Altars, ofrendas

I've got a few more pictures to put up from the Mexico tour. I'm at the post-tour stage where I'm wondering if it was just a lovely dream. The pictures remind me that I was truly there. I keep finding small themes in my pictures. Here's one.

Here's an ornate baroque altar from a church in Queretaro. In the middle is the Virgen de Guadeloupe, who is deeply important in Mexico. I recommend zooming in to look at this picture.

This little altar was deep inside Las Grutas de Garcia.

In contrast, the Day of the Dead ofrendas are temporary. This was part of the ofrenda in Xochimilco. Don't these skeletons look dapper?

And speaking of dapper, these paper skeletons were decorated by kindergarteners and preschoolers at the Liceo de Monterrey. I took this and the next picture in part to explain to North Americans that as I wrote earlier, Day of the Dead is a giant celebration for the whole family, not scary at all for small children. One of the teachers at Tomas Moro was telling me how her small children love setting up their altar, choosing who it will be dedicated to (her brother-in-law who died a few years ago), deciding which of his hobbies to display.

This altar is on the wall at the Liceo de Monterrey, perpendicular to the decorated skeletons above. It includes pictures of family and friends who have died.

Mexico building entrances and facades

Here are a few of the pictures of building entrances and facades from the Mexico tour.

This horsehead was up at the roofline on a building near our hotel in Mexico City. Quite a contrast with the noisy electronics stores at street level.

Colonial style in the town of Garcia, Nuevo Leon (near Monterrey).

This was in the Barrio Antigua of Monterrey. I'm not sure, but I think that tire is for sale.

Another entrance in the Barrio Antigua. One side is stacked with books, the other with big chunks of tree trunks. Where did that wood come from? There were no big trees in the area. And what was going to happen to it?

This is a close-up of the door handle on the building above.

I saw many of these hand door knockers, but I only had my camera with me for this one. Some of the most ornate were in Colonial Queretaro. This one is in Garcia.

Back to Mexico City

On Tuesday night, we flew from Monterrey back to Mexico City, arriving at the hotel at about 11:15 p.m. The next morning we met Pedro, our cab driver, at 6:15 a.m. I am a morning person, but manoman, that was hard. We arrived near the school early enough to go to Vips, which though owned by Wal-Mart, was one of my favorite breakfast spots--bottomless cups of coffee, papaya with yoghurt and granola, fresh-squeezed orange-nopal juice. Yum.

On Wednesday and Friday, I was at Tomas Moro School in Mexico City, at two branches. I've already had some great e-mails from the kids at this school--hello, everybody!

I really enjoyed this school. The teachers and students were friendly and welcoming. The setting at the Maguey branch reminded me of cabins in the mountains. The buildings fit beautifully into the natural environment--the line between indoors and outdoors seemed almost porous, as I've mentioned before, so very unlike the hermetically sealed US schools.

Notice the open doors of these classrooms:

At the branch in Maguey, I told stories to preschool up to high school students. The level of English was high, as was the level of enjoyment. Alberto was able to get some good pictures of the listeners on that Wednesday:

I didn't bring all the puppets out for all the classes. Mavis made an appearance for a few, though. Notice that I'm wearing my fleece vest and a scarf, and many of the kids are bundled up. It was lovely to be almost outdoors, but chilly! I'm not sure many buildings in Mexico City are heated.

On Friday, my last show was at the other branch of Tomas Moro. We arrived there without getting caught in traffic. In a city of 26 million, that's truly a miracle.

I told stories at that branch to the high school kids in the gym. Not a large group, and I wasn't sure they were with me in the beginning, but by the end of the show, the students were on my side. They had excellent questions, such as "what's the difference between acting and storytelling?" and "If I wanted to be a storyteller, how would I begin?" I might have to write some blog posts answering those as best I can!

Family Literacy Nights in Mexico

I often perform at Family Literacy Nights in the US--I've got one coming up this Thursday in Wamego, KS. I had three in Mexico last week, at two branches of the same school in Monterrey.

The first show was difficult, in large part because of the setting. It was in a big echoing room, with many small children who didn't understand enough English to care what I was doing up by the microphone. I realized too late that I should have asked the parents to sit with the children. I think the librarians were as dismayed as I was.

The next one was that very night, at the same school. Fortunately, we moved to a smaller, cozier room and there were only a couple of tiny children who sat easily with their parents. It was a completely different experience!

As the families came in, I played with the kids, getting them to sing "Twinkle, twinkle," "The ABC song," and "Baa baa, black sheep," all at once. When I began the show, I discovered that the students were great fans of Robert Munsch. They knew some of my favorite Munsch stories, such as Moira's Birthday and Stephanie's Ponytail. I told one they knew and one they didn't, then went on to my own stories. We had a fabulous time! I even got a fan letter from one of the parents the next day (hello, Adriana!).

At the end, as often happens at Family Nights, kids came up to say goodbye to Trixie:

The next night I was at the other branch of the school. They've had more Family Nights, so the families knew what to expect. Here are a few pictures from that session:

The parents were wonderful listeners as well.

At the end, kids came up to ask for my autograph. We were in a hurry to get to the airport to fly back to Mexico City, but there was still time to sign a few. Trixie didn't sign, though--she's left-handed while I'm right-handed, so it would have taken more time.
Here's the real payoff for a Family Literacy Night: kids checking books out of the library after the stories. At this branch, the children are told they can borrow extra books if they come to the event. As a former librarian, this makes me very happy.

Las Grutas de Garcia

Sunday before last was a day off. Whew! After breakfast, Alberto and I hopped in a cab to the Monterrey bus station, then took a bus to the town of Garcia, then a cab to the foot of the funicular, then the funicular itself up to Las Grutas de Garcia. I think the exact translation of "gruta" is "grotto," but this was much more than that, an enormous set of caverns inside the mountain. The caverns were discovered in 1843 and are over 60 million years old. They now have tour guides, stairs, lights, and paths that cover more than a mile inside, but it's not a cakewalk--I found myself out of breath a few times.

In looking at my pictures, I realize I didn't get any that show the scale. Mostly I was fascinated by the stalactites and stalagmites.

The shapes are incredible!

This one was called "The Hand of Death." It rose more than twice my height. [After I posted this, my sister commented to me that it looks like our hands. True! It also reminded me of the way my father and uncle would jokingly imitate a pair of very old men shaking hands--even when they themselves were getting up in years.]

Though this is labeled "El Gorila," the tour guide pointed out the striking resemblance to Homer Simpson.

Here I am in my Monterrey tee shirt just inside the caverns.

And here's Alberto, my intrepid tour manager and friend.

This is the view from the outside. In the lower right, you'll see the ticket counter for the funicular. It was also possible to walk up. It takes about an hour.

From the caverns, we went into the small town of Garcia for a delicious lunch on the town square. This is the church in that square.

Then back to Monterrey by bus. Happy-trip!

Monterrey writing workshops

Through the years, I've offered a workshop for kids called Storytelling, Storywriting. We start with the difference between written and told stories, discuss structure and backstory, and play with a story or two. Then we write, using a modified version of Natalie Goldberg's rules for writing practice, from her book Wild Mind. Sometimes we have time for a last writing game, sometimes we just write (and read aloud) more.

On Saturday, I presented this two-hour workshop twice for 105 fifth-grade students, age 11 or so, at the Young Authors' Workshop at Colegio Ingles in Monterrey. The students are chosen by their teachers to attend this special three-day workshop. They come from different cities, from schools where they are taught in English for part of the day. The students arrive with their teachers and then go home to host families here in Monterrey. For many, it's the first time they've been away from home.

I was apprehensive about doing this with non-native English speakers, until I remembered that I did it in Belgium a few years ago, in classes where only some of the kids were native speakers. It worked, both there and here.

Here's what some of it looked like: Notice the teacher writing with the kids. These teachers were enthusiastic and helpful throughout. Some modeled good writing behavior, some did general crowd control. Many told me they would take the exercises back to use in their classrooms.

The only tough part was getting the kids to listen. While they were writing, they were absolutely silent, but when they were done, they were so excited about writing and reading aloud that it was deafening!

After the second workshop, I went to use the bathroom. I heard a voice from another stall intoning, "I...am the ghost...with the one...black...eye." Love that!

I've had an e-mail from one of the other students, telling me how much he enjoyed the workshop. Hey, Pablo! Keep writing!

Mexico Tour, scrambling to catch up

I had good intentions to write more often! Last week I was in Mexico City and Monterrey doing fifteen shows and two tw0-hour workshops, so I have an excuse.

On Tuesday, I went to the Comunidad Educativo Tomas Moro for three performances with older kids. It was especially appropriate to tell Mary Culhane and the dead man just after El Dia de Los Muertos, though the dead man in the Irish story is creepier than how death is portrayed in Mexico for the holiday. I told some of my other favorites for the groups of slightly older kids.

A small digression about my favorites. In the Q & A sessions, kids often ask which is my favorite story. I explain that in storytelling I know of only one hard and fast rule: only tell stories you love. Therefore, my favorite is the one I'm telling at the moment. I love them all. The favorite story of my listeners over the years has proved to be The ghost with the one black eye, though.

I went directly from the school to the airport, where I met Alberto. We flew to Monterrey, in the northeast. Though it's quite an industrial city, Monterrey has its own charm. Our hotel is in the Zona Rosa, a pedestrian area near the old city. It's ringed by the Sierra Madre mountains, some of which are impossibly steep. Here is a view of the mountains and the cathedral from the hotel (you can't see the high rise buildings on either side, but they're there):
That mountain in the background is called "the saddle."

And here's a view from Liceo de Monterrey, the girls' school where I spent three days:

I had a great time at the Liceo. I told stories to everybody from the five-year olds to the college prep students (not the preschoolers, though). On the first two days we were in the Forum, a space with a stage and also where the children do gymnastics. It's open to the outside, with curtains to make it quieter and warmer on cool days. Many schools in Mexico feel more open than those in the US, which seem hermetically sealed from the out of doors. Here are a few pictures from the Liceo:

I show the students a map so they can see where I'm from and they can get used to my voice: Here are some of the younger ones joining in on a standing-up song:

And the ever useful Shaking Hands:
I wish I had pictures of the older students--I think they weren't sure they were going to enjoy the stories, but they did. They even liked the puppets. Beautiful faces on these attentive listeners, aren't they?

Next post will be about the writing workshops I did on Saturday.

Monday at Xochimilco

Part of a Day of the Dead ofrenda in Xochimilco

Last Monday, we took a little trip to Xochimilco, a borough in Mexico City known for its canals. The clerk at our hotel suggested that we should go on Sunday because it would be more crowded. We didn't understand why that would be better, so we went on Monday, el Dia de Los Muertos.

We took a metro and light rail to get there, then walked for about fifteen minutes to the canals. We (Alberto and I) were surprised at how helpful people were at the light rail station and along the way. "Embarcaderos? Go straight, then turn," they said, without even being asked. Hmm.

When we got there, we discovered that it would be expensive to rent a boat (and boatman) to go on the canals. Alberto did some bargaining but it was still expensive at 400 pesos for a couple of hours (13 pesos to the dollar, so around $30 for the two of us). It would be cheaper to go with another group, but when we tried to join some people who were willing to have us along, the boatmen told us we weren't allowed to. We felt that we were being railroaded into an expensive situation, so we turned and walked away. This was probably why it would have been better to be there on a more crowded day.

Wait, wait! It turns out that there are several docks with boats to take tourists on the canals, so competition is strong. The boatmen thought we were going to another dock--we didn't even know they existed. One came after us and coaxed us back with a price of 300 pesos for the two of us. We accepted.

It was a lovely ride. I can't imagine how it was the day before when it was crowded. As it was, the traffic was at times heavy enough that we bashed into some other boats. Here are some of my better pictures of the day.

It was Day of the Dead, so here's an ofrenda on the canal:

We took the shorter trip. We could have taken a four or five hour ride, which would have taken us near the Island of the Dolls, where there are dolls hanging in the trees for good luck and for the spirit of a young girl who drowned there. Instead, we saw dolls in the trees on our trip that represent that island:

Here's Alberto:
And here's a view of some of the other trajneras (gondolas):

If we'd wanted to pay more, we could have had mariachi music or marimbas, or we could buy snacks, beer, souvenirs and plants from floating shops along the way. As it was, we just enjoyed the boat ride.

Random pictures, mid-tour in Mexico City, part I

I'm getting farther and farther behind in this blog, so I thought I'd post a few pictures I took in various place in Mexico City.

I love this door knocker! In Queretaro I also saw a lot of great ones, but always when I was either in a moving vehicle or without my camera.
I finally got a good picture of an organ grinder. These fellows play all around the Zocalo, with a compatriot holding out a hat for tips. They all wear the same kind of uniform. He's holding the hat right now.
In the Presidential Palace, there are amazing murals by Diego Rivera. Here's a little piece of one:
And a much bigger section:
Last year in Brazil, I took lots of pictures of plants. I haven't taken as many here, but this Bird of Paradise was begging to be photographed.

That's it for now.