Mexico

5 July 2007

The 7 New Wonders

It’s almost time for the winners to be announced – that is, the 7 new wonders of the world. The list has been narrowed down to 21, and now you can vote in the final 7. There are only 35 hours left to vote, so you may have trouble accessing the site, but here it is – new7wonders.com.

Actually, if I understand right there will be 7 wonders plus an honorary member – the pyramids of Giza, Egypt. The pyramids are the only remaining wonder of the ancient 7 wonders.

It was fascinating to look over the list of the final 21. In a sense, it was amazing to see what people have accomplished all throughout history. It also makes you wonder what could have been accomplished if it hadn’t been for death, war, and disease. Then again, it was sad to see how misguided much of our achievement has been, and how small and old it all seems in the grand scheme of things. "Unless the LORD builds…" (Psa 127:1)

Mexico has its own entry – Chich’en Itza (Chichén Itzá), in the northern centre of the Yucatán peninsula. This was a major Mayan centre back in its day (the last half of the first millennium AD). The city may have been destroyed violently in a civil war, but the details are vague.

The most famous part of the site is the Temple of Kukulcan, sometimes called El Castillo. Kukulcan was a feathered serpent god worshipped by the Mayans, and on the fall and spring equinox the shadow of a snake slithers down the side of the temple following the sun’s movement.

Check out this 360Â° tour of the ruins of Chich’en Itza. Here’s another interesting site about the ruins, particularly El Castillo.

The results will be announced on 07/07/07 in Lisbon, Portugal. It will be broadcast around the world, featuring a who’s who’s of world celebrities. You can catch it on TV or by webcast.

But as you watch the world’s best, celebrate something else – the day when all humankind’s fantastic energy, ingenuity and creativity will be focused on love for one another and the Creator.

28 June 2007

El DÃa de CanadÃ¡

Jim Mexico, Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise 0

Yes, the BIG day is coming up! Canada will be 140 years old on the 1st of July. And we are planning a PARTY for everyone from our church here in Cuernavaca.

If you pray for people in Mexico for any length of time, pretty soon you’ll find you’re praying about parties. Fiestas are as much a Mexican institution as meeting at Tim Hortons after the hockey game in Canada. Philosophers have written about the Mexican party. But in this case, we’re interested in parties because they get people together.

We’re hoping this will be a chance for us to show our friends at church that we appreciate them, even though we can communicate very little. And, of course, we want to have FUN!

Late Sunday afternoon we’re hoping 30-50 people will converge on our house for some pancakes and sausages, with real Canadian maple syrup (one of the rare Canadian things we can buy here). (Pancakes are called hotcakes in Mexico – they’re not unusual, but often topped with sweetened condensed milk or cajeta) It may sound like a Stampede breakfast, but it’s a little too early, wrong time of day, and our pancakes will be better than the round sawdust-cakes I’ve had some places.

So please do pray that we will have conducive weather, good attendance, and a good time together with fellow believers. Because, after all, they share our most important citizenship of all – in Heaven.

25 June 2007

Poverty

Jim Mexico, News and current issues, Video Blogs 5

The minimum wage in Mexico is 50 pesos. As I write that’s about CA$5.21, or US$4.63. And, by the way, that’s not per hour, that’s per day.

You may wonder how people live on that – many Mexicans I’ve talked to wonder the same thing! Part of the answer is that a lot of people work 3 jobs, and live together with other people who are working 3 jobs. Then they cut back on expensive things like meat, and stick to tortillas and beans. And maybe rice. That’s if they’re actually able to work, and if so to find a job. Imagine the grandmother caring for young children trying to work (or find work!) on top of everything else!

Even the middle class has real troubles, trying to give children a better life and help struggling family members. Living close to the line many fear sliding back into the poverty trap themselves, and at they same time they wonder how they can help the many Mexicans who live in such a hopeless situation.

I thought you might like to hear about the issue from the mouth of a Latino. Very popular in Mexico and around the world is the Columbian musician and activist Juanes. His song La Historia de Juan (the story of Juan) is a simple description of the life of a boy in poverty.

Here’s a basic paraphrase/summary, since the song is in Spanish:
This is the story of Juan, the boy nobody loved. He grew up on the streets; his mother left him, his father mistreated him, his house was the alley, his room a cardboard box, his friend God. He wanted love, honour, and forgiveness and the world gave him pain and dishonour. The pain was so bad it extinguished his heart. He wanted to play, dream and love, but the world forgot him.

21 June 2007

Jesus-followers and Racist-fish

Jim Mexico, Ministry glimpses 2

During the past couple of weeks at school, our teacher has asked us to bring articles each day to discuss. Each week, our teacher has also had us go through an article. As you may imagine, this leads to some interesting discussions.

This week we’ve been talking about an article by Octavio Paz. Today we were discussing topics such as different concepts of death (between the Aztecs and the Roman Catholic Church from Spain), the Pope’s views on abortion and contraceptives, and the Roman Catholic view of sin.

Today I brought an article about what it means to follow Christ (see the actual article here). I gave a summary of the article, and made the point that various people have various ideas about what it means to be a Jesus-follower. Even the "church" (whatever you might mean by the word) may tell you what it means. But it’s a good idea to go back to the source – what does Jesus Himself say about following Him?

Then it came time for the others in the class to express their opinions. It’s like there’s a brain short circuit when people try to differentiate between Jesus, or the Bible, and the "church". Right away we were talking about problems with the "church", when my whole point was that there may be a difference between what the church says and what Jesus says.

Photo courtesy of Sam Meztli

One girl said that she believed in God, but that at the same time it was really only an imaginary thing. Others said they agreed with the fundamentals of the church, but that church itself wasn’t for them. Someone else said that church was a place for them to get together with family and friends.

But it was really interesting what our teacher had to say. He talked about problems when the Roman Catholic Church has had too much power in society (he related it to fascism). Then he talked about people who had the fish symbol on their car, or on the sign for their business. He felt that the symbol was a sign of racism, because "those people" feel they are the world’s only "good people".

What would you do if a fascist-racist tried to share their beliefs with you?

Our teacher’s ideas really aren’t unusual, from what I can tell. Mexicans actually have a historic problem. In the past, the Roman Catholic Church has had a lot of power in Mexico. When that political power was taken away from the RC Church, many people (even religious people) felt it was a good thing. So when Jesus makes these radical statements – like giving up your life and obeying His commandments, people have trouble separating that from the institutional political power that the RC Church had. Church, the thinking goes, is better controlled by the individual, but should not control the individual.

Of course, being a disciple of Christ is not the same thing as giving political power to an institution. But it’s a hard thing to separate all these things in people’s minds. Especially when there’s so much history and so many preconceived ideas packed up in the word "church". The Church really isn’t about a man-made institution; it’s the assembly of imperfect people who have experienced the grace of God; people that follow Jesus, and point others to Him.

I pray that we can do that, and see the Spirit do miracles in people’s minds and hearts.

20 June 2007

Our diplomas

Jim Just for fun, Mexico 2

This week we got our first diplomas. Actually, it was last week, but there was an error on them, so they were corrected and I got them Monday. Here’s Shari’s:

So… do you notice anything odd? No, I’m not talking about the spelling – that’s how Shari spells her name in Spanish. But there are some other interesting things about it.

For example, it congratulates Shari for completing 2 weeks of classes. Interesting, since she has actually completed 4 weeks at the school. But you’ll also notice that the diploma was presented on the 6th of July, 2007. Check the date of this post, and you’ll understand what’s so odd about that!

By that time, Shari will actually be done 6 weeks of classes. But for some reason, she didn’t get a diploma for completing a level, or for completing any other weeks, just for completing the next two weeks she’s about to do.

I got a 2 week diploma too. I got it in my 14th week.

Well, every time I go to pay for our classes, the whole procedure is different, and I can’t speak enough to really understand why things are done the way they are! So, I just smile and say thank you… unless of course there’s some major miscommunication (this last time they gave me receipts for double the money I gave them, in a different currency. But that time it was really my fault).

So anyway, Shari did a great job in her coming two weeks (and they complain I have problems with my verb tenses?)!

Seriously, though, school has been going well. I’ve had a lot of homework, but I’ve enjoyed a lot of discussion on a variety of topics this week. I’ve learned a lot about Mexico, and some of the verb tenses are even starting to stick in my head. Sometimes I feel like I’m where I should have been after 2 weeks instead of 14 weeks – maybe that’s why they gave me a two week diploma! 😉

16 June 2007

Bugs: Why we keep our shoes on

Jim Just for fun, Mexico 2

That little fella there by my right shoe is called an uropygid. They’re also commonly known as whip scorpions (even though they’re not scorpions) or vinegaroon, in Spanish vinagrillo (sounds like bee-nah-GDEE-joe). I’m not sure if I’m allowed to call them "bugs" or not, because they’re not actually insects, they’re in the spider family (arachnid), having 8 legs. Those two long skinny things in front that look like antennae are technically legs.

I’m sure everyone moving from somewhere like Canada to the tropics has bug stories and pictures – I haven’t posted many photos because I’m waiting until I have more of a "collection", but I thought you’d like to see this one.

I was walking up the hill to our house when I saw something coming out of a small drainage pipe. It was dusk, and apparently the vinagrillo was coming out to hunt. Vinagrillos are carnivorous, and they come out at night to hunt for insects like crickets and cockroaches.

This one was about 10cm (4″) long, and probably double that with the tail and front legs stretched out.

I had just come back from an excursion with the school, so I happened to have my camera. I grabbed it and put my foot in front of the animal to keep it from going into the shrubbery, and for perspective. Right after I took this picture, it went into a defensive posture, as you can see here. It went from being flat as above to holding up its back end and pincers. It obviously wasn’t worried about being seen, but was going for intimidation, rocking forward and backward on six of its legs and looking pretty ominous. (By the way, just click on the pictures to see a better version of each photo. You can see a larger size of the photo by changing the size in the upper right in the photo gallery.)

Vinagrillos actually aren’t really dangerous to humans. They can pinch with their pincers, and they also spray an acid if they get upset. It smells like vinegar, hence the name. That’s apparently the worst thing about them, because if you squash them the smell is aweful. Actually, in captivity they rarely spray and actually are sometimes sold in pet stores. There are various kinds of vinagrillos in more tropical areas around the world. They keep down the population of other insects, so they’re not all bad.

Just really, really nasty looking.

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