22 Million!

We are in Mexico City and it is quite a place! We were here three years ago but this time we really got the scope of what it’s like to be in a city with 22 million people! Last night we had a speech at a hospital auditorium and it took us an hour and fifteen minutes to go about 8 miles, bumper to bumper and navigating our way through three break-downs with no break-down lane! I was fit to be tied by the time we got to our destination 15 minutes late but the audience was still milling around and totally unconcerned. I guess Mexico time is a little different because they know, oh so well about the crazy traffic.

Just for an example here is the parking lot that we can see out our hotel window. How in the world would you get out of that one? 

 

They do have the most magnificent Archeological Museum in the world! We had been there once before but didn’t have time to see much. This time we rented recordings in English and had the luxury of two hours to soak it in. Some fabulous architect and designer got ahold of this place and did an astonishing job! Jonah and Aja (or anthropologists) you would love it!

The landscaping was fabulous as well. Below is Rick with the grand wall depicting “Quetzalcoatl”:

And the large container where they stored hearts and blood from human sacrifice for the gods:

The lighting was gorgeous but many of the stories were pretty grizzly. This is a huge statue of a the god with the apron of serpents. He is holding hands, head and hearts from people who were sacrificed to him. His head represents the beginning and the end of the world. Go figure:

Pretty amazing artists though!

Hundreds of symbolisms on these two: 

Here’s the most famous piece in the museum. A calendar:

How about this basket? One woman did the entire thing, gathering reeds every night for a very long time:

The building itself is amazing! This free standing block of concrete represents a tree. The history of Mexico is on the trunk and there is a waterfall that shoots straight down around the tree in the summer.

Now you can see the trunk but it’s bigger than it looks.

Dad sure looks like a gringo amidst all these early pioneers!

The people we were with last night though were stellar! We spoke to parents whose children attend outstanding private schools in the area called The Peterson Schools. Today we had a lovely lunch with the moms who are The Values Committee and are doing a fabulous job of bringing values to the 2000 children who attend their schools.

It’s a testament to the good things that can happen when good people amongst those 22 million are committed to Teaching Children Values!