Translation: I was in Juarez, Mexico last week.
I work for a nonprofit youth mission organization. In our office there are a handful of us that do not work in the field for the summer. We man the office from late May until late August while everyone is serving in communities across the US, Canada and Mexico. They work with the youth groups that come to serve these communities. My company has given us office folk the opportunity to go to one of these communities in February to serve. I and 4 others from the office went to Juarez, Mexico - just across the border from El Paso.
If you google Juarez, you'll find their web site talking about tourism and things like that. You will also find lots of new stories about how dangerous it is and how many people are killed there. It's a big city (2.2 million) that struggles with crime like any other big city. But they have struggles that most of us will never have to deal with like the lack of purified drinking water, dog infestation, lack of electricity, etc...
We have 5 staff that live there full time and they showed us around the neighborhood and helped us for a few days. We helped build/paint housing for our summer staff at one of the churches and spent Wednesday at a church service/soup kitchen. We met great people and had a wonderful time.
I think what's hard is coming back home. There are things that are wonderful - like being able to flush toilet paper and drink water from the tap and take off my shoes in the house. But being there was good. Good because it puts things in perspective. I shouldn't complain about my house because I have a house and the funds necessary to fix it. I shouldn't complain about my job. I should be thankful that I have a job that I can drive my car to - I don't have to take a bus and work in the factory. I should not complain about my weight - I should be thankful for the food that made me this way :).
I did have a good time in Mexico. It was good to be there and know that this place is special. I hope to go back there someday and hopefully know a little more Spanish.
3 comments:
Would love to hear more about your trip, Mrs. Hawk. As you may or may not be aware, a group of bloggers just went to Uganda with Compassion. They've written some great posts about "re-entry." It's been really interesting for me, especially since my husband has essentially lived in the "re-entry" phase his whole life.
That's so cool that your company does that! How great. I can imagine it would put life in great perspective after seeing those things.
I agree that as hard as it is to be in a place like that, it is such a good dose of reality. The rest of the world does not have it as comfortable as we do. Thanks for writing that. It is good to be reminded to be thankful.
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