I went to a baseball game, the Oaxaca Guerreros vs. the Mexico Diablos. I put on my ballcap and started walking to the ballpark with a pep in my step. Saw the fireworks in the sky for lineups during the walk. I was PUMPED. I pep walk up to the box office and ask for something “abajo.” I was going to splurge and spend $5 for really good seats. But turns out the Oaxaca Guerreros on opening night during a holiday weekend is a hot ticket. Sold out. I was crushed. I just stood there in my ballcap outside the stadium trying to accept the fact I wasn’t going to spend my night watching baseball. There were no scalpers either. I really didn’t want to go home. So I casually walked up to another window and asked for a ticket and they sold me one. Bienvenido a Mexico.
The guy next to me at the game had this big wooden wheel. When I sat next to him I had no idea what it was. He was an older gentleman dressed traditionally. He had on a button down shirt tucked in to jeans with a sombrero. Don’t think a gimmick sombrero like the states, think cowboy hat. I learned what the wheel did after the first “ponche,” and every favorable play after that. The wheel unleashes this barrage of noise when you spin it. Thin pieces of wood clap against a gear in the middle. It’s the textbook definition of “racket.” I laughed out loud to myself enjoying the moment, and each of the several moments per inning after that. A “ponche” is a strikeout. The word is displayed pulsing on the big screen with digital fireworks and everyone goes nuts. Kenny Powers and La Flama Blanca were not far off from the reality of a Mexican game of biesbol.
Moving on, I left the restaurant. Not because I wanted to but because I had to. I learned a ton in the 1.5 months I was there and accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. I also learned a valuable lesson that PAMG, but some aren’t. It was the right decision to leave and best for me. I’ll leave it at that. Onward.
Onward. To where? Well I’m back to questioning everything. Some mornings I wake up really scared, especially with no job anchoring me here physically and giving me a sense of belonging/fulfillment mentally. The long term goal of the food truck is intact, I’m just not ready to start that yet, I still have more to experience and see. I’ve done a healthy amount of reading on the steps to start the business. It’s a lot, as anticipated, but not in-surmountable. I need a name to register before I do anything else haha. I’ll also need at least one employee. So hit me up if you want to work for tacos and good times.
I know I love Oaxaca and that I have unfinished business here. I had that thought last night while having street tacos in Santo Domingo Plaza. The city was alive for the holiday weekend, there was music and fireworks in the background and I pinched myself as a reminder that I was, in fact, having street tacos in Oaxaca Mexico. Having access to that is a special thing.
I want to keep learning and I can do that now that I’m not working 5 days a week at the restaurant. So I’ve made some connections in the city and at the Tlacolula Sunday Market that I visited today, where I had the best lamb barbacoa to date. They’re known for it. There are probably 25+ stalls selling it. So I simply asked the lady if I could come over and help them make it before the next Sunday market. She agreed. I’m to show up at their house at 5am next Saturday for the all day affair.
I also bought a couple of beautiful hand made rugs for the cost of what I would pay at Target for similar sized cheap imports. Many artisans bring their work down from the pueblos to display. I also asked if I could come over. He also said yes and I’ll be visiting him in Teotitlan tomorrow at 1pm.
Finally, there was a pottery pop up in the city yesterday. I loved the work and asked if I could come over. I’m going there next Tuesday. I’m still working to set up a Mezcal (palenque) tour. I bet if I buy some mezcal and ask if I can come over they’ll say yes. People are nice here, especially if you’re going to buy their craft and ask if you can come over. I decided I don’t ever want to go on another organized tour in a big van full of goofy looking white people (myself included). So I (clearly) just started asking if I could make my way there alone.
I’ve made a few near term decisions on what’s next. First, I’m going to hike between the 7 main pueblos in the mountains to the north. It’s about 10-15 kilometers a day. Each pueblo has “eco-cabins” that are basic, but comfortable. They say the way of life at these pueblos has remained intact for hundreds of years thanks to them becoming a collective and controlling the amount of tourists that come through. I’m really excited to get in to nature and to see how this pre-hispanic culture lives.
After the hike I’ll spend some more time in Oaxaca and leave when I’m ready, probably in May. After storing more stuff in my parents basement I’m going to head to the Western USA, buy a used Jeep XL or Land Cruiser and drive East to Atlanta, which I’m scoping out as a possible destination for the food truck.
Believe it or not, I am able to look at that last paragraph sanely. And I am able to tell myself that I am still in control and I can do this. I’ve been inspired recently by the book Sapiens and to some extent the movie “In to the Wild.” The book discusses that humans weren’t really meant to live in mega societies. I’m paraphrasing the book here but our brains can only handle up to about 100 meaningful relationships at a time. That’s why a micro government can work among a group of friends or, say, an Army battalion. Even if there is a disagreement, it’s (usually) worked out peacefully because people know who they’re working with. Our brains can handle the relationships and disagreements. In our mega societies today the only way we stay together is through collective beliefs. If we’re not motivated by collective beliefs, what is keeping us together as a society? That could be money, nationalism, etc. But it’s all made up, by us. For example, if I’m a loyal member of a political party I will peer up with other members of that party, even if I don’t know them, and we’ll all follow the same rules, created by humans, not nature. All of this is fictional. We weren’t born affiliated with political parties. Our instinct as humans is to hunt and gather, not make fictional money and live in mega societies with way too many relationships to process. The end result is the chaos of people fighting based on fictional beliefs. I can go on my computer and say horrible things to the opposing political party because I don’t know them. There are way too many people on each side of the aisle to actually form relationships and work out our problems. So we can disagree as a collective, hating the opposition based on completely fictional human beliefs. Note that politics is just one example. Corporations, laws, even religion are all in play here. And they all have the same thing in common, we made them up.
To be clear, I’m not going to die in a school bus in Alaska from eating poisonous plants. I am still firmly rooted reality and the way things work. I’m also aware that spending 10 years in said society allowed me to do what I’m doing. I just like that I can observe things working from a different perspective. The perspective of someone who is free from it, at least for the moment. THAT is what keeps me in control. What re-enforces my decisions. We created modern society. And I am going to try and Neo that shit.
