Back in Mexico City

First of all, if you've been paying attention to the news, you might be worried about the fact that I'm in Mexico City. Yes, 80 people have died of the swine flu, but I anticipate that I'll come home alive and well. Schools, museums and public places are closed. Soccer games are still happening, but with no spectators and Mass was cancelled today. About half the population are walking around with face masks (the other half are living dangerously, apparently) and working from home when possible. There's still lots of people out and about, but considering this city has a population of 20 million, it feels slightly ghost townish.
I'm happy to just hang out with my friends and not go out too much, but it is strange to be in Mexico City and not take advantage of all the great culture.
I'm supposed to go up to Monterrey this coming weekend for Reunion General, a gathering of Quakers in Mexico. I'm playing it a little bit by ear because this flu scare might affect travel. Hopefully they'll get the epidemic under control before there are more deaths and life can go back to normal.
I don't have any pictures for this blog, sorry.
Oh, one cool story from San Jose: I met the President of Uruguay on Friday. He was giving a talk at the Institute for Human Rights and Rolene's friend invited us to go as her guests. He didn't say anything too revolutionary, but talked about hope and other stuff I couldn't understand. After the talk we strategically placed ourselves in his path and got to meet him for a minute. Rolene quickly told him about the walk and he officially invited her to Uruguay. After shaking my hand he touched my arm. I am here as witness to the fact that President Vasquez has very soft hands.

It's good to be in Mexico again. I'm pretty distracted from feeling sad about leaving the walk. Actually, I had a couple days of feeling really sad and emotionally overwhelmed, but once the day came to leave I felt pretty ready. I'm glad to have these two weeks in Mexico to slowly transition home and it's great to be here with my friends.

I'll try to have pictures for you soon.