Miguel Hidalgo Elementary Grades 4th 5th 6th
This school and community (San Jerónimo Pilitas) are located right around the core territory of the Monarchs’ Forest reserve. It is very, very important for Journey North to continue visiting these locations.

Once Estela reaches the school, children start to arrive at last!!!.

Children immediately come together and attend Journey North "lecture," excited to see their Ambassador Monarchs and the letters brought by Estela. Learning about the monarch life-cycle is all new for these children since it has been a couple years since Estela visited this community school. "Not to believe!," many whispered every time Estela went onto the next life-stage of a monarch. "Who could have imagined?” they said the moment Estela focused herself on the role the monarch played with their overwintering in México.

The children had lots of fun and felt it incredible to write their letters to their new far away friends!. A boy showed his letter and the attached beautiful horse drawing to Estela asking: "Estela, do you think they will like this drawing of my favorite horse at home?". She couldn't but congratulate him for such a talent in drawing.

The children were so excited over the gifts they received! Emmerson School sent lovely flags and stickers.

The class received their donated books.

A Local Snapshot
On the way to this community Estela stopped when she saw a non-official sign for legal logging permits hanging from a tree among the woods along the main road.

New electricity service has just been provided to the community. Before, this service was very bad and failing very frequently.

Overview of the San Jerónimo community from the road. Here, the rivers crossing the fields are rather narrow and carry little water.

In this view you can see the old classroom and bathroom that was used recently, but now is abandoned for the new and modern facilities which were constructed recently by the state government.

The school has now got a dining room service where the government provides free breakfasts (closed today) for those children of very poor families. In the State of México, these kinds of school program benefits are far much better and of much higher quality than in the Michoacán state. Here you can see the school and chapel of the community and the new bathrooms.

Parent Meeting Today
Children did not have classes today. Their teacher is ill and sent a message early in the morning to the Mother "President" of the parents' committee. A wonderful boy cycling around, came to Estela and told her, “Come on, follow me; mothers are attending a meeting with the local authorities that offer courses for mothers.”

The children waited outside the house where the meeting was being held, just half a kilometer away from the school. The wife of the President of the main town (San José del Rincon) addressed all the mothers in the community to explain about some government programs and courses (knitting, cooking, baking, embroidery, hair tailoring, home electricity, construction and drainage systems, etc.) to teach them to become more productive in their communities. Instructors are sent by the government for these free courses, and offer a monthly payment as a recognition for their dedication and time. The payment is over the $200 and lasts the months the courses take place.

The honorable guest, the wife of the President, was been received with a nice flower and a necklace made with candies (it could also have been made with flowers), --typical tradition for communities all over the Mexico State. Estela introduced herself, the President's wife welcomed her with enthusiasm knowing of Journey North, and asks mothers to encourage their children with such a "privilege of having such a wonderful cultural, educational program for their children". Mothers immediately responded positively and asked Estela to please wait only some minutes while they sent their children back to the school for the lesson.

On this side of the Sierra Chincua Sanctuary, in all villages nearby, for several generations now, we can still see parents and children with green or blue eyes and blond to white hair. This is because in the late 1800's to the beginning-half of the past century, the mining towns of El Oro, Tlalpujahua and Angangueo hosted many foreign people, --some German, more French, Spanish, Greek, and much more North American men who run the mines in each of those towns for decades. El Oro town, was the most important of the three, with an outstanding gold exportation at worldwide levels. Many of these foreign men established family links in the region.

Once the meeting finished, the children received a gift from the First Lady of their Municipality, a really nice and friendly woman.

While mothers do housework and attend duties in the community, and children attend school tasks, parents plough their lands, care of their cattle, sheep, and milk their cows. This is a parallel way of making a living for parents besides forest activities. The agricultural activities they do are mostly for home/family-supply. They sell really at very low quantities corn or wheat, in the nearby towns, if any.

Butterflies Received
This school received Ambassador Butterflies from the following U.S. and Canadian Schools:

Stormonth Elementary, Fox Point, WI
Stormonth Elementary, Fox Point, WI
B B and N School, Cambridge, MA
Cumberland Elementary, Sunnyvale, CA
B B and N School, Cambridge, MA
Chesterbrook Academy, Naperville, IL
Monroe Consolidated School, Monroe, NH
Rolando Elementary, La Mesa, CA
Adams Spanish Immersion, Saint Paul, MN
Our Lady of the Greenwood, Greenwood, IN
Madison Elementary, Madison, KS
Our Lady of the Greenwood, Greenwood, IN
Hall Fletcher Elementary, Asheville, NC
Hybla Valley Elementary, Alexandria, VA
Century Elementary, Park Rapids, MN
Village Elementary, Emporia, KS
Rogers Elementary, Rogers, MN
Emerson Junior and Senior High School, Emerson, NJ
Brooklyn Middle Stream School, Brooklyn Park, MN
Tilden Elementary, Hamburg, PA
Emerson Junior and Senior High School, Emerson, NJ
Emerson Junior and Senior High School, Emerson, NJ
Alkali Creek Elementary, Billings, MT
George Washingon Charter, Palm Desert, CA
Hybla Valley Elementary, Alexandria, VA
Heritage High School, Maryville, TN
Ankeny Christian Academy, Ankeny, IA