Mexico is full of color. I have never seen so many bright colors used to paint houses. One house is bright pink and the other house is bright green. The market places are extraordinary; you can buy bootleg DVDs for a dollar, live chickens, turkeys, pigs, all the foods you could think of and can even get your haircut. The best part of it is that you can bargain the prices, I try not to get the gringo prices so I let another Wally, Adrian Mendoza, do the bargaining. However, I have become better at bargaining from watching Adrian and others. I can almost get the same prices as he does.

 I have seen some amazing sites in Chiapas. In Palenque, I was able to climb old Mayan Temples and visit the tomb of the first Mayan Emperor. Then there was Agua Azul which translates to Blue Water. I walked about 100 feet and saw 10 different waterfalls. At Agua Clara which translates to Clear Water even though the water was clearly green. There was an old bridge to cross the river that reminded me of the one in Indian Jones The Temple of Doom. The bridges had holes in the wood planks you could slip through and as one person walked across the whole bridge would shake.

 I would say my favorite city was Chamula because of the unique church and our crazy horseback ride there. Luckily the saddle on my house stayed on but I can not say the same for some other people. As for the church, before you walk in you are told “NOT TO TAKE PICTURES” in 20 different languages. If you do, your camera and your face get broken. As you enter the front door, you are hit with a cloud of incenses. Personally, I have never seen so many candles and incenses lit all at the same time and in the same place. It is a good thing that they do not have firer codes in Mexico. Well, at least not enforces among many other things. The candles are for all the saints which are in glasses cases around the interior of the church. There is a saint for just about everything you can thing of. As you walk to the altar, you will find offerings of Coca Cola, Indigenous Brandy, chickens, and eggs. The Coca Cola is used to burp the evil spirits out. The Posh (Indigenous Brandy) is to become connected with the spirits a.k.a get drunk. They break the neck of a chicken and use it to cleanse the sick adult’s body. The eggs are used to cleanse the sick child’s body. This religion is a mixture of Indigenous Believes, Catholicism, and Technology.

 My internship has been with AMIGOS de San Cristobal A.C. a not for profit organization which finds other NGOs to help support. I have put Amigos’ membership and donor list records on Excel creating a more organized mailing list system. I visited several NGOs of Amgios and presented bi-lingual oral and written reports to the Board of Directors. I did several other things as well. I would say my most interesting experience was my trip to an Association Civil called Madre Tierra Mexico. This group is training and educating communities about health care, nutrition, human rights, etc. They are mainly working with communities that were affected by Hurricane Stan in late 2005. I feel that many of these communities have almost been forgotten about by the government. There are still 600 families without housing and land to plant on. Cancun was rebuilt in 6 months, but there are still 6 isolated communities. That means we only have radio communication with these communities. The only way to get food to them is by helicopter. It has almost been 3 years since Hurricane Stan and no bridges have been built to cross the rivers created by Hurricane Stan to get to the communities. The poverty level is unimaginable. The children can not get an education because they have to work to support their families. The average salary per day is 50 pesos or 5 dollars. Furthermore, many of the communities do not have access to purified water. It is atrocious that the Mexico government rebuilt Cancun for the foreign tourists but it can not afford to support its own people. In a couple years, I hope to come back and be able to do more for the people.

Reflections from, 

- Gary Simkus, '08