Saturday:
We spent the day split into two groups. Half of the class went to Tlapan and the other half went to Apaxco. I went with the group to Apaxco, which is about an hour outside of the city. We spent the day at a preparatory school with the students doing different projects. I got into a small group and first we worked on a craft. Wow, these people know how to do real crafts and they are not easy! We made a bicycle out of folded up paper glued together and then painted with coffee. Each group made a few of these that would be used to hand to children in the community. The bicycles have a basket in which they would put candies.
Then I went with a group into town and we scraped off old paint from the curbs of the street. We swept the curbs and then painted them again with bright yellow paint. We rode to this area in the back of a truck, AIMers and students packed in tight and laughing whenever we went over a bump because we'd sway back and forth and sometimes fall on each other. While we were working on the streets, a little boy came and hung out with us. We all thought he was someone's little brother, but turns out nobody knew him. When we went back for lunch, he snuck into a car and went back with us. The rest of the day he stayed with us and played a lot with my teammate Josie. I could tell he had lots of fun with her and being with all of us. He even asked when we would be back, but sadly that was our only day there.
We listened to some of the students play guitar and one of my classmates, Cody, played guitar for them. Jacob taught them how to sing Amazing Grace and Ryan talked to them about who we are and what we were doing in Mexico and in the future. Then we all did another craft, which was also very difficult for me. We exchanged this craft with each other as a sign of our friendship. Then we painted our hands and put them on posters with our names. They would display these posters to show our friendship with the town.
We had tamales for dinner and I had a sweet tamal for the first time. The tamales in Mexico are very different than the ones in the states. The sweet tamales were very good, especially with a cup of coffee. We hung out with the teens and then had to say goodbye.
I had made friends with a few of them there and there was this kid named Alex who was really cool. I hung out with him a lot. We even went to a snack shop across the street and he showed me his favorite snacks and bought some cookies for me. Josie bought her first torta and enjoyed it.
When we left the teens followed us to our bus and yelled "we love you". It was sad to leave. We all loved our time there.
Sunday:
We split into three groups this day to go to three different churches. I went to the church in Tlapan, a section of the city. This is the area and church that three AIMers work with. They are Bryce Ballard, Austin Odle, and Randall Young. Austin was our guide during the whole trip. The church there is a small size but the people were very nice and good to talk to. I tried to use as much Spanish as I could, but struggled at times. I was able to have some good conversations. I also had to remember to kiss every lady that I met and talked to. Oh! and for the communion, we used tortillas instead of crackers. I thought that was pretty cool.
After church we went to lunch in one of the markets. There are so many small markets and people trying to sell stuff. I had to just keep walking though, even though the fruit smelled so good. After lunch we passed out some flyers and went to an even bigger market. We were there for a while and then had dinner at this very crowded place and ate fried quesadillas. I ate a lot that day, greasy foods, and later regretted it.
Monday:
We spent this day with our guides exploring the city and taking in the lives of all the people. I was sick this day, but I tried to keep up with everyone and focus. We rode a lot of little buses and the metro. It was very crowded but we had to pack in there and the guys looked after us. We passed out fliers for the church by the metro. We went to the basilica first. This was amazing. It is so big and elaborate inside. I saw a lot of things there, some made me respect and have reverence, some made me sad and frustrated. We walked up many step to the top of a hill to a temple that was dedicated to the virgin Guadalupe. People were outside the temple chanting and inside there was a service going on. I heard the story of how all of that came to be and it amazed me. There were many statues everywhere too. We could see the tops of the mountains from there along with most of the city.
We went to the tower of Latin America. This is the tallest building in the city and we went to the very top to look over all of the city. The missionaries said that this was the best day they have seen in a long time for looking over the city. Mexico City has lots of pollution and so usually all people see is some of the city and lots of smog. We were able to see a lot of the city and the beautiful snow capped mountains.
Then we went to a cathedral located by the main circle. It was a beautiful building, and again gave me a mixture of emotions. We saw some of the ancient ruins that were near the cathedral.
Tuesday:
This day we traveled to Cuernavaca. This city is beautiful! It has so many trees and flowers. Once we were there, we split into two groups. One group went to the city square and the other group went to an orphanage. I went to the orphanage and had an amazing time. From the moment we got there, the kids just wanted to play with us. They didn't care that most of us couldn't speak fluently in Spanish. They wanted to picked up and carried around. I talked with some of the little girls and helped others understand what they were saying. I played kickball with one of the little boys and sang songs with one of the little girls. Another girl, Olivia, wanted to look through my camera and take pictures. There was a boy who was didn't really talk, but we had such fun playing with him. These kids showed me how amazing the Lord is, how innocent he makes children and full of love. It was emotional for me to leave the orphanage.
We met up with the rest of the class at the square and sang songs in front of everyone. We sang songs in English and in Spanish. Some people just walked by and others stopped to listen and watch us. Then we passed out fliers here all along the square. After that we went to a taco place, which was very yummy but I didn't eat too many tacos. Everyone's favorite was tacos pastor (pork).
Wednesday:
This was our last day in Mexico City. We had to say goodbye to the AIMers from Guadalajara Leon, and Tlapan in the morning. It was so great getting to meet them and be encouraged. We drove north to the ancient pyramids. We climbed to the top of the biggest pyramid. It was a little scary because the steps were very steep but once I got to the top, it was just a beautiful and amazing sight. I thought about the people the built them and the civilization that was there thousands of years ago.
Throughout the week we had devos in the morning and at night. We heard some of the AIMers speak to us and some missionaries. We learned songs in Spanish. It was just good for my soul to be there, participating in mutual encouragement and seeing what I will soon go through in Italy. When we said goodbye on Wednesday after lunch, it was difficult and I cried a little bit. I am so proud of all the missionaries in Mexico. I know that it is not always easy for them to be there. Sometimes, I know they do not want to be there and get discouraged. But they have gone on faith and I love them. The people are amazing, the culture is amazing, and the good things that happened made this trip wonderful. I also got to bond more with my team. Overall, blessed trip! God is good.
