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| The cross in Acatepec, a traditional symbol for Lent |
Here in the mountains of Mexico,
Lent has begun. A unique custom here is that two or three or four parishes
celebrate each of the six Fridays of Lent: First Friday, Second Friday, etc.,
right up to the Sixth Friday, the Friday before Good Friday. Each celebration
involves music, dancing, sporting events, fireworks, processions, etc. It’s just
a little different from the Lent that I experienced growing up in Canada.
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| Can there be a better photo to symbolize simplicity? |
I like the simplicity of this
time of year. I spend a lot of time driving on the isolated dirt roads of the
mountains, and I try to spend more time in silence and prayer. It is the middle
of the dry season, so I don’t have to worry so much about mud or landslides. I
always hope that this time will help me to be a more compassionate and loving
person, and I am always aware that my being here, doing what I am doing, is due
to the compassionate and loving persons in the Diocese of Calgary who support
Mission Mexico.
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| First Friday with friends in Cuixinipa |
Since one of Mission Mexico’s
focus areas is education, I spend a lot of time trying to help young people
find places to continue their educational journey. Sometimes things work out;
sometimes they don’t. But even the effort seems to nourish hope, and hope, I am
convinced, is one of the most life-giving gifts that one can share here.
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| Friends in Barrio Nuevo |
Just last week I attended a ceremony
where Icodia, a young woman from Cerro de la Garza, one of the highest and coldest
and poorest areas of the mountains, received her accounting degree. This is a
first for someone from her family and from her village. She expressed her
gratitude to Mission Mexico for helping her achieve her dream; Mission Mexico
gave her a monthly bursary for several years of her university career.
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| Icodia with her family on her special day |
And Edgar, a young man who is in
a wheelchair for life after a nasty fall in the mountains three years ago, is
registering to study psychology at university in the fall. As I write these
lines today, Edgar is coming out of anesthesia in a hospital in Mexico City; he
was operated on this morning, and the doctors told his mother that the
operation went well.
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| Edgar (in blue), with Lindsey and Gerardo |
The young lady in the photo
above graduated as a physiotherapist, thanks in part to a bursary from Mission
Mexico, and she and two of her friends recently opened a clinic here in one of
the larger (and poorer) neighborhoods of Tlapa. Most of their work involves
home visits to people who are bedridden.
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| Lindsey and her fellow physiotherapists in front of their small clinic |
Elizabeth, a young woman who
fractured her spinal cord ten months ago, continues to try to walk. I was
saddened when her father told me the other day that he was going to leave his
family for a few months and go to work in the neighboring state of Michoacan. There
he can earn 200 pesos a day picking tomatoes. Seven days work will earn him 1,400
pesos a week: almost exactly one hundred Canadian dollars. That’s about double
what he can earn here in the mountains in a week. So even though he doesn’t want to leave
his wife and daughter and son, he feels he has no choice.
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| Elizabeth can stand, and one leg is stronger than the other and allows her to move |
And this past week I went to the
Champagnat High School of the Mountain, in Potoichan, to celebrate the birthday
of Brother Salvador, better known as Cepillo. This wonderful Marist brother has
been with the school since its beginning in 2004, and Mission Mexico has been a
proud partner with him in offering education to more than 200 students a year.
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| Brother Cepi, or Cepillo... his real name is Salvador |
One of the indigenous students,
Gabriela, read to Cepillo a speech that she had prepared. I will end this note
with a part of her speech. I think it reflects not only on Cepillo, but on
Gabriela and on all the people here in the mountains who are partners with
Mission Mexico in the struggle for life with dignity, justice, and love.
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| Gabriela reading her speech to Cepillonish) |
Gabriela stated: Good afternoon, Cepi. More than anything, I
want to congratulate you on this special day when we are gathered to celebrate
another year of your life. I want you to know that you are a very special
person, much beloved and a real fighter. There is so much to be grateful to you
for; please forgive us for all of our actions that make you feel bad. We give
you infinite thanks for always being there for us as a father and a friend. We
thank God for placing you in our path to be a light, a guide who always speaks
to us truthfully so that we can be better persons tomorrow. We thank you for
your advice, your affection, your attention in any circumstance that befalls
us. Thank you for being a unique person who always wants the best for us. Thank
you for your laughter, for your joy, for your upbeat ways, and for you being a
part of our lives.
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| This is Gabriela's full speech (in Spanish) |
You could have easily decided to
stay in your own house and form your own family and have many comforts and
lived with your loved ones. Nevertheless, you gave up all of that; you opted to
form a family that God wanted, like the family formed by Saint Marcelino to
help the needy….
More than seeing you as a great Marist
educator, I, in your face and in your being, encounter the reflection of my
parents and grandparents. I see those grey hairs that make my imagination soar
to dream of being like you someday and to share experiences with those who
surround me. I see that smile that always encourages me, even when I don’t see
a way out; your words always give me hope; you are like the password for a
doorway when I feel lost. Your positive attitude always helps me to keep dreaming
and struggling to fly higher. Even your way of walking gives me security,
teaching me to not weaken on the journey and to keep my eyes centered on my
goals…
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| Please pray for my friend Juve, who has cancer and is very weak; on Saturday I will drive him to his home village of Alpoyeca; he wants to visit his elderly parents there |
