My dear TH!NKERS!

 I am writing to you back from Mexico City.

My univesity semester in Madrid just ended, and I started a few weeks ago a new one in my previous university back in Mexico.

I will be honest with you, it was not easy to come back. Not in the beginning. I am not saying I was not expecting to be back home, as the last days of my staying in Europe were the longest (YES! I was eagerly expecting to come home and see my family, eat the delicious Mexican food I was previously tasting in my imagination) but getting used to a life that you left behind was ... let's say different. You might ask why?

Here is my response:

Mexico is having one of it's worst "inner war" times, as I name it. These are some of the news I got to face since I got back home:

Mexico's war on drugs: optimism has turned to depression

Grief across Latin America for Migrant Killings

Mexico: Heavy Rainfall Causes Flooding in Veracruz and Tabasco

But after a couple of days, I realized these are some of the most important reasons that lead me to do what I am working for. What we are working for. We want a change and we will create it. We are beginning the transformation and with our words, we create a conciousness.

TH!NKERS I believe this is not the end of our work, this is just the beginning. (And I don´t want to sound irrationally positive - I mean it -). Thanks to TH!NK 3 platform I got to learn about the different issues happening in all of the countries you mentioned and you have experience in, how different they look from the outside but how similar they can be. Thanks to you I could inform myself, and with this, inform others. I enjoyed every single post, every single comment (even If we make mistakes sometimes, it is good to get all types of constructive feedback!)

I would like to tell you that inspired by you and by this platform I have decided that I would like to continue my studies (MA) focusing on International Development.

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING! I will be waiting for more posts to come, and more updates about the projects and publications where you are working in!

 - MUCHAS GRACIAS -

Greetings from Mexico,

(Andrea Arzaba, September 2010)