“This trip made me realize how fortunate we are here in Canada with all of the things we’re given and that we have. In Mexico, the simplest things, they mean so much to them.”
That was what Notre Dame High School (NDHS) student Sarah Teixeira took away from the Lakeland Catholic School District’s (LCSD) mission trip to Ensenada, Mexico.
Over the course of six days, a group of students from across the district taught English to young girls living in an orphanage, put up drywall, and delivered food dispensers to a migrant camp.
These were all experiences that JaiLynn Prescott, NDHS student, will never forget.
“Overall, this trip for me meant a lot, especially before graduating and going to university next year,” she expressed during their presentation to the LCSD board of trustees on Thursday, April 25. “I feel like this was a good experience for me to have and to realize just how fortunate and lucky we are here.”
The first day of their trip was spent settling in, but the group of students were put to work on day two.
They worked at the Casa Esther orphanage putting up drywall.
“This was something we expected going into the trip. We wanted to get our hands dirty and we wanted to feel like we were making a difference. When we went through and they explained what these rooms were going to be used for, it felt a lot better doing it and knowing that we were helping take some of the work off for those girls,” stated Prescott.
According to Anna Deligianis, instructional learning coach for the district and trip organizer, 13 girls currently live at the orphanage, which is looking at expanding their building in order to bring more children into their care.
The students also made tamales and prepared food hampers.
“With our money that we donated to the mission trip, we were able to make food dispensers, which we later gave to people living at the migrant camps,” said Teixeira. “In each dispensary there was cooking oil, noodles, flour, tuna, some rice, salt, sugar, and also soap.”
For Prescott, distributing the hampers was moving.
“This was the last thing that we got to hand out before we left. It was really exposing us to that more realistic poverty that you can find in Mexico. Working at the orphanage, you could tell they were still the poorer class, but when you went to the migrant camp, it was an eye-opening experience. Just being able to, in the spirit of Easter, give back, it felt pretty good.”
Working with Ensenada youth, the students took part in English camps, teaching the language through activities, words, and songs.
The trip wasn’t just about helping children living in Ensenada.
The students also spent time at a women’s rehab centre.
“This is one of the only rehab centres where women are actually allowed to bring their families, even though they can’t stay with them, their kids were still there,” explained Prescott. “After we had lunch, we were split into two groups, the adults were inside and the kids were outside. I was with the kids and we were outside playing soccer and volleyball.”
Those who were paired with the women spent their afternoon making bracelets and painting their nails.
Deligianis said, “For me, this was actually the most impactful service that we did, because I had the opportunity to sit down (with them). I was colouring with some of these women and they were more able to open up and talk about their story. Just how impactful their story was and seeing how all of them saw God as their saviour. Everything that came out of their mouth was praising the service of the Lord.”
When they weren’t busy helping the community, the students had a chance to experience the area’s culture.
During a campfire with the girls from the orphanage, the students sang Spanish and English songs, read Bible passages, and made s’mores. Another activity had them taking part in a scavenger hunt through the market.
”We were divided into groups. We had to find a list of things in this market. We were given 200 pesos and the whole goal was to come back with the most pesos and the best quality of items on the list,” Prescott detailed. “Our goal was to read the Spanish items and find them in a store just by interacting with people and trying to figure out what we were missing.”
Even though there were moments that brought them joy, what stood out was the state of the migrant camps where they delivered their food hampers.
“Some of them had three brick walls as their house with no front wall. They had to hang towels to protect themselves from the weather,” described Teixeira.
Prescott added, “This was one of the experiences that I think touched a lot of us girls the most, because it hit the hardest. We would pull up to where we’re going and there would be about 20 people… This is where they were living and yet they were still so happy and grateful they had this... To be there with them on our last day… it was really fun and it was a really good way to end our trip, because coming home after that just made us a lot more grateful to have what we have.”
