Day 1.5

Let no one tell you that our first day in mexico wasn't a busy one. Because it was.

We found the hotel, Hotel Hostal Del Vasco, which is right in the Centro, the old city of Zacatecas. We go in and the screeching of tens of birds in cages hung from the ceiling rocks our ears. Whoa. There's a lot of birds in lots of cages making lots of noise. And oh great, our room is right here!

Turns out, we can't hear them from the room, cause the old building has walls that are thick enough to withstand the noise of tens of birds. Whew. The room is nice, with super-high wood beam ceilings, windows that open, a TV and beds to sleep on. Not too shabby.

We drop our bags and crash out for a few hours, trying to make up for the sleepless night of travel. It works.

After we wake, we take a look at Google Maps, figure out where the office of the Centro de los Derechos del Migrante is, and head over.

Brief aside for some background info: CDM is the organization that we (Miriam mostly with her lawyerly skills, though I hope be of some help) are volunteering with here in Zacatecas. They are a one-of-a-kind non-profit (hint, hint) that works with Mexican workers who get seasonal work permits to go to the US and pick YOUR fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, many of them get royally screwed by the American companies in various ways: getting injured on the job with no compensation, getting underpaid, forced to work with horrible pesticides that cause birth defects, forced to pay recruitment fees, and so on. In the brief amount of time I've been here, I've been shocked by how unfairly these extremely hard-working (and legal!) workers are treated.

If you're depressed by this, it's ok; You should be.

It's for real and it's not cool.

Deep breath....And that's why we're here.

Walking through the Centro, we're struck by how beautiful it is. Many buildings are made of a striking pink-ish stone and others are painted all kinds of amazing colors. Signs are painted right on the buildings, which I think looks cool as all get-out.

There are kids cleaning car windows, a la Holland Tunnel circa early-Guiliani, people selling shaved ice, wheels of cheese out of their trucks, and more dentists than makes any kind of sense. Clearly, Zacatecanos

love their teeth.

Looking at the building numbers, we find the doorway. Of course, had we glanced up, we would have seen the name of the org written in huge letters across the the side of the building.

Walking into the office, everyone is awesomely welcoming, talking about how great it is that we're here, if we need any help with anything, and on and on. Best welcome ever.

Everyone's really nice - there's a few interns from different law schools in the US, a couple lawyers who work for the organization (both of whom just had or are about to have babies), a couple organizers, an accountant and that's about it. It's small, friendly, and really feels like a family.

So we meet everyone and head out to get some lunch with the directora of CDM. We head to the obvious choice - italian food. Doh.

It was food though, and worked well. It's right next door to a really great coffee shop, so that was good.

Afterwards, we went back to the office where Miriam jumped right into her work with meetings and giving assignments and being the kick-ass lawyer that she is. I struck out to find a SIM card for my iPhone (yes, it's jailbroken, unlocked and now usable anywhere in the world with GSM). I found the nearest TelCel store and despite my total lack of spanish and the guy's total lack of engish, managed to buy a SIM card and get it working. Sweet.

Back to to the office, and then we're off with the whole crew for a dinner/welcome party. It rained something fierce during the 15 minute walk to the restaurant, and just like when it rains in America, we got wet.

We learned that you can order any dish that would normally come with chicken or meat and get it with just cheese instead. I got this chocolate enchiladas thing, which was just that, but spicy as hell. No beans came with it, and I've learned that that's pretty much how it is everywhere around here. I honestly thought that I'd be living on beans, rice and tortillas, but that doesn't look like it's meant to be. I might be a little bit disappointed.

Dinner was a long affair and we got to talk a lot about all kinds of stuff. Altogether, a pretty good group of people to be hanging out with.

After dinner, we happened on what turned out to be a Zacatecan speciality - these brass bands that go through the streets with people dancing and drinking tequila shots from a donkey. More on this later, I'm sure. I'll need to talk to the donkey to get the lowdown. Off to a bar for a late night beer and then finally home to the hotel.

We're pretty happy to be here, and can't believe that it's going to be for a whole year. We figure that'll actually sink in in a few weeks.