Bittersweet Goodbyes and Anticipation…

The final Hero Holiday of the summer is about to arrive in Mexico, the group has been on the road for three days and I am sure they can’t wait to be here. With the Dominican trips, the Mexico trips and the private charters, this is the 7th Hero Holiday of the summer…and I am sure it is going to be as great as (better than?) the rest!The last Hero Holiday here, the first one in August, was an amazing group of people. The number of quality young people we have coming on these trips is a constant pleasure to me…I wish the world could know what amazing teens we have on Hero Holiday. I hope that you guys can remember your passion that you had here, especially with the talks around the campfire. Use that to change your world, your potential is endless, it truly is, and I am sure that you will raise to the responsibility.Second group for Hero Holiday Mexico…I am sitting here waiting for you to arrive, we are going to have a fan-tas-tic time, the last trip of the summer is going to be a blast. Stay tuned for more details…

Participant Blog: Coming Home

I attended Hero Holiday Week 1 this year in Sosua, Dominican Republic. I have been home for just about a month now. People have been asking me how my trip was and I reply, “Oh it was awesome!” “It was great!” “Lifechanging, for sure, thanks.” But I could never open up about it and really tell them about it. Until now, I’ve almost tried to push it all aside and pretend I didn’t see the things that I saw because it was too hard to bring it up again and go through it all again. It’s just so hard to describe…I mean, just to put words to the thousands of memories that flood my mind every single day.

Most of us here have never experienced the hunger and illness that needlessly kills 30,000 children a day. I don’t even know how to describe digging through the dump just to find scraps of food for someone to eat…food that was on your plate yesterday that you threw out. It’s not even the poverty that you see in the movies because this time it’s real, and instead of a cameraman with a clipboard in his hand, there’s a 4-year-old little boy with no shoes on, wearing shreds for clothes, looking up at you and depending on you.

It’s so frustrating that you can’t even understand what they’re saying to you when they’re tugging on your shirt and looking up at you with those big brown eyes! I hate that I couldn’t really talk to them and communicate and let them know how much they were loved by total strangers. When you hold that child in your arms and she starts smiling at you and poking your cheeks and babbling on to you, it’s true. You are the person she’s been looking for. You, the person who didn’t think you could do much to help. And just by taking those few steps and believing in yourself, here you are, in a third world country, with the help of a hundred others, building a school for the community, visiting the orphanage for children who will know no more then the four walls they are enclosed in, and feeding that 3-month-old baby who’s parents have left them to die in a ditch. You, you did all this.

I will admit it was really hard coming home though. It was hard walking in my room and seeing everything that I have and all that I take for granted. Remembering of complaining of tiny, now insignificant things. It was hard looking at my kitchen at all the food I had. I didn’t eat for the first two days I was home and I hated everyone who went out to supper who didn’t think twice about throwing out what they couldn’t eat. Didn’t they know that I had held children in my arms who would never see more then a few apple cores and moldy pieces of bread in their lifetime? Didn’t they know that those 8 or 9 fries they threw out would be a dream come true for the starving? I was so angry at everyone for complaining about their clothes or their hair or when the internet wasn’t working.

Days go by and I guess it gets a little bit easier to deal with, but I still get moments where something strikes me and I can’t help but feel guilty about the culture I was brought up in. You just have to know that it’s not your fault that you have a roof over your head and food on the table. You can live in Canadian culture and still help out in many ways through awareness posters and discussions, and you will find someone who shares the same passion to help as you. From now on my motto is not “I’m only one person, what good can one person do?” It’s, “I am one person plus the million of other people that want to help. Together we can do this.”

And you can. You really, really can.

~Laura Marshall

*All participants are given the opportunity to blog so many views are represented. These views do not neccesarily 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

Event Invitation: BBQ at Absolute

Hello everyone!

All summer, in the communities that we have been working in with Hero Holiday, we would throw a big community party at the end of the trip… We had so much fun doing it in other countries, that we thought we would do it one last time in Canada!

LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute) would like to invite YOU to come and party with us one last time before we say good-bye to summer!

We are having an end-of-summer BBQ at our LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute) Main Office in Hamilton, on Friday, August 31, 2007 at 6:00 PM…

Please come and be our guest and enjoy catching up with old and new friends! There will be many of us there who have been on different Hero Holidays, are friends of LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute), or are just wanting to hang out. We will have great food and great company!

If you are planning on coming, please email christal@livedifferent.com with your name and how many guests you will be bringing with you.

Hope to see you there!

Time to Say Good-Bye

It’s hard to believe this trip is coming to a close. Yesterday was an emotional day with all of our good-byes to the family we worked with for the last week. As I look out the window as we drive, I wonder how one survives this harsh climate day after day, year after year, without adequate food or shelter. The wind is bitter and strong, even in August. The dust flies constantly up on the hill without giving up. Yet, the hope and constant smiles on the faces of the children who are forced to grow up before their time tells me that the human spirit is very resilient. They have the will to live. They must. Only the strong will survive. As I held the elderly lady on the hill to say good-bye, once again I was inspired by her strength. Living and working among these people has taught each of us so much. Listening to the debriefings in the evening echoes this phrase, “They have taught me more than I ever realized. They have given me more than I have given them.” This Hero Holiday group will leave tomorrow morning different – much different – than when they came. They have walked among, touched, tasted and smelled poverty. One cannot help but be changed. None of us, however, are walking away with pity. Compassion, yes. For the poor, the widows and the orphans who fight for survival across the planet. We are walking away with a greater understanding of what really matters: family, relationships, hope, all the things for which there are no price tags. I can’t believe I have the honour and privilege of doing what I do. I am blessed.

And now, as promised, some final pictures until we all come home and can share them all with you.

Another project that I didn’t really talk about was the day care centre. This day care centre takes in young children so parents can work and the older children, who would normally be responsible for caring for the children, can have the opportunity to go to school. The parents are not charged for this. The centre is run on donations. We did some painting. Little did we know that we had some budding artists among us!

At the house dedication, we got to say all our good-byes and take some final pictures of the house. We also brought gift bags for all the children.

Good night, everyone. Wish us safe travels for the next couple of days!

Mexico Photos

As promised, here are the photos. I’ll be taking more pictures later today when we do the house dedication. Can you believe the house is finished?!!

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Mexico Update

Sorry for the lengthy gap between updates. Our internet at the campground has not been working. Tonight I am sitting in the cutest little cafe. It’s been a busy couple of days. We have done two soccer camps, painted a day care centre and the roof is now up on the house. We are all falling in love with the family. They have been working alongside of us. I think a little bit of our hearts will remain here in this dusty desert. I have lots of photos but the internet connection is not good enough to upload them. I’ll try again tomorrow. To all the parents, thank you for sharing your kids with us. They are LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute)ly amazing. It’s like we’ve all known each other forever. I am inspired by them.

A Great Team!

The first day here in Mexico was an education and orientation day. One of the objectives of this program is to educate our participants on why poverty exists and give them a greater understanding of the challenges that two-thirds of the world faces. Becky did a great job teaching us about the culture, why education is difficult to access; explained about displaced people groups and also gave some background on the family we are building the home for. We visited the family for whom we are building the home and then we stopped for lunch at the site of an old shipwreck. But…not before visiting the site of the great soccer competition. These Mexican kids are pretty good with a soccer ball. I hear they can kick some serious butt!

Today was our first work day. We have all fallen in love with this family and their children. I already know it will be hard to say good-bye. They are with us thoughout the day. I feel honoured to be a part of their world even for such a short time. They have welcomed us with open arms. One of the boys was colouring a picture. Of all the pictures he chose to colour, he chose a house. He painted it red, just like his new home. He has been given hope. The wind was quite fierce in the afternoon, so I wasn’t able to take pictures of how far we got today. The dust was incredible. I am still digging it out of my ears! I can’t believe how much progress we made. We’ve got a team of talented carpenters on our hands!

Here is a photo of the current home:

In the back yard, there are banana trees and a yard full of cactus. (Or is it cacti?!) I never knew you could eat those, but apparently so!

Here are the newly trained workers!

Hero Holiday would not be the same without the digging of a bano pit!

Home Again

Trip three is back safely into Canada after a long trip home. We left Sosua by the Sea at 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning, took a two hour bus ride to the Santiago airport, and checked in, finally boarding the plane at 5:45. We all enjoyed a giggle, half sleeping and daydreaming when the plane went through a storm and someone screamed as turbulence took us by surprise. We arrived back to Hamilton around 9:00 pm, with a little bit of a traffic delay along the way, just in time to eat, and rush out for the first flights out of Toronto. It was a successful trip. The participants were all amazing. Our Danish friends have a long ride home ahead of them! Best of luck to everyone! We’ll work at getting some final pictures posted of the projects soon.

Bienvenidos a Vicente Guerrero!

Hello everyone! We have arrived at our destination. What a beautiful drive down the Pacific coast through the mountains. We stopped to take some pictures along the way.

Our amazing team!

We are staying at Posada Don Diego campground. “Roughing it” for the next little while! It’ll toughen us all up a bit 😉 Luckily for us, the tents were already set up for us in a cute, cosy little semi-circle.

So all we had to do was move right in!

Meals for the participants are in the restaurant on-site. Irene is a great cook. We’re going to be well-fed, that is for sure!

Right now, it’s orientation time. Looking forward to a great trip. Family and friends, make sure you remember to leave messages under the “Messages” section. I’ll be printing them off for everyone to read. When leaving messages, they will not show up right away because they will be put in a queue for approval before being posted.

Good night everyone! We’ll talk again tomorrow.

Danica: How we all fell in Love

I only know her first name: Danica. She was 18 months old, abandoned, and a Haitian child of parents with no country of origin, living in Dominican Republic. She was stateless, and no one knew she existed.
I had only heard her cry once, and had never seen her give any response to anyone. My friends, Phil and Donna, had found her in a house where she had been left alone for up to 8 hours a day because her mother had abandoned her and her father was in another part of the country working. He had people watching her, but he was no where to be found.
LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute) had decided that we would adopt her and we would commit to her medical and personal care. She was unable to walk or talk, and was very sick from a urinary tract infection that had been left untreated for weeks, perhaps months, on end. We had taken pictures of her and we were all excited

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