Hot Times in Juarez Trip Log--End of the trail: Cereal smugglers

[Robert & Laura]

Cereal smugglers

Fri, Feb 20, 2009
6:50 am
This is our last morning of sitting around, drinking coffee and
yakking with Fr. Dan & Fr. Jim (who are the only two folks who seem to
consistently sit around, drink coffee and yak). MarKay joins us, and I
find out that Holy Cross has been doing this since the beginning--the
very first house build that was based out of the current mission
center was a Holy Cross project back in 2000.

Of course, in the early days (the five years that MarKay was Head
Wrangler), the group was mostly youth and went down during June
(summer in the desert--not a good idea). Fr. Jim has tweaked the idea
to involve more grown-ups and less heat, which suits me just fine.
Especially if the kids are like the ones we had this year. Some of
them worked even harder than the adults!

7:30 am
After breakfast, there's a run on the quilts and aprons and placemats
made by the Women of the Holy Spirit (dedicated to increasing sewing,
quilting, and self-esteem). Fr. Dan also hits us up for donations (the
only time all week he's mentioned it).

And because he mentioned it, if you feel like kicking a few bucks into
the pot, you can go to www.GatewayMissionTraining.com and find details
there. You know where the money's going.

8:40 am
We pile into the van for one last ride with Ed. Plus, we'll have to go
back to using seat belt (optional in Mexico, except that ALL the kids
always wore one, Mom, really).

8:50 am
In this neck of the woods, there are two ways to go from Juarez,
Mexico, back into El Paso, Good Ol' US of A. One bridge is free. The
other costs 20 pesos. We choose the one that costs 20 pesos (about two
bucks) so that we don't have to wait in line as long.

The Mexico side of the bridge is swarming with vendors who are selling
gum, roasted nuts, terra cotta reliefs of the Last Supper, and window
washings.

At the top of the bridge (it forms an arch over the Rio Grande),
there's a plaque that shows where Mexico ends and the US begins. At
that exact point, the vendors stop vending. We're guessing they've
been "encouraged" to stop.

9:30 am
This is boring. We've been inching closer and closer to the border.
Some US guards with guns and a dog walk past us (whew!), but they get
real interested in another car. Let's hope it isn't because he had
some doggie biscuits in the back seat.

9:50 am
Finally! We're face-to-face with the humor-impaired Customs Officials.
It used to be that they just asked each person if they were born in
the US, but now they look at everybody's passport and ask if you're
smuggling in any fruits or vegetables.

I found out later we WERE smuggling something, but it was neither a
fruit nor a vegetable.

10:10 pm
What can you say about a day of hanging around airports and sitting on
planes (and we spend equal amounts of time doing each)? It is pretty
boring, but we have each other for company and after building a house
together, we have that easy camaraderie of not really feeling like you
have to talk constantly.

Fr. Jim got tired of flying first class, so Chris takes his place (and
quite enjoyed it). I finish one book and get halfway through another.

MarKay's husband Bob somehow beat security and greets us at the gate.
(You young people don't realize what a cool thing that was--people
used to gather at the gate to meet arriving passengers and there was
always hugging and kissing and squealing and huzzahs. Now we just
sullenly troop off the plane wondering where to find baggage claim.)

Laura meets me on the other side of security and Fr. Pete's wife meets
him a little farther along, but Ed's wife thought the flight was an
hour later and is still at home (although there in spirit!).

We count ourselves up, and there are exactly as many people returning
as there were when we left (13) and exactly the same number of fingers
(130).

Sun, Feb 22, 2009
10:00 am
Part of the deal with doing this mission trip is that soon after we
return, we stand up in church and talk about it (for about two minutes
each). Way back four years ago when Laura and I went the first time, I
had the bright idea to put together a slide show (with music) so
that's been a traditional part of the Sunday morning service, too.

Which means I spend all day Saturday sifting through pictures trying
to cut down the number of pictures (I start with about 1200 pictures,
get it down to about 400 good ones, and then have to cut it down to
150 really-super-good ones).

This year, one of the slide shows includes videos that I took of Fr.
Jim at the beginning of each day, along with pictures of the house
being built. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the video when
I shot it, but I find a clever thing to do with it. You can see the
results for yourself by going to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M80B4Krqyp8

I recommend choosing the "Watch in high quality" option so you can see
the pictures better. The music on this video is from a New Orleans
jazz band that I heard on my mission trip there last October.

The other slide show is just slides of everybody working on building
the house. Thanks to MarKay (who grabbed my camera from me whenever I
did something that wasn't peeing, drinking, or writing), there're even
pictures of me doing things on the build: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB18xenKq2M

The musical joke on this video is that the name of the song is "Sing,
Sing, Sing" so I called the video "Swing, Swing Swing" (that hammer).

After we are done talking, we make a presentation to Fr. Jim. Every
morning during the trip, he sat down and ate cereal. And not just any
cereal, but "Choco Bolitas." And not just one bowl, but three. (He
said that since his son wasn't along on this trip, he didn't have to
worry about setting a good example.)

So Karin got a fresh box from the kitchen staff at the mission center
in Juarez, and smuggled it across the border and passed it off to me
(she and her girls had a big State Championship soccer game Sunday
morning) and all of us get up and present it to Fr. Jim.

It's pretty funny, and we're all glad that we have a priest with a
good sense of humor, because it made everything a lot easier to deal
with.

After all that's done, a lady from the congregation stood up. She said
that her daughter had gone on the first mission trip nine years ago
and realized that the Mexican kids wouldn't get the education she was
getting and what a huge advantage that was for her. (In other words,
she met a few Carlos' of her own.)

The daughter decided she was going to do something about it and this
year, she's finishing up her Master's degree in International
Education Policy. So you never know what's going to happen as a result
of these trips.

===============
This is the last trip log for this trip. I've about got all the sand
washed out of my hair and my sunburned lips are almost healed. It was
a great trip with a great group of people, and I hope that you got
some sense of what it was like from these trip logs.

If you think this is something you'd like to experience in person next
year, drop an e-mail to Fr. Jim, rec...@holycrossredmond.org, and
he'll put you on the list for Feb 2010.

It'll be the coolest thing you do all year.

Robert
Hot times in Juarez Trip