Senior Scribes
El Paso to Ciudad Juarez
By Delbert Blickenstaff, M.D. 

Rachel Zerkle crossed the bridge spanning the Rio Grande River from El Paso, Texas, to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, several times a week. It took her 45 minutes to walk from Annunciation House in El Paso to Casa Peregrina in Cuidad Juarez where she worked as a volunteer caring for homeless women and children. 

Rachel is our granddaughter and we arrived in El Paso to visit her on April 1, 2001. She had graduated from Taylor University the previous spring and had decided to spend a year doing missionary work where she could make use of her study of Spanish. 

Raquelita and several other volunteers cared for around twenty women and children mainly from Mexico and Central America. The project was started by the Catholic Church but it receives support from many sources. We had brought a carrier full of donated blankets, etc. from home. 

Our group consisted of Louise and me, Rachel’s sister Laura, her brother Nathan, and Laura’s fiancé Lars. The girls stayed in the dormitory with the women and children, while we boys stayed in a room at the front of the house. 

Besides providing food and lodging for women and children, a clothing bank was also available. Most of the guests stayed only a few weeks. We were somewhat concerned about the safety of the volunteers and guests, but that didn’t seem to be a problem. The community around the safe house knew what was going on and served as a buffer zone. 

Rachel is a blue-eyed redhead and obviously non-Mexican. We were amazed how fearless she was walking anywhere she wanted to. 

Raquelita took us for a long walk to a big city park where we saw many families with small children enjoying the facilities. We enjoyed some ice cream while watching the Mexicans. 

One day we went to a suburb of Juarez called Anapara. It appeared to be a slum area because the streets and electric lines were not developed. The small houses were all of cement block construction; hot in summer and cold in winter. 

We talked to a volunteer named Patrick who showed us a community building being constructed out of bales of straw. The plan was to use this structure for adult education and other community activities. 

Some of the poor people who live in Anapara are bussed to another part of the city where they work in U. S. owned factories. I had spent time in southern Mexico some 60 years previously and saw how people lived in the villages. This slum area did not appear to be an improvement. 

While walking around the streets of Juarez we saw people selling blankets, sun glasses, etc. but we saw very few beggars. 

Rachel was explaining the system of caring for the women and children when a young woman and a small child arrived. The mother was lost in the city. The police were called to help the mother find her family. 

On April 5th we started our trip home. Alice, a volunteer, drove Louise and me and all our luggage to Annunciation House where we loaded everything in our van. Lars and the Zerkle siblings walked across the bridge to join us. 

We stayed overnight in Casa Teresa, one of several shelters for homeless people in El Paso. We left for home the next morning and had only two problems driving back. The carrier came loose and blew off the top of the van, but Laura saw it go and we retrieved it. A large tumbleweed hit the front bumper and knocked out the temperature sensor, but that didn’t slow us down. 

We were glad to have had a good visit with Raquelita and to get back home to our Gringo friends and relatives 

Delbert Blickenstaff, M. D.