Friends of Pimpollo

It seemed like a typical Thursday night dinner with Team 50 in Oaxaca. We ate good food, the waiter cleared our dishes, we requested the check. Then our community center director, Boni, started talking about Simbolos Patrios.

Simbolos Patrios is an elementary school located within smelling distance of the Oaxacan dump in Vicente Guerrero. It has about 120 students, and they are some of the sweetest children we’ve met. In a previous post, we talked about our visit to the school, when they met us at the gate with ear-to-ear grins, when they put on a program for us with native dances and dances about la foca Ramona and poems about the Mexican revolution, when they sat on our laps to watch their classmates and played with our cameras.

Their parents make a living from the dump- sifting through garbage, finding things they need and things they can sell, using those sales to support their families. Sounds like a fun job, right? Despite that, they are committed to helping their children get an education, so they support Simbolos Patrios however they can. Not through monetary contributions or magazine drives or candy bar sales, but through PTA-style committees and volunteering in classrooms. The government is supposed to support the school monetarily, but that doesn’t always happen and the school has been stuck with poorly constructed classrooms and leaky roofs.

Which is why we were so excited at that Thursday night dinner when Boni told us the news: The government had agreed to build six new classrooms at Simbolos Patrios. Real classrooms. With concrete floors and foundations and real windows. The whole project would cost $90,000, and the government was willing to fund 95% of it….

…if the parents paid for the other 5%.

Five percent of $90,000 isn’t really a lot of money, only about $4,500. But to parents who live beside a garbage dump, $4,500 and impossible are synonyms. Even worse, the government gave a one month deadline: if the Simbolos Patrios parents can’t raise $4,500 by mid-December, the project is off.

As we sat at dinner on that Thursday night in late November, Boni told us this story. He told us that we would be going to see the school on Friday, and he knew that we would love the Simbolos Patrios kids and parents as much as he does. He said he hoped that our hearts would be moved and we would want to contribute to this project, but he didn’t want to guilt us or make us do so.

It didn’t take more than thirty seconds of silence for the first member of Team 50 to speak up. “Well, I’ll go ahead and start the ball rolling. I want to give a donation.” No hesitation, no debate, no waiting to see if the school deserved the money or waiting to feel touched by the students and their situation.

And so it began. Within ten minutes, four others had also donated to the fund, also without hesitation or deliberation. They gave their hearts to these children, investing in their futures without a second thought. Over the course of the next two days, almost everyone on Team 50 decided to contribute in some way. Not everyone had the ability to give the same amount, but they offered as their situation allowed. The final tally puts us above $4500, but the excess will be put to good use supporting Boni and the FOP programs.
Throughout all of this, Boni sat quietly at the table, playing with his water glass and trying to follow the conversation with his limited English. When the final team member had spoken, we looked at Boni.

“Did you understand?” we asked Boni in Spanish. Boni shook his head.

“It is finished,” we said. “We have the money for the project.”

Boni’s eyes widened. He buried his head in his hands, but not before we saw the tears forming in the corner of his eye. “I didn’t think it would happen so quickly,” he said. “I never imagined there would be people with big enough hearts to just give the money, just like that, without even seeing the project. Thank you.”

Thanks to the members of the Team 50, Friends of Pimpollo wired $4500 to Boni last Tuesday, just in time to meet the government’s deadline. Construction has already begun, and the classrooms should be finished by January or February. Six new classrooms, real classrooms, ready for use by the spring.

This week, FOP is paying tribute to those who have helped support our programs in 2011. To the Team 50 members, who made these classrooms happen. To the 120-ish donors who attended our Christmas party two weeks ago and who have been supporting us with monthly, annual, or one-time gifts all year. To the many, many other donors who weren’t able to attend the party but who deserve our thanks just as much. To the 980 recipients of end-of-the-letters and to the anonymous donors who are matching the first $18,000 in year-end donations that come in. And to all of you, who support us via comments on the blog or posts on Facebook or simply spreading the word. You make our work possible, and we are so thankful!

Merry Christmas!

Team 50 is back home and moving full steam ahead! Team members from Maps Credit Union will be holding a virtual press conference on Thursday, December 8 at 9:45 am PST. We’d love to have you join us at

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/maps-credit-union

to hear more about the experience in Oaxaca!

You are probably getting tired of long, wordy posts, and tonight, I’m too tired to write one. So instead, here are some Team 50, Oaxaca photos for you to enjoy!

This quote is painted on the wall of community center. I can't find an exact copy, but it basically means: Education is not a matter of teaching a person something he didn't already know, but creating a person who didn't previously exist." If you know the actual quote, please post it!

We went to Liberty Elementary School to see their new classroom, and the kids welcomed us in so many fun ways: writing "Bienvenidos" on the board, memorizing our names, and greeting us in English, Spanish, French, and Zapotec, the indigenous language.

Jill Nowacki, vice president of development at Maps Credit Union, playing telephone with the kids at Luis Torres Valdes Elementary School.

Our dinner with Fuentes Libres was really interesting and really fun!

Barbara and Stephanie taking a break for a picture.

Joe Phillipay, the Chair of the Board of Directors and a really nice guy, cutting the tape at the christening of the new garden at elementary school Adolfo López Mareos.

Tom Marks, one of the members of the Maps Credit Union Board of Directors, and the other Team 50-ers did a great job collecting donations, and they brought enough to give a new pencil and a sharpener or eraser to each kid. Pretty big deal for these cuties, getting a brand new pencil.

We went to the preschool Rosaura Zapata Cano to have a party with them and see their school garden, which Team 50 helped finance. The garden will provide vegetables for the kids, teach them to eat healthy, and help them develop gardening skills. The kids and parents and teachers have done amazing work, and we are really proud of them!

The kids take such good care of their tomato plants!

The adorable girls of New Creation Kindergarten!

We’ve been having a good time this week, but meeting the kids is the best part. Their photos and memories will stay with us forever. They are the reason we are here. They are the reason we keep chugging along. They are the reason we are so thankful for your support. Help us change the world, for their sakes.

From the middle seat of our twelve passenger van, as we bump over another road that once-upon-a-time was flat and watch the sun set behind the Oaxacan roofs, Oscar speaks the words that sum up the last two days.

“I’ve never seen women who work so hard.”

These words apply to the mothers at New Creation kindergarten, who:
-shoveled dirt
-carried buckets
-hauled water
-made snacks (for us!)
-pounded nails
-sawed wood
-mixed concrete
-hauled concrete
-poured concrete
even as they carried babies on their backs and kept thirty-five children off said concrete. These ladies worked all day with few breaks, and they spent their free moments making sure we weren’t doing too much. Talk about hard-working ladies.

These words apply to the ladies of Fuentes Libres, the microloan organization we’ve been learning about. Women in Fuentes Libres programs receive loans of about $100 to invest in a business. Business loans because the business will then provide a return that can help with personal financial matters, women because they usually have a better handle on family finances. Fuentes Libres has had incredible success; for the first nine years, their default rate was around 1%. It’s gone up in the last year due to some transactions last March, so they were interested to get some feedback from Maps about loss prevention.

The women in their programs work hard. They are required to take classes on financial security for two years, to save a certain amount of money each week, to take Bible classes, and, oh right, run a business. Most of the ladies we met today were single mothers who work out of their homes selling flowers or cosmetics or jewelry.

Yet their hard work is paying off. We went to their monthly meeting today and they told us about how these microloans have changed their lives. One woman said that she is now able to make enough jewelry to support her mother and her children. Another is still making a living at age 54, which she says would be almost impossible if she had to work outside the home.

Seeing them work hard motivates us to work hard, and that brings us to the last group that the quote applies to: Team 50. Everyone on the team, women and men, has done amazing work at New Creation Kindergarten, and it was fun at the end of the day to look at the giant concrete slab and the new roof and think that our labor helped to make those possible. Who knew these Maps people were so skilled with a wheelbarrow?

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John often reminds us that educating women and changing their lives is a proven way to break the cycle of poverty. Today, these amazing and hard-working women showed us that the change comes also from within. They want better lives for their children, and they don’t care how many sore muscles it takes to get there.

It’s been a few days since we’ve blogged, but today, Team 50 Phase 3 officially began! The other nine members of our team from Maps Credit Union arrived over the last three days, and we spent the weekend getting to know each other and doing some sight-seeing (Monte Albán and Atzompa.) This week, our team includes John and me, Susan, Wayne, and the Maps team: Jill, Paige, Joe, Bobbie, Tom, Barbara, Oscar, and Stephanie. It’s a really fun group of people, if I do say so myself! Everyone is really excited to be here, and their energy got us off to a good start.

We worked today at New Creation Kindergarten in Vicente Guerrero, the transient community near the Oaxaca city dump. Susan told us that she was down here about two years ago, and New Creation was nothing more than a plot of land and a giant boulder. Now, it is a full-fledged kindergarten with two classrooms, thirty-two students, and…a giant boulder. It has made a lot of progress, and by the end of the today, it looked even better.

Joe, Wayne, and Paige did amazing work enclosing a play structure that now has a roof, newly built and painted walls, and a sandy floor to play on. Bobbie and Stephanie worked with a local man named Pablo to build some bookshelves.

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Barbara and Jill were masters with the paintbrush.

The rest of us floated around and helped level the floor for tomorrow’s concrete, haul dirt when the floor still wasn’t level, pound nails, and play with the kids. We worked hard out in the sun, but we certainly had fun!

One of our favorite memories from the day was five-year-old Rebecca, one of the kindergarteners, who changed her name every time she introduced herself. To Paige (who shall forevermore be referred to as Página, the Spanish word for page), she was Esmerelda. To Wayne, Esperanza. No matter her name, though, we all had fun playing with her and the other kids- London Bridge; Wolf, Are You Here?; Party-Cake, and more.

Tonight, we are meeting with a group called Fuentes Libres, which does microloans and other financing. Tomorrow, we’ll meet with some women who received loans from this group, and I’ll tell you all about it. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s report!

From Oaxaca, adios!

Today was such a busy day, but it was busy with Pimpollo, so we didn’t mind. After spending a few days with the kids and updating our database, we will be ready to send child sponsorship updates when we get back. For now, I want to share a few quick photos and info about three great kids:

Geraldo

The young man in this photo is Geraldo, and he is one of the most attentive and responsible boys I’ve ever known. He attached himself to my side when we arrived at Pimpollo tonight, and then he hardly let me out of his sight. The electricity was out, and when we arrived, Geraldo ran up and asked if he could use my cell phone. I explained that it doesn’t work and asked why; he explained that someone needed to call the city electricians to tell them about the lights. He is eleven, hardly the oldest kid at Pimpollo, but he had noticed that no one else was calling, so he stepped up and did it. We played a few games of cards after the lights came back on, and he was so patient and careful as he taught me the rather confusing rules. When I won, he cheered for me. When he won, he apologized! How many eleven-year-olds do that?

This young lady is Daehena. She’s been at Pimpollo for a year, and she says that she and her brother Bryan are settling in. While the lights were out, Daehena sat next to me on the concrete front walkway and made shadow puppets with the light from my cell phone. When more kids gathered around, Daehena got pushed aside, but instead of whining, she just sat next to me again and leaned against me and started to chat about her life and my life and the future. She told me about her mom, working in Oaxaca, and how hard it is to be ten-years-old and only talk to your mom once a week, at best. She told me how much she wants to learn English, and proceeded to list the words she had picked up: dog, where, thank you, you’re welcome, table. Two days ago, I sat in the dining room and taught some of those words to a few older kids, but I had no idea Daehena was listening. It appears that she was not only listening, but she memorized them all! She really is a smart girl, and I certainly think she could make it all the way. I can’t wait to see what she becomes.

Susana has spent a lot of time in the last few days with an incredible kid named Isaac. Isaac is seven years old, we think, and is severely brain damaged. He still lives at Pimpollo, however, because the socialization helps him. He is currently attending school and going to physical therapy in Oaxaca. The PT seems to have helped a lot; last year, he couldn’t stand himself up, so he spent a lot of time on the ground. This year, he can stand up, walk alone, and balance himself so much better. He is also a really sweet kid, and I enjoyed the few minutes I spent sitting in the sunshine with him today.

There are so many more at Pimpollo who are growing and changing, but these three have touched my heart. If you’ve been down here and have special memories of a kid who touched yours, post a comment and share! If you’d like an update on someone, post a comment, and we’ll respond and let you know how they are. These are all great kids, and we’re proud of them!