Goodbye Oaxaca

We will be headed for the airport in about 19 hours, headed for Playa del Carmen on the Riviera Maya, the Caribbean coast of Mexico. Walking through Oaxaca city this morning we were struck by how our view of the city felt fresh and positive. Little items stuck out to us today, we appeared to pay more attention to detail. As we walked we ran into people we knew, sharing contact data and previously unknown factoids. Knowing we were leaving changed relationships, and I feel some guilt over that. Shouldn’t we have cultivated more and better before the looming spectre of departure descended? That might be a human character flaw in me, and it might be a lesson to expend more effort getting to know people as we move through the rest of our journeys – and our time at home, whether that be in Spokane or elsewhere. Still it felt great today to say goodbye and get to know four different people better before we leave.

One of the things we have noticed in Oaxaca is the strength of the people. Old, young, tiny, BIG; they almost universally walk with power. They carry things effortlessly (apparently). It is not unusual to see people, mostly men, but some women slinging a full 5 gallon jug of water onto their shoulder and take off walking down the street. Delivery people routinely carry 2 and sometimes 3 of those bottles at a time. I have seen a beer/pop delivery man back up to a stack of 7 cases of coke or beer , reach behind, grab the 7 cases, pull them to their back and carry them from the street to a shop. If there is no parking spot in close proximity loads are carried half a block or more, then right back for the next load. For some reason items like hand trucks are not utilized much. We see 4 foot tall women, apparently one of the indigenous tribes is extremely short because there are a lot of people in the 48-52″ tall category, walk down the street or around the square with a basket of goods balance on her head and carrying baskets of fruit, bread, whatever in each hand. Many appear to be between 60 and 80+ years of age. Even if they get to a spot, stop and sell from there, just getting there with their loads is an incredibly impressive feat. Even most of the people who look to be out of shape move with a grace and power.

Today we watched as the rubble from the interior of a construction project was hauled out to a big red truck. Inside the building were huge piles of rock and dirt. Two men inside used shovels to fill 5 gallon buckets. A crew of 6 other men would effortlessly lift the bucket to their shoulder and hustle it out to a ramp that allowed them to get to the top of the truck and dump the debris. It was an endless stream of  work. Run up the ramp, down the ramp, wait a short time for their bucket to be filled, repeat. This went on for at least 40 minutes as we sat and sipped our hot drinks, and continued as we stood awestruck a few feet away watching, marveling at the size of the piles of rubble inside. You might think the men would resent two old gringos gawking at them as they worked so hard. But no! They would look our way and smile, smile even bigger as we gave them thumbs up. Below are two pictures, and bear in mind, some of these young men likely weighed less than 150 pounds.

We are consistently awed by how hard so many people here work, awed at how they do so much without work conveniences so common in the US. Wheelbarrows and hand trucks not needed. We watched yesterday as, across the street from our apartment workers used a small concrete saw to score 2×2′ squares in the sidewalk, then used star bits and small sledge hammers to break through the 6″ thick sidewalk. Today the sidewalk is gone replaced by a perfectly square hole, why? I don’t know and it looks as though I won’t be here long enough to know. It is our opinion that more people in Mexico are willing to do difficult hard labor jobs than in the US. Maybe that is why we have had so many migrants crossing our southern border.

We see so many working so hard, but then if we go to the zocalo or to Llano park at night whole families are out and about. Dads play with their kids, sit with their wives. Night life happens in bars, but also happens without alcohol in the squares and parks. Family is so much bigger and stronger here. Cell phones are much less prevalent when people are in groups. Talking face to face is still in vogue. Another great aspect of Oaxaca is the degree to which creativity pops up in expected and unexpected places, see below. Amazing to see someone put so much energy into a telephone pole.

If you have read this far you may be thinking I am in love with Oaxaca.  True, there are things I love, We have managed to have a satisfying life here that got better week by week. But, there are things I am glad to leave behind. Number one may sound petty, but I will be so happy to leave the incessant honking of Oaxacan drivers behind. It is a 50/50 proposition that as soon as a stoplight turns green someone will  honk. It is likely that a pedestrian in a crosswalk will be honked at by a car behind them that is turning into the pedestrian’s path, and then the car will continue their turn and I have had them turn within inches of my body. Traffic can be at a complete standstill at a stop light and when a car in the intersection at the back of a line honks it starts a cacophony of honking. Cars over a hundred feet away may honk at the pedestrian, and speed up in a threatening manner. It is pretty harmless, but I am tired of it. The things that bothered me our first morning in town continue to sadden me. That is the graffiti and the trash.

Glad to leave, excited for another learning opportunity, but we will miss the communal culture, especially the children. Kids here demand much less attention, rarely act out in public, don’t generally cry when they fall down. We have loved having a market full of fresh food vendors directly across the street from us, and across the street from them a fresh fish shop. We have hardly gone to US style stores, and we like that. We feel we eaten better than what we do in Spokane.

Unexpectedly, Sheila and I both felt a twinge of sadness walking through the streets this morning. Neither of us expected that. But, I am also incredibly excited to explore nature and ruins over the next week and a half in the Mayan Riviera. So, here’s to waving goodbye to Oaxaca, thankful for the lessons we have learned here.