July 2008 in SMA

We begin with a letter from Bev:

Hi everyone, From Bev and Mike 7/08

Here is my wish you were here note from San Miguel. I’d love to share in person so much of what happens and the character of the place. There are definitely parts, however, I prefer not to share…more on that later.

We arrived to a growing neighborhood. There are about seven building projects in our little section. The houses tend to be quite large and beautiful. Most of the people are from the west coast, Berkeley, Portland, LA and I figure got good money for their houses and converted it to dream houses down here. There are surprisingly a lot of social workers, psychologists, architects, teachers and even a few of us nurses among the group. People are casual and very friendly and generally of a progressive point of view. Last night we hosted an Obama Platform party and we had a lively and interesting discussion. Most of us were on the same page, but each had their own life’s work and experiences to color the discussions. This part of SMA is the expat community experience, where you are surrounded by your own kind, which has its pluses and minuses. The good news is that I like all these neighbors and expect to feel a growing sense of community with them.

Summer is one of my favorite if not the favorite season here for me. It is the rainy season so that everything turns green, the hillsides, and the gardens. Things grow rapidly, like overnight, so we came back to our baby trees looking like grade schoolers. With the growth of things we nurture, come the things we don’t …weeds, which I spent yesterday chasing. Flowers abound...beaugenvellia (sp) in all colors either grow up walls or flow down over them, tiny black-eyed susan type weeds peer up through the breaks in the cobble stone streets, cactus flash their red flowers, and all the gardeners here enjoy the bounty of their efforts. Never having been much of a gardener myself, it will be fun to learn about the many varieties here and learn how to use them. We want to stick to low water, low maintenance, native plants, but I’ll allow for a few beautiful flowers.

The weather is perfect. Cool enough at nights to have a light blanket, and in the am to use a light fleece. It the afternoons, short sleeves is in order. The sun is out most of the time, but you get these dramatic storms. We had one last night. Flashes of lightening all around us up here in the hills, pounding rains that turned into hail, with torrents directed at angles so our house once again got lots of water under doors and even through some windows. Then after an hour or two of lighter rain, it stops and the next day is fresh and clear. We haven’t had enough rain yet this year, so hope the storms continue.

Haven’t spent much time downtown yet. Finally got hit with the bad bug. Either it was unwashed sprouts or tuna samples from Costco, but my second or third day here got the full Monty of GI distress. I was at a Mexican friend’s house when this came over me and fortunately her boyfriend is a doctor. She called him and he sent Mike to the pharmacy where he could buy over the counter without prescription, Zofran injectible plus a syringe for nausea and vomiting, Cipro, another med for diarrhea which I still haven’t figured out, and a bottle of electrolyte stuff…cost $60. No MD visit is necessary if you know what you want…Guess this is common stuff. I instructed Mike how to give me an IM injection and have spent the last few days recovering. After the first 7 hours, hasn’t been that bad, but those hours were ugly!

Can’t believe that when I return Tessa will be in the States. We are so excited to have them back in our world and to be part of this incredibly wonderful time of their lives.

So hasta luego to all and hoping you are having a wonderful summer.