It has been really difficult to write this post a full week after leaving San Cris. This is my final post, and my reflection on the experience.

 

Working at Cantaro and living in San Cris has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. When the summer began, we had not yet visited any schools. Fast forward to my last week, and we began work on a water treatment system at our very first school. In the span of a summer, we were able to visit more than 21 schools, figure out what was needed at each school, and begin to make the projects possible.

 

Through this experience, I was able to see how tricky nonprofits can be. The work balances the needs of the communities/schools with the capacities of the foundation while trying to meet expectations from donors. That makes everything a more complicated.

 

I also observed the importance of the work Cantaro does. The schools are underfunded and have been promised many things that were never realized. One school had a structurally unsafe bathroom that they were not allowed to use and it had been a full year since the government said they were going to fix it. Another school had water fountains put in with the nation’s bebederos program, but when they broke just a few weeks later, nobody came back to fix them. Each school simply adapts to its challenges and continues on as best they can, but without water and bathrooms, school becomes that much harder for students.

 

Besides the amazing work I was lucky enough to take part in, I also met some amazing people. My coworkers were all super passionate about the work that they did, and it was a pleasure to work with them. They also made me realize that sometimes you don’t need to be fluent in a language to make jokes. Through all of our field visits, post-work meals at Taniperla, dance parties and frisbee games, I feel like I will always have a family to return back to in San Cris.

 

I also loved getting to know Mexican culture a lot better. I was taught how to speak in slang (although that backfired once when I accidentally said a bad word to a little kid), I became comfortable with giving cheek kisses to total strangers, street tamales became a staple in my diet (for better or for worse), and I can now confidently turn my nose up at American tacos. I am going to miss the warmth and openness of Mexican culture as I adjust to the fact that Americans like personal space and privacy.

 

My biggest takeaways from the summer are that I am more confused than ever about what I want to do with my life, but that is okay because every experience will teach me something new and valuable that I can use in my next stage. I loved being able to directly impact people with the work I did. I also loved living abroad and learning about different people and similarities and differences in our cultures and lifestyles. While I am not sure what my next step in life will be, I am extremely grateful to Loewenstern and Cantaro for a transformative summer that helped me learn and grow an extraordinary amount in such a short time.