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

Lunch at the Dump

After another wonderful breakfast at La Vina yesterday, we washed down the Mobile Kitchen and headed to Sam's- Mexico's version of Costco- to pick up some groceries. We left Sam's with 270 hamburgers, buns and all the dressings, as well as 12 bags of Cheetos.

The whole team drove down to the dump where we set up the Mobile Kitchen and started the hamburgers on the grill. While some of us prepared the food, others played soccer with the children, or participated in the puppet show. Before lunch was ready we even had a chance to do the chicken dance for the kids along with a couple other silly dances.

The second the crowd was told lunch was ready, there was a huge line in front of the Mobile Kitchen. We handed out the plates of food and glasses of water. Everyone was very thankful to be eating lunch that day.

Once everyone at the bottom of the dump had full bellies, we drove to the top to hand out the rest of the food. It was shocking to see how many people were up there gathering cardboard, cans and anything else they could get money for. As soon as we parked, people started coming to us from all over the dump. You could see people coming to the Mobile Kitchen from every direction. We even started cutting the hamburgers in half to make sure everyone had at least a little something to eat. When all was said and done, we had fed close to 300 hungry people.

We have seen many unbelievable conditions the week we have spent in Mazatlan so far, but seeing families call the dump a home was devistating. We may not have been able to change the conditions in which they live, but we were able to fill their bellies and bring smiles to their faces.

Aimee Gray

Stone Island

Stone Island was the destination on Wednesday for the Project Smile Team. We started the day at Sams Club, getting items to put in food bags for families. We made an assembly line in the parking lot and quickly made 150 bags,with things like oil, tomato sauce, noodles and rice.
We soon learned the reason why we needed to double bag the groceries,after getting as close as we could to the dock to head for Stone Island, we had to walk all the bags a couple of blocks to the boat. After getting to Stone Island another line quickly formed to get the bags from the boat to the waiting taxi. A third time being placed in the community centre, needless to say the double bagging was a must.
We then broke into teams of 4 and headed out around the community to hand out the tickets for the food bags. The families arrived shortly later to get thier bag.

After a quick lunch we got to work painting and digging a hole. We even had Rob H be the Project Manager to over see the progress, so we felt right at home still. The guys who volunteered to dig the hole for the light post had to move rocks first, about a city block away, to neighbour that needed them for some sort of construction job. The rest of us started painting for the afternoon. I felt right at home at the top of a ladder doing trim work. We were able to paint 3/4 of the inside of the community centre before we ran out of paint. This community centre has seen a lot of progress since last year. Last year it only had a roof and was open all around. This year, it is all closed in, kitchen being tiled, and bathrooms with running water.

We of course also played with the kids, soccer balls and badminton racquets were a hit. Chris, Warren and I made a side trip to see Chewy a young boy that has Muscular Dystrophy that hung out with us last year, but was unable to do so this year as he has a broken foot.

On the walk back to the boat kids were asking when we would be back, we unfortunately had to tell them next year, but that we were looking forward to playing with them again.

Lisa

PS oh 8

Project Smile 08 has been a blast so far. This has been our third day and everyone seems to be settling into the Mexican pace of life quite nicely. The scorching sun seems to slow everything down to a much more desired pace of life. We got here on Friday evening and went straight to our favorite Mexican restaurant for some authentic enchilladas and of course the non~negotiable tequilla shots on the house. The next day we were up bright and early to go cook hamburgers at a little community called Modero. It was great to see progress on some of the facilities we were working on last year. Their feeding center and washrooms help provide basic needs to so many less fortunate people in that area.

After filling about 200 little bellies we hung out and played games with the little ninos. There was the likes of Chicken fights (also known as Cherry drop or Shoulder wars) nurf football, potato sack races, basketball and cut the pickle. To start to ease into our upcoming days of manual labor we even changed a light bulb. Needless to say there were a few jokes about how many Canadians it takes to change a light bulb.

After a couple days off, an unnecessarily large Mexican buffet, 1 senile Magician, 1 trip to the hospital, a skinless dead horse and a lot of boogie boarding we are back to the trenches for the next 5 days to spread some cheer in the form of groceries, hamburgers, pancakes, soccer and I'm sure plenty of shovel inspired blisters on our soft web designing hands. It's great to be back in Mazatlan and to see lots of the same little faces and all the progress made over the last year. Thanks to everyone that has helped this happen and continues to support a great cause down here in Mexico. Stay tuned for lots more stories to come this week!

Trent Martens

Project Smile is back in Mazatlan!

We all arrived safely in Mazatlan Mexico on the 21st of November. We will try to keep you posted as often as we can while we are down here.

Tim

2008 Project Smile coming soon

Hi everyone, we are getting ready for Project Smile 2008 at the moment, you can keep up to tabs here with what we will be doing in Mexico this year. We have a new team with new adventure sure to follow. Check back here on November 22nd!

Making Pancakes on the Man Made Mountain

Arriving at the site, David our guide turned and told us that he used to drive down into the site about 400 ft. Now we drive up about the same distance, as the ground has been built up nearly 700 ft. over the past few years. Exiting the vehicle we are met with a strong scent that hits you like a ton of bricks. Our first task is to take our 2 jugs of water and go around giving all the workers something fresh to drink. Our attention is turned towards a fight between a few workers that are competing for something valuable that has just been brought in from the city workers. This isn't an uncommon occurence from what we are told. Our kitchen crew quickly begins to prepare the breakfast/lunch of pancakes and yogourt. We have the locals form a line at the mobile feeding centre and start serving. I take several requests at the front of the line for extra plates, more glasses of water, trying to judge what requests are valid and which are not. After feeding everyone at the top of the hill, we then proceed down, feeding all the children we come across until everything, down to the last pancake and last bit of yogourt is gone. This was without a doubt the area with the most "need" that we visited, in my opinion.