Daniella

It was probably in 2003 when we first met Daniella, her sister, Elda, and her parents, Tony and Lili. When Brother Nestor first came to Alamos and began to establish his work for Christ, we remember noticing Lili, Elda and Daniella at some of those first services. Their casa was near the church. Daniella was about 4 years old. Elda was in her early 20's. We found out later that Elda didn't know how old she was or when her birthday was. We could see this was a family who was destitute in every respect. We added the family to our food despensa (food box) program. At that time we began to minister to them. They had no income other than a bit of work that the father did repairing bicycles at his home. The people he was repairing the bikes for was as poor as he was and usually didn't have money to pay him but very little.

The photo below was taken at a later date but shows how the family always looked. Occasionally the church serves food and sells it for a very nominal price. They are always there and Brother Nestor sees that they are fed.

As with many of our poor families we rapidly became family. If there was a problem we were expected to solve it. If there was a need we were expected to fill it. And this family had plenty of problems. The father was extremely illiterate, the mother, Lili and the sister, Elda were very slow mentally. We were told that Daniella seemed to be of normal intelligence, other than environmentally slow. She was very shy; there was no interaction with anyone and never with other children. Elda regarded her as a doll and talked and acted toward her as small child would treat their doll.

In 2004 Brother Nestor and his wife, Lili told us it was time for Daniella to be enrolled in kindergarten. However, there was a problem to be solved. Daniella had no birth certificate (I suspect she had been born at home). The father said she didn’t need to go to school and he was refusing to help obtain a birth certificate for her. We were enlisted to solve this issue for them. John talked with the father but to no avail, he was not going to assist in getting this child a birth certificate. Fortunately John had a friend whom we had met shortly after coming to Alamos. He was a wonderful man, spoke excellent English and at that time happened to be firmly established in a local government office that dealt with civil issues such as this. A side note; Mexico is the same as the US in that when new politicos are swept into office the staff changes, regardless of how well someone does their job in the old administration. New politicos are now in office. This fellow is no longer in that position.

With the understanding help of this man a birth certificate for Daniella was obtained. She was ready to go to school. But wait there is another problem - she had no uniforms. The school children in Mexico wear uniforms, none of this status stuff as to who has the best clothes. However for a family who can’t put food on the table it can become a major issue. This is where Daniella became a neighborhood project. Each school has different colors of material and patterns, and the outfits were to be made up as jumpers with corresponding blouses. We purchased the correct material and took it to our neighbor who was a seamstress, no patterns needed. This gal was a whiz, she whipped out three jumpers and blouses in record time. Side purchases such as the appropriate type socks and etc was rounded up with the help of another neighbor.

Now, we're ready for school, right? There was just one problem, Daniella didn’t want to go to school. She went one day and refused to go back. The family wasn’t any support as Mom and Dad didn’t grasp the necessity of school and Elda would lose her “doll.” John and I decided that old proverbial, come hell or high water, Daniella was going to school. This family needed a lot of parenting and we were just the folks to lead the charge. It was decided that John would go every morning and pick Daniella up and take her to school and pick her up afterwards. Elda would tag along on her bicycle and hang onto the chain link fence that was around the school. Any one who has lived in Mexico knows being on time is not a requirement in that culture. For this reason when it was time for school to begin the gates were locked so there was no late entries. Solves the tardy issue very well. We are sure Elda would have been in the classroom had that not been prevented. John soon realized that Elda could pick up Daniella after school as she always managed to be there when school was out. That removed part of his duties. But now comes all the other issues with being a parent of a child in “kinder." There were many fun days with costumes, pesos for parties and etc. The teacher would write John a note with all the proper requests (sometimes the notes said that Daniella wasn‘t cooperating and John had to deal with that issue). God love him, John was the parent. And may God bless, our precious neighbor, Eloisa having had “kinders” before us, knew all the ropes about the costuming & etc. The seamstress would go to the local Mercado and purchase necessary materials and trimmings. Daniella always had the required items.

Another parenting issue, the Mama notified us when Daniella’s cumpleanos (birthday) was approaching. She needed a cake!

For two years we parented this family same as you would any child. John took Daniella to school for those two years. She had some rocky times and cried every day because she didn’t want to be there. The flood came and we got the message from our heavenly father that our lives as we knew them in Alamos was ending. However we are happy to report that things have worked out and Daniella now goes to school, mixes with the other children in church and in play time after church. We thank God that we were allowed to be there for her in the days when she needed someone. Today Lili and the girls never miss a church service. And are so delighted when we visit there.