Saturday and Sunday

Saturday and Sunday, veinticuatro y veiticinco de septiembre
We were excited and relieved that our workshops during the week had gone well. There were so many factors involved in organizing it that it could have been a big bust, but with the help of Stephanie Sieveke at Amextra it came off pretty well. From her office telephone she coordinated the other participants and got them all to the Ibis Hotel on time. Speaking in Spanish over the telephone is still difficult for me, so I appreciated her time and effort to make the program a success.
The hotel Ibis is located in an industrial park next to a Home Depot and surrounded by freeways. There is a shopping mall next door, but that's about it. Susan and I were somewhat frustrated that we were “stuck” at the Ibis instead of downtown where we could have seen the sights. But without a car it was impossible to do much, and it was a $30 dollar taxi ride downtown.
We took some time in the morning to sort our stuff and get organized, and took a few clothing items to a fast laundry nearby who promised to have them done by 7:00 that evening. Actually it was okay because we needed the time to rearrange and pack, because we were leaving early the next morning. Also, it was the first day that we could sleep in a little and have breakfast. All week we had had to eat a banana in our room and run, because Gaudi would show up at 8:00.
In the afternoon we met Guadi and Ruthie and Luis and his wife Bere for an early dinner. There is a nice Posole place not too far that we've been to one other time. It was very pleasant to sit and talk for a while with them and talk about the various programs we have done together over the years. When we came back, we took some nice photos together that I'll send to them when we get home. We spent the rest of the evening resting and getting ready for the next leg of our trip.
On Sunday morning we left fairly early for the trip to the airport. The day before I mentioned to the door guard that we would be leaving and he said he would arrange for transportation. There is a taxi stand just across the street and I assumed he would call one of them. Instead, his friend pulled around the corner in his car and started loading our bags. He was nicely dressed and his car was clean and larger than many of the taxi's but it was a surprise and made me a little uncomfortable. I've read that people disappear there when taking an unmarked taxi, especially at night. This was Sunday morning and arranged by and in view of the hotel staff so I felt it was okay. He was nice guy and played his CD's for us on the trip to the airport and got us there in plenty of time, so it was a fair deal all around.
There was something wrong with our ticket on Aero Mexico and the agent had to fiddle with it for a while but finally gave us our boarding passes. Even in a big new automated airport like that, there was only one clerk who could take money for an excess baggage fee. Luckily we had plenty of time, though they changed our gate at the last minute from one side of the terminal to the other. Susan watches the monitors closely and spotted the change right away so we were able to get over to the correct gate.
The flight to Villa Hermosa was nice, the plane was not crowded so we could spread out a little and the Aero Mexico attendants were pleasant so it went very quickly and we arrived at the very small Villa Hermosa airport. When you get off the plane you are hit with a blast of warm humid air, very different from Mexico City. We definitely were in the tropics.
After picking up our bags we walked about 50 feet to the bus ticket counter and got tickets to Palenque. The buses leave directly from the airport and coordinate with the plane flights so we just walked out the door of the airport and got on the bus and took off, very convenient. It was a sort of mini bus but very nice and we had an enjoyable 2 hour trip to Palenque. We saw our hotel as we came into town, and were just a couple of blocks away from the bus station, but it was really hot and steamy and we opted to support the local economy and take a taxi to our hotel, the Hotel Maya Tulipanes.
The Maya Tulipanes is a nice enough tourist hotel with a swimming pool and a good restaurant. They are listed in the guide books as being sort of expensive, but with the fall in tourist business their rates are very reasonable. Tour groups come in and out almost every day, but we are here all week and so are sort of treated as special guests. The staff knows who we are and our food preferences and we get special attention. It's funny when we come strolling back in the afternoons covered in sweat and dirt and walk past the tour groups in their odd outfits, we get some strange looks for sure.
We got in on Sunday afternoon and planned to meet with our local coordinator, Edmundo Horta, but he was having all sorts of complications about his camp and so decided to wait till Monday morning to get organized with about what he wanted. We had a very tasty dinner and spent the evening getting ready for Mondays first day of work.

last three days at tulti

Veintiuno a veintitres de septiembre
Wow, what a great week! I think this was the best program we have ever given. The people in the community were interested and enthusiastic, the weather cooperated mostly and each day we had something different to do.

On Wednesday Susan and I gave a workshop on making and using solar stoves. They are simple, cheap, and they really work when the sun shines. The audience is often women, madres de familia. My emphasis is on using the stoves to pasteurize water, but they are more interested in using them for cooking. The stoves certainly are good for both.
I start the program with a discussion about water and contamination, and how you can't tell if your drinking water is safe or not. No one will admit that their families have diarrhea, but when I bring up that millions of children die every year because of it there is an immediate show of understanding. from the mothers. I have a chart that I pass out that shows of the different disease organisms that can be in water. It also shows that they can be killed by heating the water. I need to work on the chart some more but the point is that by heating the water in a solar stove you can make it safe to drink.
WAPI's (Water Pasteurization Indicators) are small plastic cylinders with a special wax inside that melts at the temperature of pasteurization, 65 degrees C., and shows that the water has been heated at least that high. The chart shows that the dangerous organisms are killed below that temperature. The WAPI's are on a short thin wire and are dangled in the pot of water being heated. When the wax melts the water is safe to drink. When the WAPI is removed the wax hardens and can be used over and over, many times.
Then we went outside to look at a couple of solar stoves we had set up. It was a warm, very sunny day and the stoves in about an hour and a half had already heated the water to the temperature of pasteurization and the wax in the WAPI had melted. Susan had put some vegetables into a pot to steam and they were cooked and ready to eat. The mothers were also impressed that the stove was cool and not dangerous while the pot was hot.
I had a big pile of cardboard and each of the people at the workshop who wanted a stove picked out several matching boxes and we began to construct the stoves. The process is that they duct tape several boxes together and cut them to approximately match the commercially made one I brought. After the participants have a good design they use diluted white glue to glue aluminum foil to their stoves to make them reflective. The stoves sometimes turn out sort of inelegant bu they work as well as the commercial ones. Everyone is down on their hands and knees cutting and gluing, to me it looks like a third grade art project, but the ladies are quite proud of their creations. I asked that they leave their stoves there overnight to dry, and I gave each participant a WAPI and a copy of the temperature chart that shows the different organisms killed by pasteurization. Six women and two men made stoves.



On Thursday, the program was “rocket stoves” or estufas cojetes. They are small wood burning stoves that are called rockets because of the roaring noise they make when fully burning. They are made from a 5 gallon metal can and a stove pipe elbow. The flame is concentrated in the center of the stove and burns so hot that there is little smoke when it is working well. The stove is insulated with wood ash so the outside doesn't get hot. The temperature is hot enough to cook tortillas on a metal plate called a comal.
I had more of a struggle to get the supplies for the rocket stoves. The people there work as recyclers there at the dump picking through the garbage so everything has value. Wen you see old ladies scratching at the dirt to pick up bottle caps to turn in for money, you know no one will be able to “donate” a 5 gallon can. I went through the community and purchased the old scrap cans we needed. Stove pipe elbows are also relatively expensive, in the range of 15 dollars in Mexico. The original method calls for cutting off the two crimped ends of another piece of stove pipe, using them for a sort of chimney, and discarding the rest. I demonstrated how it is possible to make your own crimps an put the pieces together, not wasting metal stovepipe.
This class had more men and they tended to do most of the metal cutting while the women watched. It's hard to cut round hole out of the middle of 5 gallon can, so I had some “aviation” stye snips that can cut in a circle. Even with those, it take a little practice and the metal has all sorts of sharp edges so I insisted that everyone wear some of the gloves I brought for safety. I made a mistake and cut one of the holes in the wrong place. Rather than throw the can away, one young guy decided to modify it and made it into an extra chimney to take away any smoke. I don't know if it works any better, but it sure looks different.
I gave the same lecture about bacteria as the day before and everyone got a WAPI and a chart. We made five stoves but couldn't finish them because we lacked enough wood ash. There at the dump people burn scraps and trash for cooking and the ash is dirty and full of stuff. I had enough for one stove, and one person put dirt in his instead of ash. Dirt is heavier and doesn't insulate as well as ash but he wanted to see if it worked.

Friday was the big day for us, the workshop on water testing where participants come from other organizations and we go into a lot more detail about microbiology and water testing. It's important to me that they take the testing seriously and work to do it accurately. I always feel responsible that they are telling families if their water is safe to drink and I don't want them to make a dangerous mistake.
In addition to Amextra, I had two other organizations respond and say they wanted to send some of their staff. SARAR-T is a non-profit whose focus is ecological sanitation. They are big advocates for composting latrines and gray water recycling. Several years ago Susan and I visited their program in Tepoztlan near Cuernavaca along with some others including Gaudencio and saw lots of different latrine designs and ideas. The people there are very nice and include engineers and others dedicated to their program. Over the years I have kept in contact with them and was honored to have them attend my event.
The other organization, Isla Urbana, is a group working in Mexico City on problems of rain water recycling for drinking water. I wasn't familiar with their work, but found out that they had been trying to learn about water testing for a while. They have been using more complicated methods for water testing than I advocate and wanted to learn different ways to monitor their water quality. Also, I teach simple ways for families to make their own water safe and so that also was interesting for them.
We all met at the Hotel Ibis Friday morning, and Gaudencio and another community member Luis brought everyone out to Tulti in vans. In all there were 10 participants plus some Tulti community members. Even though it makes it more complicated, I like to hold the workshops in the communities so that locals can attend as well, and it makes my program more grounded and realistic. We held it at the community center and this year I had a new “power point” presentation to give. Last year in Guatemala I had to put together a last minute presentation, so this one at least doesn't look so cheesy.
First I talk about basic public health and the diseases associated with drinking water, typhoid, cholera, shigella dysentery and all the problems and deaths they cause. The fact is that it's very complicated to test for these diseases, and so the UN and others advocate testing for a marker or indicator of contamination, something relatively simple that can so that the water is safe to drink or not. The organism we test for is E. Coli in the water. It comes from fecal contamination and is always present when the water contains other disease causing bacteria.
Then the participants learn to interpret testing results. We use two different tests, a plate type test called Petri Film a fluorescent tube assay called Colilert. They are both quite sensitive and accurate, down to one E. Coli bacteria in 10 mls of water. They are not difficult to interpret, but testers still need practice. I showed them several different results of samples that I had tested earlier in the week and we practiced with them so that each person could look at them and correctly state whether the water was safe or not.
After that, they learned how to test samples ourselves, using basic laboratory techniques of pipeting and measuring. Exactly one ml of sample has to be accurately placed on the Petri film plates and spread evenly for the test to work. It takes a little practice but eventually everyone could do it. Then we set up real water samples that they had brought with them. I like to have people bring samples of the water they are drinking, it focuses their attention on the results.
The test samples have to be incubated over night at 37 degrees C., body temperature. I give each person a zip lock and tell them they have to keep the sample warm under their clothes at body temperature or it won't work. This is usually a humorous moment but it's important. If they don't keep it warm enough, they might interpret the results as being negative – no growth- when in fact it was their mistake.
By then it was lunch time and we had a really nice lunch served by Amextra to everyone. During the lunch hour the organizations shared their work with the group, which was nice. I think everyone appreciated the different things everyone else was doing. I had planned to show off the rocket stoves and solar cookers in the afternoon, but Gaudencio was so enthusiastic about them that he stole my program and fired up the rocket stove early to make coffee for everyone. This is the second year in a row that it was rainy on the day of the big workshop when I wanted to show off the solar stoves as well. In reality, in climates that have rainy seasons like Mexico and Guatemala, solar stoves have to be backed up by some other method, like a rocket stove, for cooking and water pasteurization.
Instead Gaudencio took everyone on a tour of his work there in Tulti. He has done a great job of rain water recycling and he also has fixed up the schools latrine and wanted to show them off. He's very enthusiastic and a good salesman so everyone appreciated his tour. It's a very different environment there at Tulti with the people living in extreme poverty on the garbage dump so he took the participants on a bus tour of the community as well. Finally, we cleaned up the community center and returned to the hotel by about 4:00.
I think everyone enjoyed and learned from the workshop. I got several comments about how they might change or improve their programs as a result of what they learned, so that was very satisfying to me. I provided testing materials for all of them so that they can continue water testing in their own communities, and each person took home a WAPI to examine and play with. If they want to start providing them to families in their own projects I can arrange for them to get all they want. I have everyone's email and I will follow up to see how they are doing on their projects.
In all, a long, tiring great week!

Veinte de septiembre
Tuesday was Susan's big day. She had two classes of students and taught them about hand washing and hygiene. There are two classrooms at the community center and two part time teachers, paid for by the sponsoring organization Amextra. The students are from the local community and are mostly ones who are ineligible to attend the regular public schools. Mexican laws are complicated and to be able to attend public school they have to have a birth certificate which can be expensive.
The students attend as a family group, rather than age groups, so older brothers and sisters help younger ones and sometimes mothers attend as well. Many parents are illiterate also, so basically most students are all on the same level.
Susan first taught about hygiene, when you should wash your hands. Most students don't have running water, and many have never washed, so it was an interesting new topic. You wash before eating and after using the toilet and after helping your mother with babies and diapers. Then you dry your hands on a clean towel, and you encourage other family members to do the same.
Because clean water is scarce there, Susan then taught them how to make a simple wash bottle from an plastic water bottle by putting a few tiny holes near the bottom. With the lid on tight, if they gently squeeze or push on the bottle a little stream of water comes out. Susan helped each family group to make a wash bottle and to fasten it on a string or wire so that it can be hung up.
The other part is a bar of soap tied in a short nylon stocking . With wet hands the students can lather up the soap bar and scrub their hands nicely. The bar of soap and the wash bottle are designed to hang together in a prominent place at home so that everyone can use them.
After making their wash bottles and “soap in a sock”, they learned a hand washing song which they sang several times for fun. All the students lined up and practiced hand washing with a bottle and soap Susan hung up.. I think some of the young students were amazed to see their clean hands, it was interesting to watch them look at their hands after scrubbing them with the soap bar.
The final part will come on Friday when the students will give a program for their mothers to show they know to wash their hands. Each family will then receive a small potted plant. The plant will be placed in the ground under the wash bottle so that as the families wash their hands they will be watering their plant as well. This is a positive reward for them to actually set up and use their wash bottle.
Susan was exhausted at the end of the day from teaching all these young students in Spanish. I thought see did extremely well and really connected with her classes. Now, Amextra, the sponsoring Mexican non-profit will follow up with the families to encourage them to keep up with things like attending school and eating healthy meals and now they can also check on the hand washing as well. All these are small steps toward a better life for the people who live there.
Wednesday is solar stoves day. We have a big pile of cardboard and all the materials to make stoves with and are going to have a class for the moms to make stoves and then have a discussion about pasteurizing water using the stoves. Each attending mom will get a Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI) to take home and use. Susan and I made nearly 200 of them before we left to distribute to families during our program. Many families still cook over open fires so we will show them how solar stoves can cook healthy food for free.
Each day is more fun than the last!

diecinueve de septiembre

diecinueve de septiembre
Our first day of work! Finally, after months of preparation, Susan and I started our projects today at Tultitlan. It's exciting to actually be here and meet with our friends and discuss our plans for the week.
Gaudencio picked us up at 8:30 and we went to the centro de comunidad where we saw a number of people we have worked with in past years.
Amextra's program here at Tulti is very interesting and effective I think. Gaudencio's wife Ruthie works as a sort of community outreach person and visits families in the community almost every day. She checks on their health, encourages the children to go to school, and advises them of programs that would benefit them. Gaudencio is the same, wherever he goes he knows everyone and talks to them about things they can do to help themselves.
Previously, there was a small classroom where they gave some computer classes. Now another friend of ours, Luis, has turned it into an internet cafe where young people can come and surf the web and play video games. Luis says that it has been a big success and offers teenagers a safe alternative place to go and hang out. Over all, the community center is thriving and a great success due to the work of Amextra, Gaudencio and others.
Susan went with Ruthie to walk through the community and visit families.. Some are reluctant to let people enter their homes, but they talk at the door and Ruthie encourages them to participate in various programs that Amextra has. Susan says many of the people seem genuinely pleased that someone like Ruthie cares about them and follows up to see how they are doing.
I wanted to immediately start water testing the various water supplies in the community. I want to get results early enough in the week that we can follow up with recommendations and help for families drinking contaminated water. There are several sources of water in Tulti, all with problems. Some people pay for water from the municipal water system. Others get water from a basically unregulated ground water supply. Some use rainwater stored in cisterns and some buy water in large jugs – garafones – that probably comes from the same sources. People say that during the rainy season the water is cloudy obviously contaminated.
Gaudi and I went out in the community and collected samples from six different families who get their water from different sources. The water seems clear, but some families store their water in open, dirty containers, another problem. We then returned to the center and I taught Gaudencio and Luis how to set up water samples for testing. I taught them accurate pipeting technique and how to use the various testing supplies and then we inoculated the the Petrifilm testing plates and the fluorescent assay tubes.
It's always a big laugh when I point out to them that they have to incubate the sample for 24 hours by keeping it under their clothes next to their bodies. I tell them to pretend that they are pregnant and that they are carefully growing their baby. If they don't keep the specimens warm they won't grow. I also set up my solar stove and pasteurized a sample of the local municipal water system water so that if it is positive we can demonstrate that solar stoves can make it safe to drink.
In the afternoon we started planning for programs for the rest of the week.
On Tuesday Susan will give classes in the morning and afternoon to the children in the school on basic hand washing and hygiene. The students will make wash bottles with small holes in them to take home. When they squeeze the bottle a small stream of water comes out to wash their hands with. She will also help them make a “soap in a sock” to hang next to their wash bottles. They are going to make their things and keep them at the school till friday when they will make a demonstration for the mothers of how they wash their hands.
On Wednesday we are going to have a solar stove making workshop for mothers in the community. We are rounding up a big pile of cardboard and we have all the aluminum foil and other supplies necessary. We'll make solar stoves and talk about using them to pasteurize water as well as cook with and hand out a Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI) to all the participants. I don't like to just give out the WAPI's without talking about how and why they are important. I feel that it makes them more important if the people understand and value them.
Thursday will be a day to show off “estufas cojetes” or rocket stoves. They are extremely effective and safe biomass stoves that burn scrap and waste material. They burn cleanly and because of their heat output, there is much less smoke. We make them out of 5 gallon cans and stove pipe parts so they are not expensive. I've brought tin snips and hack saws to make them with, and my goal is to make a couple at the workshop to show how.
Friday and Saturday are the days for the big workshop on water testing for invited participants from various organizations. A lot of the planning is still up in the air, so I'm still not sure how it will all go, but I enjoy teaching the workshop and am sure it will turn out well in the end. This year I have prepared a power point presentation on my computer. In some previous years I have given the program in places without electricity, so this will be different for sure. Next week in Chiapas there is no electricity at the site of the workshop so that will actually be more normal.
It's going to be a fun week!

dieciocho de septiembre

Dieciocho de septiembre
Where we were staying is in the middle of Mexico City in a very nice neighborhood, but a long way from our work project, so we moved this morning to a different closer hotel. It's in a sort of industrial area, but nice enough. Casa Gonzalez is old fashioned and quaint, the Hotel Ibis is industrial and efficient. Susan says the rooms are like dorm rooms.
Our friend Gaudencio Cruz met us today and we went for a trip to a little traditional town nearby, Tepozotlan, where they have a busy Sunday market and fair. Susan and I have been there a couple of times, but it was the first for Gaudi and his wife Ruthie. We toured a very old Church and convent there dating from the early 1500's. I'm always amazed at how soon after Columbus and Cortez the Spaniards were colonizing the country. Many of the big churches and haciendas built during that period were done with indian slaves. Gaudencio and Ruthie are not Catholics, so I don't think they were very impressed, but we enjoy seeing all the old church art.
We had lunch in one of the very nice outdoor restaurants. It was warm but we were in the shade and watched all the activities. There were lots of street venders and street musicians, including hurdy gurdys. A pair of strolling guitar players played some nice old Trio Los Panchos songs, which brought back sentimental memories for me of the first time Susan and I visited Mexico in 1969.
I didn't realize that Gaudencio is having some arthritis problems, so we headed back after lunch. I wouldn't have proposed all the walking if I had known.
He and Ruthie came up to our room and we talked about what we are going to do tomorrow. I want to start water testing right away so that we have some results by the latter part of the week. We can then have classes for community members and show them what they are drinking. Then you have their attention to talk about water purification methods. There are lots of things we can do this week, but it depends on what Gaudi and Ruthie want. Tomorrow Susan is just going to go around with Ruthie to visit some of the families and see how they are doing. After Gaudi and I set up water samples I want to also go to the ferreteria to get supplies to make some rocket stoves to show how they work.
It's great to really get going!

diecisiete de septiembre

Diecisiete de septiembre
Today was another fun day. In the morning we went to see Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera's home in Coyoacan, a community on the outskirts of Mexico City. I thought I had been to Casa Azul before, but instead it was the Dolores Olmedo museum. She was a patron of Diego Rivera and her home has a llarge collection of his and Frieda Kahlo's work.
Casa Azul is a moderate size house dating from the early 1900's that had belonged to Frieda's family. She and Diego remodeled it and lived there most of their lives. It was also the house where Trotsky lived with them and where he was murdered. It's full of their original art that must be worth a fortune. It was a little crowded because it was saturday but still okay.
One interesting feature to see was the elaborate contraptions Freida used to be able to paint. She was a semi-invalid for many years due to a childhood case of polio, followed by a crippling auto accident. She was in pain and bedridden for long stretches but she rigged torture chamber like devices to support her and stand her upright so that she could reach her canvas. I think by being there and seeing their stuff, including everyday items, you can get a sense of their lives that you can't get from just looking at there art.
Coyoacan has a nice park, a bosque, with lots of paths going through it. Around the edge of the forest there is a running path where lots of Mexicans were jogging along. Apparently it is quite fashionable to jog around the paths for a while then go to one of the nice coffee shops on the street next to the park. In the park there are several activities areas with people there. We saw a sort of martial tai-chi school with swords and someone else teaching fencing. In one larger area there were bull fight students waving capes while others charged them holding horns on their heads. Not activities you see much in the US.
For lunch we met Stephanie Sieveke, the Amextra coordinator that I have been working with. We ate in a nice small cafe just on one of the pretty little plazas in Coyoacan. Stephanie started out as an unpaid volunteer with them teaching English classes. Apparently in Mexico you're required to be able to read and write English to go to college so there is a lot of pressure to learn. Stephanie gave the classes as a fund raiser for Amextra and after a year was hired as a communications coordinator. Now she lives full time in Mexico City and is involved in a lot of their programs.
We talked a lot about Amextra's work and their plans. They have recently taken over all of Medical Teams International's programs, including the work in Oaxaca that I was involved with. Their focus is a little different from MTI and so they are changing the programs somewhat and some of the staff. Adam Moore whom I know was Oaxaca coordinator for MTI is now back in Portland working as some sort of Latin American coordinator for them. I think Amextra's focus is more on sustainability and long term growth rather than teams coming for short periods to do specific service projects.
After returning on the subway to our hotel we met with Susan's cousin, who by coincidence is Mercy Corps Latin American coordinator for Agriculture and who lives in Mexico City. Her partner Javier is working with Unesco on literacy programs and other projects in rural areas of Mexico. They have a 11 month old daughter whom we had never seen, so it was nice to visit with them both. I even gave a little sales pitch for my workshop and Javier said he might know some people who would be interested in attending. They could only stay for a little while, because of their daughters nap and sleep schedule, when you have little babies their schedule takes precedence over everything else.
Tomorrow we are going to move to the Hotel Ibis, near Tultitlan and meet up with my friend Gaudencio and his with Ruthie. I'm not sure of our schedule but were hoping to go to Tepozotlan, a small town north of Mexico City with a nice plaza, a beautiful old church and a Sunday market. They also have really good restaurants there and it should be a fun afternoon.

dieciséis de septiembre
Mexico City
Susan and I arrived Thursday evening to a heavy rain shower, just at the start of the celebrations for Mexican Independence day. The holiday starts the evening before with the president of Mexico and State Governors repeating the “grito”, the cry for independence from Spain that Padre Hidalgo gave 201 years ago. From what we saw on TV the rain showers didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the people.

Today was the big military parade down the Paseo de La Reforma. It was over two hours long with thousands of soldiers, sailors and air force members marching. It was the longest strictly military parade ever seen, with tanks and guns and armored vehicles of all kinds. Several of the military academies marched in old fashioned traditional uniforms from the 19th century. There were canine units, air force units each with their own live eagle as a mascot, horseback units and commando units in camouflage. We were impressed by the integration of women into all of the different units including special forces and parachute battalions, marching along side of the male soldiers.
Despite all their problems the Mexican people are proud and patriotic, justifiably so. There were flags and banners everywhere, and cheering as the various units marched past, and lots of shouting “Viva Mexico!” “Viva!”.
After the parade we walked down to Chapultepec park . It was really crowded with families enjoying the holiday and picnicking. All the museums were closed but we wanted to go to the Chapultepec castle where “los Niños Héroes” from the military academy fought the United States Army that invaded Mexico in the 1840's. There were long lines so we gave up on that and went for a walk to find some lunch and eventually ended up back in our hotel. Mexico City is very european and it's pleasant to walk along the great avenues in Mexico City, everything is so grand and large scale.
We're staying at a very small scale hotel, Casa Gonzales, just a few blocks off the La Reforma. It's a quiet neighborhood, and the hotel is made up of several old houses that have been combined. The original families were well to do and their art work and furniture is still here. There are nice patios and gardens and they serve meals family style if you want. We'll be here till Sunday when we move out to a business hotel near where we will be working. It's clean and efficient but clearly lacks the charm of this place.
Tomorrow should be fun. We're going early to see Casa Azul, Diego Rivera's and Frieda Kahlo's home in a neighborhood called Coyoacan. It was a small town with a plaza and parks that was surrounded by Mexico City, but still retains its charm. After the visit to Casa Azul we are going to meet a friend from Amextra whom we will be working with and have lunch with her there in Coyoacan. Then later in the day we will get together with Susan's niece Amy English who lives here in Mexico City and works for Mercy Corps. They have a new daughter whom we haven't seen, so that will be nice.
I'm looking forward to meeting with them and starting to talk about our work projects here in the next weeks.

A quick update

Susan and I will be leaving for Mexico on Thursday for a three week visit, giving two workshops, in Mexico City and then in Palenque, in Chiapas. It seems easier to post to this blog than to our website: aguapuraparaelpueblo.org, so I'll mostly try to send updates to this site while we are traveling. I'll write more when we get to Mexico City.
Tom