In the morning we had to take a bus down to the central market and try and purchase some grocery items that a typical family would need. We were in two groups. Our group’s grocery list included rice, avocados, eggs, and tortillas. We were given 80 pesos (a day’s pay at minimum wage). That had to pay our bus fare to the market and back as well. That was 48 pesos gone right there. We found the market, but with only 32 pesos to spend, there was no way we could buy everything on the list. We managed to get rice and tortillas, but did not have enough for avocados or eggs. We had 2 pesos left, so we bought some tomatoes, thinking that at least a family could eat those. They couldn’t eat 2 pesos. It was eye-opening to say the least.

That night we learned about the history of Mexico from Ross Gandy – a professor at the university in Mexico City (where there are 300,000 students, by the way!). He was an excellent speaker and we have a new understanding of the way Mexico works and how it got here.