however, it got to 30 (86ºF). That seems to indicate that the hot weather (April and May) is here. In 2009 the high here in Lake Chapala was 32ºC (90ºF) so we were not far from that. It gets hotter in Guadalajara, but the lake moderates tempreatures for us.

Today, Gloria (I gave her name incorrectly previously) asked to come and we agreed. We took the 4 niñas to see an animated movie, “El Fantastico Señior Zorro (Fantastic Mr. Fox)”. Yes, the Spanish word for ‘fox’ is Zorro (zorra for vixen). As kids we watched the TV series and movies about Zorro and never knew that it meant ‘fox’! Maybe, there were hints by the narrator, but it never dawned on me. Barb was a bit appalled by the movie as it was pretty violent. The foxes made pretty short work of killing the chickens; then there was outright war between the farmers and the foxes and other animals. She said that when Matt and Jeff were young, she would never have stayed and allowed them to see such a movie. However, sitting in the movie theatre feeding the kids popcorn and pop is very easy and and not too tiring; she let it go! Also, the kids seemed to remain interested in the movie. In the earlier movie about the Tooth Fairy, they were bored; once they had finished the popcorn, they were ready to leave. After the movie we took the kids to the malecón in Ajijic to play on the merry-go-round etc. As we were driving them back at about 5:30, Gloria and Fatima both went to sleep. We did a good job of tiring them out; of course, we were tired out too.

I am gradually getting better and more confident in my oral Spanish; I am understanding more of what is being said and have less tendency to go blank when I try to speak. I think that the effort I have put into it in the last almost 2 years is beginning to pay off. Maybe I should be farther ahead, but in none of the other languages that I learned (French, Latin and Afrikaans) was I ever proficient orally. I don’t expect to ever be fluent in Spanish, but I am determined to be able to converse about ordinary and common things. Mexicans are patient and appreciate one’s effort even when you are mangling their language.

March marches on

March is more or less half over. I have been to Windsor, Ont. for a short trip. RoseMary did have a serious stroke which has affected her mobility as her left side is pretty much paralysed. Fortunately, her memory and mind do not seem to have been affected. However, she faces a long road to recover some of her abilities. Her husband, Larry, is being a tower of strength; as well two of our cousins, our aunt and a friend, Sandra, are all visiting frequently.

My trip, with one small hitch which I will explain in a moment, went pretty much as scheduled. Fortunately, the overkill on airport security that followed the incident at Christmas on the flight to Detroit, has abated somewhat. It is back to 1 carryon plus a personal bag on board. I had no long lineups for immigration or security. However, it was eye-opening at the bridge for entry by automobile. The grilling by the immigration officer was extensive; the days of in and out of the US are long gone. Many Americans no longer visit Canada often, not because of Canadian red tape, but because of the hassle getting back into their own country! Americans used to sneer at Europeans for the hassles they used to have visiting other European countries. Now, Europeans can travel freely without visas or other red tape; the US is now not very far behind places like North Korea, Myanmar, etc. Americans are rapidly losing many of their freedoms. Ironically, the people who are screaming most about the growth of government as a threat to freedom are also the ones demanding ever greater infringements of their freedoms in the nane of ‘national security’. Homeland Security is more and more creating a situation that reminds one of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

The only hitch on the trip came right at the end. I was in Houston, the plane to Guadalajara was there and ready to go and most of us had had our tickets and ID checked ready to board. Then came an announcement, “We have a delay because the captain lost or forgot his passport; he cannot fly to Mexico without it. We shall have to get a replacement.” It took about 40 minutes; the first officer, a woman, took over as captain and the replacement filled in as first officer. Fortunately, Barb was watching the progress online and learned about the delay before leaving home. She felt the practice of driving to the airport at night was good.

We went to a chamber music concert in the Northern Lights Music Festival on Friday night and have the final concert for this year tomorrow night. The Canadian Club has the Canadian Ambassador as speaker for their March meeting, also tomorrow in the afternoon. It will be busy. Also, a number of our snowbird friends are leaving at the end of March. After that, things should start to slow down a bit.

Yesterday, we ended up with 4 girls from LIA. For some reason that none of us have been able to figure out. Fatima has been reluctant to go out with us for several weeks now. Yesterday, she told Alvia that she wanted her friend, Glorieta (one of the recent arrivals since Christmas), to go with her. We agreed. We ended up putting the twins in the front seat sharing the seat belt! We see large numbers of kids sitting in the back of pickups, but Barb insists that the girls always wear seat belts regardless of how rare that is in Mexico. It turned out to be a very easy day. We took them to the Ajijic malecón (waterfront park). We also had gotten some little shovels and buckets for sand box. Well, they loved that and played happily for over an hour in the sand. Glorieta is the one in the blue and pink top in the center of the sand pile photo. Also, Dariana in the upper right corner is wearing the light blue sweater that Barb knitted; Barb was very pleased to see that. Then, we went to another play area where they have installed more equipment, including the little merry-go-round in the second photo. Again, they played for over an hour. Glorieta is a live wire and had all of the girls constantly on the move. By then, it was time to bring them here for ice cream and cookies. We didn’t even have to lie down, as we usually do, after we got back from returning them to LIA.