Tag Archives: homeless

Manana-Hasta Luego

Ahhh!! I cannot believe that our time has come to an end in Guanajuato!! Tomorrow we leave bright and early!! Tonight we went to the school for a little going away party. There was salsa dancing lessons which were surprisingly really fun! We learned the basics and now I feel a little more comfortable with it. Last nigh we went to our favorite Bar-Why Not-it is a place where lots of students go to hang out and everyone signs the wall–sooo we left our mark! It was funny because the waiter there is sooo nice and good to us so we left him a secret message on the wall. It is just so weird to think about how today was my last day in Mexico. I do not know where the time has gone. We were talking to our host mom today about the things we liked the most and the least about Guanajuato. One thing that I still have a hard time about are the children who beg for money or try to sell chicle or are just so precious and have to sleep in the doorways of stores and restaurants because they have nowhere else to go.  I met a nina a week or two ago named Gabby, I think I wrote about her before–she asked me for ice cream and I bought her a chocolate ice cream cone…well recently this week I have seen her everywhere in the streets and I have watched her come into bars at night and ask for a glass of cold water and take it back to her group of other children—I have seen her go from bar to bar doing this at night in order to get something cool to drink. I had the opportunity to talk to her a few more times, but seeing her just breaks my heart. I have a really big suitcase and I really just want to put her in it and take her home with me. She is so precious and I am definitely going to remember her for the rest of my life and will continue to pray for her and thing about her.


Location: La Botellita, Guanajuto, Mexico

Los ninos en la Calle.

Yesterday we were in an ice cream shop, una heladeria, when a little girl with dirty clothes and a smudged face walked up to the group of Penn State students I was with and asked one of them to buy her ice cream.  I began to talk to la nina and learned that her name is Gaby and she is 7 years old.  Gaby does not have a house and when I asked her about her parents she did not respond.  I asked Gaby what her favorite flavor of ice cream was and she said chocolate so I bought her a chocolate ice cream.  Children like Gaby just break my heart.  I feel so helpless when I see them because there is not a whole lot that I can physically do for them besides buy them ice cream or I bought a different little boy fruit one time after arguing with him that I was not going to buy him a toy.  But, the fact is, is that there are thousands and possibly millions of children without a home or without parents to care for them that rely on begging for food in order to survive. I am sure that they see that I am an American and think, “oh, I am sure she will give me something” and come up to me and I am also sure that some of them do have families and their families send them out to the streets to ask people if they want to buy gum in order to bring some money home.  I know that that pouty face with dirt all over it is sometimes an act to make me feel for them, but there are also others who are honestly homeless and know nothing else. I just wish there was something more that I could do for them. I have been praying for them and will continue to pray for them because that is really all that I can do at this point in time.  It has just been crazy what my eyes have been opened to thus far on this trip and how I have been pushed out of my comfort zone and seen things that I would not have seen within the safe vecinity of Pennsylvania.


Location: Heladeria-Guanajuato, Mexico