Our Amazing Race

NOTE: Parents and loved ones...everyone is fine. Lots of naps and pepto today.

If you watch the TV show the Amazing Race, you will understand why this day would be a perfect episode challenging travelers to navigate their way through the streets of  Oaxaca. Let me begin by saying this has been by far the craziest day ever in Oaxaca for Watkinson, but because of the chaperones´ability to adjust to the needs of the group and the unbelivable preparation by Enid, our trip coordinator in Oaxaca (thanks for the binders with every possible bit of info), the day has ended well. 

Episode opens to calm, Mexican music...the group is walking to the bus to go to Casa Hogar. 

The bus snakes through the city in an unusual route...the teachers are striking and marching through the city causing traffic to be worse than an I-84 traffic jam.  Eventually, we make it to Casa Hogar to play with the children and help out with chores. 

Cut to one student feeling sick and needing to go back to the homestay.  So I find a taxi, and we ride across town.  Drop the student off...head to my house to grab a back-up supply of pepto and some crackers from the corner store and get the student settled at their homestay. 

This is where things get really crazy...I walk to Chedraui (a Walmart kind of store) to grab a taxi....All of the taxis refuse to take me to Casa Hogar because of the strike and march.  So I walk a few blocks to grab the bus which is not coming. Finally, I find a taxi to take me to Casa Hogar via a detour that takes me through the hills above the city..what a sight- it was breathtaking!!  When he drops me off the teacher march IS IN the road where we are supposed to take a bus to lunch.  Imagine thousands of teachers chanting with signs demanding better pay.   At Casa Hogar, I find the Wat kids totally in love and playing kickball, basketball and helping children with their homework. 

The teachers have moved on and the buses come back to their routes.  We head to lunch...but alas more detours and marches and a man on the bus that plays the classic pan flute song ´The Sounds of Silence´by Simon and Garfunkel.

Lunch is an amazing meal of fish, mole verde and vegetables at Los Danzantes.  By the end, two students don´t feel well.  Mr. Werner (Rob) takes them back to their homestays in a taxi that manages to get lost both to AND from the drop off, and he is late to Spanish class....no Mr Rees to give you a pass:(

By the end of class, the three students feel better, so I take another taxi (that doesn´t get lost or rerouted) to get the kids and head to the Zocalo to meet the rest of the group for dinner at Taco Inn...don´t let the name fool you, this is great food!!

By the end of dinner, two students again feel unwell, and I take them home in a taxi while the rest of the group soaks up a little more of the Zocalo that is full of of music, ladies selling necklaces, children selling candy and protestors rapping on a stage. 

As I write, everyone is safe in bed, feeling better. Tomorrow is another day....hopefully a little less exciting.  All and all, everything went smoothly and all the kids ended up having a meaningful time at Casa Hogar and laughed endlessly at dinner.  The chaperones are tired but inspired by the work and our kids who despite not always feeling well have given their all and can´t wait for tomorrow.  Personally, I spoke more Spanish today that in all my years of high school.  By the end of the day, I was even joking with the taxi drivers.  But without a lot of laughter, a few peptos and a gaggle of niños at Casa Hogar, this wouldn´t be Oaxaca!!

If this really was the Amazing Race, the host Phil Keoghan, would be saying ´Watkinson, you are the first team to arrive´!