3 Kings Day at Coco's house:

For a few years now, we have been minor patrons of what may be one of the most unique and appropriate charitable efforts taking place here in the city of Oaxaca. "Casa Hogar Hijos de la Luna" (Shelter for For the Children of the Moon), otherwise known as Coco's house.

Coco is the wife of a doctor, with a few children of her own. While they are not rich, by any means, they do have a reasonably sizeable piece of land, some of which they have turned into apartments (some rented out, some lived in by family members), with lots of room left over for the Casa Hogar.

Coco takes in the children of prostitutes and others who are essentially homeless, and gives them a stable and nourishing place to be. The arrangements are strictly voluntary, and the amount of time that the kids spend with their mothers varies depending on family circumstances. Casa Hogar is not an orphanage. It's a shelter, and the children stay only as long as the parent permits.

[Bill, a volunteer from Boston, gives her a choice of bats with which to attack the pinata. She's thinking...]

The whole thing has grown like a snowball, from a few kids at first, to as much as 30. Everyone in Coco's family is involved, and there is a growing cadre of volunteers, both local and visiting.

We attended, along with many others, on the evening of January 6, Epiphany, otherwise known as "Thre Kings' Day": the traditional day when children receive their Christmas gifts. Tamales are served, and a pinata is battered to pieces until all the candy and cookies inside are yielded up. The kid in the masthead photo is lining up his loot.

Gifts are distributed, which the kids take into another room to watch a dvd while the adults are served a "rosca", a ring of bread and dried fruit. Inside are "baby Jesus" figures, and those who get a piece with one in it are supposed to pay for a party on February 2, Candelaria.

[This slugger has already drawn first blood and she's going for more.]

If you would like to know more about Casa Hogar, write to Cicely Winter at cwinteroax@gmail.com

It isn't just the Mormons:

We used to joke about the Mormons: "at least, you can see them coming". We wrote about evangelicals in the context of their effect on social traditions such as "Tequio", the practice of performing shared work for the common good of the village or town, usually on Sundays, a day when most Protestants are forbidden to labor. Issues like this have torn some villages apart, with forced exile for the evangelicals.

As time has gone on, charimatic Protestant (and, to a lesser extent Catholic) sects have made more and more converts, particularly among the indigenous, and non-Catholic churches in the city appear to be thriving. INEGI, the government department of statistics, estimates that there are millions, and that the number is growing steadily.

When I first got here there was a big scandal about the Summer Institute, an organization ostensibly dedicated to translating the Bible into native languages, having taught psy-ops and psychological warfare techniques to their volunteers before sending them out to convert the heathen. The government closed it down, and deported all the personnel they could find.

There was a guy in my first Spanish class who wouldn't talk much about what he was doing here. It later turned out that he was the state "facilitator" for the Baptist missionaries in Oaxaca. He has a house in a very residential neighborhood with a big ham radio antenna attached. It was his job to see to it that the missionaries were kept supplied with everything from Bibles to visits from born-again doctors and dentists; all very quiet, as befitted the circumstances at the time.

[Fifteen years have gone by since then. What are the changes? How did they come about? Want to know? Spend a little: Subscribe .]

Muxhies debate adoption:

Any same-sex couple can go to the center of everything (Mexico City) to get legally married. In the Istmo (isthmus of Tehuantepec, the area south of Oaxaca city where the mainland is narrowest) traditional "capital" of those men - not all are gay - who practice a transvestite life style, some are thinking about what comes next..

According to a recent account published in the daily "Noticias", the Muxhie group "Naxhiely", centered in the city of Ixtlan, is in the midst of an internal debate over whether to make the issue of adoption by same-sex couples a priority lobbying effort in the coming year. At this point it appears that the group is fairly evenly divided between those who see the right to adopt as the next battle in their struggle for complete equality, and those who counsel that marriage is one thing and child raising quite another.

On another level, it is argued that having same-sex marriages recognized in the D.F. is not enough; that the effort to make every state conform should be the first priority.

[This fantasmagorical super-sized creation by Arrazola alebrije maker Artemio Ibanez Ramirez was one of a dozen or more of his works on display at the ex-government palace cum museum on the south side of the Zocalo.]

Inflation? What inflation?

As the president of the Republic, Felipe Calderon, and his Treasury Secretary Herbert Carstens, appear much in public these days to reassure their citizenry that everything is just fine; that they need not fear more economic jolts; the Secretariat for Economic Development has run the numbers and concluded that the total package of "reforms" the administration has proposed, if adopted without change, would result in a massive 30% rise in the "basic market basket" of all Mexicans.

Included are increases in the prices of gasoline, cooking gas, public transportation, basic grains (and therefore tortillas) and the value-added (sales) tax.

[This is not a done deal. There is a lot of dissension, and this is an election year. Interested in knowing our opinion? We work hard analyzing the situation, and it doesn't cost much to Subscribe .]

[Early evening strollers along the east side of the Zocalo.]

Stan the prognosticator:

It's the last edition of the volume once again (we go from year 14 to year 15 with the next Newsletter), and time to evaluate my ability as predictor of the future. The record, is, as usual, a mix of hits and misses; far too may to list here; but here are a few for your consideration:

**While I have generally gotten the trend right (weaker), I have never come close to an exact amount for the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the Peso. Although it came closer to my predicted 15-to-1 this year than in the past, the last time I went to the ATM I got 12.7. I think I'll wait awhile before I make my next prediction for the end-of-the-year Peso.

**Unfortunately, I underestimated the amount of chaos and disfunction that the Oaxaca state university (UABJO) would suffer this past year...

[Lining up to do a dance, in the Alameda park in front of the Cathedral. Does anyone know from where they come? I forgot to ask...]

**Ulises looks to be able to finish his term as governor as I predicted...

**The Centro de Abastos market, largest in the state, is in a total state of chaos at the moment. Earlier this month, the leader of the largest of the dozens of gangs and sub-sets that divide the turf up was assassinated, precipitating a free-for-all fight for both spaces and tribute...

[We do our best to keep on top of developments, and share our conclusions - and predictions - with our readers. To receive updates on these and other subjects, as well as "flash" bits such as below, you must Subscribe .]

[Artemio has said that he "dreams" the figures. Other artisans have told me that they do, too.]

Notes:

**Faced with an organized and increasingly aggressive opposition from the small-tour operators, ADO has backed off their intention of providing tourist transport from Oaxaca city to Monte Alban and Mitla. They have decided instead to raise their cross-country bus fares by 4 to 4.5 percent to "make up the losses".

**For the second year in a row, the Mexican treasury has taken out insurance on the price of oil. Last year, they bet that Mexican export oil would fall below U.S.$70/bbl, and recouped 4 billion dollars on their one-billion-dollar premium. This year, they are betting another billion that it won't fall below $U.S.59

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