Life on the Border Essay -- Personal Narrative Mexico Immersion Trip E

Life on the Border I used to be a person who was hung up on material possessions. I was always wanting more, never satisfied with what I had. Whenever I would go to the mall, I would want everything that I saw. If I had money I would always spend it. I was constantly buying things that I didn’t need or only used once. I felt like I was unfortunate because I didn’t have a new outfit every week, and I couldn’t get a new pair of shoes every time I walked out the door, but that all changed the summer of my junior year. I was chosen, along with nine other girls from my school, to go on a border immersion trip to Juarez, Mexico. Our teacher, Mrs.Hartrich, thought that it would be a good idea if we would all get together at least once a week to learn more about what it was like to live on the border. But, no matter how many times we got together or how many books we read, nothing could have prepared me for what I was going to experience while I was down there. We left on June 13 on a plane headed for El Paso, Texas. We would be staying at the Loretto School, our sister school, and then every morning we would cross over the border into Ciudad Juarez and go work at a daycare center, Centro del Spiritu Sanctu. Our first day there we didn’t go to the daycare center, instead we met some friends of Mrs. Hartrich’s, Betty and Peter. They live in Juarez, and what they do is help out the people in their community. They also help people who are coming down from the United States to help out for the first time or people who are coming back from Central or South America and need a place to stay before heading back to the United States. Betty told us about the maquilladoras. They are sweatshops that a lot of big corporations in America, like N... ...illadoras, and I now do most of my shopping in thrift stores. I appreciate what I have more and I don’t mind not having a new outfit every day. The people I met while on the trip have given me a better understanding of what life is really like on the border. I try to make other people aware of what life is like in Mexico, because sometimes the best form of help is education. Because of my work at the daycare I now enjoy the simpler things in life, and I appreciate more the little everyday things that I used to take for granted, like running water. The children at the daycare center taught me a very important lesson; simplicity is the key to happiness. There is one thing that has stuck out in my mind ever since the trip, Rueban, a man who ran a refugee center in El Paso, told us, "The poor don’t need us, we need the poor." I will never forget that as long as I live.