Sunday, January 20, 2008

Sunday, January 20

Well, we have come to our last day in Merida. On Friday and Saturday we had student presentations on various cultural topics such as dating, weddings, the church, typical observance of the Day of the Dead, Mexican popular music, traditional herbal medicine, tropical fruits eaten in the Yucatan Peninsula, and many more, 34 to be precise! In addition we heard our two final lectures, on the Mexican economy and on suicide among Mexican young people. After one final lunch provided by a local pastor´s wife, we reflected a bit on all the things we have learned in the past two and a half weeks. We agreed that although we can´t really say what Mexico is like we do have a much better idea of what Merida and the Yucatan Peninsula are like. We have visited several historical and archeological sites, seen some natural wonders, read about history, the church, and society, spent a weekend in a village, visited a Christian clinic and the Museum of Anthropology, but, more important, we have broken bread, prayed, and shared everyday life with our Yucatecan brothers and sisters in Christ.

Today we spend a quiet day with our host families and pack our bags, and first thing tomorrow morning we head out by bus for the ruins at Tulum and then the beach at Playa del Carmen. We hope to spend Tuesday at a park called Xcaret (I imagine you could look it up on line). They have various water attractions including snorkeling, as well as a butterfly garden, a zoo, an evening sight-sound show, and much more. We will be just tourists for the day. Then we will have Wednesday to relax, go to the beach or do anything else we like, and on Thursday morning we will board our bus one more time to go the airport in Cancun and head back to the ice and snow.

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