Today was a day of acclimation and orientation. We began with a tour of the city, stopping to visit the Keeper of the Plains statue given to Cancun by its sister city, Wichita. It was a lovely taste of home!
This was followed by our first visit to the Caribbean. Incredible! The water is bluer than any photo can portray, warm, and with the breeze coming in off the ocean, it seemed like paradise.
Our next stop was a reception at La Salle University. We had the honor of meeting the Rector, Dr. Fernando Mainou and the Vice Rector, Efrain Calderon, who were both incredibly welcoming and hospitable. Dr. Mainou spoke with us about his hopes for this program and the next two weeks, including the importance of profound service to others at the international level and the experiencing of another culture and language. It was a pleasure to be able to spend some time with them and discuss the continued cooperation between Friends University and La Salle University, Cancun.
The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the university campus, getting our student identification cards, and admiring the many iguanas that roam the campus like the squirrels that roam the Friends University campus.
We are very much looking forward to starting our service tomorrow morning. Thanks to the many, many efforts of our wonderful university liaison, Vicki Ramirez de Cosio, who has coordinated our housing, transportation, and many service opportunities, we will be visiting the CRIT, a facility for children with physical and mental challenges and later will be working at La Casa de la Alegria, a senior care facility. Our students are excited and counting the hours until they can get to work.
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