Well things didn't go quite right today. We were supposed to start the training at 8:00 but only a couple of the 6 women were there at 8 and the rest didn't show up till closer to 9:00 (welcome to Mexico). The maintenance men were still working on the electricity and stuff so we didn't have any water to purify. So I set up the purifier and explained the process and showed them the pump, the battery, the battery charger, and all the parts on the purifier. I think they basically understood what I was saying. I took everything apart and asked them if they wanted to put it back together and they said no, that they had to be going. So oh well. They're going to come back tomorrow at 8:30. A while after they left the maintenance men finally finished everything, so we have water and electricity now and everything is ready to go for tomorrow.
This afternoon my friend was supposed to come to Emiliano Zapata Sur to help me talk to the older children of the women who will be purifying the water. Well Arturo and I were supposed to leave Zapata at around 1:00 in order to pick her up in the city and bring her back by 2:00 to start her hour-long class. But they were doing the last minute finishing touches and we didn't leave until about 1:40. I was so stressed out about being able to pick her up and get back in time! But on the way Arturo realized that he forgot some materials he needed for something they're doing at CEMADE this afternoon at 3:00 and he had to drive all the way to the university to get them and then head straight back to CEMADE. So we had to cancel the session with the older kids for today. He dropped me off in the city and I took the bus home.
Sigh.
Well tomorrow will be better.
For now I'm going to take a siesta.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
We're almost there!
Well I had a great weekend – Friday night I had a meeting with the rest of the Centre interns and our coordinator. After that I went with Arturo and Maria to their friends’ house for dinner at like 9:00. It was pretty neat because some of their old friends who now live in Canada were there so it was a very cross-cultural experience. The food was great too!
Maria told me I could sleep in on Saturday for as long as I wanted – so I did. I didn’t get up until about 11:00 and it was fantastic! I went to Wal-Mart with Maria to buy some groceries and hung around the house until Arturo and I went to mass at CEMADE. It was... interesting. The mass was right after the kids’ CCD classes, so it was basically all little kids who were at the mass. They were not paying any attention and were rather restless.
Sunday I went to Uxmal (pronounced “oosh-mall”) with Hannah, one of the other Centre interns who I went to Chitchen Itza with last week. Uxmal is so much better than Chitchen because there is so much more to see there. The pyramids aren’t as big, but you can climb them at Uxmal and there are a lot more different structures to explore. The architecture is more ornate and there are fewer tourists. I put 250 pictures online. You can click here to see them: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley/UxmalJanuary18. It was a really great day because we were had more time than last Sunday, so we really got to take everything in instead of rushing. We decided to pay for a tour guide at Uxmal, which turned out to be worth it. He told us that we could catch a bus at 1:30 to go down the road to another ruins site called Kabah, so we did! It was pretty neat too because the whole front of one building was covered in the mask motif that we’ve seen all over the Yucatan. We stayed there for a little while and then went back to Uxmal to see the rest of the ruins that we didn’t have time to see earlier. The park closed at 5:00 and the bus was supposed to come at 5:30. It was late, of course, and when it finally came it was standing room only. So we got to pay 41 pesos to stand for an hour and a half until we got back to Merida. Oh well. We ate at a restaurant in el Centro and then I went to the place where I always catch my bus home. The buses stop running at about 9:00 or 9:30 and it was about 9:20 at the time, so I was anxious to get on any bus that would get me within walking distance of home. A bus was waiting there that I thought could get me home, but I was wrong. So I ended up taking an hour-long tour around the more upper-class part of the city. When the bus finally returned to el Centro, I got on a bus that goes to my neighborhood and got home around 11:00. Long day, but still a good one!
Monday, Tuesday, and today Arturo and I have been supervising the maintenance men’s work at la casita. Things are finally almost done! All the plumbing is in, nearly all of the concrete work is done, the windows are replaced, the tanks are ready, and they’ve installed a big tub to sanitize bottles in. The only thing left is a little bit of electrical work, which the men are going to finish in the morning. And I finally got to get my hands dirty today! I love to play with PVC and I finally got my chance. One of the maintenance men had started on the manifold between the two tanks and I finished it. This is a super-fancy set-up. Besides having a water softener and two tanks, we’ve also installed a hose for pressurized, softened water and another hose for purified water that the women will use to sanitize the bottles the people bring to get filled with water. Click here to see more pictures of the advances we’ve made in the installation: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley/AlmostDoneJanuary2021.
We haven’t been able to test everything to make sure there are no leaks, but tomorrow is the day! I am scheduled to begin teaching the women how to use the purifier tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. and I’ll train them some more on Friday and Saturday. I’m so excited to finally see all this come together!
I’m also organizing a side project with some help from three of the other Centre interns here in Merida. They are going to teach the children of the women I am training about why we need to purify the water, how to keep the water from getting re-contaminated, and how the water project is going to improve their health and their families’ financial situation. Thursday and Friday afternoon, one intern is going to come for an hour to talk to the teenagers and on Saturday, all three are going to come for three hours to talk to the teenagers as well as the younger kids.
I’ll update again tomorrow – I hope to have lots of good news!
Maria told me I could sleep in on Saturday for as long as I wanted – so I did. I didn’t get up until about 11:00 and it was fantastic! I went to Wal-Mart with Maria to buy some groceries and hung around the house until Arturo and I went to mass at CEMADE. It was... interesting. The mass was right after the kids’ CCD classes, so it was basically all little kids who were at the mass. They were not paying any attention and were rather restless.
Sunday I went to Uxmal (pronounced “oosh-mall”) with Hannah, one of the other Centre interns who I went to Chitchen Itza with last week. Uxmal is so much better than Chitchen because there is so much more to see there. The pyramids aren’t as big, but you can climb them at Uxmal and there are a lot more different structures to explore. The architecture is more ornate and there are fewer tourists. I put 250 pictures online. You can click here to see them: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley/UxmalJanuary18. It was a really great day because we were had more time than last Sunday, so we really got to take everything in instead of rushing. We decided to pay for a tour guide at Uxmal, which turned out to be worth it. He told us that we could catch a bus at 1:30 to go down the road to another ruins site called Kabah, so we did! It was pretty neat too because the whole front of one building was covered in the mask motif that we’ve seen all over the Yucatan. We stayed there for a little while and then went back to Uxmal to see the rest of the ruins that we didn’t have time to see earlier. The park closed at 5:00 and the bus was supposed to come at 5:30. It was late, of course, and when it finally came it was standing room only. So we got to pay 41 pesos to stand for an hour and a half until we got back to Merida. Oh well. We ate at a restaurant in el Centro and then I went to the place where I always catch my bus home. The buses stop running at about 9:00 or 9:30 and it was about 9:20 at the time, so I was anxious to get on any bus that would get me within walking distance of home. A bus was waiting there that I thought could get me home, but I was wrong. So I ended up taking an hour-long tour around the more upper-class part of the city. When the bus finally returned to el Centro, I got on a bus that goes to my neighborhood and got home around 11:00. Long day, but still a good one!
Monday, Tuesday, and today Arturo and I have been supervising the maintenance men’s work at la casita. Things are finally almost done! All the plumbing is in, nearly all of the concrete work is done, the windows are replaced, the tanks are ready, and they’ve installed a big tub to sanitize bottles in. The only thing left is a little bit of electrical work, which the men are going to finish in the morning. And I finally got to get my hands dirty today! I love to play with PVC and I finally got my chance. One of the maintenance men had started on the manifold between the two tanks and I finished it. This is a super-fancy set-up. Besides having a water softener and two tanks, we’ve also installed a hose for pressurized, softened water and another hose for purified water that the women will use to sanitize the bottles the people bring to get filled with water. Click here to see more pictures of the advances we’ve made in the installation: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley/AlmostDoneJanuary2021.
We haven’t been able to test everything to make sure there are no leaks, but tomorrow is the day! I am scheduled to begin teaching the women how to use the purifier tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. and I’ll train them some more on Friday and Saturday. I’m so excited to finally see all this come together!
I’m also organizing a side project with some help from three of the other Centre interns here in Merida. They are going to teach the children of the women I am training about why we need to purify the water, how to keep the water from getting re-contaminated, and how the water project is going to improve their health and their families’ financial situation. Thursday and Friday afternoon, one intern is going to come for an hour to talk to the teenagers and on Saturday, all three are going to come for three hours to talk to the teenagers as well as the younger kids.
I’ll update again tomorrow – I hope to have lots of good news!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Progress and Poverty
Today was a pretty good day in that we made some progress on the installation at la casita. It was also a very thought-provoking day because Arturo showed me around the poorest part of the community. More on that in a bit.
This morning Arturo and I arose early so we could get a jump on the day. We were supposed to eat breakfast at 6:00, but I didn’t get out of bed until about 6:00 because I didn’t hear Arturo and Maria until then. (I have a really hard time sleeping here because there are four Labradors right outside my window that like to bark, and growl, and play all night long... So you can imagine why I would stay in bed as long as possible.) After a breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham, we were out the door a little after 6:30. We went to the university to pick up four maintenance men and took them to la casita. They were working on several different jobs: running the electrical wires inside the house and installing electrical boxes; taking out the windows so we can get the tanks in the building; digging a ditch and running a water line from the road to the house; and working on some concrete bases for the water tanks to sit on. You can see pictures of the progress on my Picasa site by clicking here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley. It was exciting to see all of our planning and talking turn into some measurable progress!
While the men were working, Arturo showed me around the poorest part of Emiliano Zapata Sur, which is just a few blocks from la casita where we’ll be purifying the water. There are a few pictures on the picasa site above. In that part of town, there aren’t any paved roads and the people live in shacks made out of scrap metal and any material they can find. As in all of Emiliano Zapata, there are horrible-looking stray dogs everywhere you look. They don’t have electricity or running water in their “houses,” but they can get water (for free, I think) from the spigots near the dirt roads. The spigots bring forth the government’s “agua potable” which means “drinkable water” but the water really isn’t safe to drink. The water lines lie on top of the ground where a vehicle could drive over and break them. Then when they turn the water on, it would suck up any dirt or mud or sewage into the water line. We got out and talked to some people who were sitting outside their house made of scraps of metal. One woman said she and her children drink the “agua potable.” Arturo asked her if she and her kids were sick and she said no, not right now. It was really sad though that she was holding a cell phone and had her nails fancily manicured. Another woman said she buys bottled water from a name-brand company for 20 pesos for 20 liters. Twenty pesos is about half the minimum daily wage in Mexico. I asked Arturo why the people don’t buy purified water at the local plant for 6 pesos a bottle, and he said they don’t have confidence in the local plant. The big name companies spread propaganda that their water is superior. In fact, the slogan for the brand of water “Cristal,” a Coca-Cola product, is “el mejor agua” – “the best water.” This is one of Arturo’s big concerns for our project here, that the other companies will spread the rumor that our water is unsanitary and not as good as their 20-peso-a-pop name brand stuff. For this to work, it’s imperative that we do a professional test of the water we purify so that we can demonstrate to the people that the water we are purifying is just as good, if not better, than the water from the companies that are robbing them.
After he finished showing me around the poorest part of the neighborhood, we went by and talked to a man who Arturo holds in high esteem – I think his name is Grinaldo. He was wearing a big, baggy sweater and baggy pants with a hole in the leg so that you could see through to his bony knee. Horrible cataracts in one eye. He had a house of concrete blocks and had built four other houses for his other family members right next to him. His yard was full of beautiful, colorful flowers and plants. Everywhere you looked, you found something he was cultivating to feed his family with. He invited Arturo and me into his house to escape the rain while we talked (well while they talked and I tried to keep up with what they were saying). Arturo told him about our water project and he asked what brand our water is. Arturo says there is no brand, it’s water that we are purifying ourselves. Grinaldo seemed apprehensive to the idea, which I found interesting. Arturo promised to come get him and show him all the equipment and explain the process. After that, Grinaldo gave us a tour of his yard, pointing out the different plants and what kind of edibles they bring forth. I winced as he climbed a precarious looking ladder and reached high into a tree to give Arturo and me some small, round, green, acidic things that I can’t remember the name of. He also gave us some limes. A very nice man.
This short tour got me to thinking – a lot. There are people like the woman with the fancy nails and cell phone who just don’t seem to be helping themselves and their family in the smartest way. Can people like Arturo and me reach people like that and help them? Maybe or maybe not. People have to want to help themselves, and there’s not really much that we can do if that desire isn’t there. But on the other hand, there are people like Grinaldo. People who use every square meter of the land they own to make it productive. People who say they like to work. People who struggle and fight every day to provide for themselves and their families. Can we make the load a little lighter for these people? Absolutely.
This morning Arturo and I arose early so we could get a jump on the day. We were supposed to eat breakfast at 6:00, but I didn’t get out of bed until about 6:00 because I didn’t hear Arturo and Maria until then. (I have a really hard time sleeping here because there are four Labradors right outside my window that like to bark, and growl, and play all night long... So you can imagine why I would stay in bed as long as possible.) After a breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham, we were out the door a little after 6:30. We went to the university to pick up four maintenance men and took them to la casita. They were working on several different jobs: running the electrical wires inside the house and installing electrical boxes; taking out the windows so we can get the tanks in the building; digging a ditch and running a water line from the road to the house; and working on some concrete bases for the water tanks to sit on. You can see pictures of the progress on my Picasa site by clicking here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley. It was exciting to see all of our planning and talking turn into some measurable progress!
While the men were working, Arturo showed me around the poorest part of Emiliano Zapata Sur, which is just a few blocks from la casita where we’ll be purifying the water. There are a few pictures on the picasa site above. In that part of town, there aren’t any paved roads and the people live in shacks made out of scrap metal and any material they can find. As in all of Emiliano Zapata, there are horrible-looking stray dogs everywhere you look. They don’t have electricity or running water in their “houses,” but they can get water (for free, I think) from the spigots near the dirt roads. The spigots bring forth the government’s “agua potable” which means “drinkable water” but the water really isn’t safe to drink. The water lines lie on top of the ground where a vehicle could drive over and break them. Then when they turn the water on, it would suck up any dirt or mud or sewage into the water line. We got out and talked to some people who were sitting outside their house made of scraps of metal. One woman said she and her children drink the “agua potable.” Arturo asked her if she and her kids were sick and she said no, not right now. It was really sad though that she was holding a cell phone and had her nails fancily manicured. Another woman said she buys bottled water from a name-brand company for 20 pesos for 20 liters. Twenty pesos is about half the minimum daily wage in Mexico. I asked Arturo why the people don’t buy purified water at the local plant for 6 pesos a bottle, and he said they don’t have confidence in the local plant. The big name companies spread propaganda that their water is superior. In fact, the slogan for the brand of water “Cristal,” a Coca-Cola product, is “el mejor agua” – “the best water.” This is one of Arturo’s big concerns for our project here, that the other companies will spread the rumor that our water is unsanitary and not as good as their 20-peso-a-pop name brand stuff. For this to work, it’s imperative that we do a professional test of the water we purify so that we can demonstrate to the people that the water we are purifying is just as good, if not better, than the water from the companies that are robbing them.
After he finished showing me around the poorest part of the neighborhood, we went by and talked to a man who Arturo holds in high esteem – I think his name is Grinaldo. He was wearing a big, baggy sweater and baggy pants with a hole in the leg so that you could see through to his bony knee. Horrible cataracts in one eye. He had a house of concrete blocks and had built four other houses for his other family members right next to him. His yard was full of beautiful, colorful flowers and plants. Everywhere you looked, you found something he was cultivating to feed his family with. He invited Arturo and me into his house to escape the rain while we talked (well while they talked and I tried to keep up with what they were saying). Arturo told him about our water project and he asked what brand our water is. Arturo says there is no brand, it’s water that we are purifying ourselves. Grinaldo seemed apprehensive to the idea, which I found interesting. Arturo promised to come get him and show him all the equipment and explain the process. After that, Grinaldo gave us a tour of his yard, pointing out the different plants and what kind of edibles they bring forth. I winced as he climbed a precarious looking ladder and reached high into a tree to give Arturo and me some small, round, green, acidic things that I can’t remember the name of. He also gave us some limes. A very nice man.
This short tour got me to thinking – a lot. There are people like the woman with the fancy nails and cell phone who just don’t seem to be helping themselves and their family in the smartest way. Can people like Arturo and me reach people like that and help them? Maybe or maybe not. People have to want to help themselves, and there’s not really much that we can do if that desire isn’t there. But on the other hand, there are people like Grinaldo. People who use every square meter of the land they own to make it productive. People who say they like to work. People who struggle and fight every day to provide for themselves and their families. Can we make the load a little lighter for these people? Absolutely.
Uganda!
I didn’t have to wait long to find out about my next adventure. It’s Uganda.
A Ugandan priest, Fr. Athanasius, visited one of the teams at the Mission House last summer telling them about the need in his community. Their greatest need is pure water, and the only way to get that is by drilling wells. But EDGE doesn’t know how to drill wells.
But not for long! EDGE is now in the process of learning about well drilling and they are just beginning to think about taking an exploratory trip to Fr. Athanasius’s region of Uganda. I’m amazed and excited and awe-struck by the way God is moving through all of this.
A Ugandan priest, Fr. Athanasius, visited one of the teams at the Mission House last summer telling them about the need in his community. Their greatest need is pure water, and the only way to get that is by drilling wells. But EDGE doesn’t know how to drill wells.
But not for long! EDGE is now in the process of learning about well drilling and they are just beginning to think about taking an exploratory trip to Fr. Athanasius’s region of Uganda. I’m amazed and excited and awe-struck by the way God is moving through all of this.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
"Ser para servir"
Today we were supposed to demonstrate the purifier for some people at the university, but it didn’t happen because they were in meetings or something like that. So instead Arturo and I put together a spreadsheet of the investments we’ve already put into the project, the fixed and variable costs of operation, and the profit that will be made. We can purify 1000 liters at a time and a maximum of 4000 liters a day. That’s 50 to 200 20-liter bottles every day, at a price of 3 pesos each, which means a profit of 150 to 600 pesos a day. Less the variable and fixed costs of the electricity, the water, the salt, the cost of labor, and a reserve for repairs, the net profit will be somewhere in the ball park of 50 – 250 pesos per day ($3-18). We also calculated that EDGE and the donors to my project will have put in $2250 once the system is installed. $770 has been spent to set up the water and electricity utilities in the little house where we will install the system, which I think Arturo and Maria have paid for. The Universida Marista has or will put in $1300 (salary for Arturo, professional tests of the water, and installation expenses). The women who will be purifying the water can make a little bit more money working in their usual jobs as domestic workers, so they will be giving up about $830 over the next year. And finally, Centre College (and me) has invested about $1200 in airplane tickets and paying for me to stay with Arturo and Maria. So that makes a total of $6360 already invested in this project! It’s kind of neat to step back and take a look at the big picture of how many different parties are invested in this project and how we are all coming together to make it happen.
I’ve also been thinking today about the Universidad Marista’s slogan, “Ser para Servir,” which means, “to be in order to serve.” The more I do this kind of work, the more I am sure of the fact that it is my vocation to serve and to serve totally. I can’t imagine myself working in an office every day and I don’t want to imagine myself doing the same, mundane task for the rest of my life. And I especially don’t want to find myself working for the sole reason of lining someone’s pockets – my own included. The kind of work I am doing here invigorates me, it makes me come alive. Working for and with EDGE Outreach has fulfilled me like nothing else has ever come close to. And I know God has equipped me with the skills, the intelligence, and the opportunity to earn a degree from Centre College for a reason – for His reasons.
I can’t wait to see what adventure He has in store for me next.
I’ve also been thinking today about the Universidad Marista’s slogan, “Ser para Servir,” which means, “to be in order to serve.” The more I do this kind of work, the more I am sure of the fact that it is my vocation to serve and to serve totally. I can’t imagine myself working in an office every day and I don’t want to imagine myself doing the same, mundane task for the rest of my life. And I especially don’t want to find myself working for the sole reason of lining someone’s pockets – my own included. The kind of work I am doing here invigorates me, it makes me come alive. Working for and with EDGE Outreach has fulfilled me like nothing else has ever come close to. And I know God has equipped me with the skills, the intelligence, and the opportunity to earn a degree from Centre College for a reason – for His reasons.
I can’t wait to see what adventure He has in store for me next.
Monday, January 12, 2009
A very busy weekend
Lots to update today!
Arturo and I had a busy day on Friday. Arturo figured out that the Universidad Marista has a contract with Coca-Cola to only sell it’s products on Marista property, so we can’t do the purification at the community center, Centro Marista de Desarollo (CEMADE). But there is a little park two blocks away from CEMADE that they have been working on for a little while now. It was an overgrown, abandoned lot where people dumped their garbage a lot, but Arturo, Maria, and some people from the community bought it for the citizens of Emiliano Zapata to use and have cleaned it up quite a bit. There is a tiny house – la casita – there where we will set up the purifier.
So Friday morning we visited la casita – the little house – in the park in Emiliano Zapata with a technician from a company that sells water softeners. They took some measurements and such and figured out that it would be possible to install the water softener there. Then we went to visit Arturo’s friend at his chemical company to look at his water softener because it is very similar to the one we would be buying. They were very nice people. So we went home for lunch and then came back later to get 50 liters of water from him in order to do the test run that night. We also bought a battery and some plastic barrels to do the test in.
So that night we went to CEMADE to do a demonstration of the purification for some of the women who will be purifying the water. Everything went really well! The only problem was that there was less water pressure at the end of the process than there should be, but after talking with EDGE that night, I have some ideas about what might have been the problem. I’m not sure what the women thought of everything because they were pretty quiet, but I think Arturo was impressed. He commented that I was an engineer. Ha ha! It was great to actually get out the purifier and finally get to set it up.
The purifier runs off of a battery and a handful of salt. I read this story to the women (in Spanish), as is EDGE’s custom:
2 Kings 2:19-22
The men of the city said to Elisha, “Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive.” “Bring me a new bowl,” he said, “and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’” And the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.
Saturday I had a meeting with the internship director from Centre and the other students. After that we walked around El Centro a bit and had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the central plaza. It was really nice! I took the bus home and then Arturo and I went to CEMADE, where the kids were gathering for their weekly CCD class. Arturo said there are sometimes 200 kids there! The place was crawling with them – about 100 this week. It was so much fun to watch them and be around so many kids. This was a special day because they were giving the kids presents for El dia de Reyes – the epiphany. Mexicans celebrate the epiphany much more than we do. On top of gifts from Santa Claus, children get another gift from the Three Kings on the epiphany.
Sunday was a long day. I got up at 7:00 in order to leave the house by 7:30 to go to mass in the cathedral at 8:15. The cathedral is beautiful and they have a huge organ that is wonderful to listen to. I found it a little difficult to keep up with the mass because things were a little different, especially in the beginning. And I couldn’t understand a lot of what they were saying because of the echo of the speakers. When they go to communion, the people don’t go to the front in a single-file line, pew-by-pew. They just get up whenever they feel like it and walk up. I was kind of confused, but I managed.
After mass I walked around the central plaza (where a million vendors had their stands set up) to wait for my friends to arrive who I would be going to Chitchen Itza with. When they got there we walked to the bus station – about ten blocks away. Well we had trouble finding it at first, so we had to ask someone where it was. We bought our tickets and left Merida on a tour bus at 11:00. The ride took forever! The bus driver would stop in these little towns and pick up people who were going one or two towns down the road. And people selling snacks would get on and walk up and down the aisle rattling off whatever they were selling. I knew better than to buy anything because the people who prepare them usually don’t use clean water or hands. I thought it was safe to buy a can of Coke though. I got ripped off – it cost 10 pesos. So the bus ride was supposed to be an hour and a half but we didn’t get there until almost 2:00 and our bus back to Merida was to leave at 6:10. When we were about to go into the park a man stopped us and asked us in English if we’d like a tour. After talking with him for a few minutes we figured it was worth the 400 pesos (about $30) to split between the three of us. I realized after I handed him the money that we gave him 40 pesos extra. Oh well.
So Chitchen Itza is a famous Mayan ruin site with a huge pyramid in the middle. I’ve loaded pictures on my Picasa website here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley. It was pretty neat to see how advanced the Mayan people were. The big pyramid was like a calendar because there are 4 sides with 91 steps on each side. If you count the top roof, that equals 365 days. We didn’t get to climb it because they stopped allowing it only 2 years ago. You can read more about what I saw on Picasa. One of the other girls who went wanted to go see the cave that was 6 kilometers down the road, so we paid for an overpriced taxi and took a “tour” of the cave. It was actually a self-paced walk through the cave with speakers of a recording and music. It was in Spanish and I didn’t spend the energy to try to figure out what they were saying. I guess when you’ve seen Mammoth Cave, everything else pales in comparison.
After that we took the taxi to the bus station. It was only 5:00 and our bus didn’t leave until 6:10. There was another bus that was leaving at 5:30 and I would have liked to take that one, but one of the other girls wanted to take our time eating. We went across the road to a tourist trap restaurant (buffet style) where they had dancers who balanced trays on their heads and a can of coke cost 30 pesos ($2.20).
When we left the restaurant at 6:00 we learned that our bus had left at 5:50. So we waited for the one that should come around 6:30, which didn’t actually come until closer to 6:45. The bus ride home took about two hours and the three of us walked back to El Centro where we could catch our buses home. They were telling me I didn’t have to walk so fast, but I was ready to be home. I went to my bus stop, but after 30 minutes the bus I normally take never came. I called Maria and Arturo to ask them if it was still running at this hour (which was not easy to do since I was so worn-out). Maria told me to take another bus that was labeled with our colonia, or neighborhood, and I did. I got home at about 10:00 and set my alarm on my phone. When I opened my phone there was a reminder from my calendar that I was supposed to take my malaria pill today. I was supposed to take it with food, but I was too tired, so I just took it on an empty stomach. I guess the combination of the tourist trap food and the malaria pill woke me up at 5:00 a.m. with some... digestive problems.
This morning Arturo and Maria knew I wasn’t feeling well so we waited a while before going out to the place that sells water softeners to make our purchase. I think we spent about two hours there talking about how things will be set up and making sure we’re getting the most economical set-up possible. Arturo can be very thorough, which is a good thing. So I bought the water softener, two tanks, salt, and some parts for 13,000 pesos, or about $980. When we left Arturo asked me what I thought and I told him I don’t like to spend money! Later on he asked me how my stomach was feeling and I said I felt fine. “So the purchase didn’t make your stomach feel bad?” he said. “Sí, un poco,” I said with a laugh.
Tomorrow we demonstrate the water purifier at the university! I think if I can demonstrate this purifier – in Spanish – in front of a bunch of professors and engineers, I think I can do just about anything. I think I’m going to brush up on some of my vocabulary tonight...
Arturo and I had a busy day on Friday. Arturo figured out that the Universidad Marista has a contract with Coca-Cola to only sell it’s products on Marista property, so we can’t do the purification at the community center, Centro Marista de Desarollo (CEMADE). But there is a little park two blocks away from CEMADE that they have been working on for a little while now. It was an overgrown, abandoned lot where people dumped their garbage a lot, but Arturo, Maria, and some people from the community bought it for the citizens of Emiliano Zapata to use and have cleaned it up quite a bit. There is a tiny house – la casita – there where we will set up the purifier.
So Friday morning we visited la casita – the little house – in the park in Emiliano Zapata with a technician from a company that sells water softeners. They took some measurements and such and figured out that it would be possible to install the water softener there. Then we went to visit Arturo’s friend at his chemical company to look at his water softener because it is very similar to the one we would be buying. They were very nice people. So we went home for lunch and then came back later to get 50 liters of water from him in order to do the test run that night. We also bought a battery and some plastic barrels to do the test in.
So that night we went to CEMADE to do a demonstration of the purification for some of the women who will be purifying the water. Everything went really well! The only problem was that there was less water pressure at the end of the process than there should be, but after talking with EDGE that night, I have some ideas about what might have been the problem. I’m not sure what the women thought of everything because they were pretty quiet, but I think Arturo was impressed. He commented that I was an engineer. Ha ha! It was great to actually get out the purifier and finally get to set it up.
The purifier runs off of a battery and a handful of salt. I read this story to the women (in Spanish), as is EDGE’s custom:
2 Kings 2:19-22
The men of the city said to Elisha, “Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive.” “Bring me a new bowl,” he said, “and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’” And the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.
Saturday I had a meeting with the internship director from Centre and the other students. After that we walked around El Centro a bit and had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the central plaza. It was really nice! I took the bus home and then Arturo and I went to CEMADE, where the kids were gathering for their weekly CCD class. Arturo said there are sometimes 200 kids there! The place was crawling with them – about 100 this week. It was so much fun to watch them and be around so many kids. This was a special day because they were giving the kids presents for El dia de Reyes – the epiphany. Mexicans celebrate the epiphany much more than we do. On top of gifts from Santa Claus, children get another gift from the Three Kings on the epiphany.
Sunday was a long day. I got up at 7:00 in order to leave the house by 7:30 to go to mass in the cathedral at 8:15. The cathedral is beautiful and they have a huge organ that is wonderful to listen to. I found it a little difficult to keep up with the mass because things were a little different, especially in the beginning. And I couldn’t understand a lot of what they were saying because of the echo of the speakers. When they go to communion, the people don’t go to the front in a single-file line, pew-by-pew. They just get up whenever they feel like it and walk up. I was kind of confused, but I managed.
After mass I walked around the central plaza (where a million vendors had their stands set up) to wait for my friends to arrive who I would be going to Chitchen Itza with. When they got there we walked to the bus station – about ten blocks away. Well we had trouble finding it at first, so we had to ask someone where it was. We bought our tickets and left Merida on a tour bus at 11:00. The ride took forever! The bus driver would stop in these little towns and pick up people who were going one or two towns down the road. And people selling snacks would get on and walk up and down the aisle rattling off whatever they were selling. I knew better than to buy anything because the people who prepare them usually don’t use clean water or hands. I thought it was safe to buy a can of Coke though. I got ripped off – it cost 10 pesos. So the bus ride was supposed to be an hour and a half but we didn’t get there until almost 2:00 and our bus back to Merida was to leave at 6:10. When we were about to go into the park a man stopped us and asked us in English if we’d like a tour. After talking with him for a few minutes we figured it was worth the 400 pesos (about $30) to split between the three of us. I realized after I handed him the money that we gave him 40 pesos extra. Oh well.
So Chitchen Itza is a famous Mayan ruin site with a huge pyramid in the middle. I’ve loaded pictures on my Picasa website here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley. It was pretty neat to see how advanced the Mayan people were. The big pyramid was like a calendar because there are 4 sides with 91 steps on each side. If you count the top roof, that equals 365 days. We didn’t get to climb it because they stopped allowing it only 2 years ago. You can read more about what I saw on Picasa. One of the other girls who went wanted to go see the cave that was 6 kilometers down the road, so we paid for an overpriced taxi and took a “tour” of the cave. It was actually a self-paced walk through the cave with speakers of a recording and music. It was in Spanish and I didn’t spend the energy to try to figure out what they were saying. I guess when you’ve seen Mammoth Cave, everything else pales in comparison.
After that we took the taxi to the bus station. It was only 5:00 and our bus didn’t leave until 6:10. There was another bus that was leaving at 5:30 and I would have liked to take that one, but one of the other girls wanted to take our time eating. We went across the road to a tourist trap restaurant (buffet style) where they had dancers who balanced trays on their heads and a can of coke cost 30 pesos ($2.20).
When we left the restaurant at 6:00 we learned that our bus had left at 5:50. So we waited for the one that should come around 6:30, which didn’t actually come until closer to 6:45. The bus ride home took about two hours and the three of us walked back to El Centro where we could catch our buses home. They were telling me I didn’t have to walk so fast, but I was ready to be home. I went to my bus stop, but after 30 minutes the bus I normally take never came. I called Maria and Arturo to ask them if it was still running at this hour (which was not easy to do since I was so worn-out). Maria told me to take another bus that was labeled with our colonia, or neighborhood, and I did. I got home at about 10:00 and set my alarm on my phone. When I opened my phone there was a reminder from my calendar that I was supposed to take my malaria pill today. I was supposed to take it with food, but I was too tired, so I just took it on an empty stomach. I guess the combination of the tourist trap food and the malaria pill woke me up at 5:00 a.m. with some... digestive problems.
This morning Arturo and Maria knew I wasn’t feeling well so we waited a while before going out to the place that sells water softeners to make our purchase. I think we spent about two hours there talking about how things will be set up and making sure we’re getting the most economical set-up possible. Arturo can be very thorough, which is a good thing. So I bought the water softener, two tanks, salt, and some parts for 13,000 pesos, or about $980. When we left Arturo asked me what I thought and I told him I don’t like to spend money! Later on he asked me how my stomach was feeling and I said I felt fine. “So the purchase didn’t make your stomach feel bad?” he said. “Sí, un poco,” I said with a laugh.
Tomorrow we demonstrate the water purifier at the university! I think if I can demonstrate this purifier – in Spanish – in front of a bunch of professors and engineers, I think I can do just about anything. I think I’m going to brush up on some of my vocabulary tonight...
Thursday, January 8, 2009
An update and pictures too!
You can see my pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley.
Yesterday was a very tired day. I got up at about 6:30 to shower and be ready for breakfast at 7:30 so that I could ride with Felipe, Arturo's son, to the University to wait for Arturo. I ate breakfast - a banana and a "liquado," a mixture of oats, milk, and ice cream made in a blender - and then I lost it. I'm not sure why. I didn't really feel bad, so I think it was just nerves. I took a pill for nausea anyway and I think it made me really sleepy. I made it to the university and was falling asleep waiting for Arturo. I went to the library to use the computers there and a lady who I met the day before came in saying that she was supposed to meet with me without Arturo. So I tried to explain the purifer to her and was telling her about the byproducts and how we can use them to clean. She was concerned about the environmental impact of the purifier. So we talked for a bit and she told me something about Arturo meeting with the engineer and his office - I wasn't really sure what she said. So I went back to Arturo's office and a man I met the day before called me into his office (which is in the same room as Arturo's) and was asking me about the purifier. I think he's an engineer and he knows a lot about water. He kept talking about the taste of salt in the water. Well he had to go talk to his boss so I waited for Arturo, not really sure if I was supposed to be there or somewhere else. I was very confused. So someone else in the office - his name is Antonio - took me to the secretary and she called Arturo on his cell phone. He was driving back to the University and would be there in 10 minutes. Antonio asked me if I wanted a Coke and I said yes! It was very nice of him. He spoke to me in English and it was kind of weird. I found it hard to transition back into speaking to a Mexican in English and kept answering "si" instead of "yes." I think I say "si" about a thousand times a day....
So Arturo finally arrived and we talked with the man and the woman I had talked to earlier. I couldn't keep up with their conversation because I was falling asleep. It was really bad. So we came home for lunch at about 2:00 and Maria and Arturo told me that I should sleep this afternoon. Usually we go back to work, but yesterday we took the evening off because we already had accomplished everything we needed to do. So I slept for 3 hours. It was marvelous! Then I got up and worked on some calculations for the water project.
This morning we had breakfast at about 10:00 and Arturo told me there were 3 things we needed to do. 1) Talk to the folks at EDGE about the hardness of water here and ask them how it will affect the purifier. 2) Figure out how much it's going to cost to purify the water each day and how much water we need to purify to break even. 3) Make a budget for the installation of the water purifier.
I guess I need to back up a bit and tell you about what we have planned for the implementation of this water project. In Mexico, the American way of giving things away for free is highly frowned upon. They think it takes away a person’s dignity and that if you give someone free water today, tomorrow they will expect free food, and the next day, free clothes, etc. Therefore, after talking it over with EDGE, I decided that Arturo’s proposal for selling each bottle of water (20 liters – like you see in offices) for 3 pesos (about 23 cents) is the best way to do this project in this culture. Three pesos is half the price they pay for water from the government and some name brand companies sell bottles for 20 pesos each. So the people are still benefiting greatly from it. Another problem we are working on regards the hardness of the water here. Arturo and Maria showed me a faucet they had removed and it was covered in this hardened gunk from the calcium carbonates in the water. They have to replace their faucets each year because it builds up so fast! Can you imagine what that stuff does to people’s kidneys? So the plan is to also install a water softener through which we will process the water before it goes through the New Life International water purifier that I brought. That way the water will be without calcium carbonates and without germs! And for only 3 pesos per bottle!
So today we figured out that we can at least break even purifying one tank (110 liters, 55 bottles of water) each day and if we purify two each day (220 liters, 110 bottles of water) they will have some money to put into a fund to pay for emergencies in the community. For example, if someone gets sick and needs medicine, they can help them. Or if the soccer team has an away game and they need a bus to take there, they can cover it with the money in the fund. Sounds great, huh?
I’m also going to try to figure out if they sell sno-cone machines here, that way the kids can have a treat and they will be able to make some more money to help out everyone in the community.
More updates will come your way soon!
Yesterday was a very tired day. I got up at about 6:30 to shower and be ready for breakfast at 7:30 so that I could ride with Felipe, Arturo's son, to the University to wait for Arturo. I ate breakfast - a banana and a "liquado," a mixture of oats, milk, and ice cream made in a blender - and then I lost it. I'm not sure why. I didn't really feel bad, so I think it was just nerves. I took a pill for nausea anyway and I think it made me really sleepy. I made it to the university and was falling asleep waiting for Arturo. I went to the library to use the computers there and a lady who I met the day before came in saying that she was supposed to meet with me without Arturo. So I tried to explain the purifer to her and was telling her about the byproducts and how we can use them to clean. She was concerned about the environmental impact of the purifier. So we talked for a bit and she told me something about Arturo meeting with the engineer and his office - I wasn't really sure what she said. So I went back to Arturo's office and a man I met the day before called me into his office (which is in the same room as Arturo's) and was asking me about the purifier. I think he's an engineer and he knows a lot about water. He kept talking about the taste of salt in the water. Well he had to go talk to his boss so I waited for Arturo, not really sure if I was supposed to be there or somewhere else. I was very confused. So someone else in the office - his name is Antonio - took me to the secretary and she called Arturo on his cell phone. He was driving back to the University and would be there in 10 minutes. Antonio asked me if I wanted a Coke and I said yes! It was very nice of him. He spoke to me in English and it was kind of weird. I found it hard to transition back into speaking to a Mexican in English and kept answering "si" instead of "yes." I think I say "si" about a thousand times a day....
So Arturo finally arrived and we talked with the man and the woman I had talked to earlier. I couldn't keep up with their conversation because I was falling asleep. It was really bad. So we came home for lunch at about 2:00 and Maria and Arturo told me that I should sleep this afternoon. Usually we go back to work, but yesterday we took the evening off because we already had accomplished everything we needed to do. So I slept for 3 hours. It was marvelous! Then I got up and worked on some calculations for the water project.
This morning we had breakfast at about 10:00 and Arturo told me there were 3 things we needed to do. 1) Talk to the folks at EDGE about the hardness of water here and ask them how it will affect the purifier. 2) Figure out how much it's going to cost to purify the water each day and how much water we need to purify to break even. 3) Make a budget for the installation of the water purifier.
I guess I need to back up a bit and tell you about what we have planned for the implementation of this water project. In Mexico, the American way of giving things away for free is highly frowned upon. They think it takes away a person’s dignity and that if you give someone free water today, tomorrow they will expect free food, and the next day, free clothes, etc. Therefore, after talking it over with EDGE, I decided that Arturo’s proposal for selling each bottle of water (20 liters – like you see in offices) for 3 pesos (about 23 cents) is the best way to do this project in this culture. Three pesos is half the price they pay for water from the government and some name brand companies sell bottles for 20 pesos each. So the people are still benefiting greatly from it. Another problem we are working on regards the hardness of the water here. Arturo and Maria showed me a faucet they had removed and it was covered in this hardened gunk from the calcium carbonates in the water. They have to replace their faucets each year because it builds up so fast! Can you imagine what that stuff does to people’s kidneys? So the plan is to also install a water softener through which we will process the water before it goes through the New Life International water purifier that I brought. That way the water will be without calcium carbonates and without germs! And for only 3 pesos per bottle!
So today we figured out that we can at least break even purifying one tank (110 liters, 55 bottles of water) each day and if we purify two each day (220 liters, 110 bottles of water) they will have some money to put into a fund to pay for emergencies in the community. For example, if someone gets sick and needs medicine, they can help them. Or if the soccer team has an away game and they need a bus to take there, they can cover it with the money in the fund. Sounds great, huh?
I’m also going to try to figure out if they sell sno-cone machines here, that way the kids can have a treat and they will be able to make some more money to help out everyone in the community.
More updates will come your way soon!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Meetings, meetings, meetings!
This morning, Arturo and I went to the Universidad Marista, where Arturo is a professor. The university is in charge of the community center and works with the people in Emiliano Zapata in order to help them raise their standard of living. Arturo introduced me to a ton of people there. We talked with some of the most important people in the university – they would be like Deans here, I think. We also talked with an engineer who is going to estimate the cost of finishing a room at the community center where we could house the purifier. They were all really nice and are on board with us in our project. A lot of them thanked me for coming to do this project and told me to let them know if I need anything.
After lunch (rice with calamari and shrimp – tasty!) we went back to the community center to meet with 5 women from the community who Arturo selected to be in charge of the purification of the water. They seemed a little bit confused about the process, but it will be much easier to explain when they have the purifier in front of them and can watch me.
I could write more, but it’s almost midnight and I have to get up at about 6:30 in the morning.
¡Adios!
After lunch (rice with calamari and shrimp – tasty!) we went back to the community center to meet with 5 women from the community who Arturo selected to be in charge of the purification of the water. They seemed a little bit confused about the process, but it will be much easier to explain when they have the purifier in front of them and can watch me.
I could write more, but it’s almost midnight and I have to get up at about 6:30 in the morning.
¡Adios!
Monday, January 5, 2009
Market, Homestay, and Emiliano Zapata Sur
Today we got introduced to the market in Mérida. It was very different and interesting. They have Wal-Mart and stores like it in Mérida, but these markets were in buildings where there are a bunch of tiny rooms that I guess people rent and sell stuff out of every day. Some places sold clothes, some shoes, some knick-knacks, some hats, some fruit, some jewelry. Some of them were even tiny restaurants, with about 3 or 4 seats for people to sit down and have a meal. Everything is very cramped there, too. People call out to you to try to get you to take an interest in their stuff. The city of Mérida is very active and alive and this truly is an experience I’ll never forget.
After we went to the market, we went back to the hotel where our homestay parents were waiting for us. I met Arturo, my homestay dad, Maria, my homestay mom, and Arturo’s son, Felipe. We drove back to the house and I unpacked. Maria prepared a kind of meat loaf for lunch (which we ate at about 3:00). It was made of ground beef, a ton of cilantro, and hard-boiled eggs, which she cut into slices and placed inside the meet. Along with the rice and avocado, everything tasted good! I had a hard time eating it all though. Maria asked me what I like to eat and I said I eat a lot – meaning a variety of foods. But she thought I meant that I eat a large amount of food! Oh well. Todo está bien.
After lunch, Arturo and I drove to the community where we are working, Emiliano Zapata Sur. He drove me around the neighborhood and introduced me to a bunch of the residents there. He also showed me the community center and some possible locations for the purifier. The community center is really beautiful! It is clear that they already have put in a lot of work there. There is a soccer field with grass and goals, a concrete basketball court with two basketball goals, and two buildings. Half of both of the buildings are finished. In one building, there are rooms for meetings, a little library, a room for clothes that they sell at cheap yard sale prices, and a room with computers where the children can use the internet. In the other building there are bathrooms and a little chapel with pews, kneelers, a cross, and a painting of the Virgin Mary. ¡Qué padre! I was really impressed with the community center and I’m already in love with it.
After we went to the market, we went back to the hotel where our homestay parents were waiting for us. I met Arturo, my homestay dad, Maria, my homestay mom, and Arturo’s son, Felipe. We drove back to the house and I unpacked. Maria prepared a kind of meat loaf for lunch (which we ate at about 3:00). It was made of ground beef, a ton of cilantro, and hard-boiled eggs, which she cut into slices and placed inside the meet. Along with the rice and avocado, everything tasted good! I had a hard time eating it all though. Maria asked me what I like to eat and I said I eat a lot – meaning a variety of foods. But she thought I meant that I eat a large amount of food! Oh well. Todo está bien.
After lunch, Arturo and I drove to the community where we are working, Emiliano Zapata Sur. He drove me around the neighborhood and introduced me to a bunch of the residents there. He also showed me the community center and some possible locations for the purifier. The community center is really beautiful! It is clear that they already have put in a lot of work there. There is a soccer field with grass and goals, a concrete basketball court with two basketball goals, and two buildings. Half of both of the buildings are finished. In one building, there are rooms for meetings, a little library, a room for clothes that they sell at cheap yard sale prices, and a room with computers where the children can use the internet. In the other building there are bathrooms and a little chapel with pews, kneelers, a cross, and a painting of the Virgin Mary. ¡Qué padre! I was really impressed with the community center and I’m already in love with it.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
My first day in Mérida!
It was difficult to say goodbye to my family and friends, but everyone did their best to make me feel less anxious. Becky, Wendy, Brooke, Jacob, and Jeannie met Mom, Jonathon, and me at O’Charleys before we went to the airport, which was a pleasant surprise organized by my big brother. I was too nervous to eat and I felt like I was going to throw up... good thing for take-home boxes. After we ate everyone prayed over me, which was really reassuring. Mark, Bob, and Theresa met us at the airport and they prayed over me too and gave me lots of encouragement. Then Mark called the EDGE water training school where a team was getting ready to go on their own installation trip. Kurtis put the phone on speaker and they prayed for me too. It was all really nice.
The flights went very well. There was a bit of turbulence, but nothing to get worried about. When I found my way to my gate at Houston, there were two other Centre students waiting there and it was a relief to see some familiar places and know I was in the right place. Five other interns showed up and we all took the same flight to Mérida. It took a little while to get through the lines at customs, but there were no problems. I was so happy when I got to the baggage claim and both my suitcase and the purifier were there! I didn’t mind the hassle of pulling them through the line at all! Genny, the Centre professor who organized our internships, was waiting there for us and helped us to the bus that took us to our hotel. I checked in, got settled, and then went in search of wireless internet and water – I was dying of thirst and ready to put my loved ones at ease. They have wireless on the ground level in the lobby, so I got on Skype, but water was nowhere to be found. Luckily I mentioned this to another Centre intern and he gave me some of his.
This morning I got up at 7:30, showered, and went down to breakfast at the hotel. Fresh fruit, scrambled eggs with ham, plantains, and a tiny glob of refried beans. It was tasty, but I couldn’t eat all of it. After breakfast we met with Genny and our guides and they talked to us about Mérida and some of the rules and customs here. Then we went on a tour of downtown, which was really neat. Our tour guide, Manuel, took us to the governor’s office and showed us these huge murals that told the history of the Yucatán and the Mayan people. Then we went to look at the Cathedral, which is extremely old (if my memory weren’t so bad, I would tell you how old it is). We only got to look at the outside though because they were having mass. I was sad that I couldn’t go – I can’t wait to experience the mass here. We walked around el centro a little more and then got back on the colorful, open-air bus to return to the hotel and get on a big, air-conditioned tour bus to go to Progreso, which is a beach about half an hour from Mérida. We ate at a restaurant right next to the beach. Some people didn’t get their food for a really long time because the waiters got confused about our order. For an appetizer we had ceveche, which is rice with raw shrimp, onions, and some kind of tangy sauce. I tried it but didn’t like it. For my entre, I had breaded fish and rice, which was really good. Even though I think we were all full, we had coconut ice cream for dessert. All of this was paid for by Centre, by the way! :-) We were supposed to be able to swim but by the time we finally got done with the meal, we only had about twenty minutes before we had to leave, so we went down to the beach and put our feet in the water a little. It was really cold, though. We got back on the bus and headed back toward Mérida to visit some Mayan ruins called Dzibichaltun. It was really neat – archaeologists discovered a building that really shows how advanced the Maya were. It’s called the building of the seven dolls because they found seven tiny figurines inside. During the fall equinox from about 10 minutes before and 10 minutes after 6:00 in the morning, the sun shines precisely through the front and back doorways of the building! There are a bunch of other structures still in place, too. After we saw that building we went to the other end of the park to see the cenote, which is a spring. The water was so blue! At one end of the cenote the water is about 3-5 feet deep, then goes to about 10 feet deep in the middle. At the far end, it becomes 140 feet deep! They sent scuba divers down there and found a bunch of pottery, some human bones, and other stuff. Can you believe that people are allowed to swim in the cenote? That would never happen in the United States because we would be too worried about preserving it and it would be too much of a liability. The others were really upset that we didn’t have time to swim – the park is supposed to close at 5:00 but they started telling us to leave at about 20 after four. I guess the park officials were ready to leave...
So we went back to the hotel and relaxed for a little while. Then we all got together to go out to eat. Mérida is very different than any city I have ever seen. Every Saturday and Sunday they close down the streets of the downtown area to traffic and have a huge party. People set up booths to sell stuff and restaurants set up tables in the street where people can eat. There are people playing music all around and people are everywhere. The group went to a restaurant that had tables set up outside. I ordered a coke and a steak burrito. My food took forever to come because the waiter gave my plate to someone else and told her it was the different kind of burrito that she ordered. It’s a good thing the people watching provided a lot of entertainment. I saw a couple stop in the middle of the street – with people walking all around them – to dance to a song that the band was playing. I saw a 7-year-old selling cigarettes. I saw a woman walking around selling stuff while she was breastfeeding. And this one takes the cake: an old man was walking around smoking a cigarette. He would puff on it some, then flip it into his mouth without touching it, make chewing motions, then flip it out again – still lit – and puff some more. He was walking around trying to get tips for his trick. Interesante, no?
The flights went very well. There was a bit of turbulence, but nothing to get worried about. When I found my way to my gate at Houston, there were two other Centre students waiting there and it was a relief to see some familiar places and know I was in the right place. Five other interns showed up and we all took the same flight to Mérida. It took a little while to get through the lines at customs, but there were no problems. I was so happy when I got to the baggage claim and both my suitcase and the purifier were there! I didn’t mind the hassle of pulling them through the line at all! Genny, the Centre professor who organized our internships, was waiting there for us and helped us to the bus that took us to our hotel. I checked in, got settled, and then went in search of wireless internet and water – I was dying of thirst and ready to put my loved ones at ease. They have wireless on the ground level in the lobby, so I got on Skype, but water was nowhere to be found. Luckily I mentioned this to another Centre intern and he gave me some of his.
This morning I got up at 7:30, showered, and went down to breakfast at the hotel. Fresh fruit, scrambled eggs with ham, plantains, and a tiny glob of refried beans. It was tasty, but I couldn’t eat all of it. After breakfast we met with Genny and our guides and they talked to us about Mérida and some of the rules and customs here. Then we went on a tour of downtown, which was really neat. Our tour guide, Manuel, took us to the governor’s office and showed us these huge murals that told the history of the Yucatán and the Mayan people. Then we went to look at the Cathedral, which is extremely old (if my memory weren’t so bad, I would tell you how old it is). We only got to look at the outside though because they were having mass. I was sad that I couldn’t go – I can’t wait to experience the mass here. We walked around el centro a little more and then got back on the colorful, open-air bus to return to the hotel and get on a big, air-conditioned tour bus to go to Progreso, which is a beach about half an hour from Mérida. We ate at a restaurant right next to the beach. Some people didn’t get their food for a really long time because the waiters got confused about our order. For an appetizer we had ceveche, which is rice with raw shrimp, onions, and some kind of tangy sauce. I tried it but didn’t like it. For my entre, I had breaded fish and rice, which was really good. Even though I think we were all full, we had coconut ice cream for dessert. All of this was paid for by Centre, by the way! :-) We were supposed to be able to swim but by the time we finally got done with the meal, we only had about twenty minutes before we had to leave, so we went down to the beach and put our feet in the water a little. It was really cold, though. We got back on the bus and headed back toward Mérida to visit some Mayan ruins called Dzibichaltun. It was really neat – archaeologists discovered a building that really shows how advanced the Maya were. It’s called the building of the seven dolls because they found seven tiny figurines inside. During the fall equinox from about 10 minutes before and 10 minutes after 6:00 in the morning, the sun shines precisely through the front and back doorways of the building! There are a bunch of other structures still in place, too. After we saw that building we went to the other end of the park to see the cenote, which is a spring. The water was so blue! At one end of the cenote the water is about 3-5 feet deep, then goes to about 10 feet deep in the middle. At the far end, it becomes 140 feet deep! They sent scuba divers down there and found a bunch of pottery, some human bones, and other stuff. Can you believe that people are allowed to swim in the cenote? That would never happen in the United States because we would be too worried about preserving it and it would be too much of a liability. The others were really upset that we didn’t have time to swim – the park is supposed to close at 5:00 but they started telling us to leave at about 20 after four. I guess the park officials were ready to leave...
So we went back to the hotel and relaxed for a little while. Then we all got together to go out to eat. Mérida is very different than any city I have ever seen. Every Saturday and Sunday they close down the streets of the downtown area to traffic and have a huge party. People set up booths to sell stuff and restaurants set up tables in the street where people can eat. There are people playing music all around and people are everywhere. The group went to a restaurant that had tables set up outside. I ordered a coke and a steak burrito. My food took forever to come because the waiter gave my plate to someone else and told her it was the different kind of burrito that she ordered. It’s a good thing the people watching provided a lot of entertainment. I saw a couple stop in the middle of the street – with people walking all around them – to dance to a song that the band was playing. I saw a 7-year-old selling cigarettes. I saw a woman walking around selling stuff while she was breastfeeding. And this one takes the cake: an old man was walking around smoking a cigarette. He would puff on it some, then flip it into his mouth without touching it, make chewing motions, then flip it out again – still lit – and puff some more. He was walking around trying to get tips for his trick. Interesante, no?
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