Random Stories

The Town's Virgin Hangs Out With Santa.
In the middle of the main "square" of my colonia (called Copilco which is like a community in Canada) is a very nice shrine to the virgin of guadalupe. To her left is a statue of Jesus on the cross, and to her right is a statue of the man she appeared to in the hills of Mexico. But of course it is very important that she is in the center of this shows strongly how religion is practiced for the most part here in Mexico. It humors me that with every holiday something else shows up around the virgin too. During the day of the dead, a shrine to the dead was there too and now with Christmas, there are three light up santa clauses in the trees around her. There are also some light up reindeer. It amazes me how the consumerism that has become Christmas can even be incorporated into Mexico's strict love for the virgin. On that note, in the Wal-Marts here there is seriously at least one person in every isle trying to sell you a specific product from that isle. I have never seen such attempts at advertising before. I just looked out the window of the internet cafe I am sitting in, at a house they are adding a floor onto across the "calle" (street). They put this fake chimney up and there are legs of a santa sicking out of it.

Do You Know Tiffany From Canada?
Last night Heather and I went to a Christmas concert that the choir of Capital City Baptist Church puts on here in Mexico City. It is an English speaking church... the president of General Motors attends this church, and I am now on a mission to meet him. The concert was really well done and Heather introduced me to the people that she knew from there. There were a number of missionaries there, all enjoying the english Christmas tradition. I met a guy who is in high school, but has helped out with some translation times with past Fusion groups as he is an amazing english speaker. His family vacations all the time in the U.S. Anyways, so he's asking me where I'm from in Canada and I say the province of Alberta. He then asks, "so do you know Tiffany?" I felt like I was in a beer commerical... you know that one where someone asks you if you know Joe from Canada. Anyways he starts discribing her and telling me why she came and suddenly it hits me... I do know her. She was one of my juniors when I worked as a senior counselor at Camp Nakamun. Small world! This guy however literally knows someone in every region of north america and then a number of countries around the world. If networking is a gift, he's got it. I also met the widow of a man who wrote a lot of stories about missions in Mexico... one that I've read.