La Vida Preciosa: Manos de Vida

Hello! I am finally writing about my internship! I've completed one week, three to go..... it's hard to describe. It's going to be hard work...I'm going to be tired and not have free time during the week, etc....but it's also going to be really rewarding. I'm excited.

So the organization is called Manos de Vida. Their offices are located in Southern Oaxaca (it takes me 45 minutes to walk there lol). My "boss" is the nurse whose name is Liz and pronounced Leez. The organization works in 6 communities in the outskirts of Oaxaca that are basically like slums where people have come down from their pueblos in the mountains to find work. They live in haphazard tin or wood one-room houses with dirt floors. Almost all of them speak different dialects apart from their espanol and cannot read or write. The situations are dire, especially at a first glance, but the people are amazing. They're so kind. And their kids are so fun.

Manos de Vida travels to each community at least 2 a week. They are really focused on helping the people by building relationships, which I really like. They have "Club" once a week that consists of bible school for the kids and classes for the moms about things like dental hygiene and how to cook soy or amaranto (look into it!) and the importance of cleanliness and bathing and things like that. Then they visit to check up on the kids....weigh the ones who are malnourished...visit their homes, etc. They also have big projects with groups of retired people who come from the US. One group was here the week before I started and built chicken coups (gallineros) and there's a group coming from Seattle not this week but the next that's going to help with 18 concrete floors in houses. They also build ecological bathrooms. It's like...Manos de Vida teaches the people about basic health and builds relationships, and they teach these people to teach the other people who "don't get it." So it's teaching them to help themselves. Which I think is the best way to work.

Anyway...my jobs this week were both in and out of the office....making copies, drawing chickens for a book about how to care for your chicken coup, giving surveys in the communities, playing with kids, hiking a mountain with them, participating in dental health classes, learning how to cook soya, etc.... Basically, I was REAL tired but had LOTS of fun and learned SO MUCH. IN ONLY ONE WEEK!

The pictures below are from Wednesday where we were in Yagay from 10 am until 7 pm, and I hiked the cactus infested mountain in shorts (bad idea), with some of the kids.