First Day of Work

I started "working" the very first day after I arrived. There was a big celebration in the Cathedral to commemorate the 100th birthday of a beloved local bishop, Sergio Méndez Arceo, who passed away 10 years ago. The Cuernavaca Center for Intercultural Dialogue on Development (CCIDD; the organization that I work for) was responsible for making sandwiches to feed the several hundred people who would come out to the midday ceremony. So my co-workers and I got up bright and early and whipped up a gazillion very delicious sandwiches. It was a great way to get to know everyone because all of my co-workers were involved and we talked casually while we worked. We finished with the sandwiches just in time to bring them to the Cathedral and go to Mass.

The Mass was absolutely beautiful. Bishop Sergio worked very closely with the indigenous population in the area, so the Mass incorporated many indigenous worship practices to honor his memory. For example, native women dressed in their traditional clothing began the Mass by dancing up the isle to the altar carrying urns filled with burning incense. They then danced around the altar to bless it. A huge entourage of priests, seminarians, and altar boys followed these women, and once the women had finished, two of the priest blew the ceremonial conch shells - a native practice that indicates the commencement of the ceremony. The music was performed by a Mariachi band, but the singers were indigenous men. These singers have a very particular sound - they don´t seem to sing in a major or minor key, and their sound is very gutteral, but at the same time nasily. I really enjoyed their music - if I can figure out how to download a link to an indigenous song, I´ll post it because it´s certainly worth listening to.

After the Mass, the several of the indigenous singers gave a concert and we passed out the sandwiches and Boings. Boing rivals Coca-Cola here as the preferred soda. It is natural fruit juices with carbonation. They even have fig and guava flavors! After the concert ended, the ceremony was over. My co-workers and I cleaned up, and then our day was done. It was Friday, so everyone went home. Kathy and I went out to eat, and then I turned in early.

My Arrival

I arrived in the Mexico City airport on Oct. 25th. Mexico City, or the "D.F." as it´s known colloquially in Cuernavaca, is the world´s largest city, and after flying over the city I don´t doubt it. It absolutely extends as far as the eye can see, stretching over mountains and the entire expanse of the vast valley formed by those mountains. Sadly, from the plane I could also see a thick layer of yellow-brown smog that perpertually hangs over the city. I could even smell it as the plane decended through the smog cloud - yea, gross.

My "supervisor", Kathy, came to pick me up at the airport and take me to Cuernavaca - an hour´s bus ride. I put supervisor in quotes because she greeted me with a big hug, and we live in the same complex, so she´s more or less adopted me as family. We arrived in Cuernavaca around 7:30 pm (the time difference is only an hour or so). I got settled in and we ordered pizza for dinner (a very traditional Mexican dish). After eating and talking a bit, we called it a day, and that was Day 1.

For those of you, like me, who are feeling-, rather than fact-oriented people, I´ll recount a bit of how I was feeling during that first day. For starters, I had to say good-bye to my Mom and my youngest sister at the airport and that royally sucked - to put it bluntly. At that point, I was ready to turn around. I had a great summer in my home city, Cincinnati, and in the few weeks before I left, I had realized what I was leaving behind, and I very quickly lost interest in moving for a year to a foreign place with a foreign language and foreign people. Honestly, the morning that I left, and especially during the preceding days, I was not even the slightest bit excited to go. So I was pretty grumpy while on my first plane to Houston. Fortunately, my attitude began to change slightly on the flight from Houston to Cuernavaca. I wouldn´t say I started to look forward to arriving, but at least I didn´t dread the experience. Once the plane hit ground in Mexico, I had fewer and fewer negative thoughts running through my head, and that horrible gut feeling that I had made a big mistake finally started to subside. The hug from Kathy helped a lot, and as the day came to an end, I became increasingly curious, even little excited, to explore my new surroundings.