Sherbrooke: Mission Trip to Mexico City

By Fr. Alain Léonard, SDB

(Sherbrooke, QC – March 13) – From Thursday, February 28 through Friday, March 8, twenty-four members of the Jeunes Missionnaires du Salésien (JMS) completed a mission trip to Mexico City.

They were eagerly received in a Salesian house that serves as a boarding school for at-risk adolescents. Many are orphans, homeless, or come from broken families. Others struggle with drug or alcohol problems. These young people quickly became attached to us Canadians through cultural, athletic, gastronomic, and spiritual activities, as well as manual labor and touring experiences. To help support this mission, this past school year in Sherbrooke various fundraisers were organized that generated more than Canadian C$20,000. Since 1995, nearly C$275,000 has been donated to the Dejame Ayudarte (“Let Me Help You”) Foundation.

Here is the testimony of Rosemarie, a Le Salésien student:

I returned to Quebec with a heavy heart and a head full of memories. I spent the last 10 days, accompanied by other young people, in a Salesian boarding school, where 25 Mexicans, who were not endowed with the same luck as we from birth, reside. From hours spent playing soccer with the little boys to praying and talking about shared life with the older ones, I realized that no teacher or math class would teach me more than this group of young people did during my trip.

Once I stepped off the green bus that took us from the airport to the boarding school, I fell in love with each of the 25 pairs of brown eyes staring at me and their smiling faces. I had never witnessed during my journey, even in the most pampered neighborhoods, such a great joie de vivre that reigned in one place. I never thought that there, wedged between a corn tortilla stand and a slum on the mountains, I would have found more happiness than I have seen in my entire life.

Since they are about my age but have lived three times my life, these young people have an almost supernatural force inside them. This perhaps explains why they get up every day with a huge smile stamped on their faces. From my first steps on Mexican soil, I realized that, even if these children had had one-thousandth of the opportunities we have, they were a thousand times happier.

After a few days at the institute, the young people began to confide in and open up to us. This helped them heal and helped us grow. I understood that, despite the stereotypes about these little boys, most had been placed in boarding schools because their parents did not have the time or skills to take care of them. From having witnessed their experiences from having single mothers to abusive families, I realized how our problems, which sometimes seem as big as the world, could not be more trivial.

There is also often a huge problem with these young people’s self-confidence. Unlike most of us who were raised in loving families, they have never had adequate emotional support or a parent behind them to tell them they are beautiful, good, and capable. To make matters worse, no Mexican advertisement features a dark-skinned individual. All beauty standards and ideals are built around the dream of being born white.

One day, I spoke with a 12-year-old boy as we played together. I asked him to make a list of who he thought were his three most beautiful friends in school to make him laugh. As he thought about it for a few seconds and swung his ball from hand to hand, he replied, “They are all ugly.” Having assumed this was a joke, I asked him why he uttered such an atrocity. But he confirmed his words as he looked me straight in the eyes and said: "Because they are all dark and dark-skinned and can't be beautiful.” It was then I realized the extent of the impact that society and the lack of love had on these young people. This talk was among my trip’s most significant moments and broke my heart.

These ten days spent in the company of these children have been an incredible learning experience in every way. I deeply wish to never forget the life lessons these little souls unknowingly passed on to me. It is said that travel broadens the mind. Having returned from this experience, I can say confidently that these Mexicans have forged a new vision of life in me.