From March 15th to March 22nd, 21 Choate students traveled to sweltering Oaxaca, Mexico.  For a community service week on behalf of Simply Smiles, a nonprofit organization that strives to provide impoverished children home, an education, and everything a successful life requires.  Bryan Nurnberger, who founded Simply Smiles in 2003, along with his wife, Kristen Graves, guided the group’s efforts at both the dump and at Casa Hogar.  Choate Chaplain Marc Trister, parent Kathryn Gaffney, Vince McDermott, Pastor Cheryl Anderson, and Jim Esslinger served as chaperones for the trip.

At the first work site, the Oaxaca dump, the Choate participants helped Simply Smiles’ attempt to provide homes to 120 people. Prior to the introduction of Simply Smiles, 33 families resided at the dump, sorting through trash to took for plastic bottles, tin cans and cardboard to sell in order to earn a living of $1 a day.

“The amazing thing about the families at the dump is that even though they earn so little a day after so much work, impoverished as they are, they still love one another, stay as a family and keep together,” states Rahim Mawji ‘11, a student who participated in the community service trip.

With work from the volunteers and the building maestros, Simply Smiles has succeeded in constructing more than half of these homes already.  The Choate group helped the project by sifting rocks to make cement, chipping cinderblocks and laying cinderblocks to build the homes.  After each cinderblock home was built, the owner and his family choose the colors they want the house to be painted, in an effort to personalize each structure.

The Choate group completed a house for an Oaxaca resident named Renato in a mere three days.  This noteworthy achievement was the fastest construction job Simply Smiles has seen to date.

“The family who is moving into Renato’s house now has a safe place to live in,” Ify Ozoma ‘11 comments.  “They no longer have to stay awake at night, worried that people might easily break in and steal their possessions or hurt them.”

“The one thing that stands out to me is that the families live in simple, small houses, yet they are so proud of them.  They take care of their houses the same way a millionaire would take care of his mention, and that really is a testament to their character,” Ozoma observed.

After embarking on construction work at the dump, the Choate group relocated to the town of Casa Hogar.  Casa Hogar is home to almost eighty children from the region of Oaxaca.  The local orphanage focuses on children with special needs and provides them with every opportunity they need to leave the home someday with the skills necessary to lead a more fulfilling life.

The Choate students lived at Casa Hogar, allowing them to spend every moment with the orphaned children.  “As orphans, many of the kids have a void when it comes to family and loving contact, and so being able to help fill that void, even a little bit, was amazing,” Ozoma states.

“They were great together,” chaperone Kathryn Gaffney commented on the interactions between the children and the students.  “Our students gave so much of themselves that they formed very strong bonds with the Casa Hogar kids.  I”m sure they won’t be forgotten.  They’re friends for life.”  Reverend Trister observed that the children at Casa Hogar embraced the group, “giving everything they had.’

Lanya Tseng ‘11 commented on the compassion of the children.  “There was one scene that I will never forget: blind Nacho waling around the courtyard, holding eyeless Angel in his arms and singing.”

By the end of the journey, the group’s expectations of Oaxaca had been exceeded by the end of the journey.  Reverend Trister believes that the group “grew and matured in a way that  could have only occurred through an experience like this.”  He commented that the trip changed the group’s value system and emotional strengths.  The 21 students, who were strangers to the Oaxaca community upon their arrival, left the region having grown much closer to locals they encountered.

“My plan was just to go to Oaxaca, get my required community service hours, and come back to the United States,” Rahim Mawji ‘11 said.  “But by the end of the trip, I didn’t want to leave Casa Hogar at all.”

“When planning our trip to Mexico, we were told that we would be helping children at an orphanage, and ‘filling a void’  in each of them.  However, as we were leaving Casa Hogar, I realized that the kids had a much greater impact on us,” Tseng commented.

Campus Ministries will sponsor the trip again next year, and the dates have been set for March 14th to March 21st.