Tag Archive for 'Casa Hogar'

Gooooooood Morning SuperForest!

Back in March I told Sun Shines On that I was going on a trip to Mexico with an organisation called Simply Smiles.  I then wrote I would tell them all about this trip, unfortunately I did not.  First, I couldn’t bring myself to divulge my experience, keeping it close to my heart.  Then life happened, and I just haven’t gotten around to it.  So today I am going to beginning sharing my whole Simply Smiles story with SuperForest, including my most recent adventures.  Today I will start with my first trip back in 2009.  Tune in tomorrow for my second trip.

The fall of 2008 I was introduced to Simply Smiles by one of my teachers and told him I would love to go along on a school trip.  It was the first one my school would be doing.  We left in March of 2009 for Oaxaca, Mexico.

Arriving at a tiny little airport we waited for our luggage in anticipation for the unknown.  Bryan Nurnberger, founder & president of Simply Smiles, greeted us outside to take us off to Casa Hogar the orphanage we would be spending out time at.  Casa Hogar, at the time (as Simply Smiles have opened some more now), was the only orphanage in the state of Oaxaca that supported children with disabilities.

Our mission at Casa Hogar was best described by “Simply Smiles.”  We were there to be friends, to play, to laugh, and to smile! We also did a few things to help out around the orphanage such as: painting the playground, cleaning some buildings, and cooking.  But that was just some extra stuff.  The real pleasure and enjoyment at Casa Hogar was being with the children, who would soon become our new brothers and sisters.  I’ll show some pictures of our time at Casa Hogar.

The feelings of love and comradeship felt with everyone at Casa Hogar is indescribable.  We became family.  The older guys, Olé, Tino, Juan, Jorge, and others became our “amors,” or loves.  It was our way of saying we were brothers.  That little fella in the picture above is Alejandro.  We became closer in those few days than I have with any other human being.  We become brothers and we became father and son at the same time.  He was mine and I was his.  In many ways he taught me how to love a human being purely and openly.  I miss him everyday I am without him in my arms.

We spent much of our afternoons and evenings at Casa Hogar, but our mornings  were spent making breakfast, and then heading out to our work site.  This requires some background info.  The city of Oaxaca has a large dump where all garbage in the city is taken to.  It is a large mountain of trash.  And on the this mountain there are people scouring through the trash for anything valuable.  This is their daily living.  These are full families ranging from child to grandma, totalling 128 people, struggling to survive.  The trash is their only source of income, making “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” a more truthful saying than many of us can even realise.  Their homes were made of metal sheets that they had found.  Their yards were seeming littered with trash, but were in fact all organised in specific groups: cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles, metal sheets, other things that just seemed like “junk,” but were quite valuable.  They were then dependent on collectors of this valuable trash to come pick it up.  They would come on irregular schedules, making it impossible for families to know when to expect any pay.  I didn’t even mention yet that these human beings were picking trash barehanded, and many barefooted.  The garbage trucks would just come dump their trash with complete disregard for the people, increasing the chance of being hit by truck or falling trash.  Not to mention the packs of wild dogs and circling vultures waiting for food.  Oh and the smell!

Phew!  I am sorry I had to whip that all out, but it is necessary to see the truth before we can start to make a change.  That is all of what Bryan and Kristen (the same mentioned in one of my posts and husband of Bryan) first witnessed when they visited the dump.  They knew something had to change.  This is where Simply Smiles philosophy was really born.  The philosophy goes something along these lines:

We are all human beings, and such we should treat all with the same love and respect.  The difference is our fortune.  Those of us born fortunate should help those less so, but begin with friendship.

Bryan and Kristen first got to know the people at the dump, they befriended them.  They were not just some westerners.  They were Bryan and Kristen, those lovely and friendly couple gringos.  They dined with the families, they spent days with them at the dump, and more.  Until once a real bond was established they offered to help their friends in need.  This is how the housing project began.  Bryan describes it on the website as:

They Call The Dump Home…

There are 28 families surviving off of what the garbage dump in Oaxaca, Mexico can provide. They survive in an environment that can only be described as “Hell on Earth”.

These families, 128 men, women, and children make up a closely knit community of people that many consider to be modern day untouchables.

It is the mission of Simply Smiles to bring this justice to light and to provide all that these human beings need and deserve.

Our group was to build one of these houses, and with the help of three master masons we did.  We also helped paint one of the other completed houses.

This project is now complete!  All 28 families have a home to live in.  The city of Oaxaca has now recognised this community and has installed electricity into the homes.  Their lives have been drastically changed for good!  Their children now have hope to pursue their dreams.  This is what Bryan had to say on the finish of the project:

New Homes For Everyone!

Everyone who WAS living in homes made of trash, now has a new home! This is a panoramic view of many of the houses built by Simply Smiles volunteers.

Imagine living with your family in a house made of items you scavenged from a garbage dump. Your home is made of bed springs, or metal drums, or at best some sheet metal scraps.

Imagine working all day in unspeakable filth and smell and coming home to a place where you don’t even have a place to wash your hands.

You lay your new-born baby down to sleep in a plastic bin you found.

This was reality for 28 families.

Today, all 28 families have brand new homes.

YES!  Amazing!  And just because this project is over doesn’t mean the relationships built over time our gone.  Bryan and Simply Smiles volunteer groups often go back to the dump to see our friends, to see how they are doing.  The progress is amazing!  It was truly an honour to have been part of that project, to share my humanity with others.  It was true sharing of humanity, love, and peace.

The hardest part about this trip wasn’t the shock effect of seeing the living conditions of fellow human beings, but, selfishly, saying goodbye to my new friends from Casa Hogar.  For all on the trip this is true, I believe.  We were all in tears, but what kept me going was knowing I would be back in only one year.

I can only hope you can feel a slimmer of what I experienced by reading this.  I will never be able to fully express all the feelings in words, but perhaps one day you will be able to experience it by going on a trip with Simply Smiles!  Simply Smiles, Bryan, Kristen, and all involved are near and dear to my heart.  Snuggled right next to SuperForest in fact.

I will tell all of you about the next year tomorrow.  It is a new project, and a much harder topic for me to talk about.  But I will try my best.

If you are interested in learning more about Simply Smiles, and their other projects please check them out!  Click here!

I will see all of you tomorrow for Sunday Sunshine and my next instalment!

Love to you all,

Mathew