David wrote a beautiful tribute to his mom. She left the last minutes of November 20 I imagine her walking beautiful and smiling accompanied by the revolutionaries of a century ago to glory With a smile on her lips A difficult and beautiful life Of suffering and happiness From You I learned to love Mexico […]

On the 9th night of prayers for David’s mom, David and Gayo and another friend spent the afternoon building a sand tepete. After the prayers, the sand tepete, symbolizing the building of “a long and difficult life, is swept away quickly at the end.”

David’s mom died on November 20. The body was placed in a casket midst flowers and lit candles the first night and then was buried with a whole busload of people going to the cemetery. Then every night for 9 nights friends and neighbors came to the house for prayers, singing and food. On the 9th […]

The public hospital is like a jail! Once you go in you can’t come and go.  They demand a family member stay with the patient at all times.  He took night shift from his siblings and had to sleep on the floor.  Couldn’t take in a blanket or mat. Couldn’t take in food for himself because […]

My renter, Sharon, took photos of our yard in Salem. A nice respite from recent days in Oaxaca.

David is being watched even still and they still haven’t set aside his sentence. I have given him keys to my apt and offered my apt as a safe house.  They are just harassing him. Had to sign in every Friday all this time so he couldn’t go anywhere. Can’t get on with his  career as […]

On the way back to Oaxaca City, driving the coast road to Highway 175 (the “new road”) we took the time to drive up to Pluma Hidalgo Finca in 2 feet of mud where David had worked for a year.  Workers from outside fulfilled their “tequio” hours by working in the finca. Photos are of the kitchen […]

Last weekend I caravanned with another car and a truck 7 hours to the Isthmus (to a tiny village near Santa Maria del Mar) on the Pacific Coast of Oaxaca State where 80% of the homes were down or condemned. I went with David, his friend “Cholo” and a female friend to deliver tarps I had […]

David (dubbed El Alebrijey his companeros) is an agronomist and activist with the continuing “Movement” against corruption in Oaxaca that began again in 2006 with an uprising and the striking of 70,000 teachers. He is a charismatic natural born leader. In the wake of a massive police attack in November 2006, the government began to carry […]

Two French brothers are cycling from Québec (Canada) to Ushuaia (Argentina): 22,000 kms or 14,000 miles. They are dedicating this trip to a French charity called Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque for children with heart defects. I told them to tell their parents that if they were as nice as their children then they must be pretty darn […]

Zoran Zizak found me through the bicycling hospitality web site and stayed with me a few nights. He had an outrageous good time following me all over Oaxaca.

I’m in Oaxaca for 11 years and all three kids decide to come visit me at once! Doug arrived August 29th but of course he didn’t tell the others! When they heard he was coming then they all decided to come…overlapping a bit! Doug missed Josh who arrived on the 14th and left on the […]

Someone posted on a Couchsurfing 50+ discussion site this question: Were You A Hippie? It got me to thinking. Long and deep. Educated in a Catholic college prep school, my first doubts about the oppressive aspects of both religion and popular culture were given expression by reading, in high school as a teenager, Catcher In The […]

My husband, who was in a pediatric practice…which is basically a GP for little people… went to work at 8 and came home about 6…the last hour finishing up chart notes and patient call-backs…with an hour off for lunch. Four days a week. At least half the day “off” was spent making hospital “rounds.” If […]

The writer has some interesting comments on the book “Hillbilly Elegy.”

“The solution needs to be that the white poor and the white working class needs to get together with black and brown folks and figure out a way to fight for a better system.”

I remember working for the Peace and Freedom Party in LA in […]

Born 1900 in Spring Valley, Illinois of first generation immigrant parents from Poland.  She had no idea what was ahead of her.