Arrival In Mexico City

Hello it is my second day here in Mexico City and I finally have the time and energy to sit down and start this blog. I arrived on Sunday night at 11 o’clock Mexico City time, which is one hour behind Massachusetts’s time. The flight was incident-less. There were no delays and my layover in Houston was extremely brief. It was late so getting through customs took only minutes and I had a 180-day tourist visa. It is extremely easy to get a visa in Mexico as and American, especially when you think about all the challenges that people face coming the opposite direction.

Padre Oswaldo greeted me at the airport with one of his friends who is a taxi driver named Ishmael. Padre Oswaldo and I had met in the last week of June so it was really good to see him again. He and Ishmael were extremely welcoming and described the many different delegaciones (like boroughs in New York) that we were driving through down La Calza de Tlalpan to my neighborhood, called San Pedro Martir (Saint Peter the Martyr).

The next morning I had some time to unpack and get myself settled. I haven’t completely figured out my Internet connection but I do have it pretty regularly, and it is free! I had a leisurely breakfast while I met the people I will be living with this year. There are two priests that live here including Padre Oswaldo. There are also about 8 guys who are thinking about becoming priests that live there too. They are all really cool and I have to speak Spanish all the time with them, so that is already improving my skills. The other person who lives here is a guy named Paul. He has been volunteering here for the past year and is the person I am replacing. It is really great having someone here who can explain all the ins and outs of the community and the job that I have.

Today I went to my job with Paul for the first time. It is at a place called Nuestra Señora de Lourdes albergue para enfermos y familiares . This is a place for people to stay while they are receiving medical treatment in the city. There is a big concentration of hospitals in Mexico City and people from other parts of the country have to travel long distances to get treatment. This is a place for the patients to stay as well as one family member that is accompanying them. It is so important to have people with you while you are going through surgery to assist you as well as provide moral support, but also there is a lot less malpractice that occurs when a patient has an advocate. We are right near a cancer institute as well a hospital that specializes in orthopedic surgery as well as eye surgery. From what I have been told by Paul we usually have guests with those types of medical situations.

I miss everyone at home very much but also I am really adjusting well here. They people are extremely welcoming and understanding. The guys I live with are really cool normal people. They joke around with each other (sometimes I understand what they are saying) and we have already talked about having some tequila soon. I also really enjoyed my first day of work and I think that I am going to learn a lot from being there. So things are going well. Enjoy the rest of August! I will update again in the beginning of September.

My Address:

Brendan Carey
Gardenia 5
Col. Ejidos de San Pedro Martir
Del. Tlalpan
México, D.F.
CD 14640, México