Yelapa - fundraiser Three years ago, when I came to Puerto Vallarta on my first trip with Unity for Women, we found this hole-in-the-wall school/office supply store and dipped in. There was a man working that night, and his name was Lalo. Lalo was incredibly kind and helpful as we three women began to point to item after item to purchase for the students of the nearby village town of Yelapa. “Lápices?” “Sí! Queremos todo lo que tienen.” 👏 “Pencils?” “Yes! We’ll take all of them!” We basically cleaned them out of all the school supplies that night. And as Lalo rung up our total, I remember him getting teared up to see how much we were about to buy (I think it was around $300-400 USD worth). He told us that because of Covid, and with his mother being sick, he had been working non stop, and it had been really tough without the normal stream of tourists. We all felt how meaningful it was to be able to give to them through this project, and the tears flowed easily from all of us. He said that our sale was the biggest one they’d had all year, and that it would mean he could take a little bit of a break from work for the first time in a while. 😞 He was just oozing with gratitude and surprise. We took this picture together and all hugged, our hearts bursting. 💗 When we returned the next year, we asked the man in the store about our friend Lalo, and he said Lalo was his brother… but that he’d passed on that last year from health complications. He got choked up, as we all did… we reminisced about Lalo, through tears. We bought our supplies again, and left with hugs. This year, I called the store the week before we arrived to “warn” them we were on our way again so they could have some time to prepare for us lol 😂 When we showed up, we saw Beto again and his mom. The hugs, the reminisces about Lalo, the catching up on the year behind us… we now felt like old friends. Together, they helped us organize and purchase another big order for the students of Yelapa again. Lalo and Beto’s mom then sneaked an extra stuffed animal in our box… for the kids 🥹 Continued in the comments… (at Yelapa, Jalisco, Mexico) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnXj4Z9pqjf/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=