Mark W. Shead » Mexico

Working from Mexico

Mark Shead — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 19:22:54 +0000

I posted some photos and a description of my work setup here in Mexico. It isn’t anything fancy, but it lets me get my work done. Other than my folding chair (which collapses several times a day), it is comfortable to work at and I feel like I can be quite productive–at least on days where I haven’t eaten any bad tacos.

Water in Mexico

Mark Shead — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 18:10:40 +0000

The reason you can’t drink the water in Mexico has less to do with the way it is treated and more to do with the distribution system. Water only runs for a few hours per day and it goes into a cistern under your house. A pump carries the water up to a container on the roof to give you pressure. So the water has to sit in the cistern and again on the roof. By the time it actually comes out of the tap, it may have been sitting there for quite a while. (At this this is how it is in Durango Mexcio, and I think most other places in Mexico.)
The cisterns and holding tanks don’t seem to be something that gets cleaned very often and you run the risk of a mouse or something crawling into the holding tank and drowning.

Spanish Lessons

Mark Shead — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 18:45:20 +0000

We met with our private Spanish tutor yesterday. It was a good meeting and she was helpful. Even more helpful than the Spanish instruction was her explanation about some things that had been puzzling us about Durango.

We mentioned that the food prices seemed much higher than what we had been expecting. She said this was because Durango doesn’t grow any of their own food. Almost everything in the stores has to be imported from other Mexican cities. She said they do raise cattle in the area, so beef is generally lower cost and high quality. We don’t eat a lot of meat, so we haven’t noticed.

We talked about what the average salary was in Durango and she wasn’t sure, but she did say that the minimum wage was 42 pesos per day. That is generally what unskilled labor is paid, so if you need someone to dig a ditch or something like that, you are looking to pay around $3.83 per day per person. 42 pesos seems pretty low when 1 kg of tomatoes cost 18 pesos.

In Durango Wal-Mart pays 500 pesos per week. I bet Wal-Mart in the US would love it if they could get employees for $45 per week. Wal-Mart is considered a good employer here because they high younger people and work around their schedule so they can go to school.

Waiting in Mexico

Mark Shead — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 20:24:19 +0000

I’m amazed at how much time we spend waiting in Mexico. I’m beginning to suspect that when an appointment is for 12:00, you really aren’t expected to get there until 12:30 or so.

The other day we were going to look at a house for rent. After waiting for 30 minutes, we called the owner and were told that they were “on their way”. After an hour we tried calling them again, but their phone was off the hook. After an hour and fifteen minutes we finally left.

When we go to the vet or doctor, it seems like the receptionist sees us come in, and then calls the doctor to tell him there are patients there. I guess if they are use to not having people show up, it make sense to wait to leave your house until you know for sure they are there.

Our best bet is to probably call before we leave the house and confirm our appointment. Unfortunately until we get better at Spanish, we are just as likely to end up canceling our appointment or doing some other harm.

The fear of messing something up is probably holding us back from learning Spanish as quickly as possible. I don’t mind saying something wrong and appearing silly. However once, we get a taxi driver headed in the right direction, I don’t want to try to startup a conversation and end up changing where we are going.