After a few FREEZING cold (*but heartwarming* :) ) days in New York with Jason, Dave´s brother, we flew back to Mexico on January 19th. We had a hard time believing that we were really returning after such a long and intense time travelling in the Middle East. But we felt better back in Mexico City than we expected. Compared to Israeli and Jordanian culture, Mexican culture feels like home! We are gradually getting our Spanish back by practicing a lot with each other.
Before heading south, we spent two days in Mexico City. We rode a colorful lancha (a long boat)through the beautiful lush canals of Xochimilco (pronounced "Zoh-chee-meel-kho"), where locals used to cultivate floating gardens and the soil is still known to be especially fertile. We also visited Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera´s "Casa Azul" ("Blue House") in Coyocán, which has a collection of their art and belongings as well as photographs and diary excerpts depicting the good times of their relationship.
Relaxing in beautiful Zochimilco Zany and colorful art in La Casa Azul
Yesterday we arrived in Oaxaca! We haven´t explored much yet, but of what we´ve seen so far, it´s very colorful and the zócalo is very bustling. Today we went to check out El Centro de la Esperanza Infantil, an organization that provides services to impoverished children. They find donors who will sponsor a child by paying their educational expenses, and then encourage the child to stay in school by offering them the use of their center. The center offers daily meals and activities for children, such as art and computers. We spoke with a man named Alejandro about doing some volunteer work for them for a few weeks. He said they would love someone to help them fix up their new website and maybe teach some computer classes (i.e. Dave!) and they could also use someone to lead art projects a few times a week (i.e. Bria). We will volunteer there 3 days a week starting next monday. For the few days until then, we´re not sure what we´re going to do. We´ll let you know how it goes!
Check out their project at http://www.oaxacastreetchildrengrassroots.org/
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