Books for Schools in Mexico
Marilyn Dechter (an Emerald Empire Reading Council Board Member and former president) and her husband vacation in Mexico for about two months each year. Marilyn always takes books for at least one of the schools near their vacation home. EERC donates money to purchase some of these books for these students. Marilyn submitted the following article and her sketches shortly before they left this year. (To view photos CLICK HERE.)

This year I will be taking the books to two villages. The first is San Cayetano, Nayarit, 100 miles south of Mazatlan. This is the fourth year I will take books to the school there and they are always pleased to receive them.

The other village is La Manzanilla, Jalisco, about 120 miles south of Puerto Vallarta. This is a very small beach town with a few modest hotels, restaurants, and tourists from the US and Canada. There are several campgrounds, but nothing fancy.

The casa in the drawing is the home of the mother of the teacher, Reuben, whom I met while drawing the picture. He was coming to get his father’s pick-up truck because he had a load of plastic bottles he was going to recycle. Some of the US and Canadian winter residents would bring school supplies such as pencils, crayons, erasers, etc., and Reuben would give the children a ticket for each plastic bottle they collected, and then in turn the children could “purchase” the school supply prizes with their tickets. Normally the plastic bottles would be burned, creating toxic smoke, and Reuben had signsall over town warning of the danger of burning plastic. I had only one book left when I met Reuben, Curious George, and I read it to his first-grade class in Spanish. As I read, Reuben would write words on the chalkboard the children might not understand, and when I was finished he asked them comprehension questions about the story. Reuben’s wife is also a teacher at the school, teaching sixth grade. Each year the teachers rotate and teach a different grade.

The other three pictures I drew from the campground in La Manzanilla.

The crocodrilos (crocodiles) are actually caymans according to Reuben. They hung out at the edge of an estuary about 50 yards from our campsite. Fortunately they preferred to stay in the water, and we stayed away from them.

Both of these schools have a very limited supply of books for the children to enjoy, and I know the ones I give them will be greatly appreciated. (To view photos CLICK HERE)