Everything about the city is a contradiction

Maureen (l) and Jerri Clout at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico. Photo provided by Maureen Clout.

The sun is rising over the mountains and already the smog is in the air but the beauty of this city remains with me. It takes my breath away. This like everything about Mexico City is a contradiction. There is immense beauty here, natural and manmade. The pyramids, parks and the 300 hectares of trees within the city showed us the pride of the Mexican people. They are proud of their city and have good reason to be. The smog and traffic don’t seem to fit. Every day we woke up to beautiful sunshine and every evening we said goodnight as the rain fell.

Then there is the distribution of wealth. We were told by many that only 3% of the population own the wealth of their country. It has been that way for many years and it isn’t likely to change as it is passed down from generation to generation. We were all standing in front of our hotel last night saying our good-byes and soaking in the last evening in the city. We looked out to the street to see a stretch hummer stopped in front of the “Angel of Independence monument” with the bride and groom waving for pictures out of the sunroof, and not 100 yards away a grandmother and two children under five are begging for money and further down the sidewalk two unaccompanied children under the age of eight are selling gum to make money. Every night without fail we saw many children and full families on the street. We have so much as tourists and yet they are so willing to be kind to us and seem to genuinely want us to enjoy ourselves in their country.

We were treated so well by everyone especially the hotel staff. One day when my Mom wasn’t feeling well she saw the room attendant cleaning the next room and asked her to not clean ours as she was going to sleep. She didn’t understand English and Mom told her it was okay. A couple of minutes later our phone rang and it was housekeeping, the attendant had called down because she was concerned that Mom didn’t look well and she had not understood her. The next morning we called downstairs to see if they had a common stomach remedy, they did not but offered to go to the pharmacy to get it for us, within ten minutes they had it at our door.

They are people who have little but love to have fun, joke around, sing and dance, and enjoy every day.

As we left the hotel it was with mixed emotion, on one hand it has been an amazing ten days of learning and intense experiences and new friendships; however I was ready to come home. We experienced a lot, language, culture and a burst of new information. Yet as the time came to leave we were ready. There was a large group of delegates on our flight from all over Canada and it appeared everyone felt the same. That fact was very clear when the plane landed in Toronto there was a spontaneous burst of applause.

We are sitting in the airport in Toronto right now at midnight and our flight is delayed.....now I want my bed, my house, my family and my dog. I hope you all have enjoyed my blog of the Mexico experience, thank you for coming along with me. It was a wonderful connection to home and I hope to do the same in two years from Vienna! For those of you have not read my blog of the Toronto World AIDS Conference and wish to, you can get it at www.patrick4life.org. I encourage you to email me your thoughts on this at [email protected].

Adios! Jerri

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