Mexico Service Trip: Bautista Grande

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Day 2

     Last night and today have been quite the adventure. I love this place so much! Every moment has been wonderful.

     So after I stopped writing yesterday I looked out my window and watched the coolest lightning storm in the world. I was above it all, so I could see the city lights below it and how much the clouds spread across the sky. Our flight attendant was kind of ornery. Okay really ornery. Like she was annoyed we were Americans or something.

     We got off the plane and were handed some coffee packets. Then we handed our immigration papers to the Customs desk and they had a fun time of it trying to pronounce all our names. Then we went to collect our baggage. I was the second person off the plane, so I went to pull duffel bags off the baggage claim belt. After a while I still hadn’t found either my duffel or my suitcase, so I was starting to get worried. Of course, with my luck, BOTH of them were on a different flight. We lost, well not lost, but were missing 8 bags total, mostly duffels. I think the other only other person missing personal luggage is Kathleen. We all got a bag of toiletries if our bags were missing, and I already had some on my carry-on, so I’ve got shampoo, shaving cream (which I didn’t even bother to bring) two toothbrushes, two toothpastes, two combs, a razor, two deodorants, ect. until tomorrow when my luggage is supposed to come. *crossed fingers* Everyone has been super nice about sharing stuff though so honestly I’m not worried. And it hasn’t been really hot today.

     As we left the airport (me not carrying anything while everyone had to get suitcases and duffels checked), Shilo’s duck-taped box which held Catch Phrase and bubble wrap started beeping like a bomb. The guy going through our luggage started looking really nervous and backing away, while Shilo frantically tore her box open to show that it was a timer, and not a bomb.

There were several military personnel holding guns stationed outside the airport. A most foreboding welcome to a country, don’t you think? The air smelled like Taiwan, the only other tropical place I’ve been; flowery, humid, warm. We were introduced to a Rotary member (we’ll been working with them while we’re here) then got onto our charter bus. It was like 10 o’clock when we started to drive the hour or so (because we got lost) to La Alberrada, a community school/farm thing where we are staying. It was too dark to see anything, which we were all disappointed about because what we could see looked so colorful and exciting. The few people that we waved at waved back at us or stared.

     Finally, after some tight turns (getting literally two inches from the walls and hedges at Alberrada) our bus pulled into the vocational/trade school where we were to stay. We unloaded the bus and the vans that had our duffels. Oh, the governor of Chiapas would have come to meet us at the airport, according to our Rotary person, but they’re having elections and changing governors now so it’s been busy. At least, that’s what we gathered from the Spanish-to-English translation and not being able to hear him that well.

     We were shown to our rooms and instructed not to drink the tap water (only “en bottella, por favor”), not to put anything except human waste in the toilets (Everyone, including myself, has already forgotten like five times) and that we’re getting up at 8 am. By the time we had all been officially grossed out the the toilets without seats or toilet paper, been terrified of drinking the water, stuffed ourselves on snacks because we had no dinner, and gotten situated in our dorms, it was almost 2 am. (1 am Utah time). I slept in my clothes, as I had no PJs, after all of us had sprayed bug spray on every part of our beds and were all inhaling it, and after I’d found 3 dead bugs in my bed. I told everyone that if anyone snored, they would be getting pillows thrown at them. We’re all writing in our journals now, Alexia, Micadyn, Elisa, Keisha, and Hanna. Miriam, one of our other leaders who has connections with the Rotary and speaks Spanish, and Roseby, from the Salt Lake Rotary and originally from Chiapas, are in our room as well. Roseby said she snored. But none of us were prepared for how much snoring, bless her heart. I could not fall asleep forever, and then I was cold with my one blanket and too lazy to get another one (we all have a whole bunk to ourselves, which is nice because the rooms aren’t that big for suitcases and such, and each mattress is equipped with sheets, 2 blankets, and pillows. I slept on one blanket and used another over me. I finally slept for a while, then woke up at 4:30 am and couldn’t fall asleep until dawn because Roseby was snoring so loudly! Then in the morning we found out that EVERYONE was kept awake in our dorm by her snoring. It was kind of funny, but we all only got like two hours of sleep.

     This morning I walked over to the bathrooms (we have to use our own toilet paper/tissues. None are provided… neither is soap.) The sinks are on a wall outside the boys and girls bathrooms. It’s fun because we all get ready together and take turns using the water to rinse our hands (but not toothbrushes or drinking it) and sharing soap and hand sanitizer and bottled water. All our dorms have a courtyard in the center of them. Just outside the bathrooms is a larger courtyard with large hedges and bushes cut into shapes of ducks, people, stars, etc. Then we have a beautiful view of the mountains. Our building is bright green with light, polished brown tiles. Its so pretty! There’s an auditorium and a kitchen and several other dorm buildings and bathrooms/showers. There’s also a huge garden that puts mine at home to shame. It’s where we get the produce for all our meals. Completely organic and delicious! The food has all been great. After we all woke up we went to a breakfast of black beans and eggs and fruit.

After that we hopped on the bus to shuttle to Bautista Grande, the village we are helping. It was so beautiful seeing the city during the day! There were so many colors, basically every color you can imagine. And every single little kid we saw was so cute! Our bus got stuck at the bottom of the hill on the road that went up to Bautista Grande. We got out and started walking the 2.5 miles or so uphill to the village. The parts we were now walking through were so rural and mountainous, just like what you might see in pictures of Mayan villages. The people we will be working with are actually descended from Mayans, and speak their own Mayan dialect. There were stray dogs all over the place (there were at Alberrada too) and chickens as well. There were also black and white sheep tethered to poles eating grass. There were women wearing brightly colored clothing and carrying stacks of wood on their backs or hanging out laundry. Little kids would either wave at us or hide. Many of the women were shy and would hide their faces as well. After walking up for a while, the people who had stayed back to watch the bus still hadn’t caught up to us, and according to a man Brad (one of the three guys and few Spanish-speakers in our group) asked, there was still two hours of walking, and according to others, 4 hours. We couldn’t imagine it would be that much farther, because we had already been walking a long time and the village can’t have been more than three miles away! So we started to turn back. There were a bunch of bunnies at a house, most likely not as pets… but they were so cute! A few minutes after we started walking back down the hill, Trevor (one of the other Spanish-speaking guys in our group) was running up the hill to us.

Apparently the bus was definitely not going to come up the hill, so someone from the rotary was driving up to take us the rest of the way. It’s funny because I swear there are no traffic laws whatsoever in Mexico. People just drive wherever they want, and the streets split at the strangest places. The road we got stuck on was hardly wide enough for a bus and another car to go opposite directions, but people would just zoom right past the bus as if busses got stuck up the hill every day. When the rotarian’s truck arrived, we fit 15 of us in the back of the pick-up truck. It was so cramped but fun! We would never be allowed to do this in America. We had to go in three different groups, and we didn’t really know what was going on when we got there (the village leaders were just telling us about the facilities or something) so we played ultimate frisbee on their cement basketball court which also acts as a village gathering place. The basketball court had been covered since the last time Youthlinc was there. Now it will be protected from the rain, which is nice. Then we trucked back down in groups, and it takes us about 15 minutes to go up or down the hill, so we were late to a lunch the San Cristobal Rotary club had planned for us. It was so good! Taco salad. I was walking to Melissa F. and Gabby about how if we get diarrhea (which is unfortunately all-too-likely on this trip) the bathrooms are all so open that everyone will hear you. And you can’t exactly sit on the toilet either, it’s made for squatting on… so hopefully no one gets sick!

After the rotarians talked to us (which had to be translated) we went shopping in San Cristobal. It once again reminded me of Taiwan and the open-air markets they have there. So many smells and colors and sounds. I tried to learn some new Spanish phrases, like not now, which is, “a ora no gracias” I have no idea how to spell it. “Quanto” is how much. It was a nightmare trying to figure out how much stuff was actually worth because basically all I know in Spanish is 1 through 20 and I have to count it in order to figure it out. We also had to find either an ATM or a bank to exchange our money. We were all trying to stick with a Spanish-speaker, so like six of us followed Alexia around (she speaks Portuguese) and it was so confusing trying to exchange our money. We had to have our passports and had to be at least eighteen (but apparently other places didn’t have these requirements) so some of us had to exchange money for other people and then figure out what the change was. Then we walked around some more and tried to find a bathroom “Donde esta al banyo?” around the “corina” which took forever for a man to explain to me until he finally made a corner with his hands. Micadyn and I ended up with Micah, Kaycee, Gabby, and Shilo. None of us are fluent in Spanish. Micah was pretty good though, and Shilo had a dictionary that came in handy. Micadyn, Kaycee, and I got really awesome hair wraps for $1.50, which is less than 15 pesos. I had the lady go longer than I should have and it looks a little longer than my hair, but oh well. Then we walked back to the bus, taking random pictures and random boys whistling as us and us totally ignoring them.

     After we got back we rehearsed the dance that Micadyn and I made up for the opening ceremonies at the village with ribbons. To the song Forever by Chris Brown. It looks so good! Then we learned a cool little song that Melissa L. and Montana from Minnesota taught us. Then now we’re all writing in our journals.

           -Miara