Introductions to a New Place

Update

Hey all!  I am safe and sound in Tucson, Arizona in my apartment that I will be sharing with two other YAV women.  We've received wonderful introductions to Tucson all week from our coordinator, Brandon.  With our house bikes, we explored the university area (which has many funky shops and lots of open green space), important service places (like the post office, banks, laundromats, libraries, and restaurants), and got a chance to take some time to ourselves on the streets of this bike friendly city.  I have to say that I am incredibly excited to be able to bike almost everywhere that I need to go!  When you see me next, I will be one toned and tan woman!

No More Deaths

Another part of our orientation besides getting acquainted with the Tucson area, deals with developing a broader understanding of immigration.  The Tucson site, although now dealing with issues like food security, housing, and ministry leadership, was originally started because of the immigration situation in the southwest and the need for humanitarian and educational awareness.  So as a part of our education, Catie, Emily, Brandon, and I went out to the desert for an orientation with a man named Gene, who has been a coordinator since it started in the spring of 2004.  On our trip up to the camp, he described the history of this organization and the stories of migrants that he has encountered.

No More Deaths is a not for profit humanitarian aid organization that came together in response to the high number of deaths in the Sonoran desert near Tucson.  The volunteers provide clean water, food, and medical care to migrants that they encounter.  This doesn't come without challenges, however.  Recently, 13 aid workers have been arraigned on littering charges for leaving gallon jugs of water out in the desert for migrants. And the organization consistently runs into people who disagree with their mission statement that "humanitarian aid is never a crime."

We got out to the camp on Thursday afternoon, and met the current volunteers as they returned from their patrols.  There was a Methodist pastor from Washington whose congregation wasn't too happy about his work, a young Maryknoll sister who had done organizing work in Guatemala, a few students from Arizona universities, a man trained in wilderness rescue and community organizing without a high school degree, an athiest woman who was happy to be in a community where her religious beliefs didn't matter, and a wonderful man who woke us up to the sounds of Old Crow Medicine Show's Wagon Wheel at 5 in the morning.  This group had been out in the desert for 2 weeks, doing daily patrols which consist of water drop offs, trash pick-up, hiking, and providing food and medical aid to migrants in the desert.

We were invited on Friday morning to take part in a patrol near the Arivaca Lake.  We arrived at the parking lot and proceeded to hike for about a mike around the lake, up and down hills and through a canyon.  The desert was beautiful, filled with colorful flowers, horny toads, deer, butterflies, and all kinds of funky desert plants.  As we got close to migrant trails, however, we also found water bottles, socks, shoes, candles, trash bags, and other possessions left behind from journeys.  It was a sobering moment to see the beauty of nature all around and then to run into the ghostly possessions of a migrant long since gone.

I have a feeling that this is the start of many humbling experiences for me.

I want to invite you to check out the No More Deaths website, which has a lot of helpful information about humanitarian aid, news updates, and ways to get involved.  Let me know your thoughts!

One love.