On the second day in Cuernavaca, we went to the city. After two church services (one in English and one in Spanish) we went to lunch and then to look around. Actually going into the main city gave all of us a different feeling. The word ¨poverty¨ came with a whole new description to me. There were beggars on many of the street corners, and it was hard resisting them. It felt wrong to say ¨No gracias.¨ -which means ¨no thank you¨- or to say nothing at all. It was also hard saying no to people selling handmade or other items in the zocolo (main market area in the middle), for many of them were little kids. Going up and down the streets it was very crowded. The extremely narrow streets made it even harder to manuever in and out next to speeding cars. Speaking of out-of-control cars, many of us were praying on the taxi rides we took. There seemed to be no speed limit, no stop signs, and hardly any stop lights. Also, there were winding streets with steep hills going up and down.
Some things that many of us took note to was the way this city, and probably most of the country, has been ¨Americanized¨. We saw stores such as Starbucks, McDonald´s, and Burger King. One member of our crew mentioned seeing a shirt with the words ¨Spoiled Brat¨on it, which made us feel like our culture was in a way invading theirs.
Overall, we´ve all had mixed feelings about this second day on our mission trip, and I´m sure the rest will only be more fun!!
-M.R.P.