Lupita and Tonio

Our host family is great. The Mom is named Lupita, the Dad, Antonio (called Tonio) and there's a teen-age son called Juan Pablo. They also have three older children in their thirties, all married with children. One of the sons has traveled all over the world. She talks a lot, and is very good about being clear and slow. We've already discussed families, religion and politics. Her religion is very important to her and she wanted to know about our religions. We told her we didn't go to church and she asked if we were atheists. We said that we were respectful of religion and she was OK with that. She told me that she thinks all religions are good and that we should all live in harmony.

We talked and exchanged photos on the first Saturday night, and then settled into our room. Their house is very nice, in a residential area near the Peace Corps office and the Marista University where we have our classes. There's a big driveway, a backyard pretty much filled up with a trampoline, and a lawn in front. There's a gate to the street which is locked but they don't lock the house. More or less across the street there's a lovely small private park.

Our room is upstairs, across the hall from Juan Pablo. We have very hard twin beds (which they helped us push together). We have a private bathroom although we'd love to have a new shower head since it's just a big dribble. The parquet floor in the bedroom is coming up so it's a little disconcerting to walk and dislodge the tiles. There's a big closet with a lot of stuff stored in it where we can put our suitcases and warmer clothes. We feel very fortunate to be in such a nice place.

On Sunday morning they asked if we wanted to go to their town. Of course we said sure, and we got into the pickup truck (John sits in the front seat of course, with Tonio, while Lupita, Juan Pablo and I sat in the back). Juan Pablo would clearly have rather been home playing soccer with his friends but they said he needed to know his history and he was quite nice about it. He had an i-pod with a funny mix of American songs. Monday was his first day of school (Catholic school) and he was happy to be going back to see his friends.

We drove for about an hour to San Miguel Allende, a beautiful town in the hills. Their families each had haciendas there that were confiscated by the government in 1917. They are still bitter. Lupita said that she wouldn't mind so much if it were being used productively but now it's pretty much been abandoned. As we walked down the street, practically every person they met was a relative and they stopped and said hello. We went to the history museum to see the painting of her uncle that was on the wall and she knew the person taking tickets. In the church they met Tonio's uncle. We went to a convent and they met one of Juan Pablo's teachers and then Lupita's niece and some other relatives. They had a long conversation and fortunately John and I were able to try reading some of the exhibit captions out loud and try to translate them. The city is really gorgeous, with a lovely cathedral (when we went in we bumped into Tonio's uncle). It is full of Americans (she says that many of them are very involved in preserving the city), and immaculate.

When we returned to the truck it had a flat tire. Now, this was no ordinary truck. It had oversized 22" wheels and low profile tires with a fancy center and unusual lug nuts. He called a truck to come and pump up the tire. I went into some of the shops which had beautiful merchandise, much nicer than anything I've generally seen in shops that feature Mexican crafts in the U.S. There was a jewelry store that was like a museum, beautiful gems, silver work that was like small sculptures, children's spoons, and much more.

After the tire was inflated we drove outside the town to a vulcanizing shop, a storefront operation in an area of lots of shops much less fancy than those in the town center. It turned out that it wasn't his truck - he'd traded his car for the weekend with a friend of his brother's so we could travel in style (also to transport our four suitcases to the house - two years is a long time to pack for!). It also was the case that the tire had previously been patched in the same spot and the first attempt to fix it didn't work. Not only did he not want to buy an expensive new tire for the truck, even if he had wanted to buy one it probably was not available. After much discussion, they decided to try patching it again. John said that the first patch should never have been made because of the location of the problem. However, they decided to try again.

Meanwhile, we haven't had any food since breakfast and it's getting toward 3 pm. I was actually very patient (really, I was). Lupita finally walked down the street with us to a restaurant where they were grilling chicken outside. We went in and enjoyed some delicious chicken with tortillas, beans, rice and salsa, overlooked by a giant tv playing the Incredible Hulk very very loud.

Finally the tire was fixed and we thought we'd head back but they took us down more cobblestone roads (which made me worry about the patch on the tire) to another church. I'll describe it more later and post photos but it was one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen. After that we drove home, with one more stop - at their second house (they also have a rancho in the country that they rent out). It was two rooms, pretty basic. They may be starting a business (he recycles glass) there but it wasn't clear. They needed to water the fruit trees and roses they had started in the yard.

When we got back to the city he drove us by the aquaduct which had giant brightly-painted sculptures between the arches. Lupita asked me if I wanted to go home or see more. I knew she wanted to go to church so I said go home and she was quite relieved. During the day, every time we passed a church she crossed herself, once full scale, and then smaller on her forehead, nose and lips. We passed a lot of churches.

We are lucky with our hosts! It's pretty intimidating but it's clearly a good way to force us to learn to speak Spanish.