Como se dice: God Loves You? Part 2

Monday, September 7
Our trip to the Chimalhuacan Family Hope Center was quite lengthy and bumpy due to potholes. I noticed the presence of graffiti on almost every wall along the way. Some of it was quite beautiful. Some was less so. It seems they use walls as billboards to advertise musicians and events.

All on one wall

I never was sure how long it took to get there, but it was a while. I was more entertained by the activity in the bus. Juan Carlos also took the time to explain their models and how they do the work they do. It was quite fascinating. I am a huge fan of engaging the community in the work of the community to address challenges they face together. Truth be told, I think we could all use more of this.

When we entered the school through the wall, there was quite a large group of people waiting for us. These were the parents of the students in the school which served children with special needs (blind, deaf, developmentally delayed, autistic, etc.). They were ready for all of the projects we were all going to work on together. Our group divided up to do three projects that morning.

When we first arrived- ready to work

1. Painting games and bordering tires on the playground
2. Painting interior walls of the courtyard.
3. Working in a greenhouse at the schoolyard next door.

Of course I chose number 3. I was intrigued by the process they were using to create a hydroponic greenhouse using volcanic rock instead of soil. An article about this project can be found here: http://www.buckner.org/buckner-mexico-seeing-green  It was a physically challenging effort. I learned they were planning to grow tomatoes and cucumbers, while teaching the students and families throughout the process. My interest in this project stemmed (pun intended) from the new Environmentally focused charter school I helped start (Trinity Environmental Academy www.triea.org ). I kept thinking "Perhaps there is a way we can partner together in the future?"

Pile of volcanic rock

Starting to plant in the greenhouse

The best part of the morning was when the students at the nearby middle school were on break. Some of them came over to talk to us. We had simple conversations. What's your name? Como se llama? What's your favorite color? Cual es tu color favorito? One of the kids complimented me on my eyes, he said they were beautiful. Let me tell you, that compliment meant a lot that day. Especially after digging around in the greenhouse all morning.

Juan Carlos suggested that we may be able to go into the classroom, for a short bit, where the students were learning English. After consulting with the principal of the middle school, several of us went into the class. One of the first questions that a student asked was to take a selfie with the guests. You may notice that several of the students have cat/gato whiskers painted on. I never learned why. From what I understand, these students may never have another English speaker visit, let alone half a dozen.

English class selfie

We returned to the school for the special needs kids (just the other end of the same block) for lunch. Domino's Pizza in the computer lab. Some things translate so easily country to country. A service project is a service project no matter where you are. And while these projects were planned so quickly, we never ran out of work, were never short on supplies (though we had to be creative a few times), and always felt the work we were doing was meaningful to the community. It helped a great deal that we were working alongside the people from the community. They were hard working and seemed appreciative to have our efforts. As someone who often plans such projects for a living, I was incredibly impressed.

Pizza time

In the afternoon after a quick game of 4 on 4 basketball, we continued our work at the school, while another team traveled to a home in the neighborhood belonging to one of the families who attended the school. My work consisted of putting in new border tires and painting them. Later in the afternoon Susan and I taught our fellow team member Gabe a few yoga stretches (no photos, sorry everyone). I was appreciative of my friend Brandon who took care of me after I got a little choked up due to paint fumes. He said, "Casey will never forgive me if something happened to you". I gotta say, it's a pretty good feeling having someone take care of you. This was a sentiment I felt and observed many times during the week. People making sure others had water, were taking breaks, and weren't overdoing it (Brandon). I am quite grateful to have had those moments.

Putting in new tires as borders for playground

I traveled with our host Juan Carlos to pick up the team at the end of the day. It was wonderful to see the work they had done. I later heard the story from the team. It seems when they started the project, the family wouldn't even open the gate so they could paint very well. The woman who lived there jumped right up to help, but really didn't want people inside. The team respected her wishes. Eventually she did crack the gate enough for them to do their work. When the afternoon was over, she was saying that her home was their home and they were welcomed any time. "Mi casa, es su casa". Quite a shift in such a short amount of time.

After the workday was over, we made a quick run to Sam's club and Walmart. You would have thought I was back home in Oklahoma, where a Walmart visit is almost a daily occurrence. We needed supplies for the health/hygiene bags and bottled water and a few other things. There were very few differences (other than having to figure out the conversion to pesos). That evening we added soap, shampoo, and toothpaste to the bags.

Sam's/Walmart

Our evening dinner was at the hotel. For some strange reason one of our team David was placed on the hot seat. 50 Shades of David Lobban ensued. People asked him questions about his entire life story and the Shanes. It was a delightful dinner, though I have to admit a bit of nervousness if this "hot seat" situation was going to be a different person each night...would they get to me?

After dinner we stuffed bags once again with the newly added items. We didn't take the time to play extra games, as we had an evening devotional led by two team members (Kelly and Chris). While we did not end up doing these every day, I truly enjoyed this intentional time. We sang, debriefed and planned for the next day. My favorite part was Gabe playing the guitar while we all sang the Worship songs from printed sheets he brought along. Melinda mentioned that it reminded her of the church she attended growing up. Each person reflected on where they saw God move that day. Some in the faces of the children, some in how the team cared for one another, others how so many things went wrong but everyone was so flexible and willing to just go along as shifts occurred.

Putting the kits together

Melinda and Crystal, as the physician and physical therapist, had to game plan around the health day with the mothers for the next day. They ended up planning in the room Crystal and I shared, We had the opportunity for "girl talk" and I really enjoyed having time to get to know each other better.

Tuesday, September 8
We returned to Chimalhuacan Family Hope Center for a second day. The projects included:

1. Paint lines on basketball court: It was fun to see Chris so excited about plotting out the lines and making it as close to real measurements as possible. I drew the name of the school on the court and we painted everything in over the next two days.

Painting lines on the basketball court

2. Additional Green House work: this involved shoveling more volcanic gravel into bags and transporting them to the smaller greenhouse. 

Another day, another pile of volcanic rock

3. Building brick benches: There were several of us who tried our hands at masonry. Our guru was one of our translators. He had the talent and the tools. Brandon, Kelly, and eventually Crystal gave the most effort to the finished products. 

If you build it, they will sit

4. Health/hygiene talk led by Melinda/Crystal: Taking full advantage of having a physician and a physical therapist in our group, a presentation to the parents was arranged for this day. The general presentation is what you might get in health class, but the private question and answer session that individuals were able to have with these wonderful ladies was perhaps the most valuable. We handed out the bags of health supplies and healthy snacks after the session ended. 

Pretty sure Melinda is just doing the robot here

5. Finish painting games on playground: Our group actually contributed very little to this project. The mothers who were working with us did almost every bit of these in the morning of the 2nd day. One thing I want to point out is the large green circle with the white dot in the center. The emergency manager in me was surprised to learn that this is evacuation point for earthquakes at the school.  Everyone gets inside the green circle which is away from all of the building.

Such a colorful addition for the kids

6. Home repair/painting: Again I missed out on the project for another family in the neighborhood. It just so happened that the physician and physical therapist went to paint the room of a boy from the special needs school. The boy had experienced a compound fracture to his arm months ago and while he visited a doctor then and had healed, he had problems with the elbow dislocating periodically. They were able to provide him with suggestions on caring for the injury and finished some minor home painting and repair in one visit. Talk about multi-tasking. 

Multi-tasking at its finest

Our food experiences for the day were tacos for lunch from a nearby restaurant (again eaten in the computer room). Dinner was quite the adventure for us. We went into a nicer part of the city (no idea what the name of the neighborhood was). It reminded me of Uptown in Dallas. The sea food was wonderful ceviche, calamari, and I had some interesting stew in a volcanic rock bowl (why not keep with the theme from the green house). Such good stuff. Our evening was made complete by Kelly eating the eyes out of the fish that Gabe ordered. And note to self: when someone offers to have you electrocute yourself on the street, just say no. Pretty sure this rule needs to be added to the book for the future.

Culinary choices for the day

Our devotional time was sweet. We practiced some songs we would sing to the kids in the special needs school the next day. I gotta say, singing in Spanish is kind of fun. Especially songs you know in English. "Tengo paz como un rio" is stuck in my head this very minute I am sure. It's a catchy tune.