Life can be so hard

Jo Ann and I volunteer for a local organization called Patronato Pro-Niños de San Miguel de Allende, A.C. (PPN). PPN provides total medical and dental care to the young children who live in the compo areas surrounding San Miguel. If the family has limited or no resources to pay for medical care PPN will pick up the bill, while almost all of the medical services are provided by local doctors, dentists and other care organizations. It is a great organization that is always in need of financial supporters and volunteers.

As volunteers we will go and visit the local schools that are in our area and talk with the directors and teachers about the program and their students who need medical care. Most times the level of care needed is basic dental work and vision examinations, primarily for eye glasses.

However, sometimes when we talk to the directors, the situation can be much more dramatic. This past week we visited on the schools that is only about 10 kilometers from our home. During the discussion the Directora introduced us to a young boy who is very attentive and energetic, but who can not speak. She told us that the child's mom is not willing to accept help and the child is basically left on his own. There are local schools that can help this child but the mother is not willing to enroll the child even though there would be little to no financial obligation. What can we do to help, we keep asking ourselves, but we can not force the mother to extend the effort to help the boy.

Then there was another situation that is even more disheartening to us. Over the past year we have gotten to know a young boy, who is about 11, when we were out biking in the compo. We saw this boy at the school and the Directora told us that he needed some vision examinations and probably will need some glasses. She then went on to tell us that the father who is around 60, recently went blind, the mother needs major dental work (she is losing all of her teeth), the oldest daughter, who is over 30, lives at home and is an alcoholic, and there are seven other children. The father can not work due to the blindness and there is no social security or welfare organizations in Mexico so this family is in dire straights. It is so bad that the oldest boy was so hungry that he left the family and is somewhere in the US working. The family has had no contact with him since he left so they don't know where he is or how he is doing. PPN is trying to help this family by giving the father and mother references to different organizations that can help them with the blindness and dental problems, which is very helpful. But without financial support and with no ability to find employment, this family is suffering. Again we continue to ask ourselves, what can we do to help.

These are such a difficult situations but not ones that are limited to only this community. There are so many needy families here in Mexico and only so many organizations and volunteers to help. Living down here you really gain an appreciation as to why men, boys and even total families will risk their lives to cross the border to try to gain some type of employment up north. We are trying to help, but the organizations need more financial support and volunteers so if you can please contribute financially or volunteer your time, both are needed.

Is it my Spanish or just a failure to communicate?

For the past two years Jo Ann and I have been working very hard on improving our Spanish. In fact for the past eight months we have been taking intensive language training. We can now have full conversations with the people who live near our rancho and are able to communicate very well with the construction and landscaping crews who speak only Spanish.

However over the past week we have had several "issues" where we either don't fully understand the culture/customs or we have the typical example of a lack of communication.

The first incident happened two days ago. Tomas, our ranch hand, has never really had full time permanent employment and has two boys in high school who we employ during their vacations from school (summer break and Navidad). However now the boys are back in school and Tomas has a lot of work to get done before the rainy season starts. So as the day was ending I told Tomas that I thought we should hire him an assistant to help with the work, such as mixing the concrete and carrying the heavy materials. Upon saying this I could see Tomas was not happy about this offer. I mention that it would only be until his boys are out of school for the summer in case he is concerned that we would not hire them again. I continue to back track saying that all we were trying to do was to help him and if he does not want the assistant that was fine with us. So was our offer viewed by him as criticism of his work, did he think that we would not hire his boys again, did I use the wrong words or tenses, or was this something that culturally we did not understand?

The second issue happened yesterday and is really a combination of two events. We were going out to Las Cañas primeria school to give some training on using the new educational software that we installed last week. We had asked the oldest child of Agistina if she could help us with training as she uses the software and knows how the programs work. So the prior day, Agistina tells us that we should pick up Alicia at their home at 11:15. However yesterday morning Alicia's father Aturo comes by and tells us to pick her up at the Rancho Viejo school at 11:15. So we go to the school at 11:15 and find out two things, Alicia is not there and the teachers from Las Cañas primeria are coming for computer training to Rancho Viejo. We are very confused to say the least.

We head off to Alicia's home to see if she is there, but alas she is not, her mom says she is probably out at our rancho, so we head off there. Yes she is there and we don't really know how our plans went astray, but we have found her so off to Las Cañas we go.

We get to the school and it is locked up tighter than a drum. We don't know what went wrong, but clearly the directoria of the school either forgot to tell us that they had a change of plans or did we not explain ourselves clearly.

It can be extremely frustrating to be in a land of extremely friendly people, who speak a language that you do not fully comprehend or understand. Sometimes my head seems to explode as I try to absorb all of the nuances and tenses of Spanish, but we are making progress. However, days like these past two really raise questions about your communication skills and your understanding of the new language. This is something that everyone needs to experience as it can be oh so humbling.

Arbustivas y Plantas Necesario Anónimo

Ok, I have having a little fun with the title, but when Jo Ann and I go to a plant sale, we usually go crazy. So over the past weekend we headed into San Miguel de Allende to visit the annual plant sale which is known as Candelaria. Usually held within the beautiful confines of Parque Juarez, this year it is being held in the parking lot on Cardo. Well, first impressions were that it looked like a typical flea market that we would visit when we lived in SoCal. However upon closer investigation we found some beautiful flowers, shrubs and trees.

One of issues that I have with Candelaria is that it really does not promote or market local or native plants. It is really focused on selling plants that have lots of color that will not necessarily do well here in the high desert environment of Mexico. But this is the result of capitalism, doing what will sell, not necessarily what is good for the local environment. The following is a good sample of what you can find at the various vendors.

One of the concerns that I have heard a lot from many locals who are very knowledgeable in plants and trees, is that the vendors stress the plants with fertilizers and other performance enhancing substances to have them in full bloom with fruits, just for the show. Thus in a lot of cases people will be very disappointed that the beautiful plants that they had purchased soon thereafter die or look significantly wilted. It is thus imperative that when you are purchasing plants here to really look at the root ball and the stock, and not look at the color of the flower or the fruit.

I am always amazed by the entrepreneurship of the Mexicans. I had been wondering how they were going to get power to the vendors for the dusk and evening hours, well as you can see, they solved that problem also.

We did find a couple of vendors who had great products and the plants and trees looked like they had been well cared for. So what did we buy, well we got two limon trees, one fig tree (I love figs), eight roses and a bunch (I really mean a whole lot) of herbs for Jo Ann's new herb garden. We also purchased several other plants that will be used to supplement our new landscaping.

Saturday and Sunday we spent planting the new herb garden and some of the trees. Well it was a great weekend to plant if you are the plant, but not so great if you are the gardener. We had drizzle and light rain all weekend, so out come the wellies. We would then end up the day with a cup of hot tea to warm up before settling into a delicious dinner. It was a great weekend!

If you would like to see more of my photos from Candelaria (and there will be more as I am sure we will venture in again for more plants before it ends, please visit my flickr collection here.

Garden Design with Cacti

This past week Jo Ann and I attended a wonderful lecture presented by Martin Smith, the curator of the cacti collection at el Charco Botanical Jardín in San Miguel de Allende. The purpose of the lecture was to discuss how you can use cacti and succulents in your landscape and garden designs in lieu of using the more traditional plants and flora that most people from the US are accustomed to.

During the lecture Martin covered many landscape design concepts and how the use of cacti and succulents can be both attractive and eco-sensible. The plants that are on display and for sale at el Charco are solely native plants to Mexico and so are able to handle the disparities of the temperature, the potential of draughts and the high winds that we can experience living here in the high desert.

Through out the lecture Martin also covered a number of key design concepts that he integrates when he is designing gardens both here in San Miguel as well as in his home country of England. These concepts include the use of the rule of thirds, complementary and contrasting colors (using the artistic color wheel), implementing odd numbers and using repeating patterns. All of these concepts can greatly enhance the ambiance and serenity of your gardens and outdoor living space.

As we walked through the various cacti gardens, Martin would demonstrate hands on how they had transformed the various cacti gardens. Here are two examples of gardens that they completely transformed into one of the most engaging gardens that I have experienced.

If the concept of learning how to use cacti and succulents in your garden and outdoor living space, and you missed attending this lecture, we are having a similar session for the San Miguel Down to Earth Garden Club on the 22nd of February from 3 to 5p. There will be at charge of 70 pesos for members of el Charco and 100 pesos for non-members. If you are interested please go to the group web page here.