Anything I could say about my trip to Mazatlan would be an underst atement. The experience itself was invaluable. Push International has developed a program for their volunteers that allows them to immerse themselves into the culture of the people they are helping, while giving them the chance to learn without boundaries. The environment they have created is conducive to new ideas and self-discovery, something that is hard to find in a clinical setting in the United States. As volunteers, we were challenged to solve problems that we had not faced before and work as a team to get the job done. We learned that it is okay for your idea to fail time and time again, if there is a solution to be found in the end. Unbreakable bonds were formed between team members and the families who came into our lives through this mission, and in the end, everyone left with a little more hope than they had come with.
This trip was a life changing experience in many ways and I am very excited to tell you about all the things that I was able to do because of your contributions. In the remainder of this letter, you will read short stories from my trip to Mazatlan. I hope you understand that an experience like this one is hard to put into words, but I will try my best. It is also important to understand that when going to clinical sites required by school in the US, students are placed under many constrictions due to the U.S. healthcare system. That was not the case in Mazatlan, which in turn made me a more confident therapist and gave me the opportunity to explore my true knowledge base.
In Mazatlan, we were given opportunities to explore the lives of people who are disabled by doing the things that they do on a daily basis. A few of the things that we got to do included spending a couple of hours in a wheelchair, drive a hand controlled van, and we took a child who was in a wheelchair down to the beach.
In my two years of occupational therapy school, I can honestly say that I may have spent thirty minutes sitting in a wheelchair and maneuvered it over smooth ADA compliant sidewalks. An important thing to know about the Mexican culture is that they do nothing on credit. When they have money to put up a wall in their house or extend a sidewalk they do it and if they do not have the money then it goes unfinished until they are able to pay for the remainder of the work and materials. Therefore, houses are half built and sidewalks have 2 foot drop offs every 5 feet. One of our first nights in Mazatlan, we were told to go pick out a chair. We then spent the next couple of hours in that chair, maneuvering up and down sidewalks, playing tennis in the streets, and racing the children. Needless to say, we were all very sore the next day! It amazed me how some of the people we interacted with used their chair as a means of transportation, sometimes pushing themselves to work which was
12 miles from their homes because they could not afford a hand controlled van.
Adaptive vehicles are hard to come by in Mexico and the people who have them are ever so grateful. I had two experiences with vehicles that had been adapted while in Mexico. The first was with Sergio who is the man in charge of wheelchair maintenance for Push International in Mazatlan. He used to work in construction until he had a fall and broke his back suffering a spinal cord injury. Sergio is paralyzed from the waist down. He came to Push during a distribution to receive a chair so that he could get out of bed. At that time, he was very depressed and not motivated to take advantage of the abilities he still had. One of the Push volunteers spent a great deal of time talking with him and eventually he decided that he would help one day a week at Push. One day a week quickly turned into two, and then three. Sergio was refusing to be paid for his work and Push was looking for something that they could do for him. About a year ago, Push received a generous donation of two adapted vans fully equipped with a wheelchair ramp, hand controlled gas and brake pedals and two adjustable seats for easy transfers to and from the wheelchairs. One of these vans was given to Sergio, which opened up many new possibilities for him and most importantly eliminated his 12-mile commute by wheelchair to the Push campus. Although I did not know Sergio before this trip, I am told he is a new man. He is full of life and ever so willing to help everyone that he comes in to contact with, a true blessing to the organization.
My second experience was with a husband and wife that I spent a great deal of time working with on one of our distribution days. Both of them are paraplegic. We spent at least 3 hours getting the husband, Cesar, fitted for a new chair. They waited very patiently and offered a lot of information on how over the past 11 years of marriage they have adapted their lives to take care of one another. After we had finished we walked out to their car with them and observed how the two worked together to get into a beat up station wagon that would not be fit to drive in the United States. It was amazing to see how grateful they were to just be driving and how much love they had for one another which was demonstrated through their teamwork.
 Push is all about their volunteers being hands on during their trip to Mexico. While on the trip I was able to drive Sergio’s hand controlled van. This was a scary experience for the people on the road and the people in the car with me, but we all survived. I was also able to participate in hippo therapy (horse therapy). This type of therapy is very beneficial for children and adult who have both low and high tone in their muscles. I walked beside the horse positioning children and rode the horse in therapeutic positions. We fed the children and did many sensory integration activities. Some of the things the children liked playing with were bubbles, finger paints, and glow necklaces. We played soccer with local kids in a field across from our campus and exchanged words from our languages.
On our free day, we were given the opportunity to take a child with us to the beach. We agreed to take a child with us and were able to experience an amazing day at the beach with Carlitos. This was truly a life changing experience. I would have never guessed how hard it was to take a handicapped child to the beach. The beach we went to is on a peninsula called Stone Island. It is a beautiful somewhat secluded area. In order to get there, we had to first drive down to the docks and find a parking space, which was about eight blocks away from where we needed to go to catch the ferry. If you remember what I told you before about the sidewalks, you can only imagine how difficult of a ride those eight blocks were. It took three people to wheel Carlitos down eight blocks of sidewalks and for a majority of the time we were carrying the wheelchair. Once we got to the docks, we had to wheel Carlitos down the ramp to the ferry. I cannot begin to describe how scary wheeling him down this ramp was. Let’s just say that I would have been worried about walking down this ramp by myself it was so steep and uneven. Once we got to the “ferry,” which was actually a 10 passenger fishing boating with a motor hanging off the back, we had to lift the wheelchair on to the boat and pray we did not tip over. Finally, we made it to Stone Island, and at this point, I was convinced we should just stay there with Carlitos because going back the way we came was not going to be fun at all! However, we had made it and we were able to give this boy the time of his life. We bought him an ice cream sundae, took him down to the sand, pushed him on the swing, and let him see all the cool things the vendors had to sell. Carlitos’ smile was priceless and I’m sure he had the time of his life, just like me.
 We were able to distribute around sixty wheelchairs while in Mazatlan. On wheelchair distribution days, a certain number of people from a list of people in need were asked to come to the campus to receive their wheelchair. Some people waited for hours with no complaints, because they knew when it was their turn to get their chair or whatever equipment they might need that we would spend three more hours working with them if we needed to. There were no time constraints when it came to helping people. Some people had to be carried in by their sons and neighbors because they had been bedridden before they got their chair. Some children who were deemed crippled by doctors, whose parents were told their child would never walk, were given the opportunity to walk because of us. We were challenged to fix wheelchairs, adapt equipment such as walkers, and find the best fit for people who were of abnormal sizes.
I could go on for days about my trip! The people I met, the things I saw, and the knowledge I gained will never be surpassed by any learning experience I could have in the United States. Push International is an amazing organization that I am very excited to get further involved with in the near future. They are always accepting donations, holding benefit concerts, and silent auctions to raise money to buy new and used wheelchairs. I am enclosing a pamphlet on the organization and a few pictures of the people that I was able to help. If you would like to get involved or even go on a trip yourself please let me know and I will be glad to join you!
We were given bracelets at the end of our trip from the people of Mazatlan that had an expression in Spanish written on them, translated it reads: “We are no longer alone, because you have given us a helping hand.”
Thank you for your helping hand.
Love,
Jenna
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