I am so glad it it the weekend!!!
Trip Start
Aug 05, 2007
1
9
17
Trip End
Aug 05, 2008
Mexico City,
Mexico
Saturday, September 22, 2007
As you can see from the title of my blogg, this week has been tough as the boys have been mi behaving!! There has been lots of fighting between the children and on Wednesday half of the boys were told to leave because they were being so difficult and disrespectful to each other and the staff, including me! Some of the boys have shown there true colors this week by trying to get out of doing their washing! I caught one of them, he was not a happy bunny! They were better towards the end of the week though because they had a huge telling off by the educators. They were so good that they were taken out for the day on a trip which meant that I had the day off, yeah!!! well I had to work in the morning to help get them showered etc....
The Independence day celebrations were great last weekend, very colorful and lively. We had a traditional dinner which was a dish called Bolsoli which is basically like a soup made out of corn and meat with chili in it of course!! It was nice without the meat but was very spicy, so spicy it made my nose run for about an hour after eating it. With it you have tortillas, cream cheese and cheese, yum!! After dinner we had lots of tequila which is so much nicer when it mixed with grapefruit juice!!! we then headed to the centerer where there was a fair, a live band and a talk from the prime minister which is shown on a big screen. The speech is broad casted at midnight and unfortunately we missed it as there was so many people. The celebrations carried on the next day. There was a march through the city of all the people who work for the civil service and at the end there were majorettes and cowboys doing tricks with ropes. It was great to see the traditions and the next big day the Mexicans celebrate is the day of the dead which is in November after Halloween. I will tell you more about it nearer the time.
Last night Emma and I went to the wrestling with someone we work with. It is great because she from Wales so there is no language barrier!! The wrestling was so funny and it huge thing in Mexico, families go to watch it together. There is lots of noise, trumpets and drums to egg the cowed on! There were also women wrestling and they were looked so scary, I would not want to meet them on a dark night!!
This weekend we are taking it easy as we are very tired by being on the go constantly. We are planning to go to the Freda Carla museum tomorrow which apparently has live hairless dogs, can you imagine it, I must take my camera!!
Next Sunday we move into the flat with two other girls. I will be so pleased to move from the nuns!! we almost got in trouble again yesterday as we forgot to tell them we were going to be back late, we saved our skins by ringing them! phew!!!! we have not been told off in a couple of weeks now, yeah!!
Next week should be more challanging as I think I may be doing street work which involves finding children on the street and building a relationship with them so that they can come to the centre. Before a child comes to the centre they have to be invited and to have had at least 5 sessions on the street with the workers. This helps to assess whether they are suitable to the centre. Street work sounds great as it is a way to see the city, I have not been able to do it sooner because of my visa status which has now been changed.
The Spanish has not really improved much this week but now we have text books to learn from so hopefully that will speed up my learning!!!
Hope everyone is well.
Gemma x
Comments
Hi from Angie Adams
Hi Gem
I finally got round to joining so I could post a comment.
It sounds like you are having an amazing time mate, I really envy you I think what you are doing is fantastic and I would love to do something like it myself........maybe some day!
Going out on the streets will be a real challange, I guess you will really need your spanish then hon?
I bet you will be fluent by the time you get home.
Nothing changes here, work is just as busy, the Nurtons all say hello and they miss you loads.
Ive just been in tunisia for two weeks and my tummy didnt like the food either so i can empathise with you on that, tho the upside is that i lost almost a stone whilst out there, the trick is keeping it off now tho!!
It still seems strange not having you round the office.
Keep writing the blogs hon, its really interesting hearing what you are doing,
gotta go now, my girls all say hi to you,
take care and i look forward to the next instalmant
Love
Angie
x
Hello again
Hi Gemma,
You are doing a great job, you must find the culture very different, but that is all part of it and having worked with you I know you will do your very best with the street children, it will be tough but you will do it.
Take Care
Di. xx