ISSUE 02 | WINTER 2013/14
KOHIMA C
In our last issue, we announced that L/Cpl Lucy Gibson from 34 Plt North
Berwick was selected to go to Mexico.
SI A. Boswell spoke to L/Cpl Gibson about her trip;
Q: So tell us, how did you feel when you first found out that you had been selected to go to Mexico?
A: Very excited for the chance to practice my Spanish and travel somewhere new and exciting.
Q: What kind of preparation did you do before leaving to go to Mexico?
A: Well, I work in a primary school so that helped to prepare me for the
children side of it, I also brushed up on my Spanish as I knew it would
be very useful to me over there, and I was right as I had to help to
translate for a lot of the other people that were there.
Q: How much did you know about the local culture?
A: I knew a bit about Spain as I have been there a couple of times, but
not much about Mexico as that was all new to me, but I would definitely
say I have learnt a lot while I was there and now know a lot more than I
did before going.
Q: What was your first impression when you arrived?
A: It was definitely very different and I had never experienced anything
like it before, but as it wasn’t right in the centre of Mexico, it had its
differences the layout of the place was strange and the quality of the
buildings and other things were very low and poor quality and looked
like they were just as basic as they could be.
Q: What about the locals?
A: They were very friendly and helpful and even with the fact that they
could not speak a lot of English they still tried to make themselves very
clean in Spanish and used hand gestures to help us understand them. The
people there were very nice and welcoming to us all.
Q: So what were the main cultural differences you noticed while there?
A: They are very religious people and attended church every Wednesday,
we would have refried beans and tortillas at least twice a day as that was
part of their stable diet.
Q: What were the children you were working with like?
A: They were very shy to begin with but that was because we were new
people and they didn’t know us, but
you would expect that from children.
After the first couple of days they all
began to start smiling and talking to
us and making us feel welcomed by
inviting us to play games.
Q: So what kind of work was it you
were doing over there?
A: When we were with the children
we were playing with them and
giving them the attention that they