When you turn 10, you have to do something special, and Fundación Maga has published a book. It is a beautiful photographic overview of all these years but above all, it is a fascinating insight into 10 of our projects focused on one goal: to improve the education and living conditions of children in different communities in Sierra Leone, in West Africa, and Cambodia, in Southeast Asia.
We share with all of you the preface to the book, a tribute to Mari Carmen Gangutia.
When we started 10 years ago, we never imagined that one day we would be celebrating our tenth anniversary. Time stands still before us today and, like a ferris wheel that stops for a moment at the top, we pause to contemplate each project with joy and pride before moving again.
As many of you may already know, Fundación Maga was born as a tribute to our mother and life companion, Mari Carmen. She was not involved in any of the 10 projects we have carried out to date, and we are absolutely sure that she would have celebrated with us the happiness and excitement of every trip to Sierra Leone and Cambodia. We would have explained to her how complicated it was to find the right projects, and the unforgettable moments they made us experience (we know that some trips are good and others are not so). If she had been with us, she would have surely not complained about the weight of the suitcases (which we always carry with us, loaded with medicines, clothes, food and toys), about the accommodation, about the food (sometimes scarce, other times very spicy, often exotic and different), or about the climate that would surely have frizzled her hair.
Nor would she have complained about the potholes on the long, imperfect and seemingly endless roads that must be traveled to reach schools and missions. She would have been moved by each anecdote told in fine detail by José Luis and touched by the stories of Kike or the harsh situations that the Sisters Clarisias and the Sisters of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Cambodia have gone through. She would have effortlessly won the hearts and minds of each one of the 3,000 children who have attended our schools, infecting us with her happy face. She would have been amazed to see herself wrapped in those smiling children's faces and in all the colorful dresses that greet us as soon as we set foot in any village!
We are very fortunate, because you are our mother and, ultimately, the mother of all the children of the foundation.
We hope you can hear us because we would say to you loud and clear that, although we have not yet got used to your absence, we still miss the unique feeling of having a mother. Missing you now means that life with you was very good, the best. You were a mother, and a wife, in the broadest sense of the word, and each project carries a piece of you. Thank you.
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