Mexico

Articles / Volunteer Evaluations

	Everything has been going really well here. I enjoyed the first week getting to know the area and getting to know Greta. She was really supportive. I have been enjoying my projexts. They changes slightly. I decided to work at the Special Needs school (as arranged) and then at the orphanage as well. The special needs school was very welcoming instantly. I was thrown quite in the deep end and the teacher was instantly like "Have you got something ready!" I explained that I would like to observe the first day and then I did not mind taking over. She was fine with that! No-one really talks any English there, so that can be hard sometimes but we get by! Our Spanish teacher here has been amazing!! I was surprised by how little there was at the school. Literally no resources to work with at all e.g. in my room there is not even 1 paintbrush. So each week I am buying a few bits and bobs to try and off the children some new experiences. Last week I got a badminton set and lots of collage materials and we had lots of fun. I think Gretta is coming next week to take some photos. The orphanage has been going well as well. Really good getting to know the children and the staff there. Help with breakfast and bath and ironing and lunch and playing when there is time. I'm looking forward to the weekend; I think we are going horse riding on the beach.

• Evaluation by Donna Williams

	It is difficult to find the words to describe life in Mexico. Everyday is like a new adventure full of amazing sights, sounds and feelings. Small cobbled streets unsuitable for cars, huge pavements that are a task to climb, stray dogs everywhere, pick up-trucks full to the brim with Mexican men on their way to work, children playing in the streets, restaurants selling the most amazing food that are actually people's living rooms and then there is the weather. It is hot all the time, unbearable! It never stops, even the tremendous, seasonal rain storms which you would expect would cool you down bring more warmth, its unbelievable. Life is so fast paced here yet so slow and laid back. The buses are crazy, overtaking each other trying to get the fares and full to the brim with people. Everybody is always so happy wherever you go and so willing to help you out with whatever you need. We are constantly swarmed with offers of food, drink, days out and fiestas. It amazes me that in such poverty people remain so optimistic, friendly and happy. There is such a focus on family life, its amazing to see so many children and adults happily getting along. We arrived four weeks ago after a 23 hour journey all organised by Outreach International. We were picked up from the airport in the middle of the night by Greta, the Outreach International representative and taken to stay at a host Mexican family's home. A 23 year old mother of one, her brother, sister and father living together in a small two bedroom house near the river. Our first week was an experience. We washed outside under the stars and spent a lot of time eating tortillas for breakfast, very common practice here! Trying to work out how to say politely "I'm full" in Spanish was difficult. We would eat everything given to us which gradually led to increases in portion sizes throughout the week, we couldn't move after breakfast towards the end of the week. The street was alive with children, it was so family focused, there was always children playing in the street, in our house and they were fascinated by us. They spent time teaching us Spanish and taking us to the river to swim. Then in the evenings we would listen to Mexican music, dance and drink the family's home brewed tequila. You can't really get more Mexican than that! I have since moved into the Outreach International apartment with three other career break volunteers. Mondays and Tuesdays I volunteer at the disabled children's centre. It allows Mum's and Dad's to drop off their child for the day for free while they can go out to work and provide for their families. The children receive food, drink, physiotherapy treatment and lots of love. It really is an amazing place, started from nothing, run by gap year volunteers and completely reliant on donations. Wednesday is my favourite day. We have set up a new project at the local special needs school. This involves us running PE classes for all of the children and then completing individual sessions with those children who have more complex needs. They have never had any form of physiotherapy or PE at the school so the staff and children are so grateful for our input. We are usually greeted at the gate with beautiful flowers for our hair and lots of kisses! As with most of our projects resources are so limited, they didn't even have any balls. So myself and another volunteer went out to buy new equipment. In England parachutes are used a lot in schools, particularly in special needs schools and centres. The games you can play with a parachute are fantastic. It just so happened we were passing a material shop and I thought "we could make one those!" So we did! With the help of our Mexican Family's son (who happens to be a drag queen artist and is a dab hand with a sewing machine), we spent a day making a parachute for the school. The children absolutely love it and we are so proud to have been able to given them something they can keep and continue to use in the future. My final Outreach International project is based at a rehabilitation centre for adults and children with varying problems. There is a wide variety of conditions which require physiotherapy intervention. It's very interesting to see how different treatment is here, although the equipment and conditions are so basic, so much time is spent with the patients and the quality of the service is excellent. So far working life has been good. It is very difficult to accept the conditions that some of the children live in and also the extent of their disabilities due to the poor access to services in Mexico. Unfortunately, if you don't have money then you can't access what little health care is available for these children. And often I find myself thinking if they were in England so much would be done differently. But we just have to do the best that we can for them. You have to accept that and think of ways around problems, for example the parachute. It is very challenging but the rewards gained from making the children laugh, building relationships with them and see them improve outweighs the negatives. In addition the fact that we can pass our knowledge and expertise onto the members of staff that work at the centres makes us feel like we are building towards a better future for these children. It really doesn't take a lot to make a small difference, and hopefully enough small differences can make a big change in the future.

• Evaluation by Laura Brown

	My apologies for not emailing you earlier but I have been wrestling with geckos avoiding the cockroaches and unravelling wild children from around my neck! This wasn't mentioned in my interview and yes everything you said in the pre-departure briefing was true! I think the culture shock and aclimatising to the intense heat is the hardest thing not to mention my poor tummy! But I am now bright eyed and bushy tailed after shedding the odd tear and feeling alot stronger. Sean the sheep (my Land's End to John o'Groats Mascot) has not left my side and unfortunately for him there are no sheep out here in this part of Mexico! I can't believe the climate, its amazing and the rain is hottt! Laura and I got caught in a tropical rainstorm this morning at 7.30am on our way to work with thunder and lightening. We were shrieking with laughter and when we arrived at the clinic the staff (who think we are lovely crazy english girls) instructed us to strip off and they put all our clothes in the tumble dryer! Laura got some great photos of us standing with cheesy grins with towels around us and wet faces! Laura and I are doing 3 projects, the disabled children's centre on Monday and Tuesday, the Clinic Wednesday and Friday and the school for disabled children Thursday. Things were a bit chaotic at the beginning which I think was partly because our Spanish wasn't great but also because we have very limited experience of paediatrics. We explaind this to Greta and she was great and now the staff at the disabled children centre are giving us more guidance and understand that we need to know the children's diagnosis (or possible diagnosis) before we treat them. Also Greta has helped us swap days round to make things easier with the other projects. Living with a Mexican family with very limited knowledge of English is at times exhausting especially when you have to explain at 2 in the morning why the key in the door doesn't work but at the same time it is totally rewarding. The food is sooo different and Justina's family are so patient with me and help me with my Spanish everyday! I think they find me most amusing since i do end up acting out what I am trying to communicate. It makes me realise how frustrated the disabled children must feel when they cant communicate their basic needs! Working with Laura has been lovely since we have each other for support including the other volunteers! Now I have found my feet i feel like I know what my weekly routine is and I do enjoy cooling off by the appartment pool doing my spanish homework. Our spanish teacher is amazing and funnily enough speaks no english which is brilliant so for 2 hours my brain works so hard steam comes out my ears! Last weekend we went and treated ourselves and went swimming with Dolphins in the water park! It was totally amazing! Also Justina has taken us to Chimo where some of her family live. Chimo is stunning, a total paradise and it was great fun using the water taxi to get there and a fantastic way to see the jungle and coastline and all the other beautiful fishing villages. Justina's family have taken me to the river at the bottom of the mountains where there are cool rock pools and huge butterflies. We have also so far seen a turtle one night (it was heading off back into the see after celebrating independance day!), an iguana today and lots of exotic creatures which make very starnge noises in the dark!

• Evaluation by Jenny Hutton