Currently Listening Back to Basics By Christina Aguilera see related

- Ain´t No Other Man...again, what happens to be playing in the internet cafe!

Hello again from Apan! The past few days have been perhaps less notable
than the first few, but they´ve been rewarding and enjoyable
nonetheless. We´ve lightened our interview load considerably since the
first 2 days and now we´re doing the typical 1 or 2 a day. We continue
to make great connections with people and are reminded each day of the
deep connection between our town and this one. Two nights ago we were
ordering hamburgers from a man at a stand in the park when we noticed he
was wearing an Elkhart Community High School sweatshirt. You don´t even
see those in Goshen! Ha. Yesterday was a fun day as we did an
interview in the morning, hiked up a mountain in the afternoon to get
some shots of the city, and took the bus to the nearby city of Pachuca
in the evening to catch a futbol match between Pachuca and Guadelajara.
It was crazy; everybody sang and drummed through the entire game and
when they scored a goal they shot off fireworks and a bunch of people
lobbed rolls of toilet paper onto the field. They were world-class
players; the goalie for Guadelajara was the starting keeper for the
Mexican National team that played in the World Cup last month. This
morning we woke up early to watch/record the sunrise over the town, then
we toured two Haciendas, which would be somewhat similar to the
plantations of old in the South; large houses that are more like cities
that were once owned by the richest people in town. The one had its own
bullfighting ring, a dining table that had nearly 100 seats at it, and a
taxidermy room with a stuffed lion and tiger and zebra skins. We have
one more interview planned for this evening with a kid that works at the
front desk at our hotel who has a brother in Goshen. Tonight is our
last in Apan. Tomorrow morning we leave for Mexico City. On the way to
the city we´re stopping at Teotihucan, a site of ancient Aztec ruins,
before spending the night with friends of Benito in Mexico City. We´ll
then leave early Wednesday morning for Brownsville, Texas. Brownsville
will probably put us back on the hectic end of the continuum, since we
only have two and a half days there and there is MUCH to see and do, but
we should be ready for it after a couple of slower days here in Apan.
This may be my last update of the trip...I´m not really sure how
internet connections will be in Brownsville or if there will be time,
but, all remains well with the group and we couldn´t be happier with
what we´ve accomplished in our time in Apan. Hopefully Brownsville will
be equally rewarding. Adios! -Ben

Todays happenings (the previous post was from 2 evenings ago)

So we´re about to reach the 48 hour mark of our time in Apan. It has
been crazy and exhausting but absolutely spectacular. Yesterday we woke
up after a very needed long nights sleep after our day of traveling.
After a breakfast of sweet tamales and a delicious hot chocolate like
drink called Atole, we had our interview with El Presidente at 9, and
that went quite well. Then we had some down time to read, relax, nap,
eat lunch, etc. Around noon we headed off to a groundbreaking for a new
sewage system being built in Apan. Michelle, our endless source of
energy contact/emissary in the town, had informed us the governor of the
state of Hidalgo, in which Apan is located, would be in attendance at
the event, and we were hoping to score an interview with him.
Unfortunately when we got there we learned that he had only sent a
representative. This was rather disappointing for us, seeing as a
sewage system had little to do with immigration and it felt like a waste
of time. But, as we were leaving we ran into Michelle who introduced us
to her friend Marco. Marco asked what we were doing in Apan, and when
we told him we were doing a documentary on immigration he immediately
lit up. He promised to schedule some interviews and show us his house
in the evening. So, we left actually feeling pretty good about the
experience and more than a little surprised that such a great contact
just sort of popped out of thin air. Little did we know what the rest
of the day would hold for us! After the sewage event we headed to an
interview with the ex-Presidente of Apan who is currently a (very busy!)
doctor. He told us the hospital in Apan delivers about 1600 babies per
month! His interview also went quite well and we left to go grab some
supper before heading to yet another interview at 5:30 with the manager
of Cajaplax, a plastic factory in Apan. We again had some hesitations
going into the Cajaplax interview; we were told we probably wouldn´t be
able to film it at all, so it felt again, sort of like a waste of time.
Yet, we went with our camera anyway just in case. When we arrived the
manager was more than happy to let us film his interview, and even took
us around the factory (a surprisingly clean, humane, well-run corrallary
to the disaster NAFTA has brought on much of this country-problems we
will likely encounter closer to the border later next week). After this
he informed us he had an employee who had spent time in the US, and
would we like to interview him? We said we would and were shocked to
learn that he had lived in Goshen and worked in Elkhart!! Yet, he was
somewhat hesitant in front of the camera and the interview was only
mediocre. As we began to pack up our equipment, he brought in another
person to interview. Not only had this man worked and lived in the
Goshen/Elkhart area...he had worked at Goshen´s own San Marcos!! He was
an extremely lively man and gave us an incredible interview with a very
interesting immigration story. What a stunning and seemingly random
encounter with someone from our home town in a small town halfway across
the globe! We had one more interview at Cajaplax with a woman who had
spent time in Chicago before finally packing up and leaving. By this
time we had had 7 interviews all day...we were hoping for 2-3 per day!
And we still had more to come! After we left Cajaplax Marco, from
earlier in the day, picked us up at our hotel and took us to his
father´s house. His father was formerly very wealthy (it showed...the
house was huge and beautiful, a sharp contrast to the rest of Apan) but
had fallen on hard times along with the rest of Apan. He gave us a very
passionate and strong interview, telling us the story of a man that used
to work for him who is now living in Indiana. His family remains in
Apan. Marco, after showing us around the house, offered to take us to
the house of the man´s mother. She is an older single mother (her
husband is nowhere to be found after running off with another woman) who
runs a small store she was able to open with the money her son (now the
family´s main breadwinner) sends back from the US. The store is just
one small room, and she lives with her two younger sons behind a curtain
in the store. As she spoke about her son and their decision for him to
move to Indiana, she began to weep. It was an extremely powerful
moment. She gave us the contact information for her son, who lives in
Elkhart, and we promised to seek him out and show him the interview.
Yet another connection between our small town in Indiana and this small
town in the middle of Mexico that illustrated for us just how important
of an issue this is. It´s no ideological debate for these people; it´s
a painful reality they have to live with every day. Anybody who thinks
immigrating is easy and a decision hastily made need look no further
than this mother, whose family had to be torn apart to make a living, to
understand the folly of that argument. By this time it was nearly 10
PM. We were exhausted after an incredibly long day, but it was one of
the most satisfying exhaustions ever. We have accomplished so much of
what we came here to do, and we still have several more days! This
morning we went to another plastic factory called Plastiapan (where we
encountered another employee who had lived in Elkhart) and then walked
to a high school where we interviewed the Principal and asked some
classes about family in the US. We had ourselves a big lunch of Mexican
spaghetti and pizza (a meager $120 pesos, or $12 american, for all 3 of
us to eat...and this was by far our most expensive meal our entire time
here!) and now are taking it easy for the afternoon. We don´t have big
plans for interviews this evening. We need to make a contact with a man
named Omar here who will be able to lead us to some more interviews, and
Marco invited us to his house to spend some time. That about covers
everything for now. Everybody remains safe and happy and healthy, and
we are feeling more than content about our decision to come here. It
has been a remarkable trip that´s yielded so much positive in such a
short time. Thinking about the fact that we left less than 2 days ago
is exciting to realize what still lies ahead for us! Adios! -Ben

Currently Listening U2 - The Best of 1990-2000 By U2 see related

- Mysterious Ways- just happens to be playing in the internet cafe!

So, in the interest of my time and sanity, I will be updating from Mexico by copying and pasting what I send my parents.  This should be comprehensive and long, but informational if you care!  Whatev.

Hello from Apan, Hidalgo, Mexico! The entire trip was notably
uneventful. Little bit of traffic into Chicago but we avoided the major
construction. Pleasant enough hotel that got us to the airport on time.
 A decent but totally bearable wait to get through security at the
airport, and we were on our way! We left on time from Chicago and had a
two-hour flight to Houston, Texas where we had like a 30 minute or less
layover before we hit the runway again for Mexico City. The plane to
Houston was pretty small and cramped and apparently you´re only allowed
1 carry-on per person now, but the cameras came on so it was no problem
at all (albeit we had to straddle them between our legs on the ground
from Chicago to Texas!...a minor inconvenience, I just read a magazine
anyway). We touched down in Mexico City early afternoon (1-ish maybe),
sped through customs and found a taxi that could drive us the 2 hours or
so to Apan. We were so lucky to get a great young guy as our driver and
although he only sort of knew how to get there, he found his way in
excellent time. We arrived at our hotel just before 4:00 (very nice and
safe and clean by the way!...front door is locked at all times which is
nice, our room locks, we have our own bathroom which is semi-unusual for
Mexican hotels, small TV, all your basic conveniences!). That means our
total trip time from leaving the hotel in the morning to arriving at the
new one in Apan was less than 12 hours. Quite the feat, if I can say so
myself!? We got settled in our room and went to the restaurant beside
the hotel and had some fabulous enchiladas for dinner and then explored
the city for a bit. It´s really a beautiful place...some farmland and
mountains surround the city. It´s actually bigger than I
expected...probably comparable to Lancaster City, if not a bit bigger!
Hopefully we´ll return with some decent pictures in addition to our film
that I can send your way sometime? As we were driving in to Apan, the
first thing I saw in the city was a big building (New Holland tractors
of all things!) with the word Fuerza painted in huge letters on its
side. This just so happens to be the name of our documentary! What a
sweet little twist of fate! So, that´s pretty much the rundown from
here. After we finish up our emailing we´re going to call one of our
contacts here about setting up some interviews tomorrow with her (she
works with tourism I believe) and El Presidente de Apan (basically their
mayor). There´s several internet cafes around the town and it costs
about $1 US ($10 Mexican Pesos) to use for 1 hour, so, access should be
plentiful! I´ll try to keep you posted with the interesting things we
encounter along the way. Pass on the good word that all is well and
we´re here hassle-free!!! -Ben