Study in contrasts: kitchens

Kitchens in the U.S. are filled with
the finest equipment, but there is
often no one home to use it.
More and better appliances, but
home-cooking and family dinners
are maybe moving towards extinction.
American Demographic magazine says
that between 1985-95, the number
of hours woman spent cooking dropped
23% and hours men cooked dropped 21%.
By 2000, 40% of households use their
( non-microwave ) oven less than once
in a week. And only 42% make a hot meal
once a day.
U.S. Dept. of Consumer Expenditure survey
says that the average family in 2003 spent
$3,130 on food at home, and $2,211 on food
away from home. Wealthier families,with
incomes of $70,000 and above, spent 49.2%
of household food budget on food away from
home. And 44% of all weekday meals are
prepared in less than 22 minutes.

Here in Mexico, we have found kitchens
to be a real heart of the home. Requires
work, and in various conditions, but
worked and lived in by folks. It saves
money, and allows time to socialize.
Here, if they had magnificant time-saving
devices abounding, they would use the time
to gather together, in the kitchen.
Yes..Mexico is a poor country, by U.S.
standards...and yes, the U.S. is far less
relational, than by Mexican standards.
Simply, contrasts in civilizations.
All in just a kitchen.

God's love: subtle,like rain

If it rains during the night,
no one sees the rain.
For then every soul
is asleep.
But the freshness of
every beautiful garden
is clear evidence of
the rain that was
not seen.

RUMI

We have been so blessed
by our year in Oaxaca.
Watered in ways we are
just beginning to see and
understand.
Fresh gardens of friends
and experiences.
Que un milagro!
Gracias a Dios.

Matthew

(These photos were taken during a street procession that Bruce and I happened across on Good Friday.)

Matthew 26:57- Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled.
59 The chief priest and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. But they did not find any, though many false witnessed came forward.
66 “He is worthy of death,” they answered. Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him…
27:1 Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death. They bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.












11.Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
“Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied.
27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then they twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, King of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.



37 Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him. He trusts in God, Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, I am the Son of God.”


45 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness come over the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”-which means, “My God, My god, why have you forsaken me?”
When some of those standing there heard this they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earth quake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

OK, not so great!

Ok..so Mexico isn't so great all the time! I've been sweetly positive about this place for a long time with many journals, but give me a chance to have a cultural-shock rant. Shrinks and travel agents say you gonna have a meltdown sometime. So, some stuff bugs me.
Guess what? They do that metric thing down here! They call it a system. Yeah, like a system to drive me nuts..kilometro by kilometro. We share a huge border with this country, wouldn't it be much easier if they just did it our way? Last time I looked on a world map the United States was in the center!
And here in Oaxaca city, they have fantastic weather in the evenings for the night life, and colonial architecture-laden streets for wandering...but get this!..no HARD ROCK CAFE! I mean, what's the deal with that? I really wanted to get the T-shirt.
And try and find a burrito or a real enchilada. The menus here have loads of other creative fresh fruit and vegetable things that I've never seen in Taco Bell back home, but way too hard to fiqure out when your super hungry. And way too many choices of chesse. Make it simple, give me Kraft cheese...I'm hungry, I gotta go!
Now, this is a good one! They have street vendors with little carts that steam-up and sell corn on the cob. Great, right? But here's what they do to it. You get it with mayonnaise slathered all over it, with toppings of a little chili powder, lime and parmesan chesse! Katy adores it. I just can't try it.
I mean, its supposed to be eaten with butter and a little salt, right? To change now and eat it with all that other strange stuff...would be sort of like walking into whatever U.S. art museum has that famous 'American Gothic' painting with the farmer guy and his wife holding the pitchfork...and putting Mexican sombreros on their heads! What I mean is, you just don't change some American things. Why can't they just be happy with plain butter?
And toilet paper. Everywhere, the old sewers of Mexico can't handle the paper down the drains. So, you always have to throw it in a basket nearby. They will never, ever be a developed country until they get a sewer system like us in the States.
They love music a bunch in Mexico; its in the streets, on the buses...but there are polka songs everywhere! And they actually like them! I mean, they're not just playing old recordings, they're making new ones all the time that become hits. National hits! Polkas! Imagine a brass band, bringing the house down on the yearly televised Grammy Awards show back in the U.S.!
And they got this thing with personal space. Generally, after you've met someone for the first time through a friend of yours, you are supposed to give them a kiss on the right cheeck. Talk about personal, and really close in my space, and in my face!
Well, it ain't so great, everywhere, and all the time here..but after we leave in June to go back to California...we are going to really miss Mexico. Because most of the time, most of the stuff and people get to you..really get to you..in a slow, positive and comfortable way.
We're gonna be back again, for sure.


To feel at home, stay at home. A foreign country is not designed to make you feel comfortable. It's designed to make its own people comfortable.

Clifton Fadiman

A degree of loneliness sharpens the perceptions wonderfully while traveling.

Phillip Glazebrook

I dislike feeling at home when I'm abroad.

G.B. Shaw

The object of pilgrimage is not just rest and recreation, to get away from it all. To set out on a pilgrimage is to throw down a challenge to everyday life.
From a spiritual point of view a journey is always something of a two-edged sword, because of the dispersion which can result from contact with so much that is new. We cannot simply shut ourselves off from this newness, or we might just as well stay home. If we are going to travel we naturally wish to learn something.
But if the newness threatens to overwhelm us, it can on occasion cause a periodic hardening of the ego, as if in reaction to the fear of losing ourselves. And so we find it necessary to shore up our identities. The smallness of these identities is certain to bring suffering however; beginning with feelings of impatience and annoyance.
The art is to learn to master today's unavoidable situation with as much equanimity as we can muster, in preparation for facing its sequel tomorrow.

Huston Smith

A Trip to the Store

Fruit Market
$17 pesos, < $1.70 US
3 avacados
7 limes
a small bundle of Epazote
(an herb used in black beans)
1 mango
1 large orange
7 serranos
5 small bananas
1 carrot
2 zucchinis

Meat Market
$76 pesos, < $7.50 US
4 large boned chicken breasts
6 chicken chorizos
(and a seasoned hamburger patty thrown in as a "thank you for shopping here, please come again.")





Corner Miscellanious shop
$14 pesos, < $1.40 US
1 sprite
1 Manzanita
(sparkling apple soda)



TOTAL
$107 pesos, < $10.00 US