My daughter's dream?, By Dione Goyette

My daughter's dream? Hmm...

I have to come clean on something. I am a hypocrite! Yes-it's true. A while ago I wrote about the virtues of just letting your kids come home from school without being saddled with copious after-school activities. I may have even pooh-poohed those who filled their children's schedules.

For this I truly apologize, because I have been shamefully wooed by the number of unique and affordable extracurricular activities for my kids. Now, at least three afternoons a week, some or all of us are gone and engaged in some fantastic activity.

I think what sold me was becoming friends with musicians and artists and athletes of all kinds. The talent here, as most of you know, can be at quite a high caliber, and when these people offered to share their talents with my kids, how could I refuse? We are now greedily reaping the benefits.

My daughter, Hanna, has been taking a circus arts class with Irma at La Carpa for over a year now. It seemed from the start that Hanna had a knack for it, but now after a year I see what "having a knack for it" means. It now means that the trapeze, which was once 4 feet off the ground, is now approximately 8 feet off the ground. When she climbs up the fabric ropes in which she begins wrapping herself, she is sometimes 15 feet up in the air before she does this "skydiving" maneuver that ends with her hanging upside-down, safely bound in the fabric. Hullo!? (I generally need to medicate before I watch her class.) But my point is that Hanna would never have known she had this ability without the incredible talents of Irma and her class.

Now when we have visitors to San Miguel, Hanna's class is one of the stops on our own private tour. It gives the visitors a chance to see what a fantastic opportunity Hanna has, and it gives Hanna a fantastic opportunity to be proud of her accomplishments.

My other daughter, Finleigh (along with Hanna), has been taking a painting class with our friend Brian at the Fábrica Aurora building. Brian normally runs adult workshops, but, thankfully, when I asked him if he could take on my kids for a short period of time, he agreed. Brian has turned out to be an extremely patient and sweet teacher to my girls. He treats them with respect and really celebrates their accomplishments in a sincere and thoughtful way.

One time, Finleigh completed a piece she had been working on for two weeks, and Brian placed it behind a professional mat for her to take home. Unfortunately, I wasn't there to witness it, but my husband tells me that she carried it face-out to the car, carefully showing it to everybody and everything she passed, including walls and garbage pails. When I got home later that night, it was proudly displayed in the middle of the kitchen table on an easel and sported an oversized price tag that read "$5000 pesos." Finleigh's own personal pride is hard-won, and for this we will forever be thankful to Brian.

Jackson left Toronto as a soccer nut, and he has since found a wonderful soccer operation in … found a wonderful outlet for that at the, um … he has been taking tennis lessons and is currently at the Hotel Real de Minas with our friend Alan, who happens to be a wonderful professional tennis coach.

But Jackson is also nurturing a new love that's not sports-oriented. (This is truly an amazing thing!) He is quickly falling in love with the guitar we gave him for Christmas. This love may have grown out of a competitive game we play in our house called "who-gets-the-guitar." I am constantly fighting for time to play it. But, in reality, I credit his guitar teacher. Jackson has been taking unofficial lessons with David Garza, who is a member of the band VooDoo Chile.

Not only is David an extremely talented musician, but he is also an all-around awesome guy who laces his classes with little life lessons in the form of funny (and wise) anecdotes. I watch Jackson's face as David plays and chats, and I know we are not in any ordinary guitar lesson. For David, it's not just about skill but about loving the guitar. When Jackson plays for us at home, it is evident that he is picking up on this-and hopefully all the other good stuff that David has to offer.

Call me slow or naïve, but now I am beginning to realize why all these crazed parents sign their kids up for all these lessons. It's so they can watch their children find a sense of pride in themselves and in what they have accomplished. Maybe we could have discovered all this personal pride by taking classes elsewhere in the world, but I have a feeling that here in San Miguel the teachers give an added element, a je ne sais quoi, that we would be hard pressed to find back in Toronto.

Today after school we will still dilly dally home … maybe with a popsicle … but then we will grab our gear and head out the door to spend some time with all the gems of San Miguel.

Dione Goyette is the mother of three and novia/esposa to one. She and her family currently live in San Miguel. She can be contacted at mexgoyettes@yahoo.com.