High School BorderLinks - Day 5
Friday (June 29) by Greg Kuras
Friday started with an amazing home-cooked breakfast from our homestay families, including some amazing hotcakes (pancakes) and some carne estada steak and pepper mixture. After breakfast the different homstay groups assembled and headed out to the shelter for repatriated minors to learn about repatriated minors. (That means young people under 18 who have crossed the border and been returned to Mexico.)
We talked to the head man of the program through the question and answer process and learned a lot. From there we left to have lunch at Polita Acuna's house and we ate a terrific lunch while learning a lot about the mequillas (factories in Mexico). We also had apple soda which was interesting yet slightly enjoyable. After that we got to have free time on the playground at the BorderLinks center in Mexico. Tal and Greg played some street futbol with the kids in the neighborhood and Elliott got real sick on the "spinning thing" on the playground. After that we talked with Kiko Trujillo who was very smart and seemed to know a lot. We left for downtown Nogales following the discussion to do some shopping and get ice cream. Then we talked with Noemi Peregrino Gonzales and had dinner with our homestays and went to bed the end.
Friday started with an amazing home-cooked breakfast from our homestay families, including some amazing hotcakes (pancakes) and some carne estada steak and pepper mixture. After breakfast the different homstay groups assembled and headed out to the shelter for repatriated minors to learn about repatriated minors. (That means young people under 18 who have crossed the border and been returned to Mexico.)
We talked to the head man of the program through the question and answer process and learned a lot. From there we left to have lunch at Polita Acuna's house and we ate a terrific lunch while learning a lot about the mequillas (factories in Mexico). We also had apple soda which was interesting yet slightly enjoyable. After that we got to have free time on the playground at the BorderLinks center in Mexico. Tal and Greg played some street futbol with the kids in the neighborhood and Elliott got real sick on the "spinning thing" on the playground. After that we talked with Kiko Trujillo who was very smart and seemed to know a lot. We left for downtown Nogales following the discussion to do some shopping and get ice cream. Then we talked with Noemi Peregrino Gonzales and had dinner with our homestays and went to bed the end.
3 comments:
Greg, I wish you would have told people about your experience with telling the story of being a repatriated minor. Here goes:
Greg was asked to imagine that he had a job making $5 per day working at McDonalds, but he knew that in the US he could make $5 per hour. His family needed help with meeting their daily needs.
He wanted to cross the border to get a job that would help him to support himself and his family. Because it would take 10 years to earn it, a neighbor offered to give him the $5000 that he would need to cross. He would owe 10% interest on it until it was paid off.
Greg set off to Altar on a bus that he rode for 2 days. He was afraid because he had not been away from home that long or that far. People knew he was young and a migrant, so they tried to take advantage of him. They charged him 3 times more for basic necessities like water. He spent the night in a hotel with a bunch of people he didn't know because he was afraid to sleep on the street.
In the morning, he crammed into the back of a van and rode to the border. He was crossing with a coyote, but was left in the desert. He couldn't find water and didn't know where he was going. He walked for many days.
Eventually, he neared the border but encountered a gang who stole the rest of his money and beat him up. Now, he had no food, no water, and no money. He was lost. He thought he would die in the desert, so he turned himself into border patrol.
Border patrol shoved him into their truck, mocking him and realizing his death was not imminent did not give him water or food. He eventually made it to the detention center where he was given just enough sips of water and crackers to keep him alive. If it was summer and 117 degrees out, the air conditioner was off, but during the winter, when it was cold, they cranked it up.
Eventually, Greg was released from the detention center and deported. He had to choose to risk his life crossing or to return home. He decided to go home where the loan waited - $5000 with 10% interest per month and a job that would only pay $5 per day.
July 3, 2007 7:52 AM
what beautifully written blog by greg 9.7 out of 10 terrific
I agree, Dwight. That Greg is a genius.
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