March 10, 2005
Mexico!!
Today we crossed the border.
We got picked up around 8:30am by David Garza – the guy who was coordinating our travel between Brownsville and Mexico, basically letting us tag along and participate in what he does everyday. He had with him his sidekick, Kyle – a guy our age who had recently joined the mission project – “Jesus Is The Only Way Ministries” (a.k.a JITOW).
I think I can speak for all when I say that it was not what we expected. David was mad cool – dude really knew how to relate to us and make us laugh. Another Joe-like character that made the atmosphere a fun one. But we arrived at the “orphanage” only to find that there were no kids there. We were all disappointed because we were under the impression that we’d be tutoring and working with orphans.
Well…what ensued was a learning experience nonetheless.
We arrived at the “orphan house”/JITOW “headquarters” (that’s just what I’m calling it) which was located away from the developed part of Mexico. It was about an hour drive from the border. We drove through dirt roads, farms, and “wild” chickens, goats, dogs (kangaroos?? haha) roamed around. We got the grand tour of the place and a low down of what goes on there, the kind of service they do, etc. The tour was given by a lady named Grace – recently moved to Mexico to leave at the “headquarters” – who also felt it necessary to tell us about all the miracles that have occurred with people “witnessing” and being “saved”. The religious spin was a little strong and rubbed a lot of us the wrong way. It was a little bit over the edge. Despite her constant preaching and sometimes condescending tone, she had a good heart and had put a lot of time, effort, and money into service for this community. No one can deny that what they were doing was good.
We then grabbed some tools from the shed and packed back into David’s 15 person van. He took us to a colonia built on a landfill. Imagine. A colonia is basically a neighborhood that doesn’t have any of the basic things you might think are necessary for a community to function. No electricity, no running water, few of the people have jobs, no sewage, nothing really…it’s a wonder how these people survive. (a colonia "fact sheet" – click to read more about colonias on the Texas/Mexico border). In this particular colonia, JITOW had built a church and we brought with us bags of rice, clothing, and shoes to distribute among the members of the community.
Few people had cars – the rest either used their legs or donkeys for transportation. People dug through the trash trying to find anything that they could possibly resell and water tanks drove around the land fill with dirty over-priced canal water.
We met a guy named “Loco” - the “mayor of the neighborhood,” according to Grace. He spoke some English which he had supposedly learned from tourists. David eventually told some of us on the side that it was all bologna…but Grace sincerely believed it! haha.
The group took a lunch break at a gas station and then we headed to another neighborhood. It was in a little better shape than the colonia, but not by much. It least it was not built in a landfill, more of the people had jobs, and there was some running water. We cleared the driveway of one of the houses that was full of huge rocks.
At the corner of the street, we saw some kids standing around with puppies and so we all took turns going over and talking to them. I was happy to hear that they were going to school. There, school is only 4 hours a day. They wanted toys, but we had none to offer them. Their situation seemed much more hopeful than what we saw at the colonia.
It doesn't feel like we accomplished so much today. One of the things Grace said that probably had much truth to it, was that we can’t expect to make a huge change on the community in the short time that we’re here, but it is almost sure that we’ll walk away from the experience with more than what we were able to give. That’s kind of disheartening…but I guess the fact that it’s disheartening means that it made an impact on me. It made me so sad to see this part of the world in such dire need of so many necessities. I’m so apart from that world and as much as I have lived in poor financial conditions, never have I faced anything like this. The main/only goal of those people living in the colonia was survival. It wasn’t about improving their conditions – just survival. It was heartbreaking because there wasn’t really anything we could to do improve the situation for them. We can pick up trash, but it’s just gonna be there again the next day. The bags of rice are gonna run out and the clothes and shoes are gonna get worn. What then?
So today brought me into an awkward mood – it was really a humbling experience above all else.
We went back to the orphanage, hung out a bit and then David took us to a market to look around and buy souvenirs. That’s a bit weird – buying souvenirs when we’ve just left such a poverty stricken place. But in reality, I don’t think it’s healthy to feel bad about every single injustice that goes on in the world. I don’t know what the right thing to do is, but I don’t think giving up all material things is necessarily it either.
I remember one time at a fireside, someone shared a dream they had: there was some kind of reservoir and lots of people were drowning in it. People ran to the side of the water and attempted to pull out individuals one by one. Sometimes they were successful, sometimes they themselves fell in. And this lady noticed Abdu’l-Baha sitting on a hill nearby overlooking all this. She got angry because she didn’t understand why He wasn’t doing anything about it. People were dying and He was just sitting there. She approached Him and saw He had paper and pen in hand. And upon questioning, He told her that He was figuring out a way to drain the reservoir. Can you imagine how many more people will be saved? Though individual efforts are noble and courageous and will save precious lives, they will not ultimately solve the problem of people drowning in the reservoir. So what is the solution when it comes to poverty? What is the method to draining this reservoir?
Anyway, now we’re back…time for dinner, highs & lows, group games, and then bed.
Quotes of the Day:
“Is that a KANGAROO?!?!”
“yes Kelly, while you were napping in the car, we crossed into kangaroo inhabited land”
(it was a donkey)
“that’s bull taco!” – Nader
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