Students Cross the Border for Spring Break Trip

Students Cross the Border for Spring Break Trip

BY LISA NUTTING
Rice News Staff
April 1, 1999

As a van filled with Rice students crossed the border into Texas, its passengers noticed the impressive–however excessive–fluorescent metal butterflies decorating custom’s “Welcome to the United States” sign.

“It was a right-away reminder that we were back in the U.S.,” said Shelley Errington, assistant director for Community Involvement, the Rice center that sponsored the spring break service trip.

Returning from a six-day volunteer service trip to Reynosa, Mexico, the colorful butterflies were an obvious indicator of the economic differences between the impoverished Mexico city and its American border state.

“Not many people expect that in a six-hour drive you’re going to see such disparity,” said Heather Syrett, associate director for Community Involvement.

Syrett, Errington and 13 students made the second annual Alternative Spring Break trip to Reynosa, Mexico, March 6-12, traveling the six-hour trip in a rented van and one car.

The first alternative trip was organized by Rice’s Community Involvement Center (CIC) last year to accommodate the great student interest in international spring break service trips, Syrett said. About 50 students applied each year for the 13 spots on the Honduras spring break trip. The CIC trip to Mexico, dubbed Alternative Spring Break, allows 13 additional students to participate–and at a fraction of the cost, as no airfare is required.

To select a suitable service organization last year, Syrett researched the various programs available in Reynosa. Many, she found, housed students in neighboring Laredo, Texas, transporting volunteers to work sites in Mexico during the day and returning them to the United States at night.

“We really wanted the students to be immersed 100 percent in Mexico,” Syrett said.

So when Syrett found Puentes de Cristo, a partnership between the U.S. Presbyterian Church and the Iglesia Presbiteriana Nacional de Mexico, she chose that organization for both its educational value to students and its accommodations in Mexico.

CIC received 25 applications for this year’s Mexico trip. From the applicants, organizers selected a “wide range” of students to participate, Syrett said. The group included freshmen to seniors; and all were first-time international service trip participants.

In preparing for the trip, the group met a few times to discuss various aspects of the volunteer service, including border issues, what to expect in Mexico, what students should take with them, and more specific instructions, such as not to drink the water.

As part of the service, students helped construct a new community center for Puentes de Cristo. All of the Rice volunteers worked at the construction site during the afternoons, laying cement and building brick walls. In the mornings, half of them worked at the same job site while the other half volunteered for Puentes de Cristo in other ways. Some students chose to help youths with scheduled arts and crafts projects. Others accompanied community health workers, who, among other things, go door to door to advise Mexican women to breast feed their children rather than use formula. Formula must be mixed with water, which, unless treated, is impure, and thus can make infants ill.

At the end of the day’s work, the Rice group gathered to reflect on their experiences. One evening, the group met at a hill overlooking the Rio Grande River, the border between Mexico and the United States, where they discussed the great disparity between the two countries.

From where they sat, the group discussed “how everything changes so drastically once you cross that border,” Syrett said.

On the second night of the trip, the Puentes de Cristo church community, which welcomes people of all faiths, hosted a special dinner for the Rice group. The church members sang songs and played guitars for their guests.

“It was really nice to feel embraced and welcome,” Errington said. “Students commented [that the people were] so welcoming and sharing with what little they do have.”

One evening’s exercise dictated that students learn about life on the average Mexican family’s budget. Given the monthly salary, minus housing and electricity costs, the students tallied how much money could be spent on a daily family meal. Students were then given that amount of money and asked to do the shopping for the meal.

“It was a really good experience for the students,” Syrett said. “People have the perception that they [Mexicans] don’t make a lot of money but that everything’s so cheap. But it’s not.”

The students had a tough time purchasing just the basics for a family meal, she said.

The group also made time for a little sightseeing and downtown shopping during the trip, Syrett said, though the focus of their visit was the volunteer service.

The night before the group left, a family living across the street from the Rice group’s dorm stopped by for a visit. Rice students and the family’s children played jump rope and drew with colored chalk on the sidewalk. Even the parents joined in the revelry.

“Whatever boundaries that had been there had been broken down. It was just human to human,” Syrett said.