More of Kim's kids

Kim took me on another field trip for more community outreach. This time we ventured outside the city, rural but equally impoverished. I've found Mexico to be a place of extremes. This is the most overtly class conscious society I've ever seen. The castes taint everything, I know that's a huge generalization but I stand by it.

People are either living in luxury or squalor, scrawny or porcine. There's no middle ground. I keep expecting to see a balance. All this polarization has made me evaluate where I fit, leaving tinges of guilt for being so contentedly bourgeois while others struggle to feed their families.

As if you couldn't tell from the photos, these children are beautiful. In eight summers of camp counseling and youth work, I've never seen such polite, grateful and well behaved kids. They're just happy and so appreciative that we were there. They didn't complain, throw tantrums, fight or exhibit any traits I expected from dealings with kids back home. I don't know if it has to do with us feeling entitled, but there is a distinct difference between the temperaments of these kids and the those living a bit north. I don't mean to rag on American kids, both because I was one and I've encountered loads of sweetly dispositioned yankee youngsters. But, still, if I ever have children, I'm hoping they're more like the Mexican munchkins.

So you probably shouldn't have favorites, but............here's mine. Loved him!

The kids all wanted to take their pictures and then see them in the camera. We played lots of running games (I'm notoriously out of shape and the high altitude didn't help matters), jumped rope, and cut/colored paper plates to look like boats.

So Mexican kids and Mexican food might just be the best in the world. I took this photo at a tortillaria. Here they make, you guessed it folks, tortillas. The tortillas come steaming out of the press and the vendor stacks them on a scale. We bought half a kilo, doused them in salt, rolled them like crepes, and well, let's just say if I keep this up my girlish figure will go the way of the buffalo.