Ben wanted a picture at the fountain, but I didn’t get that one, either. (We are going to put all the pictures together soon, anyhow, so it’s fine). Once in the city, Lee bought a new hat, but all the other guys wore it all day. He had his Wrangler hat on, so he couldn’t have worn it anyhow. I bought a “D” belt buckle for, who else, D. Lee helped me to bargain it down, in Spanish. I learned that speaking in Spanish will get a lot of things for you. (Also, being a chick will do that, cause I was often offered a lower price than the guys, “just for you, lady”). As soon as we got to the hair place, we split up. The girls wanted their hair braided, so they broke off from us to do that. Ashley and I stayed with the guys, Ben, and Lee.
We shopped until we were ready to drop, literally. I ended up buying a plastic, mesh shopping bag because I was carrying so many small bags. It also helped since I was carrying Chase’s stuff, also. I had bought a white, straw cowboy hat, that fit in the bag, nicely. I had to try a lot of the hats on, cause their sizes aren’t the same. The hats have American sizes, but they aren’t right, because I had to go down two-eights to get a hat to fit. I also bought stuff for my family, which was all fragile, so I had to be more careful with the stuff. I asked Lee to point out some good candy for me, and he did. He was right, one of the candies tastes like Werther’s Originals, one of my favorites. I wanted a t-shirt, but didn’t like the cartoon-y things that everyone else had gotten, or all the ones with adult humor that we kept seeing. I finally found one that was red with “Mexico” embroidered on it, in the colors of the flag.
Once we met up with the girls again, they took Lee and some of our guys and went back down the street. Ben, Billy, Chad, Chris, and I went on toward the border. We soon stumbled upon the Café Paris. I thought it was just a bakery and went in. The rest of the group soon followed. It was one of the only air-conditioned places in the town, so we decided to get something to eat and rest, since everyone else would be shopping for a while. It wasn’t just a bakery, but more of a parisienne café, just as it said. None of the waitresses spoke English, so I ordered a slice of the “Tres Leches” cake and a cup of coffee (yes, in that heat!). Ben and some of the guys got some baked goods and a Coke. They totaled everyone’s together, so Ben paid, which was very nice of him.
Ben looked at what I had bought, and saw a necklace. It was made of hematite (a metal that is believed to reduce stress) and had a cross pendant with a cz stone in the middle of it. He really liked it, so he left us to go find one. We walked on toward the border. A man walked up, carrying more hammock chairs, offered me one for $5, so I took it, without trying to haggle him any lower. A little boy kept asking to hold my bag, and after telling him “no” several times, I politely asked him to go on in Spanish, that I didn’t want his help. This cracked the boys up, because they thought I’d chewed him out, since they couldn’t understand me. We only had to wait a little while at the border before the rest of the group showed back up. Lee said that he’d never spent so long shopping with a group. We paid our quarter and went on.
We had lunch at CiCi’s pizza. I found out there that I am five months older than Lee (which I wouldn’t have believed, had he not told me his birthday). I thought he was older than that. The kids really liked him, and called him Lee-Boy a lot, a reference from Shallow Hal (wouldn’t know, haven’t seen it). Tonya called him Leroy, as in Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown.
Vacation Bible School was much the same tonight, except for the fact that Jeff and Jim could not go, which cut down on our Spanish-speakers. We had practiced “Levanta tu casa” so the Americans could sing along. This made Rosa smile a lot. We let the kids paint paper hearts and crosses and then put glitter on them and tied them around their necks. After snacks, Rosa asked us to form a circle and we played hot potato with water balloons. The kids played according to the rules for a time, but soon decided to gang up on our group. They got Ben wet first, then Laura and Autumn. Soon, no one was playing by the rules and were just tossing the balloons, which got quite a few of them wet. I wasn’t really involved, so I stepped back to take pictures.
When all was through, our kids realized that it was the last time they’d see these kids, at least for now. The girls openly cried, and the guys tried to hold it in for a while, to no avail. KC had to leave his little buddy and go into the church to get away. Carlos gave Chad a big hug which tore Chad up. He just wandered around and finally out into the road where most of our group was gathering. Chase came and stood by me, not knowing what to do. I told him that I’d seen guys, men, older than him sob over leaving a little child before many times. Mrs. Andy chimed in that it never, ever gets any easier. I helped clean up so that our kids wouldn’t have to, but it soon became evident that Tonya and Ben were having just as much trouble leaving as our teens. I told Rosa that I would try to write to her, but she said she has no real address, so to write to Jeff and he would get it to her. Heather was having a hard time, also (we later found out that this was the first time she’d done something like this, also). The kids picked flowers and brought them to all the girls. Some of the girls had armfuls of flowers by the time we left. We finally convinced the kids to get on the van, not an easy task, but it was getting dark, and we couldn’t chance not getting across the border. They cried all the way back to customs. We had the easiest time of all three this night. The agent asked a few questions through the window and sent us through.
To perk everyone up, when we got back to the motel, we all went swimming. Heather and Alyssa came up to the rooms and got our addresses, but they would return a few more times. KC took his sombrero to the hot tub and then Chase wore it while diving into the pool. By the end of the night, it would fold in two. At 11:00 we had to get out of the pool, as our group had been run out last night (the things I miss by going to sleep). After eating, everyone was told to go to bed, as we had to be up extra early the next morning.
