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Boston Pizza Day 3 - Cinderblocks, Gringos, and Kung Fu Panda!

Published by absolute August 11th, 2011 in Hero Holiday and Featured. Closed

Our days start at 9am with an open-aired, windblown truck ride to our work site where we’ve spent the last two days. What started as three skeleton buildings are transforming before our eyes into homes for our new friends. Each home is no bigger than 250 sq.ft., but surprisingly, the number of people working in the congested area work cooperatively and functionally to reach a common goal.

I had no idea there was a tradesman inside me. I’ve learned to build walls with mortar and cinderblock; mix concrete, and haul it by bucket-loads; and sieve sand for wall mud. But, what surprised me even more was the participation of the community, who join us each morning with smiles, to work hard to build homes for their neighbours.

Our labour intensive days are broken up by time to play with the children and interact with the community. While most of our Spanish vocabulary is limited to “Hola” and “Por Favor”, the children are most receptive to the universal language of “play”. Game boys, Ipods, and gaming systems are substituted by basic skipping ropes, colouring books, and frisbees, bringing joyful shouts of delight from the children and “gringos” alike. By the end of the day we climb back onto our trucks, tired, dirty and sweaty, but a happy crew.

This evening we were treated to an open-air theatre in a small Haitian/Dominican community. Each one of us had at least one or more children in our laps to share the movie experience with. Half-way into the movie I recall looking around, and thinking that there was no other place I’d rather have been at that very moment. I was covered in sweat again, but this time not from the sun or the hard work we’d been enduring all day long, but from the body heat generated from the four little humans that surrounded me. A blue tarp was laid out on the ground in front of a big white screen featuring “Kung-Fu Panda”, where we sat still for the next two hours under the star and moon lit sky. I’m not sure who enjoyed this evening most…

Julie

Scout Canada’s Build a Home Challenge!

Published by absolute July 15th, 2011 in Hero Holiday and Featured. Closed

An awesome group of scouts and leaders from Manitoba joined Hero Holiday in Mexico this summer for their ‘Build a Home Challenge’! While they’ve been keeping their own blog on www.scoutchallenge.ca we wanted to highlight some of their stories here, but make sure to check out their own site for the full versions!

First Post From Mexico!

Today is our second day in Mexico! So much has happened so far! After 2 days, we have put up the walls and most of the roofs on the houses. Each house is slightly different in it’s completion so far, but we are making good progress. Tomorrow our goal is to shingle the roofs, install the paneling/trim, and re-paint. We still have to build and paint the additional interior wall. The families are great, and have been so willing to help, and have been so happy, it has been just amazing. The awe and excitement in each family member just makes you smile, Even though most of us cannot speak Spanish, it has been incredible how easily we have been able to communicate with each other. (We do have a translator, but he is not always present). The contrast between life here in Mexico, and life in Canada, is just…unfathomable. The sheer poverty here is overwhelming, and the lack of hope can crush even the strongest soul. By building these homes for this family, we are giving the a step up from the deep pit of poverty, and giving them the means to make for themselves a far better life. We are giving them hope.

House build Complete!

We have completed the construction of the houses today! Some of our team members went shopping today for the new beds, mattresses, and other furnishings for the home, all of which we will be installing tomorrow. The plan is to take the families out for ice cream while other members move in all the furnishings, and that way they everything will be a surprise. Each family will also be getting somewhere around 2 roosters, 8 chickens, and 5 fruit trees, each. We also found out today that each family is behind in payments for their land plots, and all chipped in money (about $750) to split between helping each family with their rent. On top of all that we brought a bunch of gifts for the families from Canada, which we will also be presenting to them. One thing that touched me in a special way was how hesitant each family was when asked if they wanted anything extra. Santiago (our translator, sorry if I messed up the spelling buddy!) had to really coax an answer out of them. Tomorrow is going to be a very emotional and overwhelming day for all of us.

Today we also went to a local graveyard. Over half of the bodies buried there belonged to young children. It was very sobering to see the numerous graves of the babies who died on or close to the day they were born. It makes you realize how different life is here than from Canada. Our translator, Santiago, has a child buried there, who passed away 15 hours after it was born because it was born slightly premature. If that child had been born in Canada, it would have almost certainly survived. I heard today that many parents avoid becoming too attached to their children until they are 4-5 years old, because the survival rate is so low. It really drives the term “absolute poverty” home. The line between life and death that they walk in Mexico is a lot thinner than in Canada. They don’t get the “second chances” that we do. The amount of things we take for granted, such as water, shelter, income, hairdressers, shoes, holidays, clothes, healthcare, schools, consumable entertainment, food. The people here posses few, and work unbelievably hard for those that they do.

On the brighter side, it is amazing how happy people are here! They always seem to be smiling and laughing. Everyone wants to put in a helping hand. Kids from all over the neighborhood would come to the job site everyday and try to help out, be it with painting, or hammering, or whatever job we put them too. Some of our members have been spending most of the work day just mingling and playing with the kids. Everybody has utilized their own special talents in this build, whether it be building, entertaining, communicating, photographing, etc. Everybody has been doing their share, which is awesome!

Dedication Day

Here it is! today is the day the families get their new homes!! First stop was both the yellow and green homes, where we dropped off the groceries and got the beds delivered and started building them. There were a few complications like having an important piece missing from one bed and not having the correct bolts for the bunk beds :p in the end it was accomplished! When the families opened their doors and we saw their faces, there were no words to describe the joy that they had! There were tears of joy and it seemed that a huge weight was lifted up off their shoulders all the girls were extremely happy to have their own beds - they showed us where each one was sleeping and they really enjoyed their little gifts we got them! After all the dedications were finished we all gathered, and the families cooked us all a fantastic meal. There were three different kinds of chicken, one was deep-fried, fried, and BBQ. There were potatoes, two different tomato salsa, pasta salad, egg salad, and coke to drink. It was all very delicious! We said our goodbyes and gave hugs and then we were on our way.

Day Five In The Shack - Ceviche and Cinnamon Tea

Published by absolute February 26th, 2011 in School of Leadership, Testimonials, Hero Holiday, Other Sites and Featured. Closed

Our fifth day in the shack began differently than the rest - we got to sleep in! Not only was day five different for having 14 hours of rest, it was also our day off. For most Mexican workers a day off isn’t in fact a day without work at all - they must do their family’s laundry, shop, cook, clean and any other work that may need done. We only had to do a few of those tasks.
Like I said, we got to sleep in and then for breakfast we made french toast. Julia came over mid-morning to show us how to do laundry - and luckily she let us use her soap (us silly kids didn’t think to buy any). Washing our clothes was interesting - we used a stone platform with divets in it, water from our water barrel, our own hands and elbow grease. I chose to wash two black items, hoping they would dry faster in the sun. Thankfully the wind took care of the drying quickly. We all thought washing clothes by hand was fun at first and for the amount of clothing we washed it was pretty easy. But to do an entire family’s worth of clothes, with thick fabrics and potentially really dirty? Not so fun. One thing I’ve learned in the shack is an appreciation for all of the small conveniences I’m used to in my daily life. I’ve never had to think about planning when to do laundry or shower based on when there was money for soap or time off from work to do it. But clean clothes are definitely a luxury.
Once our clothes were all clean and hanging up to dry we made a second round of french toast and chowed it down for lunch. We spent some time planning meals for the rest of our stay and then went grocery shopping. We’ve learned the prices down to the peso and buy as much as we can as cheaply as we can.
After grocery shopping we received an invitation from our friend Santiago. He has been amazing to us - he’d do anything to help a friend or person in need and wants so badly to help everyone even though he doesn’t have much himself. Santi isn’t the kind of guy you meet everyday - he’s the special kind. We headed over with our gift of pop and walked into a second lunch! We were all incredibly happy when Santi pulled out the giant bowl of ceviche and instructed us to eat up. So eat up we did! We stayed to watch a movie - a real treat after five days without technology. Santi also made us cinnamon tea which we loved. (To make tea boil whole cinnamon sticks in water for about 45 minutes, add a hint of sugar and enjoy.)
In the evening the Hero Holiday group from University of Alberta joined us around the campfire. We all ate the s’mores they brought us and talked about why we are each in Mexico and our experiences. We shared about our shack experience so far and what we have gotten from it. Hearing from the others in my group was really interesting - we’ve all taken slightly differently, yet similar things from these five days and my hope is that we hold onto them. I know I definitely have a new appreciation for my produce and the long field days that go into growing it, the piles of landscaping rocks and each bite of seafood. But more than anything I appreciate the opportunities and ideas I’ve been given simply by being born somewhere else. The determination and resilience I’ve been lucky to witness these last few days has made me smile often. And with that smile comes a slight bit of sadness - these amazing people simply don’t have time for frivolity or luxury because everyday they work hard just to stay alive. If nothing else this week has made me grateful for hope and for the opportunity to do something to make our world a better place. If I can show even half as much strength as the people I’ve met in Mexico, I’ll be lucky.
This day of rest has been a thinking day for me - about this entire experience and how hard but how incredible it’s been. (And how incredibly kind our friends have been - thank you to everyone, you know who you are!) Now think about ways you can make the world better - and do it while making cinnamon tea and ceviche why don’t cha?
P.S. One huge thank you to Rosa for putting up with us, guiding us and flexing her muscles when she has to - this experience would never be possible without her. You’re one of a kind Rosa!

Written by Leah Thygesen, a School of Leadership student

A Second First Impression

Published by absolute January 28th, 2011 in School of Leadership, Hero Holiday and Other Sites. Closed

Overlooking the waves of the ocean with the sun in my face…oh Mexico, how I could get used to you.
However, Mexico wasn’t always like this for me. I’ve been here before, but my first impressions weren’t as good as the ones that I have now. You need to understand that the last time I was […]

Carnival!

Published by absolute November 27th, 2010 in School of Leadership, Hero Holiday and Other Sites. Closed

When we were asked what we had done to get to know our community while we were living in Mexico beyond activities that were planned by Absolute, we spent a long time thinking and came up with nothing. We had not done one thing in our 3 months of living here to get to know […]

Our Mexican Princess!

Published by absolute November 15th, 2010 in School of Leadership, Hero Holiday and Other Sites. Closed

A few weeks ago we (the School of Leadership students) began a special project for our Mexican Princess - Jessica. Jessica is eight years old and has cancer. When asked in the summer if you could wish for anything what would you wish for, she said a Barbie playhouse. Jessica needs a place indoors to […]

Day Seven - Shack Experience - “Last Day”

Published by absolute October 29th, 2010 in School of Leadership, Hero Holiday, Other Sites and Mainpage. Closed

The days had begun to run together but everyone knew what today was. Last day. Last day of the shack experience. One last day of walking the kids to school first thing in the morning, one last day of hard work, one last evening of cooking over the fire and one last sleep in the shack. Most people living this kind of life do not have the luxury of thinking this way. This is their life day in and day out. The Mexican workers we met throughout the week “were mystified with us, that a group of rich white people wanted to do a low-paying job and live in Mexico when their dream is to get away from here and live a better life” (Allie, School of Leadership Student).

The students worked hard doing landscaping all day. This involved lots of swinging the pick-axe, shoveling, lifting rocks and raking. After a week of working outside they were a well-oiled machine even though after a week of labour their bodies were tired and sore. As they worked together they laughed, teased each other, encouraged each other and gave each other space when someone needed it. They were determined that the homeowners would return to find a nicely sloped yard instead of a drop off outside their front door. And they accomplished it.

The leadership students accomplished a lot this week. Some were skeptical going in about whether they were going to survive - and here they were on day seven. They had learned not only about what kind of lives other people live but they also learned so much about themselves. They learned to be grateful that they had a shack to go to sleep in at the end of a day of work. That they do not need as many ‘things’ as they thought they did to survive or be happy. The students were grateful for the jobs that they have had in Canada. “Back home my last job was tedious work, packing books for a distributing company and I felt underpaid at $11/hour. Thinking back on that I feel quite silly and ashamed of my greed. I wanted more money…for what? More clothes, new shoes? I lived in a sturdy house; there was food in my fridge; parents that told me to reach for the stars” (Allie, School of Leadership Student). They learned they have so much to be thankful for.

The students learned that they do not always have to be doing something and that they can have a good time just sitting around a fire chatting with friends. By the end of the week bugs were dealt with casually rather than calling in the troops. They learned that they could eat until they are full on about two dollars a day each. They marveled at how cheerful most people they met are despite the fact that they must be tired from the hard work. They learned to work together, to budget their money and make decisions together. And even though they do not want their parents to know, they learned how much work there is to do around the home after work but before bed - and that if everyone pitches in and works together it gets done much faster. There is so much more that they learned that cannot be captured within a blog. Finally they learned that they need to believe in themselves. That they can accomplish more than they think possible and that they are their own worst enemy. When they decided to say ‘why not, let’s try it’ they were surprised and amazed at what they could do.

That all being said, none were ready to take on a second week of living in the shack and were eagerly waiting at the house gate after their final sleep in the shack to return home. I am proud of the students for digging deep and pulling together to not only get through the week but for trying to get the most that they could from the experience. I hope that the lessons they learned will carry through to the rest of their time together in the School of Leadership and as they return home at the end of the year.

Rose, School of Leadership Mexico Facilitator

Day 6 - Shack Experience - “Only One More Day”

Published by absolute October 28th, 2010 in School of Leadership, Hero Holiday, Other Sites and Mainpage. Closed

Day 6 of the shack experience, day 56 of living in Mexico and I think that I’ve started to go a bit crazy because I didn’t think twice about the rooster that just walked by me in the yard (we don’t actually own roosters). I’ve started to be able to tell the time by how far the sun is away from the power lines across the road from us and the only music I whistle is the jingle from the gas truck that drives by every hour blasting the music through a speaker on its roof.

We got to sleep in, even if it was only till 7am. With our backs trying to stop us with every move, the team managed to crawl out of the shack one more time. On this morning the sun had just woken up itself to give us light for breakfast. We ate quickly as we still need to walk our “kids” to school before meeting the van for 7:30am.

We arrived at the beach and met a man with his wife and five-month baby boy who every day comes to this same part of the beach and looks for what ever rocks were in demand. Today he instructed us that we were going to be looking for medium to small black rocks, which need to be smooth and rounded. We thought it would be reasonably easy considering we were on a rock beach, kind of like what you would find on the East coast of Canada. But we soon found out that it was no easy task. We got into pairs and picked a spot on the beach, sat down and started looking for black, smooth, round rocks. We dug and threw unwanted rocks out of the way to hopefully find one we were looking for underneath the one being tossed. As soon as you were about to go nuts from not finding anything you would see one that fits the bill. You would quickly throw it into the bucket and keep searching.

Lunch consisted of two hot dogs wrapped in tortillas, hard boiled egg, one carrot - and five cookies which were the best part of every lunch we had. Once lunch was over we continued to pick rocks. Mid-afternoon our team combined all the rocks we had picked and put them on a tarp so the man could sort through them to see which ones were good. Our combined effort was only about seven, five gallon buckets full. This is only worth 70 pesos of income. A regular day for the family we worked for is about thirty buckets between the two of them. Even though we worked hard we still didn’t even meet the quarter mark. It was our first day…

When we got home we started our routine of going to the market to get groceries for supper that night plus breakfast and lunch for the next day. Some people washed clothes that were in desperate need of cleaning, some took cold water bucket showers, and others wrote in their journals. Around 5pm we started the fire and got the water boiling for supper which was going to be pasta with tomato sauce with carrots, green peppers and onions. Plus five cookies for dessert with some saved for a late night snack; and by late night I mean 7pm.

Around 7:30 we all crawled into our spots in the shack for bed and hoped that the bugs will not intrude into our sleeping bags during the night. We all talked to each other until one by one open conversations were replaced by closed eyes, ready for what ever sleep would come that night. Our sleep was not only interrupted by lumps in the dirt digging into our hips and ribs, or a sore arm that has been laid on too long, or the snoring of someone that was getting sleep besides you. But this night was special because it was not only interrupted by all these normal things but this was the night it rained. By rain I mean spraying the hose on the roof of our shack for twenty minutes. The sound of water hitting plastic that is three feet above your head is a sound I will never forget. Its the sound of “please don’t leak, please don’t leak” to “push that low spot up and get rid of the pooling water”. Then came the sound of screaming from the girls side of the shack because the water that had pooled in the corner of their roof, gave out and flooded their room. Its also the sound of Shane and Matt talking to each other saying that we were thankful we put cardboard and strips of wood across under the plastic to reinforce the roof. No leaks for the dudes, but for the dames it was another story. After it rained the girls dried off as best they could and went back to sleep. As we closed our eyes to get back to sleep, all that was in our minds was that there was just one more day in the shack and we could pull through. We also thought about all the people who deal with this every time it rains, which is more than you think when you think of Mexico. I’m thankful for just having to go through it one time, and will never forget that night.

Matt and Shane, School of Leadership Students living in ‘The Shack’

Day Five - The Shack Experience - ‘Inga’s Story’

Published by absolute October 27th, 2010 in School of Leadership, Hero Holiday, Other Sites and Mainpage. Closed

This morning we woke at 5:00am to do our regular morning routine by flashlight - fill our water bottles, brush our teeth and eat breakfast. We walked a few blocks to our designated ‘bus’ pick-up point. As we walk down the streets we usually see other people also waiting for their bus to head out to the fields.

When we got to the field it was still very dark so we got to relax for a few minutes until the sun rose enough that we could see. Our job in the field today was to go along the bottoms of the tomato plants and tear away all the leaves so the tomatoes could be exposed to the sun before getting picked. We started tearing away the leaves and realized that once again the Mexicans were way faster than us.

We were all working on a row together to try and catch up to the others when we began to talk to Inga. She has a story that I wouldn’t have ever expected to hear. Inga is the mother of four daughters; they all attend school. She gets up early in the morning to prepare breakfast and lunch for her family. She goes to the field by 6:00am and the girls rely on their oldest sister to take care of them before and after school. We then asked if she had a husband. She told us that she does but that he goes to the United States for six months at a time to work as a landscaper in Utah. He comes home for two weeks at a time and then goes back for another six months. He sends them money and tells his wife not to work - but she doesn’t like to just be at home all the time so she comes to work in the field. Her husband got his papers to work in the States in 1980. Inga and their girls could possibly get their papers in the next year and then hopefully move to the States so the girls can get a better education. As we listen to her story I think to myself, “Why would anyone choose to be in the field when they could be at home?’ They go home with sore legs, knees, and backs and blistered, dirty fingers everyday.

It’s hard to believe that for decades people can live seeing their loved ones for only four weeks out of a whole year. It really makes you realize that you shouldn’t take for granted the time you do have with the people you love - even when it is for more than four weeks a year.

Jessica, a School of Leadership Student living in ‘The Shack’

Day Four - The Shack Experience - ‘Share Some Love’

Published by absolute October 26th, 2010 in School of Leadership, Hero Holiday, Other Sites and Mainpage. Closed

Em woke me up by yelling “I hate the shack! I hate bugs!” in her sleep. I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. As excited as we were rolling into a day without work, we all wondered what exactly does such a busy nation do with spare time? A ‘sun’ day it was indeed! Our plastic insulated shack keeps us warm at night but boy oh boy, as the sun hit that morning it became much to warm to sleep in.
We made scrambled eggs over the fire so the first people to eat had a clean pan and the last people had very burned eggs. Some of us had a bucket shower and washed some clothes. Almost dreading a whole day of what we thought would be excruciatingly boring, we soon felt the true spirit of being Mexican. On our day without pay we worried we would be eating another day of rice and eggs. But how wrong we were! By living in a warm climate culture the saying “what’s mine is yours and what’s yours in mine” is quite literal. Our next door neighbours invited us over for a lunch of ceviche and pop (not to mention some American television but shhh, don’t tell the Absolute staff). We played with their puppies and baby boy. We picked up some groceries for supper and then other friends up the road invited us over for carrot cake. We played la loteria (bingo) and won chocolate coins.

As we headed to bed around whatever time the sun went down, we realized how important it is to appreciate and share love with those around you. It doesn’t matter if you have no money or all the money in the world - everyone has some love to share (and great memories to create).

Em and Zoe, 2010 School of Leadership students living in “The Shack”

Student Zone

Archive for the 'Hero Holiday' Category

Boston Pizza Day 3 - Cinderblocks, Gringos, and Kung Fu Panda!

Scout Canada’s Build a Home Challenge!

Day Five In The Shack - Ceviche and Cinnamon Tea

A Second First Impression

Carnival!

Our Mexican Princess!

Day Seven - Shack Experience - “Last Day”

Day 6 - Shack Experience - “Only One More Day”

Day Five - The Shack Experience - ‘Inga’s Story’

Day Four - The Shack Experience - ‘Share Some Love’

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