Sitting in my studio with a teeny glass of Crema de Maguey, mango flavour. It's mezcal flavoured with fruit and cream - only the tourists buy it - bit like Baileys.
Had a great week by the end of which I was really talking Spanish. Our whole class on Friday was conversation and we chatted - the four of us and our teacher, Angeles, from 9am to pretty much 1pm. It was great! I was so pleased with myself.
My intercambio, Dania, arrived unexpectedly at las Mariposas on Friday afternoon and offered to take me downtown and show me some places. She had seen that there was a wedding at Santo Domingo and thought I might be interested, which of course I was. She took me to La Basilica de la Soledad (the patron saint of Oaxaca) and then to a market. Wasn't the one I thought we were going to. Turned out to be Mercado Central de Abastos - literally on the wrong side of the tracks. We wandered through, me warily, this enormous market - and I mean: enormous. Narrow aisles, loads of people, me with my hand on my purse in my pocket tied to my belt. Everything you could ever need: fruit, bread, vegetables, cheese, meat, shoes, hats, cooking utensils, You name it, it was there, alive or dead: different section for each. The colours and the smells were amazing. Bought some Oaxacan cheese ( like cheese strings?)and found the reboza (shawl) I was looking for. One similar to what the peasant women wear wrapped round their heads underneath the canastas (baskets) they carry on their heads. Or they'll wrap them diagonally around themselves and carry their babies or children in a sling. Pure cotton and hand woven it was 45pesos - about £3. Put them in the pretty portable bag my friend Lynn had given me which I put over my shoulder. We then went off to 'the hat department'.
Turned down an narrow aisle and I saw a man with a handcart coming towards us so I stepped aside to let him past. A tall man then came past from behind us and said 'pase,pase' to Dania who, up until then, had always been walking behind me and sort of ushered her past me. Then, all of a sudden, these 4 or 5 men appeared and started to, very gently, walk round around me, bumping me.I knew one of two things was happening so used my elbows and some anglosaxon expletives to get clear of them. Poor Dania wasn't worth tuppence halfpenny. She kept saying 'my mother will kill me when she finds out I've brought you to a place like this'! She had never ever had any problem there before but then she is Mexican. Anyway, I was fine - had the hand on the purse and no other bag with me except the thin shopper. And then we discovered that they had slashed the shopper with a blade. How lucky was I that they didn't get away with my cheese - or my reboza :s
Anyway - we got out of there pretty smartish and poor Dania kept looking behind her all the way to the centre of town.
On to safer things. Took another tour yesterday to San Bartolo where they make the distinctive barro negro - burnished black pottery. Then on to an alebrije workshop which was fascinating. This, and the weaving, are major Zapotec crafts, using natural dyes from plants, fruits and insects and incorporating the creatures from the zapotec calendar and the symbols which pre date writing eg: for mountains, cycle of life, rivers, etc. The alibrijes range in size from the huge ones carved from a single piece of copal wood and allowed to dry out for at least a year before painting to the tiny ones, no bigger that a 5p piece. They can also have loads of pieces which remove for packing. Think porcupine or cactus plant with flowers, or insects.
Then had a short stop at a market selling articles woven on a back strap loom (tejido)- shopping opportunities galore in this state. All you girlies would love it! And everything's sooooo cheap.
OK - off for a shower and some dinner. Then homework - remember that?
More soon x
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