The priest I live with went down the hill to bring a taxi back to the house so I wouldn't have to lug all my stuff to the street, getting hot and sweaty in the process. I checked in at the in-town Kowloon Station of the Airport Express train and got my boarding pass and headed on out to the airport. I had a little time so I decided to start configuring this laptop so I can use it efficiently. The new Chek Lap Kok airport doesn't have accessible power points on the walls, probably for security reasons, but I found some hidden under a counter, probably where they plug in the vacuum cleaners to tidy up the area, and started arranging things on this computer the way I like them.

I was on United Airlines flight #2 to Los Angeles and had asked for a window seat. It turned out it was a blank wall seat without a window because it was right in front of the exit which also meant the seat only reclined about an inch. And then the flight was full and I got two young HK women in the seats next to me. They talked loudly (as Cantonese speakers are wont to do) and giggled and moved around continuously for the next seven hours when all I wanted to do was sleep. They finally fell asleep for the next two hours but were loud and in motion the last two hours of the trip.

The United States is a little weird in that it doesn't have transit areas in its international airports so a person has to legally enter the US through immigration even though the final destination isn't the US. My destination was Mexico City and I just wanted to change to an Aeromexico flight but I had to go through immigration, claim my luggage, recheck the luggage, and then check in again for the Mexico flight. It's a total waste of time. I'll have to write to INS to ask why they do that.

The flight from Los Angeles was 3½ hours. The Mexico City airport was the friendliest terminal I have ever seen. People were just so helpful without being asked. I noticed at the immigration line that when the man overseeing the line noticed a man or woman carrying a baby, he immediately took them out of line and straight to the next open counter. The baggage people were equally helpful and friendly. The only black spot was the customs line which wasn't a line but a jam of people going through one exit point. Mexico x-rays all luggage coming INTO the country and you have to press a button as they x-ray yours and see if you get a red light or green light. A green light means you continue on through. Outside the customs area I looked for my name on one of the papers and signs held up by various greeters but didn't find it so I just moved over to the edge of the crowd and waited. After about twenty minutes I started looking for the phone numbers of the seminary and getting ready to change some money to buy a phone card, but then a priest came up with my name on a sign. We waited a bit longer for two other arrivals and then headed for the seminary. Everyone was eating so I joined them for tostados and another Mexican food which were a great introduction to the food here.

We had breakfast at 6:45 AM. I cringed when I heard that time but it was unusually early today because we had to board buses at 7:45 AM to head for the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It took us about 1½ hours to negotiate the Mexico City traffic to reach the basilica. The basilica is quite impressive. The cloak of Juan Diego, the Mexican peasant to whom Mary appeared, is displayed in a heavily protected case above the main altar. The protection is because the relic was bombed--although undamaged--in the 1920s during the anti-Catholic period. We went upstairs to a sacristy where we vested for the ordination ceremony of Luis Fernando Montano, the Guadalupe seminarian who had served with the Catholic deaf group in Hong Kong during his five years of theology study there. I was his spiritual director in Hong Kong and so had planned to attend his ordination when I found out it was going to be the same time as my scheduled home leave. Six others were ordained to the priesthood with him.

I met many wonderful, personable Guadalupe missioners. I sat next to one who had served in Japan. It helps to realize that the US is not the only country in the world, and not the only one sending good people to serve around the world.

The ordination started late, at 10:20, and continued until 12:30 PM. It was quite a good ceremony even though although all in Spanish and was done with real grace and dignity. The Guadalupe Missioners are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year so more of their personnel than usual are in town. They also prepared special stoles to be worn at the various ceremonies, and we visitors were allowed to keep ours, a nice memento of this trip.

Back at the seminary, we had lunch in the gymnasium used by the seminary and the university. Lunch boxes were distributed to all and we sat in the seats and watched an 8-man mariachi band and several dance groups perform. It was an enjoyable three hours, even though the cloudy day turned to rain in mid afternoon.

Fernando had his first mass at 12:30 PM, and all four of us Hong Kong people participated. The young man gave a reflection about his relationship with Fernando after the homily, one young woman read the responsorial psalm in Chinese, and the other had part of the intercessions in Chinese. They were also the mainstay of a Chinese hymn sung at communion time.

After the liturgy everyone was invited outside to lunch under a big tent erected in one of the garden areas. Another mariachi band performed. It is amazing how everyone knows the words to every song and really joins in the singing. And individuals from the family and friends are constantly pushed forward to perform solos with the band--and willingly do so, with great enthusiasm and flair. It's not at all like karaoke. It's more like there is a musical gene in most Mexicans that is just waiting for a chance to blossom and perform. The three Chinese young people were great. The young man jumped right in and started dancing with all the family, and soon the two women were in on it, too. By the end of the afternoon half the family was up on the wooden platform. Just as all the people know all the songs, they all know how to dance, too, and don't hesitate to take their turns on the dance floor. One of the Guadalupe priests, Arturo de la Torre, who worked in Hong Kong, and I were commenting how different a Mexican celebration and a Chinese celebration are. Chinese people would never get up and dance and sing and enjoy themselves in public like the Mexicans do.

In Ocotlan we had to wait about 40 minutes for another bus to Poncitlan, the center of Mexico, according to Arturo since it is his hometown. He thought we might be able to get a taxi but it was too early for them so we waited till a rather more beat-up bus appeared and we piled on. We had to stand for the 20-minute ride but it wasn't bad. Finally we got off in the dark at Poncitlan and started walking the four or five blocks to Arturo's family home. He woke his mother up with a call from a pay phone and she opened up the house for us. They live right on the main square, and his mother runs a small women's clothing shop. She lives above and behind the shop in a five-bedroom Spanish-style house with interior courtyards, arched doorways out on to the streets, etc. Really beautiful. Arturo is the second youngest of ten children, and now that they are all gone from home, there was plenty of room for Arturo, Fernando, the two Chinese young women, and myself.

We took a nap for about an hour, then ate breakfast (at which I was introduced to a carrot and orange drink), and then took Arturo's brother's car for the drive back to Ocotlan for the first mass of Eduardo Castellanos who was ordained with Fernando. We got stopped by a train and just barely arrived a couple minutes before the noon mass. The little church was packed and overhead were wooden decorations attached to columns on both sides of the main aisles showing huge pictures of God the Father extending his hands downward. Cloth bunting was draped from his hands as if grace was flowing down to the people. More eye-catching, though, were the Aztec dancers gathered on the front steps of the church. There were about 25 teenagers and older children dressed in Aztec garb and peacock feathers and carrying rattles. They led the procession into the church with a dance step to the beat of a drum, and then gathered before the altar while one of their leaders wafted incense around the altar and sanctuary. As the procession passed up the center aisle, everyone in the church waved a white handkerchief in the air, much as the deaf people do to show applause and happiness. It was quite a moving sight. The mass was interesting because the deacon was also newly ordained and both he and the priest were nervous and a bit unsure. And the Aztecs with their headdresses with peacock feathers sticking out three feet on both sides made the lines for communion in the jammed aisles a bit complicated!

After the mass the masses of people in the church poured out into the streets and into the town square a block away where tables were set up out in the open. Luckily as one of the priest concelebrants I got to sit at a table shaded from the hot sun. The people were obviously one with Eduardo (one of fourteen children)on this day and it was a celebration of the whole community as well as a recognition of his ordination.

Of course there was the usual singing and dancing, with the mariachi band leading off. This one had ten members instead of the eight I had seen at Fernando's reception. There are always violins (4 this time), trumpets (2), a huge bass guitar (not electric), and guitars (usually two or three different sizes and tones). Again they sang and sang, and the crowd joined in on each song as soon as the first couple bars provided recognition of another favorite. Various groups of dancers also appeared with the music, the women always in traditional dresses with long skirts to be swirled and twirled while the man stamped their boots in something similar to tap-dancing mixed with clogging. The women stamp, too, but it isn't as visible because of the long skirts although when the platform is wooden, it's sure audible. Every Mexican also seems to learn that shuffle and stamp along with the words to the songs, and they'll jump up on the stage to stomp a bit with no hesitation. The only bad part of the celebration was the blaring music system. They really cranked it up loud, so much so that it was almost impossible to hear and speak to the others at the table.

I was dead tired late in the afternoon when the partying started to slacken a bit about 5:00 PM, and I was ready to head back to Arturo's home but then the locals announced that the main parish in Ocotlan was having its parish festival that day with a big parade through town so we walked downtown to watch the floats, bands, and various religious and civic groups follow a police escort to the center of town with a huge church as its focal point. When the end of the parade passed us, we joined in, too. There were all sorts of booths and exhibits set up in the plaza with huge wicker fireworks platforms set up for a night time show. We followed a drum and bugle corps that marched through the plaza and right down the main aisle of the church. Talk about noise! Then our group went out a side door and through more of the stalls in the friendly, small-town atmosphere all the way to a small amusement park which is part of the plaza area. That was a really neat place, much better than Disney World, in my book. It didn't cost anything to enter but it was great fun to visit all the different stalls, spend a little money, eat a lot of different foods, and even ride on a ferris wheel or other carnival ride if the urge moved you.

We finally walked back toward the car, catching a local bus part of the way. That's always fun and interesting, to see how the bus systems work, whether you get on at the front door or the rear, etc. Then we drove back to Poncitlan, arriving at 8:00 PM. I was ready for a small dinner at Arturo's house but it was announced that we were going to his brother's restaurant. By that time it was 9:00 PM, their normal supper hour, and four or five more brothers and sisters and his mother joined us. When we got to the restaurant, the parish priests from another parish we had visited in the morning came in and joined us. Because we were guests of honor, our three tables were put right in front--with the five-man band five feet behind me. My ears were literally hurting from the noise but everyone else seemed to think it was normal and great. The brother-owner picked up the tab for all of us for a very nice Mexican meal.

One of the best experiences of the day was walking back to the restaurant to the family home on the square. The square was filled with people at 10:30 PM, literally jammed with them, whole families and groups of young men and women walking around the edges of the plaza checking each other out while their younger brothers and sisters played and ran through the open areas and around the central gazebo. This was family and community at its best. It was explained to me that it is an old and dear Mexican tradition to gather in the square every Sunday afternoon and evening to be with friends and neighbors, and buy ice cream and flowers. When we were on the way to the restaurant at 8:45 PM, I was amazed at the number of children in the square on a school night. They were still there when we walked home after the meal.

We ate breakfast with several of Arturo's relatives at the family house and then we headed to Guadalajara. We stopped first at the minor seminary there, which originally was an old hacienda or ranch complex. A stream wanders through the property and old Spanish-style main buildings have been very tastefully renovated for their new purpose as a house of studies.

Then we went to a house in Guadalajara also owned by Arturo's family. It is smaller than the Poncitlan house but still held all of us comfortably. I slept on the floor, an arrangement rather like the plywood platform I used for a bed in HK. For lunch we went to La Canela, an interesting restaurant where there are no walls surrounding the covered, dirt-floor dining area. The meats are cooked on long metal rods stuck into the soft earth around a fifteen-foot long cooking fire set into a pit. The usual mariachi band was there and also a more US-style western band with saxaphone and drums in addition to the guitars and fiddles. A classmate of Arturo's had invited us to eat there at La Canela, and he picked up the tab for all of us.

Next we walked through the downtown area of Guadalajara, examining the beautiful colonial-era cathedral. Surrounding it on all sides were various parks and plazas with many more old Spanish-era buildings and also lots of stalls and small shops. One square had a month-long exhibit of stone sculpting with perhaps 15 stone cutting and carving groups demonstrating their techniques. We ended up the walking tour at another outdoor stage set up for mariachi music and Spanish dancers.

Then we drove to the Oratoria Church, beautiful Gothic edifice with exciting staiined glass windows. Some of Fernando's relatives, an aunt and uncle, are buried in the crypt below the church. That would be unheard of in the US or even Europe generally, but here if the person had enough money, he or she could acquire a resting place in the church for an urn of ashes.

Across the street from the oratorio is an office building owned by Guadalupe for their magazine design and production. We visited with several of the priests who work there and took some pictures from the rooftop area.

One aspect of this Mexican trip has been almost constant confusion, sometimes consternation about what is happening, where we are going, and especially about eating. Most of the difficult is due to my not speaking Spanish, but I am just not accustomed to the local eating habits. Every time I think we are heading home, we tend to be heading for another restaurant for another late meal. And today after not eating since 9:00 AM, we arrived back at Arturo's mother's home at 3:45 PM and had a somewhat formal happy hour (at which the group knocked off a bottle of tequila) followed by a heavy lunch. Then we were supposed to have coffee which lasted another one and a half hours. I just had not intimation that was the plan or an eating habit that could be anticipated. Later about 9:15, Arturo's sister asked if we wanted a snack. According to the normal pattern of the past few days, we would have had a full meal in a restaurant but this time it was just some simple tostados thrown together. Can't really figure it!

I had been trying for several days to get a plane ticket arranged to go to Guatemala and to let the people in Guatemala know about the plans so in mid-afternoon Arturo took me over to his cousin's house where I was able to use his account to log on and check my e-mail and send my information about my travel plans.

Then Fernando took me over to the Guadalupe offices to get my onward ticket reconfirmed and to pick up the ticket bought for me by the office to Guatemala. My sister had sent my new credit card to the seminary address but it hasn't arrived yet so I arranged to give them a US-dollar check for the Guatemala ticket.

Then we walked through a local market set up on a side street near the seminary every Wednesday. It was full of interesting foods and we tried out some deep-fried cactus. The HK girls bought some Mexican spices and hot sauce to take home.

At the end of breakfast there was a formal ceremony to present the completed biography of Bishop Escalente, the founder of the Missioners de Guadalupe, to the present leadership. The bishop's sister, who lives at the Guadalajara seminary, was present for the ceremony.

The rest of the morning was devoted to sports, with teams from the Mexico City seminary, the Guadalajara seminary, and the priests competing against each other in soccer and basketball. The priests won the football tourney, led by the rector of the Mexico City seminary who was recruited as a professional prayer before joining the seminary himself. The minor seminarians won the basketball trophy.

After lunch we crowded onto two buses for the trip to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe for the formal 50th anniversary mass. The buses stopped three kilometers short of the basilica, and our group of 200-300 marchers formed into five groups representing the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America, each with their own banners and different colored balloons. A group of (seminarian) Aztec dancers led the procession and the omni-present mariachi band added musical accompaniment for the march which took about 1 1/2 hours, even with a police escort. Luckily the weather turned nice and we had our first rain-free afternoon this week for the march.

At the basilica there were six bishops from Latin America and Africa plus about 100 priests concelebrating the liturgy which lasted from 5:00 PM to 6:45 PM. The basilica is huge, much larger than it first appears, and it was filled for this occasion. At the end of the mass, there was a sending ceremony for the three newly ordained missioners, and they each received a mission cross to mark the beginning of their ministry in Hong Kong, Kenya, and Peru. It was getting dark near the end of the ceremony, and I noticed that, strangely, there are no lights over the main body of the church, only over the sanctuary area.

The bus trip back took an hour and forty-five minutes, forcing its way through the rush hour traffic. It is unbelievable how long it takes to get anywhere by road in Mexico City's traffic. We arrived at the seminary about 8:45 PM and people started to gather in the gymnasium where a formal dinner was held. It didn't start until almost 9:30 PM and wasn't completed until 11:00 PM. These late night dinners are common place for the Mexicans but not well appreciated by me!

I left as early as I could from the gym and went to my room to start packing and to check e-mail. The connection with the local ISP was very difficult tonight, and I never could send the mail that I had written although I was able to receive new messages for today and also put a forwarding order into my ISP account in Hong Kong so that all mail coming to that account will be forwarded to a Maryknoll sisters' account in Guatemala. Finally got to be at 1:00 AM.

One interesting thing for me was to notice the United States flag arrayed with all the other flags of the Americas in the basilica, and with the flags of the countries where Guadalupe works at the seminary. I am so used to seeing the USA flag always on top or in first place, and here, seeing it ranked in alphabetical order or below the Mexican flag was a bit of a jolt. I found it a helpful reminder that we don't own the world or give it orders, and that it is good to see a visual reminder that we are one among equal nations and not the world's supremo as we often think of ourselves, consciously or unconsciously.