My Ronnie Lewis Moment in Mexico I have been reading The Angora Chronicles for about two weeks and have enjoyed all 100 plus renderings of our esteemed creators musings. My problem is after two solid weeks of daily infusions of what it is like to be Ronnie Lewis I fear I am beginning to see the world through his eyes. For instance,a week or so ago Ronnie gave us a brief synopsis of his trip to Mexico to have dental work done...and that post has all the makings of a few can-anything-else-go-wrong moments. A few days after that posting my dear husband says he has found a dental clinic in Mexico that will save us a lot of money. I gave him the look which he ignored as he proceeded to show me the web site for this wonderful clinic. As usual with websites it looked very nice... the Dentist and staff all speak English and there were glowing testimonials of their exceptional work, prices, and customer service.To cap off the deal a driver in a cream colored Lexus SUV would pick us up in the US side of the border and take us right to the dentist office. Now I am not exactly sure what it is like where Ronnie crosses into Mexico but we live in El Paso, Texas and our crossing is into Juarez Mexico. Now I like Mexico and its people.I live close to the border.I can walk a half mile up the mountain in my neighborhood and see Mexico. I am married to a decedent of Mexican grandparents....but until last week I had not been to Juarez, Mexico in 6 years. Thats about when Juarez began its decent into being labeled The Murder Capital of The World. Two years ago in 2012 Texas Monthly reported, Juárez, which has been dubbed one of the top most dangerous cities in the world, has seen more than one thousand deaths annually over the past four and a half years-- CNS reported in 2010 that more people were killed in Juárez than in the entire country of Afghanistan. Well, the good news is... in the last year or so Juarez has been able to shake off that label as the rival drug cartels moved into the interior or somewhere... and the biggest action this year is a few thousand undocumented children from South America have crossed the border into El Paso. ANYWAY my dear Spanish speaking hubby said lets do this!! Being the good Anglo wife that I am, and because my friend Ronnie Lewis assured me on The Angora Chronicles page that ..everything should be fine. I went. We met up with our driver in the cream colored Lexus SUV at a nice motel at the designated time. My first hint that this might not be all it was cracked up to be was the cream color on the SUV has seen more than a few Southwest summers and had faded to a shade just above the original primer. OK, Im not a snob and I honestly do not judge folks by what they drive so I smiled at the driver and got in. Thats I was hit in the face with a 10 year accumulation of dust and stale cigarette smoke. The once luxurious interior was literally blackened with smoke and too many bodies for too many years. Again, I have no hate going on to smokers and no judgment on others who chose to smoke ...BUT, I have never smoked and have not been in contact for any length time with smokers for 50 years. So this concentrated scent plays havoc with my breathing. It was a typically seriously hot day on the border and the SUV air conditioner was faithfully recycling the un-breathable air so I rolled down the window in the back seat and gasped for air as our driver crossed the border and proved that driving in in a third world city can be as dangerous as a drug cartel. After an undetermined amount time and only God knows how many twist and turns down alleys and streets that looked like alleys we arrived at a nice looking office building was escorted by our driver into an elevator. The dentist office was nice, clean, up-to-date and everyone spoke English. All that was rather normal and while hubby went into the exam room I looked around the waiting room at the other visitors. Thats when I fell into the Twilight Zone. There were two men... both Anglos in their early 60s, both wearing jeans, tennis, and Hawaiian shirts. (Which must have been THE Outfits for visiting a Mexican dentist. AS a Side note... my hubby was dressed all wrong.) Being the friendly type I asked them if they had been here before ...both said Yes... they come every year or so... and No they had never met before today. I asked them where they were from and both said Tennessee. I laughed and said, I own 61 acres in Tennessee! Tell me gentle readers what are the chances of three people from the mountains of TN meeting in a dentist office in Jaurez, Mexico? As the afternoon progressed I went in and got my exam and was informed that my mouth could be as good as new for a mere $3500.00 and a few visits. While waiting for hubby to get his exam one of the TN guys took a nap sleeping off his procedure, and the other regaled me with stories of his life as a modern day hobo...He had lived in Florida, Connecticut, Alaska, Hawaii, Nebraska, and a few other states which slip my mind at the moment. While in Alaska he saw an ad for a sail boat in Hawaii and bought it sight unseen. He flew to the Islands intending to live on his new sail boat and put it up for sale at the same time.Needless to say the boat did not live up to expectations and he ended up living in his car...and the story continued....His last line to me was, You want to trade your 61 acres in Tennessee for and acre in Hawaii? I passed. At long last it was over and our driver showed up in his cream colored Lexus SUV and loaded all of us for the trip back across the border. Again the speed was breath taking but since I couldnt breath anyway...I survived. A mile or so from the border the driver pulled over and asked if we had been told that going back over he had to take the car through an express lane without passengers and we would have to walk the rest of the way into the USA. NO we had not been told that!! BUT like any undocumented person in a foreign country we stepped out into the oppressive heat, on an unlabeled street full of Mexicans checking us out, and were told to ...walk that way...turn the corner and continue toward the bridge that crosses into America...not too far... a mile or so. The driver pulled out adding, Ill meet you on the other side. We walked and walked...it got hotter and hotter...the lines were long...all the time I was trying to figure out how I would survive a trip like this after a oral surgery...not likely. By the time I set foot onto the soil of the good ole USA I had fully determined that I would find a dentist in El Paso. So thats my story... and like my writer friend Ronnie Lewis says, Never miss an opportunity to BE the Story,
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 22:13:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015