01/22/2020 – 01/24/2020 Pushing through some sick days and taking time to enjoy

On Wednesday and Thursday, my slight traveler’s sickness from the weekend picked up a bit. That made Wednesday and Thursday not too fun, especially when teaching, but when it wasn’t a time close to eating or food, they were some very nice in between days. We got to chat more with our friend Osmar, who’s a 16 year old with wisdom much greater than his age. He’s super funny too, and we talked honestly about the school and opinions on politics among other things. One very surprising thing I learned about the school in particular was that the students get to choose which class sections they are in, and they seem to separate essentially based on income-class (Osmar’s friend group calls themselves the “proletariats” and the other group the “bourgeoisie”). Aside from some of the more serious talk, we did some very important relaxing and hammocking and eating – eating in which I would pretend my sickness didn’t exist only to be reminded soon afterwards.

On Friday, we were intending to go to Orizaba to see “the other city”, but most of our plans were outdoors, and it was raining all night. So, Meriah and I had a little night in before we left for the wedding the next day. With Juan’s (security guard) help, we ordered some food from a local restaurant, which was delicious and a perfect treat since we didn’t have much to do. We shared some of our fried plaintain dessert to thank him for helping us, and shortly after he sweetly came back with coffee bombons for us. The people here have shown so much care and compassion for us and our experience.