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We knew the guest house was going to be full when we arrived around 7:15 that morning, but Nico (manager) in a prior email had graciously said we could leave our stuff there that morning while we looked around for a temporary hotel.  Well, the guest house door was locked – with us and all our luggage dumped on the sidewalk.  Now what?  Just then a woman came out, saw us gringos and said the place didn’t open until 8.  Hmm….  Nico had said we could probably get a room at the hotel across the narrow street so I walked across while Leslie stayed behind to watch our stuff.

The Hotel Texas reception desk had a bulletin board with their posted rates.  Again, from internet searching I had an idea of what locals would pay for a room and the bulletin board was certainly above what I expected.  But again, Leslie was across the street, we hadn’t slept and I really did need a room.  My negotiating hand wasn’t that strong that morning so we got a room overlooking the street and across to the guest house.

We paid the “rack rate”!

They don’t call those midnight flights “red-eyes” for nothing!  After our daughter’s wedding on Saturday, we flew out of SFO at midnight Sunday night and landed in Mexico City.

1. Customs and Immigration.  During the flight we were handed two documents to fill out – immigration and customs.  I filled them out sometime in the wee hours of the morning.  When we landed we observed most of the passengers going into a long queue – and we almost joined them – until we saw a sign saying “Foreigners” – and almost no one in line.  After a perfunctory inspection of my passport, the control officer stamped the bottom of my FMM form, wrote 180 days, then stamped it. I need to keep this as ID and show it when I leave Mexico – else you pay $$.  So – I’m now good for 180 days in our southern neighbor!

2.  Money changing.  I knew we’d need initial taxi money so I went to the airport money changer window.  I knew the rough rate was 13 to 1, but got about 11 to 1.  Oh well – it’s the price of doing business as it were.

3. My first decision.  We brought enough stuff to live in Mexico for a couple of years – we didn’t pack like this was a 10 day vacation. Because we had several large suitcases I first got a courtesy cart ($5 in SFO) loaded up our stuff and tried to figure out the taxi business.  Prior internet searches said to use one of the companies in the airport because they weren’t “bandits” and the prices were fixed based on the zone of the city you were going to.  So I arbitrarily walked up to one taxi company (several there) and showed a printed address of the guest house where we’d made arrangements.  Then came my first faux pas…

4. My first faux pas.  I started to wheel out our luggage cart when a man came running, gesturing the cart couldn’t go outside to the taxi. Now what?  How was I going to shuttle all those 50 pound suitcases outside after I hadn’t had any sleep, had bloodshot eyes and felt intimidated (vulnerable?) not knowing Spanish? After lots of gesturing I learned there was an inside cart and an outside cart – and the outside cart came with a porter who looked at my paperwork to see which taxi company we’d paid for.  He got us into a line and again I felt vulnerable because I didn’t know how much to tip.  Am I a cheap American or a rich gringo?  Anyway, I tipped him without knowing where I fit in the “bell curve” of tips.

5. Too much luggage to fit into the taxi.  After waiting for maybe 15 minutes a man approached us with an air of authority, asked to see our taxi paperwork, looked at our luggage and got the message across that if all the luggage couldn’t fit in the trunk we’d have to pay more for a van.  What to do?  I paid more for our own personal van! I showed the driver our address and off we went as the sun was rising on our new city.

Leslie and I have been pushing so hard over the past number of months.  We’ve shared with friends that making the intellectual decision to “give back” was somewhat easy, but some parts of the execution of that plan were hell.  But there have also been many circumstances of what we call “God moments”, big and small, that have encouraged us and confirmed our intentions.

What’s been hard?  Downsizing a 2,200 square foot house and getting rid a lot of our stuff.  Everything requires a decision, big or small, and we found we were making a thousand decisions a day concerning our stuff.  The last week was hell trying to get out on time (see previous post).

I intend to be a regular blogger now about our path and experiences.  Leslie will from time to time share her experiences.  Now that we’re in Mexico, I can’t wait to really start our journey!

work·a·ble  (adj) – Capable of being put into effective operation; practicable or feasible.

The Peace Corps needs just the right person(s) to put into a specific job for the most effective operation.  So how can Leslie and I make ourselves more effective and thus, more “placeable” with the PC?

That’s our quest!

Leslie and I have 5 criteria we’re trying to “enhance” (see previous post).  We can’t change our age or that we’d need to serve as a couple.  But what can we do with the other criteria? Read the rest of this article »

Who knew volunteering for a job could be so tough?

When Leslie and I started our initial research into volunteering for the Peace Corps, we knew we’d face challenges getting into the program.  What does the PC look for in applicants?  Or to put it more bluntly, what happens if you fall into categories that don’t enhance your resume for acceptance? Finally, are there other less obvious – but significant – hurdles to address?

Education is one of the major pillars of the PC’s mission in countries where they serve. So what background do we need for that?

1. Bachelor’s degree – checked off! We’ve got those (although from the pre-historic days).

2. Those with liberal arts degrees. Hmmm…  gets a bit more tricky here because the PC says the “best way for liberal arts majors to qualify for the Peace Corps is by gaining 30 hours or three months of tutoring or volunteer experience”.  We’ve got that experience now by teaching ESL for 6 months – but it was only part time, one evening a week.  Remember, this is the absolute minimum for consideration.  They go on to say “The more experience you have in these fields, the more competitive your application will be.”  Ah, now we’re getting into competition against other liberal arts people (I’m a political science major which is worthless in the real world). Read the rest of this article »