I am doing street work, yeah!
Trip Start
Aug 05, 2007
1
15
17
Trip End
Aug 05, 2008
Mexico City,
Mexico
Saturday, February 16, 2008
I hope you are all well! Thank you for all your messages, I will reply but it may take me a little time as I have a huge backlog of emails as things have been very busy!
As you can see from the title of my blogg, I have started street work, yippee! I am not sure whether I have explained before that there are three stages to the project I am working in. The first stage is Street Work, the second stage is Central de Dia (the day centre) and the third stage is Option de Vida (finding the children a place to live). Before I was working in Central de Dia and I was beginning to get a bit bored of the the same routine and was forming an opinion (which was not always welcome!) so it is so nice to have a change.
The street work is so different and is not as tiring as the Centre as you have not got children jumping on you all you day, although I do miss the constant interaction at times. I will tell you the routine so that you have some kind of idea what I am doing apart from walking the streets! Each volunteer is matched with a educator so you work in pairs. You meet with your educator at the agreed metro station, usually about 8am. You then search for children and if you find any you tell them about the project and encourage them to come along. You then return the centre about 9.30am and spend some time in the centre before breakfast. Breakfast is at 10.30am then you go back onto the streets at 11.30am until 2pm. Then you have lunch and play with the children in the day centre for a bit before they return to the street. So there is alot of walking so you get a chance to see the city! It does get hot at times though so I invested in a sun hat as I do not want to look like a beetroot!
So far I have worked with two different educators. They first educator I was with spoke a little English but the one I am with now speaks no English, or very little!!!. She is from Spain so her accent is different so I struggle to understand her at times and she likes to talk alot which is great but my brain gets very tired after a couple of hours! She asks me lots of questions so you can not pretend to listen! which I have tried to do when I was feeling tired and she soon noticed as I had no idea what she was talking about! so now I try my best to listen very hard and usually go home with a massive headache! She is really nice though, very dedicated and walks so fast!!! even though she has little legs!! She has been working on the streets for two years so she knows her stuff which is great because she is able to tell me more about the problems they have with the street children in Mexico. I feel my Spanish will improve more now because I having to speak it!
The people that we have met so far on the streets have been great, only one adult has freaked me out a bit! They are very welcoming and willing to speak to you apart from when they are so high on glue they can not communicate! We have been lucky in that we have brought two children to the centre within a space of about two weeks. They were both very calm and only sniffing glue so we could get them into the centre quickly. Usually they have to do at least 5 sessions with the street worker before they can come to the centre and if they are doing crack then it may take longer, as it is very addictive and they need a fix often and obviously when they come to the centre they have to be able to go for a whole day without taking drugs.
One of the boys we found had only been on the street for one month so he was motivated for change as obviously the longer they have been on the street it harder for them to see change. So when you first meet a child you introduce yourself and tell them where you are from. You ask whether they are interested in leaving the street if they are you continue to ask how old they are, how long they have been on the street and what drugs they are taking. If all then goes well you play a game with them on the street, the favorite card game is uno!! and if you loose you usually have to do press-ups, about 10! so I am now becoming an expert in this game as doing press-ups on the streets is kind of weird but I am no longer embarrassed now as so many times people have been looking at me as if I am crazy. So anyway when we were playing with one boy a couple of drug dealers came over and did a deal right in front on us. It was so hard to say anything and not to react. The boy had a bottle of glue (which you can buy for about 30 pesos or about one pound fifty) and the dealers were giving him tissue to wet with the glue. The boy was then given money for the wet tissue (about 2 pesos) which then the dealer will sell on. Glue is a huge problem because it is so cheap and a child can buy the wet tissue off the dealer for about 5 pesos. Although the affect does not last for long it is a short time in which the children can escape reality.
As you can see from what I am writing it is so interesting and gives you a real in-site into the society`s problems. There is so much to tell..... their living conditions are bad as you can imagine, you find many asleep in the subway stations and many sleep in the day as if it too cold for them to sleep at night. Plus many of them work at night. This makes them more difficult to find as often they are sleeping so you have to search the bushes and in parks.
There seems to be a great sense of community spirt though. The stall holders and the people that work in the metro stations are helpful as they tell us whether there are any children in the area and they tell us if they know where they are staying so that we can find them. At the moment we are looking for a boy who has returned to the street. He left the centre two weeks ago and went to drug rehab but found it too hard so he left. So we are now searching for him.
Apart from work I have been busy doing other things. I went to see many butterflies the other weekend in Micuican. This is a place about 3 hours from d.f. The butterflies migrate there from Canada every year. It was amazing! There were so many you that could hear their wings flapping. It was so peaceful as it was in the forest. I took some photos that I can share with you all when I return.
I have also been helping out with teaching English in the evening and I have started running again! with no pain, yeah! I am up to about 5km but it is such hard work because of the altitude and the pollution. I usually run at night so I do not get too hot. I would love to do a race here in Mexico so it is important I am keep it up.
I have just recovered again from eating too much chili so I have not managed to run today! The food is still as gross as ever!!! although the goats head as gone, yippee! That is one bad thing about doing street work..... the constant smell of meat cooking and lots of raw chickens on stalls for sell! and many still have their heads on!!! what is the obsession with leaving their heads on???? I ask all you meat eaters...... does that make it look more yummy???? to me NO! and the chickens are yellow here! nothing surprises me in Mexico anymore, ha!
Thank you again for all your messages, I love hearing from you all as even though I am having a great time, I miss you all and it is great to hear what you are up to.
Take care,
Gemma x
