Rotary Mexico Journal #2

“And Jesus went about doing good.” That’s how I felt today as I joined other Rotarians and Mexicans going through some desperately poor communities – helping them, visiting with them, and giving hope! It was really an amazing day. Where we went the wealthy have access to lots of water which they use to grow feed for the cattle, and sometimes the water just runs and is wasted. The poor have very little access to it, and the well-water they are able to access is fluoride contaminated. The fluoride is supposed to not be more than 1.5; and here it is 4.8! Thus you see lots of rotting teeth. At one home we visited today we drew water to take to the lab for testing. Because well water will be unsafe for a very long time to come, the only immediate solution is to build cisterns to catch rain water (which only comes in the rainy season, between June and August). This is the project that the Rotary clubs I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, are involved in. In the pictures of today you will see what the final product looks like. You will also see how the villagers came out to tie the mesh together, around which they will set the concrete. It was a blessing to join them, even though briefly, in this project of hope and healing!

There are 18 communities that are involved in this project. We visited a 19^th one. They do not have a community council to organize this. So today they met to hear about organizing and to talk about their needs. They do have well water (but I already talked about the danger in that). What they need are dry toilets and other sanitary needs, etc. You will notice in those photos that there are no men in the group. All the men are in the USA working (Austin, Texas is about 9 hours away). Some have not seen their husbands in 5 years. They send home money to keep the families going. We had a good meeting. They signed up to organize; and they fed us.

As I walked the dusty (and I have not seen so much dust for a long time) I thought about Jesus on the dusty road, walking to Nazareth and going into the synagogue and reading from Isaiah 61:1 – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed [the word for “messiah” and “Christ”] me to proclaim good news to the poor….” And what did the religious “righteous” leaders do? They not only criticized, but they were ready to stone him, throw him off a cliff, and ultimately killed him! Now I’m preaching: But may we not be among that group, but be among those who both literally and figuratively walk the dusty roads and help the poor. You can do that by either joining a Rotary club and get involved in active service. You can also join me on my annual mission and cultural trip to Thailand (August 17 – September 6). Or you can simply get involved in an outreach to the poor and marginal in society.

Our day ended with a wonderful Mexican meal with the entire Walla Walla team.