When you walk down the cobblestoned streets and peer in the open doorways you will find Mexican children that are well loved, hugged, kissed, and doted upon. Yet travel up into the Sierra Madres coastal mountains to the state capitol of Tepic and you will notice abandoned children scrounging the streets and landfills for anything of value. Much like the homeless now found throughout Canada and America, they sleep under bridges and in abandoned buildings. The big difference here is these are children as young as four and five years old, many forced out on the street because they were physically and sexually abused.
Both the federal and state governments are trying to solve this problem, but they are a far cry from having the resources to keep all of these children off the street. Christian organizations have stepped up to the plate to offer a secular solution such as the orphanage Casa de Ninos.
Amazingly Casa de Ninos was started 40 years ago by a prison Minister named Dr. Frank Gonzales who found young children living in the Tepic Prison.
“While ministering in the prison in Tepic in 1968, Gonzales saw several little boys among the inmates,” said now director, Russ Krube, originally from Minnesota, “When he questioned the warden, he was told that the boys were homeless street children. Since there was no children's home in the entire state of Nayarit, they had no choice but to put the boys in with the adult prisoners.”
Today according to Krube, the orphanage handles between 22 and 35 abandoned and in most cases abused children. But even then because of resources, their screening process prevents helping the children that have become too hardened by the streets of Tepic.
“We are unable to equip and train our staff to handle the long term street kids or help as much as we should with the ones with special needs,” Krube said, pointing to a young Mexican girl whose parents, living in the isolated surrounding mountains never talked to her. “She is nine years old and she cannot speak either the Indian dialect or Spanish language properly. Our staff is not trained to handle that but we do our best.”
The orphanage offers primary schooling, beds and a kitchen and large playground. It is clean and well run, but upon closer look one can see it is in desperate need of funding.
“We are always in need of something,” Krube says pointing out the need for new beds, paint, computers and basic supplies. The list is long. “Our goal is to get the families back together, but that is not always possible. Children can spend their entire childhood here.”
Funding comes from American and Canadian Christian organizations, but the most unique method comes from an extraordinary man. Only in Mexico could an architect from Oregon build a bass fishing lodge as means to fund an orphanage.
David Sanders came to Casa de Ninos six years ago through his Christian organization as a volunteer to help. Once there he realized he had to try and do something more than just a few weeks of handiwork.
Sanders came up with the concept of building a bass fishing lodge on the newly dammed Santiago River, Aguamilpa reservoir is located in a remote part of Nayarit just 60 kilometers north east of Tepic. Avid bass fishermen from the United States and Canada would come and the first 25 per cent of the proceeds would go towards the maintenance of the orphanage. He would name it the Fishinmission.
“This Mexican bass factory is best known for providing hours of non-stop bass catching action that
at times can be truly amazing. While double digit bass are becoming more and more available in this relatively new reservoir with the lake record well over 13 lbs, it is the sheer numbers of solid quality bass, (in the 2 to 6 lb range) that have given this lake its reputation,”
It has been an expensive process for Sanders, but he believes that his hard work will pay off and help give the orphanage the funding it needs to continue it good works. Looking at the dramatic and inspiring views of the reservoir from the Palapa Lodge, one can see why Sanders would see god’s hand directing his work here in Mexico.
Sanders lodge is a located on the Lake and can only be reached by boat. His three fishing boats and fishing gear are top line gear.
“We did a lot of research in order to determine the most spacious, comfortable, and best all around boat to spend three days on the water in. We are confident that you will appreciate the smooth ride, comfortable seats, and large casting decks on our Carolina Skiffs. All of our boats are powered by quiet 75 HP 4 – stroke engines,” Sanders said.
Larry, Charlie and Rod joined me for a two day adventure. The first day we drove to Tepic where Charlie and Larry played golf at the Tepic course. Rod and I joined Jim birdman Thompson to visit the Orphanage.
Jim later led us out to Aquamilpas where we launched one of the boats and traveled through the scenic reservoir where we greeted by David Sanders. That night we camped under the palapa...no bugs, great stories and even starchoice tv. The palapa has an excellent bar and seating area. And modern washrooms .
Next morning after a great breakfast we took off fishing, a truly great experience with David leading us to some great fishing spots on the lake.
As for the fishing, we caught 49 bass in just under 5 hours.
You can reach David Sanders at http://www.fishinmissionadventures.com/
You can reach Russ Krube at http://www.casadeninos.org/
