Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. — Margaret Mead

By Nicoll Quinn
Director of Travel

Awe-inspiring, amazing, humbling, gratifying, connecting and challenging are all great adjectives to describe my experience in Tijuana last week while learning about being a project coordinator for volunteer projects.

I was invited down to Tijuana by David Clemmons at VolunTourism.org to learn a little more about incorporating volunteering into tourism. I have the tourism side down pat! Just need a little coaching on project coordinating the volunteer side. Like planning vacations, there is a lot of work and coordinating that goes into each volunteer project. After the experience I had last week, I have to say it is so worth it.

David arranged for me to join a group that the Los Ninos Organization put together from a Bay Area high school, Archbishop Mitty, that was down for a week of volunteering and learning about the culture of Mexico. I joined them for one day and tried to partake in it all.

To give you a little bit of background on Los Ninos, they have been working with the communities in Tijuana for 34 years now. The organization and communities of Tijuana saw the need to create good areas for the children to play at schools and orphanages. There really is no grass in these yards because grass needs a lot of water and water is not abundant. What the children play on is dirt that gets kicked up, they breathe it in and it often makes the children sick with respiratory problems. So, Los Ninos and the volunteers who donate their time and money for a week at a time mix cement and lay down patches in the school and orphanage yards.

The really cool thing is that the communities are incorporated into the projects. The communities and Los Ninos each raise half the funds needed to purchase the supplies as well as the communities bring volunteers, in all sizes. Los Ninos brings volunteers, like the students and teachers from Archbishop Mitty who donated time from their summer break.

On the morning that I joined the volunteer project, I met up with the Los Ninos volunteers before heading over to the project site, which was at a secondary school. To my surprise — since it was their third day of mixing and laying cement — they were all filled with a lot of energy and excited to get to the project location. As soon as we arrived, the volunteers were off the bus and ready to go, helping to unload the truck of tools and getting everything set up.

Shortly after we arrived, the community volunteers started showing up. We were a hearty bunch of students, children and adults all with the end goal of filling in the patch of dirt that had been sectioned off for the cement to be laid down. But before the work could begin the school director addressed everyone to extend the school’s and community’s appreciation for the volunteers’ work. The school director also let us know that over the past five years Los Ninos and the community had laid all the existing cement as well as taken part in building the cover that covered part of the playground. After being inspired by the school director, we got to work.

I went over and looked at the patch and I have to say, it didn’t look that big. I thought, we will have this filled in no time. I realized quickly not to underestimate what it really takes to get one of these projects done. As I looked all around me, I was emotionally taken with the unity of everyone working together as well as having some fun and making connections with each other. I knew at that point that it didn’t matter how long it took, this was an experience and the connection to each other and the difference that they were all making that no one here would trade in for the world. And with that, I stopped taking my pictures, I grabbed a shovel and got to work. Before I knew it, I was in the thick of things mixing up cement and loading it into the wheel barrel for someone to cart over to the patch.

When we are all done filling our patch with cement, we gathered together to eat the lunch that is provided by women in the community. This was a nice way to celebrate our accomplishments of the day and relax with good food and conversation. It was at this time that I had a chance to talk a little more with some of the students from Archbishop Mitty. These students really impressed me with their stories about how life changing this experience had been for them. Hearing the realization of much in their world is taken for granted and that they see things differently now. It seemed as if their views on the world had been altered in a positive, eye-opening way. The walls that mark the borders that separate their worlds had been knocked down. This had been an impactful experience in so many ways for these students who worked hard doing this manual labor, connecting with those from the communities they were volunteering their time in and learning about the culture through their afternoon tours.

One can’t help coming away from an amazing experience like this feeling good, touched, accomplished and ready for the next project. I can’t wait for all you Sweet gals to jump on board some of our Sweet volunteer projects in New Orleans and our different ports of call on our Sweet Caribbean Cruise. It will be an experience for you and the community that none of you will ever forget.

Posted in: Blog

Email Print

Share on mySpaceShare on twitterShare on Facebook22 Comments