Blog 1 Merida

January 10, 2016

Blog 1

Merida, Yucutan, Mexico

 

Hola Amigos y Amigas!!

 

Well, here we are in Merida, Mexico, in the Yucutan to volunteer once again.  This time, we will be working with HST (El Hombre Sobre la Tierra), who have for the past 20 years or so have been working with the Maya to help them develop and maintain a better quality life, especially regarding the sustainment of natural resources as well as teaching them other things to work at so they do not have to depend solely on the land.  Here is their web site:  www.elhombresobrelatierra.org

 

We’ll tell you more in a bit, and of course in later blogs.  Some of you may remember that we were here in 2007 with a group of people from AJWS and Temple Beth Am in Seattle to help build (physically) an eco-tourism project.  We will work on that again while here, but not with our brawn but rather with our brains.  Yes, our brains are still good.

 

We are living in a very nice 2-bedroom house in Merida completely furnished and with a nice swimming pool, and with the 90 plus degree heat we have been having, it is nice.  Each room has a ceiling fan, including the bathroom and the seating area outside by the pool, and the bedrooms are air conditioned but we haven’t needed it yet.  The area of town in which we live is named Brisas and it is about a 10 minute drive to the office and a 20 minute drive to the city center.

 

The upstairs of the house is another apartment in which a nice young woman, Duli lives.  Even though the two apartments have separate entrances, we can go to her apartment, and she to ours via a circular stairway between us which has no locked doors!  So far so good.

 

HST ‘s office is in the house where the Director and the founder live, and we work with them, and with two other women.  In addition, there are about 30 or so more people in the field who work in the various Maya villages served by HST.  We haven’t been to Muchucuxa yet this time, but will be going sometime later this month.  One of the projects we are starting to get involved with is the marketing of the eco-tourism program there.  We will also be helping to develop a student housing center here in Merida for Maya college and university students.

 

When we were here in 2007 we became friendly with a nice man named Primitivo, and lo and behold, his son Wilen is working for HST now.  Very nice young guy who just became a father.

 

So far we have been greeted with hugs and kisses.  In fact, everyone is greeted with a hug and kiss.  Very nice indeed!  Not only are people very warm and friendly but they try to feed us all the time. Food is great and we are certainly enjoying it. People are friendly and helpful everywhere.  We feel comfortable and safe.  It seems that not many people speak English, including the police who have stopped me (Peter) twice.  Once because I was holding a cell phone ( and did not have my seat belt on) to use the GPS and once because they saw me come out of a tavern (thought it was a restaurant) and asked if I had been drinking beer.  Me?  Drink beer?  Hahaha!

 

There are a lot of very fancy malls here, just like home with Costcos, Walmarts, etc., and we have found a nice couple of supermarkets in them, but we are also trying to buy fruits and vegetables from local markets, including street vendors who come around the streets selling cakes and ice cream.

 

Merida is celebrating its 474^th birthday this month with a month long “Merida Fest”- went to a piano concert there today given by the bosses son. He plays very well and will be going to London in the fall to complete his masters.

 

We are driving around in our “Mexicana Bomba”, a beaten up VW, but it works – sort of, and beggars can’t be choosers.  It was lent to us by the people at HST and they were very nice to do it.  Now all we have to do it keep the policia from stopping us too many more times.  We heard that the Mexican jails aren’t too nice!! Peter does the driving and I (Hinda) am the navigator, thank goodness for the Google Maps GPS.

 

So that’s it for now.

 

Hasta luego,

 

Peter and Hinda