Chris Callaghan won an EIL Travel Award that helped sponsor his voluntary work in the Mexican village of Bara de Potosi.
This summer I spent it working abroad as an EIl representative Barra de Potosi Mexico as I was lucky enough to win a EIL travel award to Mexico. As part of the award I was working as a volunteer in the town of Barra de Potosi.
After arriving in Mexico and absorbing some of the many marvelous sights and sounds there is in Mexico City I set off for the city of Oaxaca to go for Spanish classes in the Instituo Cultura Oaxaca. This is a wonderful place as not only does it encompass great teachers and teaching methods you also have the opportunity to learn the language by living it as you get to choose one practical course as well from a wide variety of options. I chose to take salsa classes which composed mainly of me making an ass of myself but it was great fun and a great way to improve your Spanish and to learn how to dance as well.
After two weeks in Oaxaca I set of for Barra de Potosi where I would begin my volunteer placement. I will never forget the bus journey to Barra I first went to Zihuatejo and then I was picked by Juanni at the bus station .As we made our way to Barra it just started to sink in what a remote location it was. As the journey continued the roads progressively got worse until it was just a dirt track for a road. What I will always remember as well as this is the first time that I got sight of the crystal clear Pacific Ocean surrounded by coconut trees and unspoiled landscape.
Barra de Potosi is a rustic seaside town in south west Mexico in the state of Guererro. This is a extremely beautiful but poor town many of the amenities that we take for granted everyday here in Ireland are not available to these people. The local mainly consists of tourism and fishing as many people are attracted to the stunning beaches and the Pacific Ocean provides an abundant supply of fish. As well this Barra is quite famous locally for being a bit of an insect haven and I soon found that insect repellent was useless over there with the mosquitoes started making short work of my legs and any other body part they could get at( I mean quite literally)As well as this I was sharing my bedroom with quite a few interesting characters. Bats, spiders, cockroaches, were the regular night time visitors. The majority of the people are extremely poor with many living in wooden shacks and some without houses at all .
My volunteer activities were expansive and varied on a daily basis. Our main activity was teaching English classes in the local library to the children of Barra. Even though the classes were very chaotic and disorganised I had a great fun with the children and I built up a very strong rapport with some them.
As well as teaching classes I along with my fellow volunteers Claire and Ana, we organised some extra activities such as camp fire stories and Halloween themed nights. These activities were given just to give them something to do as most of the children had nothing else to do or they spent most of there time working with their parents so activities like these were a welcome change for them. In addition to this we also tried to teach the children the importance if recycling and not littering, we tried to instil this to the children by taking them to the beach to help clean up as littering is quite a serious problem with the locals and the tourists who often came visiting during the weekend.
During my spare time there I decided to clean up the garden behind the library as it had become very overgrown and as well as this I started to construct a playground for the kids with anything I could find. First of all I built soccer net for the boys in the town as they we were all avid soccer fans and players and there was no where for them to play. After getting this done which had token some time as working in 40 degrees Celsius heat really slowed me down. When I had this done I started work on making a set of swings with the remaining bits and bobs I had found. Like the soccer net this was a quite slow and tough task but it was really rewarding to see the kids having fun with something that I had made and at least now they has somewhere to play instead of in the middle if the street.
Finally with what time I had left we decided to make a vegetable garden to teach the kids some basic gardening skills and to offer them something to do. I along with some of the kids planted carrots, chillies, onions and various other vegetables.
During my time I noticed quite a few problem with the lack of educational facilities as many children could not progress into secondary which was extremely expensive with only the richest able to go as well as the nearest secondary school was nearly over a hour away making it impossible for the local children to go. Indeed I made friend with a boy called Avi who was extremely intelligent but his family could not afford to continue is studies. To help the local families we distributed basic items such as pens, pencils, copybooks, erases etc. There was a wonderful feeling of giving these items to the students however it was quite eye opening as well as I got a true insight into the poverty that some of these people suffer.
In the town of Barra the general pace of life is extremely slow compared to our hectic lifestyle here in Ireland and this was very frustrating at the start of my placement but if you slow yourself down you will get into their rhythm of life. As well as taking time to adjust to the pace of living it was quite frustrating to get anything done as Mexicans in general have an attitude of "Ma-ana Ma-ana" which means "tomorrow tomorrow" I think this helped me learn the real meaning of the old saying that is "patience is a virtue". However there are many aspects of the Mexican lifestyle that I loved when I was over there. The community is very family orientated and is always extremely receptive to any new volunteers.
Overall my volunteer placement was the best time of my life. The people of Barra were really welcoming and kind and it was fantastic to know that you were making a difference no matter how small it was. To be welcomed into a rural Mexican community was really fantastic and it was an honour to get a insight into the true Mexican culture. Since I have been home I have learned not to take some many things for granted as there is so many more people much less fortunate than us. I have definitely become more appreciative of everyday commodities such as T.V, washing machines, running water etc.
I would like to thank everybody who supported me and both organisations PEI and EIL for making this an unforgettable trip and one that I will not forget.
Chris Callaghan
