We’re excited to announce our 2010 Hero Holiday Calendar, “Together”. This calendar is full of incredible photos taken on Hero Holidays around the world by some of our very own photographers. Included in the calendar are excerpts from our blog, “52″, as well as some great quotes and thoughts on how to make a difference.

The calendar costs $20 and proceeds from the sale of each calendar go towards Absolute and Hero Holiday’s charitable projects.

As I and the rest of the School of Leadership students drove up to the one-room school that day in Mexico, I couldn’t help thinking, what did we get ourselves into?! We walked into the class and you could tell how eager the children were to learn, with their big brown eyes staring up at us we started with the basics (”Hi, how are you?” or “My name is…”). As we walked around the classroom all the children slowly but surely opened their mouths pronouncing the few words we had taught them. There were a few that held back, but after giving them a high five their shy, covered faces exploded into a smile that spread from ear to ear.

There would be times where we would get a little off-topic and the children would chase us around the classroom in a mass-tickle fight, but in the end we were giving them an outlet from the stresses of their daily lives. It is hard to think that children in a kindergarten class carry many burdens, but that became a new reality for us when the teacher asked us if we could come teach English at a later time of day so that the children who work in the fields could attend the classes too.
When we worked in the fields during the shack experience, we saw a few children working in the fields as well, but they acted so mature that I often thought of the children working there as adults. It has become clear that children are being forced into taking on the daily challenges of an average adult in many countries like Mexico and are being robbed of their childhood. We have the power to end the cycle of poverty, but it all comes down to whether we stand together to make a change.

It’s funny because we always think that we are only one person, and how much of a difference can one person make? But once one person decides to do something it creates a chain reaction and soon enough that single person turns into a large group.

~ Laura, a School of Leadership student living, learning, and teaching in Mexico

Outside, the sun is climbing high above the clouds, where it will burn away the ocean mist in time for our twentieth day at the beach this afternoon. Inside our classroom, however, it’s all business. The flies are zipping by our heads, their ranks slowly diminishing as they land on our sticky spiral trap one by one. 

Kelsey reads out the next paragraph about desertification from our Social Justice curriculum. Bryan throws out another random, somewhat relevant interesting fact. Brett relates it back to life in Alberta. Kelsey nods in agreement with him based on life in Saskatchewan. Such is the life in the School of Leadership in Mexico. 

Adrian’s sporadic and worthy points capture the attention of every soul. Laura has attended conferences relevant to any topic, or at least can relate it back to her work with Tim Horton’s or UNICEF. Melissa wants to create changes in her life at home. Roxy thinks that is great!

Everyone has their place in our blue classroom and no topic is learned disinterestedly. I know we all look forward to it, and understand its importance. This is the stuff that will stick with us throughout the rest of our day to day lives. As we’re in line for a Timmy’s coffee, as we get handed our pay stub, as we question our life direction (as I find myself doing every day), and as we pass a retching homeless man in the street, we will remember.

We have the choice to live like we were never here, but unless we suffer catastrophic brain damage; we will never truly forget all the life changing, eye opening class time in our Mexican classroom.

1. Not to go back to “normal” life.
2. Always remember the plight of the poor.
3. Do whatever is in my power to help those that need it.
4. Continually educate myself on issues facing our world.

Since the start of the school year, it has been exciting to hear all that amazing things our 34 members have been doing in their local communities. Many have contacted their local newspapers and got their stories of the summer out for everyone to hear, or made sure that their school had our high school presentation, Think Day, visit for all the students to hear our life changing message, others have gotten involved in all kinds of social justice programs offered at their school. One common theme among our members is that they can not just sit back and do nothing.

One student who I would like to highlight is Chantal. Chantal is the kind of student you meet and know she has a heart of gold. She is full of compassion and truly loves to help those in need. Since traveling to the Dominican this past summer, Chantal has gone home with a passion in her heart and memories of those she met and helped during her travels. She has used this as fuel in stepping out raising $400 through a garage sale fund raiser for a community project in the Dominican Republic. She does not plan to stop there and has many other fund raisers to come. Feel free to click on the attached news articles to read all about her exploits.

A BIG Thank you to Chantal and all of our Hero Network members who have worked really hard to reach all of their goals.

“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try”.

If you are interested in becoming a Hero Network member please email: info@heroholiday.com.

The families from the two houses that you completed are still doing really well. I am sure they would LOVE a visit from you all again one day.

Please click here to check out some more pictures! Feel free to post any comments to this blog for everyone to see, or send me an email anytime.  I would love to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Charles Roberts

Team #1:
It has almost been a month since we have left for our tour from our base in Hamilton (aka the Hammer). Nine very individual people set of to somehow to change the world. Our team is filled with four superb band members from Hundredfold (Terrence, Jon, Alex and Réjean), three wonderful School of Leadership students from Penticton B.C (Kayla, Cory and Bri (which is me), and two of the best leaders imaginable (Adam and Lindsay). Our tour has had many ups and only a few downs (especially in temperature, Newfoundland is cold!). But the amazing thing is, when a downer occurs not one of us didn’t make the best of it. From our first challenge as a road team, the bus getting stuck on the side of the road in Ottawa for seven hours, due to an accidental gas/diesel issue, to playing drums in the middle of the boonies in New Brunswick. We have stuck together and had a blast doing it!
We have been through it all, but I couldn’t imagine anyone else I would want to go threw it with. We currently only have two more weeks on the road, and honestly I don’t know if I can go back into my routine. Once you get used to the company of nine people there’s definitely a good chance of withdraws. Life on the road is well….unexplainable, quite the adventure. But one thing is for sure…we’re a family, and road trips wouldn’t work without the right people.

~ Brianna, a School of Leadership Student

Team #2:
Our team has been touring western Canada for about 3 weeks now. We have had many adventures so far: breaking down in the mountains, finger painting, CSLC, and bowling in churches. You may be thinking… bowling… in a church? What’s wrong with this picture? We were playing in their gym and found these little plastic bowling pins and a baseball. So for the rest of our time there, whenever we had free time, we bowled, and got quite good at it if I don’t say so myself. We have met so many awesome people along the way, and I am really excited to see what’s going to happen next. We have had the chance to perform in some pretty awesome towns and cities, at some pretty amazing schools that seem to be stoked on us being there. I have already learned so much about myself in such little time thanks to this tour, it has helped me learn to try new things, and to be open to new and exciting opportunities. Being on this tour has showed me what my true calling in life is, to help people. I have had an amazing time getting to know my team and the people supporting us and I am really excited to keep going and to see what comes next.

~ Chad, a School of Leadership Student

I can honestly say, this past Thanksgiving weekend was the most eventful of my life. Now imagine this, you are driving through the beautiful Rockies in BC and you are having the time of your life with the best team ever. When suddenly you start to feel a little sick, you just think “OK, I guess I am getting a little car sick - nothing big.” You try and get past that because you are on your way home for thanksgiving dinner with your family (Our tour bus stopped in the town where I am from for the weekend). I was dreaming of turkey and stuffing my face with pumpkin pie when I heard a noise coming from the bus. A noise you never want to hear in the middle of no where… especially when it is -10 outside. As our bus come to a clinking stop, instantly pictures from the movie, “Alive” popped in my head. Ek! Our driver gets out of the bus to see what’s wrong and he finds out we have a broken belt that is a main part of the engine. The bad news is we cannot get help until the morning so we have to sleep on a freezing cold bus in the Rockies. Remember how I said I was feeling a little sick, now I was a lot sick. What ever I had eaten before we went threw the Rockies was coming out fast and out both ends (sorry everybody but its true). That was happening all night and into the morning and three pairs of boxers later, it was not the way I had pictured my Thanksgiving weekend. I was finally able to get some sleep but was up very early. In the morning our bus was honestly like a freezer, at one point I had five blankets on me! Luckily there were a few houses near where our bus had broken down and Chad and Ken went and asked one of family’s if they could take us in for a few hours while the pit crew (JP, Ken and Hiona) fixed the bus. On that Thanksgiving weekend we met one of the nicest and generous family’s ever. They took us in and treated all nine of us like family. In the long run I was “OK”. Thanks to the whole team and a great family. Even though it was an intense 20 hours, I will never forget our eventful trip through the Rockies.

~ Brandon, a School of Leadership Student

Adrian: Whether it is clams, rocking, or planting strawberries, it seems to have quite the impact on how I live my life and how fortunate I am to be born in Canada. During the School of Leadership Mexican Shack Experience we had a chance to do all three of these jobs and each one pulled on different strings in my heart and caused me to do something I have not done in awhile … think. I had been on a few Hero Holidays before but never had I understood the full impact of my actions.
As we drove to the clamming, I had a chance to talk with our translator he said that we were lucky, the sky was so clear that day so if there were any problems they would be able to see us from shore. Now we didn’t go deep enough for the current to take us anywhere but as I looked out into the ocean watching the waves crash over the other men. Out further where the dangerous waves were is where the best clams are and in order to make enough money to feed there family they needed to risk their lives. The more clams you get the more money you make. All together the students made 90 pesos or less than $10 for that day which seemed about average to what the other men made alone. It is hard to make a living clamming and the job carries allot of safety risks along with it.
Field working is probably the hardest work that we did all week working along side people as young as 12 and about 70 plus. While standing in dirt rows, you get a line to yourself and you put the strawberry plant into predetermined spots with a forked metal stick. There is no room to squat or kneel down so you are forced to be bent over the entire time. After some time, your back is in agonizing pain. It hurts to be bent over but it hurts more to stand up strait. At this point I gained an enormous respect for these people because they have been doing this every day for about 12 hours a day and only making about $10 a day. It didn’t seem like they complained about it. This made me realize just how much I complain about my easy stand around 8 hour day.
Rock picking was probably the job that effected me the most as I was told for every 2 foot by 3 foot bag they were paid 8 pesos or less than a dollar. They were then transported to the United States and Canada to be sold for much more than that in hardware stores. Decor rocks that’s what we called them back at home at the hardware store, which sold at about $5 per palm sized bag (the math is pretty clear). It amazes me on how much money companies make on something a simple as rocks and the people who are doing the hard work are the ones who are paid the least.
Through the whole week, I saw the way that poverty gives you no choice but to do this hard work just to put food on the table and pay the rent. I now sleep well knowing that I have done something to help these people make a little more money at the end of the day. I thank them for letting me experience this work because it has defiantly changed my life.

Kelsey: When starting our week in the shack, I didn’t know what to expect. Sure I knew it was going to be hard and challenging but I never thought that one week would change my life. I realized just how little you need to actually survive. The things many of us take for granted such as food and shelter are the necessities of life; not iPods, the latest fashions or the new video game that just came out. I had been told that fact many times and I knew that people didn’t live the luxury that I have lived back home but actually living like them made the reality clear.
Working in the fields was the most impacting day of the whole week. When we arrived in the fields we got to work picking cucumbers. We soon learned not to load our bucket to the brim because when you had to walk the full length of the field with the bucket on your shoulders, it tended to get sore. The workers were wondering why five white people would want to work beside them but after the strange looks wore off, they started helping us when we would fall behind. These people are part of the most accepting and caring culture I have ever been involved in. This became a reality to me when we were planting strawberries. We were slowly catching on how to plant them when two older ladies went over to the other SOL’s and started helping them so they wouldn’t fall behind. They stayed with us pretty much all morning; doing their row and then helping with the rest of ours.  The same thought kept crossing my mind while I was bent down and my back aching; we had the end of the week to look forward to but what do the field workers have to look forward to? I asked Santiago (our translator) that question and he said that there aren’t promotions in the field. Once they are older they get to stay and pick the easier vegetables, such as cucumbers. For many who have been working in the field their whole lives, that is what they look forward to. It took a really long time for my brain to process that statement because if in Canada we feel we aren’t getting paid enough or want a raise we can usually obtain our wishes.
On our last day of the shack experience, we went to a senior citizens home that was for the abused and the abandoned. We cleaned the home and after we were done we got to talk to these people and visit with them. Although there was the language barrier and we could only understand a little bit of each other, we somehow made them smile and laugh just by taking the time to sit beside them. This is when I came to the realization that I may not be able to change every wrong thing that is going on in the world, but by using my time for a good purpose I can change one person’s life by making them smile and taking the time to get to know them and their story.

 Melissa: I would love to tell you how I felt during this shack experience. I won’t lie when I first found out about this experience I was scared. I thought that there was no way I could ever do that. What if I smell? What if I don’t like the food we are making? That’s all I could think about. I was only scared about how I would look, what others would think about me. I knew that Mexican’s and other people that live in shacks don’t have it easy but not until I experienced this week did I truly understand it. The Shack made me realize  how good we have it in Canada. 
Back home I work in a grocery store and my department is the salad bar. I cut up fruit and vegetables for hours and hours, I could not count how many times I would throw out food because I didn’t want to cut it or it didn’t look good enough for the customers. When I found out we were going to work in the fields for one of our work days, I knew I had to get myself physically and emotionally ready. When we were driving towards the fields, I was thinking of all the people who had to work to in the fields because there are no other jobs around here for them. They work really hard to feed their family or to have a roof on there head. When we finally got there, I thought it was just a dream because it looked like one of a scene in a movie. I wanted to cry but I also wanted to stay strong. When we finally got to work, they told us that we would have to collect cucumbers. Now when I look at a cucumber I think of all the faces I saw that day. We worked there for 2 hours and then it was off to work in the strawberry fields. Yes, it does sound really easy but it’s not that easy when you are doing it for 6 hours. I have never experienced such pain in my back! I was looking around and I could see 2 Mexican woman helping us because they saw we were in pain. When it was time to eat our lunch, I could not help but cry because I could not imagine doing this kind of work for the rest of my life. That evening back at our shack, all we could think about where the new friends that I made that day. Everytime I hear a truck, I think of the cucumber truck and when I see fruits and vegetables I think about all the people we worked with that day. I now have so much respect for the people who work in the fields. This experience has changed me and the way I look at life.
 We were only in the shack for a week, some people are there for there whole life! They don’t have something to look forward to like a hot shower, clean smelling clothes, perfume, and a bed to sleep on. When we opened the door to our house we were just so excited to see all of our stuff again. I was the first one to take a shower and as I got out of the shower I looked at my side table, put on my dioderent and perfume, brushed my hair, and looked at myself in the mirror. I could not help but get a little emotional, I had to take a moment to sit down and be grateful for everything that I have. To me this was something I did everyday, I wasn’t able to wash my hair everyday in the shack or to make sure I looked and smelt fresh. I realized how much stuff I have and realized that I should be grateful and thankful for everything.

Laura: 
When I think about work, I generally think back to my previous jobs. I usually worked 8 hours dealing with customers who were unsatisfied with a microscope hole in a shirt or were frustrated with the return policies that had just been updated. 
As I sat at work on one of my scheduled 15 minute breaks I would think about how boring and tired I was from just standing around doing pointless things. 
When we were told about the shack experience, I was thinking that we were going to do some random jobs and live in a shack. 
But as the start date slowly crept up to us, I started looking at the packing list realizing that this was not going to be as easy as I thought. We weren’t allowed to bring deodorant, soap or any of the things that seemed pretty essential to me. 
If we wanted any of those essentials we would have to buy them with the money we earned from working. 
The first day seemed like an endless job of shoveling gravel in and out of the back of Brett’s truck. Once the job was done we were able to go shopping for supper, knowing that we weren’t working on Sunday (bringing in no money) we decided to save most of our money and only buy the staple dinner consisting of rice and beans. 
The second job we were assigned to do was clamming, we started at 11:30pm at night and we’re going to be standing in the ocean with pitch forks in hopes to find some bulky clams.
The moon lit up the starry night which was reflecting off the endless waves; a mere understatement to the reality of how beautiful this image was. 
The six of us worked for about an hour, finding maybe a dozen clams that we considered to be acceptable for the clammers, but as they started measuring them the dozen dwindled down into a pathetic few. 
By 4:30am they called us in so we could do a final count of how many we collected. The six of us had been able to collect around 3 dozen clams, while ONE man had collected 4 dozen on his own. 
The people get paid for the amount of clams that they collect, each dozen they get 30 pesos ($2.50CAD) meaning that out of the 5 hours the six of us made 90 pesos ($7.50CAD). As soon as we got back, we hit the sack exhausted from the cold, laborious job.

The next couple days we were given jobs that were just as difficult as the last, but I look at those days as days of preparation for the day working in the field. 
Down here in Mexico there are many ranchers down here that grow quite a few varieties of fruits and vegetables. The rancher that we would be working for sent us out to pick cucumbers for the first half of the morning and plant strawberries for the rest of the work day. As we drove up to the fields, my stomach started turning and all I kept thinking was man these people probably think we’re crazy. 
Once we were given a barrel we were told to walk up a field and pick the cucumbers, once our bucket was full we would have to walk all the way back down the field dump it out and hurry back to finish up your row before they moved the truck. 
Bending down and sticking our hands in the prickly bushes seemed to go by really fast, but at around 8:30am a new bus came up to the field and they started calling us in. 
Santiago (our translator) told us that the bus was filled with older people who got to do the easier jobs, thus being their form of a raise; once you hit a certain raise you get the easier jobs. 
Once everyone had boarded the bus, we headed off to the strawberry fields. Now, when we arrived at these fields all you could see was endless rows of brown dirt. 
The job seemed like fun at first, but then the novelty wore off when we stood up and realized how much it hurt our backs from being bent over for the entire shift. 
I felt like I was the slowest person, but there were these two ladies who would finish their rows in record time and then come and help us finish up our rows. 
I thought it was so sweet of them, when they could have been taking a break from being bent over they came over to help us out. 
The whole day was the biggest reality check I have had in a long time, something that was well needed.
The last day of the shack experience, we went to a nursing home to do some cleaning. It started off as a regular day but once we started to finish off the work we had more of a chance to talk to some of the people around us. 
All the people there were so grateful that we had even come to clean, while shaking their hands they beamed at us with glowing smiles. 
After this week it has really helped me realize that there are so many amazing people around us, but why don’t we ever take the time to get to know them? 
All it takes is a hello and a smile to be able to turn someone’s day around because you took the time to acknowledge them. 
The entire week I was considering different concepts and this being one of them. 
Another one was that we were anticipating for the 7 days to be up, but what we were living was the reality for over half of the worlds population. 
After being in the shack and coming back to the normality of life I feel awkward and out of place. It’s weird to wear a new set of clothes that I haven’t worked in 3 days in a row, and when I go into the grocery store I don’t want to flaunt the fact that I have enough money to buy something other than rice and beans. 
When I sit and relax it feels weird because I feel like I shouldn’t be, that I should be working or helping those around me. 
So lately, I have been trying to be more productive with my time, even just bringing a smile to someone’s face makes me feel 100 times more productive then me just sitting on my computer.
We are affecting people’s lives every time we step out the door, it can either be in a positive way or a negative its up to you to decide what kind of impact you want to have on people.

Today was more of a cool down day, after the hard day working in the field. The students needed to recover both physically and emotionally. We needed to finish up a project, unloading rocks from the truck and placing them in an area of the yard. This took them just a little over an hour to do. After a short break, we headed over to a nursing home to help out with some cleaning. When we got there the students were really impressed by how nice the building was. The construction of it was completed this past February 2009 and was already full of older people. The oldest person there is 102 years old! They guessed her age by talking to the 80 year old daughter.

This nursing home was set up for neglected and abused older people because they still deserve the best care. One of the men in there went into the hospital a few years ago. His wife came in and got him to sign a few hospital papers. In fact, what he really signed was his divorce papers and the rights to everything he owns. Juan, the man who runs the home, picked him up from the police station, because that is where the hospital took him when he didn’t pay the bills. Today he is happy in the nursing home but still doesn’t understand what happened to him that day.

The students worked hard for three hours cleaning the nursing home. Everything was dusty, which is the norm for the Baja, so they spent most of the day dusting. They cleaned windows, doors, sky lights, fans and floors and did a great gob! During all this, they also spent time trying to socialize with the residence, even through there was a language barrier. I am sure the older folks loved watching the young spry Americanos work in front of them. A few of them knew a little bit of English and were always trying to give them tips on how to do the job.

All of the students loved being there and wanted to come back again. Melissa even said that they need to spend less time in front of their computers and spend more time helping there. I wish I got that statement on video! The afternoon was put aside for them to learn how to wash clothes on a washboard, which is the most common way of doing laundry around here. I hear they saved up and got some marshmallows to have a Fiesta tonight. I am looking forward to that!

~Brett Dyrland, School of Leadership Staff Member

The day started with the students picking bucket fulls of cucumbers and hauling them to a big truck. They worked on the cucumbers for a couple of hours, by the time they were ready to move on to planting strawberry plants, they had picked two huge truck fulls of cucumbers. It was only 9am but it felt like they had been out there for a really long time, and they were already feeling sore. They were then taken to a strawberry field where they were given a tool and a bucket full of strawberry plants. They used the tool to help push the strawberry roots deeper into the soil. They were constantly bent over, and they got so used to being bent over that it hurt a lot when they had to stand straight up. They all worked really hard. In fact, some of the old ladies working there said that the “little white girls” were hard workers.

At lunch time, Julia (pronounced Hoolia) , our neighbor across the street from the big house, brought the students quesadillas which was a real treat because they had been eating a lot of beans and rice for meals. I asked each of them about their experience that day, and all of them were really emotional. They couldn’t believe that people do this their whole lives. There was young kids to really old Mexican’s out there working in the fields. The students were also thinkig that a lot of these women would go home after a really hard day out at the fields and go home to make supper, do laundry, and clean. The Mexicans work so hard, day in and day out, for a meer 110 pesos.

We also found out that there is no pay increase here, they all work for the same amount of income. The only thing they have to look forward to is when you have reached a certain amount of years in age, they let you work at some of the easier jobs. This is there type of incentive to keep older people working in the fields. The students didn’t really want to talk to me after because they said they had no words to describe what they had felt towards these extremely hard working Mexicans. They did say that they felt sadness for the Mexicans, because for the students, after tomorrow they get to go back to beds, warm showers,and a concrete home. The majority of the Mexican’s after work will go back to their shacks, and live such a hard life. I don’t believe this experience will ever leave any of the students minds. It was very life changing and really gave them an idea of what living the life of a Mexican could be like.

~ Brett Dyrland, School of Leadership Staff Member

As we told the clammers that they would be able to keep the clams we got, they seemed shocked but very greatful.  We all came to a consensus that it was an amazing experience but couldn’t imagine doing it to make a living. Now, the next time I look at a starry sky I’ll think of those who work through the nights, in crazy conditions, trying desperately to support their families.

It is so hard to fully explain to people what we are going through.  I imagine that living like this for an entire life time with no hint of hope for a brighter future would be constant torture.

School of Leadership Student - Mexico - Fall 2009

Life as a low income Mexican can be hard as the School of Leadership students are finding out. First, the students had to build a shack to live in. The rule of building the shack is that, it had to be made out of materials that were found on the street and free. They took the challenge, gathered supplies and started building. The two boys made a shack that was slightly larger than a dog house. (Have fun spooning boys!) The four girls on the other hand, wanted a larger, more spacious house. They soon realized that larger means more work. Especially after it big gust of wind blew it over. With a little assistance, they built a smaller shack with a structure that was more sturdy.

Day 1 was great! It began with a 5am rise for work day. The team had to take their make believe kids to school and meet the bus at the highway (about 1km away) for 7am. Their first adventure was off to the river bed to get a load of sand to finish off some work around one of the Hero Holiday yards. From all the groaning, seemed to me like they thought loading a truck with sand was hard work. They off loaded the truck at the yard into wheel barrows, placed the sand in designated areas, and leveled it all out. First load was done by 10:00am. Half way through off loading the second load, I heard some excuses saying they were done, but as any boss would do, I told them to put more sand on the sand until the truck is empty. By then it was only 12:30pm and I had to find more work for them. Six people can get a lot of work done quickly! It was easy finding more work for them: detail the truck, clean the yard, wax the truck, wash the bus, and shampoo the dogs. Each of my workers received $100 pesos (which is approximately $8.50 CAD) for the day of hard work. But then they had to pay rent, pay for their “children” to go to school, transportation to work and back and food for the whole family. So needless to say, there was not much is left for food and water, but they made it work some how.

The statement of the day is “Don’t ever say a Mexican is lazy.” Most of the students have never had labour jobs before and are not used to this type of work. Many of them found it hard, especially in this kind of heat. They all have a new respect for the term “A good days work”. I think a lot of them found it hard to stay motivated for only $8/day but that is what a lot of Mexicans have to deal with daily. At least the students have a hope of getting out of this, but many will know this for the rest of their lives.

I am look forward to the next couple days where they are able to do actual Mexican jobs. Jobs like clamming, field work and rock picking are all jobs we see often here. When the students go out to perform these jobs, all the proceeds from their days labor will go to help the people they are working with. They will be able to double or more the income of the person they are working for. This is such a great experience!

Building Day 3

Today we were expecting it to be a big day.  And it was….
We basically finished the exterior of the house!  Complete with the finishings on the roof …….we’d say (Mandy and I) it was the toughest task of the day because we spent the entire day smelling tar.  Here in Mexico, they use the old-school style of roofing: shingle rolls, tar and some good ol’ fashion hammering. It doesn’t rain much so they can get away with it.
Although we’ve heard stories of “tar fights”, the biggest debate of the day was how to REMOVE tar from our skin.  We heard gas works, paint thinner works….our favorite choice, butter!  Mandy is a genius. Minutes later we were squeaky clean of tar, smelling like buttered popcorn……..deeeeelicious!
After a full day of hard work, no beach for us.  Instead, a change of pace with a trip to a local cafe that serves up some delicious Starbucks style options at Mexico style prices :).  As we slurped on cold drinks, we watched a movie called “Pay It Forward” starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, Jon Bon Jovi and the kid from “The Sixth Sense” (we can’t remember his name, haha).  Essentially, it was tears, tears and more tears.  A solid reinforcement of our purpose here, and in life….

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Building Day 4

Finishing day, Part 1!  We finished windows, put in the door, polished off the roof completely, primed and started to paint the inside a lovely light blue.
A couple of us also had some time to have an extensive chat with the Mama of the house we’re building for.  She told us stories about her children, specifically the disabled daughter, Valeria.  She’s the sweetest, happiest 18 year old ever.  She doesn’t need to see or speak or walk to be happy….her soul solution is beats.  Mama told us that she dances and shakes to the rhythm of our hammers….it was true.  We saw her doing it.  Somehow it was heartwarming and heartbreaking at
the same time.
It was an extra long day.  Hot, humid, and smelt like paint.  After all of that, only one thing could cure our tiredness……. ocean
Another Canadian fantasy day at the beach.  Sunshine, HUGE waves, a bit cold (we’ve become wimps in 5 days, lol) but nonetheless, fantastico!
Waves work up our hunger, and it just so happened that we came home to a delicious, homemade Mexican feast.  Can’t remember the name of them right now, but they are corn tortillas stuffed with roasted chicken and potatoes, deep fried and topped with whatever our hearts desired: guacamole, salsa, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, onions and anything else we could find.  Amazing, just amazing.  We’re eating like royalty…………….and loving it!

PS. Because we love Luke, we locked him in the bano today

Saturday, September 19, 2009
Building Day 1
YAY!  What we’ve all been waiting for!
A thorough cultural orientation in the morning lead us to the site of our build.  Mama of the house welcomed us.  With the expert leadership of Andrew and Dallas, we wasted no time sorting, cutting, hammering and essentially building the beginnings of a home!  A HOME!  This is an incredible lesson in so many things: teamwork (HELLO!  We barely know
each other and all of a sudden we’re changing lives….whoa….) and carpentry.  Who knew we all have a bit of carpenter in us? The family we’re building for also shared something with us that made us realise that what we’re doing for them is valuable: the mama and her son slept on the lumber all night to make sure no one stole it….(tears welting in my eyes as I type that).  Perhaps we are more grateful than they are for this experience.  To round out the day, the beach was calling. Canadians + beach = Canadian fantasy in Mexico.  Too bad it was the foggiest day EVER.  Good thing we’re Canadians and none of us cared.  LOL.  We all hit the water like champs - body boarding and bouncing around in the salt water like it’s our second home.  Maybe it is!   Pizza dinner made us full, campfire smores felt like home, and cozy beds couldn’t have been better.
Great day.  Satisfying soul day.  Another day tomorrow.

Sunday, September 20, 2009
Building Day 2
Ok, before I go any further, I need to put in a personal statement.  Canada needs Yogurt con Coco (coconut yogurt). Breakfast is the best with it!  So, this morning we’re up early on site early.  We made it to site just before 8am.  We’re motivated, energetic and ready to see some more progress.   Our goal for the day, to have all four walls of the house up and the roof on too.  Lofty ambitions.  We also start painting the family’s chosen house colour.  A gorgeous, bright royal blue. The colour quickly brightens the brown, grey, and colourless site.  It’s a happy colour.  We love it.  The family is
happy with their choice too.  More sawing, hammering.  Added lifting, moving and adjusting.  Before we knew it hours had flown by and the last roof panel was being added to the top of the house.  It looks huge next to the family’s current (and soon to be former house.  The team uses our last bits of energy to share some enthusiasm about using our own hands to build a home.  Is this our real life?  Yes, it is.  We CAN build a house in a week.  It’s up the to family to make it their home… soon.   Our hard work warrented yet another trip to our Canadian fantasy place…..la playa (the beach)!  This time it’s a sunny, hot and FABULOUS.  La playa at it’s finest.  More body boarding, clam digging (yes, clam digging…..using only our feet) and this time many quality moments laying in sun.
Ahhhhhhh…………………….life is GREAT.
OH WAIT!  Our day isn’t done yet.  We’re in Mexico. We need TACOS!  The local taco joint in Vicent Guererro is called Smoky’s.  How to sum up this……….MMMMmmmmm, Mmmmmm AMAZING.  Grilled beef, pork and tripe (a.k.a. intestines) tacos with fresh-made flour tortillas, queso (cheese) and condiments - Mexican style.  Guacamole, salsa, hot sauces (3 to choose from), lettace, onions…………goodness.  Thousands of choices.  Thousands of happy taste buds.
It is now bedtime and everyone is tired.  Tomorrow’s Day 3 and the house will be pretty close to complete….  Can’t wait.

Written by:  Fort McKay Participant

Roxy - I had a pretty comfortable life in Alberta. A beautiful home, making good money, and doing what I love to do -looking after kids. But this year I felt like we needed a change. We had all this “stuff” but it wasn’t fulfilling me. I just felt so sad , and empty all the time, and I would think “What am I doing here?”  When we decided to move to Mexico, I was scared, nervous, excited, and happy all at the same time.  A couple of days into being here, I did a load of laundry that was life changing! Here in Mexico they hang their clothes up to dry, which is a new concept for me. In Sylvan Lake, where I live, it is a by-law that you can’t have clothes hanging up in your back yard on a clothesline because it looks bad. Here, in this village, they don’t have dryers, so you see clotheslines everywhere. I had just done a load of clothes and went over and started hanging them up on the line. The sun was just setting, and I started crying- one of those good cries. That feeling of sadness melted away and I felt like I was home. Not just physically but emotionally, mentally, I was at peace. Something as simple as doing laundry changed my life. Home is where the heart is, and mine is here.

Brett - Every so often we do reviews with the students to get there opinion of how things are going, and talk to them, one on one. There is a written portion that was completed before we had a meeting with them. When I was reading the reviews, I got to know things about them I did not know before. Through the whole process I was blown away by the students, and I came to realize something. They are starting their life with an experience that many do not get, and through this some of them will be able to influence nations. They are young now, but they have the ability to become doctors, lawyers, mayors, and world leaders. I may not do much in my life to change the world, but if I have a part in changing the life of someone who does, that’s enough.

Melissa -Back home I work in grocery store, I prepare food and put it on display. While down here, I noticed one of the boxes from a strawberry farm was one of the brands we get in our store. I make $13 an hour to put them on display and these workers who work all day in the hot sun, get 100 pesos a day, which is about $10. It really made me angry because they do all the work, yet they get paid the least through the whole process of getting the strawberries to Canada. It really gave me something I could relate to. This realization made me never want to complain about the simple tasks I do at my job ever again.

Kelsey-When we were driving through Mexico into our town of Zapata, Charles told us that on average the field workers make 100 pesos a day which is about $10. When I heard that I got really angry because at my job I make more than that an hour and I do nothing compared to these workers. Most of them have family to take care of as well, where as I just blow my money. It took me a while to grasp the concept of how this could even be possible. I realized how much I took for granted at home, just how fortunate we are and how I want to make a change

Adrian-  I love this place, I love the lay of the land, the friendliness of the people, and the weather. I love being able to just kick back and relax in a hammock and spend time in your thoughts. It is a care-free place where you can get away from the everyday whenever you feel. There is no real time just time spent.

Bryan- I’ve recently come to be aware of the power of what we are doing here.  It’s not always obvious in day to day life, but there are times when I realize the gravity of our decisions and the actions they lead to.  Staying in the Comfort Inn, before going down into Mexico the next day, Adrian and I spent some time in the hot tub with Brett, Roxy and Charles.  I heard the story of Vaden and Christal’s new daughter being carried across the river, and I knew right then and there that…well…this is where it’s at.  This is where great things are happening…and I am part of it!  Just last weekend, simply by making the choice to investigate Hurricane damages in the Southern Baja, we ended up playing a vital role in bringing food, clothing and medicine to isolated villages devastated by the hurricane.  We are truly making a difference, and I’m embarrassed to say that it has taken me six years of Hero Holiday trips to Mexico to fully understand that.

Laura- As I look back at my life in Oshawa, I see my family, friends and part-time job at Sears. This was what my summer consisted of, drama from which high school couple broke up, which one got back together, things that seem to consume others’ entire life.
When I came down here the society seemed to care about more important things. They cared about the people who they meet off the street, and were consumed with providing everything they had to make their new friend feel comfortable. We were putting food bags together to be sent to families that had been stranded by the hurricane that hit Southern Baja. While we we’re putting these bags together everyone was working together for a greater cause, we weren’t scoping the web to see the celebrity scandal of the weekend or going out to a party and getting drunk. Everyone was there to help and provide hope. The people that we’re organizing where we we’re going, were also providing a place for us to stay and even food for supper and breakfast. I am not talking just about the group of Absolute that consisted of 12 of us, I am talking about 31 people to eat and sleep.
Most people would suspect that we would have to find our own place to stay, or pay for our own meals, but that is how North America operates. Whether you are rich or poor you offer everything because this is their culture. We think that we need to come down and help these people because they have absolutely nothing. But that is not true…. they have each other, something that Canada should really consider to model after.

On Sunday, we presented 3 families, who had been living in tiny cardboard shacks with 5 to 8 people each, keys to nice new fully furnished houses that we had build in just 4 days!! These families were so happy and grateful for their new homes that it made it quite an emotional experience for our team members.   To celebrate, 2 of the families came out to the beach with our crew.  Although they only live about 10km from the beach, they had only been to the ocean once before (as they don’t have the means to afford transportation there), and they were so excited to go swimming and spend time with us on the beach. They kept asking us to print them a group picture of everyone on the beach, so that they would be able to remember this special day.  What a great way to top off such a momentous day!

A leader on our trip said something that has really stuck with me, “The only difference between us, the participants, and them, the local people, is the country we were born in”. At that moment, I knew exactly why trips like this or organizations like Absolute exist. To help the people of countries like the Dominican Republic get the things they deserve and have a right to: Education and Healthcare. I have these rights back home in Canada and will definitely not take them for granted. I also came to the conclusion the I am here to help change some sad realities for others and that one volunteer at a time can help. I am so thankful to be a part of this amazing experience which has without a doubt changed my life for the better. I hope everyone is enjoying reading our blogs and looking at the pictures of what we have been up to. We’ll see you all when we get home.

~ Emily, a participant having a blast on the Hero Holiday DR Medical trip.

Yet another day has passed and I am never prepared for what I might see and experience in a day on a Hero Holiday (this is my second Hero Holiday DR). Today was spent at another clinic in Arroyo Seco which is a school/church that the team I was on last year helped to build.  It was so amazing to return to a village I had been to before and see familiar faces.  I was able to reconnect with one of the children I played with last year, and had brought some photos from Canada for her.  I think everyone in the entire clinic saw the photos as her grandmother was so proud to show the gift off.

Today we registered over 60 people to see the doctor/dentist, as well we did school checks which would be similar to a physical exam back home.  I saw inside many mouths, as the locals pointed to teeth that had rotted, or broken and needed to be pulled.  I do not think I will ever look at my tooth brush and floss the same anymore.  I thought so many would fear the dentist, yet we saw smiles and thumbs up as they walked away with gauze in their mouth’s and a few less teeth.  The gratefulness of the people here always blows me away as they many have so little but the are so happy and appreciate of what they have and receive.

Yesterday I worked in a very small one room church which facilitated three doctors each with an examination chair and a small pharmacy.  We saw over 100 people and gave away a ton of medicine.  I am finding it difficult to think that the drugs are only able to help for 5-7 days and then they will run out and be in a similar position as to what they started in.  I am so blessed to have been born in a country that medical care is covered and medication is so readily available to me when I need it.  Although many of the medications we have brought down are just simple over the counter things like tylenol or multivitamins they mean so much to the people we are working with (the Flinstone vitamins are always a favorite!).  I wish these people were able to have the similar luxuries that we so often take for granted.

The smiles here are contagious and I am loving every minute of this trip, even as we have little mango covered hands reach for ours. The special friends we meet and playing soccer when the holler your name to pass you the ball, or being asked when you will return again, makes this trip so worth while.

~ Joni, Nursing Student on Hero Holiday Medical Trip DR

Thursday had a toast-less breakfast with no power or water, requiring a little creative thinking for breakfast and getting ready. Santiago was ill today so Roberto (Angelina’s husband) came to the worksite with us to help interpret and raise the walls. We were greeted by many familiar faces from the school, many of the kids were the same and we instantly reconnected with them. With only some minor problems with two red shirted boys we have found the kids ready to lend a hand and always willing to play. We had many of the older boys helping nail and lift lumber and others helping with the painting which made the task go very quickly.
With many hands from both the group and the super supportive community we got the walls position by the end of our second  day on the clinic site. Even with language barriers between the students and the community we had little difficulties raising the walls, all that was needed was a few charades and gestures. Roberto helped translate in Spanish while Shane gave directions in English to the team, overall it was quite a sight to see the building raise with so much help.
Magui, the communities mother hen, brought us ceviche soya with a hint of tuna which was unknown for some time and refreshing raspberry juice to boast our energy levels. Magui is a community leader who is a very compassionate woman with an amazing soul. She leads a woman’s group who helps out in the community and does needlework together once a week.
We were invited to Amelia’s for dinner for her famous fish tacos, she had a very full household with family visiting on top of the 13 of us. All of us ate way too much and lit our tongues on fire with a “mild” salsa which turned out to be much hotter.
Friday, we began our third building day by raising the panels onto the roof. The children were there when we arrived and very eager to begin playing again. Many of us found it hard to work when so many smiling faces wanted to play and interact with us.
Magui arrived at noon with another meal for our hardworking team of sopas which were deep fried corn tortillas topped with refried beans, sour cream, lettuce, cheese and salsa. Magui always mades sure there was plenty of food for the workers and always feeds the children in the area afterwards which just shows how much she cares about everyone.
We enjoyed Kim’s famous Mac and Cheese which was amazing! We had been pre-warned about Kim’s cooking and were a little hesitant and first but it turned out awesome and many of us had several bowlfuls.
As Saturday was our final day on the site we finished tarring the roof with a very efficient team on the roof and built three inner walls to allow space for a reception area, a doctors office and a room for his assistant. The windows and roof were trimmed and the door positioned. Santiago was back with us today feeling much better so it was great to have his help and enthusiasm which helps keep all of us going.
Magui again arrived with food for the group, today was empanadas which looked a little like Mexican pizza pockets filled with potatoes and sausage. We completed all our work in the early afternoon and spent some time playing with all the kids around the site, there must have been close to 30 of them around at different times. There was one little boy named Ismael who captured many of our hearts. He has a smile that can light up a room or work site and laughter which is completely contagious. He even helped us paint whenever one of us wasn’t playing with him.
    After working hard at the site all day we came back to the house to shower and change before heading out again. Before we left for dinner a few of us headed to the fabric store to purchase a piece of material to cover a large piece of plywood for the community and kids to put their handprints in white paint on. The artwork was then to be hung in the clinic to bright the plain wood walls. We then stopped at Sammy’s the local second-hand store we usually go to for purchasing furniture for the houses. We found a few tables for desks, many chairs, filing cabinets, a water cooler, a glass medicine cabinet and even a medical bed! It was perfect and seemed just meant to be.
Later we headed down to the beach, a few swam and others just hung out on the beach before heading over to Gaston’s for a group dinner out and to watch the beautiful Mexican sunset. We had many laughs around the table over balloons popped over Dawn’s porcupine hair, a spilt and broken margarita glass, a great server and many other things. We all greatly enjoyed our meals and some flan afterwards before heading back to the house.
We arrived early Sunday morning for dedication day hoping to beat some of the community members to the site to unload our purchases from Sammy’s but when we arrived there were already 30 or so people around and many of the children we had seen in previous days. Sammy arrived around 9 with all the furniture and we moved it into the clinic before beginning to paint hands for the board of handprints. Some of the children were very eager to have their hands painted while others were a little more hesitant, by the end almost all of the children had their prints on the board and many of the community leaders. We even managed to get many infant handprints on the board before moving it inside to proudly nail it to the wall.
By the time we began dedication the site was full of people who each brought something, Magui and her women had a list of who was to bring what. Everything was brought from a kilo of tortillas to some chicken to even a fence post! Our Hero Holiday team began dedication with each of us saying how much we enjoyed working side by side with the community on this project and how much they deserved it. The community then profusely thanked us saying that a small group of students from Canada was doing more for them then their own government and they were eternally grateful for all that we were doing for them.  We ended on a tearful note as Magui told us how much she enjoyed working with us and for all that we were doing for her community.
Following the dedication there was tons of food for everyone, there was fried chicken made right on the site with beans, salsa, tortillas, rice, and soda. After the food we visited with the community for one of the longest dedications Dawn had ever seen, it lasted till close to 1pm and was something many of us will never forget. We all played with the kids spinning them around, taking pictures, braiding hair and lots of hugs and cuddles. Many of us had tears in our eyes as we left the site, the community had left a huge impact on the group and will be in our hearts forever. It was very difficult to say goodbye to the kids who had been around for so many days between the school and clinic site.
We relaxed for a bit before beginning to prepare for the next group. We began with taking down the chicken coop at the campground followed by cleaning out the tool shed and getting the tools organized for the next sites.
We finished the day with some tamales made for us by the community for dinner and a debriefing to get many tense emotions into the open. Then we all headed to bed for a good nights sleep before our day of cleaning and heading to the migrant camp the next day.

Jenna - Intern

It is now Day #3 of our Hero Holiday Medical trip and we have already been down and dirty with construction, a lot of pill sorting/dividing, and labeling. Not to mention a great deal of SWEATING!
Everyone survived the travel day which was long but when we all arrived safely to the beautiful (and did I mention hot/humid) Dominican Republic it all made it worth the travel. Sunday morning my team (#3 woot woot!) was put to work sorting through all the bags of medicines, vitamins, dressings, an supplies. At first this job seemed insurmountable but once we broke into smaller groups and picked an area, the piles got smaller.
My group sorted through all of the multi vitamins and divided them into groups of 10s, put them into little baggies and then labeled them with appropriate instructions in Spanish. I definitely wonder if I got my vitamin intake for the day through osmosis of absorbing them in my fingers! lol
That afternoon, group 3 ventured the Sosua region on the “truck” (which is a truck with a flat bed which has seats on them and holds roughly 16… we were squished like sardines!). Our awareness tour took us to our work project to see the Community Centre where we are finishing the kitchen project that the Hero Holiday July teams started. The second part was at the cemetery where Christal shared with us Danica’s full story, the reason why we started this trip. We also paid respects to her grave site. The final stop was up, over, and around to a community which has a medical clinic built and run by a charity, Servant’s Heart, in memory of Danica. The road getting to this clinic was on of the bumpiest, and twisty rides over especially because we were riding in the truck too. Very fun over all!
Once we arrived we had a following of little children wanting to see what was happening. The clinic tour was great as being a nursing students it was right up our alley. There is a pharmacy, examination rooms, and a waiting room. Then we explored the village and discovered a baseball game being played by some of the boys in the street. This was very interesting because they were playing with half a baseball but still managing to hit pretty far.
After visiting and walking the village, we drove back to the resort. This resort is wonderful and we definitely won’t be under fed. It is such a treat to wake up and eat breakfast right beside the ocean. All of the resort staff are very friendly and extremely nice. I am looking forward to see what tomorrow will bring!

~ Meighan, a nursing student on Hero Holiday DR Medical

Adios Amigos!

Ashley, Abby, and Chandell, nursing students on Hero Holiday DR Medical

We started to build today.  It was fairly laid back since we were lacking some materials. We were surprised by Adrian’s punctuality this morning and had to rush in order to get ourselves and our lunch together. We were accompanied by a few children who were at the school during our last build. There are only a few of us but we managed get everything we could done. We’ve have some walls and some roof framing finished. A woman named Maggie came along with some delicious strawberry water to keep us going, it was incredibly refreshing.

Lately, we have been quite relaxed around here. Most of us interns went up to San Diego to see off the other group, get a long hot shower, shave their legs and phone their moms. It was a long drive with a relatively sad atmosphere since most of the group was making their way home. We still had a good chat with the men at the military checkpoint and took some great pictures with them. La Bufadora made for some interesting purchases but it was slightly stressful. Our different appearance made us a healthy target for vendors trying to make double the price their items are worth.  We assisted with shuttling everyone to the airport before starting a long only-interns-and-Kim drive back to Vicente Guerrero.  Since then, we had a day-off: BEACH! Where we got covered in sand no matter what (suntanning or rolling in the dunes). We were at the sand dollar beach and we actually saw some dolphins!! The water was amazing as usual and we had fun creating makeshift shelters from the wind and subsequent sand. We watched the beautiful stars that night around a bonfire, a great ending to a great day!

The house has a whole new feel now. We have less people to socialize with but are getting to know each other better. We are interacting more and more like a big strange family. All of us are very excited about our goal of getting a clinic into a community who needs it. It’s pretty fun to have this project before the next group comes. Tomorrow’s work day will be topped off with an authentic Mexican fish taco dinner at Amelia’s. Apparently, these will be incomparable to the ones you buy on the street. Its about time to go and mingle with the rest of the people in this lovely house so…Buenas Noches!

Laurisse (Intern - Mexico 2009)

The last few days have been filled with:

HARD WORK

DOING LAUNDRY BY HAND (by the way, Jeff said thanks)

BEACH TIME

DANCING

DEDICATION DAY

All efforts resulted in these two incredibly well built projects!

We are all looking forward to a deserved day off tomorrow as we are planning on heading to an old volcano and the beach again!

For more pictures, please check out our Facebook page.

So here I am in Mexico, on a Hero Holiday, and so far, I am LOVING it! Our drive down from San Diego was great because we drove along the coast, and I couldn’t keep my eyes away from the window; that is one thing I love about being in a new country: having brand new scenery to look at.

When we arrived at our new home for the week, we were all really excited. We are staying in actual houses, dorm style. There is the main Hero Holiday house where we eat, and hold debriefings. The boys are in one house, and girls in the other. There is a big yard where we can play football or soccer and right outside of the boys house is where we have bonfires.
Our team is working on two projects this week: an extension to a school, and building a home for a family of 12 currently living in a very small home. The first day on the site I worked on the school. The concrete pad was already laid, and so we started working on putting together the roof panels, the walls, and painting the existing school. There were a few kids around, and they were VERY eager to help. They would take the hammer right out of our hand and start swinging it…and they were actually really good at it. There was also one local man who set up a stand for us to “shop” at. Some of us bought things from him, since buying from a local vendor is much better than buying at a commercial store. Our team worked really hard on the school, and by the end of the day we were exhausted. However, we were all looking forward to tacos for dinner!!! We went to a taco stand down the road, and I ate the best tacos of my life! Later on, after a very thorough debriefing we ended up at the circus! It was a very funny show and a great way to end off our very first working day in Mexico.

The second day of work I spent at the house build. We finished building the walls and put together the house. This took us until about 11am, and then Charles had a great idea. I had been told by the team there the previous day that the family was very, very shy. So he decided that we would all take them out for ice-cream to break the ice and get to know them better. It did work, and they started talking to us more.

After lunch, we put the roof on the house, and paneled it. We also painted the trim that will go up on the outside of the house and I had some of the girls and the kids helping us out with this…they really enjoyed it. This took us all afternoon, and the roof required us to really work like a team. It took all of us, and all of the strength we had to lift the roof panels on top of the house. When we got home, we had some time to relax before dinner. After dinner, we had a late debriefing and then had a huge bonfire, with Chase, one of the guys on the trip playing guitar and singing. It was a really fun night.

Having been on three Hero Holiday’s in the Dominican and spending some time there on my own, my natural thoughts are to compare it with this trip and the Mexican needs and culture. Since I have never been to Mexico I was not really sure what to expect and I have found that it is not much different. The people seem to have the same attitude; happy with what they have and very grateful for us being here. There is a lot of need here as well, however I have found that the homes are much more spread out than in the Dominican. I feel right at home here, just like I do in the DR and I cannot wait to finish the house and hopefully make our family’s lives a little bit easier.

Melissa (Hero Holiday Participant)

I just returned from a Hero Holiday trip in the Dominican Republic. I met some fantastic people. There are few things more surprising than how content the people of Dominican Republic really are, compared with someone living in a developed country. Even more surprising is the effervescent joy that overflows and spills onto us from the displaced people of Haiti living in Dominican Republic. There are too many stories to tell here and now. For more on Hero Holiday, please visit Hero Holiday’s site or subscribe to 52 Stories. What I’ve come to realize is that my job, my official job at Absolute, is incredibly tied into Hero Holiday. The members of Team 3, my Hero Holiday team, had students (and one mom) from all across our fine country. Almost every province was represented by Team 3’s members, and we even had a girl from the Yukon! Most of these participants were there because of Think Day, a multimedia motivational experience that visited their schools. That is my job, Think Day. I am a Road Team Manager, along with my husband JP. We travel with teams across Canada from September to June (we break for Christmas of course!) tirelessly (most days) driving, setting up, performing, speaking, running workshops, discussion groups, etc etc etc. We tell our stories to bring hope and courage to our listeners and to let our generation know that they have value, that their voice can be heard, and that we want to join our voice with theirs to change our world!

On my Hero Holiday trip I saw those values not only realized in the lives of our participants, but applied to a people who are considered regrettable and forgettable by a world who has done very little to better their situation. All year I talk, and I talk, and I talk about social justice and trips like Hero Holiday, telling Canadian students that they can do something about the injustices they see in their world, and that it is just that; THEIR WORLD. And here they were! All 19 of them on Team 3 asking the same question I asked myself over and over again this year. “Have I actually accomplished anything? What is it that I’ve really done?”

The answer to my question was in the 100+ students who participated in Hero Holiday Dominican Republic Week 1, and more directly in the 19 members of my team. Not all had been at the shows that I spoke at, but there were quite a few who had been, and most of them had seen an Absolute show or had known someone who did, and that was why they were there! Their experiences in Dominican Republic taught them, not just told them, that they matter to the world. They matter to that stateless Haitian child, or to that Dominican Grandmother. They are actually making a difference.

My purpose in Absolute was reflected in the eyes of a girl who had been given the power and opportunity to help when she thought she couldn’t. When she thought she was helpless to do anything about the situation she saw in front of her, I got to help her realize that we’re stronger together and that we really could help this life, this girl, this time.

Hero Holiday had changed my life before I had ever been on one and experienced it for myself, but now it’s not just stories, it’s real. I got to work alongside some people I had met briefly in a gym somewhere in Canada and had asked “Now that you know, what will you do?” and they showed up. That gives me 19 new reasons to keep going. To keep telling my stories, stories about myself, and about the people I have met and been inspired by. To keep touring, and driving, and setting up, and tearing down, and talking and talking and talking, because though you may not all come on a Hero Holiday, some of you may. Some of you will hear for the first time that you are valuable, that your life counts for something, and you will take that message with you wherever you go, including a Hero Holiday.

I will step out onto the road again with fresh perspective on what it is that I do. 19 faces and stories to keep me going, and this is the cycle, this is the circle: Think Day, School of Leadership, Hero Holiday, 52, One, Think Day, School of Leadership…

So watch for us this Fall. Are we coming to your school? If we’re not and you want us there, CLICK HERE .

Today was a busy day filled with anticipation, excitement, hard work, good times with new found friends, the taco stand, and a special treat, THE MEXICAN CIRCUS!

This morning we got off to a late start to our job sites because we had to finish up some orientation.  When we arrived at the project sites, it did not take the students long to make up for lost time!  It was great to finally meet the family that we are building for as well as the school teachers and children that we are building the classroom for.  We are all looking forward to getting to know the locals as much as possible throughout the rest of this week.

The taco stand was great as usual.  For those of you who have been here before, you know what I mean!

The circus was, well, very Mexican!  It was fantastic!  They really know how to work a crowd, especially a few of the closing acts!  They were simply unbeatable.  I think my stomach will be sore for hte next few days because I laughed so hard tonight.

OK, now for those of you wanting to know more about the picture of the police officer with David in a head lock or if you simply want to see an few more other pictures from today, please check out our Facebook Photo Album by clicking here.

Check out the pictures on Facebook, do you think that anyone was tired today?

We are just sitting down to supper now and then that will be followed up with orientation.

First day on the job sites tomorrow, stay turned for more pictures and stories.

All year we have been counting down the months, weeks, and days until we would finally return to Dominican Republic to get our hands dirty for, and our hearts warmed by the hundreds of children that opened up their arms to us on previous Hero Holidays. Both of us having been on a Hero Holiday to Dominican Republic before the thought of coming back as interns was truly exciting because it meant that we would get to stay longer and become more involved and attached to projects.

Being interns has been such a great experience as we work along with some of the most amazing people in the world: our fellow interns and Absolute staff. Most of us were strangers when we first met up in Toronto, but the minute that we started talking, everything clicked. As the days and weeks have gone by, we have laughed and cried together through this emotional experience. We’ve worked hard and played hard. Not to mention motivated and supported one another. We spent time and energy helping to plan events and little surprises for the participants and loving every minute of it. We even paid tribute to the Absolute staff by taking their own talents and quirks adding in our own little twists in a funny skit on Talent Show night. Through everything, we have experienced we have learned to work together and love each other as a family. What we can take back from this journey is a new perspective in our lives and an opened mind to new possibilities for the future. If we love one another and have hope in our hearts then we will most definitely see change.

As our trip draws to a close a common conversation topic has been about going home. We look forward to waking up in the morning and going out to make a difference in our community. We are not going to lie, it is going to be hard to go home and not be able to go out everyday and actually see how we are making a difference through hard work. But from the things that we have witnessed on this trip we will work hard to make a difference and let people know about our journey over this past month. Although people may not completely understand why we would spend our summer vacation helping the less fortunate, we plan to inspire them to want to use their lives to make a difference in someone else’s too!

Over this last month, our eyes have been opened and our lives have been changed. It is because of the twinkling eyes we look into on our work sites and the cute little hands that we hold. Not only that but the heart warming stories we have heard from the people we have worked with. The choice to become an intern this summer was one of the best decisions of our lives and if we had the choice to do it again we wouldn’t change a thing. So, yes, it will be hard leaving but we will always have the memories to look back on and the conviction to know that we made a world of difference in so many peoples lives.

~ Joy and Emily, Dominican Republic Summer Interns

The first workday we (team 4) went to the orphanage. One half of the team went in the morning, other half in the afternoon. I was in the morning shift, and we had some fun stuff to do: play around with the kids, clean the beds and floors. We had to move bricks (huge cement blocks which I forget the word for in Spanish), weighing about 45lbs each, from one side of the building to the other side. This is so the contractors could build the wall around orphanage higher, so a little advernturous boy could not escape anymore…(he is hilarious, but a pain in the butt for the staff!) Our team had fun with this task seeing who could carry the most bricks at one time. Most of the team could only carry 1 brick at the time, a few carried 2 bricks, but I won being able to carry 3 bricks! It made be laugh because when the young guys who had come to help the pretty girls tried to carry 3 bricks like I had, they had a real hard time. Since that moment, my team decided to call me:  Gun show!

Our second day was spent in the children’s ward at the hospital, painting. It was really fun too. We were painting the walls, but each other too. There were 2 rooms we had to sand and prime, before we could put the real colors on. It was kind of funny, because the site foreman expected us to take the entire day for this but because team 4 is full of fast hard workers,  we were done before lunch! While waiting for new paint to arrive, I had a chance to see the 2 babies in the intensive care room. One baby boy was born while his mom had only been pregnat with him for 26 weeks. He only weighed 2 pounds and was so tiny! I think this little guy is a miracle baby, especially since the hospital staff expected him to pass away last week. He is a real fighter so they have nicknamed him, “Little Tiger”and, good news, he has even doubled his weight since his birth.

Our 3rd day was in was at a work site where Hero Holiday is putting a kitchen on the back of a community centre/school. In the morning, I went with half of my team to the village and played with the kids.. wow.. those kids are wild! When you give one of them a piggy back ride, they all want one. Before you know it, you have 5 children on your back and your legs want to give out. In the afternoon I went to the community centre to dig a hole behind the kitchen for the water drainage. This was a pretty small spot to work in, so Nate and I were kept shoveling for most of the afternoon. The rest of our team was painting or taking turns riding in the wheelbarrows. This day went fast, and we felt like we were really acomplishing something, and not to mention, we were sweating like crazy!

Today we went to Agua Negro (Black Water). It was a great work site. We’re building a house for a grandma with her grandson, because every time when it rains the water from a river close by comes floods their house. It is very dangerous because if they don’t wake up at night, they can drown. For this reason, we’re building a house on higher and dryer ground. It is a great project, and I’m glad that I was a part of it.

I’m really thankful that I am here and that I was able to raise enough money to come. I have learned that there are many things in my life that are wants and not needs but I am really grateful for the country I come from and the family I have.
I’d like to encourage everyone to NEVER EVER give up on your dreams! Even when times are hard and the situation you’re in is difficult or there doesn’t seem to be a way out. Do NOT give up, you can make it!

- Clarine, aka “Gun Show”,  participant Hero Holiday, Dominican Republic week 2

The group was now on a mission. We had 15 minutes on the dot to make sure we made a difference in someone’s life today. As the team raced face first into the mountain of garbage, trying to fill our bags of plastic bottles and bags, Christal and Judal tried to explain our situation to the workers. The team was so frantic trying to fill up our garbage bags, we dug through trash just as frantic dogs trying to reveal its buried bone - garbage flying everywhere behind us. The whole team managed to collect up to one garbage bag full of plastic by the time we had to leave. Distressed and frustrated, we knew we could do so much more if we only had a bit more time. One more bottle, one more minute, 25 more peso more for the worker,s day.

Stories of extreme injustice were told while we dug through garbage. It was said that someone  came into the dump earlier that day, and without reason set fire to the workers’ days of hard work: their bags of bottles. Christal had told us stories of injustice such as this, but no one was ready to first hand witness the extent of this problem. Days and days of hard work through the filthy dump wasted, all due to one displeased, angry man. This concept was hard to comprehend and accept as it tried to find a place to settle into my mind without success. We, as Canadians, are so multicultural and accepting of other cultures, this open display of racism is just.. simply alien.

We weren’t allowed to stay out in the garbage dump today, and it frustrates our whole team of workaholics. But in ways more than one - our experience was more rewarding than an average day at the dump. We saw injustice happen right in front of us, as well as experience the condition of the workers (for 10 minutes, at least). My heart and respect goes out to the garbage dump workers. As the ‘unwanted problem’, these amazing people always manage to make the best of what they have. The workers walk 3 kilometers to the dump every single morning just to make sure their family have food on their table tonight. Living on less than $1 dollar a day. Can you do it?

We are All United Forever.
Michelle - A summer intern

Today, which is day 3, was such a fun day! Our team got to go to the Orphanage. At first, I was a little bit nervous because this was a different orphanage than the one I have gone to the past two years. All of my worries went away when I saw the same sort of happy smiles on the children`s faces that I have always seen. These kids are not much different then we were growing up. They laugh, cry, sleep, eat and drool. One little boy even pushed a little girl off her chair and then took a picture of her on the ground, which is something many little boys do back in Canada. These children have contagious smiles and laughs that are unforgettable. We all came here hoping to help make a difference, but what we didn’t realize was how much of an impact these communities, people, and experience have on us. The next week is going to be filled with so many more memories and I can`t wait to see what we have in store for us tomorrow!

~ Shannon, a Hero Holiday Participant of many years!

Over the 10 days our group spent in the DR, I would confidently say that we accomplished quite a lot: We trenched through piles of garbage collecting recyclables  alongside Haitian refugees who call a garbage dump their place of work; spent a morning at an orphanage for physically and mentally handicapped children colouring, laughing and helping with lunch time!; started building a new house for an elderly woman and her grandson that won’t flood everytime it rains; painted a new children’s ward in a hospital and experiencing the true value of music as therapy; throwing a huge fiesta in one of the villages with a pork roast, soccer match, and gifts for all of the kiddies; and making tons of new little amigos that we’ll never forget.

Without a doubt I’ll be returning to the Dominican and other places in need to keep spreading the love and giving hope to the people who need it the most. Oh, and now that I’m home  I have a minor, but unnecessary, panic attack everytime I see toilet paper in the toilet…the things we take for granted.

~ Melissa, a Hero Holiday Participant.

To sum it up in one sentence? An extraordinary eye-opening experience that I will never forget.

You always see on TV or learn in your social studies class about all the poverty in the world. How there’s millions of kids dying from hunger, and about all the horrible conditions they live in. Hundreds of thousands of children dying everyday
To us, us lucky less-than-one-percent of the world that have won life’s lottery, by just being born in the right place, that’s just a number. Just a simple “oh that’s so sad” then we go on with our day. It’s not a reality to us.

It’s not a reality until you hold that little child hand. The child that grabbed your hand as soon as your feet left the  truck, and the child that held tight and didn’t let go until you were dragged back into the truck to go back. The same little hand that works countless hours a day to make a couple cents for their family, picking through garbage, shining shoes…

People in Canada who depend of welfare, are in the top 4% of the richest people in the whole world.

Just think about that.

Last year, the biggest thing I learned when I went the trip was: the media in North America portrays poverty unrealistically, in order to get more people to support their organization. Have you ever watched those sponsor a child commercials? Ever notice how all the children that they film have big sad eyes, just walk around with no energy, and are hopeless? That’s not the case at all. Most of the children in the Dominican Republic are the most hopeful children I’ve ever seen. They’re grateful with the little that they have, they’re always running around, happy, joyful, with the biggest smiles on their faces. They’re not moping around feeling sorry for themselves, they’re running around thankful that they’re alive. They ran around on the hot dirt in their little bare feet, leaving little footprints everywhere. They offered me anything of theirs that they had with them, little lemon seeds they find to eat, they always offered me one before giving one to their sibling, then taking one for themselves. That gave me so much inspiration. Inspiration to live every day to the fullest, and be grateful with what you have.

  This year, when I went back, I saw all those happy faces again, remembering the ones that wouldn’t let go of my hand, and the ones that left footprints in my heart. It was a whole new experience. I thought coming back would be just like the last year, same work sites, etc. However, this year I found myself in mostly new work sites, and a whole different experience. One place we did not visit last year was the public hospital in Puerto Plata. Our main job there was painting, half of the day we painted the walls and ceilings, and half the day we visiting the section with the children from newborn babies to 14 year olds. We brought them colouring books, crayons, playdough, and their favourite - bubbles!

I sat next to a small girl, she was 12 years old. I don’t know what brought me to her, but as everyone met eyes with a child and went over to say hello, she was the only one that didn’t look over at the door to us, faced the other way, almost as if she was stuck. I went over, held her hand and introduced myself. When I asked her her name, and how old she was, she replied in a dry and scratchy voice “agua” I was alarmed, she sounded as if her vocal chords were on

the verge of breaking from being dry. I hurried and got her fresh, cold water, and she looked up and me and smiled. I showed her the colouring book I brought over, and handed her a crayon. She held it for a moment, and gave the crayon back to me, pointing at the picture of the stars and fish she chose. Confused, I did as she asked and we spent 20 minutes colouring the pictures together. I fanned out the colours I had, she pointed at the colour she wanted, then pointed in the area that she wanted me to colour it in. I wondered what was wrong with her, she could barely gather up the energy to colour in one tire of a car, then once again handed me the crayon. After a while, we were told to leave and go to a different area of the hospital so the nurses and doctors could do their check ups and such. When I came back maybe half an hour later, her mother and aunt was there, packing up her sheets, and belongings. I was very confused and in midst of their packing I folded the coloured pictures and handed them to her mother. She looked at me with very sad eyes, and looked at the little girl. Panicking, I asked one of the girls that can speak Spanish to translate for me and ask her mother what was wrong with the girl, and why they were going home when she was clearly not well. She told me that the little girl had fevers, pains - all over the body, enough that she can’t move, and they were taking her home. She did not have to say it, I could see it in the mother’s eyes. She had lost all hope for her daughters survival, and decided to take her home. My heart broke in an instant. I thought losing hope wasn’t an option. I was so used to the people I met being so filled with hope, all the kids running around, and I was so sure that this little girl was going to stay in the hospital until she was well enough to colour all the pictures in the book herself…

All the hands I’ve held, the smiles I’ve seen, every single one of them, have left a footprint in my heart, they’ve taught me a lesson I will never forget. Lessons that make me focus on what I have, and not the things I want, making me thankful for my family, friends, and for my life I’ve lived, and my future ahead of me. Lessons that help me see the world differently, and lessons that make me realize that one person can make a difference.

That is why I fund raise, and That is why I go. To remember the lessons learned.

~ Hanee, a Hero Holiday Participant

Quick tip for anyone wanting to do a fund raiser like the one or just to get the word out to your community is to contact your local newspaper and radio station. That way everyone can hear about it and get involved.

Good Luck!

~ Rachel, participant on Hero Holiday Dominican Republic 2009