18!

We receive young adults. Refugees who come over as unaccompanied minors are kept in detention until they turn 18. On that day (happy birthday!) they are released with an immigration check in date and court date. Most often they are dropped off with us. After dinner we celebrate with a birthday dessert complete with candles. While checking them in as soon as they arrive, we call their sponsor to let them know that they can now travel if they will get them a ticket. Usually there is a very short turn around time. The 18 year old will stay with us for a night or two before heading on to their destination. 

We had one who had been with us a bit longer. She had run away from home with a cousin to come. She does have family in the states but they weren’t getting it together to buy the ticket. It worried us to send her on, knowing that life is going to be hard and it didn’t feel that she was headed to a stable environment, but this is what we do. We help people to move on so that they can get a start. Take their chances. We are not the answer. We can’t solve it all. It is too complex. But we do a piece. We try to help. We pray and wish them well. Knowing that that might not be enough to make life easy but it might be all that we can do. 

How does it feel, to be so ready for independence and yet still be so dependent on others even family. And yet not have those who can or will help. How does that mess with a person's self worth, self esteem. For some I think it makes them work harder to prove themselves. For others it grinds them down. 

Grace and peace. Love and a helping hand. Little by little. 

Juanita* (not her real name)

We received a woman and her daughter from immigration the other day. Not too much out of the ordinary. As we filled out the intake paperwork (name, sponsor, where she wants to go, which room we put her in) we found out that she didn’t have any contact information for her sponsor (family). She wanted to get in touch with her husband and her uncle. She kept saying on Facebook. So I offered her a phone that has Facebook on it and found that she didn’t have an account. We got her on and looked up the names. Of course there were many with the same names but she did recognize a couple of pictures and so we sent them messages with our phone number and that she was with us. Then we had to wait for a response. 

The next moment she was walking out the door. Not taking any of the things we had given her (clothes, food). Repeating that she had to go, she didn’t have a house, she had to go. When asked where she said to immigration because they would send her home. We tried to explain that we were waiting responses and would help her get there as soon as we could but she was intent on leaving. And she is free to go, but none of us felt good about letting her go as she didn’t know where she was going and seemed very fragile. I offered to walk with her hoping to keep an eye out and hear that we had heard back from her family but she refused that and didn’t want me to come. 

I watched from the front of our building as she started away and she went to talk to the 3 men at the house across the street fixing their gate. The women of the house came out and sat with her in their yard. Explaining as they could that it was good to stay with us, that we would help. She asked to stay with them but they didn't have the capacity. It took a while but she did come back and then we heard from her family. 

It took some time to get the tickets and figure out where she was headed (there is family in various places) but when she found she could call family when she wanted (now that we had contact) she did stay the 2.5 days until it was time to go. She was often in tears and very sad that she has no home. Theirs was sold to help them get here. 

I have no information now that she has gone but I trust that she and her daughter have been reunited with her husband and father. Now the process of claiming asylum and setting up life here begin for her. Peace, grace and prayers go with them.

Week 1

I’m staying in Casa Papá Francisco, one of a number of hospitality houses run by Annunciation House. This house was opened in November and right now we are offering hospitality to widows whose spouses worked in the US and paid into Social Security and who are required by law to live in the US for 30 consecutive days every 6 months in order to get the money. We also get the unaccompanied minors who have been held in ICE detention and who turn 18. Instead of being transferred to an adult facility they are released to join their family or friends and continue their immigration process there (wherever that is). So we get to celebrate quite a few birthdays. We also have a number of single mothers with children. If they are going to stay with us for some time, we register the children in school. So it is a mix of ages and nationalities and duration of their stays with us. 

It feels very different from what I was doing last year in helping to move people on as quickly as possible. Here there is time for conversation and connection. The days are still busy as living in community usually is with meals and departures and arrivals and cleaning. 

We went for a walk and found a small ‘green’ space where we had an impromptu dance party near some interesting statues. 

This prompted a dance party on Friday night in our cafeteria. Hard to keep up with Latin dancers!! But it was so much fun. 

The week also started with a massive sinus infection that I’m still getting over. Doing much better but the cough and nose blowing have yet to cease. 

Saturday was my day off (we work 6 days a week either am or pm shift). I took two other volunteers hiking in Franklin Mountains State Park, got tea with one of the volunteers I knew from last year who is at a different house of hospitality, enjoyed Pho 24 for dinner and then a beer at Mountain Star Brewery. It was a wonderful day. 

Road-trip

I’ve signed up for 5 weeks volunteering with Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas. So I took off from Black Mountain and spent the first night in Tennessee. I got a good walk in Natchez Trace State Park. 

Then on to Little Rock, Arkansas where it was pouring down rain. I got to see my bestie and her family as well as take a hike up Pinnacle Mtn (the rain had stopped but it was cold!). 

Next a short hop to Texarkana, Texas where I stayed with family friends, the Richards. Wonderful stories shared of canoe trips down the Buffalo River over some really good gumbo. 

On to Abilene, Texas where I found a nice little loop around a lake. And then to Roswell, New Mexico where I found Bottomless Lakes State  Park and then I went on a blacklight space walk and to the UFO museum. 

A quick stop at Carlsbad caverns was made even shorter as the caverns were closed for electrical work. Next post: week one experience.

 

This is not a game. Lives are at stake.

That was a quote from our orientation this year. And it’s true. We are changing lives and saving them. 

I was at 151 installations in my 3 weeks this year! Wow! That is helping about 18000 people with access to clean safe water. (math roughly on 20 households of 5 people each per well)

Altogether in the 4 weeks that we American volunteers were in the country 3,410 wells were installed! There are still some to be installed and we don’t have to worry, our team of workers will get them in as they have been throughout the years without us (and before when we didn’t ‘finish’ before leaving). There are still many wells that need to be funded. Want to help? Donate here! 

Well season starts at the beginning of August with training wells for the builders to learn on. But it also starts much earlier than that with the zoning committees and figuring out which villages will get wells this year. With a goal of 3450 wells this year, many are left wanting a well having to wait for next year. 

The wells take an average of three days to build. Digging, lining the inside with the gravel at the bottom and bricks all the way up. Making the concrete cap to make it a protected water source. As installations don’t start until mid September and run until the end of October, some villages (the earliest built) could be waiting over 2 months for the final product. Installation really is a time of great joy! 

Last bit

My last day of installations was planned to be a half day. We got home after 3 so it wasn’t. But I’m not complaining. We put in 5 wells and we’re able to finish one of the builders installations for the year. He said that the villages had been calling to find out when they would get their wells and he couldn’t give them a day. Or when he did the plans would change and they continued to wait. 

The villagers said that they were calling. They were waiting, actively. Not wanting to be forgotten. Not wanting to wait any longer than they had to to get clean safe water. And now. Finally. They were satisfied seeing this dream come true, these prayers answered. Ulemu kwa Mulungu! Glory to God!

The last three wells we put in weren’t too far apart and yet they weren’t all that close either. We would dedicate and head back to the truck, drive tit he next and when I got to the well site, the same children would be there. And then again. This girl in green was one of those. She was at all three of the wells. She would smile shyly at me and hang around and then disappear as soon as we headed back to the truck. Then there she would be again. 

Moments

‘Thank you for the gift of life since water is life. And please when you go back thank all those at home who helped us. Let them know that we are grateful. But also tell them that there is more need out here. Our neighbors still need help. Please continue to mobilize resources.’ 
When I first heard this I thought ‘seriously aren’t we doing enough?!? Why are you always asking for more? You just got clean water.’ And then it hit me. Yes they are asking for more. But not for themselves. For others, for neighbors, for those who need it and can’t ask for themselves. Wells are $450. It makes an immediate difference. If you’d like to donate any amount (all undesignated gifts go to wells and not overhead) click here. 

(Bridge we decided to go around)
Another village said they were so happy to get the well but that when they were told an azungu (foreigner) would be coming they were a little anxious. Now that I’m here they see that I’m a Christian and also that the well is giving glory to God without restriction. That the well and the water in it has no denomination and is good for all! They gave me a chicken in thanks. I let them know that the azungu thanked them. 

 I arrived in a village and was getting out of the truck, making sure I had the keys and the android and had some water. I could hear the women singing at the well sight (not too far but out of sight for the moment) a girl about 11 years old was crossing the street and she caught my eye. With a big smile on her face she started dancing to the music. And then so did I. I didn’t think her smile could get bigger as we continued on to the well site to celebrate with the others. That moment of dancing ‘alone together’ in the middle of the road is one that I’ll cherish. 
Lunch break Medson, Wilfred and I