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!

Resiliency

Today (Thursday) the word that rings truest is resiliency. It's the word of the day. Maco witnessed one of the women who was being aggressively patted down as the image of strength and resilience. The woman walked up to TSA, and rather than merely acquiescing to the TSA's demands, she stood there practically in superman's power pose, not defiant, but simply strong, ready to take on whatever challenge is brought to her. 

Another woman was brought to the hospital (by Maco.... perhaps she should be doing this blog....). The woman came in yesterday complaining about her shoulder, and though she took Tylenol, the pain didn't go away and she could barely move her arm. We thought perhaps her arm was dislocated from sleeping on the concrete floor for two weeks (her suggestion) so she went to the hospital. It wasn't dislocated, but she does have a "frozen shoulder", with basic pain meds as the answer and a loose sling. When I saw her after returning from the hospital, she was so grateful to Maco, and bravely faced the pain as if it was nothing. She wasn't bitter or mad about the injury, just relieved to begin treating it. 

A third example, just from today, is a woman who walked into the supplies room, asked for Vaseline, (which I handed to her), then she began to pull her pants down (with the hotel door wide open) and showed me a huge bruise on her butt. I had no idea what I was supposed to do to help her, or even why she was showing me. She tried to explain in Spanish as I smiled dumbly, repeating for the millionth time "lo siento, no comprende". Then I handed her my phone with the Google translate app up, she typed in Spanish and I read in English that the penicillin shot she was given apparently caused the bruise. I finally realized she wanted icy-hot, and luckily we had some. It's unclear as to whether she got the vaccination at the border or in Mexico before crossing over, but she made me think of resiliency immediately, not letting a simple shot slow her down, nor modesty stand in her way of getting what she needed. That woman will do just fine in America to get what she and her family need. 

The final example I have makes me sad and I hesitate to include it. One of the other volunteers, a religious sister coincidentally from NY as well, explained how she saw TSA inspecting a young baby. Normally, the children are given to the volunteer while the parent is being patted down. This time, apparently TSA took the baby and inspected all of the blankets and clothing laying the infant on a table and opening layers of blankets and clothing then actually patting them down. I asked if the baby was crying but apparently not. This resilient little one sat there taking an extreme level of inequity I've never even heard of - and didn't fuss or complain. I can only imagine what's she's experienced already to be okay with a stranger removing her from her mom, putting her on a table, and touching her, but then again what an amazingly strong character that she is starting life with - this little one has a big future ahead. 

Tonight I go to bed in awe of the people in the rooms around around me, and with the prayer that this is the beginning of a new and different life for them, with the hardships they experienced firmly in the past. To them I say, "bienvenidos"!

Sandwiches Sandwiches Sandwiches

What day is it? What month is it? What country am I in? Life in a hotel can be disorienting. Our offices are bedrooms with the bed merely a soft table. Our storeroom and workspaces are also bedrooms with boxes flowing throughout the room, sometimes on a bed, leaning next to a bed, or on top of the dresser with the TV pushed aside. Even the microwave becomes a storage rack!

What that doesn't leave is workspace.... So when your task is to make hundreds of sandwiches, you have to make a spot. Cathy chose to stand by the bathroom sink. As a good novice, I chose the kneeling position by the bedside table.

What that doesn't leave is workspace.... So when your task is to make hundreds of sandwiches, you have to make a spot. Cathy chose to stand by the bathroom sink. As a good novice, I chose the kneeling position by the bedside table, praying to the God who made peanut butter.

Why do we need so many sandwiches? Well the people who travel by bus travel for up to 2 days and need food for the journey. The people who travel by airplane need sustainable too, but no liquids and less because it tends to be faster. So for a two-day bus journey, we supply each person with 6 pb&j sandwiches (one per meal), a few pieces of fruit, some snacks (chips and a granola bar, maybe a few cookies), and some combination of water, juice and Gatorade. People traveling with babies also get a blanket. These packages are typically made the night before for morning trips and that morning for the evening trips. 

This means I stayed for 12 hours again today, despite being relieved of my duties after a more reasonably-lengthed day. It's not just because I have trouble leaving an unfinished job (yes it mostly is). Well, after making hundreds of sandwiches with Cathy, I decided to reorganize the entire room so we could sit at the table to create our next culinary masterpieces. 

Within minutes of christening the newly organized room to resume sandwich making,  we were given an extra room and I got to reorganize the sandwich fixings and newly streamlined care package creation station in the new room, leaving behind all the medicines and toiletries (but not before reorganizing all of those in the more spacious room once all the food was out). 

So, after a day of organizing 2 rooms (three times), I made the packages the for the next day. It was a good day with many interactions as I met the new refugees right off the bus with snacks and drinks. It was so cool to see the worry melt away and their faces relax once they realized that we were friendly and they would soon see their families. Also, shortly after they arrived, since I was primarily in the room with the medicine and toiletries, so many people came through excited to get to shave now that they had a razor, brush their teeth and wash their hair. It was a pretty cool room to be working in. It will certainly be quieter when I move to the sequestered pb&j room, but we might have to install a coloring station near the extra bed....

Also, Maco and I served lunch today: leftover (but amazing) costco pizza. It had been in the fridge and with no way to heat dozens of pizzas, Maco explained over and over how to use the microwave in their rooms. With a few practiced words, I tried to explain too "Caliente pizza....micro....cuarto" but then just pointed them to Maco to explain with sentences. 

I initially thought I would have nothing to write about, but today really was full. Also - I am happy to report that my sick mama from yesterday is doing fine today, her sons were happy to show me that they were bringing her pizza (and she was well enough to eat it though not yet out of bed). 

Tonight I go to bed with heavy eyelids, smelling of peanut butter, but feeling so relieved that the rooms are organized! All my type-A's say heeeyyyyyy!!! (Heeeyyy!)

Uber to the rescue!

On our first full day (Tuesday Week 1), we may as well have been Uber drivers! Maco and I ran a group of 6 people to the bus station at 5:40 in the morning, sending half the group off in an Uber and having the privilege to accompany a young mom and her four month old boy in our car (There was an extra cat seat available, phew!! Although the boy was wrapped in so many layers of fleece and blankets, he would have been cushioned during any sort of accident!)

We walked into the bus station with the travelers and made sure they understood why they had an accordian full of tickets for their multiple-day journeys to Baltimore, Chicago, and Florida. Each received a bag of food with enough sandwiches for 2 days, and some drinks, snacks, and fruit (Cathy's domain and organizational haven). We parted with warm hugs from the boys and their dads, and a brave smile from the girl.

Arriving back at hotel headquarters, still not yet 7am, we turned around and headed to the airport. Maco went through security with the mom and beaming four-year-old girl, who was handy a fancy airline wings pin at check-in. We were surprised and saddened my the amount of extra security and attention the woman was put through, including a pat down and complete unpacking and repacking of her small backpack, while Maco and the other passengers walked right through. 

Our local CND (Congregation of Notre- Dame) community (Maco Cathy and I) shared a fancy breakfast together before going separate ways for the day. Cathy prepared the food packs,unloaded the many supplies we brought from generous donations, and organized the supplies room. Maco spent the rest of the day in cars with Uber drivers and travellers going to the bus station and airport, because I had the car and a special group of travellers. 

A mom wasn't feeling well, an underscored description to save you from hearing about the details of weeks of dehydration, malnourishment, and extreme temperatures experienced during her travels. We are told from the refugees that the detention facility is kept at freezing temperatures, air conditioned to be colder than outside. They are given aluminum blankets, sleep on the floor and were recently given access to ice-cold showers, if they want to clean up. A hard hello to the USA. It's no wonder this woman was weak. 

A guide to the airport (found at a different)

This mama, her two sons (15 and 13 years old), and I went to a different Annunciation center annex to see a nurse, who advised us to go to ER. I got to see how another center operates and while some things are the same, such as the kind of food that goes into the bags, the policies and amenities are completely different. This center had toys (we don't), but only one big room for sleeping (instead of hotel rooms), and a smaller number of guests, at most 50 compared to our bus loads of over 100 people. 

I had my first moment of shock at this center, too. I asked if we had time to go back to our hotel before the ER to get her papers, as their passports, birth certificates and really all forms of identification are confiscated at the border and they are given a 5-page document in English with their picture and told this is their only identification. We would of course need this at the hospital. 

That's not what shocked me. The nurse agreed we needed the papers also asked if they had their chargers. I was surprised that she would be so involved with their phones, but then the mama lifted her jeans to reveal a tracking device bolted to her ankle. It seems Maco learned this same harsh reality when one of the teenage boys asked if they had to tell security about their device. Fighting back tears, she nodded her "yes". These ankle bracelets need the battery changed/charged every 3 hours, effectively anchoring the people to a wall plug until they go to court. How they handle the 2-day greyhound trip, I can only wonder. 

So by noon, mama, sons, the chargers, papers, bag lunches, and I headed to the ER, where we were attended to immediately and couldn't have met nicer staff. Everyone I've encountered in El Paso so far has been over the top kind to the people we are with, even though they see many through their day, each requiring extra time and attention. 

We were at ER for at least 5 hours, given great care, and for the last hour when the mama was finally able to smile and interact, we shared broken sentences and learned a bit about each other, smiling that we were the same age, she had two kids and yet I had none. The youngest boy and I counted a bit in English and he helped me with some Spanish words, including "do you have games on your phone?", a not-so-subtle hint to pass my phone over. The joke was on him though, as all my games are puzzles or word teasers. 

After returning the tired but grateful family to the hotel, Maco, Cathy and I finished the day in community, sharing a meal together at 6pm, brought by a local community group. I suspect both of my companions are asleep by now, and I'm not far from it. For what is turning into my daily check-in, I confess to you that tonight I go to bed with the memory of a mama finally relieved of her pain, the sweet cheekiness of the boy and tender care he gave his mom while she was ill, and the warmth of the 4-month old headed off to a new life. God is good. 

Not quite day 1

I started the day by reminiscing my years spent in the Southwest, with an early morning roadtrip from Phoenix to El Paso, watching the sun rise with the brilliant pinks and oranges cresting over the jagged craggy mountains that only Arizona can offer.

My sweet serenity was occasionally punctuated with the memory of a political opinion that was thrust upon me forcefully the previous evening, completely unprovoked, while this person and I were witnessing the eclipse.

To this little non-confrontational doe of a girl (me, just to clarify), I sat in stunned silence while I was told how this country could be fixed, eclipsing what was a lovely evening with the shadow of righteous elitism. "Feelings shouldn't come into it" was the concluding statement, though I am still confounded as to what the person was advocating for, only being sure of what they are against (answer: refugees). 

It was good fodder for thought as I arrived at my destination: a motel/emergency annex, where I was greeted by dozens of smiling faces, people so relieved to be out of the icy government facility and into the warm environment Annunciation house provided (even in their annexed location). It seemed almost comical that these friendly, smiling refugees were the same people that were perceived as criminals, sneaks, and lazy vagabonds (according to my friend from the previous night), and yet I do hold with me my friend's expression of fear, wanting to preserve a country they love. As nonconfrontational and noncommital as I was with my friend, I need to acknowledge that coming to El Paso is a choice and statement in itself, to not leave feelings out of it and see the people behind the wall of fear. 

I picked up two fellow sisters from the airport and we went through orientation together at the motel, now more knowledgeable about the processes and duties we will have here. Jumping right in (around 10pm), we escorted a woman and her daughter (who were released today from an ICE facility) to a different annex location, where her husband and second daughter were staying. The family traveled all the way from El Salvador separately, and all 4 just happened to be released at a similar time. They were reunited tonight for the first time since October! This is the story I will take to bed with me, dreaming of a new life for this hopeful, determined family and the good fortune that brought them together. 

Our next run to the bus station starts early tomorrow at 5:40am, helping 6 people get on their way to their families across the country, so I better catch some Z's myself. One thing I am sure of - these next two weeks will not be monotonous!

Just North of the border

Time for an update! The second year of the novitiate has focused on ministry and mission, with me spending the fall months in Toronto working with people who are homeless, and the spring months will be spent in North Carolina working with the people of Appalachia. 

In between, (tomorrow!!) two sisters and I will go to the US/Mexico border in El Paso, where 500 people are being released from ICE (Immigration Control and Enforcement) facilities each day. A nonprofit organization called Annunciation House helps these newly landed Americans get on a bus or plane to where their family is, and provides shelter, food, and a change of clothes until their scheduled trip begins. (I'm told that's how they get out of the detention center - their sponsoring family member buys them a ticket and guarantees a place for them to stay). 

Because of the recent influx of people crossing the border seeking asylum (following the appropriate US legal processes), Annunciation House asked for volunteers, making a specific request to the religious communities. So, two sisters and I are fortunate enough to have the time and resources to get to El Paso to respond to the call and help out. 

For the next two weeks, we will be living in an annex of Annunciation house in a motel (possibly sharing a single room) with an ever-changing population of people who will be passing through, destined for their families in different parts of the US, where they will wait for their court date at their new home. 

Not speaking Spanish will certainly be a limitation, but I expect to change a lot of beds, hand out tons of clothes, make a bunch of meals, and as one person explained to me, "you just need to be a loving presence. You can imagine the hard looks they received while in detention. Your expression of love is all the communication you'll need". 

Smiling? Now that I can do! Keep us in your prayers and we'll keep you updated on one town in the US of A with a lot of happenings. 

Here's the link our community posted about our adventure with some photos:

http://www.cnd-m.org/en/news/article.php?id=1547223919

Building up to my first year

I am often asked "what do you do in the novitiate" and some days - I get to build! We needed a stand for gifts from our Japanese sisters and a platform to make a table in the chapel more stable on the very thick carpet. So... saw'ing on the roof I go with scrap material from around the house. (The table is actually our sacristy table that holds the Blessed Sacrament, the very real presence of Jesus, a table my Uncle Ted and I made from birch wood from our cottage)  

My question: What would you expect we do in the novitiate? Our foundress Marguerite Bourgeoys asked that we be able to do all kinds of things...being versatile and responsive to the needs around us. For me that means creating! 

I have never heard someone say "I'm not that kind of nun" and am so glad I am a part of something where we are encouraged to grow everyday, in all kinds of expected and unexpected ways. As you might expect, we spend a lot of time in prayer and going to church. As well as building yesterday, I helped at a funeral with 3 minutes notice after just coming in from mass up the hill. I jumped in my black dress and ran to the church. I have been reading, drawing, talking, cooking, baking, singing, volunteering, visiting, and learning to play a few instruments. Life has been busy and in two weeks, while I am on retreat, I will have been here for a year. 

I think this picture summarizes the year well. I am still me - with all the building creating and cutting, but what is new is that my hair has been coiffed by our sisters from Cameroon, my cross hangs seemingly between two city buildings, and now I am working with the awareness of God all around me, through me, and in what I am doing. It hasn't been an easy year, but it has been filled with grace, beautiful people, and a lot of learning. I am excited for my year of ministry to begin, to get back out into the world and visit with people where they are (to put this sister thing into practice). Hello Toronto!! See you in October (for a few months anyway).