La Vida Cotidiana

Now that our time in Mérida is more than half over, I feel like we are starting to appreciate more the things that we will miss when we leave, like our host families, the students we have met at La Universidad Modelo, the food (most of it), and the frequent opportunities to speak or hear Spanish.

This past week our group visited a clinic called Clinica Esperanza. The clinic was founded in the 1960s by 2 young doctors from the United States to provide health care for people in need. The once 2-room clinic has grown considerably in size to a large clinic that cares for expectant mothers and their babies. The clinic was founded as a Christian ministry, and the majority of the doctors and nurses who work at the clinic are Christians. Patients do have to pay to use the clinic, but the cost of the services are very low and the quality of the care is often quicker and better than that provided by the government health system.

Today at La Modelo there was a mixed Day of the Dead and Halloween party on the 2nd floor. There were Day of the Dead altars set up along with what looked like a "haunted classroom". Halloween isn't celebrated by everyone here, as it isn't really a Mexican holiday, but there were some students who dressed up in costumes. These next few days I should get a chance to see how Yucatecans observe Day of the Dead...so, more on that in the future.

Tomorrow night our group is going to a soccer game at Mérida's stadium, which is actually only a few blocks away my house. Supposedly tomorrow night is a "ladies night", so the 19 girls in our group should get in for free. I don't think I've ever gone to a professional soccer game in the USA, so I'm curious as to how things will go. Hopefully the home team wins and everyone can go home happy, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

The front of La Catedral

This bus company reminds you to "respect the ladies" (also not to spit on the floor, not to leave trash on the bus, to pay the fare in smaller bills or coins, to pay upon boarding...etc)

Downtown in front of the Cathedral - an easy to remember meeting spot

Studying? (OK...this was posed)

Restaurant at Progreso - if you order drinks there, you get free botanas (snacks)

El Aniversario and Mamma Mia

This weekend was the celebration of the 123rd anniversary of the founding of El Divino Salvador, the church that I attend here in Mérida. On Friday night there was a concert where all of the church choirs and the choir from a local seminary performed. On Saturday, I woke up early because I was told by my family that we would be leaving the house at 7:00 AM to drive to a retreat site in Porvenir, a town on the coast. However...I figured that we wouldn't be leaving until later when at 7:00 I was still the only one awake in the house. We ended up leaving at 8:30 for Porvenir. When we arrived, there was a group meeting with singing and a message from the guest speaker, then time for games, swimming, and then lunch. I really enjoyed the day. I got a chance to talk to quite a few people who I had been seeing at church for the past two months and to enjoy the cooler weather on the coast.

This past Thursday some students from Calvin went with some of our Universidad Modelo classmates to another university's production of Mamma Mia. All of the songs were sung in Spanish, which sounded kind of weird at times, but it was fun. To me, telenovelas (soap operas), the news, movies, and plays in Mexico are sometimes a little more "dramatic" than their counterparts in the United States, and Mamma Mia seemed a little exaggerated at some points but still fun.

About 90% of the population of Mexico is "Mestizo", meaning a descendant of both indigenous American people (like the Maya in the Yucatan) and Spaniards (0r other Europeans). However, there are times when the 10% of the population that is creole/criollo (completely of European descent) is very visible. For example, the audience and the cast of Mamma Mia was overwhelmingly European-looking. Once I left the theater and walked about 4 blocks to my bus stop, nearly all of the people walking on the street were Mestizo (well...except for me). Anyway, just something I've been noticing about life here - that different cultural groups are somewhat segregated like the are in the United States.

The beach at Porvenir

Waiting for Mamma Mia to start

Church retreat meeting room

Only 2 months left...

Yesterday marked the halfway mark in my time in Mexico, so I thought I would think about some of the unique things about life here that I have gotten used to:

1. Greetings between friends often include a kiss on the cheek, and people are much more likely to walk into a room and say "Good day" or "Good afternoon" to whoever is already there

2. Tortillas are very important. My family almost always has a stack of them sitting somewhere, and they are served with most meals (unless we are eating hot dogs or a sandwich). People use tortillas almost like forks, taking pieces of meat into the tortilla and eating part of the tortilla with the meat. I occasionally eat my food this way, but usually I prefer a fork so that I can taste my food better (and not add a lot of extra calories from carbs)

3. There are a lot of "Oxxos" all over Mérida. I pass by at least 3 on the walk between the bus stop for my house and the bus stop to go to the university...which is about a 4 block walk. An Oxxo is a convenience store kind of like 7-11, and they can be very useful if you want to buy a snack and break a large bill into smaller bills or coins. Riding the bus and shopping at small stores is much easier if you have smaller bills or exact change.

4. University classes often start late, sometimes even 20 minutes late. There is often a lot of chatting amongst students during class. I haven't really gotten used to these aspects of life here...but at least they don't surprise me anymore.

5. Whenever I or members of our group are walking near the center of town we are frequently asked if we want to buy hamacas/hammocks. I sometimes wonder if the hammock vendors think that all foreign-looking people come to Mérida simply to buy hammocks. I guess that since most people who live here already have one...they may as well ask us if we want one too.

6. When one side of the street has shade...the sidewalk is never wide enough for all of the people who want to walk on the shady side.

7. When it gets below 85 degrees, the Mérida natives often wear a light jacket.

8. If a whole chicken is bought, the whole chicken is cooked. A few days ago I opened up the pot that had the chicken and vegetable stew for lunch, and I almost dropped the lid right back onto the pot because there was a chicken foot in there! I asked my host sister if anyone in the family if anyone liked eating the feet, and she said no, so perhaps the chicken foot was fed to the dog...I'm not really sure.

9. The ants here are ferocious. The garbage in the kitchen has to be taken out 2 or 3 times per day to keep the ants from swarming it. I had the misfortune of leaving a candy wrapper in a shopping bag in my room once...let's just say that I haven't repeated that mistake.

10. There are some random things that are written in English. Lots of t-shirts have words or phrases in English, I have seen a sign for a "Car Wash", the restaurant I went to today had a menu that seemed to be a mixture of Spanish and English, etc.

This past weekend I attended a 45th wedding anniversary party for the host parents of my friend Maria. There was a church service that was almost like a second wedding with dinner and cake afterwards. It was a lot of fun! This coming weekend is the celebration of the 123rd anniversary of my church's founding, so more to come on that later.

At a Mexican "Hobby Lobby"

McDonald's in Mexico serves jalepeños instead of ketchup?

I had my hair done for the party just for fun - at the cost of less than $11.50 USD

Maria, Megan and I at the anniversary party

Church sanctuary decorated for the anniversary service

Cold(?) Weather has arrived

Last night the low was 75 degrees and everyone (including me) kept on remarking on how cool it was. Today in church there was quite a breeze coming in the windows and the temperature was about 80....and again, everyone was remarking on how cool it is. It's pretty amazing how having the daytime temperature at 97 with high humidity makes 82 and sunny feel...cold. I hope that I survive coming back to the Midwest in the middle of December! Never fear, the temperature here will be going right back to where it was before this little "cold snap", but I look forward to having a few more "cool days" in the future.

Playa del Carmen and other stuff

This past weekend, 16 out of our group of 23 spent the weekend at Playa del Carmen. Playa is a 4 hour plus drive from Mérida, but it was nice to have a break.

Other than going to the beach, things have pretty much settled into a routine here. I get up pretty early on most weekdays to go to class or the secondary school where I observe one day per week. I usually come back to my house for lunch by 2 in the afternoon, then I usually work on homework or take a nap, then some days I go back to the center of Merida for class with the Calvin group or to tag along with my host sister when she goes shopping or to a church meeting or other activity.

Here are a few pictures from the past few weeks:

The bus ride to Playa del Carmen...when you have more than 4 hours to kill, looking at the clouds becomes fun again

Playa del Carmen

Maria and I at the beach

Drying clothes on the line is fun...especially when it doesn't rain!

This is the second large bag of grapefruit like this that my family has bought since I got here - I'm really glad that I like grapefruit.