On Friday evening, Casa Puente (aka where I live) hosted a washers tournament. Washers is a popular yard game in which there are two cups placed inside the ground approximately 20 feet apart. You stand behind one cup and try to throw a washer into the opposite cup. If it lands inside, you get 5 points. If it is hanging over the edge, you get 3 points. If it's within one washer's diameter from the edge of the cup, you get 1 point. So basically it's like horseshoes, except your arms don't hurt the next day.
Anyway, I digress. The tournament was lots of fun. My next door neighbor, Gilberto, taught me how to throw the washers, and I actually held my own in the games (despite never winning). We had tons of food and I met a lot of new people. I ended up spending most of the evening with a few of the kids that live next door. I talked to the 16-year-old girl for several hours about everything from her boyfriend to track and field to her quinceañera dress. The saddest part was when she casually mentioned that she couldn't get a driver's license because her visa recently expired. That also means that she can't travel anywhere outside of El Paso that requires going through a check point (such as to White Sands or to Ciudad Juárez, where she lived until she was 5 and where her grandmother still lives). She's in a technical program in her high school so that she can become a medical assistant. However, if she isn't able to correct her status, it will be nearly impossible to get a job with a hospital system without a social security number. I didn't ask for all the details of her parents' status; it's possible that one of them is a legal permanent resident that can become a citizen and then pay the fines to correct her status before she's an adult. I just don't know how likely that is. She is so mature for a 16-year-old that it kind of scared me. She knows how much her parents pay for rent and speaks very intelligently in both English and Spanish. I feel like she's probably been forced to grow up very quickly as the oldest child, having to interpret for her parents and help take care of her younger sister (age 10) and brother (age 6). I hope that she and I are able to hang out more this summer.
On Saturday evening, I went to Juárez with Tom and several other people for the celebration of Peter's 89th birthday and 60th anniversary as a priest. It started with Mass at one of the parishes Peter serves at:
The service was beautiful. My favorite part was at the end when he requested that all nuns present in the congregation go up to be introduced and celebrated:
After Mass, we went upstairs for a party. Women from the community made a delicious meal, complete with aguas frescas (melón y limón) and cake. I also got a chance to talk to several cool gringos who have known Peter and Betty throughout the years and came down from Phoenix, San Antonio, etc. to celebrate. (By the way, in the above photo, Betty is to the left of the woman wearing a black shirt.)
Saturday was the first time I was in Juárez after dark. A professor of sociology/anthropology at UTEP drove Tom and I home and unfortunately got very lost. Therefore, we got quite the tour of the city's nightlife. I was actually pleasantly surprised to find that locals were out at night. We passed by several BBQs and novios walking around or making out on the sidewalk. I expected the streets to be nearly deserted after sunset, but it was about 10pm by the time we got back to the bridge. I reflected on this with a couple of people, and everyone told me that Juarenses are just used to the violence and sick of trying to avoid it. That certainly makes sense to me, although I will also say that getting lost at night in a nice car while in a very under-developed portion of the city made me more nervous than I've been all summer.
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