Oaxaca

older blog, which I never posted... eek :)

--------

Both Kenneth and I have been looking at different homes to begin our life together. We have worked with a Realtor who has been kind to us, or so we thought. His burning desire to sell blinded and steered us away from our real needs. However, been the cool and smart couple that we are (you know you agree), we were able to identify the pressure tactics our agent was utilizing towards us. After a few months of second guessing ourselves by making home offers, which a few hours later we would regret (“first time buyers remorse” as our agent would identify), and occasional arguments between the husband and I we decided to reconsider our position. We opted to step away from the search until we reach 100% certitude. We have decided not to let an $8,000 tax credit lead us into a 30 year impulsive decision we can’t afford. But above all, we will not allow a short, baldheaded, pushy realtor deliver and feed us into a huge mistake. The money we saved for the down payment will be used towards an adventure. We have decided not to renew the lease on our current apartment. We both are leaving our generous paychecks and packing our traveling shoes and passports, we are heading to Oaxaca, Mexico for six months. We will live in Oaxaca while I teach and write, Ken in the meantime will learn the language and submerge into a new culture. We are nervous and somewhat scared but excitement suppresses any negative emotions. We will be living in a two story, four bedroom, two bathroom house, which has been uninhabited for quite a while. The house will be the place we call home for the next 6 months and we are thrilled by the new adventure. Our departure date will be September 5th, 09. Wish us luck in our new adventure! Peace, The Sanchez-Best’s

Barro Negro -- Black Pottery

San Bartolo Coyotepec can be identified as the most prominent pottery producing town in Oaxaca. The potters in Coyotepec continue to use traditional methods of turning pots without using wheels; a prehispanic inheritance. The completion of a pot can take up to one month due to the time consumption of molding, decorating, drying and baking the pots. The black color from the pots depends on the time baked.

Alebrijes

Pedro Linares, a papier Mache Artist from the 1930's, made Piñatas, carnival masks, Judas doll amongst other art. The idea of the Alebrijes came to Mr. Linares when he became ill. He was in agony and pain beyond any medicinal help. His pain was so much causing his dreams to become very graphic. He saw colorful vicious animals with intricate colorful patterns, pointy horns, ferocious teeth, and puffy eyes. Once he recovered his strength he created the Alebrijes.

Manuel Jimenez, founder of woodcarving in Oaxaca, continued this art form and popularized it until his death in 2005.

Cafe Randomness

I was asked by my husband to continue blogging. I am not good at this so he has suggested I continue to do this in order to work muscles which, have been resting for a quite a while. Yesterday I began packing part of our apartment for our very exciting move to Oaxaca. We are storing many of our household items. We also spent a good while at my parents petting my dog “Baby,” a puggle (pug/beagle) who has been with my parents and will remain with my parents until we return from our trip.

We were originally heading to Everett to change car insurance companies to lower our payments for the trip. However, our agent had a family emergency, her mother in-law passed away so we could not meet with her. Instead, we stopped at a coffee shop before heading back home. Ken, my father and I decided to sit outside and enjoy the gorgeous weather in Washington. When we were chatting about Oaxaca and having a few good laughs about what our life will be like there, a man who was maybe in his mid forties came straight at us. He asked Ken if he could join us, to the which Ken responded yes. Both my father and I were taken by surprise by the boldness of this individual and Ken really did not know what to do. All we could do was listen and observe him. While the man conversed with ken, I observed the man’s gestures and speech. He often licked his lip and touched his upper legs. I noticed he had many scratches on his arms that had dried up blood. He was wearing a black shirt with white wolverine designs. His crusted bloody lip was still swollen which made my mind wondered. I became distracted by the thought of this man being a person who had gotten in a huge fight. I was in and out of his conversation and heard, “Alaska...Girlfriend...forty dollars...Tulalip...” I can honestly say, I had no idea what he was talking about. I kept on staring at him and creating small stories about where this man had been.

After a while, we told him we were leaving and he got up and said, “thank you for letting me sit with you brothers. I really needed a break.” Then I thought to myself, maybe this guy is really hungry or thirsty and he doesn’t know how to ask for money. So as we got up and we were walking away, I got very close to him and asked him if he was thirsty. He responded with a tender “no.” He said the only thing he wanted was to sit and sober up. He then told me he was heading to the bank. When we said good bye he crossed his arms around his chest, and gave ken and I a “good bye my brothers!” then he looked at my father and said, “thank you, father” then raised his right hand up and then he walked away. My dad, Ken and I looked at each other a bit confused. When we looked back again the black shirt man was gone.

It was very awkward but at the same time I was very impressed that it was not money, food or water that he wanted. All he wanted was to sit for a while, talk and sober up. Go figure.

This made me think that I have met many interesting people in my life. People who I have met for a mere second yet they have influenced my life one way or another. For now, I take this story as something random and surprising.

Speaking of Random- happy birthday Marina.