Tijuana and Los Ninos
No rest for the wicked!
After completing an epic 6 weeks of cycling to reach the border, the team enjoyed a down day to digest and review the trip before heading in to Tijuana, Mexico to visit a great community based organization called Los Ninos. They have a small microcredit program among other grassroots community programs, and also focus really strongly on border issues, something the team has been discussing on the road and was confronted with directly on arrival at the border to see the massive US border fence.
We were picked up in San Diego by Gilberto, David and Jorge from Los Ninos – Gilberto runs their visitor programs while David is a volunteer just wrapping up a one year stint, leaving only our driver for the trip, Jorge, one of our new favourite people! We stopped for lunch just over the border, before getting the low down on the itinerary and dropping our things off at the house that would be our home base for the 3 days (real mattresses and showers = luxury!).
In the afternoon we headed out to visit a few microcredit borrowers, to learn a bit about their businesses – as varied as paper flowers for special event decoration, crystal bracelets, and rented traditional clothing for photos and events. We spent a couple hours “helping” (read: mangling their materials and making questionable looking flowers) and interacting with the women and their families, before heading for a tour of the immediate border region and the overwhelming security deployed by the United States to keep immigrants in Mexico – two massive fences, razor wire, a dead zone patrolled only by US border patrol, sensors, lights, cameras, helicopters and more I’m sure…. This visit included the migrant’s memorial (dedicated to remembering those who have died attempting to cross and generating discussion on the issue), and a visit to the fence right on the pacific ocean, where gaps in the fence posts allow you to squeeze back and forth across the sandy beach, but border agents in jeeps, on horseback, and in helicopters ensure no-one can get far. This visit was incredibly impactful for many members of the team – immigration and other border issues loomed large in the final wrap-up to the trip, and another sign of the incredible nature of this journey with the group again confronting and discussing issues well beyond those initially envisioned.
The evening saw us back for a wonderful dinner prepared by the women of Los Ninos known as “promotoras”. These women work as volunteers within their communities for minimal financial reward, teaching classes and organizing programs that touch the communities they live in. We wrapped up with a detailed explanation of Los Ninos and its history before completely overwhelming a tiny ice cream shop in the neighborhood!
Day 2 saw us head to visit a local Eco-Park project doing important work with water conservation and environmental education. After a quick craft break to make recycled paper by hand, we received an excellent presentation from the local woman in charge of Los Ninos’ microcredit programs, and another opportunity to ask lots of questions and spend time with some of the women being impacted by these programs. We wrapped up the day helping out another project, cutting up plastic bottles to be re-used as plant containers before we made our way home for the night for an impromput “no talent – talent show”. Among many completely ridiculous moments, it included AMAZING performances from Anna (Dirty Dancing in 1 minute) and Dave (A complete performance of the dance to Michael Jackson’s thriller) – make sure you ask either to do it for you if you see them 
The last morning we went to visit another woman working with Los Ninos to launch a small business, creating beautiful decorative flowers out of re-used egg cartons. She is 62 years old, and from her craft endeavor makes many times the minimum wage, also helping to support her son and 4 grandchildren. The group really enjoyed the visit, helping to make some of the flowers, learning Spanish children’s rhymes from kids in the courtyard, and jamming out with some of the local kids on instruments in the local church!
This pretty much wrapped up our trip with Los Ninos, with only a quick run back over the border to San Diego to pick up our bikes and the van and trailer, before the riders got ONE more bonus ride…a 17 mile jaunt to get to our final accommodation of the trip, and the beginning of reflections and goodbyes…
Shawn
