After three weeks in Mexico we decided to face up to the ugly truth: our Spanish was most definitely muy mal. In order to try and rectify this somewhat we booked ourselves into a week-long course of intensive language classes in Oaxaca. However, the day before the course started two significant football matches were played – England v. Germany and Mexico v. Argentina. We won’t dwell on the results, but the important point is that we spent most of the afternoon and evening hanging out with a bunch of Mexicans, drinking mezcal and attempting to dance salsa. Perhaps not the best idea prior to an early morning class. Anyhow, we did have a lot of fun and also got a free cooking lesson into the bargain. Apparently the secret to a good guacamole is to wiggle your hips while you're making it!
From Monday to Friday we dutifully endured four hours of class each morning (taught only in Spanish), then spent the afternoons trying to make sense of it all and attempting to complete our homework. Though hard work it was definitely worth it and we now have at least the basics of Spanish to build on. Our classmate was an American lady in her seventies who spoke fluent French and German and was well on the way with Spanish already – we felt for her when we were sat there struggling with the present tense!
As we were busy with our studies most of the time we didn’t get to explore much of the surrounding areas, but Oaxaca was a very pleasant city to spend time in with many beautiful, colourful buildings and peaceful cafes. Unfortunately, the famous main plaza was somewhat of a no-go area as it was full of teachers camped out in protest of low wages and uneven access to education. Apparently the leader of the teacher’s union is a powerful figure and if the teachers don’t show up to demonstrate they get fined – very democratic.
Today (Sunday) there is an election for governors, mayors and state representatives in eleven Mexican states, including Oaxaca. There is a lot of political tension in Oaxaca at the moment because within this state these seats are crucial to whether the Institutional Revolutionary Party can re-position themselves and gain a chance to win back the presidency of Mexico in 2012. The previous elections in Oaxaca are widely thought to have been fixed, and the army are reportedly on stand-by to break up any ‘disturbances’. Therefore we left town prior to the voting in order to avoid any trouble.
Finally, during our time in Oaxaca we also got to experience our first earthquake! On Wednesday we were woken up around 2am to the whole room shaking and all the furniture rattling. Apparently it measured 6.2 on the Richter scale, which is only ‘poqueno’ for these parts. It definitely made for an interesting night’s kip though!
Susie and Phil xxx
