Mexico

I had the opportunity this weekend to have dinner in Tijuana. One reason to go there is for the outrageously cheap food. Another reason is for perspective. I did not believe that an imaginary boundary could cause such a physical, social and cultural difference is such a short geographical distance. It is as if the sun shines a little differently once you cross the border. Not only does Tijuana look different (temporary walls for walkways falling down everywhere, boarded windows on many of the buildings), but it smells different. Once across the border there is a huge, visible sewage conduit that also serves as housing for the homeless. The beggars are no longer only adults, but little children who walk up to you, run into you and then walk with you as they beg for anything you may have. One cannot get angry with this behavior. As I walked through the streets with my friend she explained to me what she had learned of the human trafficking problem. Eight to twelve year old girls are told that they are getting help to cross the boarder only to end up in a back alley where they will spend the next years of their life offering services to men 3 or 4 times their age. Until they contract a disease of course. Soon they offer only blank stares and their dehumanized bodies, and arenot even given the right to talk. No one does anything about it.

I left Mexico with a pain inside me, with a sadness that I feel has attached itself and has no desire to leave. I suppose this is a good thing. Until now I did not understand the different faces that poverty wears. I would never identify was I saw and experienced in Tijuana as the same as what I work with here. This does not change or lessen our problem. What it has made me realize is that we DO have government programs that help our poor (even though I am critical of the relative budgets we have for defense vs. education, health care, social services, etc. - we still offer some relief). And we DO have non-governmental programs such as St. Vincent de Paul. Now, there may be some help in Mexico, but we do some good things here that they do not. There are services for the homeless, mentally ill and addicted of Oakland, we just have to get people using them. And as we are doing that hopefully we can start making the social changes that seek to reduce poverty, homelessness and addiction.

I do not even know where I would start in Tijuana. But I am glad that I am working with a program like JVC and that I am placed with St. Vincent de Paul. We have the ability to do good things each day and make changes that will hopefully stick well into the future.