A Much-Needed November Update

Hello again! Sorry it's been so long since my last blog.  I've been pretty busy here in Mexico.  At the end of October/start of November, we were busy celebrating  El Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) here in Mexico.  After that, I started out the month with a round of exams (I think I did pretty well on all of them) and then I spent a couple of weeks trying to get over some sort of cold/flu-type sickness.  And after that, I spent a week in the state of Chiapas with our Notre Dame group.  I'm just now getting completely caught up with everything, and now I'm starting to have to put things together for our Thanksgiving party (complete with visits from most of our families) and register for classes next semester.  Needless to say, it's been hard to find time to blog, but I've been having a great time.  I'll try to fill you in on what's been going on the past month.

Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead)

Really a multiple day celebration, Day of the Dead took place Nov. 1st and 2nd.  I learned that this holiday is much bigger and more important in the smaller, more rural towns of Mexico, where people follow Mexican traditions more closely.  Even though I didn't get to see this celebration in its fullest, I still got a taste, and it was a lot of fun.  At UPAEP, students built their own ofrendas (shrines or altars) to honor the dead, often with themes that mirrored their field of interest (e.g. an altar for deceased children for students interested in pediatrics).  Also, my host mom made an ofrenda for her family at our house on top of a counter that was in her family's old store for multiple generations.  On the 1st, we had all of the ND group over to see the altar and share some great food (lots of tamales). 

ofrenda at UPAEP

another UPAEP ofrenda

Our ofrenda at home

Trip to Chiapas

Two weeks ago, we left for a week-long trip to Chiapas, part of our ND program here in Puebla.  I'm very fortunate to be here in this program.  As far as I know, no other study abroad program has university-sponsored trips like we do, and these trips have provided some of the highlights of my time here.  This trip was especially great.  Chiapas is the southernmost state in Mexico, bordering Guatemala.  It's covered in mountains and rainforest, and is largely known in Mexico for its natural beauty.  Unfortunately, the region's terrain (combined with other historical issues) has made development there difficult, and for this reason around 75% of the population lives in poverty.  Our trip to Chiapas served two purposes: 1) to see the beauty of the region, and 2) to meet up with the Chiapas branch of Partners in Health, known here as Compañeros en Salud.  

One of the Puebla program's alums currently has an internship with CES, so we were able to meet up with him and spend a lot of time with the program.  We met up with them in Jaltenango, where their region headquarters is.  There, we spent a day listening to presentations from different people in the organization who talked about what they were doing.  Matt, the ND alum, talked about the acompañante program he is coordinating.  This program trains women in rural communities to be acompañantes, people who communicate with doctors in local clinics and accompany patients through their treatments.  They make frequent home visits, making sure that treatments are being followed and that the patient is doing well.  This allows for more consistent and personal medical care in a region where most doctors are only there for one year periods before they leave to work elsewhere.  One day, we got to visit the town Plan de Libertad and spend the day with acompañantes, getting a feel for life in these communities and seeing the work they do.  It was a really special experience, and I feel like I learned a lot about what Mexican life is like for people living in other parts of the country.

View from on top of our hotel in Jaltenango, where CES has its offices

Inside the truck we took to get up to Plan de Libertad, the small pueblo where we shadowed the 

acompañantes

Walking down the street in Plan

Riding on top of the truck as we left Plan

The rest of our time in Chiapas was spent admiring how beautiful the area is.  Hopefully you enjoy the pictures!

Our first activity of the trip, visiting the Mayan ruins in Palenque

More Palenque

Our hotel near Palenque was near this beautiful waterfall.

We got to hike up the top of the waterfall and peer over the top!

The waterfall also housed a small cave that we got to explore and swim in (we were a little to rambunctious for the bats)

Swimming under the waterfall was fun

The next day we went on a boat tour of the Cañyon de Sumidero

Baby crocodile next to the river

The canyon was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been

Somehow our guide spotted this iguana from the boat

The "Christmas tree" water fall

under the falls

market in the city of Tuxtla, one of the larger cities in Chiapas

In Jaltenango, we visited a co-op which collected a sold coffee beans directly from local farmers.  They taught us how to correctly smell and taste coffee samples

From the roof of the co-op

From the top of the truck on the way back from the rural pueblo of Plan de Libertad

 San Cristóbal, the last city we visited, was incredibly pretty