Message from Doug Vincent in Mexico
Hi everyone . .
Yesterday was an exciting day as we distributed over 700 shoe box gifts to the poor children in Mexico. We had six travel to participate from Canada plus some other Rotarian friends from Arizona, in addition to the Mexicans. After a brief stay in Tucson, the day started out well in Mexico with everyone excited, including all of the children who received the boxes and their mothers, who were given bags of groceries. But the joy soon turned to disappointment when we started running out of boxes and grocery bags.
Some of the gals went through the boxes and tried to pull out some things to make up additional gift bags, so we could stretch things further. But even though we came up with more of these token gift packages there were still almost 100 children who suffered great disappointment.
It is impossible to describe the look of their faces and the horrible feelings when you have to tell a mother and her children there are "no more" after they have been standing in line for three hours in the hot Mexican sun on a paved parting lot. Even though there are tickets given out a day ahead, many still come and stand in line with the hope of receiving something.
Our Canadian group went shopping in advance and bought many items to make up some gift bags, because our box quantities were down this year. This, plus the complications of US Customs, meant we had fewer gifts and more disappointments. When we knew that mothers would be going without, Rotarians went to a local grocery store and purchased more food.
In the past, some of the travellers have brought used children's clothing to distribute and when we ran out of gifts, at least we had those to give out. In that case, we allowed a mother to come and pick out an item for each of her children, but that did not happen this year since we had no clothes with us.
In addition to the general distribution, some of our group also went to a girl's orphanage to share gifts with them. This is always an emotional and heart wrenching experience, visiting with those who are so starved for attention and some warm loving hugs. Unfortunately, the shortage of boxes prevented us from going to the boys orphanage. What a huge disappointment!
After the distribution was complete, the local Rotarians and their spouses hosted a fiesta with pot luck Mexican food and music. Many of them got up and sang for us karaoke style and then each group of foreigners got up and sang their national anthem.
I was then picked up by Rotarian friends in Hermosillio where I will be spending the next several days. This is several hours drive further into Mexico from the Arizona border. We've been working on some projects in this area and will be helping them purchase remaining supplies to turn over to the recipient community, plus looking at some other potential future projects.
In addition, they've promised me a great time, sightseeing and possibly an overnight visit to a pueblo in the hills, as well as an afternoon at the beach in San Carlos.
So that's an update from here. Hope all is well in chilly Ontario.
Doug