11/08/10
Hey all, just touching base with everyone. This trip has been the worst of the worst. I’m trying very hard to find things I like and enjoy but, no luck so far, well…, okay I’m finding some things about current events in the area interesting. For instance, I read in the local news paper this morning that just over the border from Brownsville, TX (where I was 2 weeks ago), there was a gun battle that went on for several hours and killed 20 people, including the leader of a drug cartel. His gang got kinda mad about this and went to an Interstate highway in Mexico, stopped 4 cars and lit them on fire for a major road block. Luckily they let the people flee before burning the cars. Another gang went to a home where a birthday party for a 15 year old was going on, (just over the border from El Paso), and killed 12 people. When I say just over the border, you have to realize the Rio Grande River is the border and these towns are divided by the river. The article in the paper said that since 2008, I hope they’re including the year 2008, there have been 6500 gang (drug) related murders. There is a war going on down here that we never hear about. Every time I ask the motel or store employees about the best place to cross into Mexico, They all say “don’t do it, if you do and see several guys following you to run to the nearest crowd of people and hope they are safe”. A guy I talked to at Walmart also said on weekend mornings you can walk over the border and just wave to the border workers going in and coming out, you just have to be back by 1:00 pm. How secure is that? I saw large crowds doing this on Saturday. I never thought I’d say this but, I believe I’m now in favor of legalization of many drugs. It would solve more problems than it may create.
I was a little bored on Sat. and decided to look for a book store. Laredo is a town with nearly 200,000 people living here. My motel is next to the biggest mall in town and I thought I’d go over there and find a book. I walked all over the mall and found nothing, drove around the mall looking at alternative locations but, still nothing. So I went back to the hotel, grabbed a phone book and checked the yellow pages, nothing. At dinner that night I went to the Olive Garden and was in line next to an artsy looking guy with long kinky/curly grey hair and wire rim glasses and I asked him about bookstores in town. He said he’d lived in Laredo for 16 years and that people here were just to dumb to read… I think it may have something to do with the huge number of Spanish speaking people which would be an inventory nightmare for a store manager, how many English/Spanish best sellers to stock? This subject reminds me of the most frustrating part of being here. I make numerous cold calls during the day, and I’ve learned that after saying hello, I need to ask if they speak English. (in America?) More often than not I get a “No!” and a cold shoulder with occasional laughter. I’m tempted to say something like “oh, I had a $100.00 to give you if you did, or gee, I didn’t know I had crossed the Rio Grande, but it would make no difference, English speaking people are a minority here and it’s a way of life. It just surprised me for it to be so different. I guess for South Texas I was expecting to meet the Marlboro man on every corner.
Laredo, I have found to be an older town without much civic pride and not very prosperous. Most yards have patches of brown grass, if any and many of the city soccer fields I passed were just dirt, I guess it’s a matter of what you’re used to. One other thing I noticed is a ton of loose dogs running around. I saw one pack of about 7 dogs walking down one fairly busy street and when I got closer I realized the boy dogs were all following one in particular, but they are just running loose. Reminds me of Idaho Falls when I was a kid.
On a happier note, I called Jack and he said he has volunteered to work Thanksgiving and Christmas, (for the time and a half pay), because he’s planning on a trip to Boston and Germany in the spring. He says he’ll have 2 weeks vacation accrued by then. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to go to Moscow for Thanksgiving and be able to spend some time with family. scott
