Hmmm…where to start? I guess the best place to start is with the obvious – Swine Flu in Mexico. Boooooooo. That’s what I have to say about Swine Flu in Mexico. Let me say it again, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I’d first like to say that I hate, H-A-T-E, cobrebocas. This is the Spanish word for those silly blue masks that we all were wearing. I do kind of like the word, as it literally means “cover mouths,” which is appropriate but also kind of funny, no? Let me lay out all of the many reasons why I hate cobrebocas. First, they are inexplicably able to make your whole body overheat in less than 5 minutes (hmmm…maybe for the Pennsylvania winter these would be appropriate?). Second, they give me a headache. Third, for almost three weeks, I spent my days saying, “Ponte la cobreboca,” “Por favor pontela” “Jorge, cobre la boca.” “Roberto, cobre la nariz.” “Jorge, si necesito preguntarte otra vez, voy a …..” I think that the headache in 2 and the endless nagging in 3 might have been related! Ok, so I’ve covered the main reasons why I hate cobrebocas, now onto the Swine Flu. It’s like a big blizzard. At first, you think, “Oh, this is good, I have an excuse to do nothing.” And then you soon you realize, “Oh, shit. I can’t do anything. I’m bored. This sucks.” What sucked even more is the climax of Swine Flu panic fell over a four day weekend. As a girl who doesn’t get a whole lot of vacation in a super cool place like Mexico, I was pretty disappointed that I didn’t get to use those four days to visit a new part of the country. The Thursday before the weekend, Felipe Calderon (Mexico’s president), recommended that everybody stay at home and only travel if it was a necessity. BOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Ok, I think I’ve sufficiently made my point. Fortunately, none of the kids or actually anybody that I know had or has Swine Flu.
After the kids finally were able to go back to school after three weeks of being shut in the house, life has been easy! The kids were so restless being shut in and not being able to go anywhere. It was really nice to get back to our normal routine. Now that the height of Swine Flu has passed, it is the top joke of the month. I went to an ultimate tournament last weekend where swine flu jokes were popular. “Do you want the water with influenza or without? Oh, without? That will cost you extra.”
So, after all the drama with Swine Flu died down and the kids got back to their routine, my next challenge was hiking La Malinche. La Malinche is an extinct volcano that you can see from Puebla on a clear day. It is located in the state of Tlaxcala. JUCONI partners with an American organization called Outward Bound to provide the kids with therapeutic camping opportunities. The guy who leads these activities for us wanted the educators to see what the experience is like for the kids, so he organized a weekend camping trip for us. Well, it was some serious stuff. Complete with 50 pound backpacks and a hailstorm from hell. Lucky for us, we were well prepared and whipped out our rain suits as fast as we could. The hailstorm was crazy, but when the rain and the hail passed, the forest was beautiful. Unfortunately, we didn’t actually make it to the summit, as overall we weren’t the fittest of groups and after we got wet in the storm we were all a little miserable. Word is, if you do the hike to the summit without backpacks it is only about 5 or 6 hours, and up and back can be done in a day. I’ll let you know if I get around to testing that out, as it is on my “to do” list!
So, after Swine Flu and camping, the Puebla earthquake turned out to be pretty unexciting here. I was in the house with the kids and we were all just finishing eating lunch. I was in a different part of the house talking to a weekend educator who was starting his shift, giving him the rundown on the schedule, when another weekend educator walked in and starting ringing our emergency bell. It’s literally a bell that hangs from the ceiling. Then I noticed that the adults were herding the kids outside and I heard someone say, “Está temblando.” The Spanish word for earthquake is temblor, and temblando means shaking or trembling. Once we were all outside, it all came together for me, and I realized that I had missed it. I’ve never felt an earthquake, so was pretty disappointed that I did not feel this one either. Obviously, I’m grateful that it wasn’t any worse, but still a little sad that I didn’t feel anything. So that’s about the whole earthquake story.
Later that day, I began my journey to an ultimate tournament in San Luis Potosi. I had wanted to leave work early to arrive in the DF, so I could travel with friends from there, as San Luis Potosi is about 5 hours from the DF. BUT we had a special luncheon celebration for work to share all the good things that all the different parts of JUCONI are doing, so I had to stick around for that. It was totally worth it to hear all the good things that other people in the foundation are doing. I work in the “Niño Calle” division, or street children part of the organization. We also have “Niño Mercado (Market Children)” and “TRACA (Street Working Families)” in addition to all the administrative people who work with securing donors, training other organizations, writing grants, etc. It was a nice opportunity to hear about all the good things that JUCONI is doing. So…after celebrating the successes of the organization, I hitched a ride to the DF with a women who coordinates the organizations efforts to secure donors there. She got her masters at Boston University. I can’t remember exactly in what, but something like nonprofit management/ educational leadership. I always enjoy talking to Mexicans who have lived in the US because it helps me gain a different perspective on some of the great things about our country that I often take for granted. One of the things that we talked about is the rights and the treatment of women in the US compared to here in Mexico. I won’t get into it too much, but it is something that I completely take for granted. Something that also comes up often is the respect for nature and the cleanliness in general in the US. Sure, we have garbage in the streets, littering, and pollution, but no where near like here in Mexico. Every stream that I have seen here in Puebla is clogged with litter. Even when we went hiking on the volcano there was so much trash left in the forest. I think is it something that a lot of Mexicans hate to see, but is really prevalent. And another thing….! Ok, just one more. Life in general is just plain harder in Mexico. People work more, they work longer in their lives, they typically don’t have access to the same conveniences that are available in the US. It is very common to see elderly people selling things in the streets, riding their bicycle carts selling tamales, working in shops, etc. I always feel guilty when I go to the woman who does my laundry. Today when I went (Saturday), she asked me if I was working, when I said no, she told me that she wished she could go with me to go for a walk. Actually she said “dar un paseo,” which literally means take a walk, but also kind of means to go out and about. She made me feel a little guilty, but also happy for my free timeJ Hmmmm…got off track a little there. So, back to my adventure to San Luis Potosi and the tournament….Arrived in Mexico City at about 8:30 and the women’s apartment. From there, a friend from my mixed team (called Janizar) here in Mexico swung by and picked me up. We went to his place, packed his stuff, and then went to meet a bunch of other ultimat-ers to wait for a bus. We took a bus at midnight from the DF and arrived in San Luis Potosi around 7 or so. I have no idea really when we arrived, as I slept under my rain coat the whole time. It was dark under there. This weekend was a women’s tournament, so my friend Lety and I picked up with a team from Queretero and helped them to a second place finish…..out of five teams. Ultimate still has a lot of growing to do in Mexico – especially in the women’s division. It was a good weekend. It was a good weekend of ultimate. And I’m now officially a member of Janizar, as they presented me with a jersey and everything this weekend. Now, I just have to wait for the next mixed tournament to come around so I can play with my team! Ok, to end my adventure I made it back to Puebla on Sunday night at 1am after passing through the DF with friends and catching a bus from there. It was a lot different than my first time riding with basically the same people. The first time I didn’t know them and could barely talk to them! This time, we were in the same car taking basically the same route, but now they are my friends and we talked and joked the whole trip.
Ok kids, that’s all I’ve got for now. I’m still happy and healthy in Mexico. I will be visiting home for about 3 weeks in July, but sadly I have said goodbye to my cell number of 5 ½ years. I’d love to hear from friends while I’m home, if you want to number at my parents house, send me an email. I probably won’t get another cell until I’m back in the country for good in January 2010. Hope everyone is well!
Here is a link to a highlight album of the last 2 months...
http://picasaweb.google.com/eharanin/AprilAndMay2009Highlights?authkey=Gv1sRgCLfX37newvnvCQ&feat=directlink
