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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.
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.
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.
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.
