June 2007 JCEP Trip - Graduations, Museum Trips

Juarez Diary Day 1, June 19, 2007

After a restful night if sleep at the Holiday Inn in Juarez, I was picked up at 8:30 am by Susie in the van we purchased for the program. The van was packed as we headed off to the graduation of Juanita at the nearby mall. In the van was Miriam, Juan Carlos, Susie, Susie’s daughter Esmerelda, Juanita and her sister, who was also graduating, Juanita’s Mom and Joel, my translator.

The graduation was held in an old circle type theater. It was filled to standing room only. There were six other schools graduating at the same place. The occasion was quite festive. Several singers performed between the readings of the names of graduates. They were all former graduates of the schools represented. One man in particular was quite popular as evidenced by the girl screaming for him.

Juanita seemed quite proud of her accomplishment. She will now be off to high school next year. I was somewhat disappointed to see that she had a boy friend also in attendance.

After graduation, Joel and I decided to take Miriam around to visit colleges. She had her eye on two particular schools. They seem to be more technical or community college in nature. We were particularly fond of one. Miriam will be signing up for a three year Business Administration course if she attends that school. There is also a program called “derecho” that has something to do with the import and export business. Her high school teacher told her this would be good. I think it sounded too specific and that she should take the business administration course. The BA course also has 5 semesters of English.

Joel turns out to be a well-spoken and quite cosmopolitan fellow. He has worked for TDK ad RCA ad even knows some Japanese from his trips for TDK. After inquiring to Miriam and finding out the Enrique, our current teacher of English isn’t that good, I think we should explore getting Joel aboard. Casey mentioned this as well.

Day 2,June 20, 2007

Found my way out to the Colonia for a 10 am meeting with the families of the kids. Most of the fathers were there and all of the mothers. The families of Juan Carlos and Nancy Margarita did not attend. Susie indicated that Nancy might drop out of the program. She has not been attending lately.

We told them about the program and that we wanted their commitment for another year. I told them that the English classes were a requirement, despite the fact they do not like Enrigue. (We should replace him with Joel. Susie agrees. I need to confirm this with Casey.) We also told them about the potential trip to the U.S.A. to learn English. All raised their hands saying they would let their children go.

Anahi’s father Luis came up after and was very appreciative. He has started a new body shop business. He speaks passable English.

In the afternoon, Susie, Joel, Miriam and I went to the U.S. Embassy immigration office to find out more about what we need to do to get the kids to the U.S. The first thing is that they need passports. Then they will need either a student or a visitor visa. It seems a visitor visa is easier to get, but they might require a student visa. Joel got the number and website. He will call and find out what needs to be done.

Later in the day we scouted out Museums for or Museum trip scheduled for the next day.

Some issues we covered. Susie and Leo think that a Biblioteca in Kilometer 30 is a good idea. Leo mentioned to Susie that he thinks she should run it to get it started ad train a librarian. Jesus says that Elizabeth, pastor Miguel’s wife, cannot run it because she is a pastor. I asked why and he said it is the law. I need to find out more about this.

Miriam agreed to help out in the Biblioteca in exchange for us paying for her school.

Day 3, June 21, 2007

I had morning devotionals with the team from San Carlos, CA that was here to build. Their leader, Camela, had emailed me a few times about the trip. It was good to meet her in person. Another woman Sarah, had seen our JCEP website and was asking about the program. I invited them to our September 9 reunion.

I also traveled out to K30 to see the site they were building the new house upon. Then I stopped by to visit, Pancho, the child that the April team had befriended when they built a house for his family. While there I met with Elizabeth, Pastor Miguel’s wife. She showed to his house. He was not there, but his mother eventually answered the door and said he was fine. She did not appear to be in very good shape.

Elizabeth showed be the new stage in her church that MM had built. She also told me she has two children in high school. She also told me about a neighbor that is working two jobs to put himself through college in the fall. The unasked question of help is always there.

I was asked directly for help by Rosa - Miguel’s half-sister and an MM employee. She is also a close friend of Jennifer Pinar. She had a daughter in second grade that cannot learn without a special school. Sounds like ADD. She needs $600.

Next, it was off to “El Centro” and the Museo de Historia. I piled the four high school girls, Miriam, Anahi, Blanca and Martha, along with Miriam’s little brother in the rental car I had. Susie took the rest of the kids, minus, Nancy Margarita along with three of her kids and Juanita’s sister Martha, in the van. Joel drove her van.

We had a great tour from a docent young man who knew the history of Juarez well. We learned lot’s about Pancho Villa. There was also a great Don Quixote temporary exhibit.

Next we drove over to the Museo de Arte - a really cool 60’s era modernist structure. There were two excellent modern art exhibits. One exhibit showed abstract paintings. The other showed plastic and mixed media text. Again we had a very sophisticated, knowledgeable tour guide.

When the tour ended we were directed outside to some tables. They had set up an art project using paper, glue and colored sand. The kids were shown geometric art and asked to make their own. Using a compass and pencil, they drew shapes on the paper. Then they would place glue in sections and put one color of sand on the paper. After dumping off the extra sand, they would repeat with another color until they had a finished multicolor art piece. They really enjoyed this activity.

Then we rushed to get Blanca to her afternoon job at the ballast factory. She works there with her mom until summer when school starts. We then took all the kids to Wendy’s for a late lunch.

I thought this was a very productive trip. We got the kids out of the Colonia and hopefully got them thinking about a bigger world of opportunity for them. I made it really clear they were to work on getting passports and visas in the hope for bringing the girls to the U.S next summer.

I told them I would return again in October with the MPPC team and Joni would return in January.

Also, I had a very good conversation with Leo regarding the new Biblioteca. He thinks Susie should run it until the new librarian can be trained. This is a very good sign.

SK