Hello, My Name Is - Matthew West

I got to spend all of the month of June traveling Mexico! One whole week by myself and the other two with the community I am living with. 

Santisimo en la Basilica

Mexico City

  I took one week to visit Mexico City which is the capital of Mexico. Nallely (my dearest hermana grande) moved to Mexico City in the month of May and I missed her a lot a lot a lot a lot. Since she is living there alone, I decided to take a week to travel alone to visit and get to know the city.  I got to know her work, her new home and took the time to travel and get to know the biggest city of Mexico. My favorite part was Villa Basilica. This was the basilica where the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared in 1531 in Mexico and asked Juan Diego to have the bishop build a basilica on that very mountain. There is a new basilica that had been built that is bigger for the millions of people that pass by every single day. It was beautiful and up to now my most favorite place to have visited in all of Mexico.  

The family

 Then we took a community vacation. The four salesian priests of the community and 8 volunteers. (NEW VOLUNTEERS! We have become a very international family. A couple from Spain, a Brazilian, a Colombian, two from the United States and the one and only Canadian :)) traveling across Mexico in our beautiful Brigada de la Alegria van. We drove to the state of Sinaloa to a beach house where we met up with two other Salesian communities and their volunteers. We were about 25 people sharing vacation time on a beautiful beach. 

This was the first time in my life I stayed on a beach and I enjoyed it. Waking up to the ocean and going asleep to a sky full of millions of stars was amazing. The heat was different ( don't think I'll ever get used to it) but being able to jump in the water at whatever time of the day or night was very helpful. I slept in until 1 pm FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE. 


And ofcourse, the second day there - cat gets sick. With a horrible cough and a cold in 50 degrees weather. Imagine how weird and uncomfortable that is? None the less, enjoying the days of resting. Oh super cool - priests or not; the World Cup is important everywhere in the world. They brought a projector and connected the tv in one of the rooms to watch alllllllllllll of the games. Boys will be boys. Young or old boys will be boys! 
We then drove to Mochis where we stayed at another Salesian oratory with the Salesian community. Met up with some friends that I met in FIO and got to know the city. We spent one day on boats AND I SAW DOLPHINS - also for the first time in my life. Seeing the sun set in the middle of water is really something. And watching star pop up one by one was a beautiful experience. We also celebrated the 15 year anniversary of the oratories Dominic Savio youth group with the young people and entire community. 
After spending three days in Mochis, we spent one other day driving to Guadalajara where all the Salesians of the province had an important three day meeting and where we volunteers were free to explore the city. Cho, Alejandra and myself stayed with dani! It was so nice to see and spend all this time with her again. I missed her sooooooo 
Selfie with former Rector Major! 
much, my little pony. 
Also, during out stay in Guadalajara, the new provincial of the Salesians of the Northern part of Mexico took his spot asn we got to attend that mass. I also got to take a picture and have a little chat with Father Pascal Chavez who is originally from this Salesian Province! 

These weeks were a great way to start the summer and really get to spend and share time with the ones who have become my family. We took advantage of this time to bond and enjoy some time and have fun before summer camp begins. 

I am thankful for my community, for the oppertunities I continue living every single day throughout this mission trip in Mexico.