How it Came to Pass
Last year driving north after leaving San Gregorio, Kirk and I stopped at CICESE, the University in Ensenada, to visit our biologist friend, Eric Melnick, whom we had met during the previous summer on an expedition to Guadalupe Island. Eric has written a field guide to the marine mammals of Baja California and had offered to give us a case for distribution in Loreto. We just had to pick it up. During our brief visit we mentioned Marisol, and he, in turn, told us about a school for deaf children, Rancho Sordo Mudo, located in the Valle de Guadalupe not far from Ensenada on the highway to Tecate. When Kirk and I got to Santa Barbara later that evening, we realized Ann would be heading north with Jack soon, and they would pass by the school, since they always cross the frontera at Tecate. We called and told them about it, and they subsequently paid a visit, toured the facility, and reported back that it was a remarkable place.

This year we arrive at San Gregorio with a plan for the Higuera family - would they drive north with us to visit Rancho Sordo Mudo? Kirk and I are in a position, both financially and physically, to change the Higuera's world by providing opportunity where otherwise none exists. With our excesses we can change Marisol's life. She has changed ours. Is all of this cruel irony - to feed a child all of the ice creams of a week, and to expose her to "the outside," only to have her be returned to a paucity of food and comfort? I tell myself it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all, and I hope it applies here.

I had e-mailed the school a week before going to San Gregorio to ask if we could bring the Higuera family and Marisol to visit Rancho Sordo Mudo on Friday, January 4th. Pastor Lucas Everett, who himself is 85% deaf as a result of rheumatic fever, responded in the affirmative. He replied that although there were no openings in the school until September, he looked forward to our visit. He asked that we please be sure the family understands this is only a visit, lest they be disappointed. Knowing this, we tell Nabor and Delia and Luis of our plan and we offer to drive them north to see Rancho Sordo Mudo. They sign to Marisol and she smiles when they pretend to type keys on a typewriter. With arms out-stretched to the sky, Ann repeats several times, "Qué oportunidad!" in support of our plan. The family remains silent. They tell us they will discuss it and let us know by New Year's Day, two days from now, when we head north.
Next Chapter: The Decision