Traveling Home

While my family stays three more days in Cancun, I am on my way home. This time next week I’ll be flying home from my family Thanksgiving in Chambersville and the following week, around the same time, I’ll be flying to Oregon to celebrate Jonas’s ninth birthday.

Travel is back.

Mexico was very COVID safe and conscientious. There was required masking and lots of hand sanitizer, often with someone standing to spritz my hands before I entered one area or another. At least there was great masking by the Mexicans. Americans, not as much. We can do better.

I had to have yet another COVID test to leave the country. The timing was tied to my immunization status. Like the Faroe Islands, my test in Cancun was easy with quick results. In the US, not so much. We can do better.

The hospitality and warmth of the Mexicans I met were beyond gracious. I know that tourism is their number one source of income, but I suspect they might be as kind just because. I was also struck by how hard working every person I met was. I do wish we could work out our immigration system. I do wish we could be more welcoming, or at least more kind. I do wish we could be more welcoming of people who simply want to work and to work hard.

Next Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, I will join my friend Will Llana in the home of one of the Mexican immigrants in whose community (Plum Grove) he is planting a church. After my days in Mexico and the very little I experienced of the Mexican culture, I am looking so forward to beginning Advent worshipping with them. I’ve been told that the people who have made their home in this community are first generation Mexicans. Many have challenges with immigration and want to learn English.

I am curious. And prayerful.