So excited for round-two volunteer trip with Jack! Last time he brought a Guatemalan parasite home in his belly that hung out for five weeks!  Hoping for a healthier trip to Mexico. One week volunteering in a remote village at a childcare center in Mexico for single poor mommas... here we come. 

Karma at its finest, got to the airport and they upgraded us for free to first class and the VIP lounge. Sweet. 

Left the house for the airport at 11 AM, 2 flights 3 1/2 hour layover, delayed flight, 1 1/2  hour drive our heads hit the pillow at 1 AM. Glorious. 

Back up just a moment we have a private driver to pick us up at the airport arrange through recommendation from the volunteer coordinator. 

50-year-old Mexican man holding a sign at the airport with my name, of course no ID or company logo ...just him and the car. I have the address of where we're going, hour and a half away. He speaks no English I speak no Spanish… Here goes! 

Ten minutes into the drive  I think hmmmm.... how safe are we?? No one knows where we are (including me!). No street lights, or signs really, dirt roads, no cell service AND I forgot to get my Rambo knife that straps to my thigh in the suitcase IN THE TRUNK. Ugh. Here's where faith and a little luck comes into play. 

We arrive rather tired and so very happy to be here. We pull up to large metal wall, on the dirty cobblestone streets with some intoxicated dudes on the corner. No sign, no door handle, nothing.

 Driver gets out and pulls our suitcases out and I think... Huh?? What?? We here? Anyone home at the Inn? Hold on dude you're not leaving us yet! 

So we rap on the big metal door and gloriously Kayla, our volunteer coordinator, opens the big creaky door. Yes! We are in. Went from feeling incredibly vulnerable lost in the streets of Mexico after midnight to inside the big metal door safe. So safe, so happy, arrived. Hellos, here's your room, goodnight... lovely. 

Our accommodations are far better then anticipated! Jack and I share one bedroom, two separate beds, our own private bathroom, even have hot water in the shower! Sweet. 

Day 2 

Up at 6:30. Shower, familiarize myself with our place in the daylight and get a lil java going. Although Embarrassing I have to admit the first cup didn't work out so well. I can't speak a lick of Spanish I certainly can't read it and the big pretty white bag of sugar was not… salt. Ugh. Get jack up showered and meet our peeps in the kitchen heading to "work" at 8:30. 

Cast of characters:

Kayla, our volunteer coordinator in early 20s has lived here for one and a half years, from Minnesota, will be here another three months and she's out. Off to explore Europe. 

Volunteers Michelle my age and her niece twenty Katie both from California. Got here one day before us. Michelle's here for a week, Katie a month.

Brooke early twenties here for a month from Illinois. 

Aiste from Ireland, 18 years old sweet as can be. Her first volunteer trip she's here for two months. Way cool! 

We arrived at work literally 12 seconds later. The daycare building is joined to our digs by a courtyard turned into play-yard. 

Ours digs:

A hostel type feel that houses up to 14 volunteers at a time. Most of the 5 bedrooms have shared bathrooms a few common/living room areas. Nice size communal kitchen. While breakfast and lunch is offered at the daycare center during the day there is plenty of activity in the kitchen. Everyone has marked shelves for our food. Definitely a focal point of hang out.. 

The work day: 

8:30-3:00'ish. 

At 8:30 there's a 20 minutes or so chat session with Donna, the amazing founder of the center (more on her later) she liked to check in on everyone to assure everything is going well. We hang out in the courtyard. Very casual. 

Up to our assigned room. Jack and I are in the 1 1/2 year olds. OH MY Goodness... we walk in and there are 24 little brown eyes staring at us. SO cute! 

The center allows up to 110 children from new born to 5 years old. 

Each room is divided up by age each has up to a dozen munchkins and one teacher. 

Here's how the day runs. 

Munchkins are there by 8 o'clock When we arrive all the boys are in high chairs all the girls are sitting on teeny training potty's on the floor.  

Funny.. all the boys are in diapers. All the girls undies except nap time. Hmmm... 

clean up the girls. Diaper change all the boys. 

Once they're all placed in their own high chair in the semi circle we start the production line. 

Wash 24 munchkin hands. Jack bibs them all while I've bring up the tray from the kitchen for breakfast. 

We dish out 12 bowls of cereal and start assisting with feeding all of them. Amazing how well they can do on their own. 

We then hand out 12 tippy cups jack has put together. 

Next we wash all 12 little sticky faces and 24 hands. 

Clear breakfast mess and clean the floor. 

Next up teeth. One at a time I deliver a munchkin 

to Jack at the sink. We are trying to learn names. Each tooth brush is labeled. 

Mission accomplished clean bottoms, full bellies, clean teeth and it's play time. :) 

Toys, balls, dolls, screaming, giggling and hugs. 

By now it's 11:00 am 12 munchkins back up in high chairs, hands clean, bibbed up, cracker snacks given out, tippy cups filled and drank yet again. 

24 little sticky hands wiped and cleaned again high chairs and floor below cleaned again. 

Another round of little girls on the training potty's and little boys one at a time to the diaper station. 

All 12 cleaned and laid in individual cribs lined up side-by-side accompanied by a bottle of milk for each, Jacks assembled. 

They ALL lay down quietly for naptime. 

Breaktime for Jack's and me. :)

Took a walk to the local "market "down the road. 

We are told not to go left out the front door. Oh dear.. we hang right and am off to explore. I feel a bit uneasy having Jack's with me with the question of safety. Just remembering to be cautious with being aware of all of my surroundings at all times. 

Average store is half the size of my bedroom. I bought some fresh fruit and veggies really really hoping it sits well in our bellies. Hoping the good wash off at home worked. 

Jack and I played rummy on the roof. Absolutely beautiful day and temperatures. Mid 70's in the day 58 at night zero humidity! Beautiful. 

Got to know the other Volunteers some, more hanging out in the kitchen. Then it's back to work for the afternoon. 

Back at 1:00 play time!! 1:30 12 munchkin back in the high chairs, 24 little hands washed again, bibbed up, lunch is served!

We help in feeding, tippies for all, clean them up and wash high chairs and floors below once again. 

Another round of little girls on the training potty's and little boys one at a time to the diaper station. Then all 12 munchkins get change out of the dirty clothes and put in the fresh clean clothes they even one at a time sit up at the "salon chair" 

Their teacher does each and everyone of their hair to look nice for mom to pick them up at the end of the day. How adorable. 

We get another hour or so of more play. Yay. 

Wow. What a system they have here. Amazing how smoothly it runs. Even though the teacher for our room, Erica, doesn't speak any English we communicated almost effortlessly. One of Jack's biggest concerns before coming here is how we will communicate with everyone. He's learned. :)

Diego has the chunkiest cheeks in town he's  totally stolen Jack's heart. 

Joslyn has mine. 

Although every last one is adorable!! 

Donna, the founders story, she had been to Mexico a few times volunteering. She had an epiphany in 2000 and held her heart pulling her from her comfortable California life to a beautiful struggling women of Mexico. She did a simple type survey with dozens and dozens of single women finding out the greatest need. It was childcare for the children so they didn't stay home alone or being watched by siblings or strapped to their back while they went out to work. Very common happening in families is the man goes off to find a better life in America and will send money home to the wife and children until he can afford to bring them over. 95% of the time they either disappear for good or send money for months or years and then just stop.  They very rarely are reunited, leaving the mom single and destitute with children to care for. Donna found an old abandoned building that she wanted to buy for a child care center although the average mortgage rate in Mexico for a loan is 30% interest! The seller agreed to stretch the payments out with no interest if she put $10,000 down because her intentions were to better the community.  She didn't have $10,000… The church she was affiliated with in California caught wind of this and there was a private donor who donated the $10,000. :) She packed a few suitcases full of stuff and left her life in America behind took a year and a half to rebuild the building. The childcare was up and running! The childcare is free to single working mom's. For each day of the week their child is there they must donate one hour of work in the center. There is one paid teacher in every room. And hundreds of volunteers in and out throughout the year from all over the world. They have had volunteers from 42 different countries come and volunteer there over the last 17 years. Beautiful. Amazing. Inspiring. Boy it gets my blood pumping yet again wanting to make such a bigger difference in this world!

Also this volunteer experience is truly about just giving from the heart! Many of the trips I've done the past say their nonprofit but clearly not so… Costing upwards of $2000 per person just a volunteer not including airfare. This organization charges $160 per person for a whole week! Just barely covering cost and that's it. Right on!

After work lil down time laying in the sunshine on the roof. Then in comes a fabulous storm gusty winds bring me down below to the covered deck to feel the cool breeze is of the storm coming through. Hard rain in and out in half hour and we are off. 

Went to explore "stores" a little further down the crumbling streets. "Right" of course. 

Jack asked 4 of the volunteers to join us. I was very surprised he did but he worked up the courage to do it.  Love watching him enjoying experiencing getting to know strangers. 

We bought some home made goodies along the way. Oh my oh my the lil bakery??? Hoping I forgot where it was. Teeheehee 

Back to base went up to the room to chill a bit before dinner Jack completely crashed out at 5 PM!  I woke him told him I was going to make dinner came back up to our room out again! Hard days work. 

Speaking of ... I can't even properly express the pride I had in Jack today.  He did such a phenomenal job with the children today and it was so authentically from his heart. 

Also touches my heart to watch him try and communicate with others. The majority of the workers here don't speak English. Of course he did use his phone for translation app a few times when all else failed. 

7:30 everyone has scattered to their own areas, my bellies full with local veggies, Jack's asleep for the day  I might just be heading up to nini I myself. 

Fantastic first full day here! All the new sites sounds people children cultures foods streets smells experiences… And to see it through Jack's eyes. Damn I love these trips! My momma hearts way happy. ❤️

Day 3 

Up at sunrise. The house is still quiet I head down to the kitchen for my morning java, minus the salt this time. We have to enter the kitchen from the outside courtyard and the door is locked! Oh no this won't do… I have a 15 minute window to get java in until I get ugly. Fortunately I see an open window within reach scale the wall climb through and jump.  Bamm. MacGyver's in. Head up to the rooftop to watch the sunrise over the mountains listening to all the early morning noises. Just as the sun creeps over the mountain two hot air balloons drift over head. It looks as if it's going to be another beautiful day! 

I shower and rouse Jack's after 14 1/2 hours of sleep I still have to wake him twice… 

Protein shake and off to work.  Our 15/20 minutes in the courtyard as Donna connects with all of us. Love this part so zen like. 

Then upstairs to our classroom filled with glorious babies! 

Same old routine... hand wash, face wash, diapering, breakfast, playtime, outside time, hand wash, snacktime and tippy's toothbrushing, more playtime, bottles and nappy, Breaktime for Jack and me, back for afternoon washing, lunching, diapering, playing loving and hugging. Whew. Exhausted yet again.

After work we grouped up with three other volunteers and walked to the center of the main town probably 2 miles or so up-and-down severely steep hills, has seen my 20! Good stuff. Need to get the blood pumping!  Really missing my Monday through Friday6:00amworkouts... Jack was not so hot on the adventure. Went to the bank exchange some money, checked out the local attractions in town incredibly architecturally beautiful old churches and parks, did little window shopping in the unique little shops, split off from my friends and Jack and I were off to find some chow. Of course we can't compromise so he eats in one restaurant I am in another ha ha Ha. Then.... THE RAINS HIT. We walked a few blocks north, a few west, got a little lost and finally found a taxi. Show him the address of the homestead and delivered we were, wet and happy to be home. Once again got a thrill out of watching Jack negotiate the town people culture etc... 

Came up to our room and Jack says, kinda sadly, "Mom, I miss Diego". So cute. 6:30 I run down to the kitchen to get some water come back up Jack is… Crashed again. Gives me a little down on my own time, but I'm certain to go out early tonight myself. 

Absolutely fantastic day! 

Feeling so incredibly fortunate to experience these beautiful authentic connections with Jack at my side. We are all truly connected. Whether he can articulated at this point or not I know inside he starting to get it. 

Day 4 

The day started early. 430-ish as Jack says hey mom! Hey mom, are you awake? Really? Of course he logged in another 12+ hours of sleep again so he was wide-awake. Drifted in and out of sleep for a bit till the sun decided to rise. Took off on a solo stroll to try and find one of the "markets"open. Jack wanted some tea and I wanted to walk the quiet streets before the hustle and bustle commenced. To no avail. Water it is Jack. Got my java on, some fresh papaya and avocado, showers, morning kitchen chat with the volunteers and off to work we go. Michelle and I had an interesting conversation, I used to run a daycare she used to be a preschool teacher.  We quickly come to the conclusion that we coddle our young far too much starting at young age for far too long in the US. Amazing how self-sufficient and self-soothing toddlers truly can be if that's all they know.
Morning powwow with Donna and volunteers. Also Miguel who is Donna's sidekick tried to teach Jack some Spanish, as he said Jack had an excellent Spanish accent. Of course Jack try to teach Miguel  some English accent as well. 9 o'clock Jack is itching to get up to our assigned room... Hola! Excitement and love and I'll 24 little babies eyes as we walk in. Yay.
Same old morning routine although today Jack and I also serve breakfast all the rooms.  

Just before naptime Jack Dayra up... opps!!! No diapers she's in undies and apparently not fully potty trained yet. All over Jack. He took it well, walked back home in his white shirt and cleaned up. Breaktime did a load of laundry and hung it to dry on the rooftop.  Of course using a dryer would be silly waste of electricity.
After naptime diapers, handwashing, high chairs, bibs, lunch, clean up, playtime! End of day clean up fresh diaper new set of clothes clean hairstyle and play time till mama's come. 

Jack and I took a 15 minute taxi ride to the Hot Springs.  It was way cool! They were a few poles that were fed by the Hot Springs. Extremely relaxing. 

The pools were warm but not nearly as warm as the tunnel… at the far end of one of the pools there was a small opening into the tunnel.  I, with my severe claustrophobia, waited in chest high water through a stone tunnel 3 feet wide about 150 feet long. Not knowing what was at the end of it but had to see.  Of course. I got halfway through panicked turned around and went back to the opening and demanded Jack go to the end of the tunnel and see if there was any "out". There was not :( OK man up Robin! And off I went. Mid to the end it opened up into a large cave made of stone with a hole in the wall the size of a basketball. That's where the thermal earth warmed water was coming from to feed the pools. It was gushing so hard we took turns going underneath of it to massage our back's.

 The water was literally hot. Not quite sure of the temperature but it was amazing how warm it was. Such a cool experience! 

Jack was melting down from exhaustion so I dropped him at the homestead and continued on in the taxi back to square again. Had an absolutely beautiful freeing evening.  Wandered in and out of many unique little shops and restaurants. Came across a medicine man he'll read me by using 280 different symbols. He gives you a name individual to yourself. Mine had two symbols on it one with sun shine and one was alligator. How crazy fitting being that I'm from Florida! He also designed a small leather pouch to go around my neck filled with some stones my three stones represented love wealth and health. He blessed my stones while singing a chance and blowing through a conch shell and blessed me and my stones to protect me in all three categories. Sweet! 

I literally got chills up and down my body as he was doing it. I did a mini bar crawl and bounced from one restaurant to another to another. Got to know people from all over the world. Love love love meeting new people and hearing their stories. Home and lights out at 9:30. Another just phenomenal day! 

Day 5

Came down to the kitchen for my morning java and met the newest addition to our volunteer crew came late the night before. Hailey mid twenties from Ohio. She's a semester away from becoming a doctor and had a conference in the area. She's volunteering here for 4 days. 

Same old routine at the daycare. Although this morning we brought in our bags of donations. The hit was a $12 tunnel I got at Walmart. It entertained them for an hour! So many little belly giggles. 

Break time was chillin on the roof in the glorious non-humid sunshine and connecting with the others.  

After work Jack's wanted to just lay on the bed and play with his phone and dream of the Madden controller back in his hand again tomorrow night!

Last night here that want to show me… I take off for town once again. Lots of shopping, people watching, and dinner rooftop with a view forever and a day in every direction! 

Instead of Taxi and I walked back this time. Just a couple miles but boy oh boy did it feel like 20! I don't believe that ever walked up that steep hills before. Ever. And it felt as if 90% of it was up hill! Whew!! Feeling a lot less guilty missing my 6a.m. orange class all week. Halfway up Mount Everest I stopped and a little mini market. There was a Little old Mexican lady shopping I watched her pick items up put them down count the money in her hand back-and-forth. It was obvious she was calculating what she could and couldn't afford to buy that day. After I bought a couple items I waited for a few more people to go to the checkout until little lady made it to the register. After they run up her purchases I gave the cashier more than enough to cover it, leaving the change for her as well. I didn't say anything to her, just ducked out. Good stuff. :) 

Back home Jack and Ireland are chattin it up in the kitchen. Off to pack. Up at 4:30 tomorrow morning to catch a ride to the airport. 

Not only did the trip open Jack's eyes up to the differences outside of our country. Not being able to flush your toilet paper, being extra careful not to waste water, the majority of people don't own cars, they live far more simply, etc... He was surrounded by like minded people. The volunteers are all genuine, sincere, compassionate people. 

I met a monk a few months back who after three years left that Abby to try and reach teens on an individual level so he got a job at Burger King. I drove him to work every day for a week. I had the most interesting conversations with him. He help me understand on a deeper level we are all truly connected. So think of it like... you walk into a room with a half a dozen people who are all either angry sad full of revenge depressed hurt and what do you feel? You can actually feel the negative energy around you.

Versus 

Same room a different group of people maybe a wedding a birth of a baby there's pure joy everyone is laughing and happy.

You can actually feel the positive energy all around you. 

Just put it on a larger scale. Think of it as if the globe has an energy force surrounding it. When people are experiencing any negativity in their life negative vibes go into that force. Which really surrounds us all. If we have ways of making others happy even in the simplest ways it improves their well-being which essentially improves ours. I know it seems kind of out there but I am gaining a deeper awareness for this. People don't have to do week adventures to third world countries to make strangers happy. It's so simple to do in so many ways every day. We are all people were all connected. Love and peace is it! ✌

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi 

Thanks for reading until my next adventure… Oh and if anyone wants to go back with me let me know. J