Fear, Dust, and a Longing Under the Wire

Dateline: Nuevo Laredo, Mexico….Over the border and through the dust to many grandmothers’ cardboard and tin houses we went….

My first impression on the job with Bridging Hearts?  A person should really get into this sort of project when she’s younger…a lot younger.  My special person winced and agreed.

Our helping out the border economy started right off the bat.  We had four huge and heavy black garbage bags full of 1000 toothbrushes and toothpastes…  (Thank you Austin dentists!)…to cart over the Rio Grande Bridge into Nuevo Laredo.  As soon as we cleared the gate, we hired a couple of fellows for outrageous amounts (what you send out comes back)…little did they know they could have named their price.

Two poor guys crossed the bridge that morning feeling lucky and smiling…and we were feeling lucky and, well, like this day wasn’t as hard as we’d been imagining…

Wrong. From the bridge we piled the bags in with the other goodies and went to the orphanage where the girls had been up since five putting together bags for the families in the colonias…an orange, a sandwich, a bag of beans, and a box of cereal.  Pickups loaded, we headed out into the hinterlands outside of town arriving in Insurjentes, a colonia of tin an cardboard houses. The next several hours we held lines in place as people lined up as far as we could see.

Now, you have the picture, right?  Two pale-faced middle-aged psychologists who failed out of the Scouts…standing proud and brave in the dust and the sun…like the saviors in the Magnificant Seven (kick in the soundtrack, or maybe a few verses of Lonely Bull) …now hold that thought.

The truth?  My nose bleeding and my face cracked, feet killing me, and my arm muscles on fire…I leaned over to my special person and said, “You…me…room service…iced fume blanc…six hours.”

Somehow we climbed dizzily into Master Peggy’s giant pickup which is hiked up…as best as I can recall…four feet off the ground to take the enormous ruts and ‘so-called’ roads. From there, back to the orphanage, then crawl back in the pickup with the grocery list–10 dozen eggs, boxes and boxes of oranges.  Forty bags of sugar… We smiled when Peggy said…”No, not a dozen potatoes…a dozen bags…

And, my special person tagged my trembling hand and whispered, “air-conditioning, room service, football…three hours..”

Kicked into a sort of fervent overdrive, we return to the home, cook, serve….when asked how we’re doing… we’d say, “Oh, no, really, we’re just fine…”

At least until around nine when we begged for a taxi.  The time waiting at the gate with the little old nun who insisted on waiting with us until the taxi arrived…was perfect.

The taxi dropped us off on the Mexico side and special person and I stared at the long bridge.   He said one word…”football,” and we launched…we dragged…we used the grab bar shamelessly.

I had an idea that readers might like to be part of Touching Hearts…in spirit, at least.

First let me say, I am opposed to the typical Christmas gift campaign reaching into your Emotional Guidance System saying a certain amount of profit will go to a charity.  And, to the dismay of my publisher, promotion is not my long suit….That said, after my experience in the colonias across the border, I’ve been thinking of fun ways to contribute to the lives of the very poor and I thought it would be kind of fun to make a game of the practice.

Thus, when you buy a copy of  TOO RICH and TOO THIN, Not an Autobiograpy, a gift for someone, perhaps,from whatever source, between now and Christmas, I will add $5.00 to the January pot. Now here’s the hard sell…

I will put the money in anyway.  I’m asking you to send me an email (bdeshong@austin.rr.com) and let me know you bought a book.  And here’s the good part…You don’t even have to tell the truth, I’m not checking.  You can just tell me you bought a book and I’ll add your $5.00 to the kitty.  This is not a way to collect email addresses, I’m not that promoter-sophisticated or sneaky enough for that.

I just think it will be fun.  And worth it.  You’ll get an update on “Weinnies Under the Wire.”