Playing Aunties

September 11, 2013

Rachel and I are pretending to be aunties this week. Our friend Agustina had to go out of town. She set off on foot Saturday morning carrying her 1-year-old son to a village about 15 miles away. From there she will see if she can hitch a ride to the town down on the coast. She left […]

Meet Andrea

August 24, 2013

I’ve talked about Andrea in other posts, but I wanted you guys to be formally introduced. Andrea is about my age, but I usually think of her as much older. I think she thinks of me as younger, too, since she suggested I marry her 18 year-old son. Like many people in this relatively new […]

The One About Tubes

August 13, 2013

A few days ago some little boys came to our house to borrow a movie. “We want the one about tubes,” they told Rachel. Rachel, needless to say, was a bit confused. She asked the boys what the tubes were like, what people were doing with the tubes, and other pertinent questions, but the boys […]

Nahuatl Fashion

February 20, 2013

I bought my first nawas, the traditional skirt and apron that the ladies of Las Moras wear. The skirts are full and made from a satiny material that comes in a variety of solid colors. On the bottom of the skirts the women attach the lista, a beautiful collection of appliqued flowers and leaves. The […]

What’s the Right Answer?

February 8, 2013

When you live in another culture, it’s important to learn not only the right words, but the appropriate responses for different situations. For example, when someone in the US tells us they like our sweater we say, “Thanks.” Not so for the Nahuatl. Take a quick look at the comments below and see if you […]

Guavas from Eggplant

January 28, 2013

It was last September that I got to visit the town of Eggplant-ville. The guavas weren’t ripe yet, but that didn’t stop the kids from picking and eating them. They offered me some and laughed at the expression on my scrunched-up face. Yesterday a young woman from Eggplant-ville stopped by our house with a huge […]

Hairy Pork and Friendship

January 18, 2013

On my way home the other day, some neighbor girls called me to the fence. They wanted me to stop for a while and eat homemade pork rinds, or as I like to call them, deep fried trichinosis. The head of the pig was sitting on a board, blood soaking into the dirt and flies […]

Eggplant-ville

September 20, 2012

Last week I got a chance to visit a nearby town called Egglplant in Spanish. I didn’t see any purple vegetables, but there were tons and tons of trees with a tropical fruit called guayabas. I grew up eating those (and enjoy them) but this version was a little tarter than I’m used to. I took a […]

Look, Ma, I’m Floating!

August 31, 2012

After a somewhat warm and sweaty language session at Andrea’s house, I asked her daughter Natalie if she wanted to go to the creek. There were only a few days left before school started again, and she had been begging me to go. Andrea surprised me by saying she would come, too. She said, “I […]

Rainy Season

July 24, 2012

It’s Raining, It’s Pouring… Rainy season has arrived, bringing with it green fields, full creeks, and a landscape filled with flowers. We are getting to experience some of the season’s fun, like hiking to look for mushrooms, milking the cows for cheese-making, and learning the names of plants that appear once a year. Because the […]