Week #80 - 20 to go and trunky?

 We have just 20 weeks left before our scheduled return to Canada. Am I trunky (i.e., ready to go home)? In many ways, yes, if only because I am tired (injustice fatigue) and our time and assigned tasks have begun to rapidly fly by. While Mexico celebrates former President Benito Juárez birthday tomorrow, for me it is an opportunity to catch up on project documentation for a committee meeting next week. Documents are circulated four working days in advance to give Committee members a reasonable amount of time to review the information. Their task is due diligence to ensure the projects put forward for Area presidency approval are complete and that risks identified in producing the desired impact are addressed and/or appropriately managed. An existing committee was refreshed as a pilot last summer and a step toward a significant culture change - I don't know that it will continue in its present format after we are gone but I hope the lasting impact is a greater appreciation/curiosity for the value of due diligence. I have reviewed over 40 new project proposals for the current year and we are expecting to receive about that many more in the next couple of weeks from which we will choose which ones to recommend for the Committee's scrutiny prior to their submission for consideration for Area support. 

We have been to a number of protocolario events since my my last blog post in September. These events mark the beginning of a project. All are notable but one with an organization called Vida Independiente stands out as it and the people we met there and their passion for what they do are unforgettable. Vida Independiente donates "active" wheel chairs to people as part of its efforts to help them find joy in their lives and live independently without being a burden on their families. Almost all of their beneficiaries suddenly became wheelchair users as a result of car/motorcycle accidents or a victims of armed assaults. The health and emergency health care system in Mexico is fragmented, underfunded and quality of care is generally poor or care is not available at all - even if you have insurance. It is a miracle that any of these individuals lived. The founder is an incredible example of faith and endurance, himself quadriplegic as a result of a diving accident and the ambulance carrying him to get help crashing and rolling en-route to the hospital. Some say he cheated the Devil twice. He is the loving and ever assertive patriarch of a regional community of wheelchair users of all ages. They not only give away wheelchairs but they teach the recipients how to make best use of them, life skills and help in the transition from "why me? to helping them discover and pursue their new purpose in life on wheels. CDMX has very little in the way of infrastructure accommodations for people with disabilities and because the lack of personal security is widespread, the prospect of having a stranger take a risk to try to help is rare. Wheelchair recipients are taught how to climb and descend stairs, curbs, holes in the street and to right themselves if they get turned over -it is quite amazing but the only way to be independent. At the event the founder shared his perspective that loosing something i.e., even your house, is nothing, losing your health/mobility is something of importance but loosing your faith is loosing everything that matters. Of wheelchair donations, he said that without training and support the donation is a coffin on wheels, unmet expectations lead to apathy with respect to self-care. Pressure sores are soon left undetected and as the beneficiaries have no feeling nor bowel/bladder control the sores are very soon infected, and without access to medical care these individuals quickly die of blood poisoning. In 40 plus years he has been a wheelchair user he has said goodbye to so many people that he hoped to help. I am working with one of the organization's graduates that still comes out regularly to help others learn how to use their wheelchair to see if he can find better employment. He works as a life coach and gym trainer but gets paid less than the people that sweep the floors in the same establishment. He had a good job in an aluminum foundry but was gunned down in the street here in CDMX in 2020 - he still has two bullets in his body and they removed half of his liver, his pancreas and a kidney to save his life. After a two-month induced coma he awoke paralyzed from his waist down. It took him a couple of years to move past "why me?" and to put his life back together. He has a wife and an outlook and a smile that can heal a multitude of disappointments and pain. I so want him and this organization to succeed. The Church donated 285 active wheelchairs to them to place. We are also working with them to develop a regional project to increase the scope of their work. 

In my miracles bucket, one of our implementing organizations introduced me to one of their associates that runs a chain of restaurants in Puebla, Fonda de Santa Clara. We went for a cooking experience there after a protocolario event celebrating the Church's donation of an X-ray machine to the Red Cross Hospital and before returning back to the CDMX. While we were waiting for our host, I took the opportunity to saludar (greet) the bronze statue at the entrance. Later I found out the the statue was of or host´s mother the founder of these restaurants. They don´t hire chefs, rather women that cook for their families. Our dish that afternoon was mole poblano. Part of the recipe was to deep fry whole garlic cloves with the husks still on them and slices of plátano macho with the peels still on them for 10 minutes. My task was to stir and toast almonds in a clay pot right beside the deep fryer until the garlic in the deep fryer exploded with a very loud bang, splashing my right hand and the right side of my face with hot oil. Our host was horrified as we both scrambled to ice and treat the burns. I was very fortunate that the oil reached only to my bottom eyelid, I initially wondered if it had burned my eye and if I just couldn´t feel it. The pain gradually numbed and we were able to finish and enjoy the mole. I joked with our host that my mistake was greeting the bronze statue of her mother without a proper introduction - she was not amused. The next day, there were no signs of any burns and much to my delight, I went to BJJ.  

This Wednesday we are planning on going to the Mazahua New Year celebrations in Santa Ana Nichi in Estado de México for the day. We also have a project there that we will be visiting to continue to document the progress on the water system the Church contributed to. We were last there just before Christmas to participate in a posada.