A City Boy at the Turtle Camp

Once the volunteers from the camp returned to Guadalajara and commented on their experience there, with salty water, no electricity sometimes, mosquitos, etc... It could easily sound like not the greatest place to be, but I have had the opportunity to visit it a few times and what I can tell you is that I LOVE THAT PLACE!

It is obviously very different from the city, but definitely worth it! Being at the beach, sharing with nature, living with the basics, living far away from the things that make us forget what's really important in life. 
In the turtle camp, one has the chance to make new friends, to start using your social skills and of course the amazing opportunity to do something which will be priceless for your personal knowledge. Living this experience makes me feel recharged for all of my activities back in the city.

The only bad thing that I could tell about my time at the turtle camp, would be of course... that time flies when you are there.

One of my favourite moments from my time was when I helped the staff when they were building things for future volunteers, such as a new kitchen and part of the new shelter and all this made me feel great! The turtle camp is (for me) like a baby, who little by little, if you feed it well, take care of it and with someone always around... will grow up strong!
I would like future people volunteering there to keep taking care of this baby who belongs to a lot of people.

I came to Mexico because I wanted to work with children there. It had always been my dream to help children and to get to know them and their lives. Every day I started my work by helping to clean everything at the orphanage, and after this I did homework with the children. We also played a lot together.

It needs a bit of time until the children get used to you and until you have a trustful relationship with them, but I never gave up and soon everything went perfectly. 

The children wanted to learn with me and they started saying "Hello" instead of "Hola" or they said "Thank you" instead of "Gracias". Every time they looked at me with their big eyes and every time they gave me a huge hug it touched my heart and I felt so happy. It is such a special experience and I also learnt a lot from them.
A lot of patience is needed, but I can recommend to every one of you to go to Mexico and to help the children.

It is important to give the children time to get to know you and you shouldn't give up. After a while they will be open and then you will have an unforgettable time with them. They also wrote me nice letters and they gave me nice drawings. 

When they give you a hug and say "Thank you" you really know that you are improving their lives and that you are giving them hope for their future.

This feeling is the most beautiful feeling I have ever had!!
Thank you for the great time!

Two of the kids at "Cielo para un Angel" orphanage (Heaven for an Angel). 
One of the orphanages where we collaborate with our Care project.
Thanks to Nina Martillo for the picture.

Beautiful clay flower made at our Arts&Crafts Project, not finished yet but here you can witness the sculpting process,not an easy task since it takes time and patience to bring the form and figure out of the clay, next step is to visualize and mix the color to start painting it and then final step is put it in the oven to bring it to life.

Last thursday we had our social event, plan was to make it a good bowling evening with some high level bowling from our staff and volunteers. Yes that was the plan.

But the bowling alley was hosting two tournaments and had no free lanes for the rest of the night, so we decided to move the event to a different spot, not sooooo bowling style but one awesome restaurant that delivered some fantastic mexican food; La Gorda! one of Guadalajara´s best spots to enjoy some authentic mexican cuisine, and La Gorda didnt fail to deliver! once again it surprised us with it´s incredibly fast service and great authentic mexican recipes.

The table was decorated with some of Mexico´s best dishes like Tortas Ahogadas, Pozole, Enchiladas and Gorditas! and for dessert we had some delicious Jericallas (tapatian version of flan) and Chongos Zamoranos, which is fruit bathed in milk, sugar  and cinammon, sounds delicious right? well it was!

Arts & crafts is our artistic project in Guadalajara,Mexico, it demands imagination, hard work and a certain unborn artistic skill as well as the will to learn and develop new expresive talents that probably you did not know you had. It´s a project for those who wander the shores of imagination and walk a road paved by colors and form.  

Check out the Arts&Crafts photo album.

http://www.mytripblog.org/pg/photos/album/231059/artscrafts/

This month of July our Animal Care centre is one of our busiest projects, 8 volunteers bringing together some of their harder work, making the centre work as a very well oiled machine! And like they say, the more the merrier!

This project is no easy thing, no stroll across the park, it demands a lot and attitude plays an important role here everyday, some may think dealing with animals may be easier than dealing with people, but it requires patience, kindness and understanding too.

The whole world may be taking place in London with the olympics right now, but here in the city of Guadalajara right now Poland, Scotland, USA, Canada and France join forces to make volunteer work a force to be reckoned with in our city! One great olympic volunteer work!

Congrats to all our volunteers collaborating at the Animal Centre for their amazing dedication and commitment to this project.

Saturdays can offer a wide array of things to do on Chapultepec street, from modern street markets, to bars and restaurants, but also some traditional culture can be found here, a boulevard market of traditional culture from the state of Oaxaca brought all the way here by the Tinujei tribe (also called Triquis), residents from the west areas of Oaxaca and Tinuje means "Brother of Mine".

Legend says that they were exiled from Moltelban for desobeying the King´s orders and after living the nomad life and moving around different areas they finally arrived to Chicahuaxtla (which means "Strong Place").

It is a tradition for all male Triquis to learn spanish and triqui as well as it is a tradition for all females to learn the art of triqui handcrafts such as clothes shirts, hats and baskets made of palm tree and other items as earrings or necklaces, all of these totally based on traditional shapes and colors. 

Stacy Ginny Barr is now experiencing her third time as a volunteer in Mexico.

So why to come back to Mexico for a third time? is the country that great? or is it the people? or the project? what is it?

I think we better now hand the mic to Stacy to answer that:

"People often ask me why Mexico? As I write, this is the third time I have been here with projects abroad. It’s a difficult question, and there are so many ways to answer. 

To answer the question on why I continually return to Mexico, one simple explanation is what I can experience in one day. Today I woke up and had breakfast with my family and then took the bus to the Animal Centre. Here I get to work with the most amazing vets, and the most bizarre animals Mexico can offer. Just this afternoon I took a two-month old coyote for a walk and played fetch with him as if he was a dog. My work with Projects Abroad takes me into the surrealist situations, such as my visit to “La Barranca”, a canyon dropping hundreds of meters below Guadalajara. We released several different animals, from a frog to a skunk, into the forest that fills the canyon. To think, only hours ago I was walking under a waterfall in one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life."

Keep up the amazing work Stacy!