Danie's Diary on the road with Up with People: November 2008

Helping out clean up and fix up basketball courts

basketball courts before we refinished them... community helpers

Gwen (switzerland) and teen helpers from the community

Abeba (ethiopia) painting a surrounding wall of the court

Jimena...aka Slow Poke (Mexico)

uppies working away

jackie (denver, co) always smiling :)

having fun after work... dancing with the local teens

group picture...

finishing effects.... Yo con Sonora is the organization we worked with that week to be able to finish all the courts....

this was the logo placed in the center of the court... 'Viva la Gente' is Up with People in Spanish ... we were able to leave our mark ;)

Our major community service this week was to re-do 20 basketball courts with the assistance and support of Yo con Sonora. Yo con Sonora (I'm with Sonora (Mexican state)) was an organization that was once affiliated with the Sonora government but is now a non-profit that helps out the community. We spent 2 half days and one full day working on 10 basketball courts a day, our cast was split into 6-10 groups each day. I personally worked on at least 4 basketball courts. When we arrived to most of them it was hard to believe that they were even basketball courts or parks... most of the courts had huge cracks in the foundation, missing nets or just plain hoops, surrounding walls full of graffiti, trash everywhere! and overgrown with weeds. Some of the tasks I was involved in was sweeping out the cracks on the court so they could be refilled, painting new lines on the court, painting the surrounding walls, weeding the park area, picking up garbage (which included an injection needle) and pruning and picking up tree branches, leaving many scrapes and scars. It was amazing to see the transformations of the courts.... it was only sad to see the children throw the garbage on the ground after they helped us pick up all the other garbage on the ground. It just seems hard to instill a habit when it was never there and is never promoted by the government. It could be as easy as putting communal garbage cans near the courts. The children and community members were amazing help, there was often glass scattered everywhere around the courts and the 2-8 year old children would be on their hands and knees helping us pick up the pieces. At the end of most of the days some cast members would perform BTS's for the communities and everyone from around would come to see!

cLoWn DoCtOrS

SMILE :)

The volunteers we worked with, they go to the hospital each week and dress up like clowns to entertain and interact with the children sick in the hospital

This week for community service we split up into two groups and in the morning we either participated in interaction with the children at the hospital or sex talk with local high school children of the area. At the hospital I ended up interacting with two very sick babies, one that had been through many surgeries and her outcome was still not secured and another baby who would not stop crying and all she needed was someone to hold her but she had so many tubes and wires coming from her i was too afraid to touch her. The children did love our interaction with them and our clown noses ;0). The sex talk was a way the community used to educate the local teens about ways of sexual topics and view points from different parts of the world. Some of our cast members shared their countries view on sex and other sexual related topics.... it didn't take long until the community members changed the way the program was running because we did toooo good of a job and the teens became too interested in the topic...ooops ;).

BOWLING>>>><<<< POOL

Luis, host brother that wanted to do everything with me

Friends that came along

Playing pool :)

I'm trying.... sorry luis

Go Luis, Go Luis

Bowling! 2nd time in Mexico

I had three crazy host brothers this week, 2 of which insisted that I be doing something every night. The first night was a late allocation pick up at 11:30pm ish and then I went to meet some aunt/uncles and grandmom. When we got home Luis asked if I wanted to meet my other brothers, without thinking this wolu take so long, I agreed. Needless to say I didn't get home until 3:30ish am after meeting them at a small party and sharing a couple of beers. Then the second night I told them I couldn't do it so we stayed home and I went on the computer. Then the third night we went bowling and played pool with some of Luis' friends. It was fun, but again I didn't get home until 1ish am.

HaPpY bIrThDaY hEcToR

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HECTOR... my oldest host brother out of 3 turned 26 the Friday that i was there so we went out to celebrate at the bar. He had about 20-30 people there to celebrate with him and actually other Up with People people ended up showing up there. It was a blast and thank god we had the day off the next day so I could recover ;).

Hector and me!