We’ve been working wwaaaaaayyyy tooo hard the past few weeks. We definitely needed a day off. And, now that Danny’s out of school, we thought we’d go over to our own local “Gilligan’s Island” (Stone Island) and enjoy a relaxing day of swimming, eating, and lounging on the beach.
Click on any of the photos to enlarge them or see a slideshow. Mouseover a photo to read the caption.
Relaxing:
I LOVE it when I can catch him unawares!
The chairs on the beach. La vida dura….
Ready for boogie boarding?
Our beloved lighthouse, taken from my chair on the beach
Kids playing in the surf
Lifeguard stand and palapas/huts
Village life:
One way to carry fishing net
Lifeguards taking down the warning flags.
One of the cool trees on our walk
Island mechanic shop
The wall of the mechanic’s
Mango season is in full swing!
Message painted on the rock wall instructing people not to sell Mexican land to foreigners.
Pink Floyd’s panga 😉
The season:
Mango season is in full swing!
These were gorgeously blooming today.
More gorgeous flowers in full bloom!
Musicians:
And yet more músicos
The bassist. I always feel bad for them having to carry that around town.
More strolling musicians
Vendors:
Blanket seller
The gentleman who cuts aluminum cans. GREAT recycling!
The Huffington Post ran a piece a couple of days ago that captured a lot of important information into fewer than a dozen beautiful slides. Covering everything from food and diversity to economics and questions of violence, the slide show helps the viewer get beyond stereotypes to a glimpse of the real Mexico that many of us know and love.
Here is there list, or click here to view their slide show.
Mexico has more professional elections than the United States. According to Robert A. Pastor, a professor and co-director of the Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University who has observed Mexican elections since 1986, the Mexican system is more professional, non-partisan and independent than the US American one.
Mexico gave the world chocolate, along with corn, avocados, chili peppers, tequila and many other awesome foods.
Mexico has amazing cultural diversity. While Mexico may be the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, that’s not the only language spoken in the country. More than 60 indigenous languages are spoken in Mexico.
Mexico is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, with a population of 112 million Spanish speakers.
Mexico City is massive. With around 20.5 million inhabitants, it sits among the world’s largest cities. And it’s massiveness has a long history — when the Spanish arrived in the sixteenth century in Tenochtitlán, the heart of the Aztec empire where Mexico City currently stands, it may have been the largest urban area in the world.
Mexico has awesome beaches, ancient ruins, mountains, and incredible food.
Mexico is not as violent as you may think. Mexico had a murder rate of 23.7 per 100,000 residents in 2011, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. That’s about equal to Brazil’s and roughly half as high as Detroit. Mexico’s murder rate isn’t particularly high by Latin American standards. Plenty of places in the region have higher murder rates — including Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Jamaica.
Mexico has a thriving film industry. Many people are already familiar with crossover successes like Gael García Bernal, Salma Hayek and director Guillermo del Toro. But those stars account for just a small fraction of a booming industry.
Our 17 year-old son has been a Scout since first grade. He was active in Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts, and Webelos, all of which I led, and then he “crossed over” to a high adventure Boy Scout troop. He has learned so much from Scouting: first aid, outdoor survival, swimming, cooking, sewing, teamwork, respect, discipline, leadership, how to take care of and teach the younger Scouts.
Danny being sworn in to Mexican Scouts by Jefe Carlos and Jefa Graciela
When we moved to Mexico Danny very much wanted to continue with Scouts, and was welcomed into a troop here, Grupo 4 Conforti. The leader, Jefe Carlos, was bilingual, and Danny loved the experience. It was quite an adjustment learning the ways in which Scouting here differs from Scouting up north. Danny met a lot of very good friends that I’m confident he’ll have for a lifetime, and Mexican Scouts helped him perfect his Spanish and learn the culture. He’s learned to lead here as well, an invaluable skill. I know he loves the more laid-back way of learning here, with much less focus on progression and earning badges and ranks.
Jon and Danny at their first Boy Scout summer camp—a week or so away from home
But it was also very important to our son to continue his Boy Scouts of America (BSA) path even after we came to Mexico. He was already a Star Scout when we moved, so only two ranks away from Eagle, the highest rank in BSA. However, we experienced some real challenges trying to fulfill his desire to continue with BSA internationally, and we almost gave up.
I have friends in Tokyo and in other places around the world whose children belong to BSA, but they live in cities with a US American community and an internationally-based BSA troop. We don’t have such a troop in Mazatlán, and we couldn’t find anyone within the BSA organization to help us learn how he could continue US Scouting while living internationally, in the absence of a troop. Finally we learned about the “Lone Scout” program. What a godsend that has been!
Danny with “Peli” (a friend from ICO), and a Scout brother
We are bursting-at-the-seams proud to report that, yesterday, Danny COMPLETED HIS EAGLE PROJECT! (That’s him in the photo above, with the wheelbarrow.) Some of his friends from his original BSA troop earned their Eagle several years ago; it has taken Danny much longer. He hasn’t had the support system that a troop provides on the path to Eagle. He’s had to be additionally disciplined and creative, using every opportunity he could create, to accomplish the necessary steps and qualifications. And, he did it! All while being an active leader in Mexican Scouts as well!
Existing cages at Amigos de los Animales
Existing cages at Amigos de los Animales
Existing cages at Amigos de los Animales
So, let me tell you a bit about his Eagle project. That in itself was a journey. Danny has volunteered for a couple of years with our local humane society, Amigos de los Animales. So he naturally hoped to do his Eagle project there. He talked with the director, and had a major project planned to repaint and restore the cages (photos above). He met with various painting contractors to learn what had to be done and how, and had a list of equipment and supplies to purchase and a plan for the big day. Then, just before project day, word came that Amigos de los Animales were going to remodel the building. The cage restoration would have to be delayed. But Danny’s Eagle project couldn’t wait. You have to complete Eagle before you turn 18, which for Danny will be this next September. So he had to quickly find another project. And, he still promised to do the cages, once the surrounding remodel is complete, as long as it can happen before he graduates from high school next spring.
Ciudad de los Niños
One of the bedrooms
The central hallway
Clothes hanging out to dry
32 kids make for a lot of clothes to wash, iron and fold.
Danny and Madre Velia, signing off on things
After meeting with a few other organizations in town, he decided to work with one of our local orphanages, Ciudad de los Niños (photos above; click to enlarge photos). The Head Mother and Danny agreed on a two-part plan.
The first part was the biggest: clearing several tons of dirt. You see, a couple of years ago there was a large soccer tournament here in town. A nearby school had asked permission to build a soccer field on the orphanage’s property, and they’d agreed. The problem was, after the soccer field was created, the builders left seven huge piles of dirt, rocks and garbage — tons and tons of heavy, compacted mounds— along the wall of the orphanage property. In rainy season, it causes runoff and flooding on the orphanage property, plus lots of mud, and in the dry season dust and dirt blow everywhere, hurting the kids’ eyes as they try to play or study. So, Danny would arrange to first loosen up the dirt in the mounds, smooth it out and use it to fill in the holes, ruts and uneven terrain at various places around the playground. To give you an idea of the enormity of the task, the wall in the photos below is four meters high.
Secondly, Danny would build a portable volleyball net, so that the kids could use the existing basketball court (concrete) or soccer field (dirt) for volleyball.
Tons of dirt—that’s a 4-meter-high wall in back
Tons of dirt—that’s a 4-meter-high wall in back
Tons of dirt—that’s a 4-meter-high wall in back
Tons of dirt—that’s a 4-meter-high wall in back
Tons of dirt—that’s a 4-meter-high wall in back
And a bonus mound of stuff
Tons of dirt—that’s a 4-meter-high wall in back
The Eagle Scout patch that Danny hopes to earn
As you may well know, an Eagle project is a culmination — the highest rank advancement in US American Scouting. To achieve it the Scout needs to demonstrate the skills he has acquired throughout his Scouting career; he must be the leader, in every way, of the Eagle project. Danny started by getting a dirt-moving expert out to take a look around and advise. In the process, the guy agreed to bring the bulldozer for a day and do the work on a voluntary basis, because he, too, is a Scout. Hooray! First hurdle jumped.
Then Danny set up a Facebook event, where he announced the project. He invited many community leaders, as well friends and his Scout group here, to participate. He met with teachers at school (ICO: Instituto Cultural del Occidente) to obtain permission for those helping to earn community service hour points. He asked everyone to bring shovels, and got rakes, brooms, trash bags, ice water, even some popsicles. He secured recycled poles and tires, and worked with his godfather to cement the poles into the tire bases to support a volleyball net that would be movable rather than permanent. He purchased two nets and a volleyball. He worked hard alongside loads of blessed friends and Scout brothers and sisters, and he supervised every step of the project.
Scout Grupo 4 Emblem
Escudo del ICO
El padrino and friends
The scheduled date of the work day had to be changed twice: once due to the heavy machinery company’s changing schedule, and another time due to the orphanage’s schedule changes. Finally, work day arrived. That was yesterday, Saturday June 1, 2013.
All went off splendidly. I have never seen 26 young people work so hard in all my life! My official role was photographer (thank goodness!), and it was so thrilling to turn 360 degrees and see people working on different projects everywhere I looked!
On one side, the bulldozer (driven by Danny’s good friend, Noel) worked all day moving dirt, while young men with shovels helped. Click on any photo to enlarge it.
Danny and Noel, bulldozer driver extraordinaire
That stuff is heavy!
Danny supervising the work
Dusty stuff, too
The shoveling crew
Hopping on for a break
Bulldozer! Cool!
Putting their backs into the work
On the other side, young people cleaned, fixed and reassembled playground equipment. They also made a big pile of miscellaneous broken toys and parts they collected from the huge yard.
Toys and parts of toys collected from around the property
Cleaning the play sets
Fixing the border chain
View of the playground and some workers
On a third side, a group of young women painted the volleyball net support poles.
The cemented poles for the volleyball court
Getting the paint ready
Painting the supports
Painting the bases
Always a smile…
In the middle of everything, groups of kids cleaned up trash, raked, and swept walkways.
Picking up garbage
Sweeping the walkways
Have rake, will work…
Another group removed rocks that were a danger to the kids, and repaired landscaping details.
Yet another group of young people with shovels filled in holes and ruts on the playground with some of the dirt that was being removed from the fence line. The dirt was so hard that they had to soften it up with water in order to be able to spread it around.
Spreading dirt to fill in ruts on the playground
Wheelbarrowing dirt to fill in ruts
Even the wee ones got in on the action
Definitely need to stay hydrated!
One of the young women arrived with a big bag of toys for the orphanage kids.
Bag full of toys to donate
Handing the toys over
And the commemorative photo
As the heat of the day got to be a bit much, a group of the young women got the hose out to water all the plants. Which, of course, also started a laughter-filled water fight.
About 4:00 the bolis arrived—Danny had ordered delivery of popsicles in a pushcart as a surprise. The orphanage kids, nuns, and of course the workers loved that. A couple of the Scout leaders went shopping to buy sandwich fixings at one point, as some of the kids were hungry. The ham sandwiches were very well received. The kids worked hard, and they played. They loved the playground equipment: the swings, teeter-totter, slide and merry-go-round, almost as much as the orphans. A group of orphans at one point all climbed up in the bulldozer for a ride, until the nuns put a stop to that, of course. Some of the young workers actually climbed into the shovel of the bulldozer and got a ride around, too. There was a lot of fun to be had amidst the dirt, sweat and hard work. (Click on any photo to enlarge it or view a slideshow.)
Bolis! Bolis! Who wants a popsicle?
Cuties climbing
Cuties hanging
Workers cooling off
Kids cooling off
“We do this all the time! It’s safe!”
Boli eating ladies take a respite
And the shovelers cool down, too.
Even Mr. Bulldozer likes popsicles.
Any left? Really? We ate 100?
Eating some sandwiches
Gotta go for a ride!
Mom and two handsome lads
Just swinging around
Paleta delivery
The paint didn’t dry on the poles for the volleyball net yesterday, so we’ll go back this week and attach the volleyball net for the kids. The really GOOD news is that Danny’s local Scout Group 4 has agreed to adopt the orphanage — to go out there regularly and help out. Next time they’ll go will be in a couple of weeks, when the bulldozer will come again to finish up the final dirt pile and to do some more smoothing. Below are some “after” photos, showing how clean (and flat!) the playground area is after the work day.
The thirteen-foot wall is now visible
Mounds of dirt have been smoothed down
Clean play area
Clean gardens and paths
Reassembled and cleaned play area
We are incredibly grateful to the 26 people who showed up yesterday. Bless you all!
The group shot at the end of the day. Tired but happy!
We are also eternally grateful to have been blessed with our son, Danny. He has given us 17 years of pure joy and unbelievable love. Congratulations, soon-to-be Eagle Scout. Thank you for striving to be the best you can be, and to make our community a more humane place in which to live. We love you.
I am planning to put together a video of yesterday’s project, and will share that with you all as soon as it’s ready. That will most certainly not be today!
UPDATE 13 June: Here’s the Indiana Jones spoof I made from some of today’s video footage:
As we were eating lunch today we were thoroughly enjoying the sailboat regatta that is taking place in the bay. A beautiful day for a regatta! (Click any photo below to see it larger.)
Then, looking down more directly, we noticed lots of people putting up children’s artwork along the malecón. Once we went down to check it out, we learned that between 3500 and 4000 original pieces of art are being displayed on the malecón this afternoon.
Student artists from all over the southern part of the state are exhibiting. It seemed each teacher was taping up his/her own students’ work. We talked to one teacher who had come from Teacapán, and another from Escuinapa. They were so proud, and the students were just glowing! What a terrific use of our beautiful seaside promenade.
At the northern end of the exhibit they have the chairs, podium and sound system set up for the opening ceremony at 5:00 today. In that area they have displayed the work of several invited special artists. That slide show is below. You can click on any photo to see it larger.
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The display reaches from just south of Fiesta Land, where the inaugural ceremony with all the dignitaries and families in attendance will be held at 5:00, all the way down to Monos Bichis/Monumento al Pescador. We got in the car to videotape the length of the exhibit, and the video is over ten minutes long! It’s a whole lot of artwork! (Once it’s uploaded I will post that video below.)
The exhibition is only this afternoon/evening, so I urge you to go out and take a look! Congratulations, students!
Greg barbecued chicken for us the other day. It was mightily good. Really good. There were grilled veggies to go with it, lots of mushrooms.
He made a lot of the chicken, as you can see below (we are three people). There were LOTS of leftovers. We put it in Tupperware in the refrigerator.
The next day, when Greg went to get a piece, it was all gone. The joven had struck! He had already finished it all for cena the night before.
This happens quite frequently. Danny’s a growing boy; he needs sustenance. Thankfully he’s healthy.
But, surely, a bit of self-defense or auto-protectivo was in order. So Greg got to thinking…. I had just cut up a PERFECT, sweet and juicy pineapple for us, and put that into Tupperware. Last week, I had done the same, and Danny “snacked” on it after school, finishing it all before we’d even tasted any (slight exaggeration). So, Greg hit upon an idea!
He printed a color photo of some asparagus—something that Danny says he hates. Greg taped the color photo to the top of the Tupperware, to disguise (and protect) the sweet juicy pineapple within.
While I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of his evil plan, and we both got a good laugh, it didn’t fool the joven for even one second. 😉
¡VidaMaz! 