Category Archives: Community

And now for a lighter post:  You may remember Erica mentioning the great taco challenge that the two if us would be undertaking while in Texas.  The challenge would only be complete if we ate something wrapped in a soft or fried tortilla at least once a day. Being a native Texan I was up for the challenge. Plus my favorite food is anything wrapped in a tortilla or piled on chips and smothered in hot sauce.  A few of my favorite taco meals are pictured in the montage above.

We had the opportunity to eat some amazing food while in Texas. Some of our favorites were the homemade meals prepared by Arturo and his family, the homemade menudo in large crock-pots arranged by the local Sheriff’s Department and the fresh tamales brought to us by Flavio Garcia from a neighboring town.  Interspersed among these home cooked meals were a variety of tacos.  My first taco (brisket) was consumed during our first meal after arriving  in San Antonio and spawned the taco challenge. My last taco in Texas (chicken and bean) was part of our final meal at the San Antonio airport.

The most memorable meals came from the town of Falfurrias. Stricklands Restaurant provided a relaxed and comfortable western  feel with delicious meals.  While I stuck with items off their Mexican food menu, some of our other favorites included the fried catfish bites, brisket sandwich and chicken fried chicken.  Our other favorite place to eat was Star of Texas.  The owner was our server the first time we ate there and we had a great time talking to him and hearing his stories.  He could have just poured the salsa in a cup because we wanted to drink it and the carne guisada was absolutely amazing! So amazing that we made sure Star of Texas was our last dinner in Falfurrias. The other place we frequented quite often was, believe it or not, the gas station next to our hotel.  Inside the Valero Gas Station was a small counter selling items from the Laredo Taco Company.  Behind the counter the tortillas were rolled out and grilled to order. There was also a salsa bar that contained a variety of toppings. My favorite was the picadillo, but other favorites were the beef fajita or carnitas tacos.

While we worked hard in Falfurrias, our tummies were always full. Our meals were special times that we spent with each other or with the new friends we made while in Brooks County.

~KEL

Our last morning we decided to take it slow and see a little more of San Marcos. We were happy to leave the Red Roof Inn and head out to explore more of this part of Texas.  For breakfast Ryan took us to Dos Gatos for some amazing kolaches.  We each got two (a savory and a sweet), plus we got a half dozen for the group to snack on later.   Then we went to Mochas & Javas for coffee.  We spent the morning retelling stories and reliving memories we had made during our trip.  We also spent part of our time at the coffee shop doing our last team debriefing for the trip.  Our debriefings were simple: 1) What did we do well yesterday, 2) How can we improve our methods, 3) Questions and 4) Plans for tomorrow.  Since we weren’t in the field the previous day our discussions focused more on future plans: how we will maintain the blog as we move from the field to the lab phase of the mission, how we will process and analyze the unidentified individuals from Sacred Heart that will come to Indianapolis, how we can support our colleagues at Texas State University that are doing a large amount of processing, how we can support our colleague at California State University at Chico who is doing the isotope analysis, and how we can continue to raise funds for our return trip next year and the costs of analysis, while bringing awareness to the issue.

Before heading to the airport we needed to make one more San Marcos staple stop, the river.  Ryan led us to one of the more secluded spots on the river where we were all able to take off our shoes and soak our tired feet. Standing in the river as the water rushed over our feet was a great way to decompress after our two weeks in Brooks County.  Ryan and Justin taught us how to skip stones, we did some bird watching and mostly we just took the time to relax because we’ll be jumping right back into full schedules once we get back home.  Some of us will be taking classes, teaching, working, preparing to travel for data collection and diving into the forensic caseload that accumulated while we were gone.

Unfortunately we did not have a ton of time to spare and had to soon head back to San Antonio to catch our flight home.  Just like last summer, I learned so much from this experience.  I was honored to meet the many people that would visit our site to show their support and gratitude and the many people that are also working on this human rights crisis in differing fashions. The community has been so welcoming and kind to us it is like leaving a second home, so much so that I already find myself missing Falfurrias.

–Erica

We have one day left and we are so close to finishing our goal. There have been great relationships formed and lasting friendships. The reality of the situation has hopefully opened the eyes of every individual that has been here. A lot has taken place since my last post. We have been moving a lot of dirt and doing everything we can to get through this area thoroughly. I have been promoted from Rookie to Expert Time Keeper. For those of you who do not understand the weight of this title, I am responsible for the switch between the members working in the hole and those taking a break. The official time rules are: 1. If you are shoveling you get 4:00 minutes. 2. If you are troweling you get 8:00 minutes. 3. Test pits are one per person. Those are the official rules then there are laws. The first law of “DIGANOMICS” is if you are tired regardless of the time you stop digging. The second law is if you trowel and dig within the same 4:00 minute span you can stay for an additional 4:00 minutes unless it interferes with the first law. The team has accepted my role as Expert Time Keeper and sometimes they think I may not be watching but I always am.

Last time I posted I explained the issue with the little shovel and let me start by saying I am slowly persuading the team to accept the little shovel. However this is the not being done without ridicule. Any given moment I have to defend the little shovel from short and small jokes but LITTLE do they know the little shovel is reigns supreme. Each member but one has requested the little shovel at one point in time, and each time I hand then the shovel there is a wonderfully pleasant smile on my face. Justin, Erica, Dr. Latham, Ryan, and myself have all realized the usefulness of the little shovel. BUT Jessica is resisting coming to the bright side, I have not given up hope there is always tomorrow.

I also went to another ranch. Lately I have been taking a short lunch so not very much bird watching. However I made it up when we went to the ranch. I have 5 birds of the day. 1 being the best bird of that day, starting at 5) wild turkey, 4) Tree duck 3) Swainson’s Hawk 2) Peacock 1) Green Jay. It was a much needed day of relaxation and bird watching and I cannot thank Bill and Peggie Clark enough for allowing us that moment of serenity.

Cheneta