Back to Africa!

I have been called a boomerang and I love that idea. I don’t stay in one place and yet when I find the people that are mine I come back. And thus I find myself headed back to visit my friends that I’ve adopted into family as well as to volunteer with Marion Medical Mission (for 6 weeks!)

After a full summer at Camp Grier and a family beach week I took off last Thursday from Charlotte to Harare, Zimbabwe. Two overnight flights, a 6 hour time difference, 7 in flight movies, layovers in new airports (The Doha airport is impressive with art statues, an indoor forest, and play areas), I made it safe and sound.

After a good sleep I got my ankles back (still getting used to losing them after long travel days) and we went for a wander in Cleveland Park where we saw zebras and wildebeests (from too far away to get good pics). Getting reacquainted with the potholes, the sunshine intensity, kids that I’ve visited all their lives now being 5 and 7! And feeling reassured that the easy friendship is still there to fall into. 

This week is just about being here and present, getting the jet lag out of my system and playing. I’m loving it!

Holding space

On my days off I usually go hiking. I love being outdoors and walking for hours and hours. Here though I think about that. It is such a privilege to choose to walk for hours, to choose to wear myself out. When so many in this world don’t have that choice. They have to walk in order to survive. For longer and farther than I can imagine. In places that are less accommodating and safe. 

It snowed! (not for long and didn't stick but...)

I don’t understand everything that is said around me or to me. But I try to be present. I try to understand some and sometimes I ask for a translation or a repetition. At times I try to ask questions to see if I understand. Sometimes I try to tell a short story to see if I can get my point across. Sometimes it works. Sometimes I don’t know. And that’s ok. I’m here. 

Artistes!

Communal living is tough! And so is transition. There are so many assumptions about how to get along. And once you do all figure it out the community changes as someone moves on to the next place and others move in and must be taught the ways of the community. 

I’ve taken the kids to the school down the street on the weekends because there is a great playground there. They entertain themselves for hours. It is so fun to see. Chase, pinecone wars, and getting across the monkey bars...

We had a going away party. More Lotería (bingo) and a piñata! What fun!

February's dream team!

Fun times

It’s not all work and no play. not all difficult and sad. We have a lot of fun. 

We’ve had two dance parties. One outside at a park and one in our cafeteria with fairy lights and music. We had a special Valentine’s Day dinner of arepas (Venezuelan filled fried dough) with a game of La Lotería (bingo) afterwards. Prizes of chocolates and 5 1-dollar bills! The excitement was palpable!

I’ve also gotten out for some hikes in Franklin Mountain State Park (El Paso) and Dripping Springs and Aguirre Springs (NM). The weather has gotten colder but usually the sun is still shining for most of the day. 

This week we went on a community day. The volunteers who are here all go out together, getting a community volunteer to come and do the house duties. Four of us headed out to Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. On the way we stopped at to see the  World's Largest Pistachio statue. And then a short walk til we were surrounded by petroglyphs under the Sierra Blanco mountain. It was so quiet there and absolutely breathtaking. A lovely day away. 

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.