On Tuesday (day 3) we boarded our bus for a tour of some local Tarahumara sites.
This is the mission at Cusarare. The Tarahumara were "settled" by the Jesuits, and many of the Tarahumara are, therefore, Catholic.
Cusarare is a village with a boarding school (complete with basketball court) and some conventional buildings. The men were constructing a new one.
The girls and women were in traditional dress, as were virtually all of the Tarahumara we encountered except those who worked at the Barrancas del Cobre hotel. Again, away from the hotel, most were very shy about being photographed. Here's Rick Roessler, a professional filmmaker, who's producing a videotape on our trip.
The girls' and women's clothes are very bright and colorful. The skirts are prints, made from fabrics they buy in Creel. The shawls are woven by the the Indians themselves.
Although these three girls were predictably very shy, I wish you could have seen their reactions when I showed them this picture on my digital camera's screen. They pointed and giggled, but when we asked them their names, they answered so quietly—if at all—we couldn't hear them.
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In sharp contrast to the natural beauty, the level of poverty and poor health of these lovely, shy people was incomprehensible to us—especially in a nation that is our next-door neighbor. We encountered children everywhere with chronic coughs, strange and disfiguring facial skin infections, blister-like bumps covering their bare feet and legs… The problem is enormous and we kept asking ourselves what we could do to help. We learned that there is a children’s hospital in the area which is in need of support and that one way a great number of people can help is by visiting the website http://www.giveaminute.org and clicking on the "give a minute" page. For every visit "each web page sponsor pays for one minute of hospital care each day you visit our site.” If you feel moved to do more, you can check out the Donation Center page for the hospital's wish list. Even if you only click on "give a minute," a child could benefit. We hope you will consider it. And we hope you will pass this message on to others whom you think might also want to help.
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©2001 Doug Kaye