I’m counting the days before my arrival in Teotitlan on the evening of Sunday, December 14. As usual, I’ll be staying with my Zapotec family — Federico Chavez Sosa, his wife Dolores, daughter Janet and son Omar. Eldest son Eric has his own apartment in the city, so we have to make the time to get together during comida on days when he is at work at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca.
If you’d like to come and visit the village and meet the Chavez family while I’m there, you are more than welcome. We’ll give you a weaving demo and show you how the family works in natural dyes.
From Monday through Thursday, December 15-18, Federico, Dolores and Janet will be teaching a weaving and natural dyeing workshop. We can still fit you in, if you are interested. Send me an email.
Things I’m looking forward to:
- shiatsu massage with my friend Anie who lives at the foot of Picacho
- temezcal sweat bath with my friend Sam after she arrives from Columbus, OH
- eating pan dulce and tamales with salsa amarillo on the hoof
- walking to the Presa
- reconnecting with artist friends Pantaleon Ruiz Martinez and the Tito Mendoza family
- sitting on the rooftop of our yet-to-be-completed casita overlooking the Oaxaca valley, dreaming
- smelling the posada incense and candle smoke
- hearing braying donkeys and squawking guacalotes
- the pomp and circumstance oompahpah of posada musicians
- reading and sleeping, sleeping and reading
- bouncing on the bus to Oaxaca — “Ghost Town”
- enjoying the wild Buena Noche — poinsettias that grow abundant all over town