Muchacho Polaco

We made our way to the beach yesterday morning. The weather is spectacular and the water is warming up. This week is called santa semana (holy week) and is something like a spring break.I didn’t fully appreciate this until we got to the beach yesterday. San Carlos was packed with kids. They are everywhere. Usually the place is pretty dead,  so it’s a sharp contrast to what we’re used to.
Scout was very popular on the beach last night. Usually Tila receives all of the compliments, but yesterday she was hardly noticed. People love to watch Scout retrieve his ball. He is able to swim really far out. It was nice to see him popular for once.
Interestingly, Guaymas was absolutely dead. No people. No cars anywhere. Apparently everyone was in SC. That made for a peaceful sleep.

Yun and I went to the dentist yesterday. Never fun and yesterday was not an exception. The last dentist I went to here in town was horrible. That dentist told me that I had four cavities. That was disturbing to hear. I wanted xrays. He told me he didn’t need to do xrays to verify what he saw. My eyes weren’t seeing what he was seeing, so I wanted an independent verification. He scoffed that I would even ask for such a thing. I guess I’m a natural skeptic and the fact that he was in his early 20s and given his demeanor, I wasn’t impressed. Unfortunately in Mexico, it seems anyone can call themselves a dentist or doctor. Despite the lack of credentials. That makes it incredibly difficult to find a competent dentist.

Yun and I had resorted to reputation among friends. So we ended up going to a dentist that has been practicing for decades. Her educational credentials were on the wall and so she had the appearances of legitimacy. She was also very nice and eager to answer questions and offer explanations.

The intent of the visit was our 6-month cleaning, but I also wanted a second opinion regarding the prior ‘dentist’s’ assessment. The cleaning process here is pretty different. I much prefer the method in the US where a lot more is done, to include testing for early onset periodontal diseases. The dentist we went to yesterday charged over four times what the prior dentist charged. My hope was that more expensive might mean more competent.

The cleaning wasn’t too bad and not too painful. Her equipment reminded me of something I probably experienced in the US maybe 20 years ago. She certainly wasn’t the most technologically advanced. She wasn’t inclined to do xrays because she didn’t think they were necessary, but I insisted. So she did them. I do not have four cavities and her best guess is that the prior dentist was claiming that I did to make additional money. Apparently that’s not an uncommon practice here. Fun.

Overall I think I would return. She was nice. Seems to have integrity. And at least has the competence to clean teeth. I don’t think I’d go to her for anything more involved though.

My friend Arturo and I went for a bike ride last night. This is the first real exercise I’ve done in years. It was brutal. We were joined by his brother-in-law Manuel. The two of them met me at my house at roughly 7.30 and then we made our way to the town center. The ride downtown was 2.5 miles and it took us 20 minutes. Not exactly impressive, but it was a really fun ride and I enjoy seeing things I don’t normally take the time to see.

We waited downtown until 8:30pm to join a large group of bikers (maybe 50 or more) that do weekly rides around the city. Mexico isn’t the safest place to ride a bike on the street, but the advantage of this group is that it has a 10-15 motorcycle cop escort. That means we have the right of way at every intersection and ever intersecting road is blocked as we pass to ensure cars do not pull out. There is also a line of motorcycle cops down the side of the group to ensure no cars get near the bikes. It was awesome to discover this sort of thing exists.

From the center of town we did a loop of part of the city. The loop happened to go right by our neighborhood, which I enjoyed to be able to see our area from the perspective of a bike (versus the car which I am normally doing).

The bike group ride was only about 6 miles, but coupled with the 4 miles there and back from the house, I at least logged in a little over 10 miles. Not bad for my first time. However, the 2 mile ride home at the end of the night was pretty exhausting. But overall, I feel like I could do this again and perhaps even regularly. It’s about time I started to get some exercise.

Whenever a discussion about the electric bill comes up, there’s always mention of the ‘government subsidy’. The conversation goes something like this:

Other: The government subsidizes electricity here to help people with their electric bills
Me: Is the electric company private? I didn’t think it was.Other: No, the government provides it.
Me: But you said the government subsidizes the cost of electricity?
Other: Yea, they do that to help people.
Me: That’s an unusual use of the word subsidy. A subsidy is money provided by the government to a private company to lower the cost of a given product. What you’re describing is a discount.
Other: Ok, well the government discounts the cost to help people.
Me: Does everyone receive the same discount?
Other: no. poorer people receive the highest reduction in the cost of their electricity.
Me: You said the government was the one helping the poor people. It sounds like to me that  the people with money are really the ones doing that by paying an inflated price of electricity.
Other: It’s not inflated, everyone receives a reduction in the price.
Me: But the government arbitrarily set the initial price. If the initial price is high enough, they could give a 99% discount and the price could still be extremely high. It seems to me like you see the government as benevolent because they offer ‘discounts’ on ridiculously priced electricity. This is a poor country, yet the government control of electricity has resulted in your paying more for it than it costs in the US.
Other: I see what you’re saying and it makes sense. I used to think the government was a good thing that helped people and in that sense I was a statist and a fascist. But now I realize that was incredibly naive and I should not believe that way any longer.

That conversation is not unlike numerous conversations I’ve had here with people of different backgrounds. That last line is the obvious exception. It seems strange that no one really seems to question the propaganda they’ve been fed. Yun and I were discussing this last night and we both thought this mindset was rather cultic.

Yesterday Yun and I had the opportunity to visit a number of farms an hour or so south of the city. Martha and her brothers accompanied us as well.

The primary crop that we saw was garbanzo beans. There were also fields of wheat, other types of beans,  cucumbers, and squash. I’m not a big fan of the garbanzo bean, mostly because I have no idea what you would use it for.

It was fun to see the country and to enjoy the fresh air.