l'equip petit: Mały zespół

Write

Is it poetry if it doesn’t rhyme
Or has no feeling, costs no time
To absorb, to take in, to turn
A flower only seen in the mind

Do I care, if my mind spins
The colors run under the skin
For me alone, never clear
A brick house made of tin

Words, the ghost external
Forgotten infants at a funeral
For every thought kept inside
Dies forever, life eternal

Thought #4

A lot of times I encounter people debating the existence of God. However, I think that a more important debate as far as the potential impact it could have on people's lives is whether or not there is an afterlife. Because even if you believe in God, if there is no heaven to hope for or hell to fear, belief becomes trivial compared to whether your actions are bringing this world closer to the former or the latter of the two.

Mexico #10

So this is my last week here. I got a little sick this past weekend, but feeling better now. Dia de los muertos was sweet, celebrated on a tiny island in the middle of a lake, met some amazing people (including a Mexican band on the roof of our hotel, who we ended up hanging out with all night, singing CCR), and experienced some amazing Mexican culture.

For some reason I haven't felt like taking the time to update this blog, I think partly because I've been trying to do as much as I can in my last few days here, but also because I feel like whatever I write here falls so short of what I've actually been experiencing that I just couldn't find the motivation to write it down. Suffice it to say, I've found a certain peace while living here, and I am not the same person that arrived two months ago. Thank you to everyone who has been supporting me, taking the time to read what I put here, praying for me, and wishing me well here in Mexico. I love you all, and I'm excited to share my experiences with you in person, and learn whats been happening in your lives these past 2 months. The world I hope for is often at odds with the world I see, but the relationships I've been lucky enough to form with the people in my life are consistently an exception. Again, thank you.

As a reward for all (5) of you who were interested enough to read my silly blog posts, here is a picture of some cows I met. I know, its too much, but what can I say, I'm grateful.

Mexico #9

So it seems like my time here has fallen into a pattern of work during the week, and adventures on the weekend, which I guess is good. This past weekend brought me to La Malinche, a mountain to the east. I went with 2 other Americans, a Brit, and a German who spoke english, and it was one of my favorite trips so far. One of the American guys had a connection in Huamantla (the town next to the mountain) and so he set us up with amazing accommodations for the night in an old Mexican hacienda. Apparently this place had been abandoned and then converted into a hotel (although they kept it very minimalistic). The place was perfectly secluded which gave me some of the first moments of true silence since I've arrived here, and was complete with expansive courtyards, towers with parapets, and an old church.

Me and two of the guys decided it would be worth it to get up early to watch the sunrise from the roof of the church, and it was incredible. I think that was the first actual sunrise I've seen in way too long, and I had forgotten how beautiful it was. To make it better, it was the night of a full moon (one of the brightest I've ever seen) and it was still hanging in the sky when the sun came up. It was like watching a painting come to life as color slowly spilled across the landscape, onto the rooftop, and up the neighboring mountain. I can't really describe it, but here's some pictures of what I saw (which don't do it justice):






That mountain in the bottom picture is Malinche, all 4445 meters of it (which puts it just a little bit taller then Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the 48 states). After breakfast, the 5 of us piled in a cab, rode 30 minutes to the trail head (~2000 meters) and proceeded to climb it. It was amazing getting out into nature again, and even better to have a physical challenge ahead of me. Long story short, we made it to the top in 4 hours exactly and it was an uphill climb the entire way. After we passed the tree line the dirt became loose, the air became thin, and every step became a struggle, but it was definitely worth it. From the top is a gorgeous 360 degree view complete with 3 volcanoes on the horizon. It was there that I also enjoyed the best mango of my entire life. Pictures of course were taken:





The hike down was also pretty fun, as I couldn't pass up a chance to do some shale sliding. I ran/slide/skated down the slippery section and it was actually kind of similar to skiing, but with more dust and danger. Much easier then climbing up as well, and I made it back to the treeline in about 20 minutes. Needless to say, I thought I was pretty cool. Now its the work week, which has its bonuses as one of my patients brought me tamales and coffee today! Best feedback I've gotten so far :). I had to reschedule some other patients so I don't have tomorrow off like I did last week, but I might still go visit the center of the city in the afternoon (it would be weird if I went my whole stay without seeing it at least once). Okay, I'm hungry, I think I'll end this post here (and apparently I have a love affair with parentheses today).

Mexico #8 (more pictures)

Here are some more pictures of my vida mexicana.

This is Toby, my pet grasshopper...

I ate him and all of his friends on a tortilla...

in my apartment.

This is the bosque de Chapultapec, sort of like Central Park for Mexico City.

This is the view from the nap I took there.

This is Brutus and me hanging out in Coroneo.

Some art I thought was cool at the Museo de Antropologia.

A big golden angel I saw on my walk to the museum.

Mexico #7

Whats that, its story time! Awesome!

So last weekend I took a trip back to Queretaro to get out of the city for awhile and hang out with an English speaking friend I met on my first trip. My first solo trip in Mexico, but I wasn't nervous, I mean, what could go wrong? Well apparently missing my stop and going to the wrong city was one thing that could go wrong. And while the first part of this did indeed happen, fortunately I was spared the second. My friend (who I will henceforth refer to as Arianne, since thats her name) called me while I was on the bus to ask where I was, so I asked a fellow passenger and he told me, "Queretaro". Great, I thought, I'm almost there. So then we stop at this little dinky market and a bunch of people start getting on. "This can't be my stop," I thought, "since Arianne told me I'd stop at a big bus station in downtown." Well whether we did or didn't stop there before, I don't know, but I honestly don't remember stopping there, so I'm pretty sure the bus driver just forgot that he had a passenger going to Queretaro. Confident that it wasn't my stop (which it wasn't) I stayed on the bus. But as we pull away I notice we are leaving the city... Queretaro... where I wanted to go. I'm confused, so I ask again, where are we going? San Miguel? That small tourist town an hour north of Queretaro? Uh oh. So I run to the front of the bus and tell the driver to stop, I figure wherever we are is better then ending up in San Miguel. Well where we were was about a kilometer outside of town, which made for a pretty relaxing walk back to the bus station. I called Arianne to tell her that I had no idea where I was, but I was on the side of the road somewhere, and for some reason she got really nervous. So I told her to relax, eventually made it back to the market, and had a guy call her to tell her how to get to where I was. 20 minutes later, everything is fine, although apparently that market district is notoriously dangerous (however I found the people to be quite friendly).

The rest of the trip went great, really relaxing and fun. Also, her brother has a 10 month old pit-bull named Brutus and we are best friends now. On Saturday we went to a big lunch her mom had organized with old high-school friends and their kids. I got to practice my Spanish a lot that day, but the whole group was really fun, and I even won some flower pots in a game (and came in second place in a "best legs" contest). The return trip was much more uneventful, but I got to watch Transformers 2 in Spanish on the bus ride back. I think I was only able to enjoy it because I couldn't really understand what they were saying half the time. And that was my weekend!

Then this week I finally got to revaluate my first round of patients. The results were way better then I expected. We evaluated them using the "Fugl-Myer" scale, which is a standard clinical test of arm mobility on a scale of 0-66. The scores of my patients changed from 31 -> 41, 20 -> 36, and 15 -> 26. My control group had 2 people go down (4 points and 1 point) and one person go up 4 points. Typically a change of ~5 is considered good, but I had one patient increase 16 points! Pumped. Lets see how the next round goes!

Now for this weekend, well, last night I went out to a bar with a bunch of couchsurfers, which was awesome, and subsequently got invited to go to a Lucha Libre match tonight! Thats Mexican wrestling if you don't know, with the masks and shouting and craziness. So I'm really excited about that. Then another guy offered to help me with my Spanish so were meeting up to review tomorrow. Then on Sunday I'm going to a soccer game (Pumas, local team in the top league). Other then that, no big plans, although I got to play soccer for a bit today too. Except now I'm sweaty and gross and theres no hot water in my room. Stupid shower.