What did I do on my holiday? I toured the dump.

As per usual, I have not been blogging in a very long time!  I really struggle with trying to come up with topics/posts that I feel have any substance to them/are something that people would want to read.

That being said, after my most recent trip to Mazatlan in March of this year, I had great intentions of posting a blog about one of the 'activities' I decided to partake in... that being a 'tour' of the dump.

Yes, a tour of the Mazatlan dump.

I know you MAY be thinking, "Why on earth would I tour the dump?" or "Who is giving TOURS of dumps?"..  The answer?  To give back a few hours of my time to those less fortunate.

My desire to tour the dump started a few months prior when I randomly came across a link to a website of a local church in Mazatlan called The Vineyard (la Vina).  The Vineyard's main church location on Camaron Sabalo is in the heart of Mazatlan's Golden Zone on Camaron Sabalo; the main tourist area where numerous hotels, shops and restaurants are located.  The link provided a video of the tour of dump and the colonias (communities) around: 

With a heavy heart I watched the video and immediately, I knew that I wanted to take a 'tour' and give back a little of my time to these individuals.

The church purchases all of the food used for the twice a week trips they make out, and rely on the folks who want to volunteer their time to help them make & bag sandwiches, cookies and fill water bottles that will be brought out to the dump and a few colonias nearby... I shot off an email to the church to see the details of what time to be there and awaited my trip!

A few months later, it was then that I found myself at 9 am making sandwiches with about 25 (one of the largest groups they had had in months) individuals (all who happened to be from Canada on holiday, snowbirds or ex-pats).  As this was months back now, the exact number of sandwiches we made is escaping me - I believe it was about 300.  A very large number, but not nearly enough as they would run out.

Once the old bus we were taking was loaded up with the food, we all helped to clean up and then proceeded to watch the above video so people would know what to expect.

"houses" in the colonia

Before arriving at the dump, we traveled to a few extremely poor colonias to hand out food and see the buildings the Vineyard had built to serve as a church/community center for the communities. As we arrived, groups of small children (and very young mothers with babes on hip) came up to the bus to receive the 

handouts.  I was shocked at the living conditions - the homes were rudimentary buildings that really should not be considered a house.

What really surprised me was how happy everyone was - children ran up to hug the driver of the bus (a fellow who the pastor of the church had met years prior when he was what he describes as 'a very very bad man' involved in criminal activities, but who has since found religion and devoted his life to helping others) and the people who run the church.  Everyone you passed would wave and had big smiles for the group; happy to receive the token of kindness.

                                                

After the food was handed out there, we loaded ourselves back onto the bus and headed down to the dump.  As expected, the dump is a dirty place.  The smell upon first arrive is overwhelming, to say the least from the extreme hot temperatures.

As the bus stopped, many workers stopped what they were doing (some will not stop as they don't want to give up a single moment of time from scrounging through the bags to find anything of 'value' that they may keep for themselves or exchange for money or food.) and lined up outside the bus to receive a bag containing a sandwich, an orange and a bottle of water.  One woman had brought bags filled with travel/sample sized containers of shampoo/lotion/soaps, so a few of the ladies and myself handed those out to the workers who were ecstatic to be receiving such a small item.  I should note, not ONCE did anyone ever ask for a handout of money - they simply smiled and thanked us for the small gift of food.

Looking around, I was surprised to actually look at the people who called this a 'job' - both women and men of all ages.  As you can see from the photos, most are not dressed in protective clothing - they are digging through bags of rotting garbage often in sandals with bare hands.  I should also note, Mexican plumbing systems as a whole is not up to the same standards as North American, and many places use a septic like system - so to avoid clogging up the system, they encourage people to put their used toilet paper into the trash baskets that are ALWAYS next to the toilets... So yes, people are digging through bags with bare hands that quite possibly have human waste on toilet paper.  

Very humbling to watch and to know that some of these people will do this from first light to sundown every single day.. 

I left that day feeling mixed emotions - I was incredibly happy that I had given up a few hours of my day (about 4) to volunteer my time to do something selfless.  I was embarrassed at the excess in my own life in regards to material objects.   I was saddened to know that the majority of tourists have NO idea that places like this exist as the city (and this is not isolated to Mazatlan alone) does a good job of hiding the colonias from public view to keep the image positive.

I highly invite anyone who visits Mazatlan to go on the 'tour' as it will very much bring you an appreciation for your own life and make you think about giving back.  I wouldn't recommend going alone (outside of a group tour such as this) as these colonias are known to have the high crime rates that come with poverty.

I apologize also for my messy photo add ins - I haven't really ever got the hang of placing them nicely!