What has been the same/different about your church worship experience in your community now and your sending community? From Kelly
YAGM has an interesting relationship with the Mexican Lutheran Church. Mostly because there barely is one! Our work sites, unlike other countries, are not based out of a church (for the most part there are some exceptions). With this we are not always placed with families that are associated with the Lutheran church. My family is Evangelican. It is with them that I attend worship every week.
The biggest differences for me is the obvious change in languagethat we worship in, and less obvious, the length of each weeks' service. I have attended long Lutheran services, and this isn't as long. The length of the sermon is what makes it a difference that is hard to get used to. Every week we sing five songs, then listen to a sermon for about 45 minutes on average sometimes longer.
One of my fellow Mexico YAGMs is a lutheran semenary student. She once told me that in a class she learned that a sermon should be no more that seven to 10 minutes with "on ramps" and "off ramps" so that people can pay attention to most of the 10 minute sermon. For me the 45 minute sermon has one off ramp after about five minutes because it is in Spanish it is harder for me to keep my attention and even harder to come back into the sermon. I bring my Kindle, which has my bilingual bible on it and I follow many of the versus the pastor quotes with, but spend most of the time reading other books I have on there. I have read The Alchemist, Princess Bride, and am currently reading the White Queen.
How do you get around? From Kelly
I use public transportation to get around my community. If I get a ride from my host family into Cholula when they take my host brother to school, I only spend about a half hour on the bus. If I do not get a ride to work I spend about 45 minutes to an hour on the bus and a lot more time waiting for the busses to come through my bus stops. I am not very fond of the bus stops, because this is where I receive the most cat calls, comments about my looks, and a host of other things I do not enjoy starting my day with, but this is only on week days. On weekends people are more relaxed and don't pay much attention to me, I get to blend in more. It takes me one bus to get to the center of Cholula, and one bus to get to the center of Puebla. If I want to go anywhere else it'll take a minimum of two.
Before my work site moved its location, I could send two hours or more on the bus every morning and afternoon. Most of which was spent standing on the busses because it is a popular route for workers and the busses were always full.
Edit: On my long commutes I have started reading more often, it was more of a chore before because I have forgotten how to enjoy reading anymore after so many years of forced reading in high school and college. It also is difficult when there are SO MANY speed bumps (topes). When I am not reading I think about my family, my communty host family and students, and I listen to music. I have been listening a lot to the album for Hamilton (Its coming to Minnesota in the fall is there anyone that wants to go with me?!) and music in Spanish to get me ready for the day of speaking Spanish.
I feel more comfortable getting around now than I did in the beginning, I am more willing to go in a direction I have never gone before just to see the things I have been wanting to see. When my dad comes next week am confident that I will know the way and not have any problems. I am interested to see how it will work out with him being much taller than me, and I have to contort myself sometimes to fit in the vans I take.
What is it like to do things on your own? From Kelly
I recently started doing more things on my own. The reaction I get from people after I tell them what I have been doing and did it alone is my favorite. Each person is almost the same: they widen their eyes, say "oh! solita?" (alone?). On Valentines Day/ Ash Wednesday, I was walking around Cholula when I happened upon a brew house that was giving out coupons for a free beer. I had no where to be so I stopped for my free beer, all by myself. I enjoyed a beer made in Cholula. The prices of the beers they have are about twice as much as a Corona or a Victoria would be at another restuarant. I was glad that it was free. I also went to a museum by myself and today I explored an area I might bring my dad when he comes to see me in a week.
Honestly it is freeing to finally be able to just do stuff on my own. I have always been the one to wait to be invited to do stuff, or for others to have time to do them with me. I miss out on a lot like that. But doing things on my own is also very lonely, I like to take pictures and when I am alone, my pictures are either selfies, or just of the subject I am seeing. I also can feel in secure about riding transportation on my own if I am not familiar with where I am going. I am hyper cautious of where my cellphone are at all times, just in case something where to happen.
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Friday, February 23, 2018
#CrazyTalk
The wall as it is made right now is a ton of metal. On the last day of being at the border we started having ideas of what we could do with all that metal. My country coordinator shared at the beginning of the year that she is a metal artist and lies to weld stuff. I thought, 'think of the art she could make with all that metal!' Or now I am thinking of the craziness my brother could weld to his truck. Another Mexico YAGM chimed in with building bridges and reenforcing our infastructure that is failing. Most of the metal is from old train rail. What if we put them back on the ground and created a better public transit system that was both a better, more reliable, way of transportation and is better for the enviornment. Or what if we put them on the ground again for train transportation and made train travel plausible/ fun again so you don't just fly over states/ communities and actually saw our great nation from seas to shining seas.
Saturday, February 17, 2018
Questions
About a month ago I asked on Facebook for people to give me some questions they would like me to answer. I will answer a few now:
From Grandma Wahl: Do I feel safe?
Yes, in general I feel safe. My host family here watches over me like a hawk some days, so if I do something they think could put me in danger, like walking at night. (Which is hard not to do when the sun goes down really early.) They do not hesitate to tell me. I even have a few moms of my students watching out for me and always asking me how I am doing. We just had another big earthquake, so those tend to freak me out a little bit, but that is mostly beecause they are still so foreign to me. We don't earthquakes up there in Tornado Alley.
From Aunt Marilyn: Are you fluent in Spanish?
Oh no! I am far from being fluent, but I am much better than I was when I arrived here in Mexico. It is amaziing to see how all of my cohort has improved by being immersed in the language. It used to annoy me when people would talk to me in English, I felt like it was a learning opportunity taken away from me, until some friends made me realize somethings. Mexico has a culture of hospitality, a stranger would bend over backwards for you if you needed it, and speaking in English is a way of making me feel comfortable. I also have realized that for some it is a time for them to practice their English. I have made a friend that he and I have an agreement that we sometimes speak English for his practice and sometimes Spanish for my practice. I have another friend, that he speaks English to me and I speak Spanish to him so we both get practice everytime we see each other.
From Yisrael (a host brother of my cohort/friend): What is my passtime?
I was taking dance classes but that became to much of a hazard since the classes started after it was already dark and I would get home late. It was also putting a strain on my relationship with my host parents since they were always worried about me and I felt like a rebel teenager that just wanted to do her own thing. I never was very good at being a rebel teenager, so I stopped doing dance classes. Now I am doing an Herbalife Fit Club that starts earlier in the afternoon and I am surrounded by supportive women always! They are amazing. I just am having a hard time staying out of the full Herbalife. The shakes and stuff is not something I am interested in starting right now in Mexico. There is too much tastey food to try that does not fit into their meal plans.
From Grandma Wahl: Do I feel safe?
Yes, in general I feel safe. My host family here watches over me like a hawk some days, so if I do something they think could put me in danger, like walking at night. (Which is hard not to do when the sun goes down really early.) They do not hesitate to tell me. I even have a few moms of my students watching out for me and always asking me how I am doing. We just had another big earthquake, so those tend to freak me out a little bit, but that is mostly beecause they are still so foreign to me. We don't earthquakes up there in Tornado Alley.
From Aunt Marilyn: Are you fluent in Spanish?
Oh no! I am far from being fluent, but I am much better than I was when I arrived here in Mexico. It is amaziing to see how all of my cohort has improved by being immersed in the language. It used to annoy me when people would talk to me in English, I felt like it was a learning opportunity taken away from me, until some friends made me realize somethings. Mexico has a culture of hospitality, a stranger would bend over backwards for you if you needed it, and speaking in English is a way of making me feel comfortable. I also have realized that for some it is a time for them to practice their English. I have made a friend that he and I have an agreement that we sometimes speak English for his practice and sometimes Spanish for my practice. I have another friend, that he speaks English to me and I speak Spanish to him so we both get practice everytime we see each other.
From Yisrael (a host brother of my cohort/friend): What is my passtime?
I was taking dance classes but that became to much of a hazard since the classes started after it was already dark and I would get home late. It was also putting a strain on my relationship with my host parents since they were always worried about me and I felt like a rebel teenager that just wanted to do her own thing. I never was very good at being a rebel teenager, so I stopped doing dance classes. Now I am doing an Herbalife Fit Club that starts earlier in the afternoon and I am surrounded by supportive women always! They are amazing. I just am having a hard time staying out of the full Herbalife. The shakes and stuff is not something I am interested in starting right now in Mexico. There is too much tastey food to try that does not fit into their meal plans.
Friday, February 16, 2018
Post Border Retreat
The YAGM Mexico group is on our way back to Mexico from our border immersion/ mid year retreat. Because we do not have long term visas and can be in Mexico for six months on a tourist visa we needed to renew our visas for the last six months of our year. If you read further down if my blog you will see that I wrote a pre border trip reflection. I did not post this on Facebook because I was nervous about the reactions I could get from those that read it. I still am nervous but feel more empowered to share my thoughts.
This trip has been the most exhausting experience I have ever had before. Both emotionally and physically exhausting. We had a full schedule that we were bouncing from organization to organization and information heavy conversation (in Spanish) to information heavy conversation (in English, this switches make my head spin often times). On top of the schedule, all but two of the group was sick with a cold for the whole week. I carried a roll of toilet paper the whole week! When I got to see my mom for a few hours, she gave me a box of Kleenex, it was like having a cloud on my face!
There is many parts of the border we do not hear about from the media. In this time we are hearing more than we ever did before. When I arrived at the border and saw the fence or wall (whatever you want to call it, I will call it a wall) I thought it was natural that we had it and that it had been there forever. But the wall has only been up since 2012. It does not cover the whole southern border but covers large parts and cities in the United States that or on the border like Douglas. These fortress like protection for the United States forces migrants to go to places in the dessert that are even more dangerous. The danger comes from dangerously high temperatures in the open desert, cartel contol of that area, and many other situations. Notice that this does NOT stop migrants from coming. The enviornment that migrants are coming into is not one that they would be going into if they felt like they had a choice. Whether the trip is dangerous or not they will come not because they want to but because they often feel they have to, to escape violence, poverty, and a host of other situation we as Americans will never fully understand.
(Photo: Bryan is 6'2" and as you can see this wall is significantly taller than him. I would estimate that at least two of him could fit in the height of the wall.)
Throughout the week we met with people that had been migrants, were guides/drug smugglers, are migrating or have found what they need in AP. I was amazed with the conversations I had with each of them. They were so willing to share with us and talk with us. They were also very interested in where we were coming from. I pobably said where I was from, were I live in Mexico, and what I do hear three times every day. It was like when we were all in orientation, and visiting with other work sites, except my Spanish is much better, so I did not dread saying this over and over as much. Each conversation showed a glimps of God and a reminder that each is a child of God.
On Tuesday we went to a vigil for migrants who have died in the desert. There were about 15 people at the vigil in Douglas. Each person held up a cross and said the name on it. We took turns doing this until all the names were shouted. We did this along the road going to Mexico. There were people that rolled down their windows to thank us for having the vigil, or honked their horns. After all but three names had been called out we held a rememberance for a man, a woman and an unidentified person. This was a powerful vigil as we stood only a few yards from the border entrance to Mexico on the side of the wall that held so much promise and hope for these migrants that died.
(Photo: The Mexican side of the Wall. Looks a lot different right. There is life and beauty that is thriving on this side, unlike the US side with the most expensive dirt road you'd probably ever see.)
The next day was like a whiplash from despair to hope. We met with Cafe Justo, a fair trade coffee company that works with migrants from Chiapas, Veracruz and Oaxaca. These states are known for their coffee production, but in the last 30 years there was a drop in the price of coffee. Many coffee farms had to close forcing the farm hands to leave their communities and families to find work. This affects a host of social issues, that goes into the reason people migrate, and indiginous culture. Cafe Justo works with these migrants coming from coffee farms to buy their coffee at a fair price. This fair trade is even skipping Wall Street and getting the price the growers need strait from them. They send the beans from Chiapas to Agua Prieta to be roasted and distributed. They now have a fabulous coffee shop, and send their coffee to (mostly congregations) all over the United States. Cafe Justo is taking action for the many times we say, "Well there should be a change in [country with lots of people emigrating] so they don't have to migrate."
The next day was like a whiplash from despair to hope. We met with Cafe Justo, a fair trade coffee company that works with migrants from Chiapas, Veracruz and Oaxaca. These states are known for their coffee production, but in the last 30 years there was a drop in the price of coffee. Many coffee farms had to close forcing the farm hands to leave their communities and families to find work. This affects a host of social issues, that goes into the reason people migrate, and indiginous culture. Cafe Justo works with these migrants coming from coffee farms to buy their coffee at a fair price. This fair trade is even skipping Wall Street and getting the price the growers need strait from them. They send the beans from Chiapas to Agua Prieta to be roasted and distributed. They now have a fabulous coffee shop, and send their coffee to (mostly congregations) all over the United States. Cafe Justo is taking action for the many times we say, "Well there should be a change in [country with lots of people emigrating] so they don't have to migrate."
They also have AMAZING coffe if you are interested you should check out their website and order a bag!
Cafe Justo
(Photo: Big bags for coffee hours at church and little for the everyday use, or for some thats the other way around.)
I now understand why alumni have told me they have been changed but did not tell me how, I have no idea how I have changed, but know in my heart there is something different.
Cafe Justo
I now understand why alumni have told me they have been changed but did not tell me how, I have no idea how I have changed, but know in my heart there is something different.
Thursday, February 1, 2018
Pre boarder retreat
Tomorrow I leave for Mexico City tomorrow and Arizona on Sunday.
I cannot believe this is happening tomorrow. I have known since April 2017 at our Disernment, interview and placement (DIP) event that we would be going to Arizona in the middle of our YAGM year, but when we got here it seemed so far away. It felt like it would never come.
Before big events like this I like to make some refections about how I am feeling before and how I think I could grow from the experience. I did this for my internship paper. (It was to fluff it up, make it longer, but this is genuine.)
At DIP I was immediately nervous about the trip. I have lived my whole life either not thinking much about the boarder, or believing that the people that cross the boarder without a passport or visa were doing wrong because the law said that this was wrong. Now I have always been and still am a believer in changing the law through lobbying, and electing compatant people to offices in all levels of governement. But in order to do that the people that vote, meaning people like me and most of the people that are reading this blog, need to know whats going on. Meaning we need to know who we are voting for and what issues they are going to work for while they are in office. And if they do not do what we, the public voted them in to do, we change who is in office.
After being in Mexico for five and a half months. I've learned a few things and met a peope that have immigrated. I continue to be nervous for this trip but not like before. Before, I was nervous that this trip would put me into situations and make me do things to promote a life choice I did not agree with. Now, I am nervous about how much more this trip will change me. Alumni have said that this trip will change you, that it is hard emotionally and that they felt differently about the world when they got back to Mexico. Even my host parents say their former YAGM daughters were different after the trip. But NO ONE is telling me how they all changed. I can't prepare myself if I don't know what is a head of me!
That is not to say that I don't know what we are doing each day, I do have the schedule, but I don't know how our activities will form me. I feel like I am ground beef waiting to be smashed into some kind of form, but I don't know what form I will be in the end. Will I be a hamburger, a Juicy Lucy, a meat loaf, meat balls, or put in some kind of mixture like a tator tot hot dish. (If I'm going to write something controversial I'm going to put a controvercial word in it: Hotdish, thats the proper way to say it not casserole!)
My opinion of the people that cross the boarder have also changed. I have met migrants from Central America here in Mexico that have no plans to go to the United States and others that have already been there. Several women I have become friends with have husbands or friends or loved ones that are living somewhere in the United States. Some don't know exactly where their person is, but everyone tells me something a long the lines of "He's working for us." This is the reality. The United States offers opportunities to do work for a higher wage.
My host mom and I have had several conversations about the wages you can make as a minimum wage worker in the United States and what that translates to in Mexico. This morning I was looking through my stuff and found $5. This money doesn't buy much, but that is about 100 peso! I can almost pay for an entire week's worth of commutes to and from work. I can buy two full meals. I can buy a LOT of tacos from the stand in the town center (30 small, probably 15 medium depending on the kind of meat I want). I can almost buy a cheap bus to Mexico City!
For this I can understand a tiny fraction of why someone would risk their lives, spend their life savings and cross into a country that in general is very hostile to them to earn a liveable wage that they can support their family.
I highly recommend reading: The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea. Much of my change of thought has come from this book and humanised every human involved in crossing the Mexican-US boarder, from the migrants to the boarder patrol agents that guard this boarder. Both groups are often made inhuman by media.
A Ted Talk for you because I love them: A story of Darfur
I chose this talk because it is not just Mexicans or people from Latin America that are coming to the United States. There are people around the world that are coming to the U.S. seeking a better life, or looking to the U.S. for help out of bad situations in their own country, their home.
I cannot believe this is happening tomorrow. I have known since April 2017 at our Disernment, interview and placement (DIP) event that we would be going to Arizona in the middle of our YAGM year, but when we got here it seemed so far away. It felt like it would never come.
Before big events like this I like to make some refections about how I am feeling before and how I think I could grow from the experience. I did this for my internship paper. (It was to fluff it up, make it longer, but this is genuine.)
At DIP I was immediately nervous about the trip. I have lived my whole life either not thinking much about the boarder, or believing that the people that cross the boarder without a passport or visa were doing wrong because the law said that this was wrong. Now I have always been and still am a believer in changing the law through lobbying, and electing compatant people to offices in all levels of governement. But in order to do that the people that vote, meaning people like me and most of the people that are reading this blog, need to know whats going on. Meaning we need to know who we are voting for and what issues they are going to work for while they are in office. And if they do not do what we, the public voted them in to do, we change who is in office.
After being in Mexico for five and a half months. I've learned a few things and met a peope that have immigrated. I continue to be nervous for this trip but not like before. Before, I was nervous that this trip would put me into situations and make me do things to promote a life choice I did not agree with. Now, I am nervous about how much more this trip will change me. Alumni have said that this trip will change you, that it is hard emotionally and that they felt differently about the world when they got back to Mexico. Even my host parents say their former YAGM daughters were different after the trip. But NO ONE is telling me how they all changed. I can't prepare myself if I don't know what is a head of me!
That is not to say that I don't know what we are doing each day, I do have the schedule, but I don't know how our activities will form me. I feel like I am ground beef waiting to be smashed into some kind of form, but I don't know what form I will be in the end. Will I be a hamburger, a Juicy Lucy, a meat loaf, meat balls, or put in some kind of mixture like a tator tot hot dish. (If I'm going to write something controversial I'm going to put a controvercial word in it: Hotdish, thats the proper way to say it not casserole!)
My opinion of the people that cross the boarder have also changed. I have met migrants from Central America here in Mexico that have no plans to go to the United States and others that have already been there. Several women I have become friends with have husbands or friends or loved ones that are living somewhere in the United States. Some don't know exactly where their person is, but everyone tells me something a long the lines of "He's working for us." This is the reality. The United States offers opportunities to do work for a higher wage.
My host mom and I have had several conversations about the wages you can make as a minimum wage worker in the United States and what that translates to in Mexico. This morning I was looking through my stuff and found $5. This money doesn't buy much, but that is about 100 peso! I can almost pay for an entire week's worth of commutes to and from work. I can buy two full meals. I can buy a LOT of tacos from the stand in the town center (30 small, probably 15 medium depending on the kind of meat I want). I can almost buy a cheap bus to Mexico City!
For this I can understand a tiny fraction of why someone would risk their lives, spend their life savings and cross into a country that in general is very hostile to them to earn a liveable wage that they can support their family.
I highly recommend reading: The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea. Much of my change of thought has come from this book and humanised every human involved in crossing the Mexican-US boarder, from the migrants to the boarder patrol agents that guard this boarder. Both groups are often made inhuman by media.
A Ted Talk for you because I love them: A story of Darfur
I chose this talk because it is not just Mexicans or people from Latin America that are coming to the United States. There are people around the world that are coming to the U.S. seeking a better life, or looking to the U.S. for help out of bad situations in their own country, their home.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)