This headline caught my eye this morning, “Mexico Fights Discarded Gum Problem By Telling People to Swallow It”.
Some interesting things in the article are:
- The average square yard of Mexico City sidewalk has 70 blobs of discarded chew.
- Mexico is responding with innovations ranging from expensive sidewalk steam-cleaners to natural chewing gum that breaks down quickly.
- Modern chewing gum was born in the 1860s when Mexican Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna brought some Mexican chicle to U.S. inventor Thomas Adams, who first experimented with it as a possible rubber substitute but later added flavorings and sold it as a treat.
- Mexicans chew an average of 2.6 pounds of gum each year.
- That is half of what Americans chew.
- The Mayans chewed unflavored chicle to clean their teeth.
- Singapore once famously banned chewing gum outright to save its sidewalks, and still requires chewers to register at the pharmacy.
(Source: Fox News); (Image by: 7-how-7 on flickr)
Mexico City is home to the largest artificial ice skating rink in the world (Spanish site). The rink, which they built for the first time last year in the zocalo (downtown center square), is back this year. We went yesterday to skate on the gigantic rink.
They have done a great job of making it a very family friendly place. First of all, entrance to the rink is free, so everyone regardless of economic status, can attend. They also have a place where kids can make snowmen and go sledding down an artificial hill.
We arrived downtown at 11, and we got into line so they could give us our bracelets that we needed to go on the ice. Our turn was at 4 in the afternoon! Luckily, we had gone with Jon and Nicolle, so we had help taking care of the kids.
Since we had to wait, we went to McDonald’s, Nathan and I made a snowman (but he was an inch too short to go sledding). Then, in a stroke of genius, someone suggested that we go up to the restaurant at the Majestic Hotel on the corner of the zócalo and got something to drink. The view from the restaurant was incredible. From there, you could see the skating rink and the entire downtown square.
Finally, it was our turn to skate. Nathan made it around once. He had a great time, but he was so tired by the time it was our turn.
Overall, we had a great day. Check out our Flickr set from yesterday.
Obama won the presidency of the United States Tuesday night, which has huge implications for the entire world, as well as Mexico.
But, something else happened that day in Mexico City that impacts the future of this country’s politics.
A small plane crash landed in Mexico City Tuesday night. It was carrying Juan Camilo Mourino, the interior minister (like the Secretary of State) in Felipe Calderon’s government and one of the prospective candidates for the presidency in the next elections. He was also the person who used to be in charge of fighting drugs.
He was a good friend of the president, and his death has impacted all of Mexico and their government. It will be interesting to see what impact this has on Mexican politics. I know for sure he will be missed by the current president of this country.
This weekend I’m going to a youth ministry convention with all of our youth ministry students here in Mexico.
It’s a convention put on by our friends at Dimensión Juvenil, and I’m excited that our students are going to get to attend. Many of the breakout sessions that will be given are exactly what they need to help them with their ministries. I’m hoping to learn some stuff, too.
I’m also going to network and meet new prospective students. Please pray that we have opportunities to connect with people who might be interested in the youth ministry training we offer.
