Yes, mortgages are unknown in areas like ours, seen as ridiculous actually, irresponsible for both borrower and lender ... it's one of the most recognised traits of what we call here the 'developed' cultures - 'They have mortgages', said with a shrug of disdain ... costs are much lower of course, we built a house over the last couple of years, with almost all labour supplied, for under twelve thousand canuck, this includes the lot of thirty metres by thirty ... nice place by my own canadian standards, built not of wood but of block, lots of rebar, roof part slab for adding later [and for avoiding taxes - 'unfinished', lol], and part metal ... smallish, because you only need a house to keep your stuff dry and sleep in, most time is spent outdoors under shade trees or palapa if possible, cooking is entirely outdoors in palapa as you don't want heat in the house, it's built to keep heat out, we're at lowish elevation in the deep tropics ... no hot water tank, no need, i may put in a coil of black pipe later but it's likely one of those never-never things ... two palapas and two mango trees strategically placed to form a courtyard, lime and sour orange trees, wife and i still arguing over avocado or almendra for one corner so garden area remaining is larger than most canadian city lots ... it's not so bad, very comfortable, not the nicest in the near vicinity either, the best is that of an old guy who has never been anything but a fisherman and campesino, built it all himself bit by bit as he could afford materials, wife is a real Hausfrau, place is spotless and repainted frequently
Lazy after lunch - yeah well, don't you feel the need for a nap then sometimes, lol ... only dogs and englishmen go out in the midday sun - many of those 'lazy' people will have put in their workday starting at first light or before, and many go back to work later ... lots of fishermen in our village, get up threeish in the morning, go out in the cool and set nets, fish only move into them for an hour or so right around dawn, so by the time your average banker is at work the fisherman has brought his catch in, readied everything for the next day, had breakfast and is engaged in evasion of the wife's pleadings to fix up things around the house, or discipline some kid, there's always something but it's fairly simple to deal with, you wander off with the guys and go smoke dope somewhere .... um, getting a bit realistic aren't i ... well yeah, a man has a right
There's a tailor near us, his family kicked him out [after building him a house] because he would work from quite early to just before noon, then start up again mid-afternoon and go until ten or after, everybody else wanted to sleep by eight at the latest, he just couldn't do that so now there are two houses with the only solid concrete wall in the village between them, for soundproofing, lol [and now becoming part of a building on each side, construction being a continuous process]
Another reason to be in that hammock, is you're spending time with the family ... it's very difficult for Can-US people to imagine how important family is to the mexican, the ties reign above all else, certainly far above the incessant driving to acquire more and more stuff that is prevalent here ... family is why people live in village layouts, with milpas and parcelas surrounding - you don't want to spend all day separated ... a few years ago we drove around in one glaring bit of suburbia outside Villahermosa, obviously planted in cow pasture in emulation of Levittown or some place like that, paved streets and street lights and all, no doubt extremely expensive, it just looked so sterile, completely uninviting, you had to drive to get anywhere so there was no reason to be in that place
The very high degree of personal freedom is also difficult to convey here - if you want to do something, and it doesn't damage anyone else, then it ain't nobody's business but your own ... Valuepro's reply to you on this point must be fifty years out of date, if not a hundred, he's also quite out of date on family planning - girls nowadays want to have two kids max and many one to none ... their great grandmothers had twelve to eighteen, their grandmothers eight or ten, their mothers four, it's been a long trend, for all the same reasons italians are not now replacing themselves ... VP might read up on anti-clerical history, little war with the cristeros, attitudes remaining from that ... it's a diverse country of course, many widely varying elements, but not many religious around us ... that said, we have an aunt who tried out several religions over the years and most recently ended up a holy roller pentecostal, loves the drama, just a party girl at heart i guess ... but that's fine, not hurting anybody, she has a right |
