Mexico

I'm envious of Europeans who can travel small distances and find themselves in the midst of people speaking a different language.  German, Scandinavian languages in the north lands, Russian, Polish, Czech. Hungarian if you go East; South, Greek, Italian, Serbo-Croacian; and West. Spanish, French, English, Dutch.  

'Cerro del Aguilas' ( Hill of Eagles )  East of Oaxaca

By the time children reach 10 they have picked up some part of neighboring countries language... its as common for them to visit other cultures it is for us in Califortnia to travel to a neighboring county or state.  I am astonished at the number of people in Europe who speak excellent accent free English.  In addition to casually learning, the schools there make language development a key plank in the education process.

Judy and me marching in a parade

"Knowing a language allows you to experience the world in a new way - not just making travel easier, but allows you to expereince the culture and insights of other cultures."

Women learning to read in a mountain village

By geography, the US is isolated on our east and west shores by great oceans- our neighbor to the north speaks English (and French in Quebec).  Our best opportunity to experience another language to travel south to Central or South America.

A feast shared by friends

Also, over 37% of Californians are of Latino ancestry and in Los Angeles the proportion is much higher.  In our cities and towns its useful to be able to read Spanish language signs, communicate with non English speakers,  and to appreciate the Spanish language music and news that we encounter. 

A clown called me up on stage to wear a red plastic nose

Judy and I love to travel.  We have been fortunate to travel sevaral times abroad.  Once, about 20 years ago, I had summer committments,  so Judy went alone on a study trip centered in Cuernavaca Mexico.  Each day speakers came in to talk about their area of special interest.  Judy learned about the history, current politics, major social issues... and they went out on field trips to experience the realities of life in Mexico today.  

Roast goat birthday party

She came home and said that while it was a wonderful learning experience - but she could never again be a dumb happy American tourist just staying in American style hotels and averting her eyes from the reality around her. In subsequent year we explored other part of the rich Mexican cultures. 

Our friend teaching English 

For us, experienced travellers that we were, we found Mexico to have rich and varied cultures - maintained its own wonderful unique qualities at a time when many countries of the world are losing these cultural individuality - tending toward a world mono culture.   Not so much in Mexico - we are delighted with new experiences at every turn.

Making music as Atole is being made

In subsequent years we have returned to Mexico several times - visiting Oaxaca, returned to Cuernavaca, Chiapas, and the Yucatan.  When possible we stay in simple accomodations - bed and breakfast style, the kind of places where local people might stay when they travel.  We relish the variety of foods!

Street 'banda' music

I love the way that local people there assist me in speaking correctly.  In Mexico when I make a mistake, the universal response was a gentle repeating what I meant to say... I have to pay attention to know that I have been corrected. We found people eager to get to know us, to assist us when we needed help. The kindness that we encounter touches us deeply.

Every night people gather in the zocalo ( central square ) to meet friends and to share time together

We found people hard working and inventive. Mexico has a challenging national economy - but it is slowly improving.  The disparity between the rich and the poor is troubling. 

Street Scene - Oaxaca

 Along the way my Spanish is improving.   My first efforts at teaching myself simple phrases had limited success. In Oaxaca we attended language schools with small classes and personal help... That helped my Spanish to improve greatly. 

We travel in collectivos - communal taxis - they must stop at times to allow livestock to pass

At home I regularly review...  But the next big leap for me was to start listening to Spanish language programming on my car radio- hearing Spanish spoken and sung I was able to strengthen my weakest skill which was  listening and understanding.  

Ninos

I am still in the intermediate range of over-all language development  but when we were in South America last summer for the first time in my life I felt that my communication skills had made a quantum leap forward.   Learning a language is not easy for me - but I love being able to talk to people and understand them  ... 

Of worms and high hopes!

This time of year when I turn the soil in my garden - I am amazed at the number of earthworms, Small red wigglers and giant night crawlers the size of small snakes... The soil is drying, but still moist from the last rain.  Perfect for forking over. Time to dig deep and add compost to the soil, and set up for summer watering.  Due to anticipated water rationing this summer I will use timers and drip lines to deliver the water just to where it needs to go.  The secret is to set up the water system first, establish where water will be delivered and then plant only in the moist zones.  I find that 10-20 minutes of drip a day is adequate to produce healthy plants. 

In your hardware store you can buy one hose timers - easy to create and use your water system!

Selecting the plants to grow is tricky.  We have a climate determined by the prevailing airflow from the Pacific. Since we are far inland, miles from the ocean, our daytime temperatures are more like inland summer temps.  In the summer we can count on clear skies and temperatures into the 80-90 degree range (most but not all days).  But when the sun sets, the cool ocean air returns and our nighttime temperatures in the summer consistently fall into the 50s.  This is critical for determining what we can grow.

One of my raised beds with deep good soil - Year around  I have crops here!

The other key factor in my garden is the subtle microclimates even to be found in a back yard.  By a south facing wall it is like Fresno - the hottest microclimate we have.  In the shade of a bush, with no direct sun, the climate is more like Portland Oregon.  On the far side of the house where the sun never shines it is more like Mendocino.   Every plant variety has its favorite conditions - so the trick is to find where it will be happiest.

Bean poles - few crops more satisfying or easy to grow!

Next comes selecting varieties.  Forget  "beefsteak" tomatoes or the heirloom varieties of tomatoes - they require warm nights, which we do not have. They are a good idea - they just don’t like our climate!   I grow "Ace" and "Early girl" tomatoes - both smaller than a tennis ball but very productive.   In our location, they do best if placed in the warmest microclimate I have! The plants keep growing larger all through the season - and they produce fruit until frost.  Also forget eggplants and bell peppers - they are just frustrated to attempt growing them- they need warm nights that we don’t have. Corn and melons are also marginal here.

Whatever you do - dont plant to many !  Zucchini are prolific!

The other side of the coin is that our Pacific airflow creates conditions that minimize winter frost - making it possible to grow a full winter garden:  broccoli, kale, and broccoli in the winter months. After frost is past we can plant onions... and once frost is past we are a good location for potatoes.

A raised cucumber bed that I saw - not in my garden...

These are the plants best suited for our climate - After many attempts at trying to grow plants not suited to our conditions ... Now I only grow things that are naturally adapted to our climate:

Summer crops that we can count on: Plant End of March

* Buy plants in nursery
S - plant seeds

*Cucumbers - Standard, Asian

S  - Green beans - Blue Lake variety //Also Italian Romano beans

S - Zucchini

S -Winter Squash (Acorn or Butternut)

*Tomatoes - (Ace, Early Girl)

*Kale: Italian, Black Leaf, (I prefer these to Curl leaf

*S - Chard
* Basil

Sample Ace tomatoes

End of Sept./October planting:

S- Beets

* Chard

*Kale

S- Lettuce

S- Fava Beans 

Leaves capturing sunlight energy in our back yard!

October - November  (wait for rain)

S Plant hollyhock seeds, poppy seeds, wild flower seeds, sweet pea, leek seeds

Onion blossom

Late January

Seed Potatoes

Onion starts

Garlic

If you do not live in the SF Bay Area and want to know what plants are best suited to your location search out the master gardeners web site or state agricultural college for your area and inquire from them>

Amazing journey!

Photos are of food we have encountered either in the Bay Area or in our travels to other countries.  How many can you identify? All of the foods shown are useful to us for their carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and vitamins.

Once I have eaten my hamburger and fries, I think I am finished - but I am only beginning.  It is an amazing story of what is yet to come!  

So now I have enjoyed the flavor of each bite as I chewed my food into small fragments.  My salivary glands have released a protein enzyme called ptyalin, which mixes with the starch of the bun and the potatoes and starts to break long carbohydrate molecules into two 6-carbon sugars called disaccharides.  Down the esophagus it goes.  

When you reach up and touch your throat, you feel the cartilage rings of the Trachea (windpipe) - the esophagus (gullet) lies behind that, parallel with the spine.  There is a special door at the entrance to the stomach called a sphincter (ring shaped) muscle that must open to allow the food to pass.  It also prevents stomach acid from splashing up into the gullet (except when you have 'heart burn'.)

In the stomach gastric juice is pouring from the stomach lining walls.  It does only one thing - Protein molecules are large and difficult to break down- before they can do you any good they must be broken all the way down into their amino acid building blocks - it only starts here with the release of a protein enzyme called pepsinogen which only breaks the big protein molecules into somewhat smaller pieces.  (Other than this, no other food digestion occurs in the stomach). Hydrochloric acid is also added to activate the pepsinogen.  

But these is a problem... the wall of the stomach is made of protein.  To avoid digesting itself it has to coat the stomach wall with thick layers of sticky mucus, which is also secreted by the stomach wall.  The walls of the stomach churn and mix the food with the juices to reduce it all to a uniform paste.  Additional fluid is added from the blood.

Finally the food is released in small 'burps' through another sphincter into the small intestines - this is the length of a 20-foot garden hose - wound back and forth in the lower abdomen.  This is where most of the real digestion happens.

If there is protein present in the food mixture, the pancreas is stimulated to release protein-digesting enzymes (also made of protein), also special enzymes to break down any remaining starch and complex sugars, and if fats are present, the gall bladder is signaled to release bile.  Bile has the effect of a detergent, breaking the fat particles into tiny particles that can be acted on by another enzyme from the pancreas. So the pancreatic excretions are essential for the breakdown of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates!  It also released natural antacids to counteract the acid coming from the stomach.

Finally the semifluid food mass must travel through the 20 foot + length of the small intestines, with millions of tiny projections (called villi) extending inward, providing a huge surface area through which the tiny molecules of digested food and some fluid can enter into the blood steam.  

It's interesting to note that while many mammals can digest cellulose as an energy food, humans can not... we don’t have the enzymes for that piece of work.  We have a small vestigial organ at the end of the small intestines that is at the same location of the cellulose digesting organ of other mammals - but ours is inoperative... it is our appendix!

You will notice one important category missing in the list of digestible foods - and that is fruits, salads, and vegetables - While it’s true that fruits contain some sugar, vegetables do not.  Vegetables and salads are high in cellulose... but also high in those trace nutrients that we call vitamins.  We cannot produce most of our own vitamins and they are essential to our health.  Plus these foods taste good.

If we lived close to nature, eating those foods that came naturally from the farm we would not have one problem.  With modern processing and transport systems, concentrated sugar and corn syrup are ubiquitous! Whenever sugar enters the blood steam, the pancreas responds by releasing insulin, which permits the cells to absorb food out of the bloodstream.  If more sugar enters the cells than can be used for energy the excess is stored as fat.  So the presence of sugar is a stimulus to the cells to store food as fat.  A person with a low sugar diet will release less insulin, and the body's food will be routed for energy use.  Think of this as a 'disease' of civilization. In nature sugar is quite rare in most foods.

At the end of the small intestines is another sphincter muscle that controls flow into the large intestines. This starts on the lower right side of the abdomen - travels up, across the top of the abdomen, then down the left side.  The main function of the large intestine is to reabsorb water out of the food mass and return it to the blood.  The remaining material in the large intestines is home to a myriad of microorganisms... most are either neutral or beneficial to us - some produce vitamins that are absorbed into the blood.  

Our bacterial 'garden' lives on any left over food and cellulose in the large intestines.   Some beans contain a carbohydrate that we dont have the enzymes to digest.  This carbohydrate  passes through to the large intestines where the bacteria receive it as a treat! As they process it, a side effect is the  production of excess gas!  

Our bacteria are harmless to us - But if we travel to a country where sewage water contaminates food - we can pick up a variety of bacteria that can make us sick.  This is also the primary reason that food handlers here are urged to wash after they have visited the restroom!

High Sierra Picnic

Cream pies sitting out at room temps, the juice from raw chicken, things that have been in the refrigerator too long... all can contain 'strange' bacteria that move into our system and cause serious gastric disruptions.  What is commonly called 'stomach flu' is almost always caused by some sort of  contaminated food... Be especially careful of which foods you select from a potluck meal where some dishes may have been unrefrigerated for hours before eating!

Finally the end of the line - the last sphincter is the anus - which controls the release of the accumulated waste from the last part of the large intestines called the rectum.  If waste remains in the rectum too long before excretion, excess water will be removed back to the blood and the mass becomes too dry and constipation occurs - the solution eat more fiber to give something for muscles to push against, and drink more water...  If the waste is passed on before fluid can be reabsorbed out of it the condition is diarrhea.

Annual 2014 edition of Awesome Web Links:

(Photos this week are a random collection from my archive - A good photo tells a story all by itself.)

1. In the morning before I leave home I scan the national and world news.   I turn first to the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com... Many American newspapers now use a limited number of news sources - but New York Times is often the most substantive, with 'real' investigative journalists writing. I often only scan the headlines - but when a major issue appears - this is where I learn more.

2.  I also read international sources to get their take on world events. BBC remains a benchmark in quality reporting.  They also have fascinating links to on line British radio, life style you name it... http://www.bbc.com/news/

3.  Since so much of our news affects the Middle East - where better to learn what they are thinking than Aljazeera News.  If you are not familiar with them the straight forward reporting that you find there may surprise you. Take a look: http://america.aljazeera.com/topics/topic/categories/international.html

4.  My encyclopedia of choice is Wikipedia... Want to know something about any topic?  Enter the key words in the search box and "pop" there it is... Their information is current and amazingly complete: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

5.  My search engine of choice is  good old Google: https://www.google.com.  If I need information fast this is where I turn.  You have to be a bit discriminating about the array of articles that appear - Always check the source first and assess if they have an "ax to grind" on the topic!

6.  Do you ever find opinionated "hit pieces" appear from a "friend" on your computer?  The first thing I do is to cut and paste the piece into Snopes:  This is a free service that will give you a straight forward evaluation of the accuracy of the information.   Its also interesting to scan the range of topics that they make available: http://www.snopes.com

7.  The first site I send to my young teachers: CK-12: http://www.ck12.org/teacher/.  If you know any teachers - forward this site to them - it is a rich source of practical useful information for enriching classroom instruction in a variety of topics... If you are a teacher or not take a few minutes to explore some of the topics... especially note the short video clips that appear for many topics.

8.  Another teacher source that I likeis the "Tree of life" site from UC Berkeley ...  You will need to take a few minutes to explore the various links: This site is extensive and takes time to digest...http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/historyoflife.php

9.  ...Also from UC Berkeley: http://evolution.berkeley.edu

10.  When I am working at my computer - I often turn to Grooveshark for music - You must make a free account to get started, but then you can build and store your own collection of favorite music - You will be astonished with what you can find here... Only drawback is that you can not listen and scan the web at the same time, non download the music to your computer: http://grooveshark.com

11.  The most reliable substantive weather available if from the national weather service.  Just type in your postal area code and your own local weather appears.  http://www.noaa.gov

 

12.  Many Christians today, of a wide range of denominations, count themselves as "progressive" Christians.  If you would like to know more about this movement - visit "Progressive Christianity" to get the flavor of these churches http://progressivechristianity.org

13.  Many of use today are trying to eat healthier foods.  I find this site to be a good source of information and recipes: 100 healthiest foods http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php

 

14. Technology in the classroom is changing how we do business! You will find these informative if you are a non-teacher (and useful in many different applications), but dramatically useful if you are a teacher.  Check out these 5 sites: 

https://sites.google.com/a/share.brevardschools.org/cilsick/home

https://sites.google.com/site/colettecassinelli/stem-google-docs

32 ways to use Google apps in the classroom https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_6fh7wXkugHQbbA2ILrjsFqysvclJCbul2I3Oc912D8/present?slide=id.i300

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pick-me/id444045099?mt=8&ls=1

http://www.classeapps.com