Good News All Around

Finally, I am able to post again. It’s been an exhausting week, needless to say, but things are looking up at the moment.  The best news is that Pixie is recovering very well from her injury to her mouth.  The tooth which was reinserted successfully and, so far, seems to be staying in place with no problems whatsoever.  She has a fabulous dentist, Alberto Garcia, in Chapala.  He not only reinserted the tooth in the middle of the night, he has been caring for her ever since.  He has completed a root canal on the reinserted tooth, and is in the midst of a root canal on the other front tooth, which was also traumatized in the accident.  So far, everything is going very well.  Pixie’s mouth has little swelling left, and she is able to eat soft foods (she was on a liquid diet for two weeks!).  So that is good news.  We’ve rescheduled our trip north for January 14 through the 30^th.  

When I first met Dr. Garcia, I was very impressed.  He is a kind man who works slowly and carefully.  I had three crowns done for about $150 US apiece.  He impressed me so much that I wrote a poem about him which was published int he Lake Chapala Review.  He was very pleased with the poem and told me he would "never forget" that I wrote a poem about him.  Here is the poem I wrote in 2008: 

Mi Dentista

Going to my dentist

Is Mexico itself.

It’s a long, slow process,

But full of care

And courtesy.

He chats when I sit in his chair,

Not to rush

Not to rush me.

I wait as he sets up his space,

Fills my water glass,

Lays out his tools,

Stopping to ask of my family,

Telling me of his,

Asking if I have pain today,

Always deliberate,

I do not feel rushed.

At last, ready to work,

“Are you ready for the pain?”

“Yes!” I continue the joke,

But he wants to be sure

I know it’s a joke.

“Up your hand,” he warns,

“If you any pain.”

Managing alone, stepping to

Retrieve a tool,

He works competently

Checking on my pain

And I drift, relaxed,

As he works

Carefully,

Lovingly,

On my old, battered, tooth. 

“You are a good dentist,”

I proclaim, after I rinse

And spit.

“I hope I am,

Sometimes I hope I am a good dentist.”

“You are.” I reply. 

Glad to be

Enjoying my afternoon

With this kind man.  

The other thing that has been keeping us busy is selling our house and finding a new place to live.  We have moved into our temporary rental in the Ajijic village.  We were supposed to close on our house today, but there was a delay as the money from the buyer was not sent to the correct account, so the transfer of the money took a bit longer.  We are now scheduled to close tomorrow at 4:00; let’s hope there are no more delays.  At any rate, we are today spending our first night in the new rental .  It’s in a very Mexican neighborhood, complete with live music and lots of character.  The house is a hacienda style, which means that the house wraps around a central garden.  It’s very Mexican and a bit dark in parts of the house, so we are using lots of lamps to make it bright.  Here are some photos of the house taken tonight, right after we moved in. 

You can see the house is very Mexican.  In the bathroom above, you can see they have a funky sink that looks like a bowl on the counter, but is actually a sink with a drain.  This type of tile/ceramic is called Talavera, and is very typical of this area of Mexico.  

We are exhausted with moving.  We will be glad to have some down time after we close on our old house and get it cleaned.   In the next entry, I’ll include more photos of the neighborhood; it’s very interesting.  Soon, we will be looking for a more permanent rental.  For the moment, we just need to catch our breath.