Do You Know The Way To San Jose?

The song "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" has been stuck in our heads since Thursday, so we thought it deserved nothing less than to be the title of today's blog. Thursday morning was the same as usual...serving breakfast and playing with the children. We took a bunch of new coloring books and crayons with us and the children were all very excited. The crayons were put to good use when they were not being stuck in mouths and up noses. We have decided to volunteer at the Humane Society only on Mondays and Fridays, so we did not go there on Thursday to walk the dogs, but we did stop in to check on Lila (Jen's dog) so she could fill out an adoption application. That night we went to San Jose for the Art Walk they have in the square. We decided to eat dinner there too, and went to a local taco joint that our friend Steve recommended. The tacos were awesome. We left dinner and headed to the square to look at all the local art. To our dismay there was no art. I told Jen and Steve that I could have sworn I read every Thursday they had art in the square...I guess I missed where it said starting in November the first time I read it. 

Lila

Taco Joint

At Shooters with some new friends

We have been anxious to get involved with other volunteer opportunities in Cabo and on Saturday we met with some people to make that happen. Our friend Barrett that lives in Cabo introduced us to his friend Modu. Modu is a personal trainer (http://www.moduvated.com/) and has been working with a nutritionist in San Jose to get a program going for women who have had cancer. He was meeting again with her on Saturday for brunch and asked us if we wanted to go with him. We went with him to San Jose to meet Isabel and two of her friends. I wish I could go into detail about all these people and how wonderful they are, but I will have to save that for another time. Isabel seems to know everyone in the Baja so she was the perfect person for us to meet, and she knew exactly who was in need of help. We set up a time to meet Isabel on Monday and left brunch very excited about all the new things we would be doing this week.


On Monday we met Isabel in San Jose. We were following her to another women's house and got pulled over on the way. The officer rambled on and on about something and we finally figured out he was saying we needed this and that on our license plate. Isabel turned around to help us, and talked him out of taking us to the station, but we did end up having to "pay him off" to drop the matter completely...$250 pesos...which is only about $19, but still! When we finally got to where we were going we met Donna and Elsa. We quickly learned that Donna is a women with a mission! She is originally from Bosnia, lived in the states for many years, and has lived in Cabo for the last five. Isabel told Donna as we were walking up that she had brought 2 angels with her. We both thought that was very sweet, but soon realized that these women were the angels...literally! 

Elsa's son...Enrique

There are endless things we saw yesterday that we could write about, but what we saw happening in the first barrio we went to brought us both to tears, and the story we want to share with you. Donna's main mission since being in Cabo has been to set up little kitchens in the barrios to feed the people (more information about exactly what the kitchens are and what Donna and others are doing is on this website http://www.cabobabies.com/). The first kitchen we saw is still a work in progress. It will be in a church that is in the process of being built. The church is being built by the pastor and other men who live in that barrio. These men do not have jobs and are not being paid to build this church. Donna was there visiting one day during their lunch break and realized that most of the men did not even have anything to eat. So she started taking them lunch three times a week and on Fridays giving them more food to take home to their families. We got to see the church that was being built and help serve these men their lunch. Some of the men there had started helping to build the church just so they could get a meal for the day. One of the pictures that you will see below show the men sitting under a tarp held up by poles eating their lunch...this was where they first starting having church on Sundays in that barrio. We got to talk to a few of them and hear their stories. We both stood there in awe of these men and what they were doing. As I looked over and saw the men praying before they ate it brought me to tears, not just because of the poverty that was right in front of us and all around us, but because of the faith that these men have. Pics from the barrios...

The new church

Some of the women made these for us...can someone please tell me what it is that we ate?

Today after leaving the Center we met with Donna again to start organizing clothes and toy donations she has received to give to the children in the barrios for christmas. It is a big task and will keep us very busy. 


Adios...XOXO...Jen and Tal