BORDERLANDS YOUNG ADULT VOLUNTEERS

Sorry I’ve been out of action for so long! For me, blogging can be very tough and exhausting at times. So after full days of work, I often find it hard to motivate myself to work and write more. We’ve been quite busy round here so I’ve been out of the blogosphere.

Last week, we Tucson/Douglas/Agua Prieta YAVs had our Lenten Sojourn Retreat. For this we went out to Cascabel, a beautiful area near Benson AZ. We were there to camp, enjoy each other’s company, and the wonderful nature out there.

For the first day and night at least.

For the next two nights and one day after that, we would be out on ‘solos’. This meant that each of us would be taken to individual sites away from each other to spend our time meditating, reflecting, getting away from the busyness of our lives, and hopefully hear a little bit of God’s whisperings to us. While I was stoked to go camping, I was a nervous to be alone for 36ish hours.

I would like to say that while I was out there I spent countless hours meditating and listening to God. That I prayed ceaselessly and saw visions of my future. But I didn’t. I got bored. I pace around. Yes I did pray at times. I read my Bible. But I also stared at the grass. I looked at this one saguaro cactus for way too long (it had like 12 arms which meant it was outrageously old, but other than that it wasn’t too fascinating). And I actually learned some things. I learned that being alone doesn’t bother me at all. However, having nothing to do kind of destroys my soul. I learned that man could in fact live on PB&J alone. I was reinforced in some of the callings I feel in life and got completely turned around in others. I also learned that God could speak to us in boredom and in prayer. Two things I learned really stuck out to me though.

One was about what our coordinator Alison wisely called ‘the Tyranny of the Should’. I don’t know about y’all, but I often find myself telling myself that I SHOULD do things. I should do this or that, or I should study more of this or read more of that. So many shoulds! It can be overwhelming. But then our friendly neighborhood pastor Bart flipped that on it’s head for me. We were sitting around after lunch, waiting to be taken to our sites. I was telling about something I felt like I SHOULD be doing better. And he very calmly said ‘Ya know, maybe you don’t. That might just not be how you operate.’ It was so simple yet struck me. I felt like I constantly made myself do things that I didn’t really want to do but felt like I should do. That simple sentence of Bart’s made me feel more secure in myself and helped me realize that should can be really destructive.

I also learned that things don’t always meet our expectations, and that’s totally okay. I went into this desert sojourn thinking my world would be rocked and I would learn so many things about my life. That God would tell me everything I needed to know and show me visions of my future. But I didn’t. Those things didn’t happen and it was okay. Oftentimes we put unreal expectations on things and are crushed when they don’t happy. At first, I was upset that it didn’t meet my expectations. However, once I thought about it, I realized that it was totally okay that it didn’t meet all my expectations. Things can still be beneficial and help us learn even when they aren’t what we expected. And I am very thankful for that.

I’m heading home early tomorrow morning, and pretty excited about it.  I’ve missed my family and friends from home lately, and I can’t wait to see them again.  Christmas, as always, is sure to be a fun time filled with lots of company, good food, and warmth- literally.  But over the past couple months, I’ve seen firsthand just how many people struggle to afford such material comforts.  Lately, I haven’t been seeing too many people coming in for help at work, because the Border Patrol has been sending deportees back through Nogales.  (It’s easier for them, coming straight down south from Tucson.)  But in years past, (so I’ve been told by other fellow volunteers and community members) as many as 30, 40, or more people were coming into the Migrant Resource Center every single day for lunch.

I haven’t had nearly that kind of flow since I’ve been here.  A couple weeks ago, we had about 6 or 7 middle-aged men who were staying at the local Catholic shelter, and they came for lunch every single day.  Therefore, I’ve been able to spend some time with individual people, learn their names and backgrounds, and even develop some friendships.  Here I’ll tell you a bit about just one person I met this past Saturday.

Over the weekend, our YAV site coordinator Alison was visiting with the folks who comprise our Steering Committee, and we had agreed to meet at the Migrant Resource Center, my workplace.  A young man came in.  Melissa attended to him, warming up some burritos in the microwave so he could have something to eat, and I didn’t pay him much attention at first, since the group of us was getting ready to tour the town and find somewhere to have lunch.  But after a couple of minutes, I left our office area to go over and grab some supplies from the storage area.  As I walked by the young man, I asked him if he had eaten enough- I expected him, like most other migrants who I’d seen up until this point, to say, “Yes, thank you!” or “Yes, of course!” or something to that effect.  But he answered no, that he was still very hungry.  And so I went back to the refrigerator and got some more burritos ready for him.

I knew that the group was getting ready to leave, and figured this would probably take a little while, so I told Alison to have the group go on without me to their first stop, and then come back for me in a little bit.  As the group made its way outside, the young man asked me for a change of pants, socks, and shoes.  I told him he was welcome to come back into the office space and choose from among the clothing we had available.  He said he had been walking too much, and as he picked out what he needed, he removed his footwear.  While I didn’t look too closely, I could tell his feet were not in good shape- he had some patches of skin between his toes that looked black, and an unpleasant smell reached me from the other side of the room.  I wasn’t sure what to offer him for blisters other than some Neosporin and Band-aids; he gladly accepted them.

By this point, the guy had already had two servings of burritos, but I could tell he was still hungry.  So while I prepared him some Ramen noodles, I finally got around to asking his name.  Santiago, he told me.  And then he went on to tell me why he had been walking so much.  He hadn’t been deported, but he had tried to cross the border somewhere over to the east, by Chihuahua.  He said the Border Patrol had found him, but that he had managed to escape and cross back into Mexico closer to the Douglas/Agua Prieta area.  Why was he trying to cross?, I wanted to know.  He said he was trying to get to Tucson to see his mother.  His brother lived there as well, and had just recently had a baby boy.  But the baby had died unexpectedly, and the funeral was planned for sometime in the next couple days (meaning today or tomorrow, at this point).  It seems tragic to think that anyone should have to break or flee the law simply trying to reunite with family for such a tender, heart-breaking occasion.

People cross the border undocumented for a variety of reasons- this case is probably the most unique I’ve encountered to date.  I didn’t think to ask his age yesterday, but Santiago seemed around my own age.  As I sit here typing, counting down the minutes until my shuttle leaves to take me up to Tucson on my way home, I’m haunted by what Santiago told me about his own experience.  I would hate to have to go through what he did just to try and reunite with my family.  No one deserves that.

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