Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Oaxaca (Wa-Ha-Ca)

I made it from Yelapa to Oaxaca, and took a little day and a half stop in Mexico City. I went to two amazing museums, one where Frida Kahlo grew up and another where she and Diego Rivera lived together (the house from the movie Frida, if you´ve seen it).
Now, I´m working at Divertigranja in Oaxaca. It´s serious physical labor, but well worth it. We spend the morning feeding the animals. Ready for the list?: mare, burro, turkeys, ducks, chickens, peacocks, dogs, cats, squirrle, guinnea pics, doves, monkeys, falcon, crocodiles, emu, ostrich, goats, rats, and I´m sure there are others I´m not thinking of. The other project I´ve been working on is a huge raised-bed garden. We have most of it double-dug and have haulled over tuns of vaca caca (cow poop) from the dairy-farmer neighbor. I´ve never shoveled so much or actually used a pitch fork before in my life, and my pussing, blistered hands are very attractive, I assure you. Now we just need to get some seeds going, and the garden will be well on it´s way.
I spent my day off with another volunteer from the farm walking around the zocalo and the markets. We had mole, tuna flavored ice cream (don´t worry, it´s a cactus fruit not a fish), queso oaxaqueño, a really good corn drink "tejate" (the kind we all had together out of the huge bowls, m&d), and sampeled lots of chocolate. I also bought a beautiful naturally died & hand woven scarf-thank goodness, because it gets Really cold here!
December it party central, so we´ve been to a couple already and have tons more on the way. Last night we went to a party, that was really a catholic mass with a meal following at the family´s huge home. Some of the other parties will probably be more party-party, with some mezcal involved (the local liquor).
Monte Alban next weekend with my friends, and I´m sure that amazing food will be involved!
Anyway, Oaxaca is just as wonderful as I remember it, it not more, and I´m livin´the dream.

2 comments:

Jodi said...

We got your parent's Christmas letter and stopped by to say "hi". David and Jodi Reimer. Your mom and David went to nursing school together.

Dean Russell Thompson said...

Abby girl,
Love hearing about your trip. Miss your smiling face!