It isnt about doing elaborate projects.
It isnt about throwing money everywhere.
It isnt about working with groups of volunteers
It is a lifestyle experiment
What on earth does that mean?
I left the States for Mexico 5 years ago after the death of my husband. We had been there previously and fell in love with a little Mexican village. We planned to retire there, but unfortunately, it became his final resting place.
I sat on every park bench in the park in that little village. My Spanish was terrible, but I attempted to talk to the locals as much as I could. I started to build some friendships. I ate a lot of street food. And I cried a lot.
Eventually, I met Lee.
He had been traveling for almost a year and had been to the most unlikely, off the grid places you can imagine. He took me to the "other" side of town. He was not afraid to swing in a hammock in a home the size of a closet watching old westerns in Spanish with a Mayan mechanic. He was not afraid to get his hair cut in an old Mexican barber shop where they still used straight razors. I mean this man was seriously not afraid. In fact, he went to all the places I wanted to go, but didn't think I could.
Soon we were exploring back alleys and old neighborhoods. He would need a part for his car and go find the dirtiest little hovel you could imagine with a greesy Mexican guy who couldn't speak a word of English. And he would get the can fixed!
It was like magic. I could hardly believe the places I found my feet standing.
There was this whole world out there of people so far out of my comfort zone and yet so...how do I explain it?
I started meeting old mamas who lived in shacks that literally had holes in the walls. I would chat with them (my Spanish was improving) and before you know it they would be inviting me in and feeding me (thats what they do, they feed you). And in the middle of such deplorable conditions, I found such beauty.
THIS is what Poverty Project International is all about.
Its about finding the beauty in the poor places.
Its about taking a risk. Going places that look unhealthy, even dangerous. Talking to people you would never talk to in the "real" world.
Man did my life change!
I found myself out on the streets talking to drug dealers and hookers and people with aids. I found myself playing with desperately poor children in the street and sharing my food with the homeless and listening to their stories.
And I found myself changing. Compassion exploded in me. Fear disappeared.
So this Poverty Project thing is ever changing. Some days it involves inspiring a community to take 5000 bags of garbage off an island. Some days it means painting the home of a woman with a sick child. Some days it means sitting on a street corner in the rain having an amazingly meaningful conversation with a homeless man. Some days it means getting the backdoor VIP tour of an indigenous village on a remote island.
All of it is amazing.
Because people are amazing.
So PPI (Poverty Project International) was born out of experience. The project, the idea, became to touch lives, to listen, to help when needed, to look into the eyes of one person at a time. to get off the grid, to take risks, to walk into humble houses, to eat food that is scary, to capture beauty, and then to somehow document that and share it with you.
Because I want to inspire you to do the same.
I can't change the world. I can only love the person in front of me. But if I can take away YOUR fear--because that is really what holds us back, isn't it? If I--a fifty something year old woman who lost her husband and ran away to Mexico--can demonstrate that is IS possible to go to the untouchables and touch them, and HUG them. Then maybe this silly little project of mine can spread. Maybe it could even go viral. Just imagine what the world would look like if we we not afraid. Just imagine how you would feel if everyday you could make someone feel better. Just imagine.
Living Out of the Comfort Zone
in Love always
laura
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Live is an adventure, Live it!
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