國境以南

墨西哥是美洲文明古國，曾蘊育了瑪雅、阿茲臺克、托爾特克、奧爾梅加和特奧蒂華坎等古印第安文化。然而在近代，人們談到這個與美國接壤的國家時，往往會想到貧窮、偷渡、犯罪等一系列問題。對于我們的外教Josh來說，墨西哥則是一個熟悉的地方。因為墨西哥與他的家鄉德克薩斯州接壤，邊界在那里變得模糊起來。平凡的旅程、淳樸的人們，還有熱辣的食物，構成了他最難忘的記憶。

The little boy kept looking at me as I turned away to leave the kitchen. I couldn’t understand why he was looking at me. What was so unusual? True， I was in his house and eating his food， but we had been coming to his house every day for a week， and his parents had cooked the food for us that morning. True， he was Mexican and I was American， but Mexico is right next to my home state of Texas， and the people of this 1)border town saw Americans all the time. So why was he looking at me?

I decided not to worry about it， and went outside to examine the small house we were building in the family’s front yard. It was very， very small—only about ten square meters—and very simple. 2)Nevertheless， it had taken

我轉身離開廚房的時候，那個小男孩一直注視著我。我不明白他為什么盯著我看。有什么奇怪的呢？是的，我在他家里吃著他的食物，但我們已經連續一個星期來他家了，那天早上他的父母還為我們做了早餐。沒錯，他是墨西哥人，而我是美國人，但墨西哥緊挨著我的家鄉德克薩斯州，這個邊境城鎮的人經常見到美國人。那他為什么盯著我看呢？

我決定不去想這個問題，走出去查看我們在這家人的前院修建的小屋子。它小極了，大概只有十平方米，而且十分簡陋。盡管如此，我們這些年輕人還

是花了六天的時間才把它建好。當地人圍過來看鄰居的新建筑，就連在泥濘街道上閑逛的羊和雞也過來湊熱鬧。

看著這些人，我想到這次旅程的開端。我們當地教會的年輕人大概每年都會進行一次“宣教旅行”，就是說我們會去美國或其他國家較為貧困的地方，幫助當地居民建造或者維修他們需要的東西。我參加過五次宣教旅行，幫助建造了三間房子、一間學校和一座教堂——但這次是我的第一趟旅程，也是我最難忘的一次。……