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Mexic09 Guest Blogger: Kara Weaver

(Kara at Kidzania with a few of the kids)

As I mentioned earlier I love to get different views of the stuff we do at GSM.  Here's vantage point #2 about this trip.  This post is from Kara Weaver, our GSM intern. She wrote: "Today we took children from some of the homes to what was essentially a mini village. As they entered the little town there were given a set amount of money from the bank. There were various different ways that they could use their money to buy items, food or play games. There were also different opportunities for them to find mock-work around the village in order to earn more money. Today, I was partnered with a young girl name Lupita. Originally, the two of us were in company with a young woman from Back2Back who is fluent in both English and Spanish and ended up being my translator in many occasions. However, there came a point during the day when Lupita and I were left together, her having no English and me no Spanish. We were waiting in line for Lupita to enter a little boutique and it came time for her to pay. The woman at the station asked Lupita for the money and she looked to me for help. She obviously had no idea what she needed to pay and was asking me for the answer. I tried to tell her that I didn't know and as I was attempting to talk to her when a mother of another child standing in line pushed me aside. She took the fake money from Lupita and sorted out what she we need and handed it to her. I was surprised at how incompetent I felt. I felt utterly dumb and helpless. Here was this young girl that I cared so much about. I wanted nothing more to love her, but I couldn't provide her with what she needed. I felt stupid. However, I'm obviously not stupid, but was just never equipped with the skills I needed to provide for her in that moment. In this moment my eyes were opened to a little bit of what the mothers of some of these children must be feeling. They are not dumb. They are not lacking in love for their children. However, as they were growing up they were never equipped with the skills needed to provide for their children. They often have to rely on others to help provide their children with what they need. Today I felt just a little bit of the pain and discouragement that they must feel." Kara shared this last night in our debrief and it really made an impact on the group.  Great words from our intern. I'm proud of Kara and all she's done with GSM over this internship and I'm thankful to have had some time to get to know her and have her on the team.  She's an amazing young lady and will continue to shake the gates of hell with her witness.