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