Mission Mexico: Serving with Compassion

I can now see acutely that my earlier notion of service, though noble and well-meant, was based on many previously hidden, naïve, and incomplete assumptions and orientations. It was based on the concept of “fixing” what is broken and “helping” what is weak from a position of being better and stronger, rather than coming from a deep inner place of humility to serve life as whole.

                                - Wong, Agnes M.F.. The Art and Science of Compassion, A Primer

The Mission Mexico truck — none of what follows would be possible without it

The truck is loaded and ready to go. My alarm is set for 5:30 in the morning. It will be an early start for a  busy four days in “the Mountain.”

There will be lots of time on the wet, muddy “roads” to think about the quote above from Dr. Agnes Wong, professor at the University of Toronto. As Mission Mexico, are we trying to “fix” what is broken, are we “helping” what is weak from “a position of being better or stronger,” or are we “coming from a deep place of humility to serve life as a whole”? In the end, I think that it is our impoverished Mexican friends who get to decide. But maybe if I share with you, the reader, some (and this is just some) of what will be happening during the next four days, you too can make a tentative decision. 

These children in Teocuitlapa like just playing on the back of the truck

My home is in Tlapa de Comonfort, a large town that is called the “heart of the Mountain” due to the fact that it is the major supply center for the 700 indigenous villages that make up “the Mountain.” Most of the roads to these villages are narrow, muddy, curvy — I can’t think of even a bad road in Canada that might be similar. There are three major indigenous cultures in the Mountain: na´savi, me´phaa, nahuatl. Each culture has its own language, its own traditions, its own way of doing things. The Mountain includes some of the most impoverished regions of Mexico. 

Some of the villages don't have a road, so one does what one must do to deliver assistance

One of my first stops will be in the village of Potoichan, in the hope that I might find there a friend called Rosalinda who recently graduated as a nurse. Rosalinda studied at the Champagnat High School of the Mountain, a school for indigenous youth begun in 2004; the installations were built with assistance from Mission Mexico. The school is run by a Mexican religious order called the Marist Brothers, and Mission Mexico continues to assist them with the salaries of the fourteen teachers. After high school, Rosalinda, assisted by a bursary from Mission Mexico, went on to study nursing at the state university. Rosalinda just recently received national recognition for her sobresaliente (“outstanding”) grades in all her areas of study. I hope to be able to congratulate her personally. 

Thevillages don't have gift shops, but the people creatively share, as you can see 

I will visit with Josefina and her family in Barrio Nuevo. At the end of February, I went with Josefina and her mom to the National Rehabilitation Institute in Mexico City, with the hope that the doctors there might be able to offer some hope for curing Josefina’s deafness. That hope didn’t work out, but at least the mother knows that she (assisted by Mission Mexico) did the best she could to try to help her daughter.

First trip ever to Mexico City for Josefina and her mother

In Rancho Macho, I will visit Esmeralda and her family. Esmeralda suffers from hydrocephalus, and Mission Mexico often assists the very poor family with food, medicine, or diapers — as well as delivering clothes or blankets or other items shared by the good people in Tlapa. 

Esmeralda received a carriage from a generous family in Tlapa; this is her bed

In Xochitepec, I will visit the seven children left behind when their mother drank last month paraquat, a highly toxic pesticide. Suicide is not common here, but it does occur. I have some meat, cheese, clothes, diapers, footwear, and school supplies for the children. Some of these items come from Mission Mexico; some come from good people in Tlapa. The children range in age from 8 months to 15 years of age. The children (and I) hope that Mission Mexico can continue offering them what my wise friend Warren Harbeck, from Cochrane, Alberta, calls a “hand up” — not a “hand out.” 

The two oldest children, Angela and Andrea, are great at looking after little sisters and brothers

I will visit in Río Hacienda with newly-widowed Alberta and her six children. Alberta’s husband died on April 10 when the passenger truck he was in went over a cliff; three people died. I have some medicine for the oldest daughter, Sofia, who survived that same accident. I have some meat and cheese and clothes for the family. And I have the updated and validated CURPs (official Population Registry ID) for the six children; all Mexicans, including children, are required to have this legal document. Mission Mexico paid almost $200 Canadian to obtain these documents which the poor father had “put off” getting. The children will now find it simpler to move from one school to another, and there is the hope that they can register now for some government assistance. 

Alberta in front of her house — six children to raise on her own now

I will visit in El Naranjo seven-year-old Yenicel. When she was a fun-loving five-year-old (and one of the smartest kids in her kindergarten class, says her teacher Felipe), Yenicel suffered an epileptic attack and stopped breathing for eight minutes. The cerebral and muscular damage left Yenicel bed-ridden, with the need to receive all of her nourishment through an intravenous tube to her stomach. I have a supply of PediaSure to leave with the family. PediaSure is a nutritional supplement that is formulated to support growth and promote immunity. It has made a difference in Yenicel’s life. The liquid supplement can be kept cool in a refrigerator that Mission Mexico brought to the family several months ago; the fridge was donated by a generous young woman in Tlapa. 

Being with Yenicel might be as close to heaven/God as I will ever get

I could go on and on. I will visit Pozolapa, Xilotlancingo, Tierra Blanca, Portezuelo, and other places. In all places, Mission Mexico will try to respond to the needs of the people with compassion. In the book that is quoted at the beginning of this blog, Dr. Wong writes the following. “For me, this is compassion: the ability to turn toward the truth of suffering with concern, care, and equanimity and with the wish to relieve that suffering …” 

These children in Majawa are comtent with gifts donated by people in Tlapa

This is one way Mission Mexico tries to serve here in the Mountain, besides the “approved projects” in health and education. It is, I believe, a most worthwhile attempt to come “from a deep place of humility to serve life as a whole.” These are our brothers and sisters; their reality is our reality. I say this humbly and gratefully. I am the most blessed person on the face of the earth to be allowed to be here and to call these people my friends. All of this would be impossible without the support of Bishop McGrattan, the Diocese of Calgary, and the good people from southern Alberta. In his book Sacred Fire, Father Ronald Rolheiser, OMI, refers to three stages of discipleship: essential discipleship (the struggle to get our lives together); mature discipleship (the struggle to give our lives away); radical discipleship (the struggle to give our deaths away). Mission Mexico practices radical discipleship. Jesus urges us: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends” (John 15:12–13, NIV). Thank you, friends of Mission Mexico, for your solidarity with the beautiful peoples here in the Mountain of Mexico. God bless you always.

Driving a four-wheel-drive truck on terrible roads means extra maintenance costs
on occasion. I am most grateful for solidarity in this part of the budget.