October in Oaxaca

Zucchini Pumpkins

These are the pumpkins from our first garden. I was so excited to pick them. They aren't like the orange ones you would see in the states. They actually look more like big zucchinis. I picked a few when they were still little and made zucchini cake out of them which was quite tastey. These I just let grow to see how big they would get. The ladies from church told me that they cook them in a large pot overnight with brown sugar (panela) to make a dessert. Or they can be done similarly but made into a sweet drink. I just thought it was fun to see them grow. I will save their seeds for next year.

JACK-O-LANTERNS

We didn't buy the big orange pumpkins to carve this year. At 6 dollars each, we decided it was a bit 'spensive. Especially since last year they got moldy and rotted within just a couple of days. We did buy one pumpkin, but I will clean it, boil it for pies, and save the seeds to plant next year. These pumpkins are hard to find. I think they are imported. What we did this year is make paper mache jack-o-lanterns. The kids layered the soggy newspaper on balloons, then after drying all night, they painted them orange. I cut out the eyes and mouths. They turned out really cute.

Then the kids dressed up in Aaron's old soccer uniforms and played police. The kids here are not playing cops and robbers, but Federal Preventive Police and APPO. Kinda sad, but goes to show how kids pick up on everything. Everytime the news comes on, they holler at us since they know we are always checking to see what is happening. Halloween and the Day of the Dead have kinda been put on the back burner this year in Oaxaca. Because of the political crisis, people don't have the money or the desire to go out and buy things for their traditional offerings or go asking for candy. The clash of the APPO and PFP this week didn't help either.