Mexico
Shari and the Apple Pies
You need to understand the difference. Baked goods are a big deal here in Mexico. Sweet bread, cakes, doughnuts, buns – and if you go to a few birthday parties you’ll see cakes baked and decorated beyond belief.
Baking, on the other hand, is not big in Mexico. You go to the store for the baked goods, you don’t pull them out of your oven. In fact, some people store dishes in their oven.
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So a bunch of the ladies of the church got together at Tania’s house to learn how to make apple pies. And boy did they have fun.
Crystal brought her Mamita’s super-duper-home-baked recipe from the USA. They managed to round up a few rolling pins from who knows where. Shari brought some mini-cookie cutters to make the crust fancy. And Tania invited some ladies from her neighbourhood.
They chopped up the apples. Crystal made sure they got the filling right. Shari got everyone making the perfect flaky crusts (in most cases!).
 Crystal with a completed apple pie |
Some of the ladies were introduced to Jesus for the first time. And everyone made new friends.
Now they’re thinking of doing an encore performance – with some of the ladies who were running things and didn’t get to see all the “pie making secrets”. So the story may not be over yet!
As a side note, it looks like there will be some other baking going on here next week. Two months or so ago, Hannah and a girl from our neighbourhood were around the house, and I offered them some apple dumplings. Ever since that day, the girl has been bugging her Mom to make her some "apple pie" like she had at Hannah’s house. So her Mom knocked on our door and talked to Shari about coming over for an apple pie/dumpling lesson.
In my opinion, there’s nothing like making friends with food involved. And if I’m not doing it myself, I’ll be hoping to catch some of the leftovers!
Poverty conversation
One of the reasons blogging became so popular waaaaaaay back in the day is because it was conducive to conversation. And today, the conversation on a particular topic is getting a boost – the topic is poverty.
Blog Action Day is an organization that encourages discussion on a single topic each year. They do this by asking bloggers to write on that topic on a particular day, in hopes that a continued, helpful discussion will take place.
This year the topic is (you guessed it) poverty. I wrote a post earlier (one I was planning to write anyway!), so today I’m just going to refer you back to the series I’ve been doing on the topic. (I wrote early to submit my post to the blog carnival at Missionary Blog Watch – check there today or tomorrow for other posts on the topic from a Christian perspective).
Here’s the series so far:
- Poverty – living on the minimum wage in Mexico (featuring a music video)
- Poverty (part II) – questions about poverty, links, and another video
- Poverty and Community – when helping the poor fails, and a suggestion of how we can improve things
These are difficult and controversial topics – I would love to hear your comments, whether you agree or not!
No such thing as “Simple errands”
We’ve often repeated variations of the old joke – if you can do one thing a day in Mexico, you’re doing all right. If you can do two things, that’s fantastic! If you can do three – you’re lying. 🙂
A couple of recent incidents might illustrate why that is.
Last Thursday I was in Cuernavaca to pick up a few things, and see our friends the Casteels. When I first got into the city I decided to run downtown to get some stamps and mail a few letters at the post office.
First of all, I admit that I got a little mixed up as I tried to find the right street. With a memory like mine, 3 months is enough time to forget streets! But eventually I found my way, and I realized that something was going on downtown.
It was something that blocked off streets, because I found my way into a complete dead end, right downtown, nothing to do except back up.
 Downtown Cuernavaca with a sign from the teachers (demanding respect and against a Mexican politician). Photo courtesy of aquafoxx |
Finally I got myself out of the awkward situation and found an actual parking lot. I walked to the post office, and realized that what was going on was a teacher’s strike. The streets were filled with booths, and rallies were going on. I minded my own business and everything was fine, though later I heard that some store owners had felt threatened by a group of teachers. (That’s just one story, of course – sounds like it’s been pretty peaceful.)
In the end, mailing a few letters took a LOT longer than expected!
On Friday, Shari and I headed to the Municipal Palace in Ixtapaluca to get some paperwork done. As we walked toward the building and the square, we could see that there was a platform set up, and a crowd of students standing around. Some kind of rally, it looked like, or protest.
Someone on the platform yelled into the microphone louder and louder as we approached the building.
The whole crowd began to chant as we were metres away from the door. We passed a police officer with a big gun looking on (not so unusual here, but it added to the atmosphere).
Then suddenly the students literally stormed into the municipal palace! We were close enough now to see inside, and there were soldiers actually in the building. We were right in the crowd now, thinking…hmmmmm… maybe another time would be better…. and we turned around and walked back to the van.
I still don’t know what was going on – might just have been a field trip, for all I know. Even so, it appeared that at that moment we probably wouldn’t be able to get the service we needed to get our documents!
So maybe that illustrates, in case you were wondering, why simple things often take so long. Of course, it’s never exactly the same thing twice.
And a footnote – we did get our documents taken care of later that day. But we later discovered that it was something we didn’t need to do at all. Oh well, it gave me something to blog about. 😉
La boda
Yesterday we went to a wedding. Here are a few thoughts about the wedding, some of our friends, and even a clip of . . . well, you’ll see.
Poverty and Community
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The poor lady sits by the market, begging. Is any other option open to her? How many children is she trying desperately to feed? Did she have a husband long ago, and where is he now? How many months – years – has she sat here, day after day, begging from strangers?
I say strangers, because I have a feeling she doesn’t get a lot from people who know who she is. Apparently, she’s quite wealthy, and owns land all around the city. Begging is a very lucrative business for her. Another story of Mexico for you.
I’m very frustrated with poverty, and very frustrated with the money that’s being made, squandered, and stolen in the name of helping the poor.
I’ve heard missionaries talk with that same frustration about the high percentages of aid workers who are only in it for the money, who scoop away the goods meant for the poor. Goods maybe paid for by someone across the ocean, who actually cares and wants to help.
Though I wouldn’t want to discourage large scale aid efforts, I’m increasingly convinced that a key element in helping the poor is community.
There best help comes when people really know and trust people. The money goes into the hands of someone you trust, and makes its way to someone who is in a community with the poor person or family, who knows the situation and knows what might help.
Paul wrote to Timothy,"Honour widows who are really widows" (1Tim 5:3). And how would Timothy know who was really a widow? Community. Most of all, the committed church community, but also the larger community.
Not long ago people in our local church built some cabinets and installed them into the houses of some "unsuspecting" families. These were families in need, who were somehow connected with people in the church. Creative, fun, and likely to be a real help, and a real demonstration of God’s love.
I tell this story a lot, but at one point researchers in Baja California discovered that the poor in many communities would wear their clothes once and then throw them out. They stopped doing laundry altogether. Why? Because a steady stream of groups came from the USA – well meaning, but ill informed. These groups brought down clothes in such large quantities that the poor no longer needed to wash their clothes – they’d just wear another donated outfit when one got dirty.
What was missing? A connection to the community. If they’d just asked someone, instead of using their eyes and making assumptions, they could have been a much bigger help.
Large scale help efforts can succeed, and small efforts where someone-knows-someone can also succeed. But I think an important thing to look at is, where does community fit in? Who really knows and understands the situation?
We need to help the poor, and help more. But lets do it with wisdom.
Is God in His holy habitation.
Psa 68:5