For the students who journeyed to Mexico in early April to change the lives of some of the poorest residents there, all the stone walls they built and the concrete they mixed can never come close to effecting the level of change that the experience had on their own lives. They left things a little better off than they found them, but back home, they experienced a startling shift in their view of the world.
Twelve students from Notre Dame High School and Assumption Jr./Sr. High School participated in a mission trip to Cuernavaca, Mexico, from April 1-11. They visited families in their homes, witnessed the living conditions of the poorest in the city, and were exposed to the level of injustice and poverty that is impossible to find in Canada.
“It helps students build an awareness of situations in other countries in Third World kind of situations,” explained Lea Foy, the religion co-ordinator who organized the trip.
The program runs out of a centre in Mexico and gives students the opportunity to meet and connect with local families and to help them make their living conditions better. Students mix concrete, build stone walls, help renovate existing structures, and other very physical examples of manual labour.
They came back to Canada with a new outlook on the world.
“I thought that the people in Mexico were poor because they wanted to be poor and they didn't want to work,” said Casey Chalut, one of the students who went on the trip. “But that's not true. They are the hardest working people I've ever seen.”
One of the most startling revelations for many of the students was how similar the families they met were to their own.
“We laughed at the same jokes, we listened to the same music, and even though there was a language barrier, they were the same as we were,” Chalut explained.
“We found out that they're pretty much exactly like our families,” Caitlin McGrath added. “They're good, hardworking families and they live sad lives, but the one thing they all kept saying was how their children would never live those lives. I found that very similar to our families and how they always want the best for us.”
“It really made me take a step back and not take anything that I have for granted, especially the relationships that I have,” Kim Corbiere said. “Down in Mexico, the people that we met, it didn't matter what they had as long as they had their family and their friends.”
The students helped the families they met make their living spaces a little better, by working with the families to mix concrete, haul stones and build walls.
“We gave them something so insignificant,” said Laura Dokter.
“They gave us so much,” added Chalut.
“We learned so much from them,” agreed McGrath. “I don't think that they know they changed our lives so much.”
