Settling In This Surreal City

Already almost three weeks have gone by and although everything has not been easy it really doesn’t seem like it has been three weeks. I do have some stories but first off I want to talk about how it is living here in Mexico City.

The city has a population of about 23 million people. I think that in New York City there is only like 9 million. This massive population is lives in mostly small houses or multi unit dwellings that are 2 to 3 floors. So you can imagine that 23 million people spread out like that is going to cover a lot of land. The city sprawls out to be almost as big as the state of Rhode Island. I live right near the southern most metro bus stop, which is really great because the metro bus line goes all the way up to the northern section of DF and intersects with several Metro lines. The Metro here only costs 2 pesos, which is literally $0.15 cents. The combination of these two systems gives really convenient access to the parts of the city that I need or want to go to.

I don’t want to talk too much more about public transportation haha but I do have to just mention the experience of the Metro. It is really something that people have to experience to understand. It moves millions of people everyday and it does so effectively and it really not any dirtier than the T in Boston. But when you are trying to get on or off a train that is packed so tight that you can feel the person’s ribcage next to you breathing, all bets are off. It is kind of like a mosh pit at every stop during rush hours at he busy stops. It doesn’t really matter if it’s your stop, you are getting off if you are by the door whether you like it or not. And some of the stations are just truly massive. It is impressive to be in a space that big, and underground. It is almost like an underground city.

I have really been enjoying the community that I live with. There are 7 guys in the house I live in who are training to be priests. The ages of them range from 21 to 32. There is one guy from El Salvador and the rest are from Mexico. There are also two priests that live with us, Padre Oswaldo and Padre Ngoa. Oswaldo is from Mexico and Ngoa is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There is another house of Assumptionists in our neighborhood with one priest named Padre Flavio and four guys who are training to be priests. They are all Mexican except for two guys who are from the DRC as well. They are all really cool guys. Although they are in the religious life they really are normal people (Not that most people in the religious life are not normal, but some people have certain assumptions about people in the religious life.) and they are always making fun of each other and joking just like any other group of guys. They love teaching me bad words in Spanish and then hearing me say it really seriously with my American accent haha.

Work is also going well. The people who I work with are really nice and I have met some really interesting people who are guests at the albergue as well. I wasn’t really connecting with the people I work with as much as I would have liked but then I found out that they eat lunch at 3. I was eating lunch at 1 because that is when I was hungry and that is when the guests eat. So I have started eating with my coworkers and I am getting to know them better which makes work a lot better.

The guests of the albergue are probably the best part of my job. They are from all over Mexico, from cities, and from small towns. The majority of the guests are cancer patients, orthopedic surgery patients, and mental patients. The three hospitals down the street from the albergue specialize in those three areas. A good percentage of the people who I have met there speak Spanish as a second language and an indigenous language as their first language. Actually 7% of the population 111 million speaks one of Mexico’s 62 nationally recognized indigenous languages.

Most everyone knows about the Mayan civilization that dominated what are now southern Mexico, the Yucatan, and the country of Guatemala and the Aztec empire that was in what is now central Mexico. But the Americas were actually inhabited by hundreds of different smaller civilizations and groups in different areas and times before the genocides of the conquerors. Although the Spanish killed millions of the people that lived in Mexico during the conquests, there are still people who have preserved the beliefs, traditions and language of their pre-Colombian ancestors. Although Mexico celebrates its pre-Columbian history, indigenous Mexicans are usually the poorest and face racism still today.

I really enjoy talking to the people from the many different indigenous cultures here. Sometimes I think maybe I may be one of the first gringos they have ever really sat down and had a conversation with. Too bad for them huh? But yea so the first three weeks were good, I think I can do a few more.

Here is a link to my albums. It is easier to loads the photos on here than scatter them throughout the blog. There are only pictures of my neighborhood up right now but there are more to come!



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