It Only Takes ONE Person…
Throughout our School of Leadership student’s year, they are asked to read numerous books to enhance their knowledge of global issues and to challenge their world views. One of the first books on the list is, ONE: A Face Behind the Numbers by our very own CEO, Vaden Earle. This book is great to learn from about the main causes and effects of poverty and helps our students begin their journey on educating themselves and others.Here is a small excerpt from Sarah’s report on the book:ONE: A Face Behind the Numbers is a great read, not only because it doesn’t take hours and hours to read, but because what you do read will impact you, no matter who you are. It inspires you to give more of yourself, even if you have the coldest heart. It will make you think twice about your actions on an everyday basis. After putting the book down, you may not remember all of the statistics, but you will remember the personal stories of children all around third world countries. That’s a good thing, because remember, it’s not about the numbers, but the faces behind them.
Throughout ONE: A Face Behind the Numbers, I kept constantly questioning how I was blessed to be born in such a country where we have everything, and yet just because millions of others were born in a different country, makes them have significant less than I do?I know that with having this privilege comes great responsibility. I know that because I was blessed with many things, including a wonderful country, that I am to take that and run with it. ONE made me realize and become aware of many things.
- It only takes ONE person to find out something significant in order to mess up their life, and the lives of others. ( In the most incredible way, of course ).
- It only takes ONE person to stand up and be the voice for the voiceless. (Even though their cries are much more powerful than a voice.)
- It only takes ONE person to create change. (You just have to step out in faith ).
- It only takes ONE person to do anything they want to. Because with having one courageous person, others will join and follow.
Third world country statistics need to change. We need to hear less stories about dying, and more stories about living and hope. Children cannot go on living this way. They shouldn’t be focused on how they’re going to provide for their siblings, they should be focused on things normal kids do: imagination. Imagination that takes ONE person. A person who can imagine a life of a healthy, happy world. Because hey, if you can imagine it, you can believe it. If you believe it, it can become a reality. It only takes ONE. Because of this book, I am inspired to be that ONE, and try to change the way that many, many people live, or, in this case, barely live. 
If this sounds like something you would be interested in reading, feel free to contact our office to purchase one or order it off of the Chapters/Indigo website: http://bit.ly/dwbz3h
My dad has always told me “Matthew you’re not nervous, you’re excited. It’s the same emotion it just depends how you look at it.” I’m here to tell you; NERVOUS was definitely what I was. Today was our first day of teaching the English program that we came up with to students at a local school in Mexico. We had already visited this school about a week ago to play with the kids and get to know them, but today was the day we were going to put all the time of planning our classes into action. I had so many things running through my head, “What if we screw up?” “What if they laugh at us?” 
“I can’t believe I get to live here” – is all I’ve been thinking as we’ve been exploring the cities and sights around us here in Mexico this week. But even walking outside of our gates to our house, the poverty is undeniably evident here, and one begins to wonder if Mexicans have the same thought when they walk out their door in the morning. Honestly – doubtful. Considering I live in Canada, have free health care, and my house is a lot bigger than those here, and I don’t skip out the door blown away by the beauty of the trees and the birds that day.
Walking into a store, the storekeeper always says “hola!” and the overall atmosphere is so much more welcoming than I am used to. It’s hard to wrap your head around people being so much more welcoming, happy and friendly in a place where the social and economical issues alone are unfathomably worse than at home in Canada – where people are not per so unfriendly, but if you walked down the street smiling and saying hello to everyone… some people would enjoy it, while others might think you just escaped from the looney bin. I can’t wait to start actually working with the people here, and learning more and more about them and their ways of life. I still can’t believe I get to live here!
LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute) would like to welcome our School of Leadership students to Hamilton! This school year holds a lot of adventure as they take their turn spending one semester touring with our 
The shack is a memory I will never forget. The rock picking, clamming, field work, and everything in between. Doing something like this builds you up so much, and it most defiantly changes you. I was so happy to have my friends (or now i guess you could call them family) with me. I know now that having people with you to encourage you can make the world of difference. I don’t know if I could have made this journey without them. I now truly understand why family is so important down here in Mexico. It’s beacuse it has to be, it’s because you couldn’t face all these challenges without support, without people helping you on those tough days. The days you don’t wanna get out of your shack to go work another 9 hour day, when you have those thoughts going through you head like ” why, is it even worth it?”
From all my experiences down here in Mexico, the shack experience has been completely different. It showed me things I could have heard or learned about but not actually fully understand until experiencing it. Waking up in the morning was quite peaceful in my little cardboard home, that I was most definatly attached to, for about a 30 seconds. Then I started to think about everything you’ve gotta do to survive. You start the daily process with “gotta wake the rest of the family up, gotta go start the fire, hope the woods not to damp, gotta start breakfast, hope the pans are clean, hope we have enough torttias..” and so on.I found myself thinking for the first time, in my perfectly protected easy life, about how money is really most important when it comes to feeding yourself and your family. Life in the shack doesn’t allow you to think about new stylish clothes, or about “drama” in high school, or how much better your life would be with that new “thing”. You live day to day, paycheck by paycheck. This semester we were only paid 300pesos (30 dollars) with deductions for bills and medical we were left with 175 pesos (17.50 $) for food for 2 girls and 3 always hungry teenage boys ( that’s a lot of bellies to fill). We learned that you should eat as much as you can when you had the 3 meals you did , because you never know if the next meal might be smaller , and might not fill you up.
There will be so many things from the shack experience that I will take with me, and hope to remember for the rest of my life. One being that food is very important. I don’t think many people I know, including myself appreciate food as much as we should. That was constantly on my mind. Food to me in Canada is ” oh what will taste the best” “what’s the biggest” or you just open the fridge and there it is. But here, as well as most of the world think about if I can afford the next meal, and if its going to fill me, your taste buds are of unimportance.Another thing I know that I take for granted is our health care. For example, a member of our family on the second day got heat stroke, but lucky for us he just got to walk across the street and sleep in our real house and got better. For most people in developing nations, you don’t get to go to a nice bed with cold/warm showers, good food, and clean drinking water to get yourself better. You either have to go to the hospital which is usually 50 pesos (in Mexico) which sometimes isn’t feasible. Or you have to miss a couple days of work which means missing out on pay for is needed for food, bills, and everything else necessary to live.It was unfortunate that we lost a member of our family for a couple days in the shack but I know this realization wouldn’t of hit me as much as it did.Although there was a couple rough patches throughout our experience, what felt like a never ending week, there was a lot of good times and memories. I had some great laughs playing cards at the end of each day, singing in the fields, trying to finish 99 bottles of beer on the wall (never ended up happening), and just being together as a family. I know I had fun, eating, breathing, living Mexican!~ A School of Leadership Student living in Mexico
Get ready for 2011! Our Hero Holiday dates are confirmed and ready to go for 2011 – all that is missing is you! Check out the calendar and get ready to join us for another awesome year of bringing hope and being changed.2011 Dates are as follows:
Sunday was a day off for the students in The Shack. The goal of that day is for them to feel what its like to go through a day with nothing, not having an income for a day but still having to buy food and water and to go for a period of time with none of their regular entertainment items. As I am not sure if many of them have ever gone without their computer Ipod or Xbox for very long.The day before, they knew they were going short on cash, because they were not working, so they went to a neighbor and asked him if he had any work for them. He did, so the next day, instead of taking the day off, they got up bright and early did what they had to do. They started working on what he had for them. Detailing some vehicles and cleaning out a shed. That kept them busy for the morning and after that they went back to their shacks, had a Sunday afternoon nap, sat around for a bit and made supper.Monday was another day in the fields. A friend of a friend has a small field just out of town that needed to be de-weeded. They got up early that morning not knowing what to expect. All they knew is that it was another day in the fields and they were not looking forward to it. When we got out to the field it was a small bean field and the “Rancher” showed up in an old beat up Suzuki Samaria. A little different than the typical F-350’s the other Ranchers have. We soon realized that we are helping a regular guy weed a piece of land that he would have normally done himself. The guy gave them some hoe’s and they went at it. It only took them a few hours to weed the field but our new friend was extremely thankful for helping him out. The students felt good about helping him out because they realized it probably would have taken him days. They were done early, so they came back and finished up the day doing some yard work and then got off a little early. Later that night they invited the neighbors and their boss over for a feast. They saved money for a few days to be able to do that, but I think by the end of all of this they really got the sense of what it might be like living in poverty. They realized some of the stresses involved, unpleasant living conditions, and the value of a community and sharing the little that you do have with the community. I believe they have grown a lot this week and I think they will take the values they learned from this experience with them for the rest of their life.Brett: Mexico Facilitator – School of Leadership
This morning was a cold morning. The fog was thick and the sun was no where to be found. Not a good thing when you are planning on spending the morning at the beach up to your waist in water, digging for clams.We met up at the highway at 7:00am and travel to the supervisor’s house. That is where all the people that work for him meet. He gave us some pitch forks and told us where to meet him on the beach. We were on the beach around 8:00 and after a quick instruction, the students were ready to clam. They dug through the sand for the next four hours and found quite a few clams. Their biggest challenges were staying warm and finding clams that were large enough to keep. They took a few warm up breaks but they dug until the tide started to come in at noon. They found a total of 51 clams that were the proper size to keep. The supervisor told us that he sells the clams for 35 pesos per dozen, which is a little less than $3. The students, made about $12 all together. They were unsure of how many clams that they would find that day which gave them an idea of what kind of stress is involved with not getting a steady paycheck but still having bills to pay.