Bienvenidos a Mexico!

Warning: okay, yes, this is obnoxiously long. I apologize. I don’t think this will ever happen again – not because exciting and interesting things won’t be happening, but we’ll probably have far less down time for me to record it all down. Feel free to skim – highlights would include the taxi ride on day one, the FOOD, and the fireworks on day two.

After one long day of planes, buses, and taxis circling the block for a seemingly unmarked house, we’ve made it to SMA and now are snug and settled!

We had an early start to our day, meeting at RDU around 4:30 am for our 6 am flight to Dallas Fort Worth. Our flight from DFW got into Mexico City around 12:30 CST. Customs went smoothly, considering how many medic al supplies we had distributed among our checked and carry-on bags. I only tried to leave my bags behind twice, which is fine, since my group has done a very good job of keeping tabs on me so far. The initial feelings of,  “Yes, great! We’re finally in Mexico!” waned a little bit during the following two and a half hour bus ride to Querétaro amid stop and go traffic . We did, however, get to watch “Independence Day,” which I had never seen before and now sort of have seen (there was no sound on the bus). But the bus was very nice in and of itself, very comfy. Once in Querétaro, the SMA-ers said adios to the JR half of the team. The Delegation from JR (Juventino Rosas) had come to Querétaro to pick up their students. Meanwhile, those of us destined to journey on to SMA had to locate another bus to take us onward. After some inquiries at various bus line counters and exploration of the bus station, we found a bus to SMA that was leaving in ten minutes – much sooner than the hour and ten minute wait for the other bus line’s route to SMA. The projected hour-long bus ride was actually two hours long, again thanks to stop and go traffic for most of the way. Fortunately, now I can say that I’ve watched “The Planet of the Apes” (en español!) in addition to “Independence Day.”  We were amazed by how large SMA is as we circled around the city and winded our way down into the valley. Once at the bus station, we felt like our journey was almost over… we were in SMA, after all. We now only needed to catch a cab (well, two cabs, due to the large amount of luggage – again, mainly on my part – and then we would arrive at our host and hostess’s home…

We had the address, we hopped in our cabs, and we told our cab driver that we wanted to go to Calle de Paloma, número 19. Unfortunately, when our cab driver asked us which Calle de Paloma we wanted to go to, we had no idea. Número 19 was all of the information we had. And so the two cab drivers discussed and gave their best guess as to which Calle de Paloma to take us. Our cab drivers were very nice and helpful, and when we did make it to Calle de Paloma de la Residencia de la Luz, they drove up and down and around the street  looking for número 19 – which actually WAS labeled, it was just almost impossible to see in the dark, and the numbers weren't necessarily in logical order. But after much circling, we made it to la casa de Alex and Kelly – our wonderfully warm and inviting hosts for the next five weeks.  Kelly had made delicious flautas de pollo, which tasted even better after our long day of traveling. We unpacked in our shared bedroom, got a kick out of the giant closet with our names on our respective corners, and enjoyed the melodious conversations that the neighborhood dogs conducted at all hours of the night.



One of the churches we saw today

 Today we slept in a bit, enjoyed SHOWERS for the first time in a long time, and had a marvelous breakfast.  We’ve mostly been getting oriented and exploring the area, resting up, testing the waters (and food), and planning a few of our meetings with different organizations in the area. After a siesta, after we ate more of Kelly’s delicious food for dinner, after long chats with the family and some of the other guests staying in the house (and with one of the daughters who called the family up and wanted to chat with each of us), and after doing the dishes, we went to a neighborhood fiesta. The church in the neighborhood is called La Iglesia de la Luz – and today was the feast of light, apparently. So there was a concert and fireworks throughout the evening, and we showed up in time for the grand finale of pyrotechnics. I can’t even describe it – you’ll just have to watch the video footage that Jason captured to day. It was, by far, the most hilariously dangerous display of fireworks I have ever seen, and yet no one else batted an eye. Fireworks are near the top of my fear list (shortly below lightning, though) but it was a very entertaining and impressive show, and a great way to end our first full day in SMA.