Student aids city in Mexico
Chris Campell
-Staff Writer-
After living a life in suburbia, STLCC-Meramec student Rachael Gloyd found out firsthand just how much she had been taking for granted.
“[My parents] would say something about sending me to Mexico to live with the Mexican Indians every time I’d get in trouble so I would behave,” Gloyd said. “And then it ended up being me volunteering to go down by myself.”
A native of St. Charles, Mo, Gloyd lived in Texas for a few months where she enjoyed the Hispanic culture and then moved home to St. Louis where she graduated from Parkway North High School.
“My parents are music directors for churches,” Gloyd said. “So we moved to Texas because they got a job offer.”
Gloyd’s family had been involved with humanitarian aid. Living in Neuvo Necaxa, a village in the mountains south of Mexico City, was one more thing to add to her list.
Gloyd spent a total of three months in Mexico on two different occasions. Gloyd said the culture shock was something she did not expect.
“I learned a little the first time I went down there, but the language barrier was a big thing,” Gloyd said.
Gloyd found the dialect and speed of speech difficult to adjust to with intermittent recollections from high school Spanish class.
Despite this, she approached the trip to Mexico optimistically. Gloyd said not being able to understand the language had a big effect on her.
“Even with not being able to completely communicate, I still have a love for those people,” Gloyd said. “Language is a big thing, but it’s not necessary.”
Gloyd said that emotions speak louder than words, but that it was the hardest part of her journey.
“I didn’t have electricity. I didn’t have [running] water. We had to wash our clothes on a washboard. We had to boil water to heat it up for warm showers,” Gloyd said.
Gloyd said that electricity was available, for only an hour or two a day and flashlights were hard to come by.
“Once in a while, they would have lights on at night,” Gloyd said. “Do you know how scary that is? I had to walk down a mountain to use [the outhouse] at night.”
Because many people in Mexico survive off of iniquities, the crime in the villages surrounding Nuevo Necaxa is much worse than Gloyd was familiar with in St. Louis.
“People, that’s what I was afraid of. We had five murders the first week up the street where I was at,” Gloyd said. “There [are] murders all the time in that area. So to use the bathroom at night is so scary. So scary. I had mace on me all the time.”
Gloyd’s experience with the orphaned children in the village, however, outweighed the culture shock and fear.
“I considered myself more like a nanny. Making sure everybody is doing what they’re supposed to do. I cleaned. I cooked,” Gloyd said. “I probably made over 3,000 tortillas while I was there. I bonded with the children. They don’t have anybody to look up to. Their moms are prostitutes and their dads are dead or they never knew their dads.”
Nuevo Necaxa is not a typical “village,” Gloyd said. It does not follow even the typical Mexican lifestyle that we are aware of here in the United States.
“[The village] was mainly children. We’d have families who didn’t have a place to live come stay with us,” Gloyd said. “People recovering from alcoholism or drugs. It’s like a rehab, but it’s also like an orphanage.”
Culturally, even something as simple as waving wrong would be considered a sexual advance, Gloyd said.
“They’re not big huggers, but I gave all the kids hugs all the time. I taught them how to high-five. I always sang to them too,” Gloyd said. “And probably the coolest thing is riding home from church in the back of a truck with 15 kids, and just holding on and hoping you don’t fall because there’s a mountain, singing all the way home.”
Gloyd is majoring in international business and plans to travel all over the world, volunteering wherever she can.
Gloyd said that there are places all around the world that need aid.
“I want to do this for the rest of my life,” Gloyd said. “There’s so many places that ‘need,’ and that’s where I want to go. My friend just got back from Kenya, Africa, so the next time he goes, I’m thinking about going with him.”
Gloyd said she enjoys the experience of different cultures and the positive feedback from the people she has met on her trips.
“You see people who have nothing and come from nothing, and you look at yourself and you just want to not do what you were doing,” Gloyd said. “Change your ways. It’s really humbling that they’re so happy still, regardless of what they come from.”
Gloyd said she encourages everyone to get involved with humanitarian aid.
“To people who want to go down there,” Gloyd said. “I’d say keep an open mind and an open heart because it’ll change your life.”
