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Mexico: Week of Service 2008
In May 2008, we sent a team of volunteers to Tultitlan, just outside Mexico City. This effort was part of our ongoing "Days of Service" program, which provides company-sponsored employee labor to charitable organizations.
For one week, the group worked together to build cement floors for homes located near a dump, at 7,000-plus foot altitude, in 90-degree heat. Despite the conditions, our volunteers were happy to give back, and were moved by the kindness, gratitude, and spirit of the people who live there - mostly indigenous families from the nearby mountain regions, who moved to the city in hopes of finding work and a higher standard of living.
More about the trip online
Channy Kry
I felt both fortunate and proud to participate in the trip. A low point was seeing children live and play at the dump, which broke my heart. A high point was discovering Mexican food and realizing how much I liked it, especially homemade green sauce! Now that I'm back in Portland, I'm searching for something that tastes the same, but still haven't found it.
Christopher Becker
My perception of my quality of life changed the most, and made me realize that the vast majority of America has no idea how great we have it. Also, no matter how poor people are. . .they still want a home and not just shelter, children still want to play, and people still find things to smile about.
Donna Kendrick
I was inspired to sign onto the trip by my sister and brother-in-law who do mission work in Jamaica. I found the work hard but rewarding. I really enjoyed the local home-cooked lunches, the camaraderie of my co-workers, and having strangers become friends. I now know without a doubt that "rich" is a relative term.
Jen Foley
It was time for me to step out of my comfort zone and do something positive. The families we helped had had nothing - yet they were still able to smile and laugh and show affection. They are good people and hard workers. . .it was eye opening experience all-around.
Lisa Snell
We poured a concrete floor for a family whose shelter was located very close to the dump. The ravine to the side of the compound was strewn with debris and a trickle of watery sludge ran from the dump. A donkey was tied up and grazing on the sparse grass in the ravine. Up above, while we were filling buckets and mixing the cement, we spoke to some of the children who lived there. They took us inside another entrance to the collection of shelters, and I suddenly found myself in a small courtyard. Plants were growing in discarded containers, and colorful old paper streamers hung from the makeshift wooden ceiling around a shrine. It was a small oasis in the midst of poverty.
Nicole Curcio
I was shocked to learn that some of the family matriarchs had arrived as teenagers and had since raised multiple generations of their family in the dump. It was eye-opening and heartbreaking to realize that despite their living conditions, the families of Tultitlan Dump are composed of loving and gracious people. The experience made me realize how fortunate we really are.
Sisco Vo
I was a refugee from Vietnam, and understand how it feels to "have nothing" - no food, no water, and no place to live. People were very good to me along the way, and I felt it was time to give back. At the dump, the care and love I saw people had for one another under the worst of conditions made a big impression on me. I plan on returning.
Steve Hohenboken
Although I had some last-minute apprehension about the trip, it went away as soon as we arrived. It was great to have the opportunity to be in Mexico, meet some kind and generous people (and some really sweet kids), work hard, and to help some families make their homes more comfortable. I would do it again tomorrow.
Toby Boyd
I was struck by many things - most of all, the resilience and kindness of the people of Tutitlan. The ruins at Teotihuacan, where a cloud of butterflies floated above the top of the Pyramid of the Sun. And playing Frisbee with kids who had never had one before.
Walter Lybeck
At first, from my middle class American point-of-view, I found the sanitary conditions at the dump and the homes horrific. Then, on the second day, something hit me. The people were in need and struggling - but not unhappy. The kids were loved and well-cared for despite the circumstances. And as a father, I was struck by the number of fathers playing with and hugging their kids.
