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Highlights of CCIDD Immersion
La Estación – a squatter settlement of families living in a section of Cuernavaca. CCIDD plans visits to 1) families, 2) a community center with a breakfast program for over 100 kindergarten children, and 3) the kindergarten. The visits with families are dialogue style conversations between CCIDD participants and the women as heads of the household with their children. Dialogues uncover the reality of family systems, education issues, economic challenge, social issues, health care and immigration from within Mexico and illegal migration north crossing the US border with great risk and cost.
San Andres de La Cal - This is a small village where women have a community sewing cooperative and their husbands are in a worker exchange program with Canada, thus spending 2-8 months per year working away from home. CCIDD participants dialogue with family members about the challenges of a family separated by great geographic differences. They hear of the need for financial assistance and the options given in various programs. Migration north to Canada for work opportunities is legal and common to many families.
Los Ejercitos de la Salvación Hogar del Niños - Salvation Army Home for Children.
Forty young children have a home with David and Gabriela Vera, the Directors of this special place. This is not an orphanage, rather a home for children who have been extracted from their families due to economic, social or family issues. The expectation is that children will connect with their family each week. The Salvation Army has to solicit all funds to cover housing, meals, clothes, education, health care and entertainment for the children. This is one of many examples of how the children from lower economic families are cared for by communities. CCIDD provides visits to this home for children to learn of their reality and the good being done for these children.
Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos ( Our little brothers and sisters) - is an orphanage which was founded by Fr. William Wasson in 1954 in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Since then over 15,000 children have been raised and nurtured in Mexico and several other countries. Children as young as 2 yrs. old up through the teen years enter los Pequenos. The orphanage has two locations one for 250 teens in Cuernavaca, the other just outside Cuernavaca in Miacatlán with 600 children. CCIDD participants have tours and dialogues with the residents and staff. This is another example of community and international response to children in need.
 El Mercado, the Cuernavaca market – The busiest and most picturesque place in town, the market is the workplace of thousands of women, men and children. CCIDD participants first visit in ‘a quest’of buying some basic items for our kitchen as an experience in economics, budgeting and knowing a bit of the reality of Cuernavaca’s poor. There meat cuts are carried on the backs of men from loading docks to selling stations. Multiple herbs and spices abound. Fresh fruit and vegetables arrive by the truckload daily from 3:00 – 6:00 AM.. Flowers of many types are available by the dozen. CCIDD cooks shop the market weekly for center food and supplies.
 Cuentepec – A small town still conserving its Nahuatl cultural essence despite its proximity to Cuernavaca. Visits to this rural community include families, a women’s pottery group, a telesecondary school, a women’s bakery cooperative, the catholic church and perhaps an ecological walk along the Rio Tembembe. CCIDD groups experience the cross cultural differences here in the state of Morelos by knowing Cuentepec.
Casa de Salud Malintzin - This is an Alternative Medicine Health Center located in Tejalpa, Morelos, adjoining Cuernavaca. Estela Bello Sota gives intriguing and excellent explanations of holistic health, alternative therapies and the energies within each person. She talks of the five emotions, the five elements, gender differences and the need to have harmony and equilibrium within ourselves. The center offers a hot vapor bath (temazcal) as a healing and harmony experience. CCIDD participants visit the center and hear of the many alternative medicine techniques and the philosophy of holistic health.
Centro de Acopio, Recycling Center - A cooperative of women have been promoting ecological consciousness for many years. They have a recycling center with a compacter, the capability of making bottle caps from recycled plastic and flower pots from other materials. Besides the center where they sort materials into 10 or 12 categories, they go to schools and other community organizations and give talks on ecology, recycling and care for the environment. CCIDD groups visit for tours and information about their work. Some groups spend several hours volunteering in the sorting area.
 Xochicalco, an archaeological zone – This was an important urban center of Mesoamerica, peaking from 700 and 900 A.D. In the indigenous Nahuatl language Xochicalco means ‘Place of the House of Flowers’. The pyramid of Quetzalcoatl with the principal motif a feathered serpent representing Quetzalcoatl is the main monument of this ancient city. A tour of this remarkable space is provided by CCIDD with explanations given of Nahua spirituality and indigenous reality.
 Tepoztlán - A sacred mountainous village, Tepoztlán is a hub of religion and mysticism and just a 30 minute drive from Cuernavaca. This is the alleged birth place of Quetzcoatl, the Aztec serpent god. Here CCIDD groups relish the climb to the Tepozteco mountaintop pyramid, enjoy the XVI century church started by Dominicans and the vital weekend market of artisan crafts and fresh foods.
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