S-Trip! Destination: Pacific Mexico, Puerta Vallarta, Mexico
Summer 2016
Over grad trip this summer, our students had the special opportunity to visit a community facility called EntreAmigos, which hosts a library, computer lab, classrooms, sports and exercise spaces, art gallery, eco-design workshops, and a recycling centre with a resale shop. The space was recently transformed from a milk processing plant into this unique facility that provides the San Pancho community with alternative education and a source of income to many residents. Its such a bright, colourful and welcoming place, covered in murals, art and greenery! Even still, there is always work to be done. Our project this year was to help re-develop a park beside EntreAmigos, to help make it more usable for the children and the community. This was a big undertaking that was part of a larger vision, and S-Trip! was pleased to contribute as much as we could.
Our students got a tour of this colourful space before getting their hands dirty to beautify it even more!
Our travelers did an awesome job of digging up and removing the old benches and fencing to make way for the new, re-painting the exterior walls, cleaning out the planters, and moving some of the larger plants to their new homes in the park, all the while with big smiles on their faces!
Putting on a base coat to prepare the walls for a new mural!
Our S-Trip! travelers also got to work alongside a group of Mexican university students that were visiting the community for 6 weeks as part of their studies. This allowed for ongoing cultural exchange and mentorship, as many of our travelers were thinking ahead to what their post-secondary adventure would be like! Their new Mexican friends also made for great opponents in a few short games of soccer!
All smiles after a full afternoon at EntreAmigos!
Written by Lindsay Morris, Volunteer Specialist at S-Trip!.