Keeping it clean

The typical Mexican likes to keep himself and his casa clean. Even if his place has dirt floors, it gets swept and cleaned. This also applies to the street in front of the casa. At sunrise the women start cleaning the sidewalk and street adjoining their place. I have never seen a man sweeping (except for me). The task seems to usually be done by the oldest woman in the house. This task not only gets the street clean but allows one to interact with the neighbors with a “Buenos Dias”, who walk by on their way to work or the corner tienda. The dead leaves and basura are swept into piles and at some time during the day usually burned.

Does the person call the fire department to see if a permit is needed to burn or is this a safe day to burn? I don’t think so. Do the neighbors call the fire department to say that there is a fire? No. The only thing that might be said is if your fire is close to your neighbor’s thatched palapa roof or wood fence is to watch the fire. Does the fire department come by? No. In Mexico, there is personal responsibility for your actions. If you burn down your neighbor’s house, expect to build him a new one.

In the mornings and/or sometimes evenings, the cobblestone streets are watered to keep the dust at a minimum. I’ve seen men involved in this activity. Some days when the water pressure is too low, this doesn’t happen. The water is sprayed carefully so as to not get passersby wet.

You often hear gringos bitching about the basura in Mexico and there is a problem in public areas but the Mexicans usually clean up areas under their personal control and sometimes laugh about the basura problem as they toss an empty plastic Coke bottle. But if it is on their property it is usually picked up later.

Last night, I had an unpleasant experience. In the bedroom, I had a pair of shorts draped over the back of a chair. I moved the shorts and saw on the wall what at first I thought was a large moth. On closer inspection it turned out to be a scorpion all flattened out and scrunched together to make itself as small as possible. My camera was nearby, so I smashed the scorpion with it.

This is disturbing for two reasons. First, I was not aware that scorpions could climb vertical walls and second, my bedroom had been violated. I thought the scorpions would stay outside and hide under rocks or bricks but now they are in the house in an area where I usually walk around in my bare feet sometimes without the lights on at night. And now, I will have to inspect clothes before I put them on to make sure no scorpion is hiding there.

All in all, my current thinking is I may be leaving Mexico. A good old friend of mine who lives near San Francisco is very ill and I want to visit him. The 40th anniversary of “The Summer of Love” is happening this fall in San Francisco. Learning Spanish is harder than I imagined. I’m getting a bit bored here. I’m missing some foods I like. I need to get my Vaio repaired. I may need to be in California to finalize the sale of my house.

I still may look for a place in Mexico but maybe closer to the border, like TJ, Rosarito Beach or Ensenada. After all my main reason in checking out Mexico as a possible place to live was economics. It’s hard to find any place decent to live in the US on a fixed income of social security.