i got back from mexico yesterday and i had an absolutley fabulous time. The past two weeks have been an amazing and life-changing journey. I wanted to take the time to tell you some highlights from my travels now instead of saying the same thing over and over again. Although of course i would love to discuss it with anyone interested in talking to me about it, or anything for that matter.

The trip was somewhere between a mission trip and a human rights class. I learned primarily about border issues between America and Mexico. Which are ridicuolously complecated and would take way to long to expain here (if you are truley interested in it please note me and ill give you a general history and some sources).

The first day we went into mexico we visited a youth migrant shelter. Which is basically a place where border patrol sends mexican kids who try and cross the border. We talked to the kids and played basketball with them. What i found there as well as in some other places is how amazingly excepted migration is into their culture. I asked one boy named alfredo what he likes to do for fun and he said in a completley serious tone, "cross the border." Also, later on in the trip i talked to people who were hours away from running through the desert with out food and water for 4 days so they could support their families and they were completley calm about it. Crossing the border is so incredibly embedded into their cultrue and economy. The number one income in mexico is from mexicans who work in the United states and send money back home. Mexico and other developing countries are so heavily dependent apon the US and Canada and other developed nations that it is very scary. Most of these countries only export one good. SO what the fuck is supposed 2 happen to that country when the U.S. finds a better distributor for that one good.

Later on that day we went to a drug rehab center. The living conditions were absolutley horendous. The thing that really upset me though was the differences between men and women. I would hardley call myself a feminist but i was outraged that the women in the center were not allowed to enter the detox room and everynight were locked into their rooms as to not disrupt the men. I had the oppertunity of speaking with a young woman their by the name of maria. She was about 35 yrs of age and had 4 kids who were living with her parents. She had just checked in to the rehab 4 days prior. I found that like the migrants she was just trying to get better to support her family. Maria had been in and out of many rehabs before but she truley believed that this would be her last time. There was also a man who had been in the particular rehab 22 times (he was 21). It really saddened me because clearly some of these people are not getting the help they need. I dont want 2 sound hypocritical here or preachy or anything like that, but i guess i realized that all drugs do is create barriers. I dont want to say drugs are bad because i dont think they are i think that drugs bring people together. However, i do want people to realize that relationships are more important then doing rolls in the bathroom.

I got the oppertunity to visit a maquilla. HOnestly i felt that the conditions were not horrible. I believe the company was called curtis. Their salery was a great deal higher then other factories and i was very impressed. I did get the chance to do 2 other things related 2 the maquila factories. I talked 2 a woman named joanna who worked to preserve maquilla workers rights. She claimed that often the workers would not be aware of their rights and would just do whatever the comapny told them to in fear of losing the job. However, many times the factory would be violating their rights as workers and mexican citizens. I got the oppertunity to do a simulation of a mexican familys (assuming that both parents worked in a maquilla and there were 3 kids in school) budget. We divided it down by day to see how much money we had 2 spend on food that day and then divided it in half 2 see our budget for lunch. At that point we had 2 make lunch for 16 people (all the participants) with the money. We had 35 pesos (which roughly translates to $3.50 american. we basically had pasta. I found it kind of scary though becasue when i was living with the mexican family there was a vast assormant of delicious mexican food. So it made me wonder where they cut off from the budget to add to food. When i budgeted i only spent money on the absolute essentials. I dont know that really scared me.

While im on the topic of homestays i would just like to add that the family i stayed with was absolutley incedible the mother was a cook!!! and the daughters were my age so i hung out with the girls and their boyfriends and cousins and stuff and we danced on their roof it was a lot of fun.

those were some things that really stuck out in my mind. I dont want 2 throw a lot at you because i dont want you guys to be like ughh we get it ur trip was cool for you w.e. lol. But i would absolutley love to share everything with all of you. So if you are interested please note me. I dont want 2 sound all pretentious and annoying but if you are interested in any of the issues i have a lot o fgreat websites and some great books that i highly recommend so please note me and ill give you the list.