Month: February 2010

Deportee

Things could always be worse. Still, the situation is increasingly bleak on the domestic and teaching fronts. I’m grateful for Kim and Sarah, to whom I sent an e-mail a few days ago canceling our lunch date because my spirits are too low. They both called to check on me, and Sarah encouraged me to meet her for lunch the next day, which turned out to be a Very Good Idea. But I love my […]

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A World of Scorpions

I hate children, which is too bad because I live in Cuidad de los Nií±os (named after the giant orphanage nearby) within Colonia Boulevares de San Francisco. One of the things I’ve always known about myself is that I never wanted to teach kids. Oh, sure: they’re fine at times, like when they’re asleep. But like dogs in a pack or Nazis in a mob, they are dangerous when clustered. Ironically, here on this very […]

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Rat-Dog

In México, some night watchmen make their rounds in the daytime. You can hear others at 2:00 am, sounding their presence every few seconds with a deep, flutey whistle. It’s mournful, like a faraway steam engine approaching and fading away. As I understand it, the function of the noise-making is to make sure they get paid: without noise there’s no proof that they were watching at night. I’ve been here long enough that most of […]

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