¿Cuánto cuesta?

Written February 20, 2009

Today at 7:00 a.m. three of the other girls and I met Gary and set out on the first of many morning adventure walks. We call them adventure walks because Gary says he doesn’t like retracing his steps, which means we explore new directions each time. Gary’s brain should have been drained by 8:00 a.m. when we finished because we didn’t give him a chance to rest it. Between the four of us girls, it was question after question.

“Gary what’s this?”
“What does that mean?”
“Is it true that....”

He knew the answer to every question we had.
Lynne noticed that on numerous houses there were dried out flowers bound together, making the shape of a crucifix. Gary explained how families would place them out during one of their holidays, which he believed to be All Saints Day, to invite the good spirits into their home and show the evil spirits they were not welcome.

We learnt how sewages can run under to sidewalks and how at times, they are not too sturdy. The cement blocks can, and have, broke and you fall through, right into.....
We saw a secondary education system and had a peek inside the front gate. We asked if we could look around and take some photos but we were told the lady in charge, I’m assuming it was the Principal, wasn’t there to ask permission. They said if we came back sometime on Monday it probably wouldn’t be a problem.

We returned to the abbey and had a wonderful breakfast. They made us tortillas with baked beans, lettuce, tomato and a cream sauce similar to sour cream with fresh squeezed orange juice. It was a delicious way to start the day.

Next we were split into three groups, were given a map and a list of things we needed to find in the market and headed into the town of Cuernavaca on a city bus. Once we arrived we split up to find and purchase our list items. We were faced to deal with many different challenges, including language barriers, money exchange, market commotion and an unfamiliar city and atmosphere. We all found the items on our lists and saw the landmarks we were supposed to see in the amount of time given. By doing this, we gained a feeling of accomplishment and independence. At first it was a little intimidating to cut your safety net, being our supervisors, and have to survive on our own in a foreign place. It was rewarding to know we could do it.

While we were in the city we saw some beautiful churches and cathedrals, the town square and experienced what Cuernavaca was all about. We met some interesting people, including a man and his female friend who were sitting in the town square making jewellery. Their names were Victor and Leslie. They asked us where we were from and tried to relay some of the things they knew about Canada to us. We would sit down and people would approach us and ask us to buy things, then they would insist, and then again, sometimes even aggressively.

When we returned to the Abbey we met with Andy, Gary and Loraine and discussed our different experiences. We talked about how sometimes it costs families to sell us certain things but they have no choice. Sometimes it will cost a worker 5 pesos to make, for instance a hat, and they will then try to sell it for 20 pesos, when people refuse they are forced to bargain or negotiate. Some people will turn the customer away or give up if an agreement hasn’t been made before it reaches the cost of creation, others have no choice. They must sell the items at a lower rate, even if they are at a loss. Why you ask? I did too. It is because they have spent all of their money on the necessary materials and if they do not sell it they won’t have the cash to buy food. This means that, yes, they are out profit, but at least they have money to feed their children that day.

Once we got home we had some time to ourselves before diner so we headed down the road to the internet cafe. We were there for about an hour and it cost us 4 pesos, which when converted, would be forty cents.
We returned at 7:30p.m. for diner and met a lady who will also be staying at the Abbey for the night. She created a program using music to help teach children with brain injuries and disabilities.

After dinner it was my turn to do dishes with two other of the girls. The Sisters have this system they use when cleaning the dishes that preserves water. You scrub off all the junk left on the plate, use a sponge with a foaming solution to clean the plates, then you fill a cup with water out of a water basin, pour it on the plate to clear off the suds, then you dip the clean dish in the water basin to guarantee there is no remaining solution, then you dry. Of course between the three of you doing dishes you each have separate roles. Then together you reset the table for the next meal.

We were hoping to play Catch Phrase, but our day was so full none of us had the energy and called it a night around 10:00 p.m. The earliest I have gone to bed in years.