Upon showing up at LUPE this morning we were told we would be helping with some maintenance at the office for the morning. While waiting for further instruction, Pancho, the volunteer cook at LUPE, sang the most beautiful song for us in Spanish. He told us we would have to learn the chorus by lunch time so when he sang for us again we could join in. Pancho’s voice was absolutely beautiful and when the song was translated into English for those of us who don’t speak Spanish it became clear that the message of the song was equally as beautiful. Pancho clearly enjoyed singing for us and was so pleased at lunch when we were able to join in. His face lit up and it was impossible not to be moved by his song.
When we began work, some of us painted the inside of a shed, some of us trimmed Agave and removed the thorns, Josh and Eric dug a ditch and Tom rode a tractor around. He asked for ear plugs to drown out the sound and was told LUPE did not have earplugs but they had a sombrero, but that he needed a tan anyway so he could not wear the sombrero. After a few hours of working on maintenance at the office we went to one of the colonias and passed out flyers. Most of the people who we spoke to about LUPE while passing out flyers were very receptive and friendly, which is not at all what some of us had expected.
After passing out a few flyers we returned to LUPE for another awesome lunch cooked by Pancho. Delicious!!! After lunch we began cutting out material and helping to make the flags LUPE will be using during the Caesar Chavez march in March. We helped with the flags until the work day was finished and had a chance to get some Texas BBQ and go dancing. We all had a dance lesson and learned the bachata and then continued to dance for the next couple of hours. All in all, it was a successful and cheerful day.