Sniffly

I forgot to write about the visit to the orphanage last Thursday. I was anticipating that it was going to be depressing, or that I was going to hear about all kinds of things that would make me sad, but it was just the reverse! It's a great organization called Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos—it's mission is more about giving kids a home, a family and unconditional love than it is about getting them adopted or out to families. I think that people do adopt the children, but a lot of them stay at the orphanage until they graduate from high school (the orphanage has a whole school system, k-12, and if the kids make the grades, they help them go to university). After they graduate, they give two years of service back to the orphanage, working in the little sections as something like dorm mothers and fathers, role models for the younger kids, or nurses and teachers. It's like they're repaying what they were given when they were little. All the kids have clothes, they have a whole farm and orchard attached where they grow corn to feed their pigs and chickens and veggies in a green house to try and get the kids of a starch and meat only diet. I think the only thing that comes in from outside is milk and yogurt. The kids are taught how to farm, do crafts and trade and other skills so that they can get a job more easily when they graduate, if they don’t want to go on to the university. They survive on donations, and at some point a wealthy donor gave them the money for a swimming pool and a soccer/basketball/game court/area. The kids all seem pretty happy, and well fed. It's sooooooo wonderful to know that there's something like that going on in this country!

They also have 8 other "homes" (they call them houses or homes instead of orphanages, because they really are different than orphanages...) in Nicaragua, Guatemala.. and a whole bunch of other South American countries. The guy who gave our tour was an American who came to volunteer for a year and stayed for 3... Also, they have this program where you can be a sponsor for a kid--you give some amount, like $25 (or more) per month, and you write letters back and forth with them. And then there are visitor days where you can go visit the kid you sponsor. Our tour guide was saying that people always want to sponsor the littlest, cutest kids, but that they try to spread the sponsors around to all the kids because what they lack the most is personal, individual attention (for monetary purposes there's a pretty small staff). I think I’m going to do it!

My trips this weekend were really good, but I am exhausted and I have a cold. grr. On Saturday I went to Mexico City with a professor from St. Catherine's, a school that was doing a program at Cemenahuac, and with two girls from Trinidad and Tobago who arrived the same day as me. They're all really nice, and interesting, but man, I did not get the trip that I thought I was going to. Vivian, one of the Cemenahuac staff convinced me to go, even though I was feeling like I didn't want to--she told me that it wouldn't be that much driving and that it was totally worth it. This was not the case: I thought I would get to sleep in a bit, but we left from the bus station on the 9:30 bus (so I had to be there at 9, which means that I got up at 7 which is the time I've been getting up the whole time I've been here...), and then we were on the bus for an hour and a half. And then we spent 3 hours in the Saturday Bazar, which was cool, but not that great--just like other market places I've seen. There was some really beautiful art there; one piece which was kind of like a Japanese wave print, and SO beautiful... I wanted to buy it, but it was too big to transport, and I didn't even ask how much it was being sold for. I would have taken a picture, but we weren't allowed. Within that three hours we had lunch, and then we were supposed to go to Diego Rivera's house at 2:00, then Frida Kahlo's at 3:00. We didn't get to Rivera's house until at least 3:30 because the girls from T&T were shopping, and Pamela (the professor) is just about the slowest walker around. I was ready to leave the Bazar at about 1:30, but we didn't get in the cab until 3:30. Arg! I was sure that I'd get back to Cuernavaca by 6 or 6:30, but we didn't get back until 8:30! Awful! And I ONLY went because Vivian said it wouldn't be that involved, wouldn't be that much driving. Bullshit. I could have spent the whole day in Rivera's and Frida's houses, but instead we had to rush through so that we wouldn't be getting back too late. Ah well. I did see some beautiful things.

Then, on Sunday, I had to get up early again to go to Teotihuacan (the link is to a good site about the archaeology and history of the pyramids), which was incredible. It’s north of Mexico City, so it was even more driving than the Saturday Bazar, but it was all in a bus, and we had a great guide (the same guy I went to Xochicalco with last weekend). The major down fall of the trip was that we stopped at the cathedral of the Virgin of Guadalupe on the way back from the pyramids. We were all exhausted and happy after the adventures at the pyramids, and then Charlie (the guide) made us get off the bus in Mexico City at 6:30 pm and stand outside in the cold (not really cold, just cold because we weren't properly dressed) for half an hour while he talked about the history of the cathedral (all very interesting, but man, at that point, I just did not care AT ALL). Then we went inside and saw the relic--a cape of the Mayan (?) peasant, Juan Diego, who the virgin appeared to and made an image of herself on his cape. He was later sainted. etc. And we listened to Charlie talk for another half an hour. By that time my cold was really feeling horrible (from walking all day and then standing out in the cold), and when we got back on the bus, there was a window about three seats in front of me the didn't close all the way (or someone had it open), and so I was cold for the whole hour and a half ride back to Cuernavaca from Mexico City, with no dinner, and worried that I wouldn't get any that night. I didn't get back home until a little after 10! When I got there, Celia, my house mom, was waiting up for me, and she made me tortitas (hard taco shells with beans, cheese, lettuce and jalapenos) and a cup of hot chocolate. She's so great! It almost made up for the bad end of the trip, but not quite....=)

My teacher this week has a different teaching style, but she's making me talk more, which is great, because that's the thing I need the most help with. I can read and write just fine, and I really understand most of what people say at this point, but I still have a hard time speaking. It gets a little better each day.... I have to remind myself not to get flustered when I make a mistake. Sometimes I can go on for a while without tripping up, but other times I can still barely get a word out! It's a slow thing, and one more week, unfortunately, isn't going to get me there. Ah well. I'm definitely going to try to keep it up when I get home.