Mexico Travel Journal: March 10th
Friday, March 10, 2006
12:17pm
We woke up this morning to the sound of bugles and drums. At first we thought that it was our wake-up call, but after half an hour of listening to the same song over and over again, somebody finally went outside and realized that it was not our wake-up call, but early morning band practice. We got up, got dressed, ate a quick breakfast of muffins and juice, met some of the kids and teachers at the school, then got to work. Originally we were supposed to be building a volleyball court in a corner of the soccer field, but the local soccer club complained, so now we are building a big-assed sidewalk thing. It was raining really hard for a while, and that’s why we got a break, but now I have to get back to work, so I will write about my morning later. I hope that everyone at home is having fun in the snow, it’s all nice and sunny here now.
Seven AM band practice.
Me, working SO hard.
Some of the locals. They liked to watch us work.
1:42pm
Must laugh at Jamie when I get home…
6:43pm
This morning all we did was dig. The ground was composed of a mixture of sand and clay. A little on the heavier side. I immediately stole a shovel from Ms Peach and went to work, as I am one of those people who works really hard until they take a break, then is lazy as hell afterwards. We were breaking up the clay and shovelling it into buckets, which were then passed from hand to hand to an open area behind the bleachers. At one point in the morning, Devon accidentally hit a water pipe with a grub hoe and water sprayed out, completely soaking him. Joe went with Principal to the hardware store and fixed it. We had a short break of freshly sliced mangos with freshly-squeezed lime juice on top. So good. There were always children watching us. The more popular people were the boys with blonde hair, a rarity in Mexico. Devon and Brent constantly had to stop work to pose for pictures. At one point a boy came up to Devon, asked him his name, then pointed behind him to a small group of girls and said that they thought he was cute. He told the boy to tell the girls that he thought they were cute too, and thirty seconds later, they all screamed excitedly and ran away. There was always a group of girls nearby, calling Sergio over to translate for them. They wouldn’t leave until they had Brent’s email. Lunch was good, we ate frijolas, mine with just rice, beans and cheese in them. I tried the best drink ever, Manzana Lift, which is a slightly carbonated apple drink. Afterwards, everybody got changed and we got on the bus, headed for downtown Tijuana. It was an eye-opener, seeing Tijuana, and makes you realize why you came here and why you are doing this. The houses are painted every colour that you could ever imagine, but they all look half-built, or like somebody found some old plywood and some nails on the ground and built a house from it. There is rebar sticking out of the tops of all of the concrete buildings. There is garbage everywhere. There is no garbage pickup and no landfills, so they just dump their garbage on the ground. We drove through all of this poverty, then through a passageway in a hill to the other side. It was like a different place there. It was bright and sunny on that side. It was full of nice buildings, nice cars, nice familiar American fast food restaurants and stores. It was disgusting. It was disgusting how they thought that they could hide the poverty, hide it away behind a hill and forget about it. We spent about fifteen minutes at Tijuana Beach and I touched the US/Mexican border. Originally there was no border here, and the whole park was called Friendship Park, but after 9/11, the wall was erected through the middle of the park. It was too windy and cold to do much, although it was very pretty there. I would like to come back here one day to surf. We left for the poorer side of town to downtown Tijuana, their main shopping district, where we spent a little over two hours. Every single store was exactly the same: containing jewellery, figurines, sunglasses and sombreros, and everything alternated: souvenir store, cheap pharmacy, topless bar, store, pharmacy, topless bar, everyone beckoning you inside, trying to convince you to buy something. Everywhere you walked there were little children selling bracelets and candy for a dollar. I ended up buying a purse and some postcards. Fifteen dollars in total. Carly bought a piece of jewellery from almost every store that we entered. She’s not going to have any money for food if she is not careful. I was and am tired, and spending two hours visiting what seemed like the same store over and over has made me really bitchy. I’m pretty sure that dinner will be ready soon. When we got back, a bunch of us headed for the washroom, but Grace couldn’t get the door unlocked, so after spending five minutes outside in the freezing cold, we finally climbed through a nearby window. Dinner is ready and I am going to go get in line.
The lookout at Tijuana Beach.
The border.
The end of the border.
Me, Anny, Amy on Tijuana Beach.
The first thing everybody saw after we got off the bus in Tijuana.
Julie, KJ, Me, Anny, Kyle, Amy in the main shopping district in Tijuana.
The best sign ever.
I love how they blatantly display this stuff.
12:17pm
We woke up this morning to the sound of bugles and drums. At first we thought that it was our wake-up call, but after half an hour of listening to the same song over and over again, somebody finally went outside and realized that it was not our wake-up call, but early morning band practice. We got up, got dressed, ate a quick breakfast of muffins and juice, met some of the kids and teachers at the school, then got to work. Originally we were supposed to be building a volleyball court in a corner of the soccer field, but the local soccer club complained, so now we are building a big-assed sidewalk thing. It was raining really hard for a while, and that’s why we got a break, but now I have to get back to work, so I will write about my morning later. I hope that everyone at home is having fun in the snow, it’s all nice and sunny here now.
Seven AM band practice.
Me, working SO hard.
Some of the locals. They liked to watch us work.
1:42pm
Must laugh at Jamie when I get home…
6:43pm
This morning all we did was dig. The ground was composed of a mixture of sand and clay. A little on the heavier side. I immediately stole a shovel from Ms Peach and went to work, as I am one of those people who works really hard until they take a break, then is lazy as hell afterwards. We were breaking up the clay and shovelling it into buckets, which were then passed from hand to hand to an open area behind the bleachers. At one point in the morning, Devon accidentally hit a water pipe with a grub hoe and water sprayed out, completely soaking him. Joe went with Principal to the hardware store and fixed it. We had a short break of freshly sliced mangos with freshly-squeezed lime juice on top. So good. There were always children watching us. The more popular people were the boys with blonde hair, a rarity in Mexico. Devon and Brent constantly had to stop work to pose for pictures. At one point a boy came up to Devon, asked him his name, then pointed behind him to a small group of girls and said that they thought he was cute. He told the boy to tell the girls that he thought they were cute too, and thirty seconds later, they all screamed excitedly and ran away. There was always a group of girls nearby, calling Sergio over to translate for them. They wouldn’t leave until they had Brent’s email. Lunch was good, we ate frijolas, mine with just rice, beans and cheese in them. I tried the best drink ever, Manzana Lift, which is a slightly carbonated apple drink. Afterwards, everybody got changed and we got on the bus, headed for downtown Tijuana. It was an eye-opener, seeing Tijuana, and makes you realize why you came here and why you are doing this. The houses are painted every colour that you could ever imagine, but they all look half-built, or like somebody found some old plywood and some nails on the ground and built a house from it. There is rebar sticking out of the tops of all of the concrete buildings. There is garbage everywhere. There is no garbage pickup and no landfills, so they just dump their garbage on the ground. We drove through all of this poverty, then through a passageway in a hill to the other side. It was like a different place there. It was bright and sunny on that side. It was full of nice buildings, nice cars, nice familiar American fast food restaurants and stores. It was disgusting. It was disgusting how they thought that they could hide the poverty, hide it away behind a hill and forget about it. We spent about fifteen minutes at Tijuana Beach and I touched the US/Mexican border. Originally there was no border here, and the whole park was called Friendship Park, but after 9/11, the wall was erected through the middle of the park. It was too windy and cold to do much, although it was very pretty there. I would like to come back here one day to surf. We left for the poorer side of town to downtown Tijuana, their main shopping district, where we spent a little over two hours. Every single store was exactly the same: containing jewellery, figurines, sunglasses and sombreros, and everything alternated: souvenir store, cheap pharmacy, topless bar, store, pharmacy, topless bar, everyone beckoning you inside, trying to convince you to buy something. Everywhere you walked there were little children selling bracelets and candy for a dollar. I ended up buying a purse and some postcards. Fifteen dollars in total. Carly bought a piece of jewellery from almost every store that we entered. She’s not going to have any money for food if she is not careful. I was and am tired, and spending two hours visiting what seemed like the same store over and over has made me really bitchy. I’m pretty sure that dinner will be ready soon. When we got back, a bunch of us headed for the washroom, but Grace couldn’t get the door unlocked, so after spending five minutes outside in the freezing cold, we finally climbed through a nearby window. Dinner is ready and I am going to go get in line.
The lookout at Tijuana Beach.
The border.
The end of the border.
Me, Anny, Amy on Tijuana Beach.
The first thing everybody saw after we got off the bus in Tijuana.
Julie, KJ, Me, Anny, Kyle, Amy in the main shopping district in Tijuana.
The best sign ever.
I love how they blatantly display this stuff.
Abby wandered off at 8:43 p.m.
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