I have talked a lot about our struggles to slow down our travel. We have conflicting desires on our travel strategy. On one hand we want to see the whole world and our bucket list is so long that we are always eager to see everything and keep moving on. On the other hand, we want to stay longer so we can actually live in other countries. Staying longer in a town helps our budget but it also gives us a better understanding of non-American living. We want to experience the culture by getting to know a community. But part of doing that means we need to find something to do that allows us to meet the locals. We spent an extended time in Bucerias Mexico the past 3 years so we searched for some way we can help out in one of our favorite Mexican community. We found Refuge of Hope, a small charity school in Bucerias for kids that have been having a tough time.
Here is a great video showing what it is all about. Here is their website if you would like to make a donation. The school is entirely run by donations and they use a lot of volunteer help. Bucerias has a lot of Canadian snowbirds but many of them go back to Canada in March and April so my help in May was really needed. I mostly did tutoring in math and reading for the kids that needed the most help. For many of these kids, this is their first time attending school so one-on-one attention can really help them catch up.
I have been trying to improve my Spanish for years but I really need practice having conversations. Most waiters and store clerks in Bucerias can speak English pretty good so I am not forced to try out my Spanish. That is not the case with these kids. I have to speak Spanish ALL the time which has really improved my vocabulary. I keep my phone out with Google Translate while tutoring so I can look up any words that I don’t know. The kids have taught me a lot of words as well.
I also help out during recess time which is often walks through the neighborhood. The school is on the edge of town in a rural neighborhood with a lot of horses and cows. The kids are comfortable squeezing through barbed wire fences to find their favorite trees to climb or fruit to pick for a snack. The teacher will throw a rope over a high branch in a mango tree and then ties a stick at the bottom to create a swing. The freedom given to these kids is really refreshing and is so different than what I am used to in American schools.
Traveling as much as we do means we really have to stick to a budget, which means we are often in countries that have a much lower cost of living than then the U.S.. It is tough to see poverty in these countries and not feel more than a little guilt. We do spend our money in their restaurants, grocery stores and Airbnb’s but can be hard seeing that translate into real improvements in the lives of the service workers that work long hours 6 days a week for not much money. Volunteering in places like Refuge of Hope helps us feel a little bit better about being early retirees in communities where a lot of people are struggling to get up. But that isn’t real reason that I like being at Refuge of Hope. I have a lot of fun being around the kids. I really look forward to going to school and being greeted by kids that are really happy to see me. I tend to spend as much time playing with the kids as helping them with their schoolwork.
We are planning out our travels for 2024 and are trying to get some weeks in Bucerias again so I can see my new friends again. It will be fun to see the huge improvements that I expect these kids will get from this excellent school. But mostly it will be fun to play with my favorite Mexican kids again.