Summer in El Paso

Today, we received 29 guests from the El Paso Detention Center. They came on a bus and we had to give them COVID tests.  Out of the 29, 12 were COVID-positive. At the Detention Center, they had been sleeping on the floor with hundreds of people, in very close quarters. Many of them hadn't showered for a full week.  When we told them they'd have to quarantine, some understood but most were angry, telling us that they didn't have a say in whether or not they contracted the virus. I agreed, and it made me want to punch something.  They spent the entire afternoon in our isolation rooms, waiting for our director to finalize hotel reservations.  I keep thinking about one man, who was stretched out on the bed and sweating. He told me he had never felt this sick in his entire life.  OEM hotel rooms—where we send COVID-positive guests—are dingy, with cinder block walls and rusty bathrooms.  The worst part is that the phones don't work (at least in the rooms that I'v...

I went around and asked some volunteers and guests in the shelter this question today: What gets you through the day?  A smattering of answers below...  1. Written words 2. When someone shares a thought, or story, or opinion, or joke, or any vulnerability, or any strength 3. Cooking chickpeas and stews 4. To-do lists 5. Sunny days 6. Hope 7. Saying good morning and sleep well 8. A funny facial expression 9. Sarcasm 10. Engaging with someone's humanity for the sake of truly being with the person 11. Asking good questions When I try to answer the question, I'd like to ask myself: Is this enough to turn my days into my life?  (Post inspired by a poem I read this evening.) 

A fellow volunteer told me she's been having nightmares about the shelter.  The first: She's wearing an ankle bracelet and can't get it off.  The second: She's eating day-old, donated, stale apple fritters out of a grocery bag.  The third: The ceiling is leaking into a sink, and the sink is leaking onto the floor.  The fourth: She's smuggling guests in the back of her car by hiding them under a blanket.  (Note: I debated whether or not this post was appropriate and decided that just as it's important to revel in small moments and reflect on injustice, it's also important to laugh about the ridiculousness of things.) 

I took an 18-year-old Haitian man to ICE to get an ankle bracelet charger today. On the way, he told me his story.  When he was 14-years-old, his mother was killed by people who claimed she was engaged in black magic. He said the people in their village called her a "bruja," or witch.  After the assassination, he moved to Santiago, Chile with his sister. He lived with his aunt and uncle, went to school, learned Spanish, and studied natural sciences. When the riots started in 2019, however, he and his sister decided to travel to the US. They traveled through ten countries in Central and South America.  He told me that there were times he thought he wouldn't make it. He slept on the jungle ground, scrounged for water, and went days without food.  Many in his group died, but by some miracle both he and his sister made it.  His time with border patrol in El Paso was short—just three days—but he told me they barely fed the detainees, gave them thin rolls to sleep on,...

I've been trying to interview ten guests a day for the last ten days that I'm here. 100 interviews in total.  I want to transcribe my conversations for others to read, to understand just how multifaceted and beautiful perspectives here can be.  ...  An excerpt from a 41-year-old Guatemalan woman who I talked to today. She had been traveling for two years to get to the United States.  What advice would you give me?  Be more humble. Have more humility. We need to be simple and humble. If we are, then God will look out for us. Little by little, he will help us.  If you could change the world in one way, what would it be?  I would change the bad human beings—people who have killed, who have violated women. If they could have better hearts and if they could give equally to others and live equally, they would be more human. There should be no assassinations.  Do you think people are generally more good or bad?  There are more bad people. There shou...

I like thinking about the places we send our guests, what they'll do, how they'll live.  When I ask them what they hope for in the future, they almost always say that they want to work and they want to own a house.  A lot of them have had various jobs in their own countries—doctors, nurses, store owners, architects, engineers, etc.—but they tell me they'd be happy with any type of job they can find in the United States. They say that with the language barrier, they don't expect to do much more than clean or farm or work in construction.  Out of curiosity, I went around the office today writing down the names of the cities that we've sent our guests to over the past three days.  In no particular order, they are...  Boynton, FL; Austin, TX; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Inglewood, CA; Sarasota, FL; Sacramento, CA; South Yarmouth, MA; Brooklyn, NY; Seymour, IN; Richmond, TX; Las Vegas, NV; Knoxville, TN; Fall River, MA;  Midwest City, OK; Albuquerque, NM; Atlanta, GA; N...