So I went out to San Rafael today with Anda & Rich. I'm so happy I went. What I saw was a lot of people coming in to eat lunch. Men women and children. I met the director, Karen, and she showed me around, inside and out; they have a vegetable garden, well kinda small, but if anyone shows a real interest they will help them to make one in their own yard at home.They have some stray dogs that they have kinda adopted. Their intention is to be there to help people who want and need help. I asked her if they had to in some way state a belief in God, or make some kind of commitment, and she said absolutely Not! I liked that. Then we went back inside for a talk and it seems I can help trying to teach English. Right now it will be Mon & Wed, since I need to come out with Anda & Rich, but after I get a car I can do something different since she said twice a day is best, like 11am and 2pm cause the kids go to school, some in the morning and some in the afternoon. Well it was chaotic today, and I ended up with 2 kids who were trying to learn; the rest ran in, grabbed all the stuff on the shelves and tables, and ran out. But that's ok, this was just seeing what it was about. Karen is totally into me doing it however I want. And I'm not even sure how that is....but I am excited to be a part of it.
The fact is these are people who need help. And I liked Karen's philosophy; she said yeah here's these people who come down here on these "wknd misions"and bring all this stuff and "look at these poor people", but she says, if you really want to help people, you eed to build a relationship with them. I like that. And I watched her and the group that was out there, and they are working hard, figuring out ways to teach these people to fish- (you know, you can give a man a fish and he can eat today; teach a man to fish and he will eat every day)- they are trying to help them with job sills; in fact it sounded like they were in touch with a company that has people in TJ sewing something (clothes or purses or something)anyway it sounded like they could contract some of the work here and were talking about logistics and stuff. So I am very inetrested in being a part of this. The people are struggling in this place. But they seem happy. One young girl, 12 yrs old has already tugged at my heartstrings; having a very hard life. I will not relate it at this point; I want to get to know her a little bit, and also to see if I can help her in any way...but as Everardo says, I can't help everyone, and this was day one. I will need to develop a thicker skin..blah blah blah yeah I know! But I don't want to get used to it. When I used to go to Bangkok at first I could barely take it, I had so much and everywhere I saw the worst poerty, it was so hard. And then there were the really bad people who brought children and/or crippled people and dropped them off on street corners to beg, then pick them all back up at the end of the day. My friend Sarote, who lived there and I worked with, told me never to give them money- that if I wanted to give there were these donation buckets all over the place, and he believed that the money did go to help those who needed it.
But I do understand that I can only do what I can do. So I will get involved here andsee how it goes. BUt for this week, I'm not going back cause early Wednesday Pam and I are driving up to Phoenix to pick up my darling daughters so I'll go back next Monday.
Everardo spent all day (again) working on the license plate thing, and it may be finished, with the exception that he needs to return Friday and pay after they verify the info he gave them stating he paid for last year in Guerrero (which seems obvious to me since we have Guerrero plates..duh- but this is Mexico) So hopefully we'll be done with this ha ha. Well he's making shrimp right now, so...gotta go...
The fact is these are people who need help. And I liked Karen's philosophy; she said yeah here's these people who come down here on these "wknd misions"and bring all this stuff and "look at these poor people", but she says, if you really want to help people, you eed to build a relationship with them. I like that. And I watched her and the group that was out there, and they are working hard, figuring out ways to teach these people to fish- (you know, you can give a man a fish and he can eat today; teach a man to fish and he will eat every day)- they are trying to help them with job sills; in fact it sounded like they were in touch with a company that has people in TJ sewing something (clothes or purses or something)anyway it sounded like they could contract some of the work here and were talking about logistics and stuff. So I am very inetrested in being a part of this. The people are struggling in this place. But they seem happy. One young girl, 12 yrs old has already tugged at my heartstrings; having a very hard life. I will not relate it at this point; I want to get to know her a little bit, and also to see if I can help her in any way...but as Everardo says, I can't help everyone, and this was day one. I will need to develop a thicker skin..blah blah blah yeah I know! But I don't want to get used to it. When I used to go to Bangkok at first I could barely take it, I had so much and everywhere I saw the worst poerty, it was so hard. And then there were the really bad people who brought children and/or crippled people and dropped them off on street corners to beg, then pick them all back up at the end of the day. My friend Sarote, who lived there and I worked with, told me never to give them money- that if I wanted to give there were these donation buckets all over the place, and he believed that the money did go to help those who needed it.
But I do understand that I can only do what I can do. So I will get involved here andsee how it goes. BUt for this week, I'm not going back cause early Wednesday Pam and I are driving up to Phoenix to pick up my darling daughters so I'll go back next Monday.
Everardo spent all day (again) working on the license plate thing, and it may be finished, with the exception that he needs to return Friday and pay after they verify the info he gave them stating he paid for last year in Guerrero (which seems obvious to me since we have Guerrero plates..duh- but this is Mexico) So hopefully we'll be done with this ha ha. Well he's making shrimp right now, so...gotta go...
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