When first moving here, my days started very early unfortunately…. I was woken up by roosters “singing” at 3:30 in the morning! For a week, I’d send angry thoughts to them, “What are you thinking? The sun’s not even up yet! SHUT UP!” The amazing thing is, for most families here in Ixtlan and definitely in smaller neighboring towns, the roosters are their alarm clocks. So if your rooster decides to wake up at 3:30 in the morning, that’s what time you’ll be waking up! But if your rooster wakes up at 6:00, well lucky you. They have a saying here in the town for people who aren’t punctual or show up late to a meeting: “Se quedó dormido tu gallo esta mañana?” à “Did your rooster sleep in this morning?” Well, now I’d be in trouble because I don’t even hear the roosters anymore and sleep soundly until my alarm clock goes off.
The only sounds I haven’t been able to tune out are the wrestling matches. That’s right, every other week there’s at least one wrestling match that takes place above my head. You see, my cabin roof is made out of some sort of metal which transforms soft sprinkles of rain into what sounds like a full on downpour. So at night, as I’m going to bed, I can hear the pitter-patter of cat paws walking across the roof. The first time two cats went rolling across my roof, I almost had a heart attack … I thought someone had kicked my door in! Now, even though they still wake me up out of the deadest sleep, at least it doesn’t jolt me out of bed like the first couple of times.
The next thing on the agenda once I’ve woken up in the morning is to get ready for my shower. In the states and even in the city of Oaxaca, we just undress and jump on in, but here it’s a different story. To save as much gas as possible (aka money), I actually open the gas and light the pilot of my hot water tank every morning. I then have to wait about 10-20 minutes for the water to heat up. During this time of waiting, I’ll sweep my room since dirt and dust seem to collect every day and I’ll do some yoga to wake myself up. One morning when I woke up and stepped outside, there was a scrawny-looking chicken just pecking around outside my door. Ah yes… this is a part of my daily life here.
Once showered, dressed, and ready to go, I head out for my ~2.5mile walk to the university. (Although when I’m running late, there are always the “moto-taxis” that can give me a ride for a price of 5 pesos, the equivalent of about 40 cents.) Occasionally as I’m leaving, there’s a little occurrence that puts a smile on my face. Remember the scene in “Lady and the Tramp” where they sneak into the chicken coop to steal some eggs? While watching that Disney-movie scene, I never actually thought how it could be so realistic. But here I am, leaving to go to work, and a dog (who actually has a very similar appearance to “Tramp”) slinks out alongside me with his tail between his legs and a very guilty expression. Just sneaking out of the chicken coop! Either that or the garbage can.
In Mexico, there are so many street dogs that solitarily roam or run around in packs, and you’ll see them in the cities and towns. For some reason, their company in the streets warms my heart while at the same time I wish I could give them a home with plenty of food and love. One dog greets me every day with his tail wiggling to and fro and his eyes blinking sweetly at me. I can tell he wants to be pet so badly, but I've noticed he has some sort of infection on his neck and throat. So I try to give him attention with sweet hellos and kissing noises while keeping my hands to myself!
Now that you’ve had a little peek as to what happens from the moment I wake up until about 8:30am, who wants to come visit? J
