Editor's note: Dinos women's basketball forward Alex Cole is blogging about her experiences during the team's trip to Tijuana, Mexico to build a house for a needy family.
Working with Youth With A Mission, the team will build a house Sept. 1-2, run a basketball clinic for local children on Sept. 3, and visit an orphanage on Sept. 4. They return to Calgary on Sept. 5.
DAY 5 - September 4
Today was our last day in Mexico. Our guide took us to Rosarito in the morning to shop in the markets and look for souvenirs. In the afternoon we headed to an orphanage close to where we built the house. The name of the orphanage was called "Siempre" (which translates to 'always' in English) and we were informed that it was run completely off donations.
There were around 50 kids that called Siempre their home, and 20 of them were two years or younger. These younger children all stayed in a separate building and there were only four women taking care of them all. When we first arrived the women who worked there told us how important our visit was because of the limited amount of help they had - especially the babies, as they did not receive the amount of attention they needed. Every single person in our group had a baby in their arm at one point, and still there were little ones holding on to our legs.
At lunch time we got to feed the babies, the women who worked there were so thankful that we were there to help them. In the other building on the compound were the older children. We met a boy named Antonio that was 15 years old and had lived at the orphanage since he was born. We were told most of babies would be adopted, but the older group it would be more difficult for this to happen.
The orphanage is dedicated to the children, if the kids are not adopted by the time they are eighteen they commit to put them through college. Even though seeing this amount of children with no parents was very sad, in the long run we realized that each of them received three meals a day and would not be going hungry, as well they had a roof over their heads and their own bed to sleep in.
When we had to leave the orphanage we all had the same thought in mind, but as it turns out in order to adopt you have to reside in Mexico, so it is near to impossible if you live outside the country. This is a safety precaution that all orphanages take in order to prevent human trafficking and problems similar.
In these five days I have learned so much from the people of Mexico and the experiences we have shared with them. Looking back on everything we have accomplished this week is amazing. Think of the summer you have had so far, if you have had any days off just imagine in that time you could have dramatically transformed a person's life. If you ever get the opportunity that my team was offered, I highly recommend you take it, because it truly is a rewarding experience.
