Chess and Safari

Saturday I went back to the big Cultural Complex, where they host a weekend open-chess club / teaching session in the afternoons. I got to play a couple of people, and it was fun to brush up on my skills. Nothing serious, though! They did have these kids playing with giant pieces on the ground, which I thought was a riot...this kid is deep in though.



Today (Sunday), I went to the local safari, Afrikam. You can grab a bus from the city or take your own car, but it's kind of like the San Diego zoo where you can drive around to these open-air zones with different types of animals. We actually had some monkeys jump onto our bus and hitch a ride for a little bit, but I couldn't get any sort of picture or video.

Here you can see some of their tigers taking a siesta. They get to eat 8 kgs of meat, six days a week. Note how they're hugging each other while spooning...



And finally we went to a bird show. This is a Golden Eagle (in Spanish, Aguila Real), which is the eagle on the Mexican flag. I've had the chance to hold a raptor on my arm before, and while birds are fairly light, I can only imagine how much this guy weighs on this poor woman's arm...

Bicentennial

Last Thursday, Sept 16, was Mexican Independence Day. Last year I celebrated with a fellow volunteer in Oaxaca, but this year several of us went to Mexico City to participate in the biggest party of the last 200 years. Not only was it just Independence Day, but it was the 200th anniversary of the Independence from Spain, and the 100th anniversary of the Revolution that ended dictatorship in Mexico. So it was going to be a big party, in the capital of the republic!!

Because of fears of violence on this noteworthy day, there was a ton of security in DF (Mexico City), and they actually limited the number of people allowed into each venue. The main venue, where the Grito is done in the evening of Sept 15 (Viva Mexico!), was the Zocalo, the plaza in front of the federal palace, and only 50,000 people were going to be allowed in. So, we camped out. For five hours or so before the actual event. And even then, we were late and didn't get great spots. But, they had giant screens set up to show the main events, and various bands and dancers to fill the time. I could list all of the things that I saw (floats, dance numbers, giant statues, etc.), but the most impressive was the fireworks display. I heard reports that 16,000 fireworks were used, or 8 tons, but whatever the actual number, the display lasted a good twenty minutes or longer. It was huge! Some random pics and videos of the events follow.









Also, the following day, Sept 16, was the military parade. A huge number of soldiers, medical corps, and students, representing every branch of the Mexican military, paraded through the main streets of the city. Not something you see in the US, but it happens in all the major cities in Mexico for Independence Day. The parade lasted several hours and included their military vehicles, boats, and fly-overs. We must have seen at least 20,000 soldiers marching in DF alone! Even some of the embassies (including the US and China) sent delegations to march. Again, random collection of pics and videos follows.

PCT Visit

This past week two of the new trainees came to visit. These trips are parts of our three month PST to show trainees how volunteers live and work; for mine, I had gone up north to Saltillo.

These two had been out here last week to learn about my primary assignment, so I focused more on the outside-of-work experience. Thursday we had amazingly great weather (it has been raining every day for the last three months!), and so we went for a hike near the two volcanoes, where there is a waterfall called Apatlaco. It's a fun hike. While we stopped for snacks, a hummingbird actually came up to us and hovered behind one of the trainees for a couple seconds--I caught it out of the corner of my eye, and it was a pretty amazing / shocking / hard-to-believe thing. Apparently the other guy who saw the hummingbird and I had such stunned looks on our faces that the trainee thought she had some scary-as-crap animal behind her!



Friday we spent in downtown Puebla, browsing museums and the artisan district. We got caught in a downpour the afternoon as we were coming back for dinner (another party with my friends down the street), and the streets flooded. Here is one of the many rivers that we had to wade through on our way back.



Saturday a friend from my office took us out to this ex-Hacienda northwest of the city called Chautla. The governor used to live there, and now it is open for picnic-ers, fishing, etc. The house had some nice hardwood floors and a great view, but was definitely a fixer-upper.

Random festival and visitors

Last Saturday night I said there was a stage being set up in the center; I actually wound up going. A band started playing around 9:30 PM, with a small crowd. The crowd kept growing, and the band's pyrotechnic guys kept lighting off fireworks. At one point, they introduced these paper-mache bulls with racks of fireworks strung on top...and invited people from the crowd to run around with them!!! So these two guys (one after the other), put the bulls onto their shoulders, lit the fuse, and ran into the crowd. I kid you not. I got some videos from my hiding spot behind the speakers (yes, the speakers are stacked about 3 meters high):



Also, this last week I got to meet some of the new trainees in Group 9! They have been down here for two weeks, and as part of their training, they came down to visit my office. I gave a couple of talks, we got some tours, and we signed the official memo of agreement for my center to accept volunteers. The new group seems really sharp and has some great experience / backgrounds, and I look forward to getting to hang out with them.

Dinners and Chiles en Nogada

Last night (Friday) I had the chance to cook dinner for the family that had me over last week. It was kind of funny--since I don't have a lot of space in my apartment, I had to ask them if I could borrow their kitchen to cook for them. And all week, when I would invite people to the dinner, I'd have to say it was in someone else's house...not a normal party invitation! But it went over well; we had about 10 people, with lots of conversation til past midnight. I have no pictures, but hopefully will get passed some when I get to the office on Monday...

Today, the 28th of August, is the Day of Chiles en Nogada, a famous regional dish that is very popular. It is a chile stuffed with a mixture of fruits, meats, and nuts, topped with a creamy walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds. In a neighboring town, they have what is billed the "Largest Chile en Nogada in the World." It is actually made up of 2000 chiles en nogada and shaped to look like one giant chile. Here is a picture of them making it. This dish is incredibly labor intensive due to the number of ingredients and having to hand-cut them all (you have to remove the inside brown peel on the walnuts, etc.).





And looks like they are setting up for another concert tonight in front of our local church...not sure for what. But I will probably go check it out and see if I recognize anyone from the neighborhood.

Community Integration

One of the aspects that I really like about Peace Corps is the community integration. Many times, I think that Mexicans are more welcoming than Americans. Mexicans have been very welcoming to me as a stranger, and I know other volunteers have similar stories.

Lots of volunteers get invited to visit people's homes or over to dinner (like me going to Acatlan a couple weeks ago). This does happen in the US, but it just feels like a much rarer occurrence, especially for casual or new acquaintances. Case in point--last Friday, we were talking about regional dishes at the office, and on the spur of the moment, I am invited over to someone's house to dinner with their family. How cool is that? Yes, I've been to friends' houses in the US, but it seems like it takes longer for us to warm up to people. And even then, only the closest of friends get the choice treatment. I'm sure lots of factors play into it, but it is interesting to see a cultural difference.

If I take one thing back from my experience, I hope to bring part of this open culture back with me...

Flour carpets--not for my house

Yesterday, Saturday, I went to a pueblo magico called Huamantla. Mexico has various little towns with this designation; usually they have a unique cultural aspect that is very colonial or pre-Hispanic. In Huamantla, they have a long tradition of a festival called La Noche Que Nadie Duerme, or basically the Night Where Nobody Sleeps. I only went during the day (since I had no hotel reservations, I would have had to sleep on the streets, if I slept at all), but I got to check out some of the festivities.

This festival involves building these giant, long "carpets" made of colored sawdust, flour, and flowers throughout all of the major streets (bigger versions of the one two pics shown below). Early in the morning is a parade of the Virgen, which passes over these carpets. Here you can see these guys marking out the carpets near the Zocalo...once they start, you can't even cross the street!



There was also a competition for kids to build a little block of carpet. Here is one of my favorites, because it makes a good cover-picture for La Noche.



During the entire month of August, the town also is hosting its annual feria, or county fair. They had a ton of rides and stands, though things didn't pick up until the evening. There were some very odd looking Disney-themed trash bins, too...