Celebrations

As I mentioned earlier in my post of Aug. 16th, we have to get a new wallet sized FM3. On Wednesday, we went to Chapala to be taken to Guadalajara for the last step of getting a fingerprint and signature to receive the new visa. Mago’s office had 2 vehicles to take 10 of us in. One was Stan who has stayed here with the dogs while we go away. Another was a woman I know from Spanish conversation class. Because of the new card system, all foreigners need to do the entire system, not just the annual renewals. Thus, the office in Guad is packed all the time. The week before, our friend Sonia went in, but was unable to get processed before the 1:30 closing time and had to return a week later on Wednesday as well. When we arrived, the office was crowded and out into the hall. We then learned that the government computers in Mexico City, which are required to process everything in this new system, were down! We waited for over 2 hours and then decided to leave as there was no indication that the computers would be operating again soon. Our friend Sonia was arriving as we were leaving. The group she was with stayed on and just before closing, the computers came up briefly; only a couple of people got processed but Sonia was one of them!Anyway, we were scheduled to go in again today. Everything went as planned. We found out their system. An agent who is a lawyer goes in very early; apparently, today he went in at 7 a.m. before it opened at 8 to get in line and get a number!We were back in Chapala shortly after 11 and they called this afternoon to say that our cards were in; I picked them up.

Stan and Chris, who have been house/dog sitting, are really up to their necks. They bought a property in Chula Vista 2 years ago for the view even though it needed a thorough rebuilding. Stan has been an engineer and builder in the US so thought that he could manage this massive makeover. They also got a grandiose plan for the remodeled place, really a mansion. They got in the midst of it and ran out of money; they fixed up 3 rooms so that they can live there, but the rest is still very much in a preliminary stage--foundations and walls have all been shored up. Stan was with us again today in to Guad; we gave him a ride home after and we had the tour. Chris was not with him because on Wednesday, she is leaving for LA to get her shots before going to Saudi Arabia for 11 months to teach English as a second Language. She will wait until she comes back to get her FM3. Stan freely admits that had he known then what he knows now, he would never have taken it on. However, they are in so far now that they seem to feel that they have to see it through. In spite of the ordeal, they seem to accept their fate and are buoyed by the dream of what it will be like when they finally finish it. It will be a very grand house with a lovely view, but we don’t envy them at all.
The twins’ birthday was yesterday (Sunday), but we arranged to do the birthday party thing on Saturday (see photos). After the usual chicken dinner that we take in every week, we took them and Fatima to Tobolandia, which is the water park just 5 blocks from us. They had been asking to go there again, so we made it part of the birthday celebrations. It is a wonderful place for kids (and us). There are 3 separate areas, one just for little kids. There are 6 or 7 water slides and the water is only about 20 inches at the deepest. The kids are running around on all the slides and we mostly sit in the shade and watch. The 3 girls on the blowup lobster are ours; they borrowed it briefly from someone else. After that, we returned to LIA with birthday cake and ice cream for all the kids. It was very successful and we were less tired than usual. Also, an American woman who works in LIA gave us acard that let us in at half price.

Shortly, there are huge celebrations planned leading up to and around September 16th. That is Independence Day in Mexico celebrating Father Hildalgo’s call for rebellion against Spain and for independence in 1810. As you can see, this is the bicentennial of that event. However, the Mexican Revolution and civil war started in the fall of 1910; that resulted in the overthrow of the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. Thus, this is the centennial. Both are being celebrated together. Every state, city and town in Mexico is having celebrations over several days with cultural events, concerts, parades and massive fireworks. I forget how many millions of dollars the federal government is spending, plus all the other levels of government.