Zihua's New High School

So what do we do when politians, over whom we have no control, independently donate to a school. It is an old established Mexican tradition. When a school has a project, they write petitions to everyone they can think of - government agencies, Rotary clubs, the hotel association, Por Los Ninos, etc - requesting funding. Each recipient decides independently whether to participate. Por Los Ninos decides thru a committee comprised of 7 Mexican educators and business folks, and 5 international residents who have each lived in Zihuatanejo for 8 to 15 years.

Is Jorge corrupt? Is our Mayor? I don't know, could be. Mexican chisme suggests that all politians are corrupt. Should we agree to work on the same projects they may decide to donate to? It's kinda complicated; we have discussed it often. We have learned that our participation usually encourages additional donors to join in. To date, we have just smiled at the ribbon-cutting and celebrated the new learning opportunity for our kids. The Pols get a photo op, and the kids get classrooms.

If Jorge is donating only to buy votes, he's not been very successful. After donating the concrete for more than 30 classrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and canchas over the past 4 years, he still lost the last election. Perhaps it is just barely conceivable that he has more than one motive for donating. Quien sabe?

Your comment regarding expanding existing facilities is well taken. In fact it represents the majority of our projects. We only build new schools when no reasonable alternative makes sense.

And, nope, we are not trolling your message board for funding. We are 100% funded by Sailfest. I just wanted to celebrate the good news and honor the community partnership.