By: Brenda Cintron, Designer
The date is set, the first flight has been booked, and now I anxiously wait for January 23rd to make my first trip down to Guadalajara, Mexico. For those of you that don’t know about my xref project, the idea is simple but very personal to me in many ways. I will photograph one hundred faces of children and gift them a framed portrait so that when they leave the orphanage they will have something to look back at and share with their future families. The best part about it is that I will be bringing all those photographs back and our HMC community will have the opportunity to sponsor a child with a pair of shoes.
These children don’t have parents that go around and photograph every milestone in their life. We know that most parents now have their phone full of family photos that tell stories of their child’s first step, their funny faces, school art projects, pumpkin carving, the list goes on and on, but these kids don’t have anyone to record these moments for them.
The hardest part of planning the trip has been communication. Even though I have talked to the director and we have planned time set apart for activities, I sometimes wish that communication was as quick as it is within our social networks. The funny thing is that many times when I ask questions they reply sooner or later but never seem to answer all of them. The good thing is that in our last conversation the director said, “Our doors are open to you and we are at your command.”
I don’t know what many of these kids have gone through, or are going through, but my intent is to share a little bit about every single one with you. I would like for many of you to be part of this journey with me, and I will try to make it as easy as possible for you to follow in hope that when I return you will be forming a line to sponsor a child with a pair of shoes. I have created a blog and even though there is not much there right now, make sure to come back to it in January as I will be posting about the trip and sharing a few photos of the children while I am down there.
