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Life on the Border Essay

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Life on the Border

I used to be a person who was hung up on material possessions. I was always wanting more, never satisfied with what I had. Whenever I would go to the mall, I would want everything that I saw. If I had money I would always spend it. I was constantly buying things that I didn’t need or only used once. I felt like I was unfortunate because I didn’t have a new outfit every week, and I couldn’t get a new pair of shoes every time I walked out the door, but that all changed the summer of my junior year. I was chosen, along with nine other girls from my school, to go on a border immersion trip to Juarez, Mexico. Our teacher, Mrs.Hartrich, thought that it would be a good idea if we would all get together at least once a week …show more content…

So, big corporations are making millions of dollars off their products, which are being manufactured very cheaply, in third world countries, such as Mexico. Most of the people that work in them only make $3.50 a day. These people have to use this money to support their family, and things aren’t any cheaper in Mexico than they are in the United States. Later that day, we were able to speak to Inez, a woman who used to work in the maquillas. She told us about the horrible working conditions and how the managers didn’t give her the proper tools to work with. When she complained she was fired. Now she crosses the border every day and cleans a house. She said that what she made cleaning the house in one day, was more than she made in one week at the maquilla.

On the second day, we went to the daycare center. We were all very surprised to find out that it was literally built on top of a dump. When we first walked into the daycare the kids all came running up to us, they love attention. But one can only imagine how overwhelming it can be to have twenty children run over to you grabbing at your skirt and screaming in Spanish. After a while, the kids calmed down, and we were able to sit down and play with them. The children were all so beautiful; to just be around them made me happy. Even though at night they would go back to homes made out of cardboard; they didn’t seem to have a

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