RGV Life

Mobile audio blog entry by me, Shaine Mata, for RGV Life. Mobile entries are on the go blog entries whenever computer access is not available. MP3 File

Mobile audio blog entry by me, Shaine Mata, for RGV Life. Mobile entries are on the go blog entries whenever computer access is not available. MP3 File

Mobile audio blog entry by me, Shaine Mata, for RGV Life. Mobile entries are on the go blog entries whenever computer access is not available. MP3 File

I've never been a money grubbing worker, so this is my first time. I feel bad about leaving my current job for another; but at the same time, I recognize that I need the money and it would be irresponsible to stay put. We need to show a profit on this trip. So far, we are in the negative. I learned that our season will not be four months as I thought. It will only be three months. With a shortened season, we won't earn as much as we need if we both work at the Head Start. Our needs include our earning goal and the need to recover what we have spent. My wife will stay on and I will jump over to another job that pays better. It's not difficult or dangerous. In fact, the job is very boring and routine.   Today, I went over to the Seneca plant to apply for the job. It's funny, I got the job before I even finished filling out the application. The biggest selling point was that I am bilingual. Many of the applicants don't speak English. They were already w...

I smashed my finger today while moving a big commercial upright freezer. It's one of those stainless steel ones with two doors. Those things are really heavy even after you strip off the doors, shelves, and other detachable parts. We were tipping it over sideways to fit it through a door. We let it go close to the floor so that we could slide it over the carpet, except that I did not let go fast enough. The freezer landed on my fingers with most of the weight resting on one. I didn't fracture my finger, the rude one; but, it does hurt and is tender to the touch. I may have cracked it. In the same job, one of the other guys got his leg caught between the same freezer and a stair. The thing with massive items is that it takes a lot of force to get them moving and a lot of force to stop them from moving. We managed to put the freezer in storage without any further incidents. I have trouble writing with a pen or pencil. Typing is still doable, obviously.   We are get...

Today, I helped set up a classroom for a while. We had an early lunch so that my wife and I could go to the clinic at Barron, WI for a pre-employment checkup. The state of Wisconsin requires people who are involved in childcare to undergo TB testing every year. In the Hidalgo County Head Start program, teachers are tested every three years. I don't remember when my last tetanus shot was, so I got one of those too. There was so much waiting involved at the clinic that I got back to the center to hang out for half an hour before quitting time. My arm is a bit sore from the Tetanus shot. I may develop a slight fever tonight. My other arm itches at the site of the TB test.   The center's buses finally came in. They are longer than I thought they were. I got some tips from one of the drivers for the other schools on how to pass the CDL exam. Currently, everything is in a bit of a chaos. We are one of the far-flung outposts, which makes it really difficult to get thing...

I found this site with news about Los Fresnos . I thought I'd share it so other bloggers can link to it. It seems authentic, so I hate to see it die out. Anybody who can link to it should. I'll be adding it to my links later. I don't see any RSS buttons, otherwise it would go on the SpinRGV site as a regular headliner.

We have arrived at Rice Lake, WI. This is where we will live for the season. We left St Paul, MN this morning around 9 am. We took I-35E north and then turned onto U.S. Hwy 8 to I-59. That practically brought us to Rice Lake. We stopped at Turtle Lake, WI for lunch. The diner was nicely decorated on the inside; they had a Coca-Cola theme throughout with checkered black and white tile on the floor. The menu was a bit limited, but they made the few options very well.   We arrived at Rice Lake a little before 3 pm. It was easy to find the AmericInn . We took all of our stuff off the truck and moved it into the room. We have until Friday to find an apartment here. After that, the company will house us at the motel on a case-by-case basis depending on our success in finding a place to live. Traveling, even though you are sitting the whole time, takes a lot out of you, so we took a short nap. A while later, we got a call from some friends who had arrived here and went to visit ...

Here are some pictures of our entry into Minnesota. We enter St Paul and then visit the Mall of America in Bloomington. The place is huge! You can't really tell from the photos the scale of the place. We had a lot of fun and didn't even get to visit half of the mall. www. flick r .com More of shainelee's photos tagged with mn Today, we are heading out to Rice Lake, our final destination for the season. Once there, we will start looking for a place to live. We will try to have a camping trip in northern Wisconsin one of these weekends before leaving for the RGV.

We got up at 6 AM this morning and headed to St. Paul, Minnesota. Our mission: go to the Mall of America in Bloomington. We got everything loaded up on the pickup and ready to go by 8 AM. We headed out from one side of Wisconsin to the other. Our trip is quasi-recreational. Bloomington was in the same general direction as our ultimate destination, Rice Lake, WI.   As we travelled further west and north, we noticed a change in the terrain. There were bigger hills and small mountains. The trees varied more. And, it felt like we were going up in elevation. After passing Eau Claire, we felt a general feeling of descending. We came into St. Paul a little before noon. I would like to say that the Visitor Information Center coming into Minnesota from Eau Claire has got their act together. I was wandering around looking for information for the Mall of America. The attendant asked if I could help. I told her that I have one night to visit Minnesota and I wanted to see the Mall...

We went to eat dinner at Players here in Oshkosh per Tino Gallegos's suggestion. I had fish and chips. My mom had a gyro. Alma had the mushroom and swiss burger. The kids had spaghetti. It was a very affordable price. The portions were good. Best of all, Players was down the street from UWO. We ate outside on the deck. It was suprisingly nice.   Another thing I did was try a Leinie . Actually, I tried two. They had the Berry Weiss, which is in season. I also tried their Red. The Berry was too fruity for me. I liked the Red a little better. I could not get a Pabst Blue Ribbon, it was not on the menu. Across the street, however, there was a bar that serves Pabst. I was already buzzing, so we came back to the dorm.   Thanks, Tino, for the suggestion. Now if there are suggestions for St. Paul, MN, I'm all ears.

My mom took the opportunity to take the kids to Menomenee Park in Oshkosh while my wife and I were in training last Saturday. They report that it's a nice park, very big. They visited with some family friends who were visiting from Wautoma and others who were also in training this week. They played volleyball against some other park visitors. I understand that you have to take a trash bag into the park so that you can take out your trash. They had fun. The only drawback, currently, is that the park is filled with mosquitos. I understand that you can hear them travel in swarms around you. I exaggerated a little when I told my wife that the mosquitos here are so big that they have fur. What is true is that they are big.   Today was the last day of our training. We will be going out to eat at Players for fish fry, per Tino Gallegos's ( http://elotroladodelvalle.blogspot.com ) recommendation. When we come back, we'll have to start packing our things so that we ca...

I finally got official word that I got hired. I originally applied for a teacher assistant position and went through most of the training with that assumption as a volunteer. At the last minute, prior to the interview, it was suggested I apply for a teacher position instead. That pays a little better. In addition, I applied as a bus driver. I got both jobs. This is awesome! I've always wanted to drive a bus. I will definitely enjoy this gig, even with the long hours. Depending on my route, I may have to drive between 1.5 to 2 hours in the morning and again in the afternoon. This means overtime for me every week during the season, maybe 10 to 20 hours. This is good for the company because hiring a full-time bus driver would cost more than paying me the overtime. Sadly, the job also means that I am not officially a migrant. By definition, migrants work in agriculture or food processing. On the bright side, I'll be participating in a program that helps migrants and their children....

I've noticed that Jay Regalado is writing the following comment on everybody's blogs: If you're a victim of crime....don't remain silent. There's help out there. The Office of the Attorney General serves victims of crime by administering the compensation to victims of crime fund and related grants, and by offering training and outreach programs. The Attorney General's website is http://www.oag.state.tx.us/victims/victims.shtml or you can call the office at 512 463-2100. In addition, A buddy of mine also works for A Child Advocates Center for any children victims in Hidalgo County (IN OUR VERY OWN GREAT CITY OF EDINBURG Office, 956-287-9754) So, before Jay comes commenting on mine, I figured I'd put it on a post myself. If any of you know Jay, tell him that he's not blogging, he's posting comment spam. It's for a good cause; but, it has no relation to the post topics. I think most of us would be willing to help hi...

I went swimming earlier this evening at the UWOSH indoor swimming pool. I was expecting the worst. I remember as a kid when I would go swimming in the lakes in Wisconsin. One year when we lived in Madison, our apartment complex had a pool. All experiences involved damn cold water. I was pleasantly surprised tonight. The water was a bit shocking, but not the sort of cold that leaves you breathless. As a guest of UW, I am allowed to use the facility. I went with a friend and my son around 7:30. It took us a while to find the way into the pool, they keep it in the basement. My friend had been here last year and went swimming. He forgot how to get in. The water is colder than an RGV swimming pool. It didn't take long for my toes and legs to start cramping up. The valley definitely has a advantage in pool temperatures.   If you want to experience a good pool, you must go to the Mission Northside Pool, next to Mission High School. That pool is heated all year. It's awe...

I would like to encourage other RGV bloggers to post. I am relying on your posts to keep up to date with what's going on in the RGV. Today, I got posts from some of my favorite bloggers. I know, I know. It's summer and things are slow. Some of you are probably out of town too. Fill us in on your vacations too. I don't want to lose touch with things back home. I look forward to reading your blogs.    

I got an anonymous comment on yesterday's post . I re-read the post and towards the end it sounds like I'm not going back to the RGV. I'm sure that anonymous will be disappointed, but I will be returning home to Mission, Texas. This is just a seasonal job. I expect to be going home by October. As much as I like Wisconsin, the area where I'm going is only an hour away from St. Paul, one of the coldest spots in America during the winter. There is a damn good reason why we have Winter Texans in the Rio Grande Valley every year. If you look in my 43 Things list, you'll see that freezing my ______ off is not listed. Besides, the valley is my home.   I haven't interviewed anybody, today. My mind was mostly on my job interview. I wound up having two interviews for jobs I had not considered. They are short-staffed in bus drivers, so I volunteered to get my Class B license so that I can drive the bus. This would be on top of my duties as a teacher, shoul...

We had the opportunity to meet the executives of UMOS today. We learned about the history of the organization and some challenges. Very interesting stuff. It was followed by more training. Today we were joined by support staff, which made our group bigger. In addition, UW-Oshkosh is hosting some summer camps. The campus is flooded with high school kids. We did have the good fortune to find Uncalendars . I got hooked on them at UT-Austin .   Tomorrow, I officially interview for my job after a day of training. It's a formality of sorts, I'm practically in already due to the shortage of workers. In case anybody is interested, the Migrant Head Start program needs bus drivers and other personnel for the schools. If you don't mind relocating, there is work for you outside of Texas. This brings me to a related subject that popped up today.   While we were fighting to stay awake during the training, my wife wrote me a note asking if we could come to Wisconsin ag...

Tonight, I decided to talk to a long-time migrant friend of mine who came to the Migrant Head Start training. He now works as a bus driver for the program during the summer. Back home, he also works as a bus driver for the Head Start program under the Texas Migrant Council. Due to some family ties, I've known him for almost two decades. We call him Soto, although that's not his real name. He got his nickname because he came from Soto La Marina, Tamaulipas in Mexico. He has been coming up north for a long time already. Now, he has a family with a son at UT Austin and two lovely daughters who are about to bloom into their adulthoods. Today was his first day in Oshkosh before the long week of really boring training for him, my second. So, we went to have a couple beers to console ourselves over our ill-fate.   Just to give you an idea of who he is, Soto is one of the hard-working Mexicans who came to the U.S. to make a better life for himself. He has done everything...

Mobile audio blog entry by me, Shaine Mata, for RGV Life. Mobile entries are on the go blog entries whenever computer access is not available. MP3 File

Mobile audio blog entry by me, Shaine Mata, for RGV Life. Mobile entries are on the go blog entries whenever computer access is not available. MP3 File

Since our arrival at Wisconsin, we have spent a few nights with some family out in Wautoma. On the first night there, we had a local farmer bring a fresh deer to the camp. They eat his crops, so he has a permit to shoot them off season. I held it while they dressed it and cut it up. Usually, the single guys will take take all the deer they can get in order to save money on groceries. Families don't usually eat deer because the moms are squeamish about eating Bambi. We ate deer the following night. Our second day in Wautoma, we went to find out our job prospects in Rice Lake via the Wisconsin job center. We were back and forth on deciding to either stay there to work or head to Rice Lake as we originally intended. We got some good "intelligence" about our prospects up in Rice Lake, so we chose to bring my wife to Oshkosh for Migrant Headstart training. We are reasonably certain that we can find work for my mother in Rice Lake. While here in Oshkosh, a teacher assistant dec...

Mobile audio blog entry by me, Shaine Mata, for RGV Life. Mobile entries are on the go blog entries whenever computer access is not available. MP3 File

We have arrived at the ramada camp north of Wautoma.

We have arrived at wisconsin. Drive is almost over.

We have crossed the Mississippi into Illinois at Cairo. We are in the land of Lincoln.

We are entering missouri on interstate 55.

We are leaving the migrant center after some rest and showers. We are going to grab some coffee and then head to out.

There is a hispanic newspaper in Arkansas. You can read it at www.amigonews.com weekly.

We have finally left texas. Damn It's a big state! We will stop to rest at the Hope migrant mission in Arkansas until midnight.

We got pulled over by border patrol north of san manuel because they saw our luggage in plastic bags. Relieved it was not a ticket

We are on our way to wisconsin. Kids were waiting to leave so they could sleep. We will stop briefly in austin. Then on to Hope AR

The text post blackout commences tonight. I don't know how long I'll be away from computers. Hopefully not too long. I'd like to post press releases on the SpinRGV Blog  as quickly as possible, but I may fall behind. I'll be posting audio entries on RGV Life . The RGV Life Podcast may not have any show updates depending on how "in touch" I am with events in the Rio Grande Valley. Maybe I'll start a new RGV Life Podcast Migrant Series or something.   In the coming days, expect audio posts telling you about our trip and places we are visiting. I have no way of posting pictures, otherwise I would do it. I will be taking my digital camera on the trip. We'll also have our iRiver to record anything. I expect a boring trip, frankly. The kids may be excited to see new things. We leave in three hours.    

Today, we spent our time cleaning up and putting stuff away around the house. I made a few trips to the Laundromat to wash the clothes. We won't be taking most of them with us to save us some trouble. We squeezed most of our stuff in a big plastic container. Our toiletries are in a separate box. Besides, we can hit yard sales up in Wisconsin and buy clothes that are better suited to their weather up there. Even in the summer, most days are in the 70's or 80's. Nights fall down to the 50's. My daughter is packing a swim suit because she plans on going swimming. I've warned her that the lakes up there are cold. You can feel layers of cold as you swim around in the lakes. The deeper you go, the colder the water gets; and it starts off cold by our standards. You dive in brown and come out blue. I guess you have to experience it for yourself.   One issue has come up. We had an idea of how we would deal with it before, but we have new developments. The issu...

Mobile audio blog entry by me, Shaine Mata, for RGV Life. Mobile entries are on the go blog entries whenever computer access is not available. MP3 File

Magnus packing for wisconsin Originally uploaded by rgvlife . Not to be left without something to do, our son decided to pack his toothbrush. We tried explaining to him that he would need his toothbrush handy so that he could use it on the trip. He was unmoved by our arguments and continued packing. This will be his and my daughter's first trip out of state. They have never known anything other than Texas or Reynosa. In some ways, this trip is about more than just work. We'd like our children to see what else is out in the world by going to work if we can't venture out on vacation.

We have a lot of time to prepare for our trip up to Wisconsin. We will be leaving on Friday at midnight. This way, we can visit my brother for a while in daylight before heading up north. We spent the day taking care of bills. I discovered that Texas Gas Service was way behind. I don't look at the bills because I have automatic payments scheduled. The last time I checked, my gas was about $12 per month. I scheduled $20 monthly payments so that we would have credit. I did not realize that our monthly gas has gone up to $26/mo. So we owed $50; there goes my credit. We used to not cook as much. Lately, since I've been home, I've been cooking. I usually prep food in advance of working the pans, so I tend to cook on high flames. When you cook on medium, you have time to prep as you go.   Other things we did included paying our Post Net mailbox through November, depositing the money from the sale of my wife's van, cancel our car insurance, and other little erra...