Atole de galleta my friends. This has become the new addiction. That and a small bag of jicama sprinkled with lime and chili salt in the afternoons. But atole de galleta, dear lord, it's so delicious. There is a woman and her daughter that come to CASA every morning and when we have a break from the promotore training, everyone goes outside to purchase tamales or sweet corn cakes and atole de galleta. It's about 50 cents in U.S. money for a cup. It is made from milk, condensed milk, cinnamon, and crumbled up cookies. What!!!!! It's too good, it's too good. This morning it was particularly enjoyable as I was able to speak as freely as I've been able to with some of the youth counselors. We had done an exercise earlier so that we might all actually learn each others names (there are many of us and even after three weeks I had a hard time with my memory). Maggie started it off by saying her name and then making an animal sound and the trick was as we continued to go around the circle we had to repeat the names of everyone and their unique animal sounds that came before us. Lucky me, I was the 4th to go but wow, for the last few! You can only imaging how difficult it was to get through everyone. I mean each person that had to repeat the elephant sound (chosen by Christian)... resulted in hysterical laughter. I don't know if it's because today was the day before the last training, or if it was the name game, but there was a wonderful new ease between myself and the promotores. Whilst sipping our sweet milk biscuit drinks outside, two counselors, Maru and Claudia let me know how to say certain expressions in Spanish that are AWESOME but that I of course can't repeat here. We concluded the day with what can be referred to as a "Gender Gummy." It was a drawing of a gummy bear, that had been divided into sections. Sex, gender identity, expression of gender, and sexual orientation. Everyone from the group was asked to go up and mark an X next to the areas in which they identified. If you were born as a female and identified as a female but dressed in a more androgynous way sometimes or perhaps you preferred dating people that were transgender, then you could mark your spots accordingly on, in, or around the gummy bear. The result: a lot of diversity. Maggie emphasized how all the labels on the gender gummy could change, daily. There still appears to be a lot of confusion in regards to the difference between sex, gender identity, and expression of gender. This is just new information and as Maggie and Miguel have said on many occasions, it will take time. We also talked again about homophobia, sexism, and racism. Maggie stated that every person in the room had thoughts that could be categorized in the aforementioned isms. "What do you think when you see an indigenous woman on the street with her hand out?" "What goes through your mind when you see a person who is trans?" "What about if you are a woman and you are walking down the street at night and you see a person of color, an African American person?" "Do you cross the street?" Yes. Everyone raised their hands at some point. Guilty as charged. We all are. It makes it all the more important knowing how much control we have over our own behavior. We might all have thoughts we do not want others to know. It's natural to have such thoughts. How much do we act on these thoughts? How many of our thoughts do we believe to be true? Personally, the danger for me is when I convince myself that my thoughts are justified and true and right! I could be thinking of any one person, group, philosophy, choice of fashion - you name it. I must keep reminding myself that my thoughts are just my thoughts. They are a manifestation of how I was brought up. They come from my experiences, my status in society, my education, and so much more. Our thoughts and prejudices and fears are real to us. They are real but does that make them the only reality, the only truth? I may love marshmallows but does that mean that every person that doesn't like marshmallows is evil or wrong. Hmmm, me thinks not!! Let's start with a name. If you have a moment, if you are purchasing a coffee from someone, if someone on the bus is staring at you, if you are trying to send a package at the post office, perhaps you could ask that person what there name is, and then introduce yourself. It's seemingly simple but so difficult to execute. It's a choice that could mean busting through the well-constructed walls of one's mind. It's a choice to engage when we so often want to believe our thoughts and our assumptions. Tomorrow I will learn the name of the woman who makes the atole de galleta...and her daughter. My name is Leila and my animal sound is BZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!