Wrappin' it Up

Since returning from the Borderlinks delegation (hi guys!) I’ve been volunteering with No More Deaths at the office doing administrative odd-jobs. Yesterday, for instance, Steve-o (who’s in town this week) and I drove all over the city with $70 on a mission to buy as many socks as possible from thrift shops. We came up with 58 pairs. Woohoo!!! Our wide assortment included orange tube socks, Christmas designs and some squishy knitted ones. =)

Today, I spent a couple of hours sorting through three large Rubbermaid tubs of random medical supplies that had been donated to No More Deaths. I have no idea why an NGO that rarely performs more detailed procedures than basic first aid needs ten catheter kits. Baffling! I also found an “Emergency Chemotherapy Spill Clean-up Kit.” ??? Luckily, I was able to fill up one of the tubs with gauze, rubbing alcohol and plastic gloves which should prove to be helpful on a regular basis. =)

This last month has been a well-balanced one. I have experienced desert heat, dust storms, ants, getting stuck by a jumping cholla, dehydration, migraines, stomach sickness, walking for miles, eating lots of beans, staying with a host family in Nogales, a feeling of empathy for an injured cockroach, sleeping in the desert, sleeping in a bed, not getting a shower for a week, showering in a solar shower (water in a bag suspended above the ground), showering in Nogales where you have to use as little water as possible, driving the “Exploder” which lacked a working driver’s side door and air conditioning, not getting run-over by a runaway van, fire ant bites, bartering with merchants, finding a monk in a box, hanging out with three key members of the Sanctuary Movement and a scientist whose lab proposed several theories I studied in cell bio last semester (map kinase cascade and work with g-protein receptors…hi ken, erin and kerri!), meeting migrants at various places along their journeys, patching up lots of feet, visiting the desert camp and migrant shrine, running into friends over and over again, ice baths, carrying ? Gonzales-Galirdo’s cross from Sasabe to Tucson, sage ceremonies with Maria, hand-washing, sorting medical supplies for No More Deaths, 7am meetings at Sarah’s, dum dum dum, Miriam’s puppy, the taste of a McDonald’s quarter-pounder with cheese, driving the port-a-potties, the freakin’ steep hill with wires and the port-a-potties (yay for Team Ashley and Laura!), modern dance in the mornings, CPT’ers, the dumpster-divers, barking unchained pitbull, Mark, felon nuns who are really cool, bush hunting, Diet Coke, “Presente“…

I’m hoping to catch a standby flight home tomorrow to get an extra day and a half of rest and a few more malaria pills down my throat. =)

Next week in Nicaragua should bring yet another perspective to the issues I’ve seen here on the border since many migrants come from extreme southern Mexico and Central America.