01.-31.03.2007: Álamos Early in March there was a leaving party for Larry and Shirley who won't be coming back down here. They've been coming down for 8 years and distributing clothes etc to the local churches. Debbie and Dewie made pasta with meatballs for everyone. We did garlic bread and chocolate tortillas. There were also dips and salads. The next day we got up to wave them off but the first thing Larry had to do was repair the brakes!! They have a really long journey ahead of them to get back home to Nova Scotia in Canada. That's a few thousand miles!! Fortunately, Larry managed to fix the brakes otherwise they would be staying! Later, Helen went to practice on her violin when disaster struck. Three strings had come loose and she spent 30 minutes trying to get the pegs secure but each time she managed to get one peg in, another one sprang back out. Finally, all four strings came loose and the bridge collapsed and flew off the violin! This needed an expert - Andrew. So we walked up to his house and Helen and Andrew managed to get the pegs back in with the bridge back in place. Andrew said that had never happened to him before! Unfortunately, when all four strings come loose it takes two people to get the violin back together! We had an impromptu party that night to eat the left over pasta and we brought over some tinned peaches and whipped cream. Everyone loved the cream because no one realised they could get it in Mexico! We invited Debbie to join us for a meal one of the nights and made veggie parcels. She was on her own because Dewie was off shooting cormorants near Cuidad Obregon for three days. There are far too many cormorants and they are eating all the fish in the lake. So a group of people were going down to try and get rid of a few. Mike and Joan also went and along with a number of Americans and Mexicans they managed to shoot about 2,500. That's only about 10% of the total population! The temperature in Álamos shot up to 36°C and above during the second week of March and it was too hot in Winnie. So we started going up to sit in the shade by the pool. Helen and Andrew also played the duet that Helen had written, for the first time - that's because Helen had to get up to a standard where she could play it, even though it's an easy piece! We also nearly had a flood in Winnie, because Kirsten was filling up the toilet tank with water to wash it out and she forgot about it! Fortunately, there is an overflow so the fresh water was coming out of the back of the motor home and not inside! On the 10th of March we had a hot dog party on the campground and rolled Mexican sausages in bacon which were then put on the barbeque. There were lots of trimmings and we also brought along some fried onions. Yummy! Monday 12th March was the start of the Missoula Children's theatre week in Álamos. This is a theatre that started in the 1970s in Montana where local children would take part in a play that would be performed only five days later. The theatre has been so successful that they take it around the world to give children a chance to perform. However, the plays are always performed in English. For the first time, one of the plays was now going to be performed in a different language, namely Spanish, here in Álamos. Rosemary and Andrew's daughter works as a production manager for the theatre and so they wanted to bring it down to Mexico for the first time. This meant that one of the plays had to be translated into Spanish and they needed Spanish speaking directors so that the play could be performed. They had chosen to do "Robin Hood" but with a slightly different theme - namely that Robin Hood was trying to save Maid Marion. Well, they could hardly put on a play about robbing the rich to feed the poor, in Mexico! So the play had to be virtually rewritten. Our first job was to help with the auditions on the Monday. There were 145 children and we had to take their forms off them and pin a number on their shirts. There are normally only 2 directors whose job it is to enlist 60 children to take part in the play. But because this was the first time that any of the plays were in a foreign language there were four directors - Allison, Brian, Diana and Becky. Becky has been part of Missoula children's theatre since she took part in various plays as a child. She was specially enlisted as a director for Álamos because she speaks fluent Spanish and one of the directors has a large speaking part in the play. The audition took 4 hours and the children were split into size and age groups and had various tasks to perform. They were asked to give their names and ages and then given a line of the play to speak out loud. They were even taught a few lines of one of the songs. It was quite amazing to watch how the children were whittled down for possible parts and then the final selections were made. It was also very hard work for the directors and certainly not an easy task. Finally the selections were made and then the children with the main speaking parts had to stay on for another 2 hours for their first rehearsal. Rehearsals would continue from Tuesday to Thursday. There would be a rehearsal on Friday, followed by a dress rehearsal and then the first performance in front of their families that evening. A second performance would take place on Saturday for the general (paying) public. After helping out at the auditions we went out for a meal and took a doggy bag back with us to feed Loba the campground dog. Joan and Mike have been looking after her even though she isn't their dog. On Thursday we went to watch a rehearsal for "Robin Hood" and to take some photos - Kirsten was the unofficial photographer. On Friday we went to help out at the dress rehearsal. The children were all really excited after all their hard work and knew that tonight would be the first performance. We went behind the scenes and our job was to keep the children quiet so that those on stage could be heard. There was no audience but it was a practice run for the first performance later that evening. It was so hot behind the stage that we ended up having to use paper bags to fan the children to keep them cool! Consequently, we got hot and exhausted! After the dress rehearsal it was time for the make-up artists - local volunteers from the American community came along to "paint" the children's faces. The children thought it was wonderful and the make-up ladies did a really good job. We were allowed a short break and we bought Robin Hood T-shirts. Then it was time for all the actors to go back stage and for the show to begin. Becky, one of the directors, was the first to go on stage. She was playing the part of "Sherwood" who is a narrator and the one that keeps the children on their toes whilst on stage. Spanish is Becky's second language and we really admired her for being able to remember all the lines in Spanish. Quite amazing! Back stage, you could feel the excitement and the nerves. The other three directors were scurrying around making sure all the children were ready to go on stage when they needed to. There were also older children from the local schools who had been chosen during the audition to help with the directing of the play and with various sound effects. The children were really well behaved and quiet backstage which made our job a lot easier. When the audience laughed and clapped you could see that they were thrilled. They were also really happy when they got their lines right and celebrated when they came backstage! The audience loved it. They laughed a lot and there was huge applause at the end. You could see how proud the children were. It was quite amazing to see how the children developed and all in a matter of days. Some of them were really shy at the beginning but being able to take part made them come out of themselves and all the children became a lot more self confident because of it. After the performance we went for a drink with Andrew, Rosemary and the four directors. At 12-30am we fell into bed, exhausted. On Saturday, Kirsten quickly did a DVD with all the photos from the children's theatre so far, to give to Becky tonight. She will be leaving really early tomorrow so we won't get a chance to give it to her. Then we walked into town to help out with the performance again. We were there for the make-up and lots of photos of course! This time Kirsten stayed out front to take photos of the performance and Helen stayed backstage. The children were a bit more relaxed because they had already performed the play once and tonight would be the second and final performance. This also meant that the noise level was higher and the younger ones (the 5 to 7 year olds) were more difficult to control! Tonight's performance was for the paying general public ($1 US per person!). It went really well again and everyone really enjoyed it. Afterwards each one of the children was presented with a certificate on stage and so each one was given their own round of applause. All of them were really proud. The Missoula children's theatre relies on donations to fund each play and $6,500 US dollars were raised to be able to bring the theatre to Álamos. A lot of people were involved in raising the money, helping out and volunteering their time to ensure that the play was a success. They are planning to bring the theatre to three towns in Mexico next year, including Álamos. After the final performance, we helped to take down the stage and pack everything away so that it can be transported to Tucson, Arizona where Brian and Allison start auditioning in two days time! They are a married couple and have been working for MCT for over three years. They have been on the road for all that time. Sunday is classed as a day off but that's the day they travel to their next destination so that they can begin the whole process again. It must be enormously rewarding but also enormously exhausting. We were amazed by all of the directors and were honoured to be able to have taken part in the first performance in a foreign language. We'll just have to come back next year! Our last two weeks in Álamos went by very quickly. We said fond farewells to Joan and Mike who headed back to Alaska. We'll see them again next year. We also had an impromptu meal with Regina and her two children, Oona and Oscar. Oona was one of the skunks in Robin Hood so we had met up several times. Tony, one of the other long term campers, joined us. We tried to get our website up to date and spent a lot of time writing and getting the photos done - we had 5 months of website to get done!! Kirsten was also in demand to take photos. Andrew wanted a photo of him and Rosemary in their garden with all the flowers in bloom. Also Regina makes jewellery and she wanted some photos of her latest piece. On one of the last days in Álamos, a snake slithered across the camping area towards Tony's motor home. Then it slithered towards Winnie. Tony threw some water at it and the snake jumped 3 foot into the air towards him! Fortunately he managed to get out of the way. But the snake then slithered along the side of Winnie! Finally it went off into some rough ground outside the campground and we all breathed a sigh of relief! Even the campground gardener had never seen a snake in the campground before! Friday 30th March was Helen's last violin lesson and that evening we invited Andrew and Rosemary to Winnie for a Thank you/farewell dinner. We decided to cook for them ourselves as it was more personal. Kirsten made a broccoli soup for starters and Helen made a Shepherds pie for main meal. Then we had Kirsten's carrot cake for dessert. We sat outside at the beginning enjoying a beer together but it got too windy and dusty, so we moved inside Winnie. Andrew and Rosemary enjoyed the soup and they loved the Shepherds pie. Andrew couldn't stop eating which, of course, made us really happy. Somehow they managed to have room for some carrot cake with topping that Kirsten made whilst they were there. Andrew licked out the bowl! Afterwards, they drove us around Álamos as it was "Our Lady of Guadalupe" day and there were lots of different altars set up around the town. It was a really lovely evening spent together and we already have plans to visit them in Montana in June later this year. On the last day, Kirsten washed Winnie on the outside and Annabelle came around. So Kirsten washed her car as well! We had some beers left from last night and Annabelle appreciated one of them whilst Francisco, the gardener, appreciated the others! Andrew and Rosemary dropped by to give us some real Hungarian paprika and Regina gave us a copy of one of her husband's books - "The Doryman's reflection". He's currently on tour promoting his latest book. Finally, we used one of the tarps to cover our bikes on the back of Winnie to stop them from getting so dirty and dusty. Loba, the campground dog, was lying right in front of Winnie. We were the only ones left on the campground and we think it was her way of asking us not to leave!