Uno Grande Horchata
The golden sun beamed down on us today. It was another day of hard labor, at least for some of our crew. Today we split our groups up a bit, with three people going to a local clinic that largely serves undocumented people. I was not among this group, but from what I hear it mostly involved a lot of filing and following nurse practitioners (the people that went are all interested in the medical industry).
The rest of our crew worked on more lawn detail, replanting various plants. While four of the fellas dug up and relocated a cactus-like plant, I was busy riding a John Deere, straddling ditches and cutting weeds. The sun finally was as expected; hot and unforgiving. But it was a good way to spend a morning before we ate another good authentic lunch. In the afternoon I helped put together a wooden bench and then went to Proyecto Azteca, which is where houses are built by LUPE members.
The housing situation is interesting because it is a situation where people apply and go through this process of waiting to build a house based on many factors, some of which include income and the immediacy of need for the house. There are zero percent interest rates on these houses and payments for them are worked to be whatever a family can afford. It was interesting to hear the other day when we were in the loan office that they are now experiencing some trouble because some people are not making their payments on houses/loans given to them and they are not sure how to deal with it. It is basically a trust system that they have set up. They do not perform background checks or anything, its all just a system where they say that if someone is not paying, they send someone to the person’s house and ask them why not, what they need etc.
Each family must put in 500 sweat equity hours (work done by family members) in order to get their house. Five of us spent the afternoon sanding the cabinets of a house that will be owned by an elderly couple, so they will not have to put in their 500 hours.
Tomorrow we will be cleaning out colonias instead of today and we also plan on going to Mexico tomorrow afternoon/early evening. We plan on bringing a local with us so we do not run into trouble. From what I hear we will be leaving our van on the American side of the border, walking into some type of stall and paying thirty cents to enter Mexico. Sounds like going to Aldi’s and paying for a shopping cart.
Working with my fellow students on a trip such as this really gives me an opportunity that I have already been grateful for. We have had many great conversations and I look forward to continuing them over the next couple of days. It is amazing how we got in the van just four days ago and sat almost dead silent for twenty minutes and now no one will pipe down for a minute.
Oh and we finally did elotes today. Not as great as everyone anticipated as they put so much chili powder on the corn that it was kind of unappealing. They also served it in a cup instead of on the cob, which made it even more unappealing. But I ate it anyways and even got a huge jug of Horchata for two dollars.
Tags: Aldi's, elote, horchata, John Deere, LUPE, Mexico, Proyecto Azteca
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