Los Campechanos y Cocodrilos

Today was hot, not warm, hot, and its still February. Rumor has it that April and May here are not fit for man nor beast. And misquitos, Dios mio, I'm not saying they're big, but they ought to require a pilot, co-pilot and navigator in the cockpit. Live is actually taking on a bit of a routine here. No big trips to report. I am starting to feel a bit like a real Campechano, except I can't speak Spanish very well, am at leat 12 cm taller than the average Campechano, have light skin, light hair, and blue eyes (and, I'm sure, dress funny). My one month aniversario has come and gone. I did get invited to a cocodrilo farm located in an escuela preparatoria (instead of grade school, middle school and high school, the Mexican equivalent is escuela primaria, secundaria, and preparatoria). We later went to a nature center where they had preserved a few acres of the mangrove swamps that Campeche used to sit on. I have attached a picture of both the crocodile farm and the mangrove swamp. (You can click on the image to get a better look at that bad boy above). In addition, I recently got an invite to a football (soccer) game that my buddy Aldo was playing in. The level of football was actually quite good. I have discovered if you want a quick insight into the culture of a given area, go to a public sporting event and to the local cemetary. Anyway, I learned all kinds of words at the football game I probably won't be able to repeat too often. By the way, I did make it to the local cemetary.

My Spanish speaking has hit a bit of a wall, but I think that is to be expected. I am trying to engage more folks in conversation, but I continue to have good days and bad days. In addition, there are folks that are easier for me to understand than others. The dialect here is quite different, I think it is the equivalent of a Costa Rican, for example, learning English in London for a few months and ending up in rural Alabama. En resume, espanol en los libros y en la aula es muy diferente que espanol en la calle.

The PT thing is moving along, patients here in Mexico, as I said before, are more involved on the whole than in the US, and are therefore seen for a lot longer period of time. There are no insurance companies to appease, therapists don't even do daily notes. It is left to the professional opinion of the PT to decide when to DC a patient (imagine!).

I mentioned last entry that the final day of Carnaval was Martes de Pintadera, the day before Miercoles de Ceniza (ash Wedensday) when the locals douse each other with paint. It ended up that I did brave it and go out, and I'm glad I did because I got this great picture of some boys just coming back from the festival.

In the immediate future, Jessica Castellano (one of my PT students from UNM) is coming next week to help out and get the Mexican experience for 10 days, and then Deborah (my wife of veintiuno anos) is coming for a 10 day vacation. Deb and I are planning a trip to Merida, Calakmul (a wonderful Mayan ruin deep in the selva muy cerca de la frontera de Guatemala) and to Celestun (an island con muchos flamingos y otros pajaros interesantes). More later! Hasti Spumonti!

Palenque, Chiapas and the Zapatistas

I just got back from a long weekend in Chiapas, a state in Mexico very close to the Guatemalan border (Long weekends due to holidays are called puentes in Mexico and are, happily, quite common). Palenque is a small town in Chiapas were there are a series of Mayan ruins in the jungle, the majority of which are still unexcavated. The first picture is of me in front of some of the excavated ruins. I went for a hike in the unexcavated part where I was swallowed up by the vastness of the jungle and reproached by howler monkeys.

Equally interesting to me was the area just south of Palenque, were there are a series of Zapatista villages. The Zapatistas are a group of socialist rebels concentrated in Chiapas who are opposed to what they believe is the government sanctioned (or at least ignored) repression of the Mexican people by big corporations and land barons. They have been around for nearly a hundred years, and conflicts between the Zapatistas and the Mexican Government are common, and often bloody. Currently there are areas in Chiapas that are not under the control of the Mexican Government. I was in such an area when I went south from Palenque to Aqua Azul, a series of stunning waterfalls in the middle of the jungle. To the left is a picture of Agua Azul. After Aqua Azul, I went to another area, Ocosingo, where there is a large waterfall, Misol-Ha, where one can hike around and even behind the falls. The second picture is of Misol-Ha. On my way back to Campeche, I hit the beach in Sabancuy for a couple of hours. All told the trip was a bit of a whirlwind, covering over 600 miles of the Mexican landscape in under three days.

At the clinic, my day typically consists of work until about 3, at which time my Spanish speaking is all but over. This weekend, however, I had to think in Spanish every waking hour, which I found mentally exhausting. I am at the point were I have a collection of canned phrases down pat, and can work outside of them with halting Spanish. In addition, I am able to conjure up more words and conjugate (even correctly on occasion) more verbs on the run. Don't get the wrong idea though, I'm certian my Spanish continues to be a source of amusement to Aldo and others.

On the therapy side of things, things are going well, I continue to help with patient treatment. I find it sad that a typical therapist here in Mexico makes the equivalent of only about $10,000 a year! And, after they are done with their 5 years of study, they "owe" the government of Mexico a year of servicio social, which is only reimbursed at about 1/2 the usual salary (even if they went to a private school!). I have enclosed a picture of a patient being treated by Alejandro, one of the therapists in our clinic, (Cree), and another of a group of PT students and "servicios sociales".

The Carnaval is almost over here in Campeche, it seems to go on forever (it is two weeks long). Yesterday was a large desfile, or parade, with floats and costumes. Today is the last day, the Martes de Pintadera. Evidently, on this day, people stand in wait to attack each other with balloons filled with dyed water, or even oil. I think I'm going to lie low. Tomorrow is back to normal, clinic all day. More later!

Carnaval

A couple of days ago, I went for a run along the malecón, which is Spanish for, essentially, seawall or jetty. It runs at least 6 miles along the sea in the city limits. It is quite nice, with a lane for bikers, another for runners, and a third for walkers. Anyway, I was running and I saw a large congregation, in the middle of which a man was running with a torch. He was flanked on both sides by motorcycle cops, I guess for fear that someone might try to blow the thing out. Anyway, the torch was either to celebrate the upcoming carnaval or the upcoming olympics in Canada. I'm not sure which, but I'm going with the latter, at least when I tell my grandchildren about this adventure.

On the Spanish speaking side of things, in my first couple of weeks here, the only Mexicans I could understand were those that were transplanted here from larger cities such as Puebla or De Efe (short for Distrita Federal, another name for Ciudad de Mexico, others refer to it simpy as "Mexico"). The other night however, I could actually carry on a conversation with Téodoro, the guy who works nights here at the hotel. When I first got here, he might as well have been speaking Greek (In fact I think he was, just to mess with me).


The therapy end of things is going well, it is refreshing to treat only patients that really need my services, there is no litigation or worker's comp here. Folks don't come here because they have a little pain in thier low back (don't all of us?), they come in because they have foot drop, amputations, multiple trauma, etc., and most of them are still working, they have no choice. They are also incredibly generous. Hardly a day goes by where I don't get some sort of gift from a patient, cookies, soft drinks, whatever. They have practically nothing to give, but they want to show their appreciation in some way. In fact, tonight I am going to dinner at one of my patient's houses, she and her husband have asked me and Alejandro, another terapeuta fisico here to join them. I went out with some of the docs last night, we drank tequila and karaokied (is this even a word?) until 1:30 (actually they were still going strong, but I bailed, that is way past my bedtime). Imagine me trying to sing Mi Manera (My Way) in Spanish. Tomorrow, Superbowl Sunday (most locals couldn't care less). I'm going to Aldo's house for a Superbowl party.



Amidst all of the social scheduling, I managed to squeeze in a long walk today to El Barrio de San Francisco, where sits the oldest Catholic Church in North America, Iglesia de San Francisco (built in 1546), and the coolest building, the Teatro Renacimiento (revival theatre, it burned to the ground in the 1910 and was completely rebuilt). I have enclosed a picture of each. Next weekend, if the weather is good, I am going to go north to Merida and the beaches of northern Yucatan, or south to Palenque, Chiapas if the forcast calls for rain. More then!!