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 Travel & Outdoors | May 2006 
Viviendo en México - Uruapan, Michoacán - Day 1
 Korah Winn - PVNN
| | Me and several little girls I met in the Uruapan neighborhood. |
The school where I am currently working tries to teach virtues to their students. One of the ways they do so is by teaming up with a medical organization that organizes trips to impoverished areas in Mexico to provide free checkups for adults and children. They even bring along pharmaceutical samples to attempt to fill prescriptions. Many of the people who come for the consultations do not normally ever get to visit doctors unless they are in dire circumstances.
The school joins with the organization by planning a food drive at the school to help provide staples to supplement the medical aid. All the students from sexto (sixth) grade and up are given the opportunity to come on the trip and help out in any area they possibly can.
It is a big deal at the school because first and foremost, in the minds of the students, it means a day off. It normally starts off with that being the focus and then morphs into something nobler when the kids actually see the people they are given the opportunity to help. Viajes (trips) like these really make them realize that not everyone has the basic necessities that these kids often take for granted.
Our trip began early Friday morning on a charter bus the school had rented for the trip. Our destination was Uruapan, Michoacán. Cars filled the streets as students pulled up with their parents and gave abrazos (hugs) goodbye. Many people were just milling about as we waited for dawn to come and our trip to commence. We loaded the food into the charter bus and had so much left over that we actually had to stuff some of it in the main aisle of the bus.
| | Crowd gathered in an Uruapan neighborhood. | 
| | Preparing medical supplies to distribute. |
Not very surprisingly, we got off to a late start. We had too many people to fit into the charter bus, so I ended up riding in a car with some other teachers. It was a little cramped with all of us stuffed in and our equipaje (luggage) in the back, but I preferred it over a bus loaded with hyper-energized adolescents.
By the time we made it to Uruapan, everyone was more than ready to pour out of our vehicles and stretch. We made a late lunch and began preparing for the evening activities. We planned on going out to a neighborhood in need in order to spread the word about the free clinic and food distribution the next day.
When we got there, the students did a couple of presentations to get people's attention. Once we had a crowd gathered, we informed everyone about the ubicación (location) of the clinic and other details. Many people seemed very responsive.
When we returned to our accommodations, a team of students prepared quesadillas for the group while others distributed eating utensils and cleaned up. It was wonderful seeing the teamwork, but the pleasant atmosphere was not meant to last given that bedtime was coming and that meant sleeping bags and almohadas (pillows) were getting pulled out. The presence of almohadas and youth invariably means, "almohada fight."
I had the fortune of being in a "teacher" room that was sectioned off from the main area. I had just laid down in my makeshift bed when I heard a male teacher yell in the other room, "You need to quiet down. I'm serious this time." I cracked up knowing he would have to say that plenty more times before this group settled down. I went to sleep excited about the next day and glad that I was not the one on guard duty. |
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