never led to the safe and grey roads.
Hello friends, family, random acquaintances, it is I! The Great Ben of Mast. I am here to bring forth a tremendous proclamation of memory, of life, of love, of Mexico!
So I know it's been a while since I last wrote. I'm sure you've all (20ish of you) missed my text-based ramblings tremendously. Rest assured, the rumors of my assimilation have been greatly exaggerated. Not only am I still alive and Mexican, I also have not become a part of the Borg.
After four weeks of groups, I've officially crossed the halfway point of my time here. It certainly does not feel that way. The individual weeks feel long as they're happening, but once we reach Friday, it's always hard to believe that it's already time to say goodbye to that week's group. Life is busy, but it's great.
I have a couple thoughts that I'd like to address right now as I'm reflecting on the past month and looking ahead to the next:
I've been a little harsh on tourists in some of things I've said. I wanted to apologize/not apologize/clarify/rant a little more about some of that stuff. I don't mean to say that traveling to somewhere like Cancún just for a nice vacation is inherently a bad thing. There are beautiful beaches, fun activities, nearby cultural icons, and lots of places to just have a good time, relax, and experience things you don't really have a chance to experience back in the states. If you're into any of that and have the resources, I'm not condemning using them in that way. I do however want people to be conscious of what they could be supporting and be wary of the way they dump and fritter their money away. The nightlife in areas of the hotel district is straight up gross. We drove through the strip of clubs (which yes, also contained strip clubs) near all the hotels the other night and it was... ugly. Sex trafficking and sex tourism is a large business in Cancún, as it is in many areas all over the world. In fact, well, wait, hold on. I need to set the stage a little. Back2Back Cancún looks a little different than other Back2Back locations. They only partner with two actual casa hogares (the orphanages/children's homes), which is the focus of most of their other locations. Here they spend a lot of their efforts, resources, partnerships on community outreaches, specific widowed families, and neighborhood ministries. One of the reasons for this being that when they came to Cancún, they found relatively few casa hogares in the city. Getting back to the "in fact" that interrupted what I was saying back up there ^ ^, they discovered the reason for this to be that at a certain point in the past, it was discovered that there was a casa hogar that was selling the kids that came into the home. Because of this, many casa hogares were closed down. So the modern-day slave trade has a home in Cancún. The tourism industry does a lot of good for the city, but also a lot of bad. During the tourism peaks, the hotel zone generates a host of jobs for locals, but during the down-times, hotels lay off piles of people, leaving them unemployed and without income. The work in the hotel zone can also be a trap for a destructive lifestyle. One of the Back2Back staff members used to work in the hotel zone, DJing at popular clubs. He made a good amount of money, but got stuck in the lifestyle of drinking, doing drugs, and sleeping around in a materialist mindset. (Which, granted, to a lot of people might sound like the life. But if you're someone who thinks so, we might have some other things to talk about.) So even for locals who are in employment in the hotel zone of their own accord and making it successfully, it can be an ugly place.
So getting back to the whole tourism thing. If you want to go have a relaxing vacation on the beach, I'm not condemning you for going to Cancún. I mean a lot of what I said about this city can be said about cities all over the world, even plenty of places in the U.S. And I visited a hotel the other night. It was beautiful. Super cool. Like something out of a movie. If that's what you're interested in, that's awesome, have a good time. Just know there's another side to Cancún, which we like to refer to as #therealcancun, that is out there. And if you're ever interested in doing something about it, groups and organizations like Back2Back are here to help you out.
So anyway, hopefully that's the end of my tourism rants.
As for me, I'm still learning lots. About me, about God, about others, about the world. I won't spill it all out here; this isn't the place for a lot of it. But if you want to hear more, we can talk when I get home. Or you can send me an email, Facebook me, even Skype. It's amazing what we can do with computers nowadays. I really want to the thank the people that have taken the time to ask how my trip has been, how I'm doing, offered any little encouragement. I'm having a great time, and wouldn't say I'm homesick, but it's still a little tough at times to know I'm missing out on things going on back home and appreciate any indication that I'm being missed as well. I miss you all and can't wait to see you when I get back.
Oh also, look out for a tour of the Back2Back house coming up in the next week.
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