When my boyfriend and I landed in Mexico City, we were surprised to see fewer homeless people than on the streets of San Francisco. After settling into our hotel in Zona Rosa, the tourist district, we called back to a friend in the States. He enlightened us, explaining that Mexico City was known for its street children. Armed with a wireless connection, I sat on the floor in the hallway of our hotel, did some Internet research and found Casa Ananda, an organization helping to get the street children—or chabos—off the street. In that moment, I knew we couldn’t leave Mexico City without realizing why we weren’t seeing the chabos, we couldn’t leave without trying to help. We called Casa Ananda and my boyfriend left a message in near-perfect Spanish, but we didn’t hear back. Three days later we sat at breakfast when the phone rang at our hotel. It was for my boyfriend, and as I translated his responses to the person on the other end, I knew we were staying.
We had been feeling disappointed about leaving Mexico City without volunteering. But life has a way of working out, especially during travel. When you want to go beyond the sightseeing and create an intention to give back to the community, things fall into place. The translation was that Casa Ananda needed our help fixing up a new house they had rented for the children just two days before.
Dada, a Filipino-turned Mexican, had started Casa Ananda six years before when he watched a thirteen-year-old girl scrounge through a garbage can. “I only knew dogs to do that,” he said. After that, he knew he had to help change the lives of these children left to the street.
Dada educated us on how this new house we were fixing up was going to be a center for learning and growth. How the chabos who were committed to changing their lives would have access to computers and classes, to the Internet and so in turn, to the world. He told us about his initial failed attempts at helping fifty street children. They would come to his home where he operated a soup kitchen, until his neighbors threatened to sue. Then he found this house, where the neighbors and landlord wanted to be involved, and then he found us.
