It's kind of scary to write 2020 in the title line, when your first trip was in 1999. That was many lifetimes ago.
One of the first things I noticed on the way to The Posada in La Gloria, Baja California, was that there seemed to be far less trash on the ground. When I mentioned it to other group members, they agreed. When we went to the grocery store that evening, we were surprised that the groceries weren't put into bags. A gentleman pushed our cart outside and loaded the groceries into our van, for a tip.
On Sunday, we visited the beach where the border wall extends into the ocean. We spent some time talking with a young man who takes care of the "international garden" on the Mexico side of the border wall. He has a counterpart on the U.S side who tends plants adjacent to but separated from the Mexican plants by the steel wall. He told us how the Border Patrol recently bulldozed the plants on the American side, and how after a certain amount of protests and bad publicity, permission was granted for the garden to be replanted.
I asked this guy when the the grocery stores stopped using plastic bags. He said that the Oxxo stores, kind of like Circle K in the states, banned their use about a year ago. Other stores fell in line and banned them about six months ago. I mentioned that the city seemed cleaner compared to the last few years and he said that he used to have to clean 20-30 bags out of the garden each time he came to take care of it, but it's much better now.
Not only is Tijuana cleaner, but it's much busier. The number of new factories built in many different parts of town is staggering. Mexico is now the world's fourth largest exporter of automobiles behind Germany, Japan, and South Korea. They are making great progress and some of the comments we heard make it seem that their government intends to keep it that way. We heard that American cars must be at least model year 2011 to be sold in Mexico. The government has told Esperanza that the houses they build must have indoor plumbing. The houses we are working on, and have visited this year include two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. They are smaller that what we are used to, but they are very attractive and would be a decent place to live,
We visited the Salvation Army Post in La Gloria this morning. It's strictly a day-care center for children a couple of month old to 12 years. This is a place for working parents to drop off their kids while they are at work. Sgt. Anna told us they are open from 5:00 AM to 7:00 PM. There were 32 kids in one room playing and talking during our visit. Kids come and go during the day because in this area school runs in two shifts. They have desks upstairs for kids to do their homework before their parents come to get them. They serve three meals a day. They get donations, especially food, but there were some donations there that were not usable due to being out of date. Sgt. Anna and her husband started this army post seven years ago, starting out with 3 children. Now they have 82. Some of the kids they cared for come back to volunteer.
In the evening we visited an orphanage in La Gloria. This place gets kids from the government, who were taken from their parents due the parent's drug use. Some of the kids were given to them because they were abused by their parents or a different orphanage. They have both boys and girls, and keep their sleeping rooms in different parts of the building. They send all their kids to a private school, because they don't always excel in public schools. They seem to be working hard at giving these kids a family environment. Some orphanages will "kick out" their students at age 18 when they'll have to fend for themselves. This orphanage will keep a young man or woman until they have a plan for what they will do with their life and can be independent. One student we were introduced to is 22 years old.
This facility has also been open seven years. We were the first group that was taken to this place by our Esperanza friend Eduardo. There's a chance that future groups could interact more with the students, working on upgrading their facility, or playing soccer together. Today was a good day to see the many things that are going on that we didn't know anything about. Opportunities for mission abound if you have the heart for it.
John Muskopf
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