February 1, 2010, Monday
It was a holiday (Constitution Day) so INSO was closed. The morning was relatively at our leisure. We decided to visit the Textile Museum. They have a great exhibit of Guatemalan Textiles and embroidery. The women weave the cloth by hand with a back-strap loom or a large loom with foot pedals. The back-strap loom is used to make long narrow pieces which the artist can then embroider on. Many of the pieces incorporate symbols and tell stories of their culture.
A part of the exhibit was a movie (in Spanish) of 10 women who had immigrated to the US in hopes of a better life. Most of them missed their life in Oaxaca and returned after a period of time.
In another part of the museum, a women’s cooperative had taken over one room to tell their stories. The women formed the cooperative to sell and market their work in the US and provide income for their families. At the same time, they wanted to get an education and learn to read and write Spanish. In return the older women would teach the younger women their native language and pass on their needlework skills. Their embroidery reminds me of the story quilts the Hmong women make.
Lunch was almost a misadventure at a place near the big produce/ artisan near the Zocalo. We looked at the menu ordered what we thought was bean soup for Rick. Stan and I (Susan) ordered Garbanzo Bean Soup. We got the Garbanzo Bean Soup, but I switched with Rick when his Mac and Cheese came. The main course was, I (Susan) thought, Chicken with Yellow Mole sauce. It was Chicken and Vegetable Stew. It was very good and very filling. Stan had chicken with grilled onions and peppers and refried beans. Dessert was a guayaba (guava).
We then returned to Rosalinda’s and rested.
Francine, a woman from Nova Scotia, now living in New Westminster, BC, returned and needed to look for sunglasses. We directed her to the shopping area down by the large market. I (Susan) decided to walk with her. We found some sunglasses and then walked about a mile or so to find a building she needed to write about for her class. The building is a Catholic church which was connected to a convent at one time. Now the convent is an art gallery and cultural center. We then walked back to the pension.
Dinner was again at the “hole-in-the-wall” around We all had excellent Pozole. Pozole is a soup of pork, cabbage, and hominy with spices making it rojo. Without spices, it is blanco and bland. We also had a pitcher of Jamiaca juice. Rick said it is the best Pozole he’s had in years. I translated that for the lady. She said Pozole is a very old popular dish. Rick also had a couple of tacos. The television was blaring again, but the food was great.
February 2, 2010, Tuesday
Morning was spent at INSO. I looked at several sites on the computer pertaining to sustainability and reuse of waste-water. On the way to INSO, we made our usual stop at the “Mango Lady” and found out her name is Elena. I told her we know her as the “Mango Lady”, and she said or the “Fruit Lady”. She was very concerned about Rick paying more for his pineapple than Stan and I paid for our papaya and watermelon. From a morning of phone calls our week is filling up with important meetings. Nelly is working hard to contact several cities that have functioning wetlands to determine how they cover the O&M costs. We are exploring many opportunities with respect to the O&M issue and some of our leads are panning out as potential solutions. However, we still have lots of work left to do.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
January 29-31, 2010
January 29, 2010 –Friday
Our fourth collection day. Today’s collection will be a morning one. I finished translating some copies of letters, Maria had given us. Now, I have to make sense of them.
We stopped briefly at INSO and left to make our way to Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo, Etla. We collected the samples by 11:30 and made our way to the taxi stand in Etla. We must be famous as one of the drivers recognized Rick and greeted him warmly. You would have thought they were long-lost cousins! However, they weren’t family enough for him to want to drive us back to Oaxaca. Another one was happy to accommodate us for 33 pesos. Our taxi rides cost us anywhere between 55 and 35 pesos, depending on the number of passengers and the driver. We always ask and bargen with the drivers before piling in to any taxi. We arrived at UABJO early in the afternoon and dropped off the samples in exchange for our last set of collection bottles. The collection process only takes about 30 minutes, however the entire process (door to door) takes about 3-4 hours with 3 buses, 2 taxis, and one Took-took ride.
Friday night we dined at La Biznaga along with quite a few Americans. We decided to look for a new place that Americans don’t frequent.
January 30, 2010-Saturday
Our 5th and final collection day. Please see our You-Tube video of the collection process. We were up bright and early at 6 am and left at 7. We walked to the Mango Lady and arrived just as she did. Rick and I (Susan) got fruit and then hustled to the bus in the rain. The usual transportation process took about half the usual time with very little traffic on a wet early Saturday morning. The bus was almost empty. We all got on and went to the back. The driver zoomed down the street at a pretty fast clip. Rick and I were in the very back and suddenly found ourselves airborne as we hit a bump. Just as suddenly, we hit the seat hard! Now thoroughly awake, we got off and walked under every raindrop to catch a taxi to the dump between Etla and Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo, Etla (I say this in Spanish to the driver). We got in the taxi with 2 people already in it (we were really packed) and rode to Etla. The driver dropped the other 2 off and took us to the dump.
Rick and Stan started dressing and setting up the equipment when Maria Soledad Gonzalez (the Municipal Administrator of Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo) walked through the gate and greeted us. She was very excited when she saw us collecting water samples and commented about the rain mixing with the effluent. We clarified our meeting date and time with the town council for Thursday at 8:00 pm this coming week. We finished collecting the samples, cleaned up, packed up and said good bye. We caught our last Took-took for this trip to the town center of Etla. At this point, we were still an hour early. We got a cab back to the second-class bus station in Oaxaca and bussed to UABJO. On arriving, Erik was not in the lab but in another part of the campus. He was not expecting us at 10. One of his students took the samples and started analyzing them. We left the university exhausted but feeling great to be done.
Saturday afternoon after showering and a siesta, we walked down to the big super Mercado in search of 100-peso Levis for Rick. We walked a very long way in the rain in vain. We found refuge from the deluge in the large market for an hour. The three of us walked back to the pension for a marvelous discussion with Sheila from CT and Francine from Nova Scotia now living in New Westminster, Canada.
January 31, 2010-Sunday
I (Susan) went to church and came back to find Rick and Stan “computering”. We went to lunch at a tiny place with great food and slow service. Rick went back to Rosalinda’s for another siesta. Stan and I went to the museum connected to Santo Domingo Church in Oaxaca. What a place! It used to be a monastery. One could easily spend several days there. My understanding of and appreciation for the history and culture of the indigenous people of Oaxaca deepened after touring this magnificent museum.
February 1, 2010 Monday
Monday was a holiday in Mexico so INSO was closed for the day. I (Rick) continued to do lots of resting and I think I have finally kicked my cold that has been hanging around since the first part of December! It was truly a day off for all of us. We just hung out and did a very little work and lots of resting. This coming week will be more “normal” in that we are arranging meetings, researching, and translating documents and presentations. The weather is still cool with some scattered cloud we will probably have a thunder storm this afternoon-evening.
Our fourth collection day. Today’s collection will be a morning one. I finished translating some copies of letters, Maria had given us. Now, I have to make sense of them.
We stopped briefly at INSO and left to make our way to Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo, Etla. We collected the samples by 11:30 and made our way to the taxi stand in Etla. We must be famous as one of the drivers recognized Rick and greeted him warmly. You would have thought they were long-lost cousins! However, they weren’t family enough for him to want to drive us back to Oaxaca. Another one was happy to accommodate us for 33 pesos. Our taxi rides cost us anywhere between 55 and 35 pesos, depending on the number of passengers and the driver. We always ask and bargen with the drivers before piling in to any taxi. We arrived at UABJO early in the afternoon and dropped off the samples in exchange for our last set of collection bottles. The collection process only takes about 30 minutes, however the entire process (door to door) takes about 3-4 hours with 3 buses, 2 taxis, and one Took-took ride.
Friday night we dined at La Biznaga along with quite a few Americans. We decided to look for a new place that Americans don’t frequent.
January 30, 2010-Saturday
Our 5th and final collection day. Please see our You-Tube video of the collection process. We were up bright and early at 6 am and left at 7. We walked to the Mango Lady and arrived just as she did. Rick and I (Susan) got fruit and then hustled to the bus in the rain. The usual transportation process took about half the usual time with very little traffic on a wet early Saturday morning. The bus was almost empty. We all got on and went to the back. The driver zoomed down the street at a pretty fast clip. Rick and I were in the very back and suddenly found ourselves airborne as we hit a bump. Just as suddenly, we hit the seat hard! Now thoroughly awake, we got off and walked under every raindrop to catch a taxi to the dump between Etla and Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo, Etla (I say this in Spanish to the driver). We got in the taxi with 2 people already in it (we were really packed) and rode to Etla. The driver dropped the other 2 off and took us to the dump.
Rick and Stan started dressing and setting up the equipment when Maria Soledad Gonzalez (the Municipal Administrator of Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo) walked through the gate and greeted us. She was very excited when she saw us collecting water samples and commented about the rain mixing with the effluent. We clarified our meeting date and time with the town council for Thursday at 8:00 pm this coming week. We finished collecting the samples, cleaned up, packed up and said good bye. We caught our last Took-took for this trip to the town center of Etla. At this point, we were still an hour early. We got a cab back to the second-class bus station in Oaxaca and bussed to UABJO. On arriving, Erik was not in the lab but in another part of the campus. He was not expecting us at 10. One of his students took the samples and started analyzing them. We left the university exhausted but feeling great to be done.
Saturday afternoon after showering and a siesta, we walked down to the big super Mercado in search of 100-peso Levis for Rick. We walked a very long way in the rain in vain. We found refuge from the deluge in the large market for an hour. The three of us walked back to the pension for a marvelous discussion with Sheila from CT and Francine from Nova Scotia now living in New Westminster, Canada.
January 31, 2010-Sunday
I (Susan) went to church and came back to find Rick and Stan “computering”. We went to lunch at a tiny place with great food and slow service. Rick went back to Rosalinda’s for another siesta. Stan and I went to the museum connected to Santo Domingo Church in Oaxaca. What a place! It used to be a monastery. One could easily spend several days there. My understanding of and appreciation for the history and culture of the indigenous people of Oaxaca deepened after touring this magnificent museum.
February 1, 2010 Monday
Monday was a holiday in Mexico so INSO was closed for the day. I (Rick) continued to do lots of resting and I think I have finally kicked my cold that has been hanging around since the first part of December! It was truly a day off for all of us. We just hung out and did a very little work and lots of resting. This coming week will be more “normal” in that we are arranging meetings, researching, and translating documents and presentations. The weather is still cool with some scattered cloud we will probably have a thunder storm this afternoon-evening.
Monday, February 1, 2010
The Black Water Cowboys in action
Over the past week we have been collecting black water samples from the defunct sewage treatment plant at Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo in Oaxaca MX for a taste of the action please see our You Tube video
The water sampling process only took about 30 minutes. However, getting to and from the site and the University UABJO and back home took about 3-4 hours total. Look for a good story about our adventures to be posted soon.
The water sampling process only took about 30 minutes. However, getting to and from the site and the University UABJO and back home took about 3-4 hours total. Look for a good story about our adventures to be posted soon.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
We had breakfast and spent the morning at the “office.” We talked briefly with Nelly about the rest of the day. Rick talked also with Juan Jose about Friday’s meeting with Maria. We may possibly set up a “Creativity Session” to come up with some proposals on the Big Question “how to provide Operations & Maintenance for the treatment system.” We have some ideas but we need to local perspective to find a workable solution. Late in the afternoon we met with Eirk Martinez (UABJO) to discuss how to complete the first round of water testing. We were then invited to “sit-in” on his final class where his students presented their results of monitoring six treatment plants in the greater Oaxaca valley.
Tuesday January 27, 2010
We had to get up early since class started at 8am. We listened to the six presentations, and Nelly gave us a running overview (in English). I am amazed at her ability to do this, and I am getting better at understanding written text :). Throughout the morning (until about 11 AM), Erik continuously stressed the advantages of aerobic systems over anaerobic. We concluded that there are lots of opportunities to improve the systems and monitoring. On the down side, only one treatment plant was functioning at a nearly acceptable level.
We then acquired all the things we needed to take the black water samples at Santo Domingo. This included: 5L bleach water (to clean up with) rubber boots, gloves, and sample bottles. We arrived at Santo Domingo at about 12:30 (we will post a UTube in a few days showing the collection process so look for the link in a future post). The collections went off without a hitch, and only took about 30 minutes to complete.
To get back to the main road (to get a cab back to Oaxaca) we took separate Took-Tooks, and ended up in different places. Thanks to cell phones we reunited and found a cab back to the city. We then took the bus to UABJO to deliver the samples.
By then it was close to 3pm and WAY PAST OUR LUNCH TIME! We stumbled out of the lab and had a quick lunch near UABJO. A short bus ride back home and we all took a much too short siesta before our meeting at 5pm with Jorge (Maria’s technical advisor). I was not feeling well, so I kept sleeping while Stan and Susan met Jorge at “The Hub”. Because of my (Rick) sinus infection, I stayed in bed and tried to sleep it off.
The HUB turned out to be a good place to host the meeting with Jorge. He gave a PowerPoint presentation of a proposal he made to Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla of an anaerobic waste-water treatment system to solve their wastewater problems. He did not address the issue of the burned garbage but said they were separate issues. We talked at length about maintenance, costs, life-span, sources of revenue, aerobic versus anaerobic systems and a myriad of other issues for two hours until Megan, our translator, called time. It was a very informative meeting and provided much food for thought. We walked Nelly home and went home ourselves.
We had breakfast and spent the morning at the “office.” We talked briefly with Nelly about the rest of the day. Rick talked also with Juan Jose about Friday’s meeting with Maria. We may possibly set up a “Creativity Session” to come up with some proposals on the Big Question “how to provide Operations & Maintenance for the treatment system.” We have some ideas but we need to local perspective to find a workable solution. Late in the afternoon we met with Eirk Martinez (UABJO) to discuss how to complete the first round of water testing. We were then invited to “sit-in” on his final class where his students presented their results of monitoring six treatment plants in the greater Oaxaca valley.
Tuesday January 27, 2010
We had to get up early since class started at 8am. We listened to the six presentations, and Nelly gave us a running overview (in English). I am amazed at her ability to do this, and I am getting better at understanding written text :). Throughout the morning (until about 11 AM), Erik continuously stressed the advantages of aerobic systems over anaerobic. We concluded that there are lots of opportunities to improve the systems and monitoring. On the down side, only one treatment plant was functioning at a nearly acceptable level.
We then acquired all the things we needed to take the black water samples at Santo Domingo. This included: 5L bleach water (to clean up with) rubber boots, gloves, and sample bottles. We arrived at Santo Domingo at about 12:30 (we will post a UTube in a few days showing the collection process so look for the link in a future post). The collections went off without a hitch, and only took about 30 minutes to complete.
To get back to the main road (to get a cab back to Oaxaca) we took separate Took-Tooks, and ended up in different places. Thanks to cell phones we reunited and found a cab back to the city. We then took the bus to UABJO to deliver the samples. By then it was close to 3pm and WAY PAST OUR LUNCH TIME! We stumbled out of the lab and had a quick lunch near UABJO. A short bus ride back home and we all took a much too short siesta before our meeting at 5pm with Jorge (Maria’s technical advisor). I was not feeling well, so I kept sleeping while Stan and Susan met Jorge at “The Hub”. Because of my (Rick) sinus infection, I stayed in bed and tried to sleep it off.
The HUB turned out to be a good place to host the meeting with Jorge. He gave a PowerPoint presentation of a proposal he made to Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla of an anaerobic waste-water treatment system to solve their wastewater problems. He did not address the issue of the burned garbage but said they were separate issues. We talked at length about maintenance, costs, life-span, sources of revenue, aerobic versus anaerobic systems and a myriad of other issues for two hours until Megan, our translator, called time. It was a very informative meeting and provided much food for thought. We walked Nelly home and went home ourselves.
Monday, January 25, 2010
It's the weekend :)
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Today is a relatively laid-back day of errands in the morning. In the afternoon, Stan and I rode with Rusty and his wife, Eliza to Mitla. It is a community southeast of Oaxaca, where many artisans live and sell their wares. There were many rugs, shirts, dresses, pottery and sorbet to look at. We had a delicious dinner at a roadside restaurant. I (Rick) still have a sinus infection so it is slowing me down quite a bit. I find myself resting a lot and saving my energy for when I really need it.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
A total rest day for all of us.
I went to church and Stan to the Baha’i Center in the morning. The three of us went to the Zocalo for lunch and toured the Zocalo to see the artisans wares. We went to another artisan market where Rick found another shirt and Stan found some headbands for a friend. We returned to the pension where I did some translating of some letters.
We went to dinner. Stan is starting to read the menu.
Today is a relatively laid-back day of errands in the morning. In the afternoon, Stan and I rode with Rusty and his wife, Eliza to Mitla. It is a community southeast of Oaxaca, where many artisans live and sell their wares. There were many rugs, shirts, dresses, pottery and sorbet to look at. We had a delicious dinner at a roadside restaurant. I (Rick) still have a sinus infection so it is slowing me down quite a bit. I find myself resting a lot and saving my energy for when I really need it.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
A total rest day for all of us.
I went to church and Stan to the Baha’i Center in the morning. The three of us went to the Zocalo for lunch and toured the Zocalo to see the artisans wares. We went to another artisan market where Rick found another shirt and Stan found some headbands for a friend. We returned to the pension where I did some translating of some letters.
We went to dinner. Stan is starting to read the menu.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Firday 22 January 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010I (Susan) woke up from a restless night at the “No Tell Motel.” Today we meet with Maria (Santo Domingo). When we arrived about 1:30 and met for well over 3 hours. She said there had been a fire at the dump last Wednesday, and she speculated it was arson. The dump is now a smoldering ash pile. The sate has been pressuring Etal to clean up both the dump and implement a solution to the broken sewage plant. However not much has happened on either front. The politics between Etla and Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo make it difficult to accomplish anything. Maria has done a great amount of work to try to engage Etla to help clean up the dump, and move forward the idea of a sustainable solution to the sewage treatment plant. She has engaged several state agencies to gather support for her cause, and we will help broaden that reach and increase the support and pressure to move forward. We have several meetings planned with agencies, the town council of elders of Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo, Etla to arrive at a workable solution.
Tonight we have a meeting with the Oaxaca HUB. This organization was started by a man from the US who has a business in Oaxaca. The discussion centered on architecture and midwifery. My translation skills were greatly challenged.
Settling into our remote office and life in Oaxaca
Yesterday was a long day (Wednesday)! We worked at INSO until 2pm then had a quick lunch. After lunch we walked across town to the cash machine (to pay for our rooms). One thing we have really noticed is the masses of Americans that are here vs. when we were in the summer. Our biggest success of the day is getting our cash machine card to work. I was suffering from 2 errors. First, I forgot to call the bank and tell them I would be out of the country, and I was using the incorrect PIN. After talking to the bank everything now works like it should.
Stan and I are working hard to get all the year-end tax receipts to all our donors and update everyone on our email list. We are finding that this takes a lot of bandwidth to keep our email lists current and clean of duplicate. I spent the afternoon updating our data base and generating spreadsheets for Stan to scrub and proof. At about 5pm (typical work hours are 9-2, 5-7) we returned to INSO and worked until 7PM (we need to better a job of having a siesta in the afternoon). After our long day we walked down to the Zocalo for a nice dinner outside. We had the pleasure of hearing a Tango contest that had about 100 people participating. We are always impressed by the strong sense of community here as at almost any time of day or night the Zocalo is alive and full of folks. Over dinner we speculated how something like this could happen in the US. One thing for sure is that we would have to re-think our relationship with cars, the TV, and get folks to realize that having public gathering places are really great. Because this was a long work day we walked straight home and to bed.
Thursday, 21 Jan
Another day at the office in Oaxaca! Oaxaca has several main streets all dug up as they are replacing some piping systems. One of these projects is right near our pension. Traffic from a major street is being diverted onto the road in front of it. One thing is for sure; Mexico does road work much differently than in the US! They use lots of manual labor, swinging picks, wrecking bars, and a minimum use of heavy equipment.
As usual our day starts with a stop at the “Mango lady” for our morning boxes of fruit on our way to INSO. She is always happy to see us and is amazed that we always return our washed plastic boxes for her to re use. She seems to save us the “best boxes” for us; she also gave us a small bag of her pepper roasted peanuts as an extra treat. Stan and I are catching up on lots of computer work and preparing for our upcoming meetings on Friday and next week. We are hoping that we can have a more relaxing afternoon; and meet up with a friend of Stan’s, Rusty and Eliza, who are from Bainbridge Island and staying in Oaxaca.
Stan and I are working hard to get all the year-end tax receipts to all our donors and update everyone on our email list. We are finding that this takes a lot of bandwidth to keep our email lists current and clean of duplicate. I spent the afternoon updating our data base and generating spreadsheets for Stan to scrub and proof. At about 5pm (typical work hours are 9-2, 5-7) we returned to INSO and worked until 7PM (we need to better a job of having a siesta in the afternoon). After our long day we walked down to the Zocalo for a nice dinner outside. We had the pleasure of hearing a Tango contest that had about 100 people participating. We are always impressed by the strong sense of community here as at almost any time of day or night the Zocalo is alive and full of folks. Over dinner we speculated how something like this could happen in the US. One thing for sure is that we would have to re-think our relationship with cars, the TV, and get folks to realize that having public gathering places are really great. Because this was a long work day we walked straight home and to bed.
Thursday, 21 Jan
Another day at the office in Oaxaca! Oaxaca has several main streets all dug up as they are replacing some piping systems. One of these projects is right near our pension. Traffic from a major street is being diverted onto the road in front of it. One thing is for sure; Mexico does road work much differently than in the US! They use lots of manual labor, swinging picks, wrecking bars, and a minimum use of heavy equipment.
As usual our day starts with a stop at the “Mango lady” for our morning boxes of fruit on our way to INSO. She is always happy to see us and is amazed that we always return our washed plastic boxes for her to re use. She seems to save us the “best boxes” for us; she also gave us a small bag of her pepper roasted peanuts as an extra treat. Stan and I are catching up on lots of computer work and preparing for our upcoming meetings on Friday and next week. We are hoping that we can have a more relaxing afternoon; and meet up with a friend of Stan’s, Rusty and Eliza, who are from Bainbridge Island and staying in Oaxaca.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)