Week with Family: Sunday

On Sunday we were on the go again. I hired a private tour guy to take the four of us to a town called Uman, the hacienda Yaxcopoil, and the mayan site of Uxmal. I had been to all three of those, but I was trying to have them see all parts of Mayan and Yucatacan history.

Mom climbed up 3 stairs to take the picture after dad, Neal, and I were getting down from climbing up to take a family picture.

Another picture of the four of us...

A beautiful picture that Neal took of the hacienda, Yaxcopoil.

This is part of the small market in Uman.

I think everyone enjoyed this day because the tour was in English and so my parents and Neal could ask any sorts of questions about the history or the henequen plantation. It was quite a day, but we loved spending the time together! When we got back, they helped me pack Neal's suitcase that I brought down here for all my stuff so they could take it back with them. Then we went to supper at a little restaurant even though they served appetizer portions. So, we came back and heated up our leftovers from our supper at the nice italian restaurant on Wednesday night. It was quite a planned and eventful weekend, but they were able to see cenotes (used to be a place of human sacrifice to the gods of the underworld), the city of Merida and all its history and architecture, the caribbean, ruins in Tulum, then a typical yucatacan village, an hacienda which brought wealth to the Yucatan for about 100 years during the Industrial Revolution since the henequen is broken down into fibers that make rope, and then last but not least, the ruins of Uxmal. They were also able to try some typical Yucatacan food on Sunday night. I was happy how everything turned out since it took quite a bit of work to get everything organized and into a schedule. Thank mom, dad, and Neal for a week that I will never forget!!

P.S. I think they were also able to see why it is going to hard to leave Merida and Yucatan itself. Neal didn't want to leave and he was only here 5 days. It is going to take a long time to process everything I have experienced. But, I really am excited to get back home to my family and friends.

Week with Family: Friday and Saturday

Sorry these pictures are out of order. On Friday morning we made the 4-hour bus ride to Tulum since my parents and I love the caribbean and Neal had never seen it before! Poor Neal, I slept half the way...I was tired too! But since he can't sleep in a moving vehicle, it makes it hard to sleep in a bus!! But once we got to Tulum, we had a bite to eat and some gelato!! I surprised them with that little fact until we got to Tulum otherwise I think Neal might have gone a little crazy... =) But after enjoying some yummy gelato we got to our hotel and hung out in the hammocks and then went to the beach. That night Neal and I had our own little date at the restaurant that was at the hotel so that was really nice to finally be able to sit down and share a meal together since we haven't done that since August. Crazy how time has flown but also seems so long ago!!

Saturday morning we got up, had breakfast, and were in the water a little while until I cut my toe pretty bad on a rock that I didn't see in the water. At least there weren't any broken toes! After getting it cleaned and bandaged up, we went to the ruins in Tulum so they could see how pretty they are--on a cliff overlooking the Caribbean sea.

Us at the ruins overlooking the beautiful blue water.

So the water was cold and Neal decided to splash some water on me after I told him I didn't want to get wet. So I had to get him back!! I'm not going to let him pick on me without fighting back, thats for sure!

Ya, I'm not wanting to get in...this is right before Neal splashed me...

An awesome photo mom and dad got when they got up super early to see the sunrise on Saturday morning.

This is postcard material! Mom--have you ever thought about that? Just kidding...you have enough going on!

Another beautiful picture of the beach in front of the restaurant and hotel Saturday morning.

The sunset looking back at the hotel Friday night.

Friday night on the beach.

On the beach. This is one of my favorite pictures. =) Notice who the cold one was? ME!! And that was about 80ish degrees...not so sure how my body is going to handle a 60 degree change in temperature on Saturday!

Another one of my favorites--walking to the beach

Dad just relaxing after getting to the hotel.

The whole time before my experience in the little village of Tinum, I had always slept in my hammock like a banana. However, that weekend I learned that you are really supposed to sleep in the hammock the opposite way..so I was trying to do that with Neal when we got to the hotel, but the hammock wasn't wide enough for how tall he is.

On the bus ride to Tulum. They were showing Rush Hour 3. I love those movies...I just think the difference in mine and Neal's expressions are great! Haha.

Week with Family: Thursday

On Thursday morning, I think mom, dad, and Neal found out how much I planned for the week they were here. I also had a set schedule which was sometimes difficult to follow in a country where time is a little more relaxed. Right away in the morning we took a tour of Merida on the city tour bus, went to the Cathedral so they could see how impressive it is, and I even showed them the jaguar that the children at Patronato painted. When we returned from downtown, we had about an hour before the Thanksgiving dinner began. We had invited people from Merida that we had met and there ended up being probably about 50 people there. I was so thankful for mom, dad, and Neal coming down because this Thanksgiving was still very different not being with mom and dad's families and being in a completely different country. I was also thankful for Skype because Neal and I called my grandma and told her I wished I could be with her and then we called Neal's parents that were spending Thanksgiving in Webster City. So even though we couldn't be with all of our family, we still got to hear their voices!!

The buffet for the 50+ people that came for Thanksgiving dinner.

The organ pipes in the balcony of the cathedral.

The main aisle in the cathedral. Absolutely breath-taking!

The jaguar that the kids painted at the Patronato. There is a wilderness convention/fundraiser going on in Merida so there are jaguars all over the town. The kids painted the jaguar for the event but also because once someone buys it, part of the money will go to the organization. I think that is very smart on their part!! Publicity + Fundraising in such a large city.

A stop at a fountain in one of the MANY parks in merida during the city tour.

A beautiful house along the tour...

Another one...

Neal and I sitting in the infamous chairs found in downtown Merida. They are called comprometidos which means engaged. However, we are not engaged! But I think the design is so neat.

Then Thursday night we just laid low at the house. I was planning on taking them to the VIP Theatre so they could experience that, but we were all kind of tired so we decided to spend the night together--just the 4 of us. We went to my favorite pizza place here in Merida that is only a couple blocks from the house, called Koony's. Then we walked back to Oxxo (a convenience store that is across the street from the house) to get some popcorn, pop, and juice for the movie we were going to watch together. That night I became confused about my mom talking about going to "The Hugs and Kisses store". I asked her, mom, what are you talking about!?!? I don't know of a hugs and kisses store and what the heck would it be anyway? And she said, the Oxxo store. And I burst out laughing. I had never thought of it that way since I had only ever known it as "Ox-O". But anyway....that night we made our own couch in the room Neal was staying in at the house by putting the twin bed against a wall and putting the computer on a dresser. Talk about dorm-style living!! We really enjoyed watching Facing the Giants together and especially since Neal had never seen it.

Week with Family: Wednesday

Ok so I was lying a little on my last post. When I talked about my parents and Neal coming, they had already come! I don't know if you caught that, but I just had to tell you I was telling a little bit of a white lie. =) I am going to let you guys in on what the 4 of us did when they were down here, so I'm just going to break it up by the day since my mom just loves taking pictures and well it would take a while to get all the pictures I want to post in one blog.

After they got into Merida around 9:30PM Tuesday night, we just headed back to the house, got settled in and so forth. Then Wednesday, I planned on all of us going on the 3 cenote tour that I had taken earlier in the semester so they could experience the different forms of transportation and get to swim in a few cenotes which were very important in Mayan history. So here are just a few pictures.

Neal being the daredevil climbing tree roots that were almost touching the water from the tree above us since we were probably 300 feet underground. He did it since I absolutely hate heights.

In that same cenote there is a high platform you can jump from and well since I hate heights I told Neal that I wasn't so sure I was going to do it another time since I had already put myself through that fear earlier in the semester. But, I decided to be "nice" and jump in with him, holding his hand but it took about 5min. to coax me into jumping in. You can't really tell in this picture but he is standing on the edge of the platform while I'm standing 3 feet back because I was so scared. I don't think I have ever screamed so loud and sounded so scared in my life as I did jumping in that second time.

Mom, being the photographer, wasn't in too many pictures. This was at the first cenote before we all got in. The water was freezing but so refreshing!

Making our way in the trici-taxi to the horse-drawn carts that took us to the cenotes. We may be smiling in the picture but we felt awful for how hard the peadler had to work!

On the bus to Cuzama where the three cenotes are located.

Wednesday night we ate at the nice Italian Restaurant, Villa Italia and had a great time sharing a meal together. Its been the whole semester since I have sat down and ate with the people I love most. It was such a blessing! However, after that night, my parents started giving me crap about how far we had to walk to places. I told them that the restaurant was about a 5 block walk from the Central house but on the way, my mom yells out, is it 5 or 15 blocks?? And I was like, its coming up, just relax. Well on the way back, to pick on me even more, they counted and it was 9 1/2. I was only off by about 5 blocks, but after being here for 3 1/2 months, 5 blocks is not a big deal at all! But, when they are used to driving everywhere, 10 blocks each way is a walk. Even though I kept reminding them that they could eat more than usual here because we were going to do a lot more walking! I think all the walking I do has contributed to the little bit of weight I have lost. I don't know if all of you know this, but I struggle with my weight. I want to be heavier (don't kill me for saying that!) but I lose weight super fast and can't gain it back that quickly, so I'm hoping that with all the warm, yummy food that I'm going home to on Saturday afternoon, that I am able to gain the little bit of weight back.

They're coming!!!

On Sunday night and all Monday I was super busy getting a lot of homework done as well as working ahead so I wouldn't have to do much while Mom, Dad, and Neal are here. However, of course I had to catch up with my family on Skype so I spent a few hours doing that Sunday night. On Monday I went to the Patronato as usual and finally got to work with some pre-schoolers! They are so darn cute I could hardly contain myself. All their cute little smiles and laughs just made me smile all over. I really love the names of the kids in the class. One little boy is named Moses, another Joel, a girl Ingrid. They are very traditional and different from many kids names that we hear in the states. But, when I started working with the students, I didn't know that I was going to have an amazing experience that day.

I was spending time with all of the students one-on-one before one of the teachers told me that Joel had some homework to do. He spends part of the week at a normal school and the other part at the Patronato, or so I understood. He was doing an art project that included a bird sitting in a nest in the middle of a tree. He first glued feathers onto the bird, pieces of sticks on the trunk and branches, tiny sticks for the nest, and actual leaves for the leaves of the tree. But what you don't realize, is that Joel has down syndrome. Before even starting this art project, I helped him clean the tables after they had breakfast. He had the rag and I had the cleaner. He was so diligent about not missing any spots that hadn't been cleaned and then we get to do this art project together where he is so focused that sometimes he didn't even hear me talking to him. I talked to the teacher about it because it was amazing to me that he has down syndrome and is so disciplined on whatever he is working on at the time. She said he has had a lot of instruction but now he is just blossoming. He is only about 4-5 years old too! In the states I feel like a regular 4-5 year old would not be that disciplined. But to see Joel, the cutest little boy with down syndrome being so disciplined made my heart smile. I am going to find out more information about him this week because I am interested in his story.

This coming week (after mom, dad, and Neal leave) will not be an easy one. For starters, I am ready to go home but not ready to leave the students at the Patronato as well as the staff here at the Central house. I am going to have to say good-bye to all the beautiful faces of the students that have touched my heart so dearly. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry but I am trying my darndest to hold them back until next week. I am ready to go home to my family, friends, and pets, but not really ready to leave for any other reason. These past 3+ months have just flown by. I am going to have to go back and read my blog posts from earlier because I really don't remember a lot of the things I have experienced here because it is all second-nature now.

But anyway, I spent most of Monday and I guess Tuesday running around like a chicken with its head cut off just trying to get as much done as possible before they got here. I am so thankful that they are able to come down. So thank you!

Chichen Itza and Tinum weekend

This past weekend the Merida program went on its last excursion together. We started the weekend on Friday by going to Chichen Itza for the morning. It was a warm morning but not too bad. When we got to Chichen Itza pretty early in the morning there was no one there. However, as the morning went on, many more people showed up. On any given day, the site can have 5-15,000 people come through. Right now it is about 7,000. These first few pictures are from the mayan site.

Me standing in front of "El Castillo" or The Castle. There is a smaller pyramid inside this one. It is also considered one of the 7 wonders of the world. That is one of the reasons why Chichen Itza is so popular for tourists.

Where they performed human sacrifices. They would do this as an offering to the gods but before doing it, they would have to drug the person in order to get them up the stairs. Otherwise, they probably wouldn't have been able to do it.

Archaeological findings over the past 5 months. Archaeologists are and were working on this when we were at the site. It is amazing that they discovered all this in such a short period of time!

El Cenote Sagrado. This is the cenote that they did human sacrifices in as well. Kind of creepy!

After going to Chichen Itza we headed to a small village called Tinum. It was about 30 minutes away. The purpose of us going there was to stay with a mayan family for 2 days and nights. When we arrived when got an orientation about what to expect from the family and the experience. The few things we talked about were the bathroom and shower situation, eating alone at the guest table while the family at at the tortilla making table, and to also just enjoy ourselves. Our connection to Tinum was Lisa and Schulze. Schulze is a retired psychology professor from Central and his wife also worked at Central. Friday afternoon and night was spent with the family. I was fed right when I got there and it was ok. I started talking to the mom and just finding out what their family was like and she was asking what mine was like. Luckily there were 4 kids in the family and 3 of them were pretty young. The family consisted of a grandma, her two sons, (one was single and the other one was married), the wife of the married son and their four children. The kids were 11, 7, 4, and 2. I absolutely loved them. After eating a little at each meal because the food was very different, I went to bed and slept really well in my hammock. The next morning (Saturday) we got up and met as a group and went out to a milpa (farm), a molino (where they grind the corn into tortillas), and la panaderia (bakery). The following pictures are from Saturday on.

When we were at the farm we got to learn the process of de-graining the corn, planting, and harvesting the crops. This is the corn that we got to de-grain by hand since they don't use any sort of machines like we do in the States. It was such a fun experience to participate and really learn how their farming careers are much tougher than the farmers have it in the states. The corn shown above is 2-year old corn! That was crazy in my mind after coming from the previous saturday being back at home and harvesting about 600 acres in 3ish hours. This farmer that we spent time with only farms 5 acres. It takes about 1 month to harvest all the crops in that one piece of land.

They plant all the corn the same--the good corn goes for eating and the bad corn goes to the animals. They said that these other four types of corn taste all the same and that the white corn offsets the red corn to make it clearer. Interesting! We told them that we spend quite a bit of money on this color of corn for fall decorations and they just harvested it from their field!

They plant by hand as well about 1 meter apart. So, we got to try ourselves! The bucket that is hanging from my neck has the biggest kernels from the middle of the corn cobs that are used for planting and just put right back into the ground. They have tried to use seed like farmers buy in the states but it doesn't work in their rocky soil. So, they are sticking with what works and what they know. They plant 3 corn kernels in each hole along with bean and squash seeds. The beans grow up the corn stalk and the squash protects the bottom of the corn stalk.

I'm trying to aim 5 kernels into the tiny hole I made, but I only made 2. =( Oh well! It was fun.

This is where they house the corn cobs (still in the husk) after they have been harvested. It sits there for quite some time!

Once the corn stalks are tall enough, and before the rainy season starts (August-November) they bend the stalk in half so that the corn cobs are facing the ground. This prevents the birds from eating the crop and the heavy rains from ruining it.

Along with harvesting corn, they harvest the beans and the squash. The farmer was harvesting the squash in front of us. They wear the basket hung from a strap that is on their head. They then throw the squash, corn, or beans in there. But, they only harvest one crop at a time.

We got to try it, so of course I took up the opportunity!

The farmer also set up his hunting stand so we could see how he does it. It wasn't that interesting to me because I am not a fan of hunting but I learned his way of doing this is way different from the hunting stands in the states. I am completely clueless about hunting, if you can't tell! Haha.

After leaving the farm, we went to the molino (mill) where they grind the cooked corn from the fields into masa (dough) and if they want to, they can have the molino make the masa into actual tortillas. This is the final step in the milling process.

After going to the molino, we went to the bakery where they make all the bread by hand.

They also bake it in a wood-brick oven! I would love to have one of those someday. It gives the food such a better flavor!

The sweet bread they made and just came out of the wood-brick oven.

Now I'm going to show you pictures of the very rustic house I stayed in while in Tinum. Before going to Tinum, we had to fill out a questionnaire about what our preferences were. I decided since it was going to be my last weekend in Mexico on my own (without my parents and Neal here) I really wanted to live with a very traditional mayan family. I told Val I wanted to live in a very rustic home and that I didn't care about the bathroom situation (may or may not have an actual toilet). However, when I got there, I was surprised to find that they did have a shower, toilet, and sink! It had just been added two years ago, but that was a big deal for their family!

As you can see, the house was very rustic. This was their kitchen.

This is where I ate alone at every meal. It was weird eating by myself especially since I didn't enjoy the food. It was just very different with very strong smells and tastes. But even though I didn't eat a lot, I still got to experience the typical mayan/yucatacan food. After comparing with the other students, I think my food wasn't as much (in quantity) and as good was because of their financial situation. They had dirt floors, thatched roofs, and the walls inside of the lined sticks that made the walls were only cardboard. I think you can see it in this picture. But, if you can't in this picture, you will in the next one.

This is part of the family I stayed with. The husband and other guy (brothers) as well as the oldest child were not present for the picture. The single guy works in his milpa while the husband (other brother) works for the police department. To earn some extra money, the family has 2 pigs in the backyard and will be selling the meat for money. The wife also weaves hammocks (which she taught me how to do) and also crochet's the bottom part of the skirt that goes under the traditional mayan dress that the grandma is wearing.

While there, I also got to attend a meeting by the hammock makers. I had no idea what was going on before we got there because we just kept walking toward the edge of town on Friday night. We ended up going to two meetings. There was a candidate that wants to become the president of the hammock worker's project. It is a microfinancing project. A guy gave them the yarn to start making the hammocks and took the hammocks to Chichen Itza to sell. However, he never gave them the money back. He came to Merida and just took the money for himself. So, now the women have no way of making money for the work they do. So, in turn, this other guy was asking for their votes to become their president and was promising to do the job that the other guy (that has now passed away) was doing but that they money would be brought back to them. I wonder what will come of all that!

This weekend was a great experience. It was definitely an eye-opening one! After staying with the family for 2 nights and 2 days in the very rustic home, I don't know if I could do it again. It was way out of my comfort zone, but I am so glad I did it. It was something that I will probably never experience again. This past weekend will never be forgotten. Thanks for reading this long post!! =)