Recordar y Compartiendo

Hola equipo!

I feel my re-entry update is long overdue, but now that school is finally starting up for me this week, I can delay no longer. Despite how long is has been, I still have some thoughts I have been saving up since we’ve been apart that I wanted to share with you all. Being back at home, initially it seemed as though every little thing here, in the realm of home, reminded me and made me think of Mexico. The following are a few anecdotes of some of my Mexico-recalling experiences:

My first morning being home I went out to eat breakfast with my parents and afterwards we stopped at Home Depot to pick up some supplies they needed to complete painting the house-exterior, the summer project they ventured into while I was gone. While there I came across some blue painter's tape. *Flashback* to the failed search for the painter's tape at La Casa de los Amigos, to assist in decorating the upstairs room with maple leaves for Canada Day. / I laughed at myself as I stood in the store realizing that a silly thing like painter's tape had sent me into a memory of Mexico.

During the second week of being home, I finally set a day apart to do some serious quiet time and debriefing. That day I took a walk to the park not too far from my home carrying, most importantly, a lunch and my journal. I spent several hours where I did nothing but think and write, which got me in a much better place than I was that last night of debriefing in LA. Then as I walked back home I was noted the street name “Cerca Blanca” and later noticed the “Vending Prohibited” and “Dumping Prohibited” signs along an area beside the empty roadside. With Mexico on the brain, it was such a strange sight to see. Such a contrast from trash-lined and vendor-enveloped streets of D.F. - I was so conflicted- I was not sure if I should be sad that there were no little old ladies allowed to set up their means of livelihood (selling food) along the street or if I should even be glad about my trash-free roadside. Still unresolved, yet interesting to have had that thought process going on at all- I now had a perspective on the matter that I never had before- a Mexican perspective.

Every year at the end of August my mom's family gets together for a reunion at Mission Bay's Tecolote Shores. My Mom's birthday also falls near that day, so we brought some cake and decorations to celebrate at the bay. Supplied with balloons and string a few of us proceeded to string the balloons onto a strand. *Flashback* The last day of the summer program with the kids my site, the Sisters of AMEXTRA got to help decorate the pavilion in the Central Plaza of Xona. We were preparing it as the location where the kids could present all the songs, dances, and theatre performances they had been learning to their families. It was there that I practiced the technique of tying balloons to twine and then stringing the line up around the area for festive decor. / Back at Mission Bay, someone had started making the strand by using the string to tie to the balloons. I let them do it their way, but whenever I had a balloon ready, I tied the balloon around the string as I had learned in Xona; an insignificant difference in technique really. Yet to me, it was another occasion where I had to smile to myself, just being reminded of Mexico.

During the last few quarters of school before the trek, I had been going to the homeless shelter in downtown San Diego with a friend of mine. Eventually I reconnected her and we went down there one evening to serve dinner to the women staying in the overnight shelter. On one of the weeks we went in September, after we were done, the shelter employee who was supervising that night popped in to meet us and say hello and such. During that introduction, she said something about it being a pleasure to meet us. In that moment where it would have been appropriate to say “same here,” or something to that effect, for some reason my mind was coming up with “tambien” as one of my response options. I managed to say something to get by, however it was after the exchange had already passed that I realized I was trying to come up with “Igualmente.” Yep… Mexico in the subconscious – a month removed from the source, but still hanging on.

Last story just for fun… featuring “the awkward chair.” At work, my group has a meeting every Thursday at 2PM to keep track of our progress and that sort of thing. One week, it was hardly a minute passed 2 o’clock, when I walked into the conference room to find that everyone else was already there, and the only seat open was right next to my supervisor who leads our group, in other words, the only seat open was “the awkward chair.” I had to contain myself as I thought about the “awkward chair” next to Nick during our cozy talks on Globalization at the Tepotzlan hostel and in the library of la Casa. But sadly, no one was around at the time to understand that inside joke… so I had to share it now.

LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING FORWARD...again. It was tough having to go back home with a lot of my Trek-thoughts unresolved, especially when it was already hard enough just having to say good-bye to everyone. But since then I have reached a place of acceptance and understanding of what God had for me on the trek. However I won’t go into the extent of that here, as this entry is already too long. Just know overall, that being in Mexico and being with all of you changed me – it changed my perspectives in so many ways and expanded my knowledge of God, who Jesus is, my brothers and sisters in Christ, the U.S., Mexico, people in poverty, and the list goes on. Plus, since the end of the Trek, I also changed my mind about going to Urbana. I realized that I had decided against Urbana, because of the cost and travel, before I even gave it a chance. After the trek, I finally gave it some consideration and it didn’t take much considering to feel God’s confirming pull to go. I look forward to seeing many of you there!!

So my trek family, I have enjoyed remembering Mexico with you. But (I’m sure you agree after this lengthy entry) that’s enough for now

Continue follow God wherever you are and wherever he leads you. And…
DON’T FORGET TO REMEMBER.

Love,
Misty^