When I came back from a mission trip to Mexico I didn't expect to see snow on the ground. Maybe I should of. After all this is Minnesota.
Anyway, after the getting used to the shock of winter weather here in D.L., I took some time to reflect on my amazing experience in Mazatlan, Mexico.
The first big thing I noticed right away, besides the gorgeous weather, was the widespread poverty. It's about a 45-minute drive from the airport to Mazatlan, and I was surprised to see the dirty outskirts of the city instead of the expected fancy hotels, fountains, and palm trees of a tourist's paradise from the stuffy tour bus' windows.
The houses were built of rough brick and plaster or anything else solid enough for a wall, anything else we would call garbage. It definitely made me feel guilty to know that my modest Dynamic Homes house in Minnesota would be like a castle to these poor people.
There was trash lying in the dusty streets and graffiti covered every rundown shop and homemade fence. There were no decent looking cars, and I saw more people walking without shoes on their feet than those with.
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As the bus traveled closer to the city, I noticed some men working on a construction site. There were no machines. Just men with shovels and hand tools sweating in the hot sun for pay that the worst off here in America probably would not accept. Just that 45-minute bus ride to the hotel was a very sobering experience.
When we did get to the Holiday Inn, we were overcome with feelings of relaxation and warmth. We ate lunch at the hotel's restaurant overlooking the beach and the Pacific Ocean. Although I was in a more than comfortable place, I couldn't stop thinking of the rundown homes on the way in.
I wondered if those same homes had anything in them like the delicious quesadillas I was eating, or if they had refrigerators full of cold glass bottles of Coke like the one I was washing down our chips and salsa with. For some reason I didn't think so.
Perhaps the best part of the experience was the children. On one of our days of mission work, we went downtown to a small orphanage. We didn't do much "work," but we played with the kids and handed out stuffed animals and candy. Our simple presence and our smiles that day seemed to make those kids a lot happier.
On another day went to a very poor area of the city one might call the slums. We were going there to paint a place called La Familia Center, which is a place where the children can play, learn and eat when they're not in school.
We painted some desks and the walls inside, and at the end of the day, had some time to play with the little kids. One of my friends brought a soccer ball along and gave it to the boys as a gift. They really liked that and were very impressed that we "gringos" were so nice.
Another thing they liked, perhaps more than the soccer ball, were our cameras. Anytime they saw one of us pull a camera out, their faces would light up and they would immediately start posing with smiles and goofy faces.
That is what impressed me most about those children. How they had nothing but were so happy and excited all the time. They were so grateful for everything they had. If something as simple as seeing myself on a digital camera screen made me that happy, I wouldn't need anything else for the rest of my life.
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Seeing how those children lived and their joyful spirits was the best part of that awesome trip. I was definitely changed by that experience and will never look at life the same.
Jacob Schumacher is a senior at Detroit Lakes High School.
