Ha ha! Take that, cactus man! Also, across there street were two stores, the only stores for a long way that we could see, and they both happened to be dollar stores. Dollar General and Family Dollar, or something like that.
Next time I have a dollar I'm gonna do some comparative shopping.
Anyway, in the parking lot of Dollar General, we met a woman who told us that if we are looking for something fun to do, we could go to the wildlife preserve on the border - the Santa Ana Wildlife Preserve. She told us how to reach it, and that we would be able to see the river (the Rio Grande) depending on which trail we took. So we hopped in the car and away we drove. We reached it probably within 20 minutes or so. On the way we got to see the levees that we've been hearing so much about.
They're softly swelling mounded up hills of dirt; unimpressive but I'm sure they do their job in holding the water back - or at least they would, if they were properly maintained (more about that below!). Anyway, we get to the wildlife preserve and the girl on duty told us that there were three different trails: a half-mile, a mile, and two miles. She recommended the half-mile, but when we looked over the map the only one which came in view of the river was the two mile one. So, we two girls, wearing nothing but dresses, flip-flops, bug spray and sunscreen, embarked on a two-mile trek through the texas wilderness to see the Rio Grande.
Spoiler Alert!
(We see it.)
It was really a good walk - we saw a lot of nice plants and some crazy looking birds, and there was a big metal tower we could climb up for a fantastic view.
However, at one point the trail we decided on wound its way between several lakes, which, it being pretty dry in texas around now, were fairly low and fairly stagnant. Which means bugs. To add to the fun, that stretch of trail was the only bit which wasn't in the shade - no trees for about 100 yards, so we weren't the happiest people in texas by the time we reached the end. But it was a nice trail and altogether I enjoyed it.
We returned home to shower and change, and then we decided to find somewhere to eat. Genevieve found a salsa bar online, which we drove around and failed to find. I called first Corinna and then Jaime to see if either of them knew where it is; neither of them did so we found somewhere else to eat instead. The ubiquitous mexican food down here is, unsurprisingly, very good.
After dinner we came home again, and I believe we watched the first Bourne movie that night.
Work has been pretty good - Jayne, one of the other interns, is super nice, and Kyle, who arrived this week, is also really great. Jaime, Corinna, and Sr. Moira are all terrific as well.
It's really nice to go in - the building in which I live is about 20 feet away from the building in which I work so the commute is pretty good, and everyone at work is so friendly that it makes me happy to go in. Abner, who was the director, is leaving, so he is trying to get the cases still open wrapped up, and those are what the other interns and I are working on. Kyle, Jayne and I are all working out of the room which used to be Abner's office, so we have a cozy little setup.
This week was interesting, but it was pretty long. We went out for lunch a few times, which broke up the time a bit, but it was still at least 6 straight hours of research everyday, all day. On Friday we went out to a place called The Blue Onion. It was decided on for my sake - I think everyone is starting to pity me for my lack of choices at Mexican places (even though I don't mind eating beans and rice - it's delicious), and this place had more vegetarian options. Earlier in the day, Jayne had told us this story she saw on TV about a spring break vacationer who had been staying in Matamoros - the Mexican town right across the border - in the 80s, and had been kidnapped by drug dealers and had his brain eaten and his spine turned into a necklace. Apparently the spine necklace was supposed to allow them to evade the detection of the police. I'm not sure if I can think of anything which seems more specifically designed to attract the police, but I'm not sure how rational these people were. Jaime said he remembered when it happened, and he seemed to think it had been a cult, or satanists. Regardless, we were assured that Mexico is extremely safe nowadays, and there are police in place specifically to safeguard tourists since tourism is pretty profitable for the Mexican towns.
Jaime also told us this story involving a woman who had hired a hitman to kill her daughter's ex-boyfriend. Only, instead of 'kill,' Jaime said 'whack off.' So, she hired a man to whack off her daughter's ex-boyfriend. I'm not sure why he chose those particular words, but we all cracked up, and had to explain why. Then Abner told us a similar story about someone using the term 'money-shot' in a completely bizarre context on CNN. I don't think I've laughed that hard in a long time. It was a really good lunch.
Meanwhile, outside of work, Genevieve and I have been trying to find things to do. Wednesday night was ladies' night at a local club, so we went to check it out. We invited Jayne and Kyle but they were too tired to make it. We went out for pizza, and then, surprisingly, Genevieve and I got lost getting to the club! We found it eventually though, and got in. The club had about 7 bars, all in different themed rooms, and only a few were open - the karaoke bar, the salsa bar, and the hiphop bar. The drinks were only a quarter, so I got down to business. Genevieve, as the designated driver (and a minor), wasn't drinking. She got out on the dance floor and danced with a guy named Mike, who refused to believe she is single. She also sang karaoke! I was impressed and a little jealous; I could never get up on stage like that. It was a lot of fun. I can't really find the words to describe this place accurately - it's kind of like a large dirty warehouse that's been retrofitted to cram these bars in. It actually kind of reminded me of the dark weird videogame arcades on the beach in Seaside. It was kind of awkward and kind of depressing - my favourite sort of situation! I loved it.
Genevieve and I have also been pretty active in the No Border Wall group Sr. Moira has been taking us to. We spoke in front of the commissioner's court of Hidalgo County (and it was on TV!) I spoke about the company, Dannenbaum, that the county has contracted with to build the levee-walls. There's been a lot of scandals and corruption within this company and in their dealings with other towns, and I wanted to bring it up in front of the Commissioners and publicly question why they would choose that company to build the walls. And Genevieve spoke about the levee walls themselves, and how much work is involved in building the. She actually read the Army Corps of Engineers manual on building retaining levees, and used that information in the points she made. It sounded so good! She brought up the fact that even if the levees could be built within the time period that the IBWC is allotting, there's no reason to build them during hurricane season.
Actually I should probably background this a bit. There are already levees in place in Hidalgo county, but most of them of extremely old - I think someone said that they are over a hundred years old in some places. This area is basically a massive flood plain - it's flat for miles and miles, and with the Rio Grande right here, any raise in the water level could be disastrous. Katrina was pointed right at this area in Texas before she diverted course, and a hurricane like that - any hurricane at all in fact, with the levees as they are, could possibly swamp this are and cause a great deal more damage here than Katrina did in New Orleans. I mean greater in terms of land area, I'm not sure what the cost in lives would be. Recently Hidalgo County passed a motion to obtain a bond for $100 million dollars to fix the levees. And, as everyone down here is very aware, there is the Secure Fence Act which calls for a Fence to be built along the border. There is a huge amount of opposition to the fence in this area, for a huge number of reasons. Not only in this area, but all along the entire Mexican border, there is a lot of people working together to try and prevent the fence from being built. But in Hidalgo County, Judge Salinas has made a deal to try and kill two birds with one stone - instead of building a fence, he wants to build a retaining levee wall. That might sound like a good idea, until you take into account a multitude of side effects this wall will have. Environmentally, it will split the valley in half, disrupting the living patterns of the animals in this ecosystem. The eco-tourism down here is a multi-million dollar business, since there are endangered birds and animals that live here and nowhere else in the world. The wall will split their habitat in half. But in terms of human lives, the levee wall issue is huge, simply because of the timing they've chosen to build it. I'm against building a fence or a wall, personally. But this levee wall issue isn't a political question I'm trying to argue - it's simply the issue that to build the levee wall, they have to cut the already existing levees in half lengthwise and insert a wall into them. It's hurricane season now, and it will be for the next few months. If a hurricane blows in while there is construction being done, not to strengthen the levees but to cut into them, who knows what the cost in lives and property will be. A levee wall is not the same as simply strengthening the levees. It's significantly weakening them - the end result might improve their strength, but there's a great risk involved in undertaking this construction during hurricane season.
But I digress. Genevieve and I were on TV! You can read what we said here(mine) and here (hers)! A reporter interviewed me! :D
Well, I've typed a lot, and I still have a lot of work to do. We went out to see Sex and the City last night - all four of us interns, as well as Corinna, her boyfriend, and a lot of other public interest lawyers and legal interns from this area. The movie was pretty cheesy, but it was funny and it was fun to meet all those people at the pre-party they had. However, there's another party tonight I won't be able to make, since I want to get a headstart on my work for this upcoming week, and I've already wasted an hour typing all of this up.
So, hopefully I'll update again during the week sometime, but otherwise it won't be til next weekend.
You can see all my Texas pictures (so far) here:
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