Mexico
The Challenge of Mexico City
On Friday night I went to Texcoco (east of Mexico City, toward the north) to meet with some of the CAM International missionaries from the Mexico City area. We were there to see the mission director and his wife (Dan and Sue Wicher, who were served for years in Mexico City themselves), and two of the CAM board members; Jon Campbell (his wife is Wanda but she wasn’t there) and Walter and Dottie Baker.
One thing that was interesting was that everyone was sharing about the joys and challenges of working in Mexico City.
Many of the joys we talked about are what you might expect anywhere – watching Jesus "invade a family", for example (as Rod Fry said during his presentation). But I thought you might be interested to hear about some of the challenges we talked about.
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- Traffic. Just getting from one place to another. People may look at Mexico City and wonder why it’s so hard for us to get together with believers from other areas. But when people are an hour or two late for meetings like this one (even people with board members in their car), they are reminded. It’s not easy to get around in Mexico City. You plan for it, but it’s drastically unpredictable. When Mayra Fry came to pick me up Friday, she was stopped by the police. When Rod and I left from his house and headed to Texcoco, we were stopped by the police (not because any of us did anything wrong, by the way. No one got a ticket.). And we were among the first to arrive. There are accidents, construction, delays of all kinds.
- Fear. One missionary mentioned just the challenge of safety in the big city. Every missionary does need to take precautions and be aware.
- Discipleship. I was trying to carry on with my one-word summaries – maybe that’s not the best word. But one missionary shared what they’d heard from a Mexican believer. The Mexican pointed out that so many of the Mexican believers are first generation Christians. That means there is an incredible lack of role models. They’ve never seen a functioning Christian marriage, or how to parent as a believer, or what Christ-like leadership looks like. It’s exciting when your church is almost all new disciples – but it calls for a different kind of discipleship.
- Commitment. Someone else pointed out (and I’ve heard this a lot) the challenge of a lack of commitment. Now, a disclaimer here – there are many very committed people here – Mexican and non-Mexican. But when you’re on the front lines of disciple-making this is always a challenge, no matter where you are.
This reminds me of the great summary of challenges that Dennis Poulette shared in his post If you can minister in Mexico City… He listed space, transportation and time. That was in the context of youth ministry, but I think those three things fit everywhere.
If you work in Mexico City, I would love to hear what you would add to the list.
Pay here
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This is a site that you may see in Mexico that you probably wouldn’t see in Canada. Well, of course, it’s just a coin slot – you see those all the time in Canada. But do you know what it’s for?
I’ll give you a clue. It was at a stop on the highway, and I put two pesos in the slot. Do you know what happened next?
*clink*
The bathroom door unlocked.
That’s right, this was by the door of the men’s room at a gas station. Two pesos and you were allowed in.
As I recall there were no paper towels or toilet paper in the bathroom – kinda makes you wonder what you were paying for!
Sometimes you have to pay the man or woman standing at the door. Sometimes you actually get a couple of squares of toilet paper for your one or two pesos.
I stopped at one bathroom where there was a box inside by the sinks asking for a tip. With no soap, toilet paper or towels I decided to hang on to my change.
Sometimes there are bathrooms at higher class places, like a Sanborns, where you’re asked to leave a tip. But there they have all the normal facilities, even toilet seats, plus fake flowers on the counter, and a well dressed gentleman who hands you a towel to dry your hands with. I’ll tip there.
Actually, the public washrooms seem to be a lot better than I remember from 15 years ago. It’s a little more unusual (though still pretty normal) to use one with no toilet seats. But still – if you’re coming from Canada, you may be in for a culture shock.
No, you don’t always have to pay. Sometimes you just need to ask for someone to unlock the bathroom for you. Sometimes you actually just walk right in, no loose change required.
Notice the nice self-serve honour-system option below. The box outside of the men’s and ladies’ asks that you deposit your two pesos, and then invites you to take some TP.
Mexico’s Ballet Folklórico (with video)
Earlier this month we went to Mexico City to see the world famous Ballet Folklórico de México de Amalia Hernandez (literally, folk dance of Mexico by Amalia Hernandez, the founder of the group). You may wonder, as I did, why our organization required us to go and see it as a part of our Orientation Year "education". Now that I’ve gone, I understand why, but find it impossible to explain!
I guess that’s because it gives you a "feel" for Mexico, that few other things can in that short a time.
This will sound like a lousy attempt to be eloquent, but visiting downtown Mexico City and seeing Ballet Folklórico gives me the same feelings I have for all of Mexico – hope and despair, joy and sorrow, confusion and certainty, identity and the search for an identity. Are there other countries that live with the same amount of paradox as Mexico?
I love Mexico and am excited to be a part of it. Let’s leave it at that.
To follow are video clips from the performance. This is a much longer video than I normally post – 9 minutes. I hope it will give you a feel for what was going on, but it probably won’t – you need to come and see it for yourself.
The songs and dances are supposed to represent the history of Mexico. I found it hard to catch the words, but you’ll see a lot of typical Mexican things – dancing, kissing, religion . . . 😉 You’ll see mariachi bands. For the wartimes you’ll see lots of women with guns. There are dances representing different regions, and different classes. Remember I’m not showing you everything, just a representation.
A final note before you watch. The singing was actually really good – for some reason it doesn’t come through well on the video. You’ll need to use your imagination, or start planning your trip to come see it for yourself.
September is not a boring month (in case you didn’t know)
We haven’t been bored, no. But as a result, I haven’t had much time to write! So far, September has been a full month. So let me just give you a quick update.
We’ve enjoyed some time with friends here in Ixtapaluca, though not as much time as we would like. For example, we were over at Martin and Laura’s home last week to get a glimpse of Mexican culture watching the 1947 movie Nosotros los Pobres (We the Poor).
The National Palace
Last week we fulfilled some of the requirements of our Orientation Year with a visit to downtown Mexico City.
 The building was packed for the church party |
I have lots of pictures of video to show you of that, so stay tuned. We visited the Latin American Tower, spent some time in the world’s second largest city square, and saw the world famous Ballet Folklórico. Our friends Rollie and JoAnn Smith were kind enough to let our kids sleep over at their house. 🙂
This past weekend was full of Independence Day celebrations (the actual day was the 16th). So Hannah and Nathanael got to dress up at school, and we all dressed up for a party on the 14th. Firecrackers, tacos, music, games – lots of fun! Pictures to follow. 😉
We also had our kitchen installed this month! That’s right,
 The carpenters install the kitchen |
we now have cupboards and counters. We’re still waiting on the table and chairs, and one more cabinet for the kitchen. And the drain isn’t hooked up yet. So, soon we’ll actually have most of our bins unpacked (in theory)! Praise the Lord!
On Monday we went with the Frys and our friends Crystal and Alberto to a zooish kind of place nearby. Lots of fun there. You guessed it – pictures are forthcoming.
Today we’re heading out again to spend the weekend in Querétaro with our friends Bryan and Lori Smith. We’re hoping to learn a little about the ministry there (this is also a requirement for our Orientation Year, though we’re happy for any excuse to visit the Smiths). We get home Sunday night, and then head the next morning to a one day retreat for our co-workers in the Mexico City area. I’ll be leading some music worship there.
Wow, I didn’t realize how crazy September has been until I wrote that. It pays to post once in a while!
In case you haven’t seen enough, here’s a quick video of music practice from last Sunday, courtesy of Rod Fry. Really, I was having a lot more fun than I look like I was having! 😛