Poverty Project International Stories

I am going. So many people have done so much already. So much more needs to be done. Some towns have not been reached yet and they are asking for help. So I am joining a team (mostly from Alaska) to go to a couple villages in Oaxaca, MX and help distribute food, water, clothing, and medical supplies...and do whatever else I can. Oaxaca, one of Mexico's poorest regions, was hard hit by the 8.1 earthquake a few weeks ago and then hit again by another quake just a week after that. Many homes are completely destroyed and people are sleeping in the streets. I have a friend named Maria who has an orphanage in Oaxaca. She was visiting family in Alaska and trying to get back to Mexico when the second earthquake hit. She had to reschedule her flight and ask friends in MX to close the orphanage building until they could properly assess the damage and make repairs. Maria will be back in Mexico soon to see what can be done for her own ministry to the children and to lead an emergency te

Maria is the mother-in-law of the guy who gave us the local tour of Leona Vicario on his taxi-cycle. (A taxi-cycle is a motor cycle with its front end replaced by a side-by-side, 2-seater bicycle) His name was Oscar. Our tour guide that is. He ended the tour with a quick stop at his mother-in-law's house and, it may have been the end of the tour, but it was the beginning of something wonderful.  We took a few photos of Maria and, a week later, we brought her the best one, printed and enlarged so she could display it. She was thrilled.  While we were there, handing out our photo gift, we saw a HUGE jack fruit hanging in Maria's tree. So, we asked about it. Maria said it would be ready in another week and, if we liked, we could come back (again) and eat some of it. We thanked her and arranged to come back the following Tuesday.  Right before we left, I remembered I had purchased a bag of powdery cafe-colored spice, but I didn't know what to do with it.