Day 6: La Estacion, and Family Visits

Today was a real eye-opener. You hear about the poverty, world hunger, and suffering around the world, but it is not always real to us because we don't see it first hand. Today we were in the midst of it all. I have never been so shocked in my life. Today my group helped serve breakfast to the children of La Estacion. On the menu today for breakfast was juice, jello, tortilla, refried beans, and some unknown meat. The women running the program were great; so friendly and such hard workers. They even offered us breakfast; they are very generous people. Even though they have so little, and they obviously knew what we have, they wanted to share with us. We were told in advance that it would be respectful to eat what they offer, so we did. However, we would have rather not eaten because we got to eat breakfast before we went, and we felt there were many other people in the community that could have used the food more than us. It definitely wasn't my normal breakfast, but it wasn't too bad. After we finished serving everyone, we had some time to play with the children. It was great to see joy in the children from simply things. We played a few tag games, and it was interesting because we were communicating with these children through the language barrier, but we managed! One thing that surprised me was how well the children could use digital cameras; they knew exactly what to do and it was so cute, they were always trying to get our cameras so they could take pictures :)
Soon after, the rest of our group arrived at La Estacion so we could visit families in their homes.







We were split into groups of 4-5, and each group had a translator from CCIDD. This gave us the opportunity to talk with Mexican families first hand, and ask any questions we had. The families were very open, and were willing to tell us everything we asked because they knew we were there to learn and CCIDD also helps these families financially.
This particular experience was very touching and something we will always remember. We had the oppportunity to visit with 2 families for about an hour each. The first family we visited had 7 children. The mom does not work because she has to take care of the kids. Occasionaly she goes to the market to sell homemade cooking if she has time. The father is the main source of income for the family, so he has to work a lot. Their home was only one room with a dirt floor. It had no running water or windows. CCIDD had recently redone their roof, so they now had a good shelter, along with concrete walls. Their kitchen was a table in the middle of the room, while a few beds were against the walls. They had a make shift bathroom with curtains for walls. Because they had no running water the father had to make trips to the community well a few times a day, which was about 1 km away. It is difficult to keep all the children in school because it can get fairly expensive. Books, uniforms, sneakers, etc. all cost money and kids must have these to be in school. One teacher even had to charge money for the desk they were using. The two older girls in the family are both in the top of their classes so they do whatever they can to keep them in school. We brought them school supplies to try and help them out and they appreciated it so much! This family also had a dog, and chickens running around the place as pets. As most of you know, I am quite allergic to most animals, so this really bothered me. I was sneezing and my eyes were watering within minutes of being in the home. Luckily I had brought kleenex with me, otherwise I would have had to use my t-shirt haha. This little nusence even made me appreciate what I have back home. Normally I would have just popped a reactine, and my allergries would disappear, but I left it back at my room so I couldn't. For the Mexicans we visited, this could be a everyday part of life that they have to put up with. They have little health care, and what they get is very expensive. Most of their health problems even go undiaganosed because they can't get to see a doctor, so I doubt they would have reactine to deal with allergies. Mine got so bad I even thought about waiting outside for the rest of the visit, but then I realized that some people probably go through this everyday and this is a once in a life time experience, so I tried to ignore my allergies and enjoy the rest of the visit.



The other family were we able to dialogue with was a single mother with 3 boys. Her husband had past away years ago, so the mother nows runs the house my herself. As a source of income the mother made breakfast for the children at a local school, and she usually got to keep the left overs so the food would also feed her family. She also made decorative napkins that were beautiful. I bought one from her. Two of her boys are still in school, one in junior high and another in high school. We only got to meet the one in junior high. He was a very smart boy and very interesting to talk with. He also enjoyed asking us questions about Canada, and had hopes of someday living there. This home was a little better than the first home we visited because the floor was concrete, not dirt, and there was also a few different rooms. It was interesting going from the 1st home to the 2nd. When I walked into the 2nd home, I thought it was very nice and comfortable, because the last house I just saw was so bad, it could bearly be called a home. If I had saw a picture of the 2nd home before I went to Mexico, I probably would have been shocked at its structure. It is amazing how fast I became accustomed to the poverty stricken homes. I actually percieved a house as nice just because it was made of concrete and not wood, palm, and dirt.
After this exhusting day, we had supper and then shortly after another guest speaker. The speaker was a young Mexican activist part of the group, El Pregon, which focuses on ecological issues. The CCIDD leaders informed the guest speaker of our day and that we were very exhusted, so she would know why if any of us happened to doze off and she understood. Luckily no one did, but there were some close calls!! It was very interesting but we were just mentally exhusted from the days previous activites.