By Natalie Bryson, Program Advisor

It’s been a busy month here in Guadalajara! October is the month of festivals (“Fiestas de Octubre”) and it seems that I wasn’t able to walk anywhere in the city without accidentally bumping into a street fair, parade or concert!

Early in the month as I was making my way towards downtown, my bus suddenly stopped far from my destination and made everyone dismount. I was completely baffled and as my Spanish is truly terrible, I was unable to understand the responses to my garbled inquiries of “¿Qué está pasando?” (What’s going on?) I was I walked further down the main avenue I noticed bleachers were set up and people were lining up along the road, which, to me, seemed promising of a parade. I waited for a while and all of a sudden was barraged by the blare of trumpets, the squeal of violins and the warble of wailing Mariachi bands. For a full three hours a parade of Mariachi bands streamed by, flanked by traditional Mexican dancers that twirled in their bright, full skirts.
What I later learned was that the parade was the kick off for the “Fiestas de Octubre,” and what would be a month full of me accidentally running into different cultural events.

Throughout the month I managed to visit six streets fairs, witness three parades and watch at least a dozen concerts and cultural films. One of my favorite street fairs was the “Dia de los Muertos” (day of the dead) market in Parque Morelos. The market only runs for one month a year in preparation for the traditional ceremony of Dia de los Muertos that takes place on November 1st and 2nd in cemeteries across Mexico. Day of the Dead celebrates and honors the lives of the deceased by holding all night vigils to celebrate the continuation of life into the afterlife; deceased infants and children are traditionally celebrated on November 1st, and adults on the 2nd. In general, the belief is not that death is the end, but rather the beginning of a new stage in life, and this belief can be traced back the ancient civilizations of the Aztecs and Mayans.

Sugar Skulls in Guadalajara before Dia del Los Muertos

This weekend I am going to Pátzcuaro and Morelia, two cities that are famous for their celebrations for Dia del Los Muertos, and I’m extremely excited to see the traditional altars, ceremonies and songs that accompany the vigils.

In other news, I had a chance to visit two of our incredible projects that run in Mexico; the Arts and Crafts placement in Tlaquepaque, on the outskirts of Guadalajara, and the the Turtle Conservation Camp , which is located in the beach outside of Tecoman, three hours from Guadalajara.

Read more about the Arts and Crafts program and the Turtle Camp with LOTS of photos after the jump

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Molding

The Arts and Crafts program is really great for anyone interested in the traditional crafts of Mexico. Volunteers are taken step-by-step through the process of ceramic making, from preparing molds and casting them, to learning the meaning of traditional designs and colors which decorate the pottery, to finally evenly coating the pottery in a thick spray glaze which turns clear while baking in the kiln. The area itself is a nice escape from the bustling city and honking cars and creates a peaceful artists sanctuary.

Painting

A rocking mug with a luchador, Nachoooooooooooooooooo

The Turtle Camp was by far my favorite though. Seeing thousands of baby turtles released into the ocean and knowing that we had helped them to get there was really incredible. The whole weekend I was there we learned about the process of the turtle camp. Every night workers and volunteers go out on patrol on an ATV to sweep the beach for turtle nests. When one is found, it is dug up, placed into a bag and loaded onto the vehicle. The night that I went out, we found ten nests, which I learned is a small night! (Keep in mind that each nest has about 80-100 ping-pong sized turtle eggs!) The eggs are then brought back to the camp, and in the morning are reburied in new nests inside a protected corral near where the volunteers sleep. As dozens nests are collected every night during high season (June-December), that means that every day there are thousands of hatchlings to release (the incubation period for a nest is about 45-60 days), which makes for some very busy volunteers this time of year!

Cute baby turtle!

Baby turtles ready for the open ocean

As you can see, I’m loving my time in Mexico and I can’t believe that I’m already halfway through!

Lee, all the way to the left, enjoying a game of putt putt golf in Mexico

When I first started working for Projects Abroad in 2005, my second week was spent at our Headquarters in the UK learning the ropes. I learned a lot (as well as listened to a lot of Keane!) with Lee Bronze who was a Programme Advisor at that time. He showed me how to give presentations and regaled me with stories from his time in Mexico. Let’s hear what he is up to!

By Lee Bronze

It’s now almost 8 years since I was teaching in China with Projects Abroad. I am now a practising Employment lawyer as such I am still using the skills I learnt from that experience today such as speaking in public, thinking of my feet and dealing with all sorts of people and problems (the two though are of course are often interlinked with my clients!).

I perhaps realise that I am now getting old as I think to myself ‘where does all the time go?’. Since that time I have travelled to 3 other Projects Abroad destinations; I soaked up some summer time sun in Senegal, embraced in full the cult of Dracula in Transylvania, Romania and went to Mexico for 5 months. I stayed for a year mind you but that just shows how great an experience I had.

I have now landed back to Earth with a bump perhaps it hits home hardest when I am stranded waiting for a judgment to be delivered, I long for just half a chance to be enjoying foreign climbs. I am so glad I went off but how long until I can do it again???? It seems that there is only one cure for those itchy feet…

Natalie sent in this post about her Independence Day experiences in Mexico last month. Enjoy!

El Torito, a flaming paper mache bull

September 16th was Independence Day down here in Mexico, and surprisingly, it’s not celebrated all that differently from the way the fourth of July is in the States. People tend to congregate in one area after dark where the kids run around with sparklers and soda, while the adults drink a couple of beers while waiting for a fireworks show. Instead of having red, white and blue fireworks at a safe distance up in the sky, the Mexicans celebrate with “el torito,” a papier mache bull that is run around the town square while it showers off dangerous sparks of red, green and white which people run away from and yell “¡VIVA MEXICO!” Although, that was just my experience.

I spent my independence day in San Francisco (or San Pancho to locals), a small town about 30 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta, while the rest of Mexico appeared to have flocked to the big cities of Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey. The Independence Day I celebrated was a noticeably low-key, small town affair, but on the TV’s I could see that their independence is not something that the fiercely proud Mexicans take lightly. Tens of thousands of people gathered in the plazas of the major cities donning crazy wigs and face paint while they waited for the moment when they could finally yell along with their Governor or President “¡Vivan los heroes que nos dieron libertad! ¡VIVA!” (Basically translated to “long live the heroes who gave us freedom”).

But as the sparks showered down on my head from the precariously close fireworks, I was glad that I chose to spend my independence day doing as the small town locals do…drinking “caballitos” and dancing to a bumping Mariachi band.

The Cathedral in central Guadalajara, Mexico

The main reason why I visited Mexico this time was to condole with my colleagues over the sudden tragic death of Daniel Leon. There is a general sadness.

Daniel was a key man in setting up our successful medical programmes in Mexico, and Marco has arranged for some of his responsibilities to be taken on by our old friend, Dr Jesus Navarro. Jesus is known as “Chewy” – apparently this is universal in Mexico – anyone called “Jesus” gets “Chewy”. The great thing about Chewy is that he can develop something like our Village Clinic programme in indigenous villages around Guadalajara – this will be great for the villagers and a wonderful experience for volunteers. Chewy even speaks the indigenous language, Nahuatl, which is not easy.

I just don’t see how we can have a volcanology programme as such. We used to, but it wasn’t gripping. The volcano was spectacular but volcanologists actually spend most of their time staring at seismographs or analysing pieces of ash or lava in great depth. Volcanoes are exciting places to live and work, especially if they explode from time to time like the Colima volcano, which we’re based right next to at Ciudad Guzman. So we are going to set up an experimental two-week project in 2008 doing a little scientific work, climbing the volcano, doing environmental work and making trails for eco-tourists. I think this will be great – and it will be in the safe hands of Jose Soltero – known as “Joes” and an expert at making didgeridoos and finding ponds to play them by.

Jonatan has had some problem assembling his band recently and has cut a lot of his hair off. However, he is still determined to produce his cd and I’m sure he will. Volunteers and a lot of other people still love him.

Peter Slowe