Since last time

Since last time, as usual a lot has happened. I spent a couple days at the migrant resource center in Agua Prieta and then returned to the desert for more search and rescue.

So occasionally while I'm down here, I desperately try to understand what made me drop everything and come down to camp in the desert for the whole summer- patrolling migrant trails in 110 degree weather and shouting out things in Spanish that I hardly understand.

Obviously I came because I care about the issues surrounding immigration- and people- and their well-being. I think I came here to actually do something- rather than buying a catchy little bumper sticker and talking about it. And it actually sucks, and I can honestly say that I have cried about every single migrant we have come across (a number that is getting pretty high), even the migrants that are with BP- that we don't even get to talk to (other than esta bien? & suerte!). And it gets pretty dang hot here too- uncomfortably hot. Today we were commenting on how cool it was, and realized it was 90 degrees. The rains have cooled it down to that, but added some humidity. But it's also beautiful to get people the care they need- when the odds are they wouldn't have made it if us and them hadn't been in the right place at the right time. It's these times when I feel useful. It's beautiful except for when we get them to the hospital and they are deported the next morning, then I feel like we've betrayed them.

I think we nourished some migrant's souls (who had just been deported to Agua Prieta) last week when I went and got them McDonalds. I had mixed feelings about even entering the establishment, but I imagine it must have meant something to them that some bleeding heart gringo was willing to shell out $26 on 4 super value meals and a 10 piece chicken nuggets. It was kind of an interesting display of privilege though- they had lived in the US for 5 years- I was in Mexico and in 25 minuets crossed into the US and returned with fast food.

There's other beautiful things down here too- more than the work but the land. It didn't really take me long to fall in love with the chorus of things that crawl- and then mesquite trees that make us bleed. It smells so good, especially after the rains, and things are turning green, and the ocatia are blooming!

A couple days ago we came across a group of 25 migrants in Jalisco canyon. They were all relatively healthy but still dehydrated and hungry. We didn't talk to them much, we gave them food, water and socks and let them go on their way. That group has been really hard to get out of my mind.