here are a few pictures from this past week.

on saturday we went to the zocalo, or city center. the zocalo includes government buildings, the palacio nacional, a cathedral, etc. we ate at a restaurant above the zocalo; hence the entire square was before us.


inside the palacio nacional, which holds much of the countrys history, including narrative murals by diego rivera and the room where the countrys first congress met.


the courtyard at the palacio nacional. ive lately become very interested in architectural photography and framing.

and now onto work! one of the streets by matlapa. i feel like this community is very mixed. the problems with drugs and abuse are rampant, but you have houses for the wealthy next to houses for the poor. sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference from the outside.

view of the neighborhood from matlapa. here you can see some of the poorer sections of the area.
fatima (who took this photo) and vani (who is in this photo) wanted to try using my camera after we played volleyball at the park around the corner from matlapa. as you can see here, it is often difficult to tell the difference between the kids who come to matlapa and other ordinary mexican children. i have learned that poverty can often only be seen in the details, like the girls who wear the same ripped tennis shoes every day or the child who, when we talk about "family" words in english and practice them by drawing, says he cannot possibly draw his entire family because he lives with fifteen other people. the poverty here sometimes is less in-your-face than in other places i have visited, like in india, but it is simply well disguised.

today is quiet. im not exactly sure why, but on fridays the children only come to matlapa to eat, and not for homework or other activities. so i am here working on various things that need to be done and enjoying the quiet. this has been a good week overall. the weather has been excellent during the days and i feel like i am getting to know the kids here at matlapa much better. ive done a few english classes each day and one of the tios and i have created fun ways to help the kids review what they have learned. things are also going well at casa hovde. we have a few kids right now who are behaving especially poorly, so that has been hard, but ive started helping with homework in the evening and that is interesting. there are cats now at hovde and two kittens were born yesterday! tonight i am going with the tios/tias i like best to eat tacos for dinner. im trying to take several photos a day so here are a few for you. have a good weekend.


neighborhood around matlapa

courtyard at hovde from my balcony

the neighborhood around hovde with the city in the distance

things have finally settled down here in mexico city and i feel like i am settling into a routine. everything here is the same as it was last summer. most of the children in casa hovde, where i am staying, are the same as they were last summer, and the tias and i have picked up where we left off. i suppose the only main change is that i am working in centro de matlapa, which is in coyocan, about a half hour from hovde. the program here is quite different from the rest of programa ninos de la calle but i think its better. right now there are three groups of children each day. they are in primary and secondary school. each group is here for about two hours to eat and study, as they have just a few weeks left of school. i like the environment here a lot, but im not yet sure how to explain it. the tias want me to teach english this week and next week, while the children are still in school, so i will do that and then start photography as part of the center´s summer program. my spanish has come back so quickly, and i am learning more each day. i feel like i am where i was about one week before i left last summer, in terms of the language. right now my thoughts are about 60% spanish, 40% english, so writing this blog is quite difficult!

there are so many things here i had forgotten about, but as i said before, i feel like my "other life" here is exactly the same as it was before. the weather, with sun in the day and huge storms at night, the constant noise, the language and slang, the food, etc. and especially the children. like i said, it is difficult to explain.

if you are the praying type, i suppose you could pray that i would not be tired. fatigue has been a big problem for me in the past month or two. and also that i would continue to feel helpful. i know that is not my purpose here, but im sure you understand how that helps everything along. i now have access to internet during the week at matlapa (where i am now) because we have a break in the middle of the day, so you can easily contact me here or by email if you wish. thanks for all of your support.