June 27, 2008
I made part one of my donation to the centre this week. The boys are all in serious need of new shoes. Most of them wear shoes with holes in the bottoms and their socks are in much the same shape. So I asked the boys what kind of shoes they would get if they could have any shoes they wanted. They all said Converse All-Stars. So this week I bought them all new All-Stars and good quality sports socks to go with them. The boys had the hugest smiles on their faces all week. One of the new boys, Choco, refused to accept the gift. He has a lot of pride and doesn’t want to take charity from anyone. He made a bunch of excuses but I knew that was the real reason. They are going to keep his shoes at the centre until another boy comes along who needs them. I took my camera to get photos of all the boys and their new shoes and ended up with a whole pile of photos of the boys trying to look hot to give to their little girlfriends at the school down the road. Some of the photos are quite priceless. It felt so good to see the boys with new shoes… I felt like I was making a real difference in their lives. The shoes were quite cheap so I plan to also buy some games for the centre (so they have more to do than just play football and chess) and lots of underwear, more socks and coloured shoelaces for each of the boys. That will be part two of my donation. And of course a whole bunch of photos. I’m so excited! Thank-you to everyone who made donations and/or came out to my fundraising events. There is no greater reward than seeing the smiles on these kids’ faces.
June 30, 2008
As previously mentioned, I went to Guadalajara this weekend. Erick (one of the guys from Tapalpa) picked us (Jess and I) up from the bus station and then we went to a little Italian place for supper. Then we got an impromptu tour of the city trying to figure out where Brittany was staying so that we could pick her up and go out to Fernando’s grandmother’s country home/mansion. It is the most amazing place. It has a huge garden and a pool and even its own church! We spent the evening there relaxing with Fernando, Erick, Aldo and their friends, Rebecca and her boyfriend whose name I don’t remember. The next morning we went out to the very cool Tianguis cultural market where I bought some gorgeous hand-made jewlery. It was a funny little market full of contradicting shops of punky-emo clothes and music (and no lack of emo kids in skinny jeans and Sex Pistols t-shirts), traditional art, and religious paraphernalia. After spending all our money we went to Fernando’s house in a beautiful upper-class neighbourhood and I had my first shower in two months that had any amount of water pressure. It was like a dream! Jess and I met Fernando’s beautiful sister, cousin and grandmother and they fed us an indescribably delicious meal. They have the tiniest dog I have ever seen and parrots in the massive garden that say ‘Hola’, and a couple turtles and another two dogs… it’s like living in a zoo.
Then we all went down to the historical centre where I had an appointment to get a tattoo. A bunch of the Canadians who were studying in Guzmán were in Guadalajara a while back and saw this tattoo covered guy who had this tiny little Doberman puppy with him. So they were making comments about the puppy thinking the guy only spoke Spanish and then he responded to them in perfect English and an American accent. They all had a good laugh and found out that the guy is a tattoo artist who grew up in Chicago and decided to move down to Mexico a couple years ago and now owns a small tattoo shop in the centre. About six of the Canadians followed him up to his shop and got tattoos. He has over 15 years experience and I saw the awesome tattoos he had done on the Canadians. Then a week or so later I was playing soccer with the boys at work and noticed a beautiful hummingbird at bush full of flowers next to the field. After that day, I kept seeing hummingbirds around the centre and at the field where we go play soccer almost everyday. I decided I wanted a tattoo that would always remind me of the boys. The boys have become so special to me and I have learned so much from them. I love them to pieces. I’m going to cry like a baby on my last day of work. Anyway, I got a tattoo of a hummingbird hovering above a flower on the top of my foot with a vine wrapping around my ankle. It will always remind me of the boys and how beautiful they are and how they are fighting to survive in a world that has cast them aside. Carla (one of the Canadians) very accurately described the pain of a tattoo on your foot as a hot steak knife being dragged across your skin. It was viciously painful but definitely worth it.
So after the tattoo ordeal, Fernando, Erick, Jess and I drove out to Chapala where the largest lake in Mexico is and where their friend (the boyfriend of Rebecca) has a beautiful holiday home. On the way we stopped at the best burrito place in Mexico, I reckon. We spent the evening relaxing and the next morning went to the town for some yummy doughnuts and went to a little market where we bought tequila cocktails in clay pots (you get to keep the pot!) and corn-flavoured ice cream! I also bought new sunglasses for $5 that “make me look fast” as Fernando put it. We then went back to the house and watched the second half of the Euro final where Germany lost and made me owe Fernando a six-pack of beer. After the game we went back to Guadalajara and hopped on the bus back to Guzmán. We were welcomed home by pouring rain that turned the streets into rivers (they haven’t discovered storm sewers in Mexico yet) which made for a very interesting walk to the pub to see the Scottish girls who were celebrating their last night in Guzmán as they have now finished their placement here.
The lovely Mexicans that we spent the weekend with invited us on a camping trip to “the best beaches in Mexico” according to them, next weekend. I can’t wait. If this past weekend was any indication, it will be an amazing good time.
July 8, 2008
We have had quite the adventurous week here in Mexico. So on Thursday a new volunteer named Sophie came from France. She doesn’t speak English but speaks quite good Spanish. I think Jess and I both had headaches by the end of the night. It is so draining spending an entire evening speaking Spanish, French and English. I slept like the dead that night. On Friday at work some of the boys had their families there to visit. They were all wearing their best clothes (including the shoes I bought them) and were all very excited all day. In the time that I was there only three of the boys’ families showed up. I nearly cried because Güero’s sister was supposed to come to visit him but she never came. I have never seen that boy look so sad. He just sat by the window watching and hoping for the van to come with her in it. It was absolutely heartbreaking. I sincerely hope that she came after I left for the day. Adrian’s family didn’t come either. I don’t even know if he has family. Adrian isn’t usually very cuddly like some of the other boys who always want hugs from me. He’s actually generally quite aggressive towards everyone. But, on Friday he just curled up in my lap for hours asking me how to say things in English and asking me about Canada. It was a really emotional day.
One of the people who came to visit was an ex-patient named Jovani. He was really funny and I spent quite a long time chatting with him about nothing in particular. He is now 20 years old and so must have been a patient at least a couple of years ago since the centre is only for boys up to age 18. But, he was telling me that Cristian, Güero, Choco and Adrian were all there when he was. I can’t believe these boys have been at this centre for so long. I’m pretty sure most of them are like Choco who finished his treatment but relapsed and now is back but it still amazes me that they have been there so long.
So, Friday evening Erick and Fernando picked up Jess and I and we all drove down to Michoacán to the beaches trying to avoid crabs and frogs on the road. The heat and humidity there was unbelievable. It’s so crazy that you can drive for three or four hours and have such a dramatic change in climate. We got stopped by the military on the way and they made us get out of the truck and searched though all our stuff. I guess drug smuggling is a pretty big problem in the area. Anyway, that all went by without any trouble and we arrived in Maruata in one piece. It was pouring rain and sought refuge in a local guy’s house/beach hut until the rain eased off a bit and the boys could set up the tents under the palapas (little hut things made of palm trees on the beach). While we were waiting for the rain to stop a little crab wandered into the house and the guy told us that the only time they eat them is right after the first rain. I didn’t catch exactly why. There were crabs everywhere on the beach; tiny fast ones called Senoritas because they are impossible to catch; hermit crabs of all sizes and some bigger meaner ones that like to pinch. It finally decided to stop raining and we went to bed. It was amazing in the morning to sit up and have the ocean greet me. There aren’t many places in the world where they will still let you camp right on the beach. And this beach was spectacular. A bunch more friends came to join us on Saturday (Ricardo, Memo, Andrea and two others I hadn’t met before Mariana and Omar). We decided to move to a different beach that would be less crowded just down the road. It was just as beautiful as the first if not more so. We saw a gorgeous sunset and sat around chatting all night. As we were chatting a tiny baby turtle stumbled upon our camp in its search for the ocean. I guess it’s turtle season right now and the beaches we were at were full of nests. We saw two newly hatched babies that night and I got to hold one in my hand. It was an amazing sensation to hold a brand new baby in the palm of my hand. That night the tropical storm we had been hearing about hit in full force. The tent Jess and I were sleeping in was not exactly what I would call waterproof and we nearly drown trying to get out of the tent and into the truck fifty feet away. By morning the rain had more or less stopped but it was still cloudy and miserable. By the time we got everything packed up it was around 1pm and then we went for a leisurely lunch and hit the road around 4. We got pummelled by rain almost the whole way back to Guzmán. We were nearly out of gas when we left after lunch but had enough to get to the station. However, the first station we went to was closed. The second station was twenty minutes away but we made it. However, about ten seconds before we were going to put in gas the power went out and the pumps stopped working. And apparently gas cans do not exist in Mexico. I asked Fernando if they sell them and he asked me what you would need anything like that for. For a situation exactly like this, Fernando. So anyway, we waited there for a while hoping the power would come back on soon. It didn’t. Memo and the others were in his truck which had gas so they drove on to find the next gas station. It was twenty kilometres down the road. We decided to gamble and try to make it and if we didn’t they would come save us. On the way we got stuck in a bit of traffic as a tree had fallen across the highway and I haven’t seen rain like this since the storm that collapsed our greenroom roof in Australia. At any rate, we didn’t make it. So they filled up empty water bottles and whatever else they could find with gas and brought it to us. We had run out of gas about a kilometre away from the gas station. The whole adventure was really quite funny. We blame karma.
So yesterday I was terribly ill. My entire body ached: my head hurt, my back was killing me, my legs ached… it was awful. And I have never been so tired in my life. But today I feel fine. I have no idea what happened. But Jess and I decided we should start packing today and she was getting together all her documentation to get out of the country and discovered she has lost a wallet containing her visa and the equivalent to about $90. So she gets to go visit the police today to report it and then go to Guadalajara to go to the embassy to get a new visa. Good times!
Jess and I; a romantic walk down the beach; the sunset; giving the truck some gas; Erick tryig to make the clouds go away.
Jess and I at the beaches of Michoacán; a crab in the house; Maruata; Palapas; sunset at the other beach that I don´t remember the name of.