After another restless night of sleep, we headed out to our mission site near Colon, Mexico in Queretaro state. The hostel near the Cathedral in Mexico City was a tremendous location, but the rooms are not sound proof and do not have real windows. My room was an interior one with shutters overlooking the main registration desk and restaurant/bar. So understandably with so many young people visiting the city during spring break, and having a great time, the noise level was quite high until 2:30am or so. But I did sleep better than I did the night before on the yellow bus.
The hostel provided a light breakfast of bananas and toast, and then we headed back onto the metro, making three stops before arriving at a nice bus terminal. I couldn’t tell you what part of Mexico City we were in at this point. Zeke is one of the guys on the trip and he studied Spanish in Mexico City for a year, so we just follow him. With 30 folks on the subway, however, it was hard for us to communicate all the way across the car when everyone was to get off the train. The trains are terribly crowded so we have to stretch out a long way for all of us to get on the train, and it is hard to make eye contact and to communicate. At one stop, half of us got off and the other half didn’t, but thankfully, someone running the train noticed and they opened the doors four more times until we could all get off. The train was so crowded it was almost impossible to get off, but eventually, we all did. A minor miracle. Disaster avoided, although I was one of the ones left on the train and I yelled to Zeke that we would turn around at the next stop and come back if we had to. Thankfully we did not. This having to open the doors four more times did not make us popular at all with the locals. Smiling and waving only gets you so far.
The bus terminal was pretty nice and the coaches that go throughout Mexico are cheap and very nice. It was about $10 for a 2 hour ride to Queretaro, and this included a sandwich, cookies and a coke. The seats were very comfortable and far enough apart that they reclined all the way back without bothering the person behind you. Unfortunately, they showed four reruns of ‘Friends’ during the trip. Made me wish I had earplugs. Our white rental vans were waiting for us when we arrived at Queretaro. We had lunch at the bus stations, listened to a few instructions from Fr. Mike Sanchez, SOLT, our host, a very patient and joyful priest, and then followed Fr. Mike to the Casa de Jovenes where the teenage girl orphans stay. Right before the Casa we passed by the Basilica of Our Lady of Sorrows, the basilica for the town of Colon, a town of only about 4,000 people. It is a gorgeous Church, and was just raised by the Holy See to the status of a minor basilica. There were papal flags still adorning all the streets from the February celebrations.
We arrived at the Casa and went inside for introductions to the SOLT sisters and the teenage girls. Fr. Mike made us and the girls introduce ourselves, one American and one Mexican at a time. The orphan girls had to introduce themselves in English and vice versa for us! It was really funny and there was excessive giggling whenever one of the teenage girls had to introduce herself to one of our young men. A lot of laughing was had and this broke the ice nicely. The women from out St. Lawrence group then settled into their rooms while the guys headed to Santa Maria, where the orphan teenage boys stay. Well, the guys hit the jackpot. Santa Maria sits back in the hills/mountains and is a gorgeous colonial hacienda, that while having experienced a lot of deterioration, is still a really neat place. Fr. Mike showed us the place where at least one priest was shot during the persecution of the Mexican Church, so it was neat to say that we were staying at a place made holy by the blood of martyrs. After settling into our rooms (mine is a nicer one since I am staying with the SOLT priests) and meeting a few of the young men, a soccer match predictably broke out. The gringos did well, although I didn’t play since I was meeting the priests I would be staying with. The won two matches by a goal each time. The boys at Santa Maria have a concrete soccer court on which they play, and it works pretty well. Nothing too nice about it, to be sure, but it works! After the soccer match we headed back into Colon to have dinner with the ladies from KU, then hung out and did some Saturday night dancing with the girls from the Casa, and then headed back to Santa Maria to hit the sack! A full day, and a blessed one, to be sure!
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