This morning I woke up at 7:00, although we were not leaving for church until 9:30. My body has already adjusted to the 5:30 early wake up times on the workdays and today felt like sleeping in. For breakfast, we had a continental breakfast which included some leftover pan de Campo (cowboy bread) from our hosts last night.
Brianne Brenneman, our professor, has a personal connection with some people from the congregation of Iglesia Menonita del Cordero, a Mennonite church in Brownsville. Isela, Brianne’s main connection, graciously invited us to church today. We, along with three of the MDS volunteers, joined the church for their service and the congregation also prepared and shared a meal with us afterwards. Their generosity didn’t stop there — Isela and her husband, Albert, planned a whole afternoon of games for us with their youth group.
The congregation at Iglesia Menonita del Cordero, which translates to “the Mennonite church of the lamb”, was incredibly friendly and generous. During the service, we all went around and said our names, and afterwards I was impressed by how many people retained all of our names. The people at the church made us feel right at home.
Just like we experienced last night at the cabin on the river, people in this area are wonderful hosts. The entire church pulled together to make sure we had a wonderful afternoon. Our lunch consisted of rice, tortas, fresh lemonade, and flan and ice cream for dessert (not to mention the various Mexican candies that were also offered). Afterwards, we moved the chairs and tables outside. Some of the congregation, including the youth, joined us here where they had rented a large inflatable water slide. The next few hours consisted of playing games like uno and taboo, playing on the water slide with the congregation’s children, and hanging out with the members of the Mennonite church. They even fed us more food, providing popsicles, fresh mangos, and watermelon to eat.
When we were ready to head back to the Methodist church where we are staying in Weslaco, Isela and Albert suggested we take a detour to see the border. They took us to a small park where we were able to get up close to a section of the border wall that was built 7 years ago. It was a bit unsettling to see just how tall it was, and the razor wire on the other side. It seemed very imposing when contrasted to the wild natural area on the other side. The steel wall was much rustier than I would have expected.
From this park we walked to see two bridges that spanned the Rio Grande River, the Brownsville-Matamoros Bridge and the Gateway Bridge. There was a lot of security on the bridges including a customs office on each one. Both bridges allowed foot and vehicle traffic to cross to and from Mexico and there was a decent number of people coming and going.
The thing that struck me the most was the sheer amount of metal and walls everywhere. It didn’t particularly seem welcoming. This was interesting to me because it seemed to contrast with the extremely friendly and welcoming nature of the people that we have met in this area. If only the government had the same mentality as the local people we have come to know- things would certainly look different around here.
On the drive back to our temporary home in Weslaco, people napped or listened to music. This is pretty typical of our daily commute. After returning to the Methodist church, the student cooking group (we trade off who cooks larger meals on the weekends) prepared Honduran Baleadas, El Salvadoran fried plantains and a Puerto Rican rice dish. On the whole it was a day of great connections and really good food!
-Josie Strader, Goshen College Class of ’22, Environmental Science major
