Ensenada Outreach Center - YUGO

My name is Brittney, today I begin my eighth week of living down here in Mexico at the Ensenada Outreach Center. I really don't know what to say, I don't think its possible to sum up the past seven weeks in a couple of paragraphs...or even a few pages. The things I've seen, heard, and been blessed to be a part of have changed my life forever. Being here has made me realize that living in California, on the western coast of the United States has made me so spoiled.

Poverty: The state of being poor; lack of the means of providing material needs or comforts.
the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor; indigence (thank you dictionary.com)

In America (or even Canada for my Canuck friends) we have our share of poverty. When I used to think of poverty, I would picture a person on a street corner begging for food, or I would see a person cashing in their welfare check or maybe I would picture someone I know, someone who wears the same shirt to school everyday or wears beat up old shoes with holes in them, although these people never had faces. Now, for me, poverty has a face. When I think of poverty, or the definition of poor, I have a new view.

Picture this: a child dirty and tired...but somehow smiling and happy. When I say dirty, I dont mean a lightly soiled shirt with a pair of lightly soiled jeans. I mean dirty, the kind of dirty that hasn't had a proper shower in few weeks, maybe a few months and quite possibly ever. His teeth are already rotting and falling out, but he's only nine. He's probably never brushed his teeth with real toothpaste, and maybe he's never even actually brushed his teeth.
When I say happy, I mean the kind of happy that is real...you could even call it joy.

These kids find their joy out of the simplest of things: a rock, a few nails and a piece of wood, or even just a bottle of apple scented bubbles. And as much as they have their hard times (the nights they wish they didn't have to sleep on the rocky, dirty, uncomfortable ground or eat the same potatoes and beans for dinner) they are always smiling. The smiles are created by the simplest things: when you hand them a new toothbrush, a new outfit and especially when they are given their own set of keys to their own new house. And even though these people are the deffinition of poor and live below the "american poverty line" they are happy. I envy the joy they find in the simple things in life.

This trip has given me a new appreciation for what I have at home. I actually have a home and a bed and a dresser to put my clothes in. I never thought there would come a time when I would be thankful for a closest. I hope that when I go home I'm able to remember everything I've learned this summer.