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
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
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
It’s a whole new world in Mexico when you wake up at 5am. There are people walking to work after cooking breakfast and lunch for their families. There are buses driving up and down the streets to pick up the workers and take them to the fields. Who knew this was all going on while […]
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Published by charles October 23rd, 2010
in Social Justice, Front Page, Participant Blogs, School of Leadership, FB, Mexico, Hero Stories, Mainpage, Other Sites, Student Zone, Testimonials and Featured.
It ended up being a beautiful day for the first day of the shack experience which was a relief after a few days of rain at the beginning of the week. The students dropped their small bundle of belongings off at the shack first thing this morning and walked their “kids” to school.
The morning was spent doing odd jobs around the house and yard. After a lunch break we headed off to meet the clamming crew. We were grateful for the warmth of the sun and surprisingly enjoyed the job more than we thought we would. After a few hours we had a total of 43 clams that were big enough to sell for a total income of 120 pesos (10 dollars). 
The rest of the pile that we had worked so hard to gather were chucked back into the ocean.
The students went grocery shopping after work and were pleasantly surprised at what they were able to get with their money and still had some to spare. Some local friends came by to check on them and gave them a hand with some plastic they brought from the ranch he works at; they helped them get a fire going and showed them how to clean the clams they brought home from the beach. Later that evening another neighbor stopped by with fresh tortillas for a snack. We experienced the amazing generosity of the Mexican people. These people have only met us a few times and yet they wanted to do what they could to help us. People pitch in and help each other here, that’s how they survive. Makes me think about what I’d be willing to do for strangers or people I just met.
- 2010 SOL Student living in ‘The Shack’
Many people in Mexico live in what we call a ’shack’ – a shack is made up of any random things you can find. Cardboard, crates, plastic, garbage, etc. Let your imaginations wander, because what you can imagine…is probably correct. This has become something that I’m very used to seeing, as when I look out […]
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Absolute would like to welcome our School of Leadership students to Hamilton! This school year holds a lot of adventure as they take their turn spending one semester touring with our Think Day presentation delivering a strong and valuable message of self-worth and purpose to high school students all over Canada. The rest of their […]
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In the past few weeks Mexico has experienced tropical rain storms that have resulted in mass flooding and serious damage. The common site here a couple of weeks ago was flooded roads and collapsed bridges on the main highway, houses swept away in the rush or ‘new’ rivers, and several flooded schools and some makeshift […]
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For those of you participating in the Orphan Diet for the month of June, thank you so much for all your help! Donations are still coming in from all over the country!
Here is another short video titled “There are two classes of people in this world”
Thank you to everyone who is helping these children. If […]
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So we finally got here and boy what a trip so far. Besides
