Juarez Hammer Time! -- Day 1
rob...@robertgidley.com
In which a group of church folk from Redmond travel to Juarez, Mexico to save the world. Although the world saving starts tomorrow. Today is a travel day.
Sun, Feb 14, 2010
4:01 am
It's Valentine's Day, and what better way to tell your wife that you love her than asking her to drop you at the airport at 4:30 am!
Fortunately, I'm married to the fabulous Laura Gregg, who is delighted to drive me (okay, "delighted" overstates it a little bit, but "not intensely displeased" isn't as romantic).
There's little traffic on the road (surprise!), so we make good time.
4:30 am
Ed made all our airplane reservations, and has randomly paired us up for reasons known only to Ed and the airlines. As a result, I am traveling with Fred, whom I don't know (he goes to our church, but it's a big church).
Consequently, when I check in, the check-in guy says "I see you are traveling with a friend!" and I almost reply "Yes! There are 22 of us traveling together! But not suspiciously!"
I think better of it. "Uh, yeah. Fred will check in later."
4:35 am
I see somebody from our group! It's Kevin!
At our debriefing there was one thing that was emphasized as "Absolutely Essential" for the mission trip. Sun screen will be nice, sleeping bags are good, but US passports are ESSENTIAL for getting back into the country. Fly naked, but bring your passport.
Kevin's been packed since Friday, ready to go. Guess what he forgot?
Yup. So now he's frantic. "I won't be able to get into Mexico." I explain that it's easy to get into Mexico, no passport required. It's getting back into the US that's problematic.
Zoom! Kevin is off to call his ride to turn around and pick him up and drive him to Sammamish, so he can pick up his passport and then back to the airport. Our flight leaves at 6:08 am. Will he make it?
Long-time blog readers may recall the incident in "Stucco in Juarez" where the driver of one of the cars took a wrong turn and wandered around Juarez for a couple of hours, frantically pursued by Fr. Dan. Yup, same Kevin.
5:00 am
Fr. Jim Eichner is our spiritual leader, so naturally he's the one we all turn to when something goes wrong. "Kevin's a big boy. He'll get himself to where he needs to be."
5:15 am
Kevin calls Ed (whom I used to refer to as "Guinea Pig Ed," but since he hasn't mentioned his childhood in Peru and the local delicacies lately, has been demoted back to "Ed").
Anyway, Kevin calls Ed and tells him that he (Kevin) is now five minutes from his (Kevin's) house in Sammamish. The rest of us begin the boarding process.
6:00 am
The stewardess says over the intercom, "We'd like to close the cabin doors, so the sooner you 'passengers' can get settled and stow your gear and stop wandering around the cabin, the sooner we can get going."
6:05 am
Kevin appears! Apparently, Karen (his driver) drives faster than the radio signals the cops use to communicate, so by the time they realize that she's speeding, she's in a different county.
12:10 Houston Time
To get to Juarez, first we fly southeast to Houston. Then we change planes and fly west into a different time zone (the El Paso time zone). If you look at a map of Texas, you'll see that the left part narrows down to a pointy bit. El Paso is at the pointy bit.
And El Paso is right across the Rio Grande from Juarez. (If there were Truth in Geography laws, the Rio Grande would be named the "Creeko Teenio"--at least in this part of Texas.)
I can tell immediately that I'm in Texas when I talk to a Gate Agent. She says "Well, honey, ya'll go that away for a bit, sugar, and then you turn right at that little bitty blue light, ya heah?"
1:05 pm (still Houston time)
They start loading our plane, but then they notice it has a flat tire, and everybody has to get out so they can jack it up and change the tire.
1:30 pm (in Houston)
Tire's changed and we're allowed back on the plane (but we're told not to jump up and down). Off to the West Texas town of El Paso!
2:45 pm (El Paso Time)
Now we're in our final time zone. Last week, it was raining and cold in El Paso, so we asked for prayers for sunshine this week.
Hoo ha! Way to go, guys! It's 60 and sunny and blue sky and just Grande Texas weather!
We meet up with our Hefe for the week, Fr. Dan Klooster. Fr. Dan used to be in construction and he looks like it. I love standing next to him, because he makes me feel petite.
It turns out that not only is Fr. Dan still a Nigerian Priest, he is also a Canon of Ghana. Or as Kevin points out, "He's a Ghanan Canon!"
Originally, we were scheduled to be here with a group from Connecticut, who were bringing 30 people (they get cold winters up there in Conn). But they decided that 30 of them, plus 23 of us equalled a mess of people.
And although technically, there are 60 beds, they are all bunk beds, which means that 30 of those beds are top bunks and most of us are not "top bunk" kind of people if you get my drift.
They decided that April would be a kinder month for them to come. So we're the only group here this week!
3:30 pm
Fr. Dan has a Mission Center in El Paso, where he stores some building materials, which we stop to pick up. Sadly, we pick up many bunches of chicken-wire, which means either we're building a chicken coop (yay!) or we're nailing eight bazillion nails into the chicken wire to keep it from falling off (boo!).
I'm hoping for the chicken coop.
3:50 pm
We all load into two vans and head for the border. One of the vans has a luggage rack, so all the luggage for 23 people is loaded on top of it.
Since I have been through this before, I make sure I'm riding in the van with Ed, who (since he grew up in Peru) speaks flawless Spanish.
Sure enough, we get waved over at the border, and you don't need to speak Spanish to follow the conversation:
"That's a lotta luggage, boy, for only 10 people."
"Yes, officer, that van up there that you can't see any more is also with us."
"You better not be funnin' me, boy!"
"Oh no sir!" (This is where the native Spanish comes in most useful. Ed says this with an amazing amount of sincerity.)
They wave us through and we go on our merry way.
4:10 pm
Juarez has a completely different feel than El Paso. Most of the buildings are single story cinder block buildings, and everywhere you look, there's vendors on the road selling flowers, heart gift baskets (some featuring Grover!) and food.
The roads are paved in this part of town, although some of them are still pretty dang steep and we burn rubber a couple of times when we encounter stop signs halfway up.
4:30 pm
We are now at the Mission of San Mattias (St. Mathias). This is a walled compound where we stay when we're not on the build site. There's a big dining room/fellowship hall attached to the church part, which is where we eat our meals (and where we can hang out).
There's also a basketball court, and a shower building (four showers each for men and women, and totally and completely separate). The "bunkhouse" is cinderblock and filled with rooms containing bunk beds and everybody grabs a bed and puts stuff away (as much as you can put stuff away when there's no chest of drawers or closets or anything).
Our meals are prepared by church staff, who are the same every year. There's also a sexton, Felipe, who is about four and a half feet tall, blind in one eye, about 400 years old and pretty much a great sexton, despite his lack of speed.
Also, I find out from Fr. Dan, that we're 4,000 feet in the air! But our feet are on the ground. This explains a lot about why the first day's work in past years has seemed so hard. We're practically in orbit!
6:00 pm
We gather for dinner, the traditional Milanesa, which is thinly sliced steak and is found throughout Latin and South America. We are all struck by the guacamole. Particularly by the amount of it. We're provided with about a gallon of guacamole in a big bowl and it's sure yummy, but even we can't devour that much.
6:30 pm
Now the traditional "Fr. Dan talk" wherein he goes over his 21 commandments designed to make sure that a) we return with all our body parts intact and b) we say howdy to God along the way. The commandments include such things as "if you leave the compound go with at least one other person" and the admonition not to eat from the street vendors (tastes great going in, but coming out the other end will be extraordinarily unpleasant).
We're provided with lots of purified water, and all the food that's fixed here is purchased in America, so we don't have to get used to Mexican bacteria for five days (instead, we'll be eating red, white, and blue bacteria!).
Fr. Dan talks about why we're here and to be careful to remember that
God also has a reason for calling us here. He cautions us to be open to this foreign culture and not judge it by American standards, and to practice being a Learner and a Servant.
Right now, this Servant is going to bundle up, turn on the heater and snuggle into my bottom bunk. It's chilly!
Robert
Juarez Hammer Time!