It's not uncommon for people to shout "güero" at me in the street. It's very common for them to stop, stare and whisper, as if i had sixteen eyes and a 3 foot nose. But on Friday, I seemed to be attracting more attention than usual. Normally I don't mind but this irritated me - I was tired and took offence - and I wanted to shout at them; "seriously, just because I'm the colour of paper and not coffee doesn't mean I'm weird". Actually, I have to admit I think they were thinking I was stealing things because I was carrying a fence which I made for Alheli (and sweating profusely because it's a 2 mile walk from Santa Cruz and it was quite heavy).
See what I did there? Taking a fence while people watch me in the street. Oh I am so witty. And yes, it did take me most of my arduous journey to Alheli to think it up. Sad, I know.
Tuesday, 19 February 2008
Monday, 11 February 2008
Newsletter 8: Doing things the Mexican way
Dear Friends,
I have found a few moments to tell you a little of my life in Mexico over the last few weeks. There is much to tell but it seems that a good description of my time so far in 2008 would be 'doing things the Mexican way'.
The time I spent in the UK was wonderful and I was encouraged by so many of you who enquired how I was and how the work was going. Thanks :) Being mentioned by Marvin twice in one service was quite amusing. I managed to avoid going back and forth between Cambridge and Norwich too much (like November) and also slept a lot better so I didn't get ill when I returned (unlike November). Combined with a new approach to the time difference and the 6am flight, all this meant I arrived refreshed and ready to go. This was just as well because since then I have been on a gruelling timetable!
When Saul and Pilar Cruz assessed how the last few months had gone in Alheli (the Mexico City students' residence), they decided that the guys weren't working nearly hard enough, nor did they take care of their time well enough, nor did they have the right attitude to life. I'm not sure I agree with this assessment but Armonía is the Cruzes' ministry and I've volunteered to be a part of it this year. Their response to this has been very Mexican (= direct, prescribed and paternalistic); Saul has instigated a hard schedule. For example, my Fridays start at 5am and finish at 9pm. In total, I'm up at 5 three mornings a week to cook breakfast for the students and clean the residence (the other mornings start at a leisurely 6am). By 8:30 most mornings, I'm at work having already cooked twice, cleaned, done personal Bible Study and 30 minutes of 'meditation time' (prayer, thinking, reflection)!
Technically, I'm meant to spend the mornings in the office but the Cruzes have been away visiting US supporters so I (thankfully) haven't had anything there. This has been just as well because the Armonia sites are undergoing some major refurbishments and I haven't stopped since I got here at the end of January. At Alheli, we've totally redecorated one of the rooms after the ceiling fell in when a pipe burst and we're redone the 3 bathrooms a nice shade of cream called 'crepa'. Consequently, my things are distributed between 2 bedrooms and the hallway whilst we complete the job. As an aside, I don't think I've lost anything (yet) and I managed to recover my memory stick and Sigg drinkbottle. Unfortunately the penknife appears to have gone to the pile in the sky (no comments please Bignell, Pike, Widgery or Fergusson). A penknife is always useful unless…
You have a Leatherman (thanks Mayland and Co.). All is not lost because it has now come into its own during my jobs at the Santa Cruz community centre, where I'm spending about 75% of my time. At SC (Santa Cruz, not Surrey Chapel), I have turned into something of a handyman. Well, 'workman' might be a better description until I can assess just how handy my work is! Once again, things are done the Mexican way. We hand-cleaned out the dustiest carpentry in the entire world, prompting the ladies at the centre to comment that when dirty I look much more Mexican. I have plumbed in two new roof downpipes, including cutting a 1.5m long trench through concrete. In the UK we would find a machine, here you apparently just hammer away at the concrete for hours with a blunt chisel. You know when you've hammered too much because your arm goes numb and you keep hitting yourself! Muchos bruises. We have emptied and inspected two cisterns. They weren't cracked nor dry but we did have to gravity-drain them. Thankfully I didn't get a mouth of dirty water. Similarly we have an underground water storage unit that regularly overflows. We wanted to see if it was blocked and so removed over 3000L water in buckets over the course of a day. My shoulders are pretty sore as a result but it has been suggested by someone that the exercise might be good for my muscles. Chiselled abs and bulging biceps here we come…?
On top of all this, we're strictly enforcing a Spanish-only zone in Alheli which means I end most days both physically and mentally drained. With this and the daily house bible study, I am really picking up my Spanish and being able to engage spiritually with both the guys I live with and the ladies at the centre. I really like being more able to help them with their Christian questions, which is an answer to prayer from the holidays.
So, all in all there's lots going on – I still have to build some fences, mend some tables, cut and install 4 windows, lay grass, repaint the entire centre and more. But don't worry, I'll be learning how to do things the Mexican way whilst serving the community here. :) I have to be honest that it's been hard adjusting to the new routine and remaining personable. I have found that some days I really lose my energy and go a bit sullen, or I just lose the plot with my Spanish. I think added into the difficulty is that I was at home a lot longer than I had intended and started to settle into life back in the UK (a man's way of saying I miss home). But hopefully with time I will be able to do the jobs assigned to me with joy and infectious enthusiasm.
I'll be putting things up on the blog from time to time but the new schedule has meant that not much amusing has happened beyond me hitting myself with hammers or getting covered in muddy gunk cleaning out the cistern. And I haven't had much time for reflectioning either. I apologise to those of you who clearly don't have much better to do in your evenings than read my blog ;)
God bless and take care,
Chris
I have found a few moments to tell you a little of my life in Mexico over the last few weeks. There is much to tell but it seems that a good description of my time so far in 2008 would be 'doing things the Mexican way'.
The time I spent in the UK was wonderful and I was encouraged by so many of you who enquired how I was and how the work was going. Thanks :) Being mentioned by Marvin twice in one service was quite amusing. I managed to avoid going back and forth between Cambridge and Norwich too much (like November) and also slept a lot better so I didn't get ill when I returned (unlike November). Combined with a new approach to the time difference and the 6am flight, all this meant I arrived refreshed and ready to go. This was just as well because since then I have been on a gruelling timetable!
When Saul and Pilar Cruz assessed how the last few months had gone in Alheli (the Mexico City students' residence), they decided that the guys weren't working nearly hard enough, nor did they take care of their time well enough, nor did they have the right attitude to life. I'm not sure I agree with this assessment but Armonía is the Cruzes' ministry and I've volunteered to be a part of it this year. Their response to this has been very Mexican (= direct, prescribed and paternalistic); Saul has instigated a hard schedule. For example, my Fridays start at 5am and finish at 9pm. In total, I'm up at 5 three mornings a week to cook breakfast for the students and clean the residence (the other mornings start at a leisurely 6am). By 8:30 most mornings, I'm at work having already cooked twice, cleaned, done personal Bible Study and 30 minutes of 'meditation time' (prayer, thinking, reflection)!
Technically, I'm meant to spend the mornings in the office but the Cruzes have been away visiting US supporters so I (thankfully) haven't had anything there. This has been just as well because the Armonia sites are undergoing some major refurbishments and I haven't stopped since I got here at the end of January. At Alheli, we've totally redecorated one of the rooms after the ceiling fell in when a pipe burst and we're redone the 3 bathrooms a nice shade of cream called 'crepa'. Consequently, my things are distributed between 2 bedrooms and the hallway whilst we complete the job. As an aside, I don't think I've lost anything (yet) and I managed to recover my memory stick and Sigg drinkbottle. Unfortunately the penknife appears to have gone to the pile in the sky (no comments please Bignell, Pike, Widgery or Fergusson). A penknife is always useful unless…
You have a Leatherman (thanks Mayland and Co.). All is not lost because it has now come into its own during my jobs at the Santa Cruz community centre, where I'm spending about 75% of my time. At SC (Santa Cruz, not Surrey Chapel), I have turned into something of a handyman. Well, 'workman' might be a better description until I can assess just how handy my work is! Once again, things are done the Mexican way. We hand-cleaned out the dustiest carpentry in the entire world, prompting the ladies at the centre to comment that when dirty I look much more Mexican. I have plumbed in two new roof downpipes, including cutting a 1.5m long trench through concrete. In the UK we would find a machine, here you apparently just hammer away at the concrete for hours with a blunt chisel. You know when you've hammered too much because your arm goes numb and you keep hitting yourself! Muchos bruises. We have emptied and inspected two cisterns. They weren't cracked nor dry but we did have to gravity-drain them. Thankfully I didn't get a mouth of dirty water. Similarly we have an underground water storage unit that regularly overflows. We wanted to see if it was blocked and so removed over 3000L water in buckets over the course of a day. My shoulders are pretty sore as a result but it has been suggested by someone that the exercise might be good for my muscles. Chiselled abs and bulging biceps here we come…?
On top of all this, we're strictly enforcing a Spanish-only zone in Alheli which means I end most days both physically and mentally drained. With this and the daily house bible study, I am really picking up my Spanish and being able to engage spiritually with both the guys I live with and the ladies at the centre. I really like being more able to help them with their Christian questions, which is an answer to prayer from the holidays.
So, all in all there's lots going on – I still have to build some fences, mend some tables, cut and install 4 windows, lay grass, repaint the entire centre and more. But don't worry, I'll be learning how to do things the Mexican way whilst serving the community here. :) I have to be honest that it's been hard adjusting to the new routine and remaining personable. I have found that some days I really lose my energy and go a bit sullen, or I just lose the plot with my Spanish. I think added into the difficulty is that I was at home a lot longer than I had intended and started to settle into life back in the UK (a man's way of saying I miss home). But hopefully with time I will be able to do the jobs assigned to me with joy and infectious enthusiasm.
I'll be putting things up on the blog from time to time but the new schedule has meant that not much amusing has happened beyond me hitting myself with hammers or getting covered in muddy gunk cleaning out the cistern. And I haven't had much time for reflectioning either. I apologise to those of you who clearly don't have much better to do in your evenings than read my blog ;)
God bless and take care,
Chris
Thursday, 31 January 2008
Carbon Footprints and Metal Cutlery
I was just finishing off a nice Iberia korma-chicken-thing with rice, salad and tasty airline cake when I realised that I’ve done a lot of flying since July 2007. A quick count-up revealed that in the last 7 months I have flown about 40,000 miles over 20 legs. I’ve spent about 109 hours in oh-so-comfortable airplane seats. And I still haven’t worked out whether it’s an aeroplane or airplane. I favour the latter based on the film title alone.
But the upshot of all this means that I cringe whenever people mention “carbon footprints”. I dread to think what my carbon output for the year 2007/2008 will be when all is done and dusted with my time at Armonia. Factor in the science that tells us that CO2 emitted into the upper troposphere has about double the impact of grond emissions and it becomes the stuff that environmental tree-huggers have nightmares about. The weird thing is that, for someone who probably has above-average awareness of the issues, this hasn’t bothered nearly as much as I thought it would. But it does bug me because if I’m not tearing my hair out in order to offset then who will? And even if I did offset, does paying a man on the internet to tell me he’s planted a tree actually do anything towards saving the planet from what is looking like an increasingly probably environmental disaster (if it isn’t already)? I really feel like I should think this through more while I fly even if it seems like an ironic use of my spare time!
Which brings me onto another thing which I’ve had time to chew over at 10,000m (so to speak). Now, I’m all for reusable cutlery, having complained every week Eden Church uses disposable tea and coffee cups (which is only slightly less offensive than the liquid served inside). But I was sure that metal cutlery was banned on most airlines. Not so Iberia. The paranoid American air companies use plastic knives so blunt that a rolling pin would do a better job of cutting through whatever they are calling food on that day but it seems that Iberia has judged a cutlery-armed Spanish terrorist to be less effective than his USA counterpart. It reminds me of some lines from a recent Flight of the Conchords song:
I saw a man lying on the street half dead
With knives and forks sticking out of his leg.
And he said,
"Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow
Can somebody get that knife and fork out of my leg, please?
Can somebody please remove these cutleries from my knees?"
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLEK0UZH4cs)
But the upshot of all this means that I cringe whenever people mention “carbon footprints”. I dread to think what my carbon output for the year 2007/2008 will be when all is done and dusted with my time at Armonia. Factor in the science that tells us that CO2 emitted into the upper troposphere has about double the impact of grond emissions and it becomes the stuff that environmental tree-huggers have nightmares about. The weird thing is that, for someone who probably has above-average awareness of the issues, this hasn’t bothered nearly as much as I thought it would. But it does bug me because if I’m not tearing my hair out in order to offset then who will? And even if I did offset, does paying a man on the internet to tell me he’s planted a tree actually do anything towards saving the planet from what is looking like an increasingly probably environmental disaster (if it isn’t already)? I really feel like I should think this through more while I fly even if it seems like an ironic use of my spare time!
Which brings me onto another thing which I’ve had time to chew over at 10,000m (so to speak). Now, I’m all for reusable cutlery, having complained every week Eden Church uses disposable tea and coffee cups (which is only slightly less offensive than the liquid served inside). But I was sure that metal cutlery was banned on most airlines. Not so Iberia. The paranoid American air companies use plastic knives so blunt that a rolling pin would do a better job of cutting through whatever they are calling food on that day but it seems that Iberia has judged a cutlery-armed Spanish terrorist to be less effective than his USA counterpart. It reminds me of some lines from a recent Flight of the Conchords song:
I saw a man lying on the street half dead
With knives and forks sticking out of his leg.
And he said,
"Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow
Can somebody get that knife and fork out of my leg, please?
Can somebody please remove these cutleries from my knees?"
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLEK0UZH4cs)
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Blog Interest
Having been in the UK for quite a while over Christmas and New Year, you will have noticed that there has been little activity on my blog recently. I’ve received a number of suggestions as to why I haven’t been in contact recently. No, I haven’t been eaten by Mexican dinosaurs and no I’m not residing in some sort of internet black hole. I’ve actually had a disappointing number of encounters with man-eating reptiles whilst abroad and unless Norwich counts as an internet black hole (sometimes easier to believe than you might think), the second is inaccurate too. One might assume that my absence from the blogspaace was down to one of two factors. Either my life when I’m in England is sufficiently dull that nothing interesting happens or I’m so busy doing English things that I don’t have time to put things up.
In truth, it’s more of the latter. I’ve further familiarised myself with the train service as I flit between my two lives in Norwich and Cambridge, although I did also make it to Edinburgh, Coventry and London Euston station (very pleasant– not been there before). Plenty of amusing or random events have occurred; I’ve woken up with someone’s pants on my head, attended my Eden support prayer meeting for the second time (more than some of my support group!), trialled a new version of the Armonia UK website which consists entirely of pictures of Saul’s head (it’s complicated why) and found out what ‘somnambulist’ means (T2 crossword clue). Plenty of laughs and good times but although leaving friends and family is always hard, I’m glad to be back where I’m meant to be spending my year – in Mexico.
In truth, it’s more of the latter. I’ve further familiarised myself with the train service as I flit between my two lives in Norwich and Cambridge, although I did also make it to Edinburgh, Coventry and London Euston station (very pleasant– not been there before). Plenty of amusing or random events have occurred; I’ve woken up with someone’s pants on my head, attended my Eden support prayer meeting for the second time (more than some of my support group!), trialled a new version of the Armonia UK website which consists entirely of pictures of Saul’s head (it’s complicated why) and found out what ‘somnambulist’ means (T2 crossword clue). Plenty of laughs and good times but although leaving friends and family is always hard, I’m glad to be back where I’m meant to be spending my year – in Mexico.
Thursday, 3 January 2008
Happy New Year
It's a bit late but I haven't been near the web for a while. So... Happy New Year to all you MexicanChris readers out there. Enjoy the holidays, watch out for the incoming snow and may God bless you more and more with his rich grace in 2008.
Monday, 31 December 2007
Newsletter 7: Mexican Chris' Christmas Message
Dear friends,
I hope this email finds you well and relaxed after a good Christmas. I feel that a measure of the busyness of my last four weeks has been the lack of spare time in which to write to you. This is definitely a good thing because I'm in Mexico to serve and I've been able to help out with so much recently. Thank you to those of you who emailed me asking if I was still ok. This one'll be a little longer than normal because I'm covering all of December and rounding off the year. No weather report this time I'm afraid.
As I've hinted, the last weeks have been amazingly busy; I think I had about 25 hours sleep over the 5 nights before the 23rd Dec (when Armonía closed down for Christmas). Those of you who know me will recall that a lack of sleep does funny things to me; I start going a bit mad (well, more mad), mixing up words in my sentences and losing things. My Mexican list of mis-laid stuff now runs at: 1 Sigg drink bottle, 1 penknife (Widge, Ferg and Pike - no comments please), 1 USB-SD card reader and some other things that I can't recall at the moment! As Mum would say, 'the massive pile of stuff in the sky' (representing all the things I have lost in my life) may have some Christmas additions. I am reasonably confident that I will be able to locate some of them. "Vamos a ver", as we say here…
2 weeks ago, we all took a trip south to Oaxaca City (pronounced 'Wa-ha-ka'). I was quite excited by the prospect of reliving my 2004 Venezuela overnight bus experience (best travel I have ever had) when I saw that the overnight bus seats reclined to a comfortable 50 degrees. However, I hadn't reckoned for a combination of the atrocious Mexican roads with a coffee maker just behind my head. 7 hours of bounce, rattle, bounce, rattle, bounce, rattle meant I arrived somewhat sleepless. Nonetheless, what I found out about the Armonía project gave me renewed energy. At the risk of lengthening this letter, I want to tell you about what Armonía is doing there because I'm very excited about it.
Oaxaca state is one of the poorest and less that 5% of the remote villages surrounding Oaxaca City offer anything beyond primary school education. If students want to progress to secondary, they have to come to the city. The problem is, where do they stay? In answer, Armonía has built a students' residence (very similar in concept to Alheli) and then admits hard-working students. They support them, get them into the best schools in the city and give them broader life skills training (for instance, through Bible Studies and training in carpentry/manual labour tasks). The house is overseen by three 'older siblings' who have already progressed through school and devote a year to this project before entering the Armonía university scholarship program in Mexico City. The project in general is maintained by Dani Vargas, the Armonía lawyer whose story of a life changed by the gospel will have to wait for another email. The students' residence used to provide for 100 kids from many different indigenous tribes but due to political instability Armonía were driven out of their original location in February. The current one holds 12 but we are in the process of constructing a new dorm for 200 by June! It's a huge vision.
This provision affects the students in three ways. 1) Almost all of them decide to put their trust in God and live life as the Bible dictates, in the light of the cross of Christ. The state needs committed Christians living out their faith and these students will be leaders amongst their peers because: 2) The students are well fed, wisely disciplined and carefully looked after so they get much better grades. 3 of them recently took the top three places in their final school exams. This isn't a coincidence and so the scheme is very popular. 3) This opens up a vast range of opportunities including university. Joaquín, who I live with, graduated in electrical engineering 10 days ago with the Mexican equivalent of a Cambridge first, a $30m (USD) grant to patent and produce a new style of vending machine which he and 3 other students designed and, to top it all, we're pretty sure he is the first person from his tribe to get a degree. Ever. And he's only 20 years old! Perhaps this shows why I am so excited about this project - he came through the whole system. We visited, held a Christmas party for the students and local supporters and looked back over the year – a great time of fellowship with lots of amazing food (Pilar was in charge of the cooking).
I returned to Mexico City excited but shattered in time for the Armonía Christmas celebrations. There was one at each of the three community centres this year. Everyone from the community is invited to come. There is singing, praying, drama, a short Christmas address and much celebration. Impressively, everyone who comes is fed and each family is given the elements for a basic Christmas meal (cooked chicken, bread etc) so they can celebrate the birth of Christ however poor they are. At Santa Cruz, I was a modern-day wise man in the drama, delivering lines in my weird Spanish accent to the 200 people present, and a true caballero (gentleman) as I took part in traditional dances too. There is video evidence but I won't tell you where it's being kept. ;)
The preparations for our trips and the celebrations took up most of our time so there isn't much else to report. Last week I had my volunteer evaluation; it was challenging because it lead to the vocalisation of some cultural differences which have caused the odd hiccup ( e.g. expectations of performance, communication etc). Saul and I have been very honest with each other and I found it very useful to learn how to work more effectively for Armonía in Mexico. God timed the visit of Andrew Widgery and Jim Houghton well so that I could take spend time with them digesting my experiences as well as have hours of good old British banter. Poor Liz seemed somewhat bewildered by the whole experience.
And so my time with Armonía in 2007 is coming to an end. I have learnt so much, been excited by almost everything and been challenged beyond what I expected. Thank you to those of you who prayed for me and kept in touch – it means a lot to know there are supporters back home. My first newsletter had some specific prayer points on it so I'd like to end with some things to praise God for:
§ That we have a Saviour to celebrate at Christmas – God didn't have to come but He loved us so much that he entered the world in the person of Christ just over 2000 years ago. He has been faithful and trustworthy whilst I have been away. In Him I trust.
§ For the strong relationships with Armonía staff that I have developed, especially with the Cruzes, Dani, the ladies at the centre and the kids in the homework club.
§ That I have learnt so much Spanish and now even have enough confidence to speak in public as a representative of Armonía.
§ That He has kept me safe, healthy and active in His service
§ For the way we in Armonía have been able to apply the Christian gospel to people's lives and see the radical difference it makes.
Happy New Year to you all. Well done for getting this far.
God bless,
Chris Güero
P.S: I'm just gathering more information about Tabasco but I'll include an update in the new year. I know many of you are interested to hear more about the water filters.
I hope this email finds you well and relaxed after a good Christmas. I feel that a measure of the busyness of my last four weeks has been the lack of spare time in which to write to you. This is definitely a good thing because I'm in Mexico to serve and I've been able to help out with so much recently. Thank you to those of you who emailed me asking if I was still ok. This one'll be a little longer than normal because I'm covering all of December and rounding off the year. No weather report this time I'm afraid.
As I've hinted, the last weeks have been amazingly busy; I think I had about 25 hours sleep over the 5 nights before the 23rd Dec (when Armonía closed down for Christmas). Those of you who know me will recall that a lack of sleep does funny things to me; I start going a bit mad (well, more mad), mixing up words in my sentences and losing things. My Mexican list of mis-laid stuff now runs at: 1 Sigg drink bottle, 1 penknife (Widge, Ferg and Pike - no comments please), 1 USB-SD card reader and some other things that I can't recall at the moment! As Mum would say, 'the massive pile of stuff in the sky' (representing all the things I have lost in my life) may have some Christmas additions. I am reasonably confident that I will be able to locate some of them. "Vamos a ver", as we say here…
2 weeks ago, we all took a trip south to Oaxaca City (pronounced 'Wa-ha-ka'). I was quite excited by the prospect of reliving my 2004 Venezuela overnight bus experience (best travel I have ever had) when I saw that the overnight bus seats reclined to a comfortable 50 degrees. However, I hadn't reckoned for a combination of the atrocious Mexican roads with a coffee maker just behind my head. 7 hours of bounce, rattle, bounce, rattle, bounce, rattle meant I arrived somewhat sleepless. Nonetheless, what I found out about the Armonía project gave me renewed energy. At the risk of lengthening this letter, I want to tell you about what Armonía is doing there because I'm very excited about it.
Oaxaca state is one of the poorest and less that 5% of the remote villages surrounding Oaxaca City offer anything beyond primary school education. If students want to progress to secondary, they have to come to the city. The problem is, where do they stay? In answer, Armonía has built a students' residence (very similar in concept to Alheli) and then admits hard-working students. They support them, get them into the best schools in the city and give them broader life skills training (for instance, through Bible Studies and training in carpentry/manual labour tasks). The house is overseen by three 'older siblings' who have already progressed through school and devote a year to this project before entering the Armonía university scholarship program in Mexico City. The project in general is maintained by Dani Vargas, the Armonía lawyer whose story of a life changed by the gospel will have to wait for another email. The students' residence used to provide for 100 kids from many different indigenous tribes but due to political instability Armonía were driven out of their original location in February. The current one holds 12 but we are in the process of constructing a new dorm for 200 by June! It's a huge vision.
This provision affects the students in three ways. 1) Almost all of them decide to put their trust in God and live life as the Bible dictates, in the light of the cross of Christ. The state needs committed Christians living out their faith and these students will be leaders amongst their peers because: 2) The students are well fed, wisely disciplined and carefully looked after so they get much better grades. 3 of them recently took the top three places in their final school exams. This isn't a coincidence and so the scheme is very popular. 3) This opens up a vast range of opportunities including university. Joaquín, who I live with, graduated in electrical engineering 10 days ago with the Mexican equivalent of a Cambridge first, a $30m (USD) grant to patent and produce a new style of vending machine which he and 3 other students designed and, to top it all, we're pretty sure he is the first person from his tribe to get a degree. Ever. And he's only 20 years old! Perhaps this shows why I am so excited about this project - he came through the whole system. We visited, held a Christmas party for the students and local supporters and looked back over the year – a great time of fellowship with lots of amazing food (Pilar was in charge of the cooking).
I returned to Mexico City excited but shattered in time for the Armonía Christmas celebrations. There was one at each of the three community centres this year. Everyone from the community is invited to come. There is singing, praying, drama, a short Christmas address and much celebration. Impressively, everyone who comes is fed and each family is given the elements for a basic Christmas meal (cooked chicken, bread etc) so they can celebrate the birth of Christ however poor they are. At Santa Cruz, I was a modern-day wise man in the drama, delivering lines in my weird Spanish accent to the 200 people present, and a true caballero (gentleman) as I took part in traditional dances too. There is video evidence but I won't tell you where it's being kept. ;)
The preparations for our trips and the celebrations took up most of our time so there isn't much else to report. Last week I had my volunteer evaluation; it was challenging because it lead to the vocalisation of some cultural differences which have caused the odd hiccup ( e.g. expectations of performance, communication etc). Saul and I have been very honest with each other and I found it very useful to learn how to work more effectively for Armonía in Mexico. God timed the visit of Andrew Widgery and Jim Houghton well so that I could take spend time with them digesting my experiences as well as have hours of good old British banter. Poor Liz seemed somewhat bewildered by the whole experience.
And so my time with Armonía in 2007 is coming to an end. I have learnt so much, been excited by almost everything and been challenged beyond what I expected. Thank you to those of you who prayed for me and kept in touch – it means a lot to know there are supporters back home. My first newsletter had some specific prayer points on it so I'd like to end with some things to praise God for:
§ That we have a Saviour to celebrate at Christmas – God didn't have to come but He loved us so much that he entered the world in the person of Christ just over 2000 years ago. He has been faithful and trustworthy whilst I have been away. In Him I trust.
§ For the strong relationships with Armonía staff that I have developed, especially with the Cruzes, Dani, the ladies at the centre and the kids in the homework club.
§ That I have learnt so much Spanish and now even have enough confidence to speak in public as a representative of Armonía.
§ That He has kept me safe, healthy and active in His service
§ For the way we in Armonía have been able to apply the Christian gospel to people's lives and see the radical difference it makes.
Happy New Year to you all. Well done for getting this far.
God bless,
Chris Güero
P.S: I'm just gathering more information about Tabasco but I'll include an update in the new year. I know many of you are interested to hear more about the water filters.
Friday, 14 December 2007
Marrying in Mexico?
Being one of only two white people in the area has a number of implications... Amongst them is the universal assumption that Liz and I are either husband and wife, engaged to be married or boyfriend/girlfriend. The people that know us obviously haven't quite compared that against the fact that we had never met before coming to Mexico as volunteers!
The assumption in question seems to be entirely based on the fact that we're both white. And increasingly we're being asked when we're going to get married. Now I chuckle when I think that before I went many people suggested that I was going to come back with a Mexican girl. In the eyes of the Mexicans, that prediction is close but actually it'll be an 'Americana'.
It has now got to the stage where they don't feel like they have to ask us individually. We were walking to the centre and three of the girls who come to the homework club (aged 9-10) were standing in the road. I greeted them and was met by the question: ¿Cuando te vas a casar con Liz? (when are you going to marry Liz?). Not 'how are you?', not even 'hi'. They just jumped straight in with what they saw was the most important issue.
Now I ought to confirm that this isn't going to happen. I have no intention of returning with neither a Mexican nor an American in my suitcase. For one, how will I fit my things in there with them? Liz and I get on well but not too well (if you know what I mean). And I'm grateful to God that we work well together even our Mexican friends miss-interpret that.
The assumption in question seems to be entirely based on the fact that we're both white. And increasingly we're being asked when we're going to get married. Now I chuckle when I think that before I went many people suggested that I was going to come back with a Mexican girl. In the eyes of the Mexicans, that prediction is close but actually it'll be an 'Americana'.
It has now got to the stage where they don't feel like they have to ask us individually. We were walking to the centre and three of the girls who come to the homework club (aged 9-10) were standing in the road. I greeted them and was met by the question: ¿Cuando te vas a casar con Liz? (when are you going to marry Liz?). Not 'how are you?', not even 'hi'. They just jumped straight in with what they saw was the most important issue.
Now I ought to confirm that this isn't going to happen. I have no intention of returning with neither a Mexican nor an American in my suitcase. For one, how will I fit my things in there with them? Liz and I get on well but not too well (if you know what I mean). And I'm grateful to God that we work well together even our Mexican friends miss-interpret that.
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