Blog 3 Merida, Yucatan, Mexico

Blog 3

Merida, Yucatan, Mexico

February 8, 2016

Hi Friends and Family Throughout the World!!

We wanted to bring you up to date on what we have been up to here in Merida, Mexico.

The weather has changed dramatically.  From the mid to high 90’s to the mid 70’s. F.  And the nights are cool, even cold.  Hope it lasts, but who knows.  In the meantime, it is very pleasant for us, but for the locals, it is cold and people are wearing jackets and sweaters and closing windows, while we go around with a smile opening windows. One of the interesting things we have found in Merida is that there are old street signs on many of the old buildings in the city which were put up many years ago when most people were illiterate.  They are pictures, no words, i.e. an elephant for Elephant street.

Yesterday we had a “pool party potluck” for our office colleagues.  It turned out well – the weather was good, but too cool for swimming, and the food and ambiance, but mostly the talk was fun.  All had a good time including us.

We spent a great weekend in a city about 2.5 hours by bus from here.  Campeche.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Campeche is on the Gulf of Mexico.  It is about 500 years old, and the old part of the city is within the original city walls.  There is a “malecon”- a walk along the ocean with a lot of fresh seafood restaurants where we ate our best meal yet here in Mexico.  We had a red snapper cooked in banana leaves beneath the coals of a fire pit with local spices.  Mmmmmmm good!! We had such a good time and liked it so much we are going to take Margo there on Feb 20.

Just about an hour out of Campeche is a well preserved Mayan ruins which we visited in the cool (relatively) of the last Sunday morning we were there.  Not many people there yet, so it was really a nice visit to Edznas.  My, those Mayans built very high steps.  Either they were very tall – don’t think so, or ?????

The hotel we stayed in was originally a military barracks built in 1800 and the original structure is still used.  It was turned into a hotel in 1901, and so the floor and wall tiles are from that period.  We were only 2 blocks from the malecon.

We went to visit some of the villages that HST works with.  We were most excited to go back to visit the village of Muchucuxcah which we first visited in 2007 along with about 20 others from our temple to do some volunteer work helping to build an eco-tourism site.

Well, we are pleased to say that we received a warm and gracious welcome from some of those people we first met there in 2007, including a man whose name is Primitivo and his family.  We ate again in his home.  And although the temperature was very very hot, we had a great lunch of chicken soup.  Primitivo’s son, Wilen who we also met in 07 is now married with a baby son and you will see him in the photo accompanying this blog.

The eco – tourism site now has a big beautiful swimming pool, electricity, fans, and mosquito nets in the palapas.

We traveled through several villages where we were impressed with HST’s work including several first class sewing workshops which are now operating on a financially independent basis and making clothes for villagers, the police, school uniforms, etc,

The same with a carpentry shop which was started by HST and local people were trained and are working and selling their wares – all high quality.

We visited a school which is a middle school in the morning and a high school in the afternoon.  HST sends people out to the schools to teach the kids about growing vegetables, soil conservation, etc.

In another village we saw a fish pond for tilapia – some of which are used as food by the families and some are cooked and sold.One of the things we saw in the village for the first time, is meeting some featherless chickens.  We had never seen them before and thought they might be sick but the woman who owned them laughed at us and told us she just didn’t have enough money to buy them clothes.  These chickens actually are not supposed to have feathers.

All in all, a very long and productive visit.  HST has done and is doing a good job helping people in the village learn to become financially independent while still retaining their Mayan culture.

Speaking of Mayan culture, all of the people who live in the villages and their children speak Maya as their first language, and Spanish as their second, although not all speak Spanish.  However there are only one or two teachers who speak Maya, and not a single doctor!  Sound familiar to some of you?  Yes, to us also.

We are excited to tell you that the international NGO, Vitamin Angels, accepted our application which we helped with, and starting the end of this week will be sending much needed vitamins to children and pregnant and lactating mothers to all of the villages in the states of Yucatan and Campeche that HST works with.  We are really proud.  And they also want us to identify other local NGO’s that they can help.

Our weekly staff meetings mostly created by Hinda are already having an impact, and people are coming together in the office to discuss, plan, decide, implement, etc.  Agenda items are suggested ahead of time, and people are interested and very participatory in the meeting.  We just hope it keeps up after we leave, but much of the stuff we have done elsewhere has continued, so why not here too? 

We have been taking busses as we go away for weekends and find them very modern and comfortable.  Air Conditioned, bathrooms, TV’s with soap operas or bad movies blasting, etc.  But it is a comfortable and safe way to travel and we can read or just see the countryside.

Once again, we find everyone friendly and helpful.  Mexico is a friendly place.  We feel very safe and welcome by both friends and strangers.  We are finding a lot of interesting food to eat, especially Yucatecan food, although often when we order it is by trial and error, or pointing at someone else’s plate.  We do eat very often in a small taqueria just a block from the office where we have made friends with the owner who tries to learn a new English word each time we come, and we a Spanish word.  By the way, I, Peter am getting along fairly well in Spanish.  Working for 3 years in Seattle in a Latino organization helped as well as my two years of high school Spanish, and even my working in the NYC Youth House with so many Puerto Rican kids many many years ago.

Well, seems like we have rambled on too much, so let’s stop for now.  We are waiting for our friend Margo from Seattle to join us for 10 days starting this coming Wednesday evening.  Bienvenida a Merida Margo!!

Love and Hugs,

Hinda and Peter