In the fall of 2007, the author thought he would head south for the winter with his RV and find a nice place to take a vacation from the cold. He had done volunteer work in the past and thought he might visit a couple of orphanages he had heard about from friends of his and see if he could be of assistance. It wasn't long before he was deeply involved with a group of fifty children 24-7 playing dad to many, and sharing in some events that were incredibly funny, and too many times heartbreaking. Reading this story will give you a feel for the politics, the reality of corrupt churches and the politics played with unfortunate children in that country we all know so little about south of the border. After returning for three winters to the southern Sonoran Desert to be with the huge family he had become a part of, bizarre events and political moves by the churches involved and the government bring the completely true story to a climax.
FAMILY Time
An Adventure in MexicoBy Jacob GeimerTrafford Publishing
Copyright © 2012 Jacob Geimer
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4669-5283-6Contents
Introduction...............................................viiChapter 1 Finding A Place In The Sun.......................1Chapter 2 Doctrinal Statement Blues........................13Chapter 3 The Family.......................................19Chapter 4 Organizing The Unorganizable.....................25Chapter 5 On The Road Again................................37Chapter 6 The Beginning Of Sorrows.........................43Chapter 7 A System Of Priorities?..........................55Chapter 8 Back To Colorado.................................69Chapter 9 Three Is A Charm.................................75Chapter 10 The Other Orphanages............................85Chapter 11 The Space Shuttle...............................99Chapter 12 The Train.......................................107Chapter 13 Dog Daze........................................113Chapter 14 Don't Go Away Mad...............................121Chapter 15 Bad News........................................125Chapter 16 Conspiracy Theories.............................131About The Author...........................................137
Chapter One
FINDING A PLACE IN THE SUN
During the summer of 2007 while I was working in Colorado, I was thinking about what I might do the following winter. Since I hadn't spent a winter in the United States since 1992, and in the mountains in Colorado it isn't unusual to get a snow storm in September, and then be winter until the next May, I toyed with the idea of heading south. I had bought a truck and travel trailer the previous spring. This 28ft self-contained recreational vehicle became my home. I had been working for a landscaping company based in Silverthorne, Colorado for quite a few years. Their base of operations was on a ranch just north of Silverthorne on the Blue River. I was able to park my trailer on the ranch during the summer, and since the job was seasonal, I was quite mobile.
I was a member of a Spanish speaking church that meets in the Silverthorne public library. Since the library was closed on Sunday, we were able to use a large meeting room that had full kitchen facilities, at almost no cost to the church. This was a very mission's oriented church, so they understood that they didn't need to spend a lot of money on their own building, which would sit empty most of the time.
Most of the money that was given to the church was spent on helping needy families in the United States and Mexico, or other worthy causes. Nobody was ever told that they had to give money to the church. Also, nobody was pressured to donate any percentage of their income to the organization. It was all given freely, out of the goodness of the hearts of the individuals. I was aware that they had been supporting an orphanage in Mexico for the past four or five years, and from past experiences in my life, I thought it would be a good idea to go to Mexico and visit this orphanage. I wanted to see what was being done with the financial support these people were receiving, and possibly assist the organization running the home.
In my life I have had many different jobs. I worked in a hospital for severely mentally retarded children for two and a half years. I also had worked as a carpenter on four or five occasions, and I had worked as a mechanic for three or four different businesses. Along with that type of experience, I had lived in the Philippines for ten years, and I had completed four months in a Peace Corps training school in Costa Rica. From that standpoint, I wasn't going into this completely blind, although that may seem arguable later on in the story.
As the summer passed I informed the other members of the church of my intentions, and they were very encouraging and excited about what I wanted to do. As my departure approached, the church members collected items I could take along. This included clothes, shoes, household items and small appliances, bedding items, and some money. About a month before I left, I was told there was another orphanage near to the one they were supporting. It was mentioned that after I arrived there, I could contact them, with the possibility of working with them also. Some of the members of the church were familiar with the location of the orphanage in Mexico which was Ciudad Obregon, Sonora.
Ciudad Obregon is in the southern Sonoran desert, three hundred and twenty-five miles south of Nogales, Arizona. It is a city of five hundred thousand people, based mostly on agriculture, because they have two hundred thousand acres that is irrigated by reservoirs in the mountains east of the desert they are in. These whole geographical areas including the mountains east of the State of Sonora that are in the State of Chihuahua are relatively dry. The question that came to me later on was, "Where is all the water coming from to fill these huge reservoirs?" I asked this question many times while I lived there, and never got a reasonable answer. All I could think was that the water was coming from underground aquifers, not being fed by precipitation. Ciudad Hermosillo is the capital of the State of Sonora, which is on the International highway. You pass through Hermosillo (if you are unfortunate enough to miss the bypass) on the way to Guymas, and then on to Ciudad Obregon. Mexico is a much bigger country than most people from the United States are aware of. There are thirty-one states, and the "Distrito Federal" which is where most of Mexico City is. Mexico has more than one hundred and ten million people, a wide variety of climates and cultures, and there are still more than twenty languages in use. The State of Sonora is famous for the Yaqui Indian tribe. There are places in the State of Sonora where Yaqui is the common language spoken, not Spanish.
Most people in the United States know nothing about this part of Mexico, because it is not a tourist destination. I realized that when people would ask me where I had lived in Mexico, and when I told them, they would say they never heard of the place. In all the time I lived there I saw very little evidence of tourists except for the occasional RV parked in the Wal-Mart parking lot, and most of those were from Canada. I didn't mind not being around the tourists because I can speak Spanish, and tourists seem to attract the professional criminals.
My first trip down to Ciudad Obregon was quite an adventure. A week before I left a woman from the church named Snoria asked me if her and her son could accompany me on the trip, since she was from Ciudad Obregon, and wanted to return to Mexico. I thought this would be a good idea since she was a member of the church in Silverthorne, and was from a place I had never been before. Also, my Spanish wasn't all that good at the time. My thinking was that she knew the route, and would be able to help me with details crossing the border and making the correct turns. I didn't think to ask her if she ever actually drove to Mexico before, and as time passed this illusion I had about being helpful faded.
By the time I left Silverthorne I had a trailer full of clothes and many other items I thought were mostly for the children in the orphanage. We drove down highway 285 through Poncha Springs, then on to Alamosa, Colorado, and on down to Santa Fe. We got on I-25 there, and headed for Albuquerque, then straight south to Las Cruces, where we got on I-10. In later years I learned short cuts to this trip, avoiding a lot of traffic and making the trip one hundred...
