Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico

Mexico
1/22/2010

Oaxaca, pronounced "Wah-hak-ah" , is a small colonial city in the far south of Mexico. We are going to spend at least our next six weeks here. Oaxaca is very pretty and charismatic, there are many cobblestone streets and lots of colonial style buildings with whitewashed walls and beautiful arches. In the center called the Zocaló, there is a huge plaza de armas with a fountain in the middle and surrounded by coffee shops ice cream shops and many street food vendors. one whole side of the Zocaló is dedicated to balloon toys and more balloons, when you look down that side, all you see is every color of the rainbow overflowing the sidewalk and filling the air space in front of your eyes. there are many vendors selling tamales in the morning, vendors selling shave ice and corn in the midday, and vendors selling hot dogs, hamburgers and pizza in the evening. at almost any hour this center is bound to be full of people eating, socializing and selling things. I would also say that 90% of the people around the Zocaló are Mexican, and not tourists, which is nice, because there is a legitimately nice "Mexican" feel to the city especially during the last hour of sunlight, where there are long shadows, and the street start to get busy again.
So we left our place in Mexico City, and arrived in Oaxaca about 6 hours later. Arriving on Sunday was nice, since there was no traffic or much commotion. we caught a quick taxi ride to our apartment, 40 pesos, and met our friends, Joy an Joff, from England, for the first time. We had been communicating with them over the Internet for the last two weeks, we got in touch with them through the people at the program we are volunteering with. Joy and Joff are a fun couple, we quickly hit it off, unpack some of our things and have a cup of tea, exactly at 4, you know how those Brits are. Later we headed through town to the local supermarket. This was our first time in the city, and walking around at night is beautiful. Oaxaca is loaded with streetlights, the old fashioned looking ones, and all the beautiful painted colonial building really look great, plus the fact that the streets are packed with Oaxacans looking for friends and some street food. After the super market, Laina and I got hot dogs, "Pica?" I asked, "spicy?" and he added some diced jalapeños to mine! Awesome.
Joff and Joy really hooked us up with a sweet place. Walking four blocks away from the Zocaló, at a very nondescript brown door right next to the arab-mexican restaurant, you enter through into a courtyard with a tall deliciously fragrant orange tree, and then up a stair, through a gate, and to the left is our apartment, a big room with a bathroom with hot shower, a sink, and a really nice full size mattress. However, no kitchen, but the price is right, 500 pesos for a week, 40$ for two people! thast 20$ per person, less then 3$ per night! We can definitely do that.
Our first day in Oaxaca we head out with joff and Joy to go to Casa Hogar de Los Niños de La Luna, the child care center we will volunteer at during our time here. We grab a local bus to Sta. Rosa, about 10 mins, get off after the yellow bridge, and walk through some side streets to the Casa. Walking into the house you are surrounded by sounds of little kids yelling giggling laughing and screaming. There are about 24 kids here, ranging in age from 5 months to 5 years old. The other kids are in school. After meeting Doña Coco, the wonderful woman, whose house this is, and who took in all these kids, whose mom´s could not afford any child care, she put us in charge of our various tasks during our time here. I was immediately put in charge of four Niños, Ramses, Angel, Luis-angel, and Said (sai-eed). These little guys were my whole life for the next 5 hours, and there was no down time. We played games, ran around, and other things you do at preschool. Laina was put in charge of the Chiquiquitos (small, small ones), and she was definitely having her hands full. After a long day, we headed home and started our search for a Spanish school to start taking classes. We search far and wide, and finally picked the University Autonomio here in Oaxaca, but we will only go for a week to try it out. We spent the rest of the week going to Spanish lessons from 9-11 getting lunch and then to Casa Hogar for 12-4:30. Whoo, what a week, and I have so much more to write! I{ll wait for next time, I think we are going to go out dancing with our neighbor, Claudia, and get to see some Oaxacan nightlife!