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1 May 2010
by
Dave Clingman
Hot and Dry, Safe and Secure
Andrew was ill much of this week (he's fine now),
but he still managed to make his appointment to teach
the class at the new school. He did quite well, but
realized that he lacks experience teaching a classroom
full of kids, and prefers working with smaller groups or
one on one. Also, that school doesn't pay much more than
Mundo Bilingue where he presently teaches, which limits
their classes to eight students. So, for now, he'll
continue as he has been doing, working six hours a week
at Mundo Bilingue and spending a few hours a week with
his five private clients. Oh, he got a new private
client this week, too.
Last Friday, to celebrate our being in Guadalajara,
Mexico for one year, we went to the
Adventure Park
located near the entrance to our RV park. Strange that
it has taken us a year to try out this place. The fun
park has zip lines, rock climbing walls, kiddy rides, bungy jumping/bouncing, go karts, and several other
things. After zipping high above the park on three
different spans, we tried out the go karts, and then
Andrew tried his hands (and feet) on the rock climbing
wall.
After a couple of laps on the go karts, I hit the gas
pedal while trying to reach the brake around the
sharpest curve on the track, and I crashed. Actually, I
merely drove the cart up onto the hill median and back
down again. The attendants came running over and spoke
to me in Spanish. I thought they were making sure I was
okay and telling me to be more careful, but it turns out
they were telling me that I lost my driving privileges.
Yikes. They then stopped Andrew's cart, and I buckled in
next to him. It was rather embarrassing. I simply am no
good on those little cars, and I actually enjoyed riding
with him more than driving myself.
This time of year (is it really spring?) is the hottest
and driest here in central Mexico. The temperatures have
been around the mid 80's (29-30 C) for a few weeks, but
next week it will get into the upper 90's (over 37 C).
The rains and cooler weather will begin late next month,
hopefully.
Because of this drought (having little rain last year
and no rain so far this season), the wells on the
property here all dried up. Andrew, as a resource
planner, thinks that over a longer time scale, this is a
consequence of having a whole lot of new housing
developments in the area, each with their own wells,
with no overall monitoring, planning or allocation of
water taken. For a week or three (not sure, since
different people have different stories), the RV Park
management had to pay to have water trucked in daily at
a cost of $1100 pesos (nearly $90 US). Needless to say,
they didn't want us watering a lot of plants.
Ironically, this was when Andrew and I finally decided
to invest in a few pots, some potting soil, and a few
plants. Since we have only five small plants, I don't
feel bad about watering them. Supposedly, the RV Park
now has a deeper well and a new pump, and we're okay.
We saw Jorge the horse again finally this week. Someone
has begun tying him to the fence near the gate, so that
whenever we are over on that side of the park, we can go
inside and visit him. Andrew brought him an apple
yesterday, and Jorge very much enjoyed that. It is that
time of year again, when it is dry and hot, and the
vegetation all is dying and drying. It has been almost a
year since we first met and began caring for Jorge. It
appears that this year, someone else has taken on that
job, though we don't know yet who is doing it. Mela at
first meeting didn't know what to make of this monster
sized "dog", but after we spent some time with Jorge,
Mela decided that Jorge's okay. She even jumps up and
touches noses with Jorge. It is quite a sight to see our
little dog jump up nearly a meter (three feet) into the
air to greet Jorge.
Since some of you asked, we didn't know about the
Tijuana earthquake last month until after the fact.
Andrew keeps up on much of the news worldwide, but I
didn't know about the quake until an email friend asked
me if we were okay (thanks, Bob). Tijuana is nearly
twelve hundred miles (almost 1900 kilometers) by air
from Guadalajara. So, no, we were not affected by that
earthquake. Guadalajara area has very few earthquakes.
Truly, we are fine here and feel very safe. We're more
bothered by occasional ants on the kitchen sink than by
anything else. Even the very rare cockroach inside our
van is merely one more toy for Mela, though we usually
get it away from her before she can eat it.
Well, the sun is rising on a new day (though I won't get
this emailed until after Andrew edits it as usual), and
I am looking out my window at the park covered in a
purple carpet of jacaranda flowers and listening to the
many birds greeting the dawn. It amazes me how very
pretty our little area is here. When I am outside
walking Mela or just enjoying the weather, I often look
up into the huge trees above our van and wonder at the
beauty, quiet, and peacefulness of our home here in
Guadalajara, Mexico.
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22 April 2010Read update
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