Wednesday

One of my favorite parts of the trip was going along with the social work people. (Every day there was a schedule that outlined what we would be doing and had spots available to sign up to go along with the professionals. There was physical therapy, occupational therapy, social work, and special ed.) We went and visited a variety of people and places that really gave me a different perspective on Mexico, the people, and was very humbling. First we visited a kindergarten school that has a breakfast/lunch program to make sure the kids have nutritious meals every day. (They gave us tacos here, wherever we go the people always want to feed us or give us drinks. They are all so generous!) Then we went to a place where the old people hang out, like a senior citizen center. One of the most eye opening things was going to a brickyard. Here people live and make bricks. The conditions they live in are appalling. They were literally piles of garbage. For a living the people would make bricks out of mud to sell, and also collected garbage off the street. The lady we went to talk to had had a couple of kids in drug rehab, there’s lots of problems with drugs and alcohol here. After this we went to a house where the lady was going to have her grandkids taken from her because of the living conditions. The last place we went was to the jail, it was quite intense! There were only around 30 people there, but we went right inside and even went in one of the cells. We were able to talk to the only woman there, it was very sad to here her story. As we were leaving the inmates gave us 2 of these basket/vase things they make out of folded paper that they give to their families to sale. Being in the jail was a little creepy but very interesting.