A very late final update

The last Friday I was in Mérida went better than Thursday. We finally got to purify some water! I trained the women from about 8:30 to maybe 11:00 or so and that went well. Arturo dropped me off in El Centro to meet up with Kimmy, the same Centre intern who was supposed to come on Thursday, and take the bus with her back to CEMADE. So all of that went right and we got back to CEMADE a little after two. Except there were no kids. One finally showed up at about 2:50 but we didn’t know he was one of ours. When we were getting ready to leave we found out he was one of ours so we took him over to the purifier with us and talked to him for a few minutes. So all was not lost – just most of it!

Saturday morning two of my friends were supposed to come and talk to the kids from 9:00 to 12:00 and I was supposed to start training the women at 10:00. So we picked up my friends in El Centro but the kids didn’t show up until after 10:00 because the mom’s thought it didn’t start until 10:00. Arturo was driving around trying to round them all up, which helped a lot! My friends, Esther and Hannah, were really happy to help out and to see Zapata and the purifier. I’m really glad they and Kimmy were willing to come, too.

Training on Saturday went well too. Everyone tasted the water we purified the day before, which was really cool. You can see pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley/January24MoreTraining We purified another tank of water, but I knew the women didn’t feel comfortable enough purifying the water to be able to do it on their own, so I offered to come back Monday afternoon.

On Sunday my traveling buddy Hannah and I went on another adventure, this time to the cenotes at Cuzama. You have to check out my pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley/TheCenotesAtCuzamaJanuary25 Cenotes are underground bodies of water that you can swim in. We took a bus for about an hour and a half to the middle of nowhere. When we got off there were four or five guys with those bicycle taxi things waiting at the bus stop. One told us he would take us to the cenotes, which were 4 kilometers away, wait for us, and bring us back to the bus stop for only 100 pesos, which is less than $10. Hannah and I talked about it for a second and thought it through to be sure that he was legitimate. Then we decided that we couldn’t beat that price and it would be fun! So Gabriel, our driver, took us all the way to the cenotes and we had a nice conversation with him on the way. We knew it was a good sign when he didn’t ask for the money upfront. When we got to our destination, we realized that the mode of transportation to get back to the cenotes was a little different too. They had these narrow train tracks and carts (which they called “trucks”) that were pulled by horses. The driver would take us to each of the three cenotes and wait for us for half an hour at each. The trip would take about two hours and cost only 200 pesos. How cool!

I was blown away by the cenotes. I had no idea what to expect. To get to the first one, we had to climb down a ladder. It was pretty dark but I could still tell that the water was amazingly blue and you could see all the way to the bottom. Each of the cenotes were somewhere around 30 meters deep. It was amazing! I was a little nervous to get in the water at the first one because it’s kind of freaky to think about swimming in water that’s over 90 feet deep. But the temperature was perfect! You’d think it would be cold but it definitely wasn’t. Our half hour flew by and we were on to the second cenote! You went down stairs to get to it and there was more light. They had built a big wooden platform so people could jump off and there were huge tree roots hanging down from the ceiling – or the ground, however you want to look at it. We swam around for a while and then decided we wanted to try to jump. I was a little freaked out at first because it was pretty high, but some other people had been jumping off and they were just fine. So once I made up my mind I wasn’t afraid any more. We jumped off together the first time and then decided to take videos with my camera. You can see them on my picasa site. It was so much fun! And again our half hour flew by so we went on another 15 minute “truck” ride to the final cenote. You climbed down stairs to get to this one too and it had the most light of all three because the hole in the ground/ceiling was the largest. This cenote was also the longest. I swam all the way to the back wall, touched it, and then kicked off to get back to the front. It was dark back there and it freaked me out! There was also a really shallow part where they had poured some concrete to make a kind of kiddie pool. A family with some pretty young kids was there having a good time. I just can’t describe how beautiful the water was and my pictures online just don’t do it justice either. It was incredible.

When our time was up we took the truck back to where we started. We were happy to see that our driver was still there waiting for us. We tipped our truck driver an extra 20 pesos because we took a little longer in the cenotes than we were supposed to, and were on our way with Gabriel. We told him we had return bus ticket and asked him what time the bus came through. We would have enough time to get back to the bus stop in time, but not enough time to eat – and we were hungry! He told us he could take us to a restaurant that is near another cenote and then take us back to a taxi van that would take us back to Mérida that cost only 16 pesos. That sounded awesome to us, so that’s what we did. I was getting a little nervous about what kind of restaurant he was going to be taking us to because we were out in the middle of nowhere. But we finally arrived at a very touristy looking place and I was relieved. We passed the restaurant and Gabriel took us to another cenote. We were too hungry to swim, so we just went down to look at it and take some pictures. Gabriel took us to the restaurant and waited for us while we ate. I got a boring but tasty breaded chicken and Hannah got ceviche, a dish of shrimp, tomato, and onion that is common in Mexico. When we were done eating Gabriel took us back to where the bus had stopped earlier, where a van heading back to Mérida was waiting. We gave Gabriel 200 pesos and thanked him for taking such good care of us. The van was almost full but there was room in the very back seat for Hannah and me. We thought the van was full and were waiting to leave, but evidently there’s always room for more in Mexico. Two more people got in, for a total of about 20 people. After we got going we stopped and picked up another man who stood in the side aisle all hunched over for about 20 minutes. I’m sure his back was hurting. It was interesting end to an interesting day, to say the least.

On Monday morning I gave a presentation about my internship in front of my Centre professor and some of the other interns and went to Zapata in the afternoon to do a final day of training. And of course I have pictures of that day too: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdraley/TheLastDayJan26 It went well and I could tell that they were getting a better understanding of everything. As the sun was setting on my last day in Emiliano Zapata Sur, I was sad to see it go. Over the past three weeks the community had really found a special place in my heart and I felt truly honored to be able to work there and be part of a development project that is touching so many lives. The women went together to buy some cookies, chips, and cola as a little going away party for me, which was so sweet of them! We all hugged goodbye and they told me thanks. Then I rode away from Zapata for the last time. I had a lot of mixed feelings. I was happy to be going home but very sad to be leaving the community I had grown to love. I was glad I could connect with the women there but I regretted not getting closer to them. I was proud that we had accomplished so much in three short weeks, but ashamed that my Spanish wasn’t better. I couldn’t help but hope I could come back again.

I got up at about 5:30 on Tuesday to finish packing, eat breakfast, and say my goodbyes to the family. I told them, “hasta pronto,” which means “see you soon!” Arturo took me to the airport a couple hours early, which really wasn’t necessary because it took about 20 minutes to get to my gate. There were a bunch of other Centre students in the airport, which was a relief. I was afraid that the big storm was going to leave me stranded in Houston for a day or two, but God must have been smiling down on me because I got home to Louisville as scheduled a little before 8:00 on Tuesday night. I got home to mom’s safely before the big ice and snow storm started wreaking havoc, but mom lost power at about 1:00 a.m. Dad never lost power I went out there and played in the snow. So the weather didn’t give me the warmest welcome, but I’m still glad to be home!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings about my adventures in Mexico. I couldn’t have done this without your support, encouragement, and prayers. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart!