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The Shack - Day 2 “In the Tomato Fields”

Published by absolute February 23rd, 2011 in Participant Blogs, School of Leadership, FB, Social Justice, Mexico, Other Sites, Student Zone and Featured. 0 Comments

What an eventful first morning. We had to get a fire started, cook our breakfast and pack our lunch. All in the complete dark! We ended up running down the street so we wouldn’t be late to meet our ride to work for 6am.
Our job today was cleaning up the tomato fields, gathering the plastic that had been used to make the trellis’. Because we had to eat lunch when the other workers did, we didn’t eat until noon. I think I can say for all of us that we were ready to eat by 10am. Thank goodness for being in the tomato fields so we could munch on the few overripe tomatoes that had been left behind.
We ended up working until 2:30. My hands were wrecked, my arms were sore and my legs felt like they were going to fall off. But this was only one long day for me, but to the workers it was just another day that blurred together with many other similar days.
Field workers only get paid the equivalent of $10 a day. There’s a man there who has worked on the same ranch for years so he got a raise - only 10 pesos (less than one dollar). It’s crazy to think that in Canada people who do manual labour tend to get paid more but this isn’t the case here. When asked if we could imagine doing this job for a whole year we said no. Most of us said we might consider it for a summer job, but only if we were getting paid a lot more. On the other hand while people here do not enjoy the job, they are happy to simply have a job and be getting paid.
We were lucky to get home early to buy groceries, collect firewood and make dinner before dark. There is not much to do in the evenings and we do not have enough wood to sit around a campfire to stay warm so it is early to bed for us after a long day of hard work in the sun.

Written by Sarah, a School of Leadership Student, and Rose Friesen, School of Leadership Mexico Facilitator

Shack Day 1 - Five Pesos to Spare

Published by absolute February 22nd, 2011 in Participant Blogs, School of Leadership, FB, Social Justice, Mexico, Other Sites, Student Zone and Featured. 1 Comment

We moved into our shack today and started work right away. We did physical work around the yard. We started around 9am, had lunch break at noon and the work day ended at 3:30pm. Apparently this is a short day of work! All I know is that I was ready to nap during our lunch break! While two people dug a hole for a new outhouse (baño), the rest of us re-fenced the yard. This consisted of ripping old plastic off the sticks used as fence poles and stapling on new plastic. The people doing the fence periodically rotated with those digging the baño hole. In the end the baño hole was at least ten feet deep. We carried the heavy baño structure over from the next yard and put it safely on top. By the end of the day we had a new bathroom and a repaired fence.

Our income for the day was 300 pesos; however by the time we paid our bills and bought groceries for dinner tonight and breakfast and lunch for tomorrow we only had five pesos to spare. It was the most stressful situation ever for me. Based on some requests from the rest of the group Emily and I were the ones doing the shopping today. By doing this I really got a sense of what life could be like for a struggling family (and not only here but anywhere). Standing in a grocery store trying to calculate in my head what the bill will be, how much money we had and worrying if we were getting enough to fill our families stomachs. Trying to put a bit of money aside for a day off. And the worries of what if we didn’t have enough money, what would i put back and the embarrassment that goes hand in hand.
Even as we sit here by the fire with barely any light left planning our meals and schedules for tomorrow, I cannot help think how many people in my neighborhood are thinking along the same lines. Only their worries are much stronger because at the end of this week they don’t get to ‘check out’ and go back to a big sturdy house and worry-free steady meals. We only have five pesos to spare today but when it comes down to it, we are going to be okay.

Written by Deryn, a School of Leadership Student

The Shack Intro - “We’re All in This Together”

Published by absolute February 21st, 2011 in Participant Blogs, School of Leadership, FB, Social Justice, Mexico, Other Sites, Student Zone and Featured. 0 Comments

For 7 full days, I’ll be living in a shack that we, the six of us School of Leadership students, built out of cardboard, wood, and plastic scraps that we’ve salvaged from the streets of Zapata & Vicente Guerrero. Why you might ask? To experience some of the life challenges that a migrant worker in Baja Mexico might encounter.

Each day, we’ll be working common labour jobs to make a daily combined wage of 300 pesos; the equivalent of three people working. This will be shared between the 6 of us to buy food, water, and supplies – including toilet paper, firewood & any other life bills that may come up like medical expenses. Just so you know, 300 Mexican Pesos = 26 American Dollars.

Building our new home seemed like a near impossible task when we first began. Considering all we were given was a staple gun with staples, a few nails and a hammer. We had zero money and needed to build a stable, water-proof structure to keep us safe from whatever weather is coming our way. So we turned to the ditches of the highway; we scavenged for cardboard, wood, scraps, windshields, anything and everything to build our shack. Some generous businesses also donated some scraps of wood, twine and cardboard boxes. Once we filled our van with cardboard and such, we headed home. After we got everything out of the bus we started to strategize where we would build our new home. We tried to find the most level surface to build on, from here we decided where the shower, fire pit and water barrel would go. Idea’s were flying. We decided on a raised tent shape, basically a triangular shaped frame with about a 2ft base at both ends; similar to a basic house shape, only shorter. Once we had the frame of our shack built we started to lay and staple cardboard to the roof. We covered the roof with the plastic to make a water-proof roof for our lovely new home. For the plastic we used the rope that the lumber yard man gave us; it was quite handy. We did some problem solving and came up with different ways of holding down the plastic. Once the plastic was in place we made sure everything was secure.
I think we may just survive in this thing, considering I’m looking out the window at the shack & it’s still intact despite a night that kept me awake with rainstorms & windgusts like you wouldn’t believe! (Or maybe I just stayed awake because I’m terrified for the next 7 days..and slightly eager to get started!) But all in all, it’s an experience I’m excited for. Here goes nothing – we’re all in this experiment together!

Written by Leah and Emily

A Second First Impression

Published by absolute January 28th, 2011 in FB, School of Leadership, Student Zone and Other Sites. Closed

Overlooking the waves of the ocean with the sun in my face…oh Mexico, how I could get used to you.
However, Mexico wasn’t always like this for me. I’ve been here before, but my first impressions weren’t as good as the ones that I have now. You need to understand that the last time I was […]

Carnival!

Published by absolute November 27th, 2010 in FB, School of Leadership, Student Zone and Other Sites. Closed

When we were asked what we had done to get to know our community while we were living in Mexico beyond activities that were planned by Absolute, we spent a long time thinking and came up with nothing. We had not done one thing in our 3 months of living here to get to know […]

Our Mexican Princess!

Published by absolute November 15th, 2010 in FB, School of Leadership, Student Zone and Other Sites. Closed

A few weeks ago we (the School of Leadership students) began a special project for our Mexican Princess - Jessica. Jessica is eight years old and has cancer. When asked in the summer if you could wish for anything what would you wish for, she said a Barbie playhouse. Jessica needs a place indoors to […]

Day Seven - Shack Experience - “Last Day”

Published by absolute October 29th, 2010 in FB, School of Leadership, Student Zone, Other Sites and Mainpage. Closed

The days had begun to run together but everyone knew what today was. Last day. Last day of the shack experience. One last day of walking the kids to school first thing in the morning, one last day of hard work, one last evening of cooking over the fire and one last sleep in the shack. Most people living this kind of life do not have the luxury of thinking this way. This is their life day in and day out. The Mexican workers we met throughout the week “were mystified with us, that a group of rich white people wanted to do a low-paying job and live in Mexico when their dream is to get away from here and live a better life” (Allie, School of Leadership Student).

The students worked hard doing landscaping all day. This involved lots of swinging the pick-axe, shoveling, lifting rocks and raking. After a week of working outside they were a well-oiled machine even though after a week of labour their bodies were tired and sore. As they worked together they laughed, teased each other, encouraged each other and gave each other space when someone needed it. They were determined that the homeowners would return to find a nicely sloped yard instead of a drop off outside their front door. And they accomplished it.

The leadership students accomplished a lot this week. Some were skeptical going in about whether they were going to survive - and here they were on day seven. They had learned not only about what kind of lives other people live but they also learned so much about themselves. They learned to be grateful that they had a shack to go to sleep in at the end of a day of work. That they do not need as many ‘things’ as they thought they did to survive or be happy. The students were grateful for the jobs that they have had in Canada. “Back home my last job was tedious work, packing books for a distributing company and I felt underpaid at $11/hour. Thinking back on that I feel quite silly and ashamed of my greed. I wanted more money…for what? More clothes, new shoes? I lived in a sturdy house; there was food in my fridge; parents that told me to reach for the stars” (Allie, School of Leadership Student). They learned they have so much to be thankful for.

The students learned that they do not always have to be doing something and that they can have a good time just sitting around a fire chatting with friends. By the end of the week bugs were dealt with casually rather than calling in the troops. They learned that they could eat until they are full on about two dollars a day each. They marveled at how cheerful most people they met are despite the fact that they must be tired from the hard work. They learned to work together, to budget their money and make decisions together. And even though they do not want their parents to know, they learned how much work there is to do around the home after work but before bed - and that if everyone pitches in and works together it gets done much faster. There is so much more that they learned that cannot be captured within a blog. Finally they learned that they need to believe in themselves. That they can accomplish more than they think possible and that they are their own worst enemy. When they decided to say ‘why not, let’s try it’ they were surprised and amazed at what they could do.

That all being said, none were ready to take on a second week of living in the shack and were eagerly waiting at the house gate after their final sleep in the shack to return home. I am proud of the students for digging deep and pulling together to not only get through the week but for trying to get the most that they could from the experience. I hope that the lessons they learned will carry through to the rest of their time together in the School of Leadership and as they return home at the end of the year.

Rose, School of Leadership Mexico Facilitator

Day 6 - Shack Experience - “Only One More Day”

Published by absolute October 28th, 2010 in FB, School of Leadership, Student Zone, Other Sites and Mainpage. Closed

Day 6 of the shack experience, day 56 of living in Mexico and I think that I’ve started to go a bit crazy because I didn’t think twice about the rooster that just walked by me in the yard (we don’t actually own roosters). I’ve started to be able to tell the time by how far the sun is away from the power lines across the road from us and the only music I whistle is the jingle from the gas truck that drives by every hour blasting the music through a speaker on its roof.

We got to sleep in, even if it was only till 7am. With our backs trying to stop us with every move, the team managed to crawl out of the shack one more time. On this morning the sun had just woken up itself to give us light for breakfast. We ate quickly as we still need to walk our “kids” to school before meeting the van for 7:30am.

We arrived at the beach and met a man with his wife and five-month baby boy who every day comes to this same part of the beach and looks for what ever rocks were in demand. Today he instructed us that we were going to be looking for medium to small black rocks, which need to be smooth and rounded. We thought it would be reasonably easy considering we were on a rock beach, kind of like what you would find on the East coast of Canada. But we soon found out that it was no easy task. We got into pairs and picked a spot on the beach, sat down and started looking for black, smooth, round rocks. We dug and threw unwanted rocks out of the way to hopefully find one we were looking for underneath the one being tossed. As soon as you were about to go nuts from not finding anything you would see one that fits the bill. You would quickly throw it into the bucket and keep searching.

Lunch consisted of two hot dogs wrapped in tortillas, hard boiled egg, one carrot - and five cookies which were the best part of every lunch we had. Once lunch was over we continued to pick rocks. Mid-afternoon our team combined all the rocks we had picked and put them on a tarp so the man could sort through them to see which ones were good. Our combined effort was only about seven, five gallon buckets full. This is only worth 70 pesos of income. A regular day for the family we worked for is about thirty buckets between the two of them. Even though we worked hard we still didn’t even meet the quarter mark. It was our first day…

When we got home we started our routine of going to the market to get groceries for supper that night plus breakfast and lunch for the next day. Some people washed clothes that were in desperate need of cleaning, some took cold water bucket showers, and others wrote in their journals. Around 5pm we started the fire and got the water boiling for supper which was going to be pasta with tomato sauce with carrots, green peppers and onions. Plus five cookies for dessert with some saved for a late night snack; and by late night I mean 7pm.

Around 7:30 we all crawled into our spots in the shack for bed and hoped that the bugs will not intrude into our sleeping bags during the night. We all talked to each other until one by one open conversations were replaced by closed eyes, ready for what ever sleep would come that night. Our sleep was not only interrupted by lumps in the dirt digging into our hips and ribs, or a sore arm that has been laid on too long, or the snoring of someone that was getting sleep besides you. But this night was special because it was not only interrupted by all these normal things but this was the night it rained. By rain I mean spraying the hose on the roof of our shack for twenty minutes. The sound of water hitting plastic that is three feet above your head is a sound I will never forget. Its the sound of “please don’t leak, please don’t leak” to “push that low spot up and get rid of the pooling water”. Then came the sound of screaming from the girls side of the shack because the water that had pooled in the corner of their roof, gave out and flooded their room. Its also the sound of Shane and Matt talking to each other saying that we were thankful we put cardboard and strips of wood across under the plastic to reinforce the roof. No leaks for the dudes, but for the dames it was another story. After it rained the girls dried off as best they could and went back to sleep. As we closed our eyes to get back to sleep, all that was in our minds was that there was just one more day in the shack and we could pull through. We also thought about all the people who deal with this every time it rains, which is more than you think when you think of Mexico. I’m thankful for just having to go through it one time, and will never forget that night.

Matt and Shane, School of Leadership Students living in ‘The Shack’

Day Five - The Shack Experience - ‘Inga’s Story’

Published by absolute October 27th, 2010 in FB, School of Leadership, Student Zone, Other Sites and Mainpage. Closed

This morning we woke at 5:00am to do our regular morning routine by flashlight - fill our water bottles, brush our teeth and eat breakfast. We walked a few blocks to our designated ‘bus’ pick-up point. As we walk down the streets we usually see other people also waiting for their bus to head out to the fields.

When we got to the field it was still very dark so we got to relax for a few minutes until the sun rose enough that we could see. Our job in the field today was to go along the bottoms of the tomato plants and tear away all the leaves so the tomatoes could be exposed to the sun before getting picked. We started tearing away the leaves and realized that once again the Mexicans were way faster than us.

We were all working on a row together to try and catch up to the others when we began to talk to Inga. She has a story that I wouldn’t have ever expected to hear. Inga is the mother of four daughters; they all attend school. She gets up early in the morning to prepare breakfast and lunch for her family. She goes to the field by 6:00am and the girls rely on their oldest sister to take care of them before and after school. We then asked if she had a husband. She told us that she does but that he goes to the United States for six months at a time to work as a landscaper in Utah. He comes home for two weeks at a time and then goes back for another six months. He sends them money and tells his wife not to work - but she doesn’t like to just be at home all the time so she comes to work in the field. Her husband got his papers to work in the States in 1980. Inga and their girls could possibly get their papers in the next year and then hopefully move to the States so the girls can get a better education. As we listen to her story I think to myself, “Why would anyone choose to be in the field when they could be at home?’ They go home with sore legs, knees, and backs and blistered, dirty fingers everyday.

It’s hard to believe that for decades people can live seeing their loved ones for only four weeks out of a whole year. It really makes you realize that you shouldn’t take for granted the time you do have with the people you love - even when it is for more than four weeks a year.

Jessica, a School of Leadership Student living in ‘The Shack’

Day Four - The Shack Experience - ‘Share Some Love’

Published by absolute October 26th, 2010 in FB, School of Leadership, Student Zone, Other Sites and Mainpage. Closed

Em woke me up by yelling “I hate the shack! I hate bugs!” in her sleep. I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. As excited as we were rolling into a day without work, we all wondered what exactly does such a busy nation do with spare time? A ‘sun’ day it was indeed! Our plastic insulated shack keeps us warm at night but boy oh boy, as the sun hit that morning it became much to warm to sleep in.
We made scrambled eggs over the fire so the first people to eat had a clean pan and the last people had very burned eggs. Some of us had a bucket shower and washed some clothes. Almost dreading a whole day of what we thought would be excruciatingly boring, we soon felt the true spirit of being Mexican. On our day without pay we worried we would be eating another day of rice and eggs. But how wrong we were! By living in a warm climate culture the saying “what’s mine is yours and what’s yours in mine” is quite literal. Our next door neighbours invited us over for a lunch of ceviche and pop (not to mention some American television but shhh, don’t tell the Absolute staff). We played with their puppies and baby boy. We picked up some groceries for supper and then other friends up the road invited us over for carrot cake. We played la loteria (bingo) and won chocolate coins.

As we headed to bed around whatever time the sun went down, we realized how important it is to appreciate and share love with those around you. It doesn’t matter if you have no money or all the money in the world - everyone has some love to share (and great memories to create).

Em and Zoe, 2010 School of Leadership students living in “The Shack”

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