Tex-ex-Mex Over All - Tessa

I woke up with sweat all over my body and Indigo squirming around in the bed next to me. It was hot there, in Refugio. I was one of the only people still buried in a cot. Boys muttered about the weather and what they planned to do, how many off-brand root beers they had left in the gray van. The day started with a cool shower and fried bagels. You learn to appreciate bagels a lot less on 18 day field trips. As I sat there, under the sun, after breakfast, I imagine all of the drama and intensity of lives who had hid here in the Refugee camp.
The sweet man, Pio, who welcomes the Refugees into his camp, was very welcoming to us as well. He knows the school from past years and is a very happy, emotional man.
The trip had its highs and its lows. "Brother-sister" love took its worst at times but all in all, we got along fine. So many adventures in a van of seven adolescents and three adults. Through Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and the very border of Mexico. Though because of drug wars in Mexico, we didn't go across, we saw enough. 19 days would have been too much. -Tessa

DAY 14: New Orleans

Our itinerary originally held that we would make the from from NO to ATL today, but we changed it. We had been planning to visit some schools in the ATL on monday, but none of our arrangements with schools came to fruit, and Jayne (the pastor) told us about some great cultural events happening on sunday. We had a group meeting, and decided to spend the day in New Orleans instead of Atlanta.

We woke, had an easy morning, and went to a songwriting workshop with some local musicians in the afternoon. At the end of the workshop, they invited students to come jam with them. Sam and Indigo got on the stage and rocked out. Sam kept a mean beat and looked a natural drummer.

We came back to the church for dinner with Jayne and her husband Alfredo. Alfredo is mexican and Jayne worked for many years assisting the undocumented become legal or gain rights. they spoke with us about some of the issues they encountered, legal, social and economic for undocumented immigrants.

Tomorrow we are making the drive to Atlanta, where we do have a school visit in the morning on Tuesday. That afternoon we drive to knoxville, back on schedule.

DAY 13: New Orleans

We stayed at a presbyterian church in New Orleans and did work projects there saturday morning. Members of the congregation told us about the immigrant population, and how it boomed during the rebuilding after Katrina. In Harlingen, we had attended an evening conference on immigration that talked about the love/hate relationship our country has with foreign workers, that when it needs labor, it welcomes immigrants, and when the economy slumps, it despises them. New Orleans was an example in action. It needed a quick, able workforce to rebuild almost an entire city, and it drew in many latino workers.

In the later part of the day, we had a big shrimp fry with a former student, Aidan Bellew, who hosted us. We pigged till our guts burst with shrimp, artichoke, corn and taters. After that, we walked around the french quarter, had beignets and coffee/hot chocolate at cafe du monde, and came back for bed.

DAY 11: Austin

We stayed at Paula's Uncle Fred's house while we were in Austin. We arrived in the evening of day 10, had a big party for Tessa, complete with a deeply sinful chocolate cake ordered by her parents and picked up by Uncle Fred(or Uncle Frank, as JM calls him)

On Day 11, we went to downtown Austin and walked around. We visited the Mexic-Arte museum, a mexican and mexican american art museum that was pretty interesting. They had photographs from the mexican revolution, and we learned a little more about mexican history, Pancho Villa and Zapata.

While we were out, our trailer was getting repaired. John and noah, while doing chores in the morning, notice that one of our trailer's wheels has blown away all its bearings and was riding on nothing but the axle. Considering how potentially dangerous it could have been, coming into Austin during rush hour, we were glad nothing naughty happened on the drive. After a ton of phone calls, we got it towed and repaired, and by the time we were done with our trip downtown, the trailer was repaired. All ready to go for our drive to New Orleans on day 12.

DAY 10: Yo Homies

Today we are leaving Padre Island and driving to Austin, home of Leslie the transvestite hobo who regularly runs for mayor. Padre Island was cool . . . and sandy. I don't like sand. Today is Tessa's B-Day. She has received brownie pancakes and will receive many birthday spankings. We are going to eat and sleep at a 'fondue place' and we are going to sleep at paula's uncle's house.

Have you ever pulverized a dead jellyfish with a log? it's fun. There were a lot of dead jellyfish to pulverize. . .

The van's windows fog up in hte morning and the benches are very comfy to sleep on. John tried to keep me up real late last night, that potato pastry! That school bus right next to us is shiny and new, but is can see the bus driver lady enying our fly ride.

Over and out, Pat Benetar.

-Grace

PADRE ISLAND: Day 8,9,10

When we decided to avoid mexico, we found an emergency plan to go to Padre Island. No, not the spring break party zone, but the national seashore. We arrived in the evening, settled down right on the beach and set camp.

We all played in the water and had a great night. The next day, day nine of our trip, we had an easy morning of trash collection on the beach and then joined a formal beach walk with one of the rangers at Padre Island. She told us about how all of the current in the Gulf of Mexico feed more or less straight to Padre Island, which is why one can find so much trash on it. The island's hundred miles of beach gets detritus from all the US states, mexico, the yucatan, and the Caribbean. She told us about the crazy sargasso seaweed that comes neck deep at times from the sargasso sea. We saw ghost crabs and whip coral. We touched a dolphin skull and learned that thirty years ago the island was a total desert. it was a cattle ranch, and the cows had eaten everything on the island.

To me, the best part of being on padre came at night, when i found star phosphorescence in the water. It is caused by single celled organisms, armored flagellates, that activate like fireflies when the water is churned. we all played in the water and splashed about, sparking green stars into the night. it was pretty amazing.

We woke on Tessa's birthday and made pancakes out of brownie mix, piled a million pounds of sand into our van and took off. We had a cleaning frenzy at the visitor station, sweeping and dusting and washing ourselves and our belongings. Now we are on the road to Austin, where we will be doing some service work and learning more about Mexico.

Jason S

REFUGIO: Saying Goodbye

We were sad to leave refugio and our new friends. Pio sent us off with a small loquat tree. Loquats are a tradition for AMS field trips. Always when our trips arrive, the loquats are ripe. Four or five years ago, he sent a loquat home with our school, and it is growing well. now we will have two. What if one day, they bloom and make loquats in our dining room.

In addition to the loquat, Pio gave us a lemongrass plant from his home village in Peru, and five bags of young corn shoots, natural corn whose ancestors came from Cuba.

Everyone was getting good at spanish, even the students who were having a hard time in classes. By the time we left, most of the kids were asking questions to the refugees in spanish and trying to think of reasons to talk to them. So awesome.