JULY 2006
Mision Mexico, Dando Amor, Vida y Esperanza. A.C.
Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico.

Hola a Todos,

We hope this newsletter finds you well. We are all fine over here at the moment. Not one of the children has any kind of illness which is wonderful, no coughs or colds.

It is now the summer vacations and I must admit, it is nice not having to worry about getting all the children to and from the different schools that they attend. Though, I must admit, it has been difficult keeping them occupied in the house.
We are fortunate to have two volunteers from the US here at the moment, to help with the workload. It is Megan's third visit and Brett's second. Over the last week I have had to attend a number of meetings so Megan and Brett have been doing a wonderful job, keeping on top of things.

Every Saturday, Alan and our son Aaron, take the older children to a park to play football (soccer). Alan is amazing as he manages to play for about two hours, outlasting many of the children. At the moment Alan is away, so for the last couple of weekends I have been trying to fill his shoes! The children that play 'futbol' are the older ones, 13 years to 17 years and also little Carlos, who is now 8 yrs. The exercise has been great and I have been enjoying it, running and defending more than some of the kids.
Though, last weekend I got kicked in the shin and would you believe it, I also pulled a muscle in the other leg!!! For over a week now I have had a hard time walking and sleeping due to the pain! By the evenings, after keeping an eye on things with 33 children in the house, it has almost been too much to bear. You would think I would grow up and accept the fact that I am past playing football and doing the likes of this, but something inside me won't let me realize this. So, as soon as my legs are healed I am going to wear shin guards!!

Yesterday, 21st July, Moacir, Merril and I attended a reunion at immigration for the presentation of the FM3 visas. We finally have them, after so long. Now Moacir, who is doing his senior, will be able to sit for his exams and they will be valid. It is such a triumph. Thank you for your prayers.

When I went to enroll Merril, who is now 14yrs, for his second year of high school, in the same school that he attended last year, I was told that they would not accept him back. That he was too much of a problem! Apparently, you are only allowed to have four reports against you and then you are out. Merril had ten! All the begging made no difference, they would not accept him. The reports were for things like, his shirt was out a couple of times, his hair was too long at one stage, (which was not even on his collar), he had a drawing in his book that looked a little like graffiti (I actually thought it was pretty good!), etc. He also skipped a couple of classes and refused to do a needlework class. Merril is not a bad kid, a little naughty maybe, but not bad. I tried to explain that all our kids, all 33, have come from difficult backgrounds and when we have general behaviour problems we don't send them back to the streets we look for a solution. But, it made no difference. Now I have the problem of finding him a new school but all the schools are closed for the vacations. Fortunately we have found an old friend who is in education and is willing to help us in this area.

The school year ended well with all the children passing to the next level except for Yesenia, who is eleven and has already done two years of grade one! I was told that they cannot put her up to grade two as she can't read. We have been working with her but for some reason there is a blockage. We are now receiving some professional help for her and this person believes she will be reading before she returns to school. If this is the case, then she will sit for another exam to see if they can put her up.
We are pleased to tell you that three children, who are in the state school, received diplomas, Marina 14yrs, Carlos 8yrs and Angel 8yrs. Roxana, who is 15 years, graduated from primary school and will be going to secondary school in late August.
The children from the private school are also doing very well. Jose 14yrs, graduated to secondary school with very high marks.

We now have three new children. Kayla who is around 8 years, Jovany who is six. Their parents are both alcoholics and neglected them terribly. Hans, 14 years, was given away when he was a baby. He had lived with different people over the years but had never felt like he belonged anywhere. One night, while I was doing my nightly check, I found him out in the washing area,very upset. I sat with him and asked what was bothering him. With tears rolling down his cheeks he asked, 'How could my parents abandon me, I was just a baby?' I put my arms around him and he cried it out. Kayla and Jovany will start school in August. Hans has never been to school and doesn't even know the basics. He is now receiving tutoring along with Yesenia.

It is now the 3rd August. Time just gets away on me. It is so hard trying to keep on top of things especially while it is school vacations.

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Some personal news!
We are very pleased to announce that our daughter Rachel has given birth to our second grandson at Nambour Hospital, Queensland on July 15th.
Jesse Oliver is a little miracle. Rachel and Barry were told in the early part of the pregnancy that their baby had Downs Syndrome. Each consecutive test confirmed that the baby had Downs. She was told that she could go to Brisbane (the capital of Queensland) for one last test but for her to understand that there was only a 4% chance that it didn't have 'Downs'. After a long, two week wait, the results came back clear, no Downs Syndrome!! Both mother and baby are doing well.

Our youngest daughter, Hannah celebrated her 21st birthday on the 9th July at Noosa on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Our son Aaron organized a lovely DVD message from us all here in Mexico for the occasion. Congratulations Hannah!!

Aaron and and his new wife Lupita are still waiting to hear from the Australian Embassy, here in Mexico, as to whether Lupita will receive her residency visa. It has been a long wait. Lupita's sister, Ana is married to Aaron's brother, Rohan, our youngest son, and are living in Maryborough, Queensland, where they now have their first business, a Café in a beautiful heritage building which was apparently Maryboroughs first bank.

A couple of months ago we took 8 older children for their first ever vacation away.
At the time we had two volunteers from Australia here, Jason and Kerryn, who bravely took over the responsibility of the running of the house and did an incredible job.
Our destination was Puerto Escondido in the state of Oaxaca. What a great experience for them, they were so excited. The trip was long and tiring but without problems. It took a lot of organizing prior to the trip for all the paperwork to be in order. We had visits to immigration and had to get letters of permission from the welfare department to transport the children. I made sure I had copies of everything, birth certificates, tax file numbers, passports, FM3's. There were twelve police, military and immigration checkpoints to get through and it was only one state away. We must be fairly well known down this end as at each checkpoint we were waved through once they read the logo on the side of the van but, as we got closer to Oaxaca, we were stopped at each checkpoint and the authorities checked all the papers and called each child's name and asked their ages etc. They also checked our gear at the back of the van.

We arrived at Puerto Escondido at about 2am, so for the first night, as we didn't know where to go, we slept on the beach, with only a towel to cover us and, it was a little on the cool side! The following day we found a cheap hostel close to the beach.
The Kid's surfing skills improved greatly during our five day stay, with Alan taking up surfboard riding again. We also managed to find a backyard workshop and got the old surfboards repaired. The kids were fortunate to watch a surf competition and later get a photo with the champion, Oscar Moncada, which we now have framed and hanging on the wall. While walking down the street at Zicatala, looking in the windows of the surf shops, a shop owner offered us a secondhand surfboard, leash, wax, and body board. We stood there stunned and amazed but gratefully accepted the donation. It was a great break and each of the kids had a wonderful experience. It was so good to see other Mexicans surfing, something none of us had seen before. We are the only people who use surfboards or even body-surf in the ocean at Playa Linda. Many people stand at the water's edge, holding hands for security, jumping and playing but 95% of them can't swim and have no surf sense.

As I have mentioned before, Playa Linda is covered in rubbish which has been washed up in the high tides or left on the beach. Not only is there a lot of garbage, there is also a huge problem with floating tree trunks being washed up on the beaches on a daily basis. The trees/logs wash up on the beach and then in the next high tide they wash back into the ocean and move up the beach a bit more and repeat the cycle. It is most likely that the tree trunks are a result of Hurricane Stan back in October '05.
Over the recent months, two children have been killed while playing in the water because of this problem.

Recently, while we were watching the FIFA World Cup, Australia and Japan, which was on around midday, somebody smashed the van window and stole the car stereo. It happened so fast. The van was parked outside the refuge with the logo on the side doors. The stereo was donated as the children love to sing on our trips to the beach. How sad, that people would steal from a orphanage.

A short while back we were fortunate to get tickets for all the children to attend two Gala Performances of Ballet at the city theater. What a treat for all the children. Most of them had never entered into such a place and were in awe. Maria's ballet school was the second event for the season and she danced beautifully. The only child that we had to twist an arm to go was Jose, he really didn't want to be there. He had never been to an event like this but he had made his mind up that it was going to be boring. It was nothing what he had expected and certainly far from boring. The costumes were modern and the girls looked and danced beautifully. There was a performance with a few young men where they did a display of 'break-dancing', something the boys here love doing.
We have now been offered more scholarships for some boys between 6-8yrs in ballet so have agreed to put three in classes, but we are also pushing for Yessica, who is 6yrs and just loves to dance.

A few weeks ago we celebrated the 15th Birthdays of Rosario and Roxana with a lovely but simple celebration in the house of our dear friends and family.
I was at a stage of saying 'I can't do this' when Margarita (our sons mother-in-law) insisted that we could manage with her organizing the food and music.
As I mentioned before, the 15th birthday is the most important celebration beside a wedding. Well, we organized it virtually overnight and it turned out to be a memorable event, small but lovely. It was a formal occasion and the girls looked beautiful in their long evening dresses. Moacir looked stunning, dressed in his suit as Roxanna's escort and a 15 year old named Alan as Rosario's partner. The kids had a wonderful time, dancing all night until 2am.

A couple of months ago we received two boys from the welfare department, aged 10 and 6 years whose mother didn't want them anymore. How sad for these kids to be faced with the fact that you are not wanted by the people you trust. After a couple of days the older of the two had not settled, showing a lot of anger and crying a lot.
While I was out one morning getting the 13 'garrafones' filled for the drinking water, which we do twice a week, we received a delivery of water for washing purposes because of our continued water problem, that was being filled into our underground tank. Because Alan was occupied with the truck and the doors were open, the two new boys took the opportunity and ran away. When I returned and found them missing, I jumped back in the van with a few of the older boys and some necessary papers and went searching for them in the city. After a long time, walking the streets and not finding them, talking to police and giving them photos for identification of the boys, we decided to split up and take different roads home, I was in the van and the others on foot.
There was a lot of traffic so I was driving slowly searching for the two. As I passed a food outlet, I noticed a group of children and in the middle was the two that we had been looking for. Unfortunately, I was alone but I stopped the van in the middle of the street, holding up the traffic, and in a moment ran around the car, jumped up on the footpath and grabbed the younger of the two, while the other got away. With so many people staring at me, I put the boy in the car and drove to the nearest policeman and explained the situation. When I got home I was shaking but put the boy in the house and went back into the city to search for the other. While I was doing that I came across the boy's mother who was selling drinks in the market area. I explained what had happened and warned her that the child would probably try and make his way home and for her to call me if that happened. The woman called me at midnight and said he had made his way there but she would bring him to us in the morning. She never came and the following day, on the front page of the newspaper, was the boy's photo with a long chain tying his hands together and chained to a chair. Because of this, the two boys and a sister, became state property and the children had to stay at the Department.
The other day while I was in Central in a shop, I was surprised to see the older boy walk in. I smiled at him and he smiled back and then ran off. He had escaped from the Welfare Department and is now living on the streets.

Even though the children in our care are far better off now than they were before, living here at the refuge; they are safe from abuse, they have a roof over there heads, a bed, food and clothing, they receive an education and play sport; it is still hard to live in a house with thirty other children. There is no privacy, no space of their own. Under each bed, are their shoes and on each bed there is usually a shoe box with their belongings.
Generally speaking, the kids are happy, they have a home and they have people who love and care for them. Though, some kids never quite fit in and you just can't seem to break through that wall. We had one child such as this, a thirteen year old who has run away a few times. He was lazy and didn't seem to have much of a personality but, not a bad kid. He did have a problem with being aggressive with the little ones.
Now we have started to see a pattern, money goes missing and within a month this boy runs away. A couple of days ago he ran away again. 500 pesos was stolen from my wallet, which was in the office, a few weeks ago. I suspected him but could not find the money. This time though, he also took a Disc-man that belonged to Jose. Poor Jose had worked hard at a job from 8am to 5pm for eight days to get the money to buy the disc-man. 50 Pesos a day which is equal to $6.25 AUD per day!

When we move into the new house, the children will have a lot more privacy. The older children will have space apart from the younger ones. There will be different areas for study and play.
The only problem is, the government still hasn't issued us the Tax receipts and without these, the cost to finish the house will certainly more than double. There is apparently only one office in the whole of Mexico where these are issued and we just have to wait our turn. It has been nearly two years since we started the proceedings to apply for these receipts.

Well, it is now the 5th Aug and it is time I closed. A number of the emails come back each time we send the newsletter. If you know people who are not receiving the newsletter, who did in the past, please ask them to write and let us know their new address.

One last thing; A message from Isaac.

'Hello everyone, My name is Isaac and I am 13 years old. I like to surf, swim and play football. I send my thanks for your support and help and also thank you for your faith in us. Because of your help this refuge is a beautiful family for me.
Love from Isaac.'

Thank you once again for your wonderful support.
May God bless you in abundance,
Pam and Alan Skuse