Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Mexico and Jail

When I got back to Provo, Kathy, Gretchen and I were talking about my trip to Mexico. I mentioned that I had been in Juárez. They looked at each other to confirm and then Kathy said that Juárez was where their dad had been put in prison at the border. There had been a confusion at the border because of the number of cars that he and his friends were taking back because one had broken down. So he got put in jail for a few days or something. This was propitious because he met his wife as they had changed the cubicle assignments in his absence and he was sitting in the wrong seat.
This reminds me of the man who was in the seat in the front of us on the airplane. Once we'd landed in SLC from Phoenix, he proceeded to talk way to loudly to his unfortunate neighbor in the row about how he should never go to Mexico. It was something about the Mexican cops wanting to put him into prison because he was simply sitting down. They were waiting to pounce on him, he insisted. What an idiot. He never wanted to visit that "dirty place again." I say that Mexico is all the better for it. Emily leaned over and said that he'd probably sat someplace marked "NO SE PUEDE SENTAR" or something, like on railroad tracks. My guess is that he was simply dumb and didn't understand what was going on. Whatever it was, I hope this man doesn't travel outside of the country again for his own protection, wouldn't want him ending up in jail. He just plays on too many stereotypes of Americans traveling abroad.