Figs from the tree

There's a fig tree outside the clinic door, and I said to myself when I arrived that I couldn't leave until it bloomed. Well now it's lush with plump and juicy little fruitlings that you can eat right off the tree. Each bite is a sensuous discovery of seeds and sweet flesh...oh my, it's amazing. I can't stop eating them! I think the figs' timing will be perfect, as I've decided to stay only until July 1, so I can spend the 4th with my family in Kansas City, and then prepare to return to Peru for my second Patch Adams clowning mission.

Yesterday I realized a new part of The Valley: an affluent one. I'm used to being in my own little clinical world, where the average family incomes is <$12K/year. I went out to eat with my friends: a doctor and a nurse, and discovered a whole new world in McAllen (The Valley's big city.) Homes with beauuuutiful and immense gardens, swimming pools, and stone driveways. Gated communities. People driving foreign cars (not from Mexico). It was very interesting to see. The funny thing is that many of the people are actually wealthy Mexicans who invest in homes here. It's funny to me that some Americans think Mexicans are border jumping to rob the American welfare system or take our jobs, whereas in reality they're stimulating our economy by big pimpin it in The Valley, haha. (That, or they are working as factory workers or migrant farmers and doing the back-breaking labor that no one else wants to do). I'm not sure what to make of it all--I feel gut reactions like I cannot believe people are living like this when there are 10 person families crammed into trailers who cannot afford prenatal vitamins, but I'm trying to just observe and not judge the ever-stranger Valley. And of course there are wonderful people like my two friends who are using their powers for good.

In other news, this weekend I went to the market per usual. There was a mariachi band playing, and it was so fun to see families gathered to dance and drink and be together after their day at the market. Here it seems like Sunday is just an extra gifted day at the end of the week: one for getting drunk in the middle of the day if you want to, spending a lot of time to prepare good meals (like barbacoa, which takes half a day), and just enjoying life. I was just watching and drinking a cantaloupe agua fresca (juice that is ladled out of big vats into a giant styrofoam cup), when an old guy dressed in his Sunday best (cowboy boots, a bling bling belt, and a cowboy hat) asked me to dance. We danced for about 6 songs and then I slipped away after he called me his girlfriend one or two times. Fun times as always en el mercado.


I am having a love affair with lime. Thankfully, it's a cheap fix: $1/big bag