- During the event led by the Border Angels at the wall at the beach at La Playas of Tijuana we were asked to stand across from a person on the other side of the wall and touch hands. This wall is located where there used to be a Peace Park where our Esperanza coordinator, Eduardo, used to ride his bicycle to play soccer with kids from the U.S. When we first started coming to Tijuana there wire steel bars that extended 20 feet in the air, but you could reach through and shake hands with people on the other side. They have added little wire rods to these bars so that now you can just touch a pinky finger to the person over there. I couldn't clearly see the person I was touching through the wall, but I felt their presence. We touched skin as a pastor led a prayer. I can still feel that contact.
- When we had lunch at a rooftop restaurant in downtown Tijuana I paid a Mariachi band to entertain us. I gave them a couple of requests and the first song is one that they needed more practice on (Cucoroocucoo Paloma). The two violinists were out of synch and it sounded terrible, They did better on Guadalahara, and while they played it, I saw a young guy holding a ribbed gourd with a stick that he could use to add a percussion beat. For the third song I asked them to play their favorite and pointed to the kid to indicate that he should play. I don't know what the song was, but he did a great job rubbing that gourd with the stick to make it vibrate with a good rhythm. He worked really hard at it and we gave him a good applause.
- A young girl stopped at our work site after school one day. She sat by Pastor Joyce who tried to talk to her. She was really shy and would not say a word. Joyce thought that maybe she was afraid of her and asked me to try to engage with her. I tried for a while, even resorting to giving her a couple of life savers if she'd tell me her name. We soon had a crowd of people around her guessing names, Is it Theresita? A head shake. Is it Rosa? A head shake. We tried every name we could think of, then started asking her boys names. Eduardo, Rigo, Jose? Finally in the loudest, clearest voice I've heard down here she said, "My name eees Katie! Man, that was a special moment.
- We talked with a few refugees from Haiti. They said they were in Brazil for work associated with the Olympic games. When the games were over, so were there jobs. They originally left Haiti for better opportunity and that is what kept them moving north. They traversed 10 countries to get to Tijuana to cross into the U.S. as refugees. Three months ago the door was shut on them so they are being held in limbo. The catholic church provided them the site where they are waiting and gives them food. There are 62 people there, men and women. They said if you had children you could cross, but these folks don't have children with them. I can see the face of the man shrugging and saying, "We've been here three months. We don't know what will happen to us."
- Every day I hear birds singing in all the greenery around the Posada where we are staying and see hummingbirds drinking and bathing in a fountain, This trip gives you such a combination of pathos and paradise that I can't help but want to come back year after year,
John Muskopf
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