This is an old post card from our mission talking about the need in Mexico.  It’s old, but it still applies (at least until CAM changes its name!) – so here it is!

Here are some more opportunities in Mexico.

Believe it or not, we are on our way to Canada!  But we’ll only be there a few days.

Since returning to Mexico in November, we’ve been working on issues related to our visas.  A number of things have changed, and so we’ve basically been starting from scratch with a number of documents.

Our work on this has been in some ways a comedy of errors.  Emails didn’t arrive, information was lost, there were meetings about things that don’t concern us and yet impacted some document somewhere, changes in Mexican law…

The work goes on, as we try to get documents from Canada and documents from Mexico and figure out legal issues.

To make a long story short, our visas are expiring and we are required to leave the country – and then come back.

It’s not what we would have chosen.  However, we can see some good things in all this.

First of all, we will be able to briefly visit Shari’s parents and my parents.  Obviously this is not something we are able to do very often!

Secondly, we do have some business to do in Canada, and this may actually save us a trip down the road.  So we’ll try to make the most of our time and deal with some things while we’re there.

Some of the things we’re planning to do should actually save us some money, so thankfully it’s not a 100% drain on the wallet!

As an added bonus, we get to see our Mothers right around Mother’s Day, and the Grandparents get to see the Grandkids right around their birthdays!

So we’re off for a few days.  If you think of it, do pray for us as this will be a challenging trip in many ways.  Also, pray for our visa situation.  We had an encouraging meeting on Monday, and hope that we’ll be able to get the final documents in order very soon.

All right, gotta run.  We have a plane to catch.

A little over a week ago, we went to a local aviary known as "El Nido" (The Nest).  We drive by it all the time, but only recently found out that it’s the third largest aviary in the world!

And I have to admit, it was pretty cool.

So here is some video from El Nido – mostly birds, birds, birds.  But what an amazing variety!

So have you heard about the "Walmart Bribery Scandal"?  I certainly have.  And living here in Ixtapaluca, where I once heard we had the world’s highest grossing Walmart, I thought I would stop by briefly and comment.

Now I’m no fan of Walmart – but this is not about the pros and cons of the retail store that so many either love or hate.

But it is an interesting case in point when it comes to business in Mexico, and international relations.

Walmart isn’t the only business that has recently rapidly expanded in Mexico (another would be Canada’s Scotiabank, whose growth has been phenomenal).  But I can’t imagine what other business has matched its growth.  Suddenly, Walmart owns retail stores all over the country, and that’s not all – restaurants, wholesale stores, even a bank – if Walmart didn’t bring it to Mexico, it bought it when it got here.

And what is going to be the reaction if you tell people in Mexico that people in Walmart were taking or giving bribes?

Yeah?  So?

Is this supposed to shock us?

That’s how business is done in Mexico, they might say.  Does that make it right?  Of course not.

And I’m not suggesting that everyone in Mexico takes bribes, or that there are more bribes here than in any other country.

But there is a certain expectation that bribery is out there.  And the opportunity arises frequently.

What if it’s so completely a part of a culture that it has simply become a way people get paid?  There are workers here who live on tips – that’s all the wages they receive.  But there are also workers who are paid very little, because the expectation is that they will be able to care for their family with the extra money they get from bribes.

What if that has become the only way to do business?  What if you can’t build a home, or build an orphanage – without bribes passing hands somewhere?

I’m not suggesting that’s the case here, just trying to help you look at it a different way.  The fact of the matter is, sometimes the line between bribery and honest business is not as clear as we would like it to be.

So if the expectation here is that all businesses are involved in bribes, how should we feel about Walmart getting singled out?  (And I’m not saying whether the claims of bribes are true or not.)

In one of the news articles I read, the first reaction of the Mexican authorities was that they had nothing to investigate.

What if the authorities have to use bribery as a means to investigate the bribery case of one business on a street of other businesses that have done the same?  Just how well is that investigation going to go?

Ah, but Walmart is a US company, and so a lot of fuss can now be made on both sides of the border.  The Mexican government can pledge to help its friend the USA in the investigation (as the saying goes – Poor Mexico, so far from Heaven and so close to the United States).  Presidential hopeful Enrique Peña Nieto can say forceful things like "This is an endemic vice, a vice that leads us nowhere".  And everyone can have something to talk about and complain about for a while.

Pray for peace and justice, and try to take the time to think through the issues.  Sure, we should pray for peace and justice in this case, and in Mexico – but not just here.

And we really shouldn’t be so surprised by injustice when we see it.

Here are a few clips of Claudia’s 15th birthday party from Saturday.  In Mexico, Quinceañeras are often very formal events, as you’ll see.  A coming-of-age party for girls in Mexico, it could be bigger than a girl’s wedding.

Claudia is a great girl from our church and it was a privilege to share the time with her and her other friends and family!

I had some work done on our brakes today, after … er … needing to for … a long time!  But anyway, today our mechanic was wearing such a fantastic hat while he was working, I just had to take a picture.

Getting some work done on the van can be a procedure… usually something like this:

• Try to catch the mechanic when he’s home
• Try again when he’s not so busy
• Have him look at the vehicle
• Talk about life with the mechanic
• Try to figure out what parts he needs
• Shop around to find the parts you need for a reasonable price
• Bring them back to the mechanic … and if he’s available he can fix the things.
• Talk some more

Of course, it’s not always that simple – mistakes might be made due to language, culture, or if someone is human.  But the work gets done eventually!

A few months ago we got together with some of the folks who were working on the second season of the documentary series Trashopolis, which had been airing on History Television in Canada.  The series was all about, as you might guess, the garbage in famous cities around the world, such as Rome, London, and New York.

In season two, guess which very important city is featured?  You guessed it!  Our home sweet home, Mexico City.

Now apparently you can watch the episode online in Canada – Trashopolis: Mexico City, but we’re not in Canada, of course, so we haven’t seen it yet.  According to this Trashopolis II page, it will be airing on April 17 and 18.  Maybe some nice person would like to record it and send us a copy!

Meanwhile, you can see the first three minutes or so of the episode below.  And guess what?  You can even see a bit of the footage we took during the Chalco Flood if you watch closely.

Trashopolis has also been aired on the Smithsonian Channel and the National Geographic Channel, though I think they’re still on season 1.

Anyway, here you are – lots of places we’re very familiar with – and, of course, lots of trash…

The earthquake you heard about and some others that you didn’t – a glimpse into this week and the coming week.

I’m not sure if you’ve ever had this issue to deal with, but I’ve been looking for a non-pornographic car wash.

Around here, the cool way to promote your car wash is to put a big sign on the road with a – well, no reason to go into detail.  But a sign that I don’t want to look at.

And I’m just not real excited about using a car wash that would promote itself that way.

Two car washes that I’ve used here in town have since shut down.  The car wash I’ve been using lately – well, they’ve put out one of those signs – a big huge one.

Lately I’ve noticed another car wash in town that just has a sign that says – well, "car wash".  In Spanish, of course.  Imagine that.

Around here, people keep their vehicles sparkling clean, generally speaking.  I have a hard time keeping up with the Joneses and making the car wash such a priority.  But yesterday I bit the bullet and went to the car wash I’d found.

I drove in – hmmmmm – looks good … no objectionable posters or calendars … so far so good.  They told me the wash would take about an hour (!), but I decided to wait.

Well, the good news is, they did a fairly good job with the wash.  Ok, they destroyed some Pringles that I probably shouldn’t have bought anyway (but hey, I hadn’t had lunch yet!), but we won’t mention that.  Although I think I may have left their tip in my pocket.

On the other hand, the loud pounding marijuana song was about the best music they played all afternoon.  So I guess I still won’t be taking my kids along.

And the hour-long wait was actually almost an hour and 45 minutes.  All right, so I had it washed inside and out, but I got the simplest, cheapest, package they had.  How long would the super-deluxe wash take??

The worst part was that about half an hour in Shari messaged me to let me know she would need the van soon.  At that point, I assumed I could make it.  But by the time I was supposed to be leaving the van was hemmed in between two other vehicles, and … well, let’s just say Shari didn’t get her errands done.

So I found a non-pornographic car wash at last.  But I can just not look at the signs – the music is harder to ignore.  I guess I’ll keep looking…

A popular pastime for kids here is playing with spinning tops, otherwise known as trompos.  This afternoon Nathanael was playing with some boys on the street, while some of us parents watched.  So, I whipped out my iPod and took some video, so you could see it in action.

The idea was to see whose trompo would spin the longest.  But the other boys had a problem – Nathanael is starting to get pretty good.  Even though they tried to get him to start first (so that his was stop spinning first), he kept winning (or almost winning) almost every time…