Day 7: Tourists and Immigrants

If I wanted to describe how I feel in one word, it would be: "crunchy."

In my defense, I used sunscreen.

For breakfast today, rather than eat at the hotel, we went to the casa Aguilar. We had delicious tacos called baleadas and a lot of fresh fruit. After we ate, we filled roughly 50 bottles with water and made around 80 more baleadas, which we loaded into a cooler. We stuck everything into the vans and rolled out.

After a brief roadtrip, we arrived at our first destination: La Peña de Bernal (the third largest rock in the world). We grabbed water, put on sunscreen and started hiking/climbing/running up the trails. It was hot. Amazing and fun! ...but hot. It was good that everyone had a chance to let out their playfulness; we laughed and sang and climbed cliffs and slid down some smooth rocks (sometimes on purpose)... We did a little shopping and got a snack lunch (yum) to tide us over until dinner. I was rather sunburnt by this point (and a little grumpy because of it).

Our second destination was Tequisquiapan (so much fun to say), a beautiful little city nearby where we spent a little time being tourists and shopping and stuff. We took a billion pictures (literally), bought some stuff and then headed out.

The third destination was a railroad track. We unloaded all of the previously mentioned food/water bottles and took them in to a little building beside the tracks. One way that a lot of people from Central and South America get through Mexico to get to the U.S. border is by hopping on trains. However, a lot of these people don't have access to food or water as they ride, so a charity in the city throws food to them as the trains go by.* We helped them pack some of the bags they give away and then Kristina was attacked by puppies (imagine that being in a cute way, not a snarling, rabid way) and we packed up to continue our day of adventures.

We went to the (self-proclaimed) "most parisian cafe in Mexico," a little cafe near the plazas to get dinner. Due to limited seating, Javier and I ended up at a table by ourselves. After perusing through the menu and looking at baguettes, crêpes, pastas and a variety of other delicious-and-fancy sounding foods, Javier and I walked over to an Oxxo (corner store) and got some microwave pizzas and talked about the deep things of the Faith. We headed back and sat outside the cafe, still deep in conversation until it was time to head to the hotel. After losing people, losing patience, finding people and hugging it out (very few of these activities involved me)...we all ended up safe and sound. So now we sit, soaking in salve and praying for tomorrow, when our contacts will have an opportunity to meet the church.

*fun conversation: what are the moral implications of giving food and water to someone who is trying to illegally enter your country?

I would say that, regardless of how we view their activities, we are called to love people. In this circumstance, that looks like providing some food and water to be tossed to them so that they won't die on top of a train. Immigration is something I'll leave to the political sphere.

kc (pwhsmoipc): 18