Interrupted by a bus

A few days have passed and since I received a prodding email, it must be time to blog again. Monday was the first day our site didn't receive any new refugees and on Tuesday, we shut down the site there, moved everything to one room for storage, and an hour later found out we were popping up a new site in New Mexico, not far away.

So after a lovely Texas BBQ style meal with our new best friends from NY, a final meal of sorts as we were sent to different sites, at 9pm we pulled into our new hotel and started setting up first thing Wednesday morning. I read somewhere that instictually, you don't sleep well the first night in a new place because you are on alert for predators. No predators here, but I am on my 5th new room in 8 days....

Monday and Tuesday were fun as I got to operate as a shift coordinator. That means being the go-to person with problems, arranging the rides, ensuring the meals are served, and a thousand small tasks, one of which was activating a burner cell phone for a man who purchased it a phone and minutes but needed the internet to activate it all. So after only 30 min of effort, including getting him an email account so he could open a cell account so he could register a new phone number at his new address, only then did we realize there were no places nearby that sold international phone cards. So he called his sponsor to call his wife in Guatemala to give her the phone number so she could call him! Phew!! I'm exhausted just describing how much work it took!! So rewarding to connect the two of them. 

Also, without the background worry of a bus coming and the constant turnover of people, it was actually quiet enough to have a coloring club. While I finished my bus poster, a few little ones came in and colored with me. I learned the Spanish word for some colors, and they the English words. We counted a bit and giggled a lot. It was adorable!!

Meanwhile, Cathy and Maco spent the daytime enjoying a quaint nearby town and taking a short break. Little did they know we would end up in that town before the night was over!

So, it's been a good few days. I only now have time to write because we are waiting for the bus to....

Update 5 hours later.... 

So the bus arrived as I was typing that, we welcomed 90 people to a brand new site, and now at 9pm are waiting as their families call to tell us about the tickets they bought. Crazy day!! 

Tonight I go to bed, hearing the sounds of my two roommates just a bit ahead of me asleep, so grateful for their patience, knowledge and amazing work ethic, going for 13 hours straight! I have a lot to learn.