Oh the Impact!!!

Well, when we arrived here on January 26, just two weeks ago, little did we know what all would unfold before us. The group with whom we are staying and who is helping to organize our efforts on this side of the border is a tremendous group of caring, sincere, and kind-hearted individuals. They have nothing but our best interest, and the peoples’ best interest in mind. As we mentioned before, the municipal government has been excellent as far as helping to facilitate our project as well, even giving us access to government data sheets and vehicles for our own personal use. But that is just the tip of the iceberg! In the last two weeks, the municipal government has created a new bus line and taxi service… in honor of me!!! I have now seen buses with the initials up to, JR – 0034, starting from JR – 0001. The taxis are swarming all over town, each proudly boasting my initials on their sides, and on their bumpers. There is even a brand new gas station at the corner of one of the biggest intersections boasting my name in big letters across the front windows! I was hoping that we would be able to help the people, but this has been beyond my wildest dreams… Please see attached photos below. You may have to double-click the photos and zoom in to see the glittering letters “JR.”

Well, if you haven’t guessed, my mind is running away with fanciful dreams, or I am just plain having fun. It is true, the buses and the taxis, and even the gas stations carry my name. On first arrival I thought it a pretty cool coincidence that my name was on a smattering of buildings. But the more I looked, I realized it was everywhere! Then I actually kicked my mind into gear and took a brief moment to think about why this might be the case, and realized that we are staying in the municipal state of Juventino Rosas, and therefore any and all items associated with the government, as well as any building that wants to proudly proclaim its loyalty to the state, places the initials “JR” somewhere on its exterior. So sadly, our time here has not led to a new bus line, a new taxi service, or a fantastic gas station...

We have, however, in the last two weeks visited 23 communities (out of 61 total), generally talking with anywhere from 10-40 persons, meeting often in the chapel courtyard. Part of our purpose in these group meetings is to talk with the locals, build rapport, and determine the specific needs of each individual community – including health needs, economic needs, as well as daily needs such as food, water, shelter, etc. We have also tried to get a better understanding of how the families function when spouses or children have left to the United States. There are a large number of single women in these communities (often secondary to US immigration), and unfortunately, many of the jobs that the men obtain are seasonal, so there is never a steady influx of remittances to help pay for basic life necessities back in Mexico. Because of this, we have also talked with the women about possible skills and abilities that are either unique to their communities, or could be marketed on a small scale with some financial backing and instruction from experts at UNC as well as local help from the University in Celaya. We have delved into the possibilities of starting small microenterprises (ex: tortillas, tostadas, bed linens, clothing, cheese, yoghurt, etc) that might provide a source of jobs for these women that are otherwise stranded with multiple children, waiting for money that is slow to arrive.
We have been met with great enthusiasm in almost all of the communities. These women are strong in spirit and want to work for their livelihood and for their families. Hopefully this project will take off and be able to address these financial needs (with the longer goal of helping address the problems with depression as well). Of course, we are neither experts in business nor microfinance, but we are also helping to find communities in which a new group of volunteer medical students and physicians (about 20 in total) will be able to come and work this summer, providing free medical consults for the needy and underserved.

Two weeks have flown by, and we’ve only got two more to go. We still have a lot of work to do, especially here in town as far as discovering what current services are available for both general medical health and mental health. We hope to partner with psychologists in the area or even with psychology students to lay the foundation for a collaborative effort to provide support for these impoverished women who are known to have high levels of depression. The day awaits us, so I suppose we had better get back to it! Thank you for your support and prayers. We look forward to seeing you when we return.