Participant Blog: Excerpts From Mark’s Journal…Final Thoughts

Well I’m writing this on labour day, the last day of summer. Still thinking about them all every single day – Mexicans and Canadians. Every single night I lie in bed at least two hours after I go to bed, thinking. Thinking about what I’ll write to José Enriqué. Thinking about whether or not little Chuy will remember me if I can ever visit him again. Thinking about how long Estefan has left to live. Then, right in the middle of the day, I’ll be thinking about the other students. Biking home from work on the beautiful causeway last week, I was thinking about where all the others were at that exact moment. Joanna probably settling in to UPEI, Mason and Parker probably sleeping in (even though it would be about 1:00 in Alberta, they’d probably still be sleeping), Mike, Val, Alethea and Peach still in Mexico, Becky probably keeping everything together there in the middle of week 2. Jamille was probably finally getting home from California, Justin and Jodi, Emma, Morgan all somewhere in Ontario. Krystle getting ready to leave for U of Windsor perhaps? And everyone else too, I went through everyone. I know we all took something different from this experience, but if everyone has learned and evolved as much as I have, HH Mexico was a tremendous success.One of the enjoyable things for me was learning about the culture. Much of the credit has to be attributed to Charles and Becky, but a lot of it you can observe just by watching. So much is different. Driving. The road is just a suggestion, really. Next to the road, there’s a second, dirt road. You can drive there if you want. Needless to say, we don’t have that in Canada. When and animal dies on the side of the road… it stays there a while. Even a horse. There were, on many occasions, crosses on the side of the road. That gives the quality of driving there.The animals are a sad sight over there. Some dogs and cats are the skinniest ANYTHINGS I’ve seen. But I guess when you hardly have enough food for your family, the animals don’t get the priority, do they? Liliana told me that one of her friends from Chile came to Canada and saw the 3 rows of animal food at the grocery store and started crying. True story. For developing countries, they need all the help they can get. And some of that help has to come from inside the country. Rural Mexico has a very thick rich/poor line. The rich Mexicans have to help too. And I think that has to go for every country of the world. But it’s not all up to them. How many people have seen the news about the Earthquake in Peru, shook their head, said “How sad”, and changed the channel? I’ll admit it, I’m among them. There are so many valuable causes out there, how do we help them all? That’s a question I can’t anwser. But you can’t let that discourage you. If you can change the life of one person, you are a hero to them for the rest of their life. Look at the kids from Mexico I’ve been talking about through this series of notes. Daira, Francisco, Sarah and Luz Maria (and whoever else, I’m not quite sure) could still be living in that run down shack, but now they have a brand new house. What an amazing change that must be in their everyday lives! Every person deserves to have some food on the table. Everyone deserves a roof over their head. Water to drink. Every person helped is a person worth helping.So this closes my series of notes from Mexico. I’ll never forget you all. *All participants are given the opportunity to blog so many views are represented. These views do not necessarily reflect the views of LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute) Leadership Development. If you are a Hero Holiday participant that would like to share your experience please email your story (and picture, if possible) to blog@heroholiday.com