Best place to start – the beginning
Casa Hoy in Cuernavaca
The rainy season is back here in Cuernavaca. It’s the same in Florida – the day my sister and I returned from college it would start raining, and our parents would blame us for clouding up their pristine Florida sky. This year they just have my sister to blame, as I am safely hidden away in my room hoping this Cuernavaca storm won’t throw out the power for the third time in the past hour. Now on to what anyone else would do with this rainy respite…blogging!
For lack of a better place to start, I will just throw it out there, only slightly bragging, that my story with HOY begins with me as their “very first” intern. As HOY co-founders Katy and Gerardo are always open to new ideas and meeting new people, the thought of welcoming a college stranger into their home for a month was a completely acceptable plan. And since my beliefs, thoughts, dreams, and detailed – albeit - imaginary trips coincided perfectly with their very real ones, HOY and I were a perfect fit. From day one I knew this was the organization I was meant to mutually learn and share and grow with.
HOY Community is a non-profit that brings travelers to some of the most deserving projects and community organizations in Mexico. Rebuilding playgrounds, teaching art to kids – a whole range of activities that benefit both parties – and make vacations as fulfilling as they’re supposed to be.
My relationship with HOY began in January of 2007, and has continued, even if only through small contributions, through the present. My job has sort of just morphed along with the needs of the organization, taking on tasks in marketing, communications and public relations. From secretary to volunteer group leader and group organizer, I have just become a board member and now newly a blog-writer!
Although I like to think that I have been contributing my brilliant ideas and energies, the wisdom and experience I have received in return cannot compare. Katy and Gerardo have influenced and inspired me in ways that only a combined parent-friend-teacher-“hero” person personality could. Like so many other traveler-volunteers that have passed through the doors of HOY headquarters Casa HOY - I’ve found myself stimulated and motivated by the enthusiasm and lifestyle that Katy and Gerardo share.
I am going to write more about both Gerardo and Katy over the next couple of days but both of them are blogging at the Hoy Community Blog where you can also learn about past projects and activities – and about everything coming up too.
So here is to a blog where I hope to share the work, life, and dreams of HOY not only as it is part of my life, but also as it is in the daily lives of international volunteers and local communities here in the central Mexican state of Morelos.
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