Clases de íngleis y ¡una fíesta!

So we began our English classes two days ago in the community of Guadelupe de Plaso Blanco. There were ten young students and two adults. All are members of the town´s church choir. In our first cass we covered letters A-J and the numbers up to 15. Poco a poco... We are meeting daily from 6 to 8 pm. Today we played a few games, got up to the letter T and the number 20 and did a lot of laughing. It was good fun.

Nuestro grupo de ìnglies en Guadelupe

This evening I visited the community of Valencienita to work out the times for the English groups in that community. I was fortunate enough to spend some time with Chuncho again. We sat down with ten young students and worked out good times for classes. Looks like 11-1 in the afternoon daily as well. Valencienita is un poco mas further but still a mangable bike ride. I am pretty happy about that.

I also got to witness the commencement of a savings group in the community of Guadelupe. Lead by Guillermina, much of my english class is a part of the Savings Group of Jose Luis. Every Tuesday until the middle of December they are meeting to deposit their savings into a box. One person has the box and lock, the other has the key. Then at the end of December they are opening the box and all the money is going to support the community´s yearly festival on the first of January. There are dozens of these groups in the Irapuato area, many of which were started by PLAMAC.

The Savings Group de Jose Luis en Guadelupe

The contract

In Guadelupe they have two festivals every year. One in January dedicated to Our Lady of Guadelupe, and one on June 29th dedicated to San Pablo. Mary is one of the adults in the English group and the animatador (leader) of the newly formed savings group in Guadelupe. She is incredibly warm and helpful and was my guide through the festival. I am trying to get to know the community better and this was a good opportunity to meet a lot of people. It also spurred a lot of people to ask what an out of place gringo is doing in the tiny community of Guadalupe!

There is as odd tradition called La Carrera de Pollo. At this festival there are races for live chickens. The distance is about the length of a soccer field. Man I have lost a step or two since high school... It was still great fun. The whole town watches and cheers and jeers.

My daily commute

Fransisco el presidente de PLAMAC y su novia Betty

Guillermina and I spent a weekend at a development group for farmers in the pretty down of Dolores Hidalgo. They group discussed better farming techniques and better selling practices. This is the family of Mary and they hosted us for the weekend. They are an amazing family who gave us all of what little they had. I am very lucky to have gotten to have known them, even if only for a weekend.

Take care all and thank you for reading...

Irapuato y la familia de PLAMAC

I arrived in Irapuato two days ago and was greeted by the Lopez family, an incredibly hospitable family who are the foundation of PLAMAC, the organization that promotes women´s savings groups, microfinance projects, rights, and education in the state of Guanujato. I am fortunate enough to spend the next six weeks with this incredibly kind family.

El Centro de Irapuato

El Mercado Hidalgo

Un mural magnifica

I am living in Guillermina and her son Francisco´s home. Francisco is the president of PLAMAC and Guillermina has been a part of the organization since the beginning. They both have full time jobs outside of their responsibilities at PLAMAC.

Mì habitacion en la casa de Guillermina y Francisco

Guillermina´s sister, Silvia, lives right next door and is another big part of the organization. Last week Silvia, her husband, and their son Carlos opened a restaurant in front of their house to provide income for the family and for PLAMAC. Both families are incredibly patient with my sub-par Spanish, however I can tell in just a matter of two days my Spanish has gotten a bit better...

Silvia en su cocina y la cocina de su restaurante

El restaurante de la familia de Silivia, La Casa del Buen Cafe

Silvia cocina comida para la familia. Mì almuerzo, tacos fritos con frijoles y queso. ¿Que rico!

When I arrived Francisco, Silvia, and I dicussed what kind of work I could help out with despite my short short time here. I am going to be setting up english classes in two communities for young men and women interested in learning english relevent to their certain trade or that is of interest to them. I am also going to set up a system for tracking the money saved in the dozens of svaings groups PLAMAC supports. I say I´m going to but what I really mean is that I am hoping in my short month I can make these things happen. We´ll see!

I have visited two communties so far, one called Guadalupe Pase Blanco and the other Violentia. They are both about thirty mintues outside of the city. In both of the communities I have met utterly incredible women. In Violentia, Chuncho had nothing more than a roof and a sheet of plastic that served as a bed for her children. However after taking out a small loan twenty years ago and learning how to read, write, and do basic math Chuncho now owns the largest store in Violentia and hosts the weekly savings meetings and any other functions in the communtiy.

Guillermina, Silvia, una joven de la comunidad, y Chuncho

Silvia told me how important these womens groups have been for these communities. They provide a forum for women to discuss their shared problems and develop solutions as a group. Further they promote education in the pursuit of bettering not only the women´s lives, but the lives of their children and husbands. This has had a profound impact on the way women are treated in the communties PLAMAC serves. Women are being treated with respect by not only their husbands, but by the other men in the community. These groups are stamping out the Machismo stigma that has sadly been such a strong part of Latin American culture.

Mì coche por el mes y una vista de Irapuato

I am very happy to be here in Irapuato with such a kind family. I truly hope that in the short time I am here I can do what I can to help this utterly important organization.

Ejército de Salvación, El Hogar de Esperanza

I was lucky enough to spend two days at El Hogar de Esperanza, a homless shelter run by the Salvation Army of Mexico. I swung by el hogar a few days before and they offered me a bed for two days so that I could help out and experience the shelter. Before I go on, my experience would not have been nearly as rich if I was not welcomed to el hogar in the manner that I was... There are four permanent volunteers there who were extremely hospitable.

Marco, Marteen, y mí mejor amigo Wilmur (Israel no esta). Wilmur lived in the states for 13 years and I spent a lot of time with him. He could speak perfect english but in order to help me learn, he spoke only spainsh with me (except when we were moving a couch... then he needed to tell me what to do!)

Las camas del voluntarios

Anyway, my first afternoon there I helped prepare and serve a meal for the officers of Mexico Citys Salvation Army chapter. It was a good intro and I got to meet some very very good people who are doing some incredible stuff here. There was mass and then we ran over to let the men in around eight. There are 40-45 men that are there every night. They all have responsibilities as far as clean-up goes.

La cena... Pollo con huevos, frijoles, zanahorias, y tortillas

Las camas del hombres

A question I caught in passing but that I think speaks volumes of el hogar occured right as all the men sat donw for dinner. One of the men asked, ¿Donde esta Danny? (Where is Danny?) Everybody looked around and eventually Danny cruched his way in ten seconds later. The men truly feel like a family, and I think that is crucial in the construction of a shelter.

The shelter, kitchen, and distribution center is run by a man and his wife. However his kids are always around. The whole operation seems a bit like a family project. Further, nuns are constantly stopping by to help with various projects. My second afternoon I helped make sandwiches as take away meals for the men. It was nice, it reminded me of the Le Moyne College Sandwich Markers...

Isebella, la hija de la familia

Una hermana haciendo sandwiches. ¡Tenemos una mejor sandwich programa a Le Moyne!

The second evening I helped serve again, cleaned up and then headed to bed. The following morning we got up, cleaned up until 830, ate breakfast, and then helped in the distribution center until 3. The distribution center funds the shelter. Wilmur and I spent the afternoon moving couches and stoves from peoples houses to the center. I got to spend a lot of time talking with Wilmur, practicing spanish, and truly enjoying myself. We then ate lunch and caught the end of the spain vs. honduras game. (Wilmur is from Honduras and was a bit unhappy with the 2-0 loss). I then said goodbye and made my way back to La Casa.

After my first night at el hogar I had to book it back to La Casa early to catch a bus with some of the refugees who are staying at La Casa to a fundraising soccer tournament. The tournament was to raise money for a growing refugee program here in Mexico City. It was very neat seeing the refugess from La Casa meet other refugees. One fella John-Luis, a refugee from Cameroon and guest at La Casa, was so excited to meet other French speaking people that I swear he almost cried.

Un lugar para programas de refugess en una parque

Azul vs. Rojo

Mexico lost this morning to Uruguay... People were pretty upset.

Thank you for reading everyone. My mom is headed for Peru tomorrow. Please keep her in your thoughts for these next few days!

La Ciudad de México: DF Parte 1

What a neat city. I am staying at La Casa de Los Amigos, a very cool hostel set up by the Quakers. If anyone is planning on a trip to DF, which you should, I would certainly suggest La Casa de Los Amigos: http://www.casadelosamigos.org/

I took the long walk to visit the Basilica of Guadalupe. It is quite place...

La iglesia pude tener 40,000 gentes.

An anti-abortion exhibit. It was inside of the church.

DF y la Basilica

Futbol is kind of a big deal here. And when Mexico plays in the World Cup vs. France the city comes to a hault and everyone watches and cheers and, fortunatley for Mexicos sake, celebrates. I was lucky enough to watch the game at the Zocolo, the main plaza in DF.

¡Que bueño!

I made my way to the Museum of Anthropology today. I knew that USA was in the middle of their game with Slovania so I booked it to the museum caf the moment I got there and caught the last 15 min of the game with the caf staff. They were stoked to have an American there. One fella had lived in America before and was swearing his head off when USA tied it up. He was much more excited, still swearing, but excited when the refs took away USAs winning goal...

I then got to spend time in one of the coolest museums I have ever been in. Ive never been a big museum person but this was something else...

I found out some information about a local homeless shelter that serves many of the homeless men of DF. I swung by there and got a tour. Ill be staying two nights there serving meals, talking with the guests and just oberserving and learning. I am quite excited.

These bike share stations are all over the city. Awesome.

Haha, I dont know

A neat statue in the Zocolo plaza

Gracias todos y hasta luego...

Asociación de Mujeres de Peten Ixqik y ¡Hola México!

After running around for a couple hours I was finally able to find El Asociación de Mujeres de Peten Ixqik, a womens cooperative ProLiteracy used to support. I just swung by to see the good work they are doing. And it is quite good...

Ellas son en el segundo piso de este edificio.

They have existed since 1997 teaching the women of Peten and beyond about womens rights, violence in the home, and adult basic literacy. Their main program teaching local teachers about womens rights and violence in the home so that teachers can then teach their students this valuable information.

Partidos por los niños en las escuelas

They hold frequent meetings for local women about womens rights and violence in the home as well as basic literacy classes. Women involved often bring much of what they learned back to their own communities.

I was blessed to spend a few hours with the women of Ixqik. They had no idea I would be stopping by and due to my poor poor spanish, it took some time to explain to them about ProLiteracy and the past partnership; but regardless, they treated me like a son. It was a very neat experience. Google search Asociación de Mujeres de Peten Ixqik for more info (I cant copy and paste...)

Anyway, that allowed me to head to Mexico City (DF) a bit early. So after a sleepless night in the hostel I headed out and caught a 5 AM bus to Palenque, Mexico, about two hours North of the Guatemalan border.

Small technical difficulties on route to Palenque...

¡México!

I got to Palenque around one in the afternoon. The bus to DF was an overnight that did not leave until six. So I checked emails and walked around the city a bit. However I met a fella named Esteban. Esteban was crippled and headed on a bus to Cancun to visit family. He had no wheelchair and moved by literally sliding around on the floor. After talking to him for some time he took our a small paper with several parables from the Bible. He handed it to me and asked me to read them. He then told me how lucky he is to have the chance to go to Church each and everyday. That floored me. It was a very humbling and thought provoking conversation that I certainly will not forget for sometime...

Me gusta la efuerza...

The bus ride to DF was very comfortable. I had a Greyhound bus style row to myself and I was sitting across from two nuns who work with womens cooperatives all over the country. They were unbelievably nice and super patient with my Spanish. I told them about my Great Aunt Marie and the work that I doing these upcoming months. It was quite nice. A great alternative to the horrendously violent and gory movie the bus was showing...

So I got into DF this morning at 630 and checked into a small hotel so that I could take a quick nap and shower. (It had been like three days since my last one, yikes!) Then I walked around a bit of DF. I cannot wait to see more of it!

This is the Zocolo, the main plaza in DF. It is quite busy and it is only South Africa vs. Uruguay. Tomorrow Mexico is playing France... Its going to be great

¡Adiós todos!

Tikal, Flores, y ¡Adiòs Grupo!

After a big breakfast and a group picture, I said goodbye to my fellow classmates. They are headed back to Guatemala City this afternoon on a looong bus ride and then tomorrow they are heading back to Syracuse. Pray that they have a safe bus ride and flight. My time in Guatemala with the group flew by! While I am excited to begin my work for ProLiteracy, I would be lieing if I was to say that I did not have a big ol´knot in my stomach as I saw the bus drive away this morning!

¡Adiòs mis amigos!

Anyway, yesterday as a group we headed to the ancient Mayan ruins of Tikal. They were extrodinary. Very pretty. I´ll let the pictures do the talking but it was a fantastic way to end my time with teh group and a very good way to say goodbye to Guatemala.

¡Encuentrè las turistas!

However I am staying two more days here in Flores, a small island just outside of San Elena. I need to check in with an old ProLiteracy partner. I believe they are about two miles away from the hostel I am staying at. Then On Wednesday I should make the long bus ride up to Mexico City. This afternoon I am going to head to the bus station to work out the best route. If I can´t find an easy route I suppose I will just bike my way there... just kidding dad!

La puente a Flores

My digs for the next few days

Hostel de Amigos



Take care everyone and thank you for reading!