17th Day in Oaxaca

This is day #17 in Oaxaca for the Klooster-Kanayama family. Today we tried out a pre-school (called "jardin de ninos" here) for Joji. This school is affiliated with the elementary school Mai goes to, but the two campuses are unfortunately at separate locations. The educational philosophy was attractive and when we visited yesterday it looked very good to me and Dan. Experienced and caring teachers, favorable teacher to student ratio, and age-appropriate stimulating activities. When he was led to the "maternal" (the name given to the age group of 2 year olds) classroom, he was immediately absorbed in play and only looked up puzzlingly at me when I said good-bye.

I left him there for 2 hours, and sat in on a Spanish class. Dan scoped out this Spanish school for me, strategically located between our house and the preschool, and talked to the director. She let me join a class-in-progress with one student and a teacher. After stumbling a bit I found some words I hadn't used in a while and learned the "co-preterito" tense. When I picked Joji up he didn't seem eager to leave the school. I stopped by a corner store to buy a snack and found that they had blocks of parmesan cheese so I bought some, then made a beeline for the local mercado (a market in Spain and Mexico has various stalls that set up each day in a permanent building) for squash flowers and fruits. Joji was so tired from his stimulating morning, his first hours spent at a center, that he proceeded to sleep for 3 hours.

Dan brought Mai home from school we had a comida (the mid-day meal that occurs between 1:30 and 5 pm is the main meal of the day) at about 3 pm. The menu:

• Quesadillas of quesillo (local salty melting string cheese) and squash flowers;
  
• Peas and rice I made with fresh peas from the market;


• Black beans Marce, our cleaning lady, made;


• A salad of nopales (cactus leaves), tomatoes, onion and cilantro, also made by Marce.

I must say it is a luxury to have someone cook for you in your house. It's a huge bonus for living here to be able to afford such a service. I don't know the exact size of this house, but the main part of the house (living room, dining room, an alcove, bathroom and kitchen) is spacious, and we have 3 bedroom in a separate building in the back. If we had to clean this house ourselves we'd be expending significant time and energy doing it because everything is done manually. Marce was referred by our landlord and is very friendly to us gringos. I'm still getting used to having to tell someone how to clean our house. She says she loves to cook, and it occurs to me she must prefer it to cleaning. It's also a great way to learn some local home cooking.

After comida Mai spent about 1.5 hours with Dan doing homework. Mai is still getting acclimated to being in a Mexican school with all Spanish instruction except for one hour a day of English taught by a nice young man from San Francisco. To me, the most important thing is that she is enjoying school and gets out of the house willingly every morning. I entertain Joji and do the dishes. Then we all get out on foot to see what's going on at the Zocalo, the main town square. On the way we get some ice cream.

When we get to the zocalo a brass band is playing and soon dancing starts. Mostly old couples but also some young people and even some boys are dancing the danzon. Mai wants to dance to but is rebuffed by another girl and Joji, who's only interested in walking around while clapping. Later on some giant puppets come out to perform. Mai notices a giant rainbow over the Cathedral (afternoon showers are typical for the rainy season). By that time it's time to go home for cena, the light supper. We pick up bread at the bakery and eat it with butter and Nutella. Joji and Mai are both in bed by 8:30. Dan and I confer about what to do this weekend. We want to invite a family whose mother is a teacher at Mai's school and her younger daughter is in Mai's class, but we haven't been able to get their contact information. Dan tells me he wants to teach some Saturday classes for foresters. And it's time to turn in. Our day starts earlier than we were used to in Tallahassee since Mai has to be ready to be picked up (by the school secretary!) at 7:45.