Community Service Earns Tokens

The Cleanup Continues December 2015

The community cleanup continues.  We now have about 60 women and children every Tuesday and since the group has gotten so large we now have six teams that spread out around the community.  This project is very popular and as a result we have a lot more visitors to the Token Store and very clean streets!  We buy the bags and have also bought gloves and a few cleaning implements with more planned for the new year.  Thanks to all of you who have donated to this project through the Token Store.  We couldn't do it without all of you. 
 
Feliz navidad y un próspero año nuevo from all of us at The Token Store.

More Cleaning Projects

We have had several more clean up projects with more to come and more tokens getting out into the community.  

November 3, 2015 - Morelos at Juarez and Beyond.  Unfortunately I did not get a photo of the group but it was a big one with more on the way next week!
October 26, 2015 - Paula and Friends
October 20, 2015 - Lourdes and Friends
October 7, 2015 - Alicia and Friends


 NEIGHBORHOOD CLEANUP
Fabiola and Friends

We had another successful neighborhood cleanup project Wednesday, September 30, 2015.  This time we went to Fabiola's neighborhood in west San Juan Cosalá .  She was the leader of this group consisting of several women and children.  This cleanup project was not as big as the one before but just as important.  They came armed with rakes and hoes and brooms and I came armed with the trash bags and my camera.  They raked and bagged and in just a couple of hours had completed their task and there were smiles all around.  More tokens were distributed to the community for shopping in The Magical Token Store and also another project was set up for Alicia's neighborhood, one of the volunteers.  So we will meet next Wednesday with tools, and bags and of course my camera to document another successful Token Store project.
 
Jonnie Harker
 
Picture
Fabiola (L) and her crew

FIRST TOKEN STORE 
COMMUNITY PROJECT 


The Token Store in San Juan Cosalá  opened several weeks ago to acceptance and excitement.  The Magical Token Store, as it was named by a contest of residents, accepts no money for items in the store, only tokens.  Tokens can be earned by working to improve the community or working to learn new skills that will benefit the family.  The store itself is now almost completely run by Mexican residents of San Juan Cosalá .  It is aimed at improving the lives of the unemployed or underemployed in this small, impoverished town. 

Considering the fact that the “employees” of the store have become very efficient at their jobs and have great ideas, we asked them to decide on the first community project.  They picked trash pick-up and weed cutting along a long street on the mountain side of San Juan Cosalá .  Lorena, one of the leads of the Token Store volunteered and planned the entire project--number of people, plus number of hours needed to work.  She then set about signing up volunteers.  Our only suggestion was that no more than 2 people were employed from the same family, so we could get a number of families involved.  We didn’t find out until we visited the site, it was not just for attractiveness that this street was selected.  It was mostly a safety concern.  The street is long and slopes down the mountain, so when the rain comes, it washes down the street and through the tunnel under the carretera.  Lorena told us that several years ago, when the tromba came, the street was not cleaned, water was slowed by the weeds and trash, and the water rose and flooded houses.  She talked of pulling children out of the water, and how frightening this event was.

Saturday morning (Sept. 12th) at 8:00, adults and children arrived, ready to work.  Jonnie and I arrived with cameras and trash bags, and the residents did all the work.  And there was a lot of work!   The men and older boys wielded the machetes, while the women and children cleared a large dump that had been created.  Oscar brought a wheel barrow and began hauling filled bags to the carretera.  At the end of the work day, 45 bags of trash were ready for the Monday trash pick-up.  After all the hard work, Lorena provided fish stew, tortillas, and avocados for everyone, while Francisco bought a large soda and cups to share. 

The street looks great, is now safe, many residents earned tokens to spend in the store, and this neighborhood worked together to make this happen.  It was a project of the people of San Juan Cosalá  from beginning to end.  They planned and executed everything.  We will definitely very soon ask these hard-working folks if they are ready for another project to improve San Juan Cosalá .

Jonnie, Tony, Mary, Ron and I have been thrilled by the success of the Magical Token Store and are continually impressed at how positive and energetic the San Juan Cosalá  residents are, and how wonderful they are to work with. We appreciate the money and donations that have been given by the expatriate community.  

Nancy Brown