| I was in a bus with my wife heading back to | | | | watched them train as hard as anywhere in |
| Guanajuato from Texas. We had visited my | | | | America. They do it, not for money, but for the |
| childhood friend Mark. My wife had fallen asleep. I | | | | love of saving their fellow Guanajuatenses in the |
| took up a conversation with a Mexican heading to | | | | event of a fire or medical emergency. I find that |
| Mexico City. When he learned we lived in | | | | inspiring. |
| Guanajuato he said something I found most | | | | Once, perched high on an oxygen depriving |
| curious, "You must be taking your chances living in | | | | callejon, sitting on stoop outside a small house, |
| Guanajuato." | | | | was an equally small, frail, and almost dead old |
| Not knowing what he meant I requested an | | | | woman. She was having some sort of heart |
| explanation. He informed me that all the | | | | event. The paramedics were called. |
| emergency services, except the police, were all | | | | When they responded they had to leave their |
| volunteer. The fire and paramedic rescue workers | | | | ambulance at the bottom of the mountain and run |
| were all under the auspices of the Red Cross. I | | | | up its side taking two cement steps at a time. |
| was taken aback. I had no idea. We had not lived | | | | They carried equipment, stretcher, and |
| here, at the time, for more than a few months. | | | | themselves up the side of this mountain like they |
| He was correct. All of the emergency services, | | | | were supermen. They ministered to this old lady; |
| save the police, are Red Cross volunteers. | | | | loaded her on the stretcher and within seconds |
| I would not have thought it. | | | | had her stabilized. They carried her to the waiting |
| Their facilities are top notch. The vehicles look top | | | | ambulance. |
| of the line. The equipment looked just like what | | | | I wanted to find the guy in the bus and say, |
| you would see in the States. The firemen and | | | | "We aren't taking our chances at all. We have |
| paramedics looked tough as nails and I had | | | | Supermen and Wonder Women watching over us! |