Tetris - hotel edition

Too tired to really write tonight, worked alongside Sisters Maco, Cathy, and the whole team until 10pm. The bus arrival time is unpredictable, and today that meant a late arrival of 5pm. It took 5 hours to process 70 families, with two amazing Spanish speakers on the phones to get them registered. When the people come in, we take their information down, call their family, and explain to the family to "buy them a bus or plane ticket from El Paso Texas... no...Houston isn't close....(A 12 hour drive)". Then the people get to talk to their family member for the first time. While we don't try to rush them, it's hard when there are 68 people waiting outside in the cold desert night to be registered too. It is great to see their face instantly change when they take the phone and say hello to their family, for the first time from the same side of the border.

Then they are assigned a room, and that's where I worked today. I felt like I was playing tetris, trying to maximize the rooms and putting appropriate people together in a room. Since almost all of the people that come are a parent with a child, two families share the rooms with 2 double beds. Part of the strategery (SNL reference circa 2000 Bush election Will Farrell golden era) is to ensure there are two women in a room together or two men, with similarly aged children. Sometimes matching the gender of the children matters too, especially with the teenagers, but less so for the 5 year olds (so long as they are both 5). Using a system of sticky notes and poster boards, we try to determine if a name is masculine or feminine and match the people up one at a time. It is fun but tiresome. 

Then they proceed to the clothing room where Cathy worked and the toiletries room where Maco was. Then they are shown to their rooms where they meet their roommates. I dropped one group off towards the end of the night and his roommate was already stripped to his underwear, stood there smiling, apparently unaware of his lack of clothing. I giggled, waved, and said "Buenos niches" on my way by.

One neat story: a man was one of the first to be registered, and while the rest of the people were going through registration, his family bought him a ticket, called back, and he was off to the airport hours before registration was finished! That never happens. Even more interesting, I noticed he was going to the same town as where one of our volunteers lives. She's a religious sister as well, and during the car ride to the airport, she was able to offer the man a job to work on the congregation grounds! How great is that!?

Okay too tired to tell more. But I am quite excited to say: I go to bed tonight with the memory of a two-year-old reaching up for me to hold her and cuddling right in While she patted my back, and hearing a little one, maybe 7 years old, from the day before call me 'Tia' (auntie) as we had so many interactions in such a short time! My legs are tired, eyelids heavy, but my heart is very full!

Here is a photo of Sister Karen, her niece Kaleigh, and Sister Maco with the bus behind. There are 100 souls laying their heads on pillows here in the hotel tonight! What a great feeling!