Chapter 22: Viva la Mexico

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We arrived late last night to Tequisquapan (Tequis). Our flight from D.C. was relatively uneventful... if you ignore the fact that once we boarded the plane, we noticed that one of our group members were missing! As soon as we were seated on the plane, we did a head count and noticed we were only 19 people (we should be 20). After a quick scan, we noticed we were missing our matriarch, Louis. She is the oldest member of our group at 78, but still sharp as they come (she is an amazing woman who has traveled all over the world, and recently competed in a Dragon Boat race in Taiwan). During our stop over at Miami, we found out that she had been put on another flight, and would actually arrive in Mexico City before us. So at that point we figured she had actually planned this whole thing and was probably used her wealth of travel and life experience to swindle a first class flight to Mexico. :P

The next morning we awoke in our Hotel/Resort in Tequis, once again re-united as a group. This is the place the PC Mexico office puts us up for the first two days to help us acclimate to life in Mexico. Let me start by saying, if life in Mexico is like this, I should have no problems getting acclimated. The hotel was beautiful. A traditional Spanish building with a large courtyard, complete with manicured gardens and a heated/hot spring pool. In the mornings we were awoken up at 7:00 by the local cathedral playing Ave Maria with its bells.

The hotel was located right next to the the town Plaza (every town in Mexico has one, or many). As the sun rose, the empty plaza became full of little stores, traveling troubadours and wandering bands of Mariachi. There was horseback riding in the river nearby. One of our team members, Diana, was a yoga instructor back in the U.S. So a number of us took the opportunity to start each day with a yoga class.

We are getting to know each other a little better here, and I am becoming more and more in awe of the people I am serving with. They have more stories than can fit in this blog post. So if you want to hear them you are just going to have to ask me when you visit.

Tomorrow we take a short 1 hour trip up to our home for the next 3 months, Queretaro. And it will also be what I anticipate will be one of the 2 most stressful experiences in my PC experience. Meeting my host family (the other being my fist day at work). Hopefully it will all work out.

Asta Pronto.

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Chapter 21: MI - 3

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NOTE: The next few posts are backlogged. It has been so busy, I have only been able to type them on my laptop, and have just now gotten around to posting them.

"Your mission, should you choose to accept it is to fly to D.C. to meet with 19 other people. After a 2 day orientation, you will be flow south of the border to participate in operation "Mexico Impossible" as the third group (MI-3)..."

Needless to say, this was an invite I could not refuse. So on the morning of September 20th I flew out to D.C. to meet my fellow Peace Corps volunteers. We meet on the 15th floor, in a large conference room that had a panoramic view of all the historical sites in downtown D.C. All of us total strangers, soon to be friends, co-workers, and fellow gringo's in a foreign country.

After going through the filling out of even more paperwork (something that all people who apply to the Peace Corps are very familiar with), we started our "Staging". Which, as best as I can describe is an orientation to prepare you for our orientation. It was lead primarily by ? and ?, who lead us all through a number of ice breaking exercises and some informational sessions.
The exercises were very well run, but in and of themselves nothing exceptional. But what was exceptional is the group of people I am with. We ranged from 26-78 years of age. The room was filled with people who's life experiences ran the gambit of business leader, teacher, engineer, aid worker, envirmentalist and teachers. We had close have close to 500 years of work experience between us.

The only small hurdle we ran into during staging, was the problem with our FM-3 visa's. For a reason unknown to us, they had not gone through as planned. This had also happened in the last two groups. But unlike the last two groups, we were able to take care of the issue by taking 2 trips over to the Mexican embassy. We all took it in stride, and it even gave us all a chance to have free tours of downtown D.C. 48 hours. The staging was over in a flash. But at the end, we all felt like we had known each other for much much longer.

Manyana los vamos a Mexico! (I think that means, tomorrow we are going to Mexico... or I could have just insulted someone's 3rd cousin... I'm not very sure.)

"...This blog post will self destruct in 5..4..3..2.."

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Chapter 20: Start Spreading the News

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I'm leaving today, I want to be a part of it, New York, New York.

This weekend I took a trip down to the Big Apple to visit my little Sis before heading out for the Peace Corps. Every time I visit New York I am always taken aback by the sheer scope of the city. While Cleveland, where I spent the last 8 years is one of the largest cities in Ohio, it is smaller, and has less people than any of the Burrows in New York. The streets of New York are packed at all hours of the day, a sea of humanity moving in an odd sort of organized chaos.

The diversity of New York is also amazing. I have known about it, but it really struck me on this trip. It started on the bus ride down from Boston. The man behind me was taking on his cell phone, his conversation jumping from fluent english to fluent spanish effortlessly. In from of me were seated two girls who were talking Russian. To my left was seeted a lady talking in an african language. And throughout the bus you could catch converstations going on in a multitude of different languages.

Part of me understands why some New Yorkers never leave the megalopolis their whole lives. There is no real need to. You want to see what China is like? Just go to Chinatown. Want to go to Italy? Little Italy is just down the street. Pick a country, and there is probably a portion of NYC were the people, buildings and food is almost identital to what you could find by travelling to the country.

Death. I also made a point of visiting Ground Zero. It was the weekend before the 5th anniversery of the attack, so there was a lot going on. News crews from across the world were camped out and preparing for the cerimonies the next day. Memorials and homages to those who had passed still hung on the fence surrounding what is now a large construction site. But if not for those, it there is nothing on the site itself to remind us of what happened.

Life. The city is teaming with life. I was only there for one full day, but there was so much to see in do it was overwhelming. I got a chance to travel through the U.N. building. Sitting in the halls where all the resolutions are made (and then not ignored). I walked a few blocks away, and ran into a parade. A few streets over from there were performers in a park. A few meters from there people playing volleyball by the bay. Take a stroll down Broadway Ave, and watch a guy in underwear play a guitar. Everywhere, something was going on. Again, a real different atmosphere from the laid back and quite environs of Cleveland.

This trip just re-enforced my decision to join the Peace Corps. There is so much out there to see and do. In a week I will be in Mexico.

These vagabond shoes are longing to stray...

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Chapter 19: Escape from Cleveland

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The rockets flew through the air. One exploded just a few feet to the right of my car. The resulting shockwave caused my body to be flung against the driver side door. But I maintain control, and bit hard on my lower lip to keep my from passing out. Shards of molten shrapnel have embedded themselves in the hood, but the bulletproof glass keeps them from getting inside. In my rear view mirror I can see the vicious motorcycle gang , "The West 6th Skeet Shooters", giving me chase. It was suppose to be raining today, but my luck, the sky was clear, giving my persurers a clear shot at me. Getting out of Cleveland wasn't going to be easy. But I, Ray "Snake" Blakney, had been through much worse....

... Ok, so my 10 hour drive from Cleveland to Boston didn't quite happen like that. In fact, other the cload cover and rain brought on by the remnants of tropical storm Ernesto, it was uneventful. But what if it had happened. And what if John Carpenter made a movie about it. I wonder what the promo poster would look like? Hmmm....

Now that's I movie I would want to see! Anyway, I am now back in Beantown for most of the next 3 weeks. All I have let to do is pack my whole life (80 lbs of it) before heading out to Mexico. Soon the real adventure begins...

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