Mexico Day 2 - Simple Life

The way of life in Mexico is so amazing I can barely explain it. The culture is something that I’ve loved since the first day I came back in 2009. We were here only a week and I had already known that I wanted to come back very soon. There is a sense of familia and amistad that words can’t explain.

This is what I am greeted by every morning walking out my front door

In America one walks down the street on the phone or looking through their purse preoccupied with whatever they are doing at that specific point in time. Here people still have phones and still have purses but in a different sense. The phone is something to be used as a sense of communication, not entertainment or something to solve boredom. I haven’t seen a single iPhone or any smart phone for that matter besides those of the Americans visiting for the week in which case I see iPhones, iPads, Droids, etc.

The simplicity of my life right now is quite refreshing. The only Internet access I have is if I walk 100 meters across the front lawn into the cafetería and sit right outside the room where the router is located and I still get 2 bars at best.

Earlier today I went to post my thoughts from yesterday and realized that my entire blog was in Spanish and I thought that was simply spectacular. Granted, with Google Chrome’s capabilities I could easily translate the entire page into any spoken language on the face of the Earth but I don’t think I will. I’ve been speaking Spanish with every single person I encounter whether the speak English or Spanish so I figure why not?

In order to have clean water for brushing teeth, drinking, etc. I have a water cooler in my bathroom that I draw from with a yellow plastic cup that was here waiting for me when I moved in. My shower takes approximately 2.5 hours to get heated up which keeps my showers to about 5 minutes long.

I technically have two rooms to live in but one of them is full of mattresses....

 I no longer carry my iPod, wallet, and phone with me everywhere I go. I carry 1 thing in my pocket which is my single key to get into my room. A sense of humility is achieved when I realize that if were I to walk around with iPod in ear and cell phone in hand I would stick out like a sore thumb more so than I already do as the single most pale persona in the entire country right now.

I went out on an unexpected 6 hour journey today. One of the local staff asked me if I wanted to help a couple guys named Saul (Sah-ule) and Miguel move some wood. “Of course!” I said not knowing the adventures that lay ahead. As I entered the car I realized that neither of them really spoke much English and I knew this was going to be interesting. We drove about 10-15 minutes to one of the children’s homes to pick up what I thought would be a couple reams of wood maybe some 2x4’s. No. As we arrived we were met by a not a stack, not a pile, but a MOUNTAIN of wood. We picked up the wood and drove another 15 minutes to drop it off where we were met by a group of Mexicans that unloaded in minutes what took us quite a while to load.

“Whew! Glad that’s over with” I thought as we got back in the van. I was wrong. We stopped for lunch at a hole in the wall on the side of the street that had no name associated with it, just a big sign that read “TAMALES” in big red letters. Day 1 in Mexico and I’ve already had probably the best tamales I’ve had in my entire life. I have absolutely no clue what sketchy business could have been in them but I ate about 8 of them so we’ll find out soon enough. We got back in the car and headed BACK to children’s home for even MORE wood which literally took hours to load then finally drove back to the Back2Back campus.

As far as first days in foreign places go this takes the pastel. Last night I had that, “Holy crap, I’m going to be here for 3 months!” moment and I was over-thinking everything. What will it be like not seeing family? Not seeing friends? No “Top Gear” or “NY Ink” to watch? But today has put me at ease. As I prepare to make the walk to the office where the Internet signal resides there is one image in my mind which could explain this entire day. On the way home from getting wood trip #2 me and Miguel fell asleep in the truck while Saul was driving. As I drifted into the dreamworld and bobbed my head like an apple I was awoken by a loud scream, horn and jarring of the brakes. I wake up like out of an exorcism and am met by the hysterical laughter of Saul as he turns back onto the road completely fine.

Le amo México, con todo mi corazón.

-N8