Nogales, Sonora, Mexico

We're back in our little bus, bumping
along on dirt roads, on city traffic circles, people watching and getting commentary from out tour leader and three Mexican women who are with us.

They're pointing out everything from Technical Colleges to corrugated  little houses with no plumbing or electricity.

Many of the houses have large black water tanks on the roof.  Trucks come to fill them  and the sun heats the water.

Lots of the temporary housing use old tires for fences, walls, or barriers.  Our guide has no idea where they get all the tires.  We see lots of back yard, and front yard gatherings like this one.

The children are beautiful - calling, "Hola" to us. Some say, "Hi" in English.


Most of them spend long hours in daycare.  Their parents work in the maquilas  - foreign owned factories.

I forgot to take pictures of them because they look like modern plants you'd see in Connecticut or Colorado.




These are three-year olds.  The center stays open from 5 A.M. till 7 P.M. Some of the parents take three busses to get to work.

At the cultural center, the groups asked Pat Watson ( a Nova Scotian from our group) to sing........

and she does!  The tour leader later tells us that we were the liveliest group ever.  We're pretty sure he meant it in a good way!

I'll write more later, there's more to share.