It’s time to update my blog when I get an email from Dad wondering if I am OK!!! It’s been a while between posts, mostly because I was too tired at the end of each day last week. I am now on the boat and, after two days of decompression, am back in English mode. Being on the dock is a huge culture shock after three weeks of immersion. As the dock gates slam behind me, La Paz seems like a distant memory. I am not sure which is the alternate reality, but they are worlds apart.
Backing up….
We had rain about ten days ago! Those who are reading this might wonder why that’s worth mentioning. But here it’s cause for celebration since they've had no measurable rain for three years! The timing for me was not good, though, because I was on my way back from Loreto, when I gone to check on the progress of the sale of my house and to visit friends. The trip up was uneventful and I passed the 4-hour drive listening to Mexican ‘country western’ music. It was heartening to realize that I could make out more than half of the words. Once in Loreto I had to help my tenants figure out how to start the hot water heater – they speak NO English so our conversation was conducted solely in Spanish, and I was thrilled to see that they were not looking at me with the look that says “what on earth are you trying to say???”
The rain started on the way home in my rental car, and I slowed down, mindful of slick roads after long dry spells. Turning on the wipers, I quickly discovered that the right hand washer blade was lacking the bracket that held it to the washer arm…and was about to fall off if I continued to use it. But, if I took it off and ran without it, the arm would scratch the window. What to do? One thing that has always impressed me about the people who live here is their resourcefulness, so I scouted around for something to tie the washer arm to the blade. Stripping a decorative cord from my purse, I lashed the two together in good Girl Scout fashion and was shortly on my way. When in Mexico….
Last week, the tempo of Spanish classes increased when I was assigned to a group class for 4 hours a day and a private lesson for one hour daily, instead of the 3 hours of private lessons I had in my first two weeks. I was really excited about that because I would be able to learn from the mistakes of 3 other people, not just mine! And I would be ‘in Spanish mode’ for more of the day.
Good plan, except for the twice-weekly salsa class, the piñata class, and the nightly walk downtown for an ice cream left little time for all of the homework we were assigned. Going home provides little respite, because the family speaks Spanish, and I don’t want to miss any opportunity to learn how to make tamales or roast tomatillos to make salsa verde. It’s hard to describe how tiring it is to be talking at the same time that your brain is working in the background to upload words to your mouth. And by the end of each day, I had little energy for blogging!
The good news is that I really can understand much much more of what I hear. When I first arrived, whatever anyone said sounded like one long word with no spaces….and now I can hear the spaces! And I can put sentences together using virtually all of the Spanish tenses, including present and imperfect subjective, tenses rarely used in English. I am pleased with my progress, but I am ready for a break to let it all settle into place.
As a closet etymologist, I continue to enjoy the nuances of the language. Two in particular struck me this week. One is the word “Ojalá”, a word that is used to introduce the expression of a wish, usually in subjunctive tense, as in “Ojalá that we can be underway in a few more days.” The word has no literal translation in Spanish, but as it was presented in class, I wondered about its roots…and was not at all surprised to hear that it had evolved from the Arabic expression for ‘God willing.’ So the language, even here in Mexico, carries the traces of the Moorish occupation of Spain in the end of the first millenium.
The second linguistic curiosity is the fact that there is a single verb in Spanish for ‘to wait,’ ‘to hope’ or ‘to expect.’ All three concepts are captured in one verb ‘esperar,’ and the intention is derived from the context and inflection. However, those of you who have ridden Mexican busses know that this makes perfect sense, because as you wait at the bus stop, looking down the street for a bus that the schedule leads you to expect, you are bound to hope that it is going to appear!
Coming from a job where my focus was on improving efficiency, you might wonder how I tolerate the bureaucracy…but I often remind myself that the Dalai Lama said that all sorrow in life is due to expectations. Only gringos expect things to go quickly in Mexico, and life is much easier if you adopt a local perspective. A friend put it well when he pointed out that ‘mañana’ does not really mean “tomorrow” – it simply means “not today.” So when you ask when your car will be ready and the mechanic says ‘mañana’, you don’t get your expectations up too high.
For example, in Puerto Escondido two weeks ago, my skipper spent a week waiting to put his boat in the water. There were a few “mañanas” to get his boat to the front of the line, and then the day he was supposed to go in, the travel lift broke. Once the lift was ready, he was having trouble with his engine, and had to ask them himself for another mañana. But he made it, and is now in La Paz, working on a radio install as I type. Although sailing the Sea of Cortes sounds exotic, many say that cruising is simply working on your boat in exotic locations!
The marina here looks much like any in the US - except that there are NO derelict boats. All of the boats seem to be cruise-ready and none of the people on the dock communicate in any language but English- an abrupt change for me. I spent yesterday organizing and cleaning the galley and inventorying the supplied. Today I am busy putting together a provisions list, and on Wednesday we plan to rent a car to run around town bringing batteries to be recharged, getting groceries, buying permits to visit the marine park and otherwise preparing the boat. Thursday we plan to join a few people at the language school for a small Thanksgiving dinner, and then get serious about packing to leave, hopefully SUNDAY.
