Cultural Education & Study Abroad Readiness

Today was a very unique one for the program thus far. Our day began at 6 AM, in order to volunteer at El Estacion, an impoverished squatter community in Cuernavaca. The first activity on the agenda was to volunteer at the local community center, which houses both a kitchen and a kindergarten classroom. For several years the community center has served hot breakfasts to local kids Monday-Friday at a price of approximately 50 cents in U.S. currency. Some community children who would have trouble paying the 50 cents are ‘sponsored’ by donors to pay a lower price, or no price, for their breakfast. This allows all kids a chance to eat breakfast before school at an affordable cost. As many as 120 kids can come to eat breakfast at the center in its busiest mornings!

Ready for the rush: the food C.E.S.A.R. students helped prepare

The breakfast program is run on a rotating schedule by mothers of children who eat at the community center in the morning. This morning, there were two mothers present. The C.E.S.A.R. group helped prepare, serve, and then clean up the kitchen and dining area, which also functoned as the community´s kindergarten classroom during the school day. The C.E.S.A.R. students delved right into their responsibilities with strong enthusiasm, resulting in an efficient assembly line. The system worked as such: anyone coming in for breakfast would hand their ticket (bought in advance) to Myzel and Michael, who would then yell out either, “Uno!” “Dos!” or “Tres!,” signifying the people in the back how many orders were coming in. Nyesha, Pachan, and Maya then rolled tortillas, which would be drenched in a bean paste by one of the mothers. After the tortillas had their bean garnish, Shacquan would artistically sprinkle sour cream and cheese on top, and then Myzel and Michael would hand it to the person who ordered, along with a glass of juice and a cup of yogurt. Teneisha was so impressed with the group’s diligence and quickness in assuming roles that she proclaimed, “I don’t think there’s anything left for [Michelle and me] to do!” It turns out Teneisha and Michelle were lucky enough, however: they got to wash the dishes!

Shacquan carefully adds the final touches to someone´s breakfast

Pachan, Nyesha, and Maya ready tortillas to be made into enchiladas

Satisfied customers!

By the end of breakfast, the students had served sixty-six mothers and children before the school day had even begun! The community center thanked the C.E.S.A.R. students profusely for their help, and the kids all seemed to feel satisfied with their early-morning altruism.

Educational Difficulties in La Estacion
There was an unplanned cultural awakening that occurred following breakfast, however. Because teachers are often paid extremely low wages, (approximately $5 U.S. per day) teachers sometimes do not show up for work. Often, there will not be a substitute teacher, so the kids simply can not go to school on these days. Our guide, April, was called in to be a substitute when the school day began, because a teacher had not shown up to teach. A second teacher did the same, however, and so some of those 1st-graders, with no school to attend, followed us sporadically. The C.E.S.A.R. students had a hard time imagining what it would be like to have teachers who simply would not show up, and realized how difficult this must make attaining an education for children in La Estacion.

"You are very lucky to live in the United States"
Home visits in La Estacion
The next few hours only added nuances to this realization. The community’s living conditions are not particularly desirable, and the C.E.S.A.R. group split in two to visit local homes and speak to local families. My group’s first meeting was with a woman named Mary, a mother of seven. She had lived in the same humble home for all of her thirty-three years. We had a CCIDD translator with us so that the students could ask questions of Mary, who only spoke Spanish. Early in the conversation, when Mary was asked about her husband, she tearfully revealed that he had left a month before to work illegally in the United States. He plans to return in one year, in order to send money back so that she can support and provide an education for her seven children. The C.E.S.A.R. students were obviously impacted by her palpable anguish in his absence, and by the undesirable living conditions they witnessed her family in. The eight family members shared two small bedrooms, with little space in the rest of the house and no running water. When I asked Myzel what he thought about the experience of visiting Mary and her family, he said that, “Everything was so different,” from his life in the U.S. The translator in the end told the kids that they are, “Very lucky to live in the United States. Think about that when you return. You have the opportunity to study for free and you should make the most of it.”

Michelle, Michael, Myzel, and Quan with Mary, an El Estacion mother of seven

The whole group then did a home visit to a woman named Andrea, who also had seven children. Four of them were working in the U.S., however, (one of whom she said looks similar to C.E.S.A.R. student Michael) and she has not seen them for seven years. She said she doesn’t think she will ever see them again because they have no plans to return to Mexico. Also, informed us that she has been doing visits like ours for 24 years with CCIDD, and the C.E.S.A.R. students are the youngest she has ever seen! Whether or not this made the students proud, the other leaders and I were certainly impressed to be reminded that the C.E.S.A.R. kids are a very unique group to have this experience, and for more reasons than just their age.

The C.E.S.A.R. group at the home of Andrea, a La Estacion mother

Debriefing The 'La Estacion' Experience
“We are here to learn how people live as they do in Mexico and also why.”
-Pauline, CCIDD employee, while opening the reflective debriefing experience

After returning from La Estacion and enjoying lunch and some free time, the group had a very comprehensive, thought-provoking debriefing session. There were several main activities in the debriefing. The first involved a group discussion in which the students listed the things at La Estacion which provoked their five senses, meaning what they saw, heard, touched, tasted, and smelled at La Estacion. The group formed a list, which included (in exact words):

**NOTE TO READER: Anything in parantheses was not written by the kids, but rather is a clarification I am adding to clarify material or to convey the sentiments expressed in the exercise to you**

-->Kids (mentioned multiple times)
-->Dogs (wandering around/barking)
-->Enjoyable taste of frijolades ('frijolades' were the bean enchiladas made in the morning)
-->The smell of frijolades
-->Heard music in Spanish
-->Heard little kids talking
-->Some bad smells
-->Felt plates being passed around (while serving breakfast)

The students were then asked what their emotional response was to the 'senses' they experienced:

-->Happiness (while talking to kids)
-->Sadness (mentioned multiple times about seeing people's dillapidated houses and difficult lives)
-->Stupid (from not understanding Spanish)
-->Sorry (from seeing poverty)
-->Glad (to be helping)
-->Encouraged
-->Fun

Next, the students brainstormed the reasons as to why they thought La Estacion was the way it was:
-->Not enough money or experience to get good jobs
-->One mother we met only went to school until 2nd grade. Without much education she didn’t have opportunities.
-->Family size (families are typically very large)
-->Single parent homes
-->Low wages
-->Unemployment

The focus of the debriefing then shifted from words to art. On one side of the paper the students were to draw their own home. On the other side they were to draw the home of someone they visited in La Estacion. They were encouraged to focus on both the similarities and the differences

Nyesha shows her picture to the group comparing her home with a home in La Estacion

The next stage of the exercise involved listing the differences the students have observed thus far between Milwaukee in the United States and Cuernavaca in Mexico. I summarize:

**NOTE TO READER: The students’ ideas are all paraphrased so as to organize the blog**

-->In Milwaukee people wear name-brand clothing; in Cuernavaca more people wear plain or generic t-shirts.
-->In Milwaukee people have bigger, nicer houses; in Cuernavaca some people live in shacks
-->In Milwaukee people have more access to schools
-->In Milwaukee people have flushing toilets; in Cuernavaca, people often don’t have a flush toilet in their home
-->In Milwaukee internet is more accessible
-->In Milwaukee there are dog catchers; in Cuernavaca there are some stray dogs on the streets
-->In Milwaukee recycling is either more accessible or, in some places, required; in Cuernavaca it is frequently unavailable
-->In Milwaukee everyone has their own bed; in one family students visited in La Estacion a family of eight shared two beds
-->In Milwaukee everyone has a place to sit at the dinner table; in some Cuernavacan homes aren’t enough seats at a table for everyone
-->In Milwaukee there are paved roads; in Cuernavaca there are dirt and rock roads
-->In Milwaukee technology is more advanced
-->In Milwaukee people have small, fancy phones; in Cuernavaca people tend to have basic phones
-->In Milwaukee people usually drive; in Cuernavaca people usually walk
-->In Milwaukee people have more material items.
-->In Milwaukee people get higher wages
-->In Cuernavaca schools have lots of kids but not enough teachers, and the teachers don’t always show up
-->In Milwaukee people have more money for cleaning/repairing their possessions
-->In houses in Milwaukee there tend to be separate rooms; in Cuernavaca houses often have one room that functions as a kitchen, dining room, living room, bedrooms, etc.
-->In Milwaukee, schools are much nicer and have a lot more books

Anyhow, that about wraps my part on the blog up for today. It was a very productive, highly cerebral and tremendously thought-provoking day for the kids. None had ever experienced something like La Estacion before, and it clearly left a deep impression. The kids expressed everything from happiness, hope, and satisfaction to sadness and sorry. I was especially happy to hear the C.E.S.A.R. students articulate a newfound appreciation of their lives back home, their families, and the educational opportunities they have. I have full confidence the experience in La Estacion is going to impact all six students long after their return to the United States. It was experiences such as this, and days like today, that remind myself and the other leaders of the identity-defining power of intercultural experiences and from stepping outside one’s comfort zone. Today definitely helped shed some light not just on “how people live as they do in Mexico” but also “why.” We all look forward to more days like it!

Until tomorrow,
Aaron