Day 8: On the Move (Just Up the Street)

"El mundo puede cambiar; sólo hay que intentarlo. No hay que odiar, hay que amar. No hay que odiar, hay que amar. Hay que intentar, hay que intentar. No hay que perder la fé. Dame fé, dame alas, dame fuerza para sobrevivir en este mundo."

("The world could change; we just have to try. There's no reason to hate, we must love. There's no reason to hate, we must love. We have to try, we have to try. There's no reason to lose faith. Give me faith, give me wings, give me strength to survive in this world.")

-"Fé," by Maná

8:30 pm

This afternoon, we went into town to just explore a little bit. We found a fun little city garden with lots of kids playing and I found a knockoff version of the pineapple soda that I love. We went to a bagel joint and I ordered a fajita; go figure. It was a great fajita, though. Also, I wrote postcards and sent them today; did you know it costs 10.50 pesos to mail a postcard to the US?! That's almost a full American dollar! All I've got to say is that my little cousins better appreciate those silly postcards! And it seems as though the Mexican postal service tries to make up for the fact that the stamp costs so much by making it a really, really big stamp. I was covering up parts of the names and addresses on some cards, until the lady finally stopped staring (and probably laughing inside) and told me that the stamp could be folded over the edge if need be. Gee, thanks.

The other news from today is that the Pepto-Bismol pink upper room is no longer mine! I'm moving up in the world, or actually just moving down... the street. There are two high school girls (Crazy Jane's granddaughter and a friend) coming to work at the Center for Global Justice, and though my new room is slightly more accommodating for two people, it is also slightly less supervised, which has Jane worried. So. The two girls get jammed into that fun, though cramped, third floor room, and I get this fun subroom of the coveted "apartment" where our supervisor, Peggy, and her husband stayed previously. They moved across the complex. My new room is great! It has huge windows on every wall; one is a huge circle that takes up an entire wall. I have another (just one) patio in front of my door, and the apartment complex is so exotic and pretty! Lots of plants and wrought iron stairs. It's also safe; it has a huge locking door to even get into the complex. But now I have a lot of keys to keep track of. I now live on the Segunda Privada de las Animas, the second private drive of Animas (Persons, but not People) street, about a block behind the Center. Here is a picture of my new room; it doesn't show very much because my new window room is huge compared to the old pink one! hehe


Also, I have to apologize because I know it's incredibly unladylike to keep talking about how weird the bathrooms are, but bear with me a second here. Did I mention that the shower at the Center was a huge square tub with no shower curtain? And I know I included a picture of the painted ceramic toilet and sink in the downstairs bathroom. But my new bathroom; this is a new thing altogether... The bathroom is like one big room, with not even a lip in the floor to keep the shower water in one area. Don't worry, I won't include any more pictures of the bathroom, though I might have to at least mention the baños secos after I get back from the campo.

Not much news. Reading, exploring, enjoying... same old, same old, if that's proper to say, even though I've only been here about a week. Thanks to everyone who has emailed me; I really appreciate it! I miss you guys; take care of yourselves in my absence!