criplomats

At Ground Zero, Trinity Site

Our big outing this week was to New Mexico with a group from the Consulate to visit the Trinity Site and the Very Large Array. It was a long day trip with an incredible amount of dust and wind, but well worth it, plus we got to visit with co-workers along the way.

The Trinity Site is where the first nuclear bomb was tested in 1946 – it’s open to the public two days each year. There’s not a lot to actually see because it’s such a desolate place, but it’s very interesting and thought-provoking.

The Very Large Array is an astronomical radio observatory that consists of 27 huge radio antennas that look like big satellite dishes -it’s pretty incredible to see. You can see how big the antennas are in the photo below – those are humans next to it!

We did a lot of visa interviews this week, although the Consulate closed at noon on Friday for a party. The Ambassador from Mexico City came up to help celebrate a success in the Immigrant Visa section – we had a party outside with fajitas and beer, followed by a meeting for the entry-level officers (like us) with the Ambassador. He’s pretty entertaining – he is a political appointee of Pres. Bush and is married to the wealthiest woman in Mexico (she owns Corona beer).

We also went to an event Thursday night at our Consul General’s house to hear a reporter from El Paso talk about issues in Juarez – pretty interesting. Right now, the Mexican government has sent in 2000 Federal troops to patrol the streets and combat the drug traffickers. It’s startling to see three or four tanks or trucks filled with uniformed, armed and masked Federal soldiers driving down the main streets.

The rest of the week was pretty low-key. I think John and I are both suffering some from allergies, so we haven’t felt 100%.

The good news is that we found a housekeeper that I think will work out. I went to a friend’s house for lunch on Thursday to interview her, then brought her to the house this morning to show her around. She has worked for Consulate families for the past eight years, so that gives me a level of confidence in her – it’s tough to just hand over your house keys to a stranger here!

We had a bit of a scare with Mom this week – she drove herself to the emergency room one night because she lost some vision in her eye, and stayed in the hospital a couple of days while they ran tests. Evidently, a piece of plaque broke loose and went into her eye – luckily it didn’t go to the brain instead. Tests didn’t show evidence of more loose plaque, so hopefully everything is OK.

This week was also scary for a lot of friends in Little Rock and Hot Springs, due to all of the tornadoes and flooding there.

One of 27 antennas in the Very Large Array

Really, the only one leading la vida loca is Noodle, as evidenced by his glee at being (wrongfully) in the middle of the dining table when we happened upon him!

This was our first full week of work – although Friday was an “admin day” and we had nothing to administer, so we used it as a reading-at-work day. We started doing non-immigrant visa interviews on Wednesday afternoon, then did some more on Thursday morning. It’s very interesting to try to figure out who is telling the truth and who is fibbing – our main goal is to try to figure out who is not an “intending immigrant” – i.e., who will actually come back to their home in Mexico after visiting the U.S.  I turned down an older woman, and she made an odd hand gesture to me – someone who grew up in Mexico confirmed that it meant pretty much what I thought it meant!

We were also able to visit quite a bit with our new co-workers this week. On Easter Sunday, we had Elise and her husband and toddler over for a gallo pinto brunch. We had met Elise (pictured below) while at FSI in training – she is also here on her first tour.

During the week, we enjoyed visits from a couple of our co-workers who are also neighbors. Martha (pictured below) came from the world of academia, and coincidentally knows one of our favorite Hendrix professors quite well – small world!

Friday at lunch we went out with our new boss and some other folks for a very nice lunch at Misión Guadalupe, followed by really good seafood dinner with a group of co-workers that night at Los Bichis.

Saturday afternoon we went to a Consulate party at the public affairs officer’s home; that night, we had our A-100 friend Whitney and his wife Ali over for dinner.

All in all, it was a good week, and we think we are really going to like it here!

On a sad note, my Uncle Gilbert passed away this week. I was glad I had the chance to visit with him in Arkansas on the drive down to Juarez. He’ll be missed.

Martha, John and Elise at Los Bichis

In Arkansas with Dail and Nancy, March 8

Wow – it seems like we have been here much longer than a week! We are getting settled and really enjoying ourselves. I love the process of “nesting” and can’t wait till our own stuff gets here to really make it feel like home.

Due to Mexican holidays on Monday, Thursday and Friday, we only worked two days this week, and even then much of our work was getting settled at home – getting the alarm system, internet, etc. set up.

We’ve spent some amount of time in El Paso shopping – prices are better and it’s so easy to bop over the border and be at Sam’s Club in 20 minutes. We also had lunch in E.P. today at a great restaurant near the University (UTEP), Mesa Street Grill. I had one of the best salads I’ve ever had: greens topped with brisket, Jack cheese, red onion, green chilies and avocado, tossed in a vinaigrette. Their dinner menu looks great, too, so we’ll definitely be going back there.

My favorite thing so far are the weekly car washes at the house on Saturdays. The young guys who work in the neighborhood wash the cars, take the trash down to the bins at the end of the street and wash out the tile garage for us – love it! As soon as I find a housekeeper, I’ll be set.

John and I drove into New Mexico on Thursday, just to explore a little. By coincidence, we ended up near Ruidoso at the Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort & Casino where we had lunch and John played a couple of hands of blackjack. Driving up there was really like being on the moon – long stretches of desolate highways, then craggy mountains, then climbing to 7600 feet elevation.

Our biggest excitement this week was getting pulled over by the police for making an illegal turn. Since it was a holiday, there was no traffic, but they were pretty hard-nosed. After much discussion and a bit of a wave of a diplomatic passport, they let us go, thank goodness – we were more relieved just because we wouldn’t have to deal with the mechanics of paying a fine and getting our driver’s license back (yes, they confiscate it). It cracks me up that the transit cops are so vigilant…when there are multiple murders each week – some in broad daylight and in “good” neighborhoods – that go unsolved (primarily between drug gangs). Oh, well.

So, here’s a photo taken from the Volvo driving behind John through west Texas on the way out here. It got pretty boring…!

After close to 2000 miles, we finally made it to our new home in Ciudad Juarez! We stopped Monday night in Abilene, and then drove in to El Paso late Tuesday afternoon. We spent the night in El Paso, then our sponsor came to our hotel Wednesday around noon to pick us up and escort us over the border.

After about an hour’s stop at border patrol to get our SENTRI passes (sort of like an “easy pass” to go back and forth over the border), we pulled into our new home.

We really like it, and will like it even more once we get our art, dishes, and other things to make it feel like home. It’s a two-story townhouse on a quiet cul-de-sac. It’s old, but nice and spacious.

Our sponsor had milk, eggs, etc. waiting for us at our house, and the Consulate equips the house with a welcome kit that we can use until our personal goods get here (probably in another month), so when we arrived, the beds were made, the kitchen was set up, etc.

We went to the Consulate on Thursday and Friday, and spent most of our time walking around and meeting people. It’s a huge operation (the largest immigrant visa post in the world) and there are hundreds of people outside and inside, waiting for their visa interviews – it’s pretty overwhelming!

Wednesday night our sponsor had us over to have dinner with his family, and Friday night, a classmate from Washington had a party for us – it’s fun to be able to see familiar faces.

Today is Sunday, and we drove over to El Paso to do some shopping – it was a breeze to cross over. We’ve stopped at the public library to use the computer, because we don’t have access yet.

So far, we really like it here! The landscape is like being on the moon – desert, tumbleweeds, mountains with scrub brush – today it’s very windy, which means it’s also very dusty. The temperature is around 80 with wonderful cool breezes.

The cats are adjusting well – they did so great on the trip. I think they are glad to be home, too!

So…so far, so good!

We started our trek to Ciudad Juarez early Thursday morning, me with the cats in tow in the Volvo and John in his new truck, both of us packed to the gills. We planned to just drive to Nashville, but we started hearing weather forecasts of snow in Arkansas, so we pressed on to Hot Springs, arriving after midnight in snow flurries.

The cats did great in the car! Noodle slept in the floorboard most of the time, and Flavia, who had had a little bit of a tranquilizer, spent most of her time in her kennel.

We spent the weekend at Mom’s (with only a little snow). It was great to see family and friends! We saw Mary, and also had dinner with Dail and Nancy. I also went out to visit Gusta and Gilbert. John’s parents Pete and Ginger drove down Sunday and had lunch with us and cousin Alison.

Before we left DC, we went to a good production of Macbeth at the Folger Shakespeare Library. I had dinner Monday night with our neighbor Deb, and Tuesday we went to Lebanese Taverna with our good friend Della who was in town from Santo Domingo. Our last night we went to have Vietnamese food.

It’s Monday morning and we are loading up the cars and cats to continue on. We plan to arrive in Juarez mid-day Wednesday!