NATATE

Our main aim in coming to San Cristobal de las Casas has been to visit Natate, a partner organisation of UNA Exchange. We have been very well looked after by the Mexican staff and the volunteers. We have visited a private alternative school, a street school, sustainable development project, an ecological park, a Mayan Medicine Museum. Tomorrow we are returning there, with basil and an egg so I can have soul healing.
There are volunteers from France, Italy, Belgium, Czech Republic and elsewhere, but no British volunteers. This is an excellent place to volunteer. You can come for two weeks on a work camp, or up to a year on a range of social, educational and environmental projects. Theres no upper age limit. You can learn Spanish for 40 pesos an hour (about two pounds fifty) in the language school next door, run by the Italian woman responsible for setting up Natate a few years ago The town is lively, lots going on, very pretty and elegant, culturally and historically important and interesting, and many tourists. We have felt very safe here. Mexican people are friendly and helpful. Theres also lots you can give and contribute. And lots to learn. Tomorrow we will be meeting with the Director to talk about how we take forward two-way volunteering between Wales and Mexico.
Then, we àre off on a fifteen hour bus journey to Mexico City before heading home on the 3rd of May.
Finally, we just heard from Larry. He hàs seen his first hummingbird of the season, humming and hovering on his jasmine. The Aztecs believed that the hummingbird was the spirit of a warrior and they were prized as talismen, representing vigour, vitality, and power. It seems a fitting symbol for Larry s return to his own home..