Facing it Head On

Leaving family, friends, everything familiar and going to a foreign country where the people do not speak the same language, do not put there toilette paper in a toilet, and haven’t seen a snowflake in there lives …must have been extremely intimidating for the hero holiday participants.  Though with doing so they changed the lives of two families, bonded new friendships, and grown immensely in only a matter of days. They were brave enough to face poverty head on and decide to try and make a difference in it.Sitting down yesterday with one participant I heard all her thoughts and worries and indecision that these trips bring for everyone reverberating through my head. All the thoughts and feelings she was having were no different then the ones I felt every day, all the worries I try to justify to myself. Its amazing seeing a woman try to give her baby to someone so the baby can grow up in Canada instead of here. Though I’m new to all this poverty myself I have had a month in Mexico already so adjust to the unique surroundings and the poverty you see every day. Hiding behind every window in my neighborhood is another impoverished situation, and behind that poverty is a face probably with a smile on it. But behind every smile is sadness brought on by having to put their child to bed hungry that night. Or selling their last heirloom for an unreasonable price so you can put shoes on your families feet, or pay the rent. Noticing all these things I had questions running through my mind and which made me curious what the students were thinking. Sitting back and just listening to one of the debriefing sessions and all the things the students were bouncing around to each other it seems as if many of them were having the same thoughts that I did, and if all of them did then there must be many others who do as well. So why is poverty not getting smaller? Why is poverty still an epidemic? There are no answers to these questions or none that I have found yet. (Teijna – School of Leadership Student)