Buses and Clowns

Today is Friday, July 5th.  Happy belated Fourth of July!

Yesterday, we had our first intra-city bus experience.  We basically just hopped on a bus to see how it worked.  We rode it for the entire loop and besides getting a bit motion sick from th diesel fumes, had a good time.  We got to see some of the outlying neighborhoods and learned how to get around more easily.  Basically there are tons of busses going all over town and you can hop on one going along a particular road or to a particular destination and then you can get on another one going in the opposite direction.  We are not exactly clear where all the destinations are - each bus has 5-10 street and locations names on the front - but we have the general gist of it.  Bus is $0.45 per person - pretty cheap transport.  After our bus adventure, we explored the historic district a bit more.  We had a picnic in the Zocalo and then went to the library to see about kids books.  We discovered that the public library offers free children's activities over the summer.  They have cursos (courses) for kids all summer long.  They are more like arts, crafts, and writing activities that hard core classes.  We also met two American college women who have a grant to work with youth in Oaxaca, basically doing arts and crafts but on the theme of peace.  We signed Kaya up for a writing curso that is all of next week.  This will give her a chance to interact with her Oaxacan peers and to practice her Espanol.  Max will do the Peace program during the week also.  Kaya has been very resistant to the idea of doing classes.  We first went to the local cultural center to sign her up for a theater class and she burst into tears.  She did the same at the library until one of the women there convinced her that it would be OK.  Also, the kids in the Peace class were making eyeglasses out of pipe cleaners and gave Kaya and Max some to make glasses.  This also seemed to break the ice.  Now she seems pretty excited about it.

We came home for a dinner of Abby's arroz con pollo - the never ending pot!  We then headed out for the Zocolo where there was going to be a concert.  We heard the concert would be at 7pm so we tried to get there by then but were delayed a bit by a visit to the local chocolate shops.  They give out free samples and we have been stopping by so much they recognize us now.  We will definitely buy some - good chocolate and mole.  Oaxaca is pretty well known for its chocolate.  Anyway, we were late and the concert still had not started.  By this time Max had fallen asleep, so Kaya and Scott went to take a walk around the plaza.  They stumbled upon a clown (sort of comedian) performing in a huge circle of mostly locals.  Scott and Kaya came walking up and the clown immediately said hello to Scott, saying something like, "Oh look a foreigner." Scott stands out like a sore thumb - the big white guy who is about 1+feet taller than the average Oaxacan - sometimes it seems as though he is twice as tall as some of the little old ladies!  He welcomed them to the show and then proceeded to run toward Scott and jumped into his arms in a heavy embrace.  He continued to play Scott as the stooge, eventually coaxing him into the center with him to be his assistant.  Scott hammed it up a bit but played along mostly.  Originally, the clown said, "come on for only a little bit."  But Scott wound up there for about 30 minutes as Kaya looked on in the audience.  At one point, Kaya got Scott's attention to signal that she was cold.  Not much he could do at this point.  Meanwhile, Abby, Max, and Kelsey had grown bored of the concert, which eventually started.  They were wondering where in the hell Kaya and Scott had gone.  Kaya was very eager to tell them all about her father's exploits as the clown's assistant (read stooge).  

It was our first time out at night and the Zocalo as hopping.