South of the Border
(more pictures to be added later)
This will be the last blog entry before our mega express run back to Chicago. Yesterday we had a busy day. In the morning we went to the colonias to help throw away garbage. It is a strange situation because the government doesn’t pick up the trash, since they are not legal neighborhoods. LUPE arranges to have a dumpster show up for a week at a colonia and the citizens can throw out their trash. The difficult part is that they only get to do this about once a year, and when the people that live in the colonias have the opportunity to throw their trash out, they are normally working and therefore unable to do so, since the dumpsters are only brought to the colonias during weekdays and not on the weekends.
We helped out a handful of people that were around to throw their trash out. It has been amazing to see how quickly a group of ten young, energetic individuals can accomplish large tasks that would normally take at least an hour for one person to do in less than ten minutes. It has been like this all week. We have planted, resoiled, dug holes, installed insulation in homes, sanded cabinets, picked up garbage in such quickness it amazes me. The appreciation that all the people that we have worked with has been phenomenal too.
After a week of frightening dogs we finally met some nice ones in the colonias while cleaning yesterday. One was a boxer named Rocky and another small dachshund looking fella named Shrek. Of course there were a few of my fellow travelers that wanted to take them home with us.
After the colonias yesterday morning we came back and ate food at camp LUPE. The food that they have prepared for us all week for lunch has been wonderful. And there has been a large variety as well. Enchiladas, nopales (a dish with cactus and shrimp, this was possibly my favorite), fidello (noodles, one day was even alpha noodles), caldo de res (a beef soup of sorts), carne con papas (a stewy kind of beef), and of course plenty of Mexican rice, beans, and tortillas; mucho bueno.
After lunch we went were led by our guide Martha to check out the proposed wall location in the town of Mission, which is a small town that is famous for producing Tom Landry (famous football player/coach esp. with the Dallas Cowboys). There was even a Tom Landry mural on Tom Landry Street.
Martha led us to the levee that is just off of the Rio Grande River, which separates the United States from Mexico. The levee is an interesting situation because it looks to be about five feet high. The river is south of the levee by about four hundred feet and there are houses and restaurants that are between the river and the levee. They would definitely be underwater if there were any major floods or storms that caused the Rio Grande to overflow.
Martha told us a lot about the levee system and how it is so under funded and that it is something that really needs to be taken care of soon. This is something we have heard throughout the week. Many of the people have referenced Hurricane Katrina and said that with the amount of money that has been poured into the area after the levees were breached could have easily been spent before Katrina hit, and therefore it would have been a lot cheaper to spend the money on it before. This is their rationale for asking for the money now – before a situation arises. And quite frankly, I agree with them. I begin to think about this though and think of the likelihood that anything will gone and don’t think it is too realistic. Once again, because the people who live in the area that would be affected by a levee breach (as in Katrina) I am not sold on the idea that they government even sees it as worth putting money into securing this area. Oh and for the record, many of the people in the area that would be affected by this are in fact legal, according to Martha. The church that Mission is named after (which was under construction as we passed by it yesterday and looks to be able to fit twenty-five people at most) would even be washed away.
So today we are heading to the Commissioner’s office to help support legislation that would reallocate funds that have been directed towards building the wall (which is a whole other issue I may go into later) to building better levees. The reason we are going is because a few people from LUPE are attending to show their support for the legislation in hopes that it passes.
After we saw the Rio Grande, we dropped Martha off and headed for the border on the 1015 expressway. We parked on the Texas side of the border, got out of our van, paid a quarter to walk through a stall, and headed towards Mexico. There is a little sign on the bridge that you cross that signifies the split. And boy was Mexico was quite a sight to see. It reminded me of when I went to New York and got out of the turnpike and saw a world that looked like a movie set. We walked past armed guards (who had automatic weapons and a tank) and entered the world of tourism. We walked literally one street because it was full of stores that tourists eat up. There seemed to be a pattern to the stores as well. It went something like souvenir/trinket shop, dentist, pharmacy, dentist, smaller souvenir shop, bar, pharmacy, dentist. There were so many dentists it was unbelievable. I guess a lot of people come from the US to get their dental work done.
There were cars all over; kids ran around selling handmade crafts and flower, and many even offered a shoeshine. People sat on corners with cups in their hand for spare change. Workers in the pharmacy stood outside their store and boasted about what lay inside (which I thought was an extremely strange thing to do). We walked up and down the street (which sort of reminded me of Bourbon street in New Orleans, or Beale Street in Memphis) where all the tourists hang out, both out of convenience and fear to explore the rest of the surrounding area. Hammocks were sold for $10, beers for $2, margaritas were 2 for $5 at some places, and there were tacos galore. We stopped at a taqueria stand for about twenty minutes and ate tacos like fiends. They were five for three dollars and oh so deliciouso.
I could go on and on about the crazy shops we saw but I won’t. I will have to continue this all after we get home. Tons of things to update about today. I look forward to the interesting weather it sounds like we are having back home.
Tags: Chicago, LUPE, Mission, Rio Grande River
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