Just Do Something -- Every Little Bit Makes Change Happen

Hello Everyone ... Greetings from Mexico!Wow its hot here.

Its now Friday and we have been here for a week... time has sure been flying by! Make sure you check out the pictures at the link on the side of this page so you can see some of or journey.

The title of my blog comes from a conversation I had Rob Swiderski (A fellow Suitcase worker) yesterday while we were in a very poor community yesterday. The community or colonial as they call it here in Mazatlan was located at the city dump… thousands of poor people live in this area.

“Just do something” is the title of this blog and I will explain why I feel this way.
In the colonial we were in….. Most of the homes are made from tarpaper or garbage that people throw away, yet the people within in this community are brimming with Smiles when they see us pull up in the mobile kitchen ready to serve them a tasty warm meal… In return the team smiles just as big as we have the opportunity to serve these beautiful people. Yet thru the smiles I still see a sense of big need. Everything inside me wants to solve all their problems…. Thoughts run thru my mind…. “I wish I had so much money so I could take all these people from poverty”, “I wish we could help every child get a great education”, and list of wishes run thru my mind like crazy. A sense of frustration overwhelms me.

This is when Rob came up beside me and we went for a quick walk. We talked about lots of things…. How it was so overwhelming that people live in such poverty. It’s simply heartbreaking we agreed. Both of us began to share our feelings and ideas about ways we could help… Rob has so many great ideas, and one day maybe we can implement them…. But at that moment and time the needs are simply mind blowing. As we walked talked we agreed the only true answer at that moment in time was that you simply must “just do something”…. We both smiled and understood that this is what Project Smile is all about. The answer seemed so simple but became so much more powerful to me when thru our guide Dave one of the ladies that lived in the dump shared with us how much it means to her son that we visit them. She said it’s the only real meal they have every week and they look forward to it. What we were doing made a difference in their life and to me that was huge.

So yes…. I would love to solve the poverty cycle that continues in these poor areas… and yes I have belief that one day all those beautiful children will get the education they deserve. I also hope that we (Project Smile) can be part of the solution, and I commit the rest of my life to trying to be part of that solution. But yesterday Rob helped open my eyes again, and ignited my drive to continue on the path we are travelling thru our conversation about just simply doing something. When the task seems so huge its easy to just walk away and say to yourself that it simply can’t be fixed, or you can choose to do something so small, even if you doubt its making a difference. For me I choose the latter, and I am so proud to be part of a team that chooses to do that too. So even thou yesterday we did something small in the grand scheme of things at the colonial (aka – city dump that people call home) I am humbled by the fact that we able to help in a small way.

Thanks so much for following our blog and supporting us and our cause. Without everyone's help and support this simply wouldn't be possible.

Ryan