Flautas de pollo

Lorena is cooking for our small local Primaria this week. Monday was Flautas de Pollo .... 3 for 10 pesos. Earnings are partly for her and part for the school. She's using my stove rather than cooking on a wood fire. The bottom foto was mine and sadly the kids just get the basic Flauta.

Today she had help from another mom and her daughter making Salchipulpos (hot dog octopus). The foto is just an example and hers had no face. Too much work. Served in a bowl with crema and catsup. Both meals are meant to fill the kids up and not particularly healthy.

Sisters need school supplies

My neighbors

Nahima and Yare school fund

I'm going to help but need help helping. Both need backpacks (mochilas) and the older needs lots of notebooks. Nahima just graduated from Kinder so needs a first grade uniform and shoes. Yare needs another uniform after two years.  Both Yare and Nahima are doing well in school

El Día Del Niño

Kinder parade around Jaluco

The band they danced to later followed them around Jaluco

A Rodeo dance

Girls waiting for parade with stick horses

A Chilindrina party the next day

El Día Del Niños is tomorrow the 30th but all the schools celebrated early. Jaluco Kinder had their parade Wednesday followed by a Chilindrina party yesterday. I'd never heard of Chilindrina either but I'll let you look it up. It's the name of a popular childrens TV character. The parents made the stick horses the day before and a few made the green and yellow Chilindrina costumes. 

The Secondaria had an all day party yesterday and I haven't seen any pictures of that yet but maybe some will pop up on Facebook. No school  for anybody today.

Another Nahima day

Yesterday Burro was getting a bath in my outdoor sink and Nahima was helping

It was raining yesterday so I took her and mom to school but school was closed so no pictures. I took them again today to see inside the school and a foto or two. We arrived a few minutes past 9 and the gate is locked at 9 so we waited outside for awhile. Very impressed with the condition of the school.

Burro in the sink

Waiting for the gate to be unlocked

Kinder Patio

Only Nahima's class sitting outside. Other classes are in rooms

Back to school again

Preparatoria Regional de Cihuatlán

The school bus driving starts up again tomorrow with a different route. Euriel starts Prepa which is about half way between us and Melaque. This week it will be only Euri but next week Yari starts Secondaria in Melaque. The schedule is more complicated since Yari stats at 1 PM and Euri at 2. Will probably drop him off early and let him wait. Then to really complicate things Nahima starts Kindergarten in Jaluco in the morning. Lorena thinks she can take Nahima on the back of her bike using the back roads but she lacks a seat. Vamos a ver. 

Recycle Bottle Chair project

Yari's school project was to build something out of recycled material and she thought of a chair made of bottles. After considering silicon or a hot glue gun to hold it together she decided on clear packing tape. The upholstery of old catalogs was an afterthought because bottles alone are not very attractive.

It's a little hard to tell the size but it's perfect for her five year old sister. It's sturdy enough that an adult size could be done. Needless to say she got a good grade and got lots of good feedback from her friends.. 

Lorena wanted to get a good luck herradura (horseshoe) to put over their doorway and we found them at the large animal Vet on the highway. Trouble was he was selling new ones in sets of 4. Only 100 pesos for 4 but we didn't need that many and NEW lacked something. When we told him what we wanted them for he brought out some used ones for 20 pesos each. I put mine up in the palapa before reading about how to hang them but with opinions about both directions I'll leave it the way it is for now..

Yes luck will fall out - but onto those who pass under

Doin' the Math

Euriel just paid his entrance fee into Preparatoria (High School) and he got this prep test for the test he'll have to take some time this summer. I think it's only to give him an idea of what the test will be like so memorizing it (20-25 pages) is out of the question. That "simplify" the equation was the first that really stumped me and even though they have answers in the back, it made no sense. It's been too long since I've done the kind of math you only run into in school. I'll have to look for examples on the Internet.

This test has a some reading comprehension but also conditional situations very much like Math but not really. Like logic I guess. Some of those made my head spin but partly because they were in Spanish. Also two very difficult pages of English. The English they teach here is very limited and I doubt they get much conversation or heavy reading experience. Don't know how they are going to read a long paragraph, understand it and answer questions ??? Students put up little English sayings on Bulletin Boards at the school and all are humorous and they had time to research those.

Front page of study guide from Internet

College Board - Puerto Rico y America Latina

As I go through this test and make notes I have to make sure he can't just shake his head YES and move on. He has been a little lazy in school and has not asked me for English help or much of anything else unless it needs the Internet. I mark the multiple choice questions but he is going to get a WHY and EXPLAIN IT. Within the next week I'll sit down with him and see if his brain is a total vacuum or has absorbed some of it. Crossed fingers. What is a disabled kid gonna do if he can't finish school.

Link to Prep Test for High School in Mexico - PDF file

Rain, rain, rain and no storm

Nothing coming in from the ocean but it still has been raining a little or a lot almost every day for the last 2 weeks. This is definitely the wettest Spring I have experienced here on the Jalisco coast. It's kind of a typical tropical with usual clearing mid-day followed by clouding up and rain in the evening.  Clouds usually forming over the mountains and then moving down to us.

It rained all last night, main road became a stream, lagoon backed up so we could see it and the puddles/lakes on the way to Melaque became a little deeper. Better by the 1pm school run but still got splash over my hood.   I have turned around in the past before getting into Melaque and saying ... "No school today"   They really need to get the road grader out to cover the larger holes because they only get deeper each rain

Just before the rain came in on the left (east)

It's homework time again

School started yesterday and the teachers aren't wasting any time passing out homework.  I usually help the kids do their homework if they need Internet information.   Well actually I do their homework because they really don't know how to search for things, copy and paste and print.   Gonna have to have some lessons before long.

I was a little more than unhappy when Euriel's sister came over at 10 this morning with geography homework that is due today.   Problem was neither she or I could read what he had written and she was unsure except that it included Mesopotamia, China and somewhere else. Maybe about rivers, the food they ate or migration.   Could have been anything so I sent her home for better instructions.

Of course all the homework has to be in Spanish so that slows me down and I really need to know exactly what we are looking for or it's hopeless.   Sometimes mom helps check the info while I'm searching but she's in a parent-teacher meeting.   I've told them before I need time and 3 hours before school starts is not time enough for me.   Sis has not been back so I guess it's not gonna get done.   Oh well!

With 20 minutes to go mom came with an explanation and we found this .....
¿Qué comían los neandertales?

Two school projects

Yari is a fifth grader and this is her pig which eventually became a piggy-bank. She worked on it for a week on my patio day by day. It's paper mache over a balloon but then each coat of paint has to dry. Then glue on nose, ears and eyes ... and a pipe cleaner for a curly tail. She has contributions of about 27 pesos so far.

The second is Euriel's Biology project. When he got in the car after school he announced he needed to buy some condoms because everyone in the class had to learn how to use one. He described the dummy whatever as looking like a bird. We haven't figured that one out yet. He was embarrassed to go into the pharmacy to buy them so I went in with his mom. I hadn't bought one for years so felt I had to explain they were for her son who had a school project. 43 pesos for a 3 pack of the basic kind. Euriel is in 7th grade

The last foto I just threw in as a sunset from farm country

Yari's piggybank

A 3 pack of Trojans

Sunset from my roof

Día de la Revolución

Revolution Day is actually the 20th but Friday is the day for all the schools to march. This is about the Primary school in Pinal Villa and the kindergarden kids. My neighbor was in the dance group so she wanted me there for fotos.

There is supposed to be more marching on Monday in Melaque and a big party on the plaza come Tuesday night. Ron and Dora are here from San Miguel so we'll probably go.

Kids gathering

This was to throw firecrackers into

Jardin de Ninos or kindergarden

Front of the parade

The dance troop with Jania front left

Churros on the Plaza

My new job is bus driver for Uriel who just entered his first year of Secondary School.   We live in the country about a mile from the school and 'Uri' is disabled and can't walk that far on a very rough road.   School starts at 1pm and gets out at 7 so last night we did a little shopping and picked up a bag of churros from a stand on the plaza.

Churros are basically extruded donut dough, deep fried and then rolled in sugar and cinnamon (canela) and best eaten hot. I usually don't eat sweets but these hit the spot last night.

I'm getting re-acclimated to the warm weather after the Seattle trip and getting some painting done and more impermeabilizante on the roof. The garden has gone crazy with all the rain ... and the rain washes away my 'ant powder' I use to keep the leaf cutter ants at bay.   The lime trees are full of fruit, a few bats are back even tho I leave a light on under the palapa and there are new cantalopes growing on the compost pile.   Good to be back.

A lesson in fractions in Melaque

Back in Melaque after two weeks in Seattle visiting friends and family.   Everything in the house and yard were well taken care of by my neighbors.   Getting used to the humidity but it's cooler than it was 3-4 weeks ago before I left.   Hopefully a trend for the rest of the year.

On the half empty plane from LA I sat next to Marta who's mom owns Alice's Restaurant in Barra.  She had a friend picking her up and she offered me a ride rather than paying the $430 pesos with an airport taxi.   I paid for her parking and bought a few beers on a stop in Cihuatlan.  They let me off in Jaluco and I grabbed a local taxi to Pinal Villa.

Hugo and Oscar and families were waiting under the palapa when I arrived.   Got all the latest updates from them about the house (few water leaks on marquesina) , their lives (guys are working and kids back in school), the flooding a few weeks ago from the heavy rains ... and I brought out a few 'up north' presents for the kids.

Today Lorena came over with Yari and Yari's math book thinking we could look up the answers to her fractions assignment on a link in her textbook.   Found the site does not exist any more even tho there are lots of links to it on the Internet, so we sat down and went thru the 20 or so problems.  I could remember most of it but the terminology and explaining in Spanish took some thinking.  The hardest part was determining which was largest - 2/5 or 1/3.  I finally remembered you need a common denominator for a proper comparison.  Been too many years since school type problems.  We'll see how she does next week but more impostant she understands than just gets the right answer.

Graduation Day

The last day of school (today) is Graduation Day in Mexico as well as in our very small Primary school in Pinal Villa. No more than 50 kids total. I was asked to take a picture of Uriel who will be off to Secondaria in Melaque next year. Uriel suffers from just about every physical problem you can think of including motor control. The two mile walk into Melaque next year is a real concern to his parents. They would like to have a motor bike to take him but won't have the money for one. Sadly he can't ride a bike.

The ceremony began with the singing of the Mexican national anthem. An honor guard dressed in navy blue and chosen for their academic achievements, unfurled the red, white and green Mexican flag. A few more songs I was not familiar with. Two students read prepared speeches and the diploma presentation began. Those graduating to Secondaria first followed by those moving up to a new grade. No music and not as fancy as Melaque schools ... but just as real.

The Honor Guard

The lineup

Most of the kids

Uriel getting his diploma

Pinal Villa posada

For the last few years a local English speaking church, San Patricio by the Sea, of Melaque has put on an after Christmas posada for the school kids of Pinal Villa. Well at least they hold it in front of the school with every kid within miles showing up including the migrant workers kids. A lot of fun and a very nice thing for the church to do.

I was just cleaning my lot after a week of construction when one of the neighbors told me it would start at 11am so had to check it out. I ran into Blogger Steve who is a member of the church and a few neighbors I hadn't seen for awhile.

Usually when I've watched a piñata party the pinata comes apart completely with one final wack but this time 5-6 kids would knock a few candies out before the final blow. The rules, this time, were that the few goodies were supposed to be for the person with the stick. Of course it was impossible to keep the surrounding crowd away from anything that landed on the ground. Fun mayhem

I think he got it

A well worn Piñata

Juice and cookies

The next Pinata

Primary school books

Here`s an assortment of Primary school books that are free from the Mexican governemnt. Usually different colors for each grade - and nice art work. The bindings of these paperbacks are the weak point so every year I drill holes in them so Mari can bind them together with string.

Primary School Stove Fund

Attention: We have reached our goal for the stove. The PayPal page is closed. If you are local to Melaque and would like to contribute to kitchen repairs and/or paint - please contact me. Gracias a todos

We are trying to buy a $300us, 6 burner stove for Primeria Juan Escutia here in Melaque. We've raised about $200 but could use a little more help. Would like to get this stove by next week so I will disable this 'ad' at the end of the weekend (24th). Promise to post pictures of delivery and installation. Any excess money will be used to re-balance previous contributions. - Thanks

Contribute to the Primeria Juan Escutia stove fund via PayPal

.... and see some fotos of the kids

Here's the story (from our Message Board)

There are actually two schools on the campus. Virginia Torres is the morning section and Juan Escutia is afternoon. Each section has a coopertiva of the parents and separate kitchens. Kind of strange but that's the way it is.

The Juan Escutia section does not have enough support to get a new (or good used) stove. Each kitchen is rented out by the school to someone but there is not enough money in it without a varied menu which requires a stove.

Friends and I bought a fridge and blenders for the school last year but this year we need wider support. Maybe the new Rotary can pick up on this or simply the larger population of full time gringos that now exists.

I went to Manzanillo with the woman that runs the kitchen (Mari's sister) shopping for stoves and found that you can buy a basic six burner cheaper in Melaque than the big box stores. Big box stores don't have the variety and very little BASIC.

We found a number of 6 burner stoves at the muebles (furniture/appliance) store about a block towards the plaza from the old Bigotes in the $3000 peso range ($300us).