From under the bridge detention--to rooms, a table, sandwiches for the next leg of journey to family
El Paso Day 1
Hit the ground running. Getting
immigration information from migrants, giving meals, making sure they
understand how to use things in their rooms, making sure they are prepared for
their journeys by giving them clean clothes and underwear, etc. they are all so helpful and they sit
quietly. Today Mike drove some to the
bus. I was left in charge.
El Paso Day 3
I’m amazed at the resourcefulness of these refugees. They wear T-shirts for dresses (on the little
girls), Onezis on toddlers, hats for belts, people eating baby cereal because
we ran out of real cereal, men getting the heavy water jugs full.
It’s a wonder and it’s beautiful.
El Paso Day 4 Today Mike and I got a break. We are resting in our room at the
shelter. This morning I got up at 6am to
wake up 2 women and their children for their airport run. All refugees here have people we contact who
buy them a bus or airline ticket. One
woman is going to Washington State by bus!!
Many men here have a child with them.
(Probably some back home too.) I think it increases their chances of
staying in the U.S. if they have their child.
An extreme case was a 20 yr oldboy whose first language was not Spanish,
with a 6 month old. The baby was
drinking juice from a bottle top, not sucking.
I’m afraid for them.
El Paso Day 5 Today an amazing thing happened. Here is the story. We have 2 large trays of mashed potatoes in
the fridge. Can’t help. Oh well.
Then 10 minutes later, I am emptying a bag of garbage in dumpster,
outside with a little Guatemalan boy. A
man and his daughter walk up and wants to ask questions about our situation
here. He wants his daughter to bring
some of her unused clothes here. So I
show them around. During our
conversation he tells me his mom runs the restaurant!!! He calls her and we put
our cold mashed potatoes in the oven. A
small but sweet blessing.
El Paso Day 6. This morning I got up at 5 to wake a woman and child so they could catch
their ride to Houston, 15 hours from here by bus. She is from Honduras. She came here by bus also. It took her 8 days. Her daughter is 8 years old. They lewft a 4 year old back in Honduras with
family. Mom hopes to work in a
store. The little girl wants to go to
school.
El Paso
day 7. Last eve we had 3 desperate bus loads of people from
CBP. First was 30 ish, second 60ish, and just when I thought I had put the last
person in the last room, they brought 10 more people.
Getting these tired, dirty (some who have been
sleeping under bridge outside), their eyes are red and scratchy, noses may be
running. They sit with infinite patience while their children squirm or sprawl
out sleeping on floor. We feed them and welcome them and make sure they have a
bed and shower in a safe place.
One man who I put in a room with his family and
explained in my Spanglish the intricacies of flushing the toilet or using the
shower, I saw later , outside. The sun was shining, and he was standing in the
courtyard , smiling, big smile, naked torso wrapped with a clean white towel
around his waist. His whole self was deeply enjoying the
present moment
El Paso
Day 8. It is our day off.
Last night mike and I tipped a few with another volunteer who leaves
tomorrow. Here’s a couple of
things. Immigration brought people last
night, some without papers. When they
don’t have papers they have no legal photo I.D. They can’t fly, they can only
travel by bus. When they have no papers they can’t even do that.
A woman from Brazil was sooo mad because immigration did take
her photograph. They just didn’t include
it on her paperwork. Forgot? Mistake? On
purpose?
2nd story.
We generate a lot of garbage. So
we put up a sign by the watering hole saying “write your name on your
cup”. Some little boys did. But then they put their cup right back in the
stack. Oh well.
Someone brought about 10 boxes of canned corn. I said to her “What! We have no place to heat this up” so she took
back the unopened cans. My Bad because
the refugees took those cans and ate that corn like it was Thanksgiving.
El
Paso Day 9
Heard Story from another volunteer today about a
man and son who walked every day for 15 days. 1 hour of sleep a night, only
drinking water. Sounds like an exaggeration to me, but even so half that would
be almost impossible.
One volunteer here is N 80 yr old nun. She
worked for 10 years in El Salvador. She met with both side of the conflict
helping to sort things out.
We have local volunteers, one from Wash. D.C.,
Vermont, Denver. Albuquerque, and of course Michigan. Some have raised money
and we're spending it on clothes. Some are fluent in Spanish and are doing
the phone work.
My big contribution has been to befriend the
restaurant manager (remember the cold potatoes miracle), and get her to make us
delicious Mexican food everyday. She is happy to do it. She undercuts all the
competition and she's makin bank.
El Paso
day 10.
This man drove from Houston (15 hours by car) to
pick up his wife and 2 kids. It was beautiful to behold.
The other, similarly grateful person is leaving
for the bus.
(I know none of you will post any photos on
social media)
Just another day in paradise.
El Paso
day 11
These are the paper bracelets worn by the
refugees while in detention. We cut the off their wrists when they arrive.
They're pretty worn and dirty.
The people I've met have. Even mostly from
Guatemala. Next would be Honduras then El Salvador, Brazil, Nicaragua only 2
families. The one family each from Ecuador, Cuba. The Brazilians seem to be the
most prosperous or middle class
The 2nd picture is pork and beans with cilantro.
Very good. Gonna try that one.
El Paso day 12
A volunteer took refugees to the airport this morning. (This happens everyday).
While there she was alerted to a woman and child from our shelter who could not
board a plane (we thought it was because she had no photo on her immigration
papers). She came to us a week ago without Any papers. (Mistake at CBP) and has
been at the Mesa inn since.
Meri, the volunteer, leaves the airport with her. They stop at Starbucks for
coffee ( Meri is thoughtful that way). In the line at Starbucks is a TSA
worker. Meri chats with him and soon they are talking about The Situation. TSA
guy looks at paperwork and says "this paperwork is fine".
They hurry back to airport. Go back to Delta. Meri is sure the flight has left.
NOPE. So they run to security, and Iris, gets on her plane to her family.
We all had a hug fest when Meri tells us this sweet wonderful story
Apparently the real problem was El Paso airport was overwhelmed this morning
with Central American refugees
El Paso
Day 13
I asked a man today who traveled with his wife and 2
daughters how he got here from Honduras.
He said part by bus and part walking.
They walked for 2 weeks in Mexico.
While walking robbers stole his money and cell phone. They took pictures of his family and made
threats against them. They had little
food and no security. Sister Arlene had
a similar conversations with 2 young mothers.
They stole everything of value.
El Paso
Day 14.
Today is our last day here.
We have trained our replacements and we leave in the morning. I’m not sure I mentioned that we have been
living at the Mesa Inn. A half star
hotel. It is rented by Annunciation
House to house the refugees. It has this
sign taped to the front desk. (For those without the photo I will tell you. It says “We do not knowingly rent to
undocumented aliens. If you are and
undocumented alien DO NOT RENT HERE”). I’m pretty sure they know what’s going
on in the back rooms here. [All our Annunciation House guests have documents given them by ICE, and a court date for their initial refugee status hearing.]
So I have this sweet little Guatemalan girl’s face in my
mind. A round little face, pig tails, I caught her singing
once. Her dad is maybe 22 yr old. They took a bus somewhere. We make them signs in English saying “I only
speak Spanish. Can you help me. I have a ticket already”. My final prayer is for all our refugees to
reach a safe haven where they can be productive and happy and feel safe. Esp. my little girl.
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