Beans

Monday…
This morning, we visited a shelter for children who have been abused, abandoned or deported without being accompanied by family. Little Jeanette is only two or three and doesn’t talk as she curls up in her soft pajama jumper and stares blankly across the room. She does not talk to anyone. She is alone and afraid. The shelter believes they might have tracked down her mother who is probably an alcoholic. It was so hard to leave her and walk away.

During free time downtown, I made some great purchases and thoroughly enjoyed myself while bartering with various merchants. One man saw my No Mas Muertes (No More Deaths) t-shirt and asked if he could give me a hug. He wants one, too. =) Later, a very small woman who reminds me of someone, though I can’t figure out whom, tapped me on the arm and asked if I could spare a few dollars so that she could buy some milk for her baby. She looked like a migrant…homeless, afraid, desperate. It’s amazing how a movement so young can reach out to so many with hope.

In elementary school, I took some summer Spanish classes. We were all given a list of Hispanic names to choose from to give ourselves a name for the duration of the course. I chose Socorro, mainly because it sounded like ‘soccer’ and I was completely obsessed with the sport at the time. Today, I learned that it means ‘help’ or ‘assistance’. It appears that there indeed has been a guiding force at work in my life for quite some time.

‘Saw my fellow broncos again this afternoon when we stopped by the Casa de la Misericordia. They were engaged in digging up a section of hard desert dirt for a garden. ‘Workin’ hard.
I’m in another house waiting for my homestay mom to pick me up. The rest of my house group is giving food to migrants at the border until 10pm. There are ants crawling on the wall, though the rest of the house is really pretty cozy.

I would be thoroughly thrilled to see a pizza. Food has been tortillas, refried beans, rice and other veggie-type side dishes for nearly every meal. They have some very creative drinks down here. Besides Tacate, which all of the over-18’ers enjoyed the other night… =) …there’s oat drink (tastes like banana break/cookies), orchata (cold, sweet, kinda cinnamon-like), cucumber juice, orange-flavored water, and a very good chilled chocolate and banana drink we had with breakfast this morning.

‘Just finished “The Wounded Healer”…loved it. Now, I’m starting on “The Sanctuary Experience: Voices of the Community” which is about the churches in Tucson that took in refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala during their civil war in the 1980s. Some went to jail for it. I’ll elaborate later.

Time to go to my host family’s house!
Adios =)