While we spent the first week hiking established trails and checking for migrants/leaving water, this past week brought some new adventures. Bri and I moved to what is called Mobile Camp with Gene, the guy whose house we stayed at last week. The three of us spent the week hiking areas that aren't well mapped, trying to establish the routes that migrants are taking North, determining which routes are most well-traveled and where migrants are most likely to need help. We put all the information into GPS units, then later export the waypoints we've made onto maps and connect the dots (side note: I'm getting a good handle on how to work with GPS gear, which will be a nice thing to have when I head to grad school in a few months). No More Deaths has a pretty extensive set of information that keeps growing, and that allows us to be more effective.
I've been trying to think of what I should write about this week (we are, at the moment, utilizing the computers of the U. of Arizona library), and I keep coming back to the dump sites. When migrants are led along the trails by their guides/coyotes (we're told the phrases have become interchangeable), they carry whatever they can cram into a backpack. At some point, once they've passed the border, they will meet up with a ride at a pick-up point. Before this pick-up point, however, there has to be a dump site. The dump site is where the guide tells them to get rid of their backpacks, the packs' contents, and anything that can identify them as being from Mexico/elsewhere. So places within a day's travel of pick-up sites end up covered in trash, clothing, packs, food, etc., because the migrants are forced to leave everything there.
We come along these sites especially when we're hiking new areas, and No More Deaths attempts to recycle things. We carry out the usable packs to be re-used in various needy areas, clothing that is still good is taken to shelters, etc., and plastic water jugs are washed out so they can be filled and put out on trails again (I should note that trash is broken down by the sun much more quickly than at home...not that it makes the total amount of trash everywhere fine and dandy, but it does break down faster here).
When we encounter these sites, we go through the bags and other items, in order to find what is useful, and it is strangely reminiscent of the service trip I went on in New Orleans. The difference is, in New Orleans we went through things in the ruined homes in order to set aside valuables for the families to keep, and here there is no hope of the items ever being returned to their owners. There is such a broad range of items that people deem necessary for the trip-- grammar school notebooks, lotions, cologne/perfume, cloves of garlic, names/addresses/phone numbers for contacts in the U.S., crosses and other religious objects (I found a picture of the Pope in one bag), and of course lots of canned food and salty things. Some things strike me as odd or silly (say, cologne?), but then I have to catch myself with that. If I were making this journey, what would I conclude was necessary to bring, and who am I to critique what someone else thinks is important? It's not my place, for sure.
There are also lots of shrines along the trails (Catholicism being a big deal here), and those are touching, to say the least. At Mobile Camp a migrant started a shrine before we got there, and it sits right next to the Prayer Flags that the Buddhist landowner (who is letting us use her land) put up...I like that juxtaposition.
I think I've reached my ending point for today, though all that I've written is entirely inadequate. I think about all the things I want to convey when I finally get here, and then it just becomes too much to pour out in any coherent form. The people we're meeting here, citizens and undocumented persons alike, are all amazing creatures. I think this summer is going to be on par with Ghana in terms of changing my person, and I'm excited for that.
Shalom.
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2 comments:
Hi, Rachel! It has been so interesting reading your journal writings. It makes me wish I were younger or in better health. I'd love to try something like this. You must be learning so much and you should be so proud of the meaningful work you're doing this summer, when you could be doing something to earn money, but would most likely be much less meaningful. It must be somewhat emotionally draining at times, as well as physically with all of your hiking, but so worth it.
I read that the senate defeated the immigration bill yesterday. I'm much more interested in reading about things like that now with your involvement, and it made me sad and angry. I wish I could do more to be involved besides just send money and pray. I pray for your safety, health, etc. each day. I wish you could talk Eric into doing something like this sometime, even if just for a week or so. I think it would be such a good experience for him, and like you said, it'd leave him a different person like it has you. Your parents must be so proud of you! They've obviously done such a good job of raising you to care about people and to want to help others so much. I hope all of your experiences are as good as can be with the circumstances and all continues to go well with you.
Love, Julie
Hi Rae, was very interested to read your insight and of course love your flare with words. Will forward your writing to certain people who might learn a thing or 2 about the border!!
Love, Mom
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