My New Best Friend

As some of you may know, I find life in San Juan Cosalá very lonely. This is because I have no friends here. I mostly just have Hernan, who’s always busy, and my mother-in-law, who spends her free time watching telanovelas (morning, afternoon, and night).

My efforts to meet people have all failed. I find this very frustrating. Part of the problem, I believe, is that a general rule here in town is that men and women cannot be friends. It’s not that it isn’t allowed, it’s that it is considered an impossibility. And since everyone is up in everyone else’s business here, a brief conversation between unrelated men and women rapidly becomes the town scandal of infidelity. And so, when Hernan goes out with his friends, I’m never invited. And keep in mind that in this town there are still plenty who would assume any woman who would set foot in a bar (if we had one in town) would be a woman of loose morals. It’s fantastic.

I guess it's a good thing I've been abstaining from the bottle for the baby's sake, or I'd be sure to be considered the town floozy.

As for women – I haven’t figured out how to meet them. I think they spend most of their time in their homes with their children. Maybe when I have a child of my own I can go door to door and make friends by bonding over diapers. I really may get that desperate.

So I was pretty stoked today when I was invited to have lunch with a woman in Ajijic. She’s an American woman I met when I had her young son in one of my classes at Tohui (http://muestras.netcommerce.com.mx/kindertohui/default.asp), where I briefly worked as a child wrangler.

She lives in a lovely area of Ajijic where they have sidewalks and trees. I might start spending time in that neighborhood just because it's so much more pleasant than where I live.

I had a wonderful time doing these things: eating tofu sloppy joes, speaking in English, feeling understood. It was great. I think I even pulled off the afternoon without shouting how excited I was to have a friend, though I suppose it could have slipped out with my notice.

I hope this woman is prepared to be made into my new best friend. She may not know what she’s gotten herself into. I’m pretty desperate for company (hi, I'm blogging) and also she admitted to regularly making ice cream. How could I not become her stalker?

It was also a good day because the bus I rode out to Ajijic was bumping Bob Marley and UB40, which was just a fun change from the banda that the drivers usually play. Also, I should mention the glow in the dark Jesus stickers on the bus ceiling.