Mexico, part one.
I went to Mexico with a group of people from Oklahoma. There were 18 of us and we were sponsored by the Methodist church of Walters, Oklahoma. We left on Sunday night the 10th and drove through the night to get to the border by about 2:00 in the afternoon. We made our border crossing and went to Rio Bravo to the Manos Huntos (Hands together)headquarters. We stayed in a church overnight and drove to San Carlos, about 4 hours south of there.
It is a community of about 1,500 people. It is one of the poorest regions in the Tamalupas state. We stayed in the community center…the senior citizens area. We were packed in but did have two bathrooms with hot water,,,a small tank. El Presidente for the region was behind much of this and we had his blessing. His wife was most helpful.
We had two doctors and a nurse and two pharmacists for a medical component of the trip and some workers to build a casita or little house. I went to work with the children. It was a chore to just learn the names of the other members as we were from a number of different churches. By the end of the trip I was pretty good with the names.
Our first night we were invited to the Presidenties home for supper. His living room sat all 25 of us including our translators, and the Mexican doctor and a pastor that is trying to start a church in the town. We had a typical Mexican meal and lots of sharing. It was very nice.
Wednesday morning the construction group went off with the Miastrs or construction boss and the clinic people started to set it up. I helped with that and the chief translator said that he would take me to the school later.
He did take me to the school which was just a couple of blocks away. He introduced me to the director and talked about what I did with strings and then he left. I was alone to practice my Spanish.
I worked with the 4th grade and did ok with my Spanish. We had a lot of fun. I then went to the other grades and was very succesful in getting my message across. I was amazed at how the tapes that I has listened to helped. The kids and teachers also helped correct some of my words.
I went back to the clinic for lunch and returned to work with the rest of the kids. After that I went to the clinic and did strings with some of the people waiting. What fun!. I also worked with the policemen who were around there in a group.
When the construction people came back the were commenting on how the kids came back from school and were showing everyone what they could do. This really does spread rapidly. Everyone was having a good time with the string games and tricks. Some of the adult men especially.
That night we went back to the el Presedentis home for a meal. We then went back for a devotional time and sleeping time. We were very tired but very happy.
Morning on Thursday was a simple breakfast and then sending the construction people off. The medical team and I loaded up and went off to Puerto Rico, a small village of about 500. After the clinic was set up in the community center, the Mexican Doctor took me over to the school and introduced me and I worked with the grades there. Grades 1 through 6 like in San Carlos.
More later.
Dave