Mezcal > Tequila

Sunday, 13-October-2019, 7:34 PM CDT

     Hello and welcome to another edition of Poco a Poco. This week has been great. I am seeing the students improve their English, and my level of Spanish is now, more or less, communicative. I showcased my adequacy today during my apartment search/tour of Tepexi. It's not a big town, somewhere in size and population between Trevorton and Shamokin, but I walked around all of it today. If you want to learn a new language you need to practice with native speakers whenever possible.  There's no greater practice than cold-calling around your new town asking if anyone knows of rooms or apartments for rent. Turns out a lot of people did.
     I walked from my family's home in La Colonia to town, about twenty minutes, and just started asking people I saw. Being, I think, the only guero (white person) in town, people are interested in talking to me, which is great because that's what I need to improve my Spanish. I met two guys in a garage who were just hanging out on battered couches drinking Modelos and enjoying their Sunday afternoon. I asked if they knew of any places, and they did. They drove me around town and introduced me to several property owners. I even found some that meet the Peace Corps's strict criteria housing. Oscar had spent fourteen years living in New York City so had good English. He even knew of the many quality junkyard in NEPA. Luis didn't speak English but asked me to teach him. He understood when I told him I can only teach at TEC.
     Oscar and Luis's behavior was typical for Mexico from what I've seen during my...four months here. Mexicans are friendly, hospitable, willing to help, treat you like a friend upon meeting you. I received a similar reception when I visited San Pablo with some of my co-workers on Friday.
     I often accept invitations without really knowing what's going to happen wherever I'm going (think I already mentioned this buy 🤷🏽). This was the case when I was invited by the business department to tour some Mezcalarias. Turns out they're wanting to start their own mezcal operation on campus (as far as I understand). I know you're asking, Constant Reader, "What is mezcal, Kory?" Glad you asked. You can find out more about it here. But basically it's like tequila except better, and I've somehow developed a taste for it.
     I didn't sleep much Thursday night, so I was beat all day Friday. It was about an hour drive to San Pablo from Tepexi. A chunk of the trip was spent weaving down a sinuous mountain road. I only remember flashed because I was sleeping but occasionally I'd wake up and see turns that all looked the same. One time I woke up and there was a new person in the car, didn't even know how she got there. San Pablo reminded me of Telluride, CO. It's nestled in the mountains and isolated with only one way in and one way out. But instead of film festivals, skiing, and rich people with vacation homes, San Pablo has donkeys, tiendas, and mezcal.
     It took us an hour to find someone to show us their operation. We met a man with skinny legs and few teeth who led us through his home, while inviting to return whenever we'd like, and out back to his mezcal shed. It had walls of sheet metal and smelled like a landfill. It was then I realized that mezcal is Mexican Moonshine. He's not currently producing but answered all our questions with laughs and smiles. I'm not totally sure, but I think he was a little nervous to be sharing so much in front of me, an agent of the US government. I assured him he had nothing to worry about as I have no power to initiate legal action against him for his time in the US.
    We later found a guy who welcomed us with a Coke bottle full of clear liquid with the slightest golden tinge. Mezcal--the drink of macho Mexican men. While he and my co-workers talked, I listened and "played from a distance" with his children who were reluctant to approach me. As they snuck around one corner of the house for perks, I'd quickly look over and "catch" them. Then they'd run and hide. I like talking with the children here; I feel like pressure with them when compared with adults.
     This new guy (forget his name too) took us to his operation, which was much more legit than the first. There was a big pit in the ground called "el horno" or "the oven" filled with pieces of piña. "Piña" is pineapple but they refer to stocks of agave ad "piña" probably because it resembles the tropical fruit. The owner lifted up a window flap and revealed his partner chopping up piñas with a machete. A small TV and a single lightbulb illuminated the workspace, which included a cot for those long nights of chopping. One end of the space was filled with blackened piñas, which also resemble the turning spits of meat known as tacos pastor aquí en México. In the next room, we saw the some later steps of the process.
     This room had three rows of barrels filled with fermenting piña. Bring your hand to certain barrels and watch all the fruit flies flee like diseases from the mouth of John Coffey in The Green Mile. Put your ear to others and hear the fermentation occurring like little slimy footsteps down a wet hallway. Put your nose to the mush and smell the bittersweet aroma of alcohol in the making. Touch the...nevermind. I didn't touch the mush, but we did have another round here. Mezcal is somehow sweet and vicious at the same time, like a puppy that bites off chunks of your ear while cuddling. Here there's a saying that translates to, "For everything bad, mezcal. For everything good, mezcal." To some, it's believed to have medicinal purposes, such as helping with digestion after a meal of spicy food mmmmmmm.
     Ok now for some random stuff. I eat grasshoppers down here on the reg, and today I went grasshopper hunting with my family which was awesome. I continue to play a lot of basketball and see improvement as a baller as well as a shot-caller--I mean Spanish speaker. Our team is in the finals next week, and I hope to contribute more than I have in past games. TEC Tepexi is getting a new director, a change in leadership caused by none other than everybody's favorite necessary? evil--politics. Here it's common to put your head on the right side during hugs, whereas the left is more common in the US, no? Habaneros are spicier than jalapeños, but the latter cause more heartburn. Guero/a is not only a name for white people from the US but also for Mexicans who have--or used to have--light skin. I am, slowly, reading El Viejo y El Mar por Ernest Hemingway because I've read it in English and because his simple prose is a good fit for my level.
     Ok. Till next time. ¡Adiós!