¡Ciudad De Mexico!

Hola a Todos!

I just got back from our first big trip of the semester: a weeklong excursion to Mexico City and Puebla with a non-profit organization called witness for peace.  I am tired now, but the trip was very informative and fun.  Here is a very abridged version of the trip (Photos on Facebook):

Our intensive Spanish session ended on Friday with a test and presentation that went well.  Immediately after end of class, our group walked to the bus station and took a six and a half hour bus ride to Mexico city.  The bus itself was very nice and classy, and in my opinion was nicer than the princess tour busses in Alaska.  We had four movies in Spanish, but they were hard to hear and without subtitles, so I talked with a girl from my group, slept, and listened to music.  After 5 hours I was tired of sitting, but all in all it was a pleasant trip.  From the bus statiton, we took a cab to a hostel called La Casa de los amigos.  It is run by the Quakers and was very pleasant.  We had dinner there and it was great to have something other than tortillas!  It was also a treat to help out in the kitchen cleaning up afterwards because in our houses we can’t really help with the chores.  The morning after, we had a long orientation meeting and activities to get acquainted with Witness for Peace.  The group was established in the 80’s to help with human rights problems in Columbia and has since moved to Mexico to deal with issues here.  They had our trip scheduled pretty exhaustively, which was good in part because we had plenty of things to do, but bad in part that we didn’t really have much time to explore the city.  That afternoon, we all experienced the metro (subway) in Mexico for the first time to get to the Zócalo.  Although it was pretty crowded, it was super cheap and efficient (about the equivalent of a quarter to go anywhere in the city). The Zocalo is the town center in Mexico City and was all decorated for the upcoming bicentennial (Bicentennial post to come). It was also really cool to see ruins of the great Aztec city that Mexico city was built on.   In the Zocalo, we had a two hour quick history of Mexico, which was informative, but an overdose of information. 

One of the craziest things to think about in Mexico City is the sheer number of people!  To think that there are 25 million people in the city is mind-boggling.  As we were walking through the zocalo to go back to the hostel, it took us 20 minutes to walk 100 yards because of the crowd. Intense.  During our time in the City, the major part of our time was spent in meetings learning about problems or listening to guest speakers share their perspective of US-Mexican policy.  I feel like I have come out with a whole new perspective on things.  Although all of the talks were great, they usually lasted 6-7 hours a day, so the trip had a little bit of school-like feel which was hard at times when I wanted to play the part of a tourist.  However, as I am here earning credit, the school feel is probably appropriate.

During one of the free periods in a morning, we took the metro to Chapultepec and went to the museum of anthropology, which was amazing!  They had artifacts from every culture of Mexico, including Maya, Aztec, Mixtec, Zapotec, and Navajo.  It was amazing to see the technology and size of the cultures at a time when cities like London and Barcelona were just emerging.  At the time of Cortez, Tiotihuacan had three times as many people as London!  We had to rush through the museum because of time, but I loved it!  And in museums here, photography is allowed, so we took a lot of cool pictures.  If we go back to Mexico City, we will have to go back and spend more time at the museum.

Five days in Mexico City went by really quickly.  With all the meetings and sites to visit, it was an awesome experience in all and I believe I have a better perspective of the things happening here.  On Wednesday, we spent most of the day as tourists, traveling to a huge archeological site outside of Mexico City called Tehuantepec.  Archeologists don’t have a formal name for this culture because they had no system of writing, but at one time, it was was the largest city in the world.  A guide talked to us about the legends and history of the city and the highlight was climbing two colossal pyramids and looking out at the remnants of the huge city.  At this site, we also got to see the work of local artesians and how they made their artwork.   It was fascinating to see how resourceful these artists were to make there crafts with things from the environment.  From Tehuantepec, we took a drive to the city of Puebla, where we had a discussion about the Mexican economy from a professor at the local university.  In the night, we went to the Zócalo to celebrate 200 years of Mexico’s independence.  (More to come later about this).  In the morning, we had a last discussion and processing session and then took a bus back to Oaxaca.

La Iglesia de Las Siete Regiones

I have been praying that God would show me a new church and a family while I’m down here for 4 months, and he has provided.  A covenant missionary that my Mom worked with when she came down to Oaxaca told me that there was a short-term missionary going to the Institute for Spanish lessons.  Her name is Amy Mullin, and she was relocated from Monterey to Oaxaca because of the drug-related violence in the north.  She attends la iglesia de las siete regiones and invited me to come this Sunday.  What an answer to prayers!  The church is a little far away, but it was worth every minute of the drive.  I found a new family there who welcomed me with open arms.  The service is kind of an all-morning thing, which I was apprehensive about at first, but it was great.  During the the first part of the service, the youth led us in worship, with plenty of time and songs to worship our creator.  Songs are very hard to understand in Spanish, and although I only caught a few words here and there, it was clear that this church worshiped with their hearts, so I had no problem.  Next were announcements and testimonies, and it was great to hear things that the Lord is doing here in Oaxaca.  After that, the kids and youth were dismissed, and I went to a young adults group of 12 people, aged 14-30 to study with the pastor of the church, Antonio.  We studied the miracle of Jesus walking on water, and I made the mistake of making a joke that I only had an English Bible.  They were only too willing to lend me theirs, so I ended up reading the passage.  Hopefully they could understand what this gringo was saying.  One of the best parts of church was realizing how universal God is:  He is the same in Alaska as he is in Washington as he is in China and Oaxaca, and we can worship him whenever we want.  What an awesome thought.

After the service, a daughter of a family had a birthday, and the whole church joined in praying and dedicating a new year to the Lord.  Later, we stuffed ourselves with tamales, a hamburger  (a nice change to my constant supply of tortillas), geletina, and birthday cake.  It was great to see the family atmosphere at the church and how everyone took part of this child’s birthday.  I also became very popular with the children because I showed them my camera and that it has a video function.  There was no end to the pictures!  I’ll be sure to post some up on facebook soon.

The youth of the church welcomed me like I had always been there, and were not too shy to get an Alaskan involved.  They asked me all about Alaska, and found out that I played the piano.  I wouldn’t put it past them to figure out some way to make me play in worship.  I was definitely pretty rusty after so long without practicing, but we’ll see what the future holds.  All in all, a prayer was answered, and I received a new family.  

¡Intercambio!

This week I started to meet with my intercambio (like an assigned friend who’s trying to learn English).  While all the girls in my group are very nice, it is very nice to have an amigo amongst all the amigas I have.  My intercambio’s name is Raymundo, and he’s studying at the Instituto de Tecnología to be an engineer.  He’s 23 years old and has lived in Oaxaca his whole life.  After 2 days of meeting and getting to know one another at the ICO, he took me to meet some of his friends at the institute.  Him and his friends really like the computer game Age of Empires, and we played a multiplayer version for a while.  It was great to relax and do some guy stuff.  I wasn’t great because I haven’t played in a while, but still had a fun time.  Next week we are going to a sports center to play volleyball, soccer, and tennis with his friends.

Classes are going great, and I’m learning a lot.  Only one week left of intensivo!  While most of the concepts aren’t new, I’m starting to cement them in my mind.  My comprehension and speaking skills in Spanish are increasing, but it still is quite a challenge to communicate everything in Spanish.  This week I came in contact with a short-term missionary from the Covenant Church, and I’m going to try out the local church here.  I’m really excited to meet some new people and worship God!  Amy, the short-term missionary, told me that usually the service is around 5 hours long, so we’ll see how that goes.  My guess is it will take some getting used to, but I’m going to enjoy it a lot.  Your prayers are appreciated!  Please pray for the people in the south of Oaxaca, as there is massive flooding due to Hurricane Frank and a new tropical storm that's supposed to land tonight.  Unlike the U.S, almost none of the houses are uninsured and there is almost no help from the government.  

Un abraso,

Bryan