diecisiete de septiembre

Diecisiete de septiembre
Today was another fun day. In the morning we went to see Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera's home in Coyoacan, a community on the outskirts of Mexico City. I thought I had been to Casa Azul before, but instead it was the Dolores Olmedo museum. She was a patron of Diego Rivera and her home has a llarge collection of his and Frieda Kahlo's work.
Casa Azul is a moderate size house dating from the early 1900's that had belonged to Frieda's family. She and Diego remodeled it and lived there most of their lives. It was also the house where Trotsky lived with them and where he was murdered. It's full of their original art that must be worth a fortune. It was a little crowded because it was saturday but still okay.
One interesting feature to see was the elaborate contraptions Freida used to be able to paint. She was a semi-invalid for many years due to a childhood case of polio, followed by a crippling auto accident. She was in pain and bedridden for long stretches but she rigged torture chamber like devices to support her and stand her upright so that she could reach her canvas. I think by being there and seeing their stuff, including everyday items, you can get a sense of their lives that you can't get from just looking at there art.
Coyoacan has a nice park, a bosque, with lots of paths going through it. Around the edge of the forest there is a running path where lots of Mexicans were jogging along. Apparently it is quite fashionable to jog around the paths for a while then go to one of the nice coffee shops on the street next to the park. In the park there are several activities areas with people there. We saw a sort of martial tai-chi school with swords and someone else teaching fencing. In one larger area there were bull fight students waving capes while others charged them holding horns on their heads. Not activities you see much in the US.
For lunch we met Stephanie Sieveke, the Amextra coordinator that I have been working with. We ate in a nice small cafe just on one of the pretty little plazas in Coyoacan. Stephanie started out as an unpaid volunteer with them teaching English classes. Apparently in Mexico you're required to be able to read and write English to go to college so there is a lot of pressure to learn. Stephanie gave the classes as a fund raiser for Amextra and after a year was hired as a communications coordinator. Now she lives full time in Mexico City and is involved in a lot of their programs.
We talked a lot about Amextra's work and their plans. They have recently taken over all of Medical Teams International's programs, including the work in Oaxaca that I was involved with. Their focus is a little different from MTI and so they are changing the programs somewhat and some of the staff. Adam Moore whom I know was Oaxaca coordinator for MTI is now back in Portland working as some sort of Latin American coordinator for them. I think Amextra's focus is more on sustainability and long term growth rather than teams coming for short periods to do specific service projects.
After returning on the subway to our hotel we met with Susan's cousin, who by coincidence is Mercy Corps Latin American coordinator for Agriculture and who lives in Mexico City. Her partner Javier is working with Unesco on literacy programs and other projects in rural areas of Mexico. They have a 11 month old daughter whom we had never seen, so it was nice to visit with them both. I even gave a little sales pitch for my workshop and Javier said he might know some people who would be interested in attending. They could only stay for a little while, because of their daughters nap and sleep schedule, when you have little babies their schedule takes precedence over everything else.
Tomorrow we are going to move to the Hotel Ibis, near Tultitlan and meet up with my friend Gaudencio and his with Ruthie. I'm not sure of our schedule but were hoping to go to Tepozotlan, a small town north of Mexico City with a nice plaza, a beautiful old church and a Sunday market. They also have really good restaurants there and it should be a fun afternoon.