Reconnecting with an angel

For those of you that followed our blog 2 years ago you may remember our friend Angel whom we spent time with helping him with his mission called Mobility Angels. Angel is a man who lives in a wheelchair who has devoted his entire life to assisting people with disabilities. The Mexican government does not have a lot of support for people with disabilities and Angel has taken them under his wing to help along with a small Board of 2 who live in California. Angel receives supplies from California and reconfigures wheelchairs to fit people and to survive on this tough Mexican terrain. He also makes prosthetic limbs for people who are amputees giving many the opportunity to walk again. He does this with skill and talent and love and we were fortunate to reconnect with him during our trip. Shane, Tyler and Jessica and I along with our new friend Jenna ventured out at 7:20 am to the work space of Angel which is one hour north of us in a town called San Vicente. Angel was waiting for us and was very happy to see us as he said that many who say they are coming to help don't actually show up. I told Angel this was not our style. Angel was as patient as ever as he walked the 3 kids through the making of limbs. They mixed cement, poured the molds, and helped shape the legs that we eventually made into 3 legs for 3 different people. Angel is behind in his work because he is the only one who can truly shape the actual leg so that it will not be painful when the person begins walking on it. It is shaped especially for each person. No 2 are the same. He can teach us to make the leg but shaping it is a craft. He has people who have been waiting since January for a limb and yet Angel works many days for 12 and 16 hours at a time. He also fits wheelchairs too and visits all the people he is trying to help so that takes time too. Angel sings while he works and he has a wonderful sense of humor and he is so great with the kids. He has a great sense about him and the kids love to work with him. After 4 hours or so of making the limbs we cleaned up the shop where we were working and headed off to lunch. A beautiful spot in San Vicente where we all had delicious Club Sandwiches. We had a wonderful visit as we caught up on what was happening in Angel's life since we saw him last. After lunch we went to Ensenada to investigate the story of a young man who apparently needed Angel's help. Angel had received a call from a women named Sharon who heard that Angel helped the disabled and she wanted to know if Angel could help. Ensenada is another hour north of San Vicente we kept getting farther and farther from home. When we arrived we met a young 27 year old man named Fransisco but Angel kept calling him Fernando which was very funny. Fransisco is a man in a wheelchair paralyzed from the waist down and his wheelchair he has is broken. He is very depressed as he is sqatting in a home that the bank owns and the neighbors are feeding him. He has no family as he was adopted by white Americans as a kid and as a young adult left them as he felt he was not treated well. He has been completely alone and wandering on his own for 3 years and Sandra who is one of the neighbors is trying to help. Angel will bring him a new wheelchair on Friday and we will try to send Sandra some money each month to help with food costs for Fransisco. Sandra has a good heart but not a lot of money. We left Fransisco after some much needed support and hope in his heart. We went and met Becky and her friend Mandy and Charles at the harbor in Ensenada. Becky and Angel knew each other well when Becky lived in Mexico and she is here visiting for a week. Charles just picked her up in SD today and we happened to be in Ensenada at the same time. After a short visit Angel took us to an orphanage that has 38 young kids who all have intellectual disabilities and many with a physical disability. Angel used to be a part of this mission but they had a parting of ways as they philosophically did not support people the same way. This orphanage was small and the kids were eating when we arrived. They were happy to have some visitors even for the short while we were there. A very huge eye opener to the difference in how we support people in different countries and especially in a mission with clearly very little money. Onward we went and arrived home for dinner of left over Chinese food and Shane got to enjoy some today as he was feeling a lot better. Rose and her sister arrived late evening also flying into SD today. Rose is in charge of the SOL students for Absolute and is from Winnipeg. We had a nice visit and the kids ran around playing after all the long drives today.