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Walk down the street in Nuevo Progreso and you will be offered a root canal, a chance to fill your prescription, and a seat to have your shoes polished. On the street you can buy the latest movie, your name on a piece of rice, Mexican-made cowboy hats, paper flowers, and nopales. The shops alongside the street sell tattoos and tequila, pottery, clothing and jewelry.

Somebody asks you to buy something every single step along the way. Kids who seem old enough to be in school, even little boys and girls that might not yet be school-aged, ask you to buy their wares- woven bracelets and candy and gum. Ladies sitting on the sidewalk, toddlers and nursing babies at their sides, ask for change.

Your senses can be quickly overwhelmed in this little Mexican border town, by just a block or two south of the international bridge. I know exactly where I'm going on the main street in Nuevo Progreso. I'm no longer surprised when I look around me and up and down the street. I even mostly understand the language. Again I'm reminded, this world is not our home...

All that, and yet, man, you'd be hard pressed to find better street tacos...