Day 17

Well this is it everyone! The last day in Arizona! We're all sad because there is no way we are ready to go back to Elon. We started the day out early again, going to the library right after breakfast. It was awesome today though, because Tammy and me went to a section of the library called the Special Collections. It's a separate building next to the main library and it holds all the books and articles that you're not allowed to take out of the library. So what we had to do was fill out a form for each of the books we wanted to look at, then the lady told us each which desk to sit at (we couldn't sit at the same desk), we had to lock our bags up.
 We were allowed our laptops and our phones, but we weren't even allowed to use our own paper and pen! If we wanted to write something by hand, we had to use what they provide! It was really cool though, it felt like we were in the forbidden section of the library in Harry Potter. I'm really glad we went to the Special Collections though because I actually found a book that helped me the most with my final project so far! We spent the whole morning in there and finally left around 1 in the afternoon. We were on our way to lunch when we spotted the campus book store. It was the biggest campus store I've ever seen. So much bigger than the one at Elon! They had great clothes, books, they sold Toms and backpacks and basically everything. It was amazing. I ended up buying a really cute U of A shirt! Then we grabbed some lunch and went back to the hotel.

When we got back to the hotel, Tammy, Ana Sofia and I all went into the pool for a while. It was so nice in the water. First off, it's a heated pool, so that in itself is wonderful! Second, the sun was shining and it was so nice outside. It was the perfect pool day and I'm so glad we got to enjoy it. We finished the afternoon by jumping in the jacuzzi for a bit, and then we went back to our rooms to clean up for dinner.

 For our last meal here in Arizona we went to a place called El Minuto cafe. Naturally it was a Mexican restaurant and it was absolutely delicious! I'm definitely going to miss the food here. We went home after dinner and then spent a little more time in the hot tub. We were planning on going to karaoke tonight, but you had to be 21 to be in there! We were not happy about that. Finally, it was time to pack up before leaving in the morning. It's hard to believe that our course is finally over. We have learned so much in such a short amount of time, and I'm so grateful for having this opportunity. I've gotten so much closer with all of my International Fellows after going through this entire amazing course and I couldn't be happier. I hope so many more people with be able to do this course because it really is so worthwhile. It's been real, but it's time to go back to reality. Thanks for reading! I'l see you all next time!

Day 16

Well there's only one more day left here in Arizona and things are starting to slow down. The internet at the hotel was down last night, so that's why I couldn't post my blog until today! After an early breakfast, we headed straight to the university to start doing some research. Something about the U of A library...it's absolutely giant. I thought searching for things in the Elon library was bad enough, but this place is insane! It took forever to find just three books to help with the research, and then there were other books we couldn't even get because they were in some Special Collections section of the library. Nothing too exciting happened while we were at the library because we were just sitting in a room looking up different books and different articles online. We took a lunch break, and that was another adventure. Ana Sofia and me decided to get something from the university food court, and that was terrifying! There were so many people everywhere! I have to say, after going to a school as small as Elon, I don't think I could ever go to a school this big. It is very overwhelming to say the least. After we got something to eat it was back to research! Then at around 5, four of us were done for the day and we all headed back to the hotel. On the way back we saw a frozen yogurt place so of course we had to stop in and get some! It was delicious. Tammy and Ana Sofia were going to get the Dark Chocolate flavour, but of course once they decided that, the machine decided to stop working. They both ended up having to get different flavours, but it was just as good!

Once we got back to the hotel we all crowded into Jorge and Johnathan's room and tried to figure out what we were going to do for dinner. We ended up ordering Chinese food and all ate it in their room. Then after dinner, it was back to jacuzzi time! Definitely my favourite time of day is jacuzzi time. We spent a while in there, and then went back to our rooms! The internet was down so that kind of sucked so we just hung out for a bit and then went to bed! My entries are getting shorter and shorter but that's because there's not much left to talk about! We aren't doing nearly as much as we were so there's less to talk about. Unfortunately, my next entry will be my last one for this trip because today is our last day. I hope you've all enjoyed reading and look out for my last entry!

Day 15

Today was the day we left Borderlinks, so we're really getting to the end of the trip now. We had a slow morning, basically just packing up our things and coming back to the hotel. This time I'm rooming with Tammy, instead of being in a room by myself! After moving our things into our room, we headed to the University of Arizona. Along the way we got to stop for lunch, and I finally got to eat at Chipotle! It was so good! Then we all met up outside the Arizona State Museum, which is where we went the first day we were here. Maria came back from Borderlinks to show us around the campus and we got to see the library where we will be spending basically the next two days together. We definitely felt like tourists though, all filing into the library and being showed around. I'm sure some people thought we were in High School. Then, if we didn't look touristy enough, we all took a group photo in front of the Wildcat statue!

 It's a huge school and after being at Elon, I don't think I could handle being there! It was probably 5 times the size of Elon! It is a very beautiful campus though, I'll give it that. After our tour, we went back to the hotel and settled in to our rooms. Then some of us went to the pool to swim! It was a beautiful day and we sure took advantage of it! The pool was nice because it was heated! So I could actually stand to be in it!

After time at the pool we relaxed a little more before going out to dinner. We went to this English-style pub called Frog and Firkin and it was really interesting! I had these things called Polo Sticks and it was basically shredded beef, wrapped in tortilla, fried. It was delicious! I have to say, the food in Arizona is delicious. I'm going to miss it very much. After dinner we all headed back to the hotel and then jumped into the jacuzzi! I think the jacuzzi was the thing all of us missed the most while at Borderlinks. The jacuzzi. The last thing we did tonight was all of the girls hung out in mine and Tammy's room and painted our nails. Tomorrow is going to be a research day so we're going to try and get a lot of work out of the way tomorrow so that we can have some time on Thursday to just relax and tour around the whole campus and stores on our last day!

Day 14

It's hard to believe it's already been two weeks since we left for Arizona! We've done so much in such a short time it seems like we've been here forever! Unfortunately, today was our last day at Borderlinks. As skeptical as I was about it during the first couple days, I'm actually really going to miss this place. Today was Martin Luther King Jr. day so to start off we went to do some service. Our group was assigned to picking up trash in the assigned area. The thing was though, that there were too many people so our group was kind of just there. We picked up the trash that the other trash group forgot, and then our group leaders decided we didn't have to be there, so instead we went to a fair to celebrate the day! We got there around 12:00 so just in time for lunch. We ended up going to the Mexican food booth and most people got burritos, but I got a carne asada taco! It was delicious, as usual. We all sat in the shade under a tree and had a cute picnic!

 It was funny because at one point there were these two people who came around and tried to get us to sign something to show our support for Obama and his Immigration Reform policy. The thing was, his policy is trying to increase the security around the border so naturally, after all we've learned, we weren't going to sign that. But to make it better, Jorge and Alessandro started telling them everything about why they weren't signing. These two people didn't even know what Streamline was! They also said that Border Patrol is one of the smallest law enforcements and well, we all know that is the farthest thing from the truth. They actually seemed genuinely interested in what the guys were telling them though, Before leaving the fair, we went and got snow cones. I can't remember the last time I had a snow cone, but it tasted great!

After we got back, Borderlinks had actually already prepared us a lunch so some of us sat down and tried to eat some more. It was great though, because Tito brought out a guitar and played and sang for us! It was really great, but it was all Spanish songs so I didn't know any of them. Except for La Bamba. After lunch we had our final group reflection. We each told Maria about what we were doing for our final projects, and then we talked about what we remember most, what we did to cope with all the more emotional times, and what we can do in the future to make more people aware of what's going on. Then after group reflection, we went back to Gate's Pass for sunset! I thought Gate's Pass was beautiful before, but it was absolutely stunning at sunset.

 One of the most beautiful moments of my time here in Arizona. We went back for dinner, and then as a final outing as a group we went to a really good gelato place! Even our resident Italian was impressed with it! Then we just came back to Borderlinks for our last night here! We move back to the hotel tomorrow and start research for our final projects at University of Arizona. It'll be another busy few days before returning home!

Day 13

Yesterday was quite the day so I didn't get the chance to post before now! It started off pretty slack though because we really didn't need to do anything until 3:30! We all got to sleep in, which was amazing and then we still had a whole morning/afternoon free, so a couple of us went to the cafe to work on some homework until it was time. At 3:30 we had a presentation from an undocumented resident named Dario, who works with an organization called Scholarships A-Z. Their mission is to provide resources and scholarships to students, families and educators through online and community interactions in order to make higher education accessible to all, regardless of immigration status. They give undocumented citizens the chance to attend university or college. He also told us about something called DACA, which keeps someone from being deported for 2 years. It enables them to be able to work, but they can't have a license or health insurance. The card is only effective of 2 years. Only people aged 16-31 are eligible, they have to have lived in the U.S. before they were 16, they need to have had continuous residency for 5 years, and weirdly enough they had to be able to prove they were in the United States on June 15th, 2012. I didn't quite understand that part, but neither did Dario so that was fine!

 He then told us his own personal story, about how his family moved to the United States when he was 9 because his father had lost his job in Mexico. He, his twin brother and his older brother all enrolled in school. His older brother was in his last year of college, with only 11 credits left to earn, when Prop 300 was introduced. Prop 300 asks people to prove their legal residency in Arizona, and if that's not the case they are not eligible for in-state tuition. Since Dario's family were undocumented, this meant that his older brother had to pay out-of state tuition, but since his dad still didn't have a steady job yet, he decided to drop out. His brother, not having anything to do, decided to go back to Mexico and get a job over there. Dario and his twin continued on through school, they graduated 6th and 16th in their class and got accepted into every university they applied, but because of Prop 300 they couldn't attend. Dario was feeling hopeless and was going to follow in his older brother's footsteps, but that is when he discovered Scholarships A-Z. He is now attending Pima Community College to fulfil his general requirements and is planning on becoming an engineer.

After dinner, we got to meet Mike Wilson of the Tohono O'odhma nation, who we had already seen in the documentary Crossing Arizona before going on this trip. Mike previously served as a lay minister for the Presbyterian Church on the Reservation and is an active member of the Humane Borders. Because the Nation denied Humane Borders access to the Reservation land, Mike has taken it upon himself to place water stations on the Reservation. Mike has been putting out water on the Reservation for the past 12 years. He started putting out water bottles, but those were getting slashed by some people on the Reservation. He then started putting out 50 gallon barrels of water, but those keep getting confiscated by the Nation's governments. He only has one other person helping him, David Garcia, who has been helping him of the past 8-9 years. He told us about how one day, after putting out two of his 50 gallon barrels, he was driving past a fire hydrant where someone was filling up their own barrel. It was a 4000 gallon barrel that he was filling up to water cattle. So this cause Mike to ask himself the question "One cow on the reservation is worth how many migrant lives?" Mike feels it is his moral obligation to help the migrants who stumble upon the Reservation. In 2010 there were 253 human remains recovered. 125 were recovered on the Tohono O'odham reservation. It's really incredible that Mike will go against what his tribe government believes, because he believes moral law ranks higher and I agree with him.

After all of the days excursions, most of us went out for a night on the town and we had a great time! It's sad that we've started counting down the days to leaving here, but I am so thankful for everything we have learned on this trip.

Day 12

The end of another day and we keep getting closer and closer to the end. Today was great because we went to the 10th Annual Border Issues Fair. We had to wake up early in order to get there on time, but man was it worth it! We got to hear multiple people speak. The first was Sandra Lopez, a young woman who was raised in Tucson since she was two weeks old. When she was 19, one of her friends asked her to deliver a package for her and she did it. However, what she didn't know was that the package was full of marijuana. What happened then was that she was deported, even though her step-father was a U.S. citizen. She was living on the streets of Nogales for about a week, until one day a man approached her with a knife and she ran through the lines of traffic at the border to one of the U.S. authorities. He took her to a holding place for people who request asylum in the United States and told her to wait until someone came for her to ask some questions and fill out some paperwork. No one ever came and she was arrested for illegal re-entry into the United States. She had to serve time in federal prison and lost two years of her life. She is now allowed to remain in the country, but she could be deported at any moment. Her lawyer is working on getting her a better deal, but for now she is just grateful to be back in the U.S. She went through all of this, even though she had been living in the United States her whole life.

 We also hear from James Duff Lyall, who is a Border Litigation Staff Attorney in Tucson. He was telling us about the corruption with the Border Patrol and he told us a story of this one woman, a U.S. citizen, who was driving home with her two kids when she got pulled over. The officer came up to the window and told her to get out of the car. The woman wanted to know why, because all they need to know is if she is a U.S. citizen, but the officer just told her again to get out of the car. Again, the woman asked why and the officer said that if she didn't take off her seatbelt and get out of the car that he would take his knife and cut off her seatbelt and drag her out. Then he turned to his partner and asked him to get the taser because she was being "difficult." Obviously the woman just got out of the car, they questioned her for 45 minutes, and then let her go. She kept driving, and then discovered that one of her tires had been slashed! It was completely ridiculous. Our last speaker of the day was Christian Ramirez, Director of Human Rights Programs, Alliance San Diego, and Southern Border Communities Coalition. Each of the speakers were incredible and enlightened us even more about the issues on the border.

Along with all of the speakers, we also got to speak with people from different Humanitarian groups. I got to speak with another person from the Green Valley Samaritans and actually Shura, who we met a couple of days ago, was there also! Everyone who came and spoke to us kept saying how happy they were that so many young people were interested in the immigration problem between the U.S. and Mexico. 

After the Border Issues Fair, we had the rest of the day free. The first thing we did was go to a park and have a kind of picnic for lunch! It was a beautiful day out and we had a lot of great food! After lunch we all divided into doing different things. Ana Sofia, Alessandro and I all went to 4th Avenue to check out all of the stores. We found a lot of really cool stuff and I bought a really awesome new pair of pants! All of  the stores were very bohemian in style. After shopping, everyone went out to dinner and a couple of us stayed at Borderlinks and just relaxed. It was a great day to recover from all the busy days we've had so far! Tomorrow we get to sleep in, which I am more than excited about. We also get to have dinner with Mike Wilson, who was featured in one of the documentaries we watched before we came here! It should be another great day!

Day 11

I can't believe I only have a week left here in Arizona! It's kind of unreal all of the things we've done here in such little time. We had another early morning today, but that was fine because that meant we had an early finish! We started off with talking to Raquel Rubio Goldsmith. She specializes in research and teaching on Mexican-American women's history, human rights, and immigration issues. She has also won numerous awards for teaching excellence. She has presented papers on Mexican women on the U.S./Mexico border, before national and international conferences, and published the results of her research in several scholarly articles. In fact, the article we had to read last night was written by her! She spoke about human rights and the Border Patrol and one thing that she said really stuck out to me. "Where do human rights start and where do they end?" It's true though. Who decides what human rights should be? Who decides who these rights should be exempt to? It was humans who made the border after all. It was not created by nature. These people were not meant to be divided. She told us things about who is crossing the border, and actually it seems that more women are crossing recently. The women also have a higher rate of death than men. Something else that stuck out to me was the fact that the children that are apprehended are being deported unaccompanied. They are sending children, without their parents, back over the border into dangerous places at dangerous times. She was a great speaker and I'm really glad we got to hear from her!

After lunch we heard from another speaker, Chelsea Halstead from the Colibri Centre for Human Rights.

 The Colibri Centre for Human Rights owns the most comprehensive dataset of missing persons last seen crossing the U.S./Mexico border. Along with access to information about unidentified remains found along border, this data allows them to successfully match families searching for loved ones with unidentified remains and informs the public of a continuing human rights crisis on the border. She told us how there are only a few things that lets them positively identify a body and those are tattoos, fingerprints, skeletal radiographs, and dental radiographs. This organization actually deals with more migrant deaths than anyone else! 

After this presentation, we got to go to this really cool artsy place that sold a bunch of different Native American art and jewellery. The outside was really pretty too!

 Actually the weather today was perfect and I could have stayed outside all day. When we got back we got to have PIZZA for dinner! With pepperoni! Oh I was so happy. The reason was because it was our other guide, Tito's birthday! So we were celebrating! It was nice having pizza. I've missed it. And it was Little Caesar's so that made it all the more better. Then after dinner a bunch of us went to the movies again! We saw devil's Due and it was pretty bad. But it was nice to get out of the house! Tomorrow is going to be awesome because we are going to the 10th Annual Border Issues Fair! I can't wait to go!

Day 10

It's hard to believe that we only have a week left here in Arizona! We've done so much already and it seems like we have so much more to do! Today started early when we left Borderlinks to spend the day at the Tohono O'odham nation. It took two hours to get there! We went to this museum that told some history of the nation, and some cultural facts about them. It was surprising to learn how proud they are to have served in both World Wars, because I always thought that Native Americans were always a peaceful people. There was one room dedicated to all of the reggae concerts and autographs received by a Tohono O'odham woman who travelled around the world. There were so many different  artists, and the room was covered in different Bob Marley quotes! She had basically seen all of the Marley's perform and had gotten all their autographs. We were supposed to have a tour of the museum, but no one ever showed up so we just sort of toured ourselves around! After we saw the museum, we had an amazing lunch at the Desert Rain Cafe. I had a prickly pear smoothie, and a chicken sandwich that had prickly pear and chill sauce, and chipotle dressing. It was delicious. I was nervous about the smoothie because let's be honest, who even knows what a prickly pear tastes like? Well now I guess I have an idea! It was also great because it seemed to be a really healthy too! After lunch, we had another two hour drive back to Borderlinks.

When we got back, a couple of us drove up to a place called Gate's Pass. We hiked up a bit and saw the most beautiful view!

 We weren't up really high or anything, but that didn't matter because we could still see so much. We were trying to aim for sunset, because apparently it is beautiful from that location, but because we had dinner at 5:30 we couldn't stay. But we're going to try and come back another night when we're not as busy so we can watch the sunset! Tonight for dinner we got to learn how to make pupusa's, which are these tortilla-like things that you fill with different ingredients like pork and cheese. They were really delicious, everybody ate a ton!

After dinner we went to el tiradito vigil. What that is, is a vigil for all the people who have died trying to cross the border. It happens every Thursday night, and different people show up each week. It was a really beautiful ceremony; everyone stood in a circle and the regular attendees would talk about different things that pertained to immigration. One of the people in attendant was Isabel Garcia, who was interviewed in two of the movies we watched before coming to Arizona. She spoke at the vigil, and actually a couple of us got to talk to her afterwards!

 She was saying how important it was that young people like us were learning about these issues, because then we can take it back to our friends and we can take it back to our countries and tell other people about what is happening at the border. It was a beautiful ceremony and I am so glad we got to be a part of it tonight. Tomorrow will be cool because we get to talk to the author of one of the articles we've read for this course! As our time here gets shorter, we have less and less planned for each day, but it doesn't mean any of it will be any less interesting!

Day 9

So we're basically halfway done this trip! I can't believe how quickly it's gone by already! Today was a pretty chill day because after lunch we had free time to do homework and just relax until we went to dinner at 5:45. This morning, however, we went and met a really interesting woman! Her name was Shura, and she was part of the Green Valley Samaritans. The Samaritans believe that providing aid to another human being in distress is a fundamental human value, and that there should be no more deaths in our desert. Their mission is to save lives in the Arizona desert. Shura was this little old lady who co-founded the Samaritans. She showed us a lot of different things that she's found in the desert when looking for migrants to help.

There were items like makeup, water bottles, pictures, shoes and children's clothing. The thing that made her so cool though, was that she told us all about how there are times when she's given a migrant a drive, which is totally against the law! This lady was so cool! The funniest thing she told us though, was how she walks through these towns full of migrants and helps them, and while she's walking through the town she waves to everyone, even the cartels!! We all thought that was hilarious! We're also going to see her again on Saturday when we go to the Border Issues Fair.

After we met Shura, we basically just hung out for some hours! We all went out to get something called a Sonoran dog. What it is, is a hotdog wrapped in bacon, with all these different toppings, in a bun. It was delicious. And I definitely couldn't finish it. Then when we got back we started working on our homework for the night. We also had to start figuring out what we were going to do for our final projects. It was a great time for relaxing and getting work done.

Tonight was special, because we went and had dinner at Casa Mariposa. Casa Mariposa is a part of The Restoration Project community, based in Tucson, and it models just relationships by living in community, sharing resources, living simply, standing in solidarity with those being oppressed, living in harmony with the earth, and being dedicated to peaceful, non-violent resistance. Their vision of how community, hospitality, spirituality, and social justice meet is unique and demonstrated in the work that they do with the Greyhound Project and other activities. We got to eat alongside different members of the community. People we had never met before in our lives, and we felt as though we totally belonged with them! It was another amazing experience and it demonstrated the hope that there is for the migrants that go through the Casa Mariposa. Tomorrow is something we haven't really experienced yet. We're going to visit the Tohono O'odham Nation so I think that will be very interesting! I can't wait!

Day 8

Today has probably been the most emotional day of our trip so far. I'm going to do my best to describe what we saw today, but I won't be able to nearly let you all know how it felt to actually be there. We started out the day by talking with Matt Lowen who works with End Streamline Coalition. Streamline is an organization that began in Tucson in January of 2008. It is a zero tolerance program which targets illegal entrants who have been apprehended along the Arizona border with Mexico. The initiative aims to process 100 migrants with misdemeanours and deports them, as well as setting the stage for stiffer and longer penalties for repeat offenders.

 Matt Lowen is with a group that is against Streamline. He spoke to us about what it is that Streamline does and just told us how awful it is what these officials are putting the illegal immigrants through. He was sort of preparing us for what we were about to see that afternoon, but I have to say that there was nothing that could have prepared me for what we saw. After listening to Matt Lowen speak, we went to Tania's for lunch, which is a Mexican restaurant. It was delicious, as is all the food we've been eating here in Mexico!

I don't really know how to begin writing about what we saw this afternoon. I'm going to do my best to describe exactly what we saw, but there is no way for you to feel how we all felt. This afternoon we went to Operation Streamline, to see the detention hearing of dozens of immigrants receiving their sentence for crossing the border illegally. They would go up in groups of five, each with their public defender, and they would all plea guilty. They could receive a sentence anywhere from 30 to 180 days in jail. After they do their time, they are then deported back to Mexico. Seeing this alone was bad enough, but it was the conditions the people were in that made it the hardest.

These are people who were picked up a few days before today, they are dirty, some of them limping and basically all of them couldn't speak English. But the worst part was that they were all handcuffed and shackled. Even if you closed your eyes, you could still hear the chains rattling. These people are being imprisoned and are being treated horribly, all because they wanted a better life for themselves and their family. By the end of our time in the court room, I was in tears. We got back to Borderlinks and had a discussion about it, but nobody could get through talking about their opinion without crying. Even the boys. It was just so shocking to actually witness something like that happening. We all had to write something down and then say what we wrote, but I was honestly too emotionally choked up to speak. So I'm going to post for you what I wrote down:

"This trial was the saddest thing we've seen so far. It's so unfair and embarrassing for them to treated that way. There is no reason for them to be shackled up like that because I'm pretty sure they're too scared to even think of doing anything like acting up in court. But seeing the looks on their faces as they filed out afterwards, that was the worst part. It's just pure hopelessness. They're going to jail for wanting a better life. It's just plain cruel."

There's nothing more I can really say about what we experienced it. It really just opened my eyes to the suffering that is going on. And also it makes me think, how bad can the lives of these men be that they are willing to give everything up, knowing they have the chance to end up here every time.

After dinner tonight, we went to Borderlands Theatre to see a read-through of two new shows! Borderlands Theatre is a professional theatre company that is recognized nationally and internationally for the development and production of theatre and educational programs that reflect the diverse voices of the U.S./Mexico border region. The two shows they read are meant to be performed back to back. The first one is set on the Mexican side of the border. It's about a woman, Maria, who is trying to cross the border to find her son, but the bus she is on is stopped by a drug cartel and she is stuck in a room with one of the men. The second show is set on the American side of the border, in one of the private prisons that hold illegal immigrants. It's about a man who provided information about drug cartels in Mexico and was therefor allowed to stay in the U.S. for the past two years, but is now being deported back to Mexico in a few days, even though he made a deal with the DEA. Both plays were actually very interesting and they fit together very well!

Today was one of the best and worst days. It was an emotional ride, but I am more than thankful that I've had the opportunity to do this course.

Day 7

Day 7 was an exciting one! I didn't manage to post anything until this morning because yesterday was so busy! We got to sleep in, which was glorious in itself. Then we had our first speaker who spoke to us about Sustainable Futures Program. The main thing he spoke to us about was food production and how much Americans waste and why there is no good reason that there are parts of the world that are starving. Out of all the food produced and consumed in the United States, one third of that is thrown away. Now I know I'm guilty with never finishing my meal, but the fact that one third is being thrown away, without donating any of it? I think that's a bit ridiculous. If all of that food was donated, the starvation rate could go down immensely. We actually also touched on the reason why they do the vegetarian thing here. The reason is mores because it is a better way to feed people. If all the farms that are used for cattle production, instead turned into vegetation there would be 7X more food being produced. When you think about it, that's a huge number. That could absolutely make a dent in the world starvation. Now I'm not saying that everyone should go vegetarian, because I'm a huge fan of meat, as is everyone else. But hearing these kind of facts, has to make you at least think about changing up your diet a little bit.

After lunch we had our second speaker of the day, which was Dan Millis of the Sierra Club Borderlands. This organization seeks to raise awareness about how the U.S. Government's policy to deter human movement across the border has resulted in severe damage to fragile lands and wildlife along the entire border and promote more environmentally sound border policy. I had never realized until yesterday that the actual border wall causes some environmental damage. The big thing that it causes a problem for is animal migration. The border isn't just keeping humans out, but animals as well. It's cutting back the familiar territory for the animals, including marine life as well! There are border walls that reach around 100 feet into the sea and the ecosystem under the sea is so complex that we can't even imagine how much this border is affecting it. The border wall also causes major erosion is some areas and also can cause some flooding. Before this trip I never realized how many problems the border wall actually causes because I figured it's just a wall! But in reality it affects not just the humans trying to cross, but every other form of life as well.

After we heard from the two speakers, we got to go to the University of Arizona to do our reflection of the day. We talked about each of the presentations we heard today, and some of the conversations got pretty heated!

Alessandro, our Italian, gets especially passionate when discussing all of these things. Then we headed out to dinner because it was Shahd's 20th birthday! We went to this restaurant a couple of blocks away called the Hub. It was a very nice setting and the food was really good! I got some Lobster Mac and Cheese and man I was not disappointed at all! This is also the place we usually get ice cream from, and some people were tempted to get some for dessert, but we had a cake back at Borderlinks! It was a delicious cookies and cream cake! This was our second time celebrating Shahd's birthday all together because her birthday landed on our Washington trip last year! She seemed to really like her surprise this year! After birthday celebrations, it was time for all us procrastinators to write our reaction to the book we were all supposed to read. It was a funny sight, seeing all of us sitting on the couches scrambling to write it, and then when it was lights out we had to move to the kitchen. Luckily, we all finished on time! Today should be quite the interesting and emotional day. We are actually hearing from someone who has the opposite opinion of everyone we've heard. He is on the side of the people who believe that the border should stay up and he is against immigration. I know it's going to be really hard for some of us to keep our mouths shut from arguing with this guy. I guess we will see what happens!

Day 6

Well hello there my lovely readers! It is the end of Day 6 here in beautiful Arizona, and man was today a busy one! We started off the day talking with Lupe Castillo from Pima Community College. She came to talk to us about the border in its past and contemporary state. It was amazing because she basically said everything we had learned about in the texts we and been reading before this course, but in a much more understandable way and she did it all from memory, without looking at any note cards or anything like that. She even mentioned other countries, like Canada, and how the United States is actually thinking of militarizing the Canada/US border, which took me by surprise. I think that is completely unnecessary. Apparently, though, there are some immigrants who go to Canada, then cross into the United States from there. Someone asked her near the end what she thinks the solution to the border is, and she said they should get rid of it. Simple as that. Sure the people may flood the country in the beginning, but not everyone and not forever. Lots of people like to stay in their home country. It's where they belong. It's the people that are living in poor, awful conditions that will be the ones that come, and the United States should let them! They deserve the chance for a better life!

After we spoke with Lupe, we drove to Nogales, AZ, to see the US/Mexico border. I have to say that I have no words as to what I felt when I saw it. It was shocking in a way; the brutality of it. Also it made me sad to see.

The thing is, I felt guilty standing in front of the border with all of us taking pictures of the border. We were all there, standing on the US side, and the Mexican citizens could see us through the border, taking pictures. It's just so obvious when you're actually there, how different living conditions are, ten feet apart. Some people said that it felt like we were in a war zone, because here we had this big wall separating the two countries, there are big stadium lights every 10 feet or so, and there are Border Patrols all along the border as well. It's kind of scary to be honest. I've only ever had to cross the Canada/US border once by car, and it was nothing compared to this. Like I said, I really have no words.

After seeing the border, we got to go to our group leader, Maria's mother's house for a home-cooked lunch. Can I just say right now that it was probably the best meal I've had here in Arizona so far. It was called carne asada. This is basically grilled steak, finely cut, and then put into a taco. It was delicious. I had four. I was probably the person who ate the least. Then for desert we had this really yummy fruit thing, made of quince which is a fruit I have never heard of!

But I can tell you it was delicious! We ate outside in their front yard and it was like a cook out! It was nice because Johnathan was saying how it felt just like he was back home in Mexico, because apparently this is what they do most of the time for meals! I could definitely get used to it!

After lunch we went to hear another speaker, Jeanette Pazos of an organization called HEPAC. HEPAC is an organization associated with Borderlinks and it is located across the border in Nogales, Sonora. Some of the programs that are offered include adult education and training classes and the Child Food Security Program which provides lunch to children and education for their families on nutrition and gardening. HEPAC also has a women's cooperative that produces jewellery that raises awareness about deaths in the desert. She showed us one of the necklaces that had the profile of a woman's face and underneath it said no mas muertes, which means no more deaths. The woman in the profile was crossing the desert with her young boy when they got separated from the group they were travelling with. The woman was found dead in the desert a couple days later, with her son on top of her still alive. The young boy, around 8 years old, had no family left and was deported. The worst part of this is imagine if you were the mother. You know you're dying and you'll be leaving your son behind with no family and there is nothing you can do about it. And the thing is, people do this every day. It's awful.

There's one more story she told us about. There was a young man named Jose Antonio. He was 16 years old. He was shot by a Border Patrol agent, with at least 10 bullets getting him in the back and head. According to the agent, the boy had been throwing rocks at the agent from the Mexican side of the border, even though he was about 12 feet below where the agent was standing. Instead of the agent telling him to stop, or even threatening him, he shot him in the back. Nobody even knows what actually happened that night; why they shot him, or even who shot him. They shot across an international border and yet they are not even being punished.

 It's completely outrageous that something like that would happen. Because of a boy apparently throwing rocks. There have been many protests and vigils in his honour, but the Border Patrol will never be convicted. It makes me so angry and upset that this happened. I don't even know what to say because it's just so inhumane what they did. And it's completely unjustified that they aren't being tried for this, because obviously there is video footage of this! It would be easy to find out what actually happened, but of course no one has watched the video. Probably because the Border Patrol conveniently erased the tape or something like  that. This just goes to show that the border is so unsafe and things need to change, because innocent lives are being taken for no reason, and that's not fair at all.

Today was quite the day, we were exhausted after everything we'd done! We had a night in, playing different board games and just hanging out. In my opining, today was the best day we've had here so far. We learned so much  and experience so much all in one day. Tomorrow we just stay at Borderlinks, but we get to hear from three different speakers. I look forward to it!

Day 5

Alright Day 5 is finished! Today was another exciting day in Arizona! We started off the day by driving to Arivaca, a small community south of where we are staying.

When we got there we got to speak to a woman named Catherine Gaffney who spoke with us about No More Deaths. No More Deaths is a humanitarian organization that consists of individuals, faith communities, human rights advocates, and grassroots organizers. They join together to bring justice to the U.S/Mexican border. They have an action plan that includes movable desert camps, support of migrant aid centres, maintenance of water stations, patrols that search the desert for migrants in need, and advocacy on behalf of migrant related issues. What Catherine and her volunteers do in Arivaca is go around to peoples homes and inform them on what they can do to help any migrants who happen to knock on their door, without breaking any laws. On the way back we actually got pulled over by Border Patrol! We all had to give them our passports and they actually asked if their were any Mexicans in our van. It was kind of funny because Johnathan actually is from Mexico. Luckily we didn't have any problems! So that was our first interaction with the Border Patrol!

When we drove back after lunch, we got to speak with a man from Brazil who was detained for 8 years while trying to immigrant to the United States. He had the option to be deported back to Brazil, but he chose not to because he was scared for his life back there. This who conversation just reiterated the fact that most people want to immigrate to the United States because they are looking for a better life. To them, anything is better than the life they are trying to leave behind. Afterwards we had dinner and then a couple of us went to see another movie! We went to see the new Paranormal Activity and let me tell you, we were definitely scared. The most amazing part of the night though, was when Alessandro found his wallet in the movie theatre, after losing it there last night. We were all convinced that it was gone because we had called and went to guest services, and they hadn't found anything. Then when we went to the movie, he went to look for himself and FOUND IT! God was looking out for him. We got back home after the movie and finished off the night with a good work out demonstration from Alessandro. Tomorrow is going to be intense because we're actually going to see the border. It's going to be really interesting. We're going to try and talk to some of the border patrol who will be walking around, just to hear their opinion and what they do everyday. It should be fun!

Day 4

I'm posting Day 4 today because there was hardly any time at all last night to post this! Man what a new place I'm in! Yesterday was the day we left our Best Western hotel and moved to Borderlinks. I'm not really sure how to describe Borderlinks. It's a small building, not in the middle of nowhere even though that's definitely where I thought it was! Where we live is basically in this giant living room with these walls put up to make "rooms" which are extremely tiny and fit four beds. There's no closet and no dressers to put our clothes in so we will be living out of our suitcases for the next 10 days! Originally it was supposed to be Amelie, Tammy and me in a room and then Ana Sofia and Shahd in a room, but we found out that the boys weren't going to get to have beds last night so we being the kind girls that we are decided to give them one of our rooms for the night. That meant all five girls in one room, and all five boys in the other. It was quite the experience, I must say! It was also especially amusing that two of the boys were going to have to share a bed with one blanket and one pillow.

 Oh I forgot to mention the best part about this place (note: sarcasm); every meal is vegetarian! Now for those of you that know me fairly well, you should know exactly how well this is going to go over. It's honestly not that bad of a place, it's just different to what I'm used to! So I guess we will see how easy it is for me to adapt to new circumstances!

Along with moving in yesterday, we also got to take a tour of the area we're going to be staying in. As I said before, we're not in the middle of nowhere like I originally thought so that made it better already. We're about a fifteen minute walk from a good part of downtown where there are a lot of cute cafes and this really yummy ice cream store that obviously we had to stop at and taste. We also had to do this activity yesterday where we had to draw what the border means to me. Once again, anyone who knows me should know that I DO NOT DRAW. I am perhaps the worst at drawing. Even my stick figures turn out horrible. So I ended up drawing a door. I suppose my meaning was a little depressing, but I was doing what the assignment was! To me, the border represents a closed door because all of these immigrants are trying to cross the border because they are looking for a better life, or rather, the American Dream. But the thing is, you never know what you'll find behind a closed door. The immigrants could find that better life, it's true, but there's also a chance that what they are going to find is poverty and all of the things that go along with that in America. So that's what the border means to me! Before dinner we went on another tour, this time to see some of the murals that are painted around the area. They were really beautiful and it was great to see just on some random street.

 It somehow made it more beautiful! Last night was a lot of fun because me and four of the guys decided to go see Lone Survivor after dinner. It was one of the best movies I've seen in a while! I was very impressed with the story and with the acting. All of us really enjoyed it. Then we came back to Borderlinks and since lights out was at 10, most people were in bed, asleep. That's why I couldn't do my blog last night! But have no fear, I will be smarter tonight and post it before lights out. We're going to doing some cool things today, including going to Arivaca, which is a small town about 2 hours away and it was also featured in the play we had to read before coming here. 

Day 3

Welcome back everybody to Day 3 of my time in Arizona! It know it's only been 3 days, but honestly it feels like we've been here a week already. We've done and seen so much in such a short time it's crazy to think that we still have 2 more weeks here. Today was our last day on our own; tomorrow we head to Borderlinks facility who'll be organizing the rest of our activities we do.

Today we started off with a tour of the Sabino canyon. Now the first time I came to Arizona I got to see the Grand Canyon which, let's be honest, was pretty cool. But I think the Sabino canyon, even though it's a lot smaller, was just as beautiful! It's located in the Catalina mountains, which are about 45 minutes away from where we were staying. We got to take a tram ride all over the canyon and see all the different foliage that grows in the canyon. Naturally there were a lot of cacti, but there were also some beautiful trees, some little creeks and rivers and even a little beach!

There are 9 different stops you can get off at and go on one of the many different hiking trails there are, but we didn't do any of those. Unfortunately we didn't see any wildlife, but our tram driver told us that just two weeks ago some hikers had spotted a mountain lion up under one of the rocks! I think it would've been pretty awesome to see a mountain lion out in the wild. Our driver pointed out these three mountain peaks that, when you look at them at a certain angle, you can see Snoopy lying on his back. There were people walking and jogging all over the path and we even saw some people hiking up one of the mountains! It was a beautiful trip to the Sabino canyon, and we might even go back next week when we're back in the area and walk the trail this time!

After the canyon, we went to an art gallery of a painter named DeGrazia. Now I've never really been into art, but I loved this gallery. The way he painted was so interesting. My favourite paintings were in his horse collection.

 There were probably about 30 different horse paintings and they were all beautiful and unique from one another. In fact, I liked them so much that I ended up buying one at the gift shop. It was called Free As The Wind. It's four horses that are running and it looks as though they are part of the wind. It was nice to finally find an art exhibit I enjoyed!

After the art exhibit we went to lunch, and then we continued on to the Mission San Xavier del Bac, which is a Spanish Catholic mission located on the reservation of the Tohono O'odham and it was built back in 1692. It is also called the White Dove of of the Desert. It was a beautiful place and the inside was even more beautiful. It reminded me of the inside of some of the churches I saw when I was in Italy.

 There were some people of the Tohono O'odham outside selling this thing called Frybread. It was basically this deep-fried dough that you could have plain or with honey, powdered sugar, or cinnamon sugar. We got one of each to share as a group and it was actually really good! I think I preferred the powdered sugar one the best. The best part though was that there were stray dogs that were laying outside all around the Mission, and one of them came right up to us while we were eating. I fully admit to feeding him quite a lot of the Frybread because she was so cute and much to skinny! She was very polite and even lied down once she realized I was going to keep feeding her! I was sad when I had to leave her, but then it was time to head back to our hotel!

It was our last night here at the Best Western before we move to the Borderlinks facility and that's where we will be staying for the next 10 days. The girls and I decided to order Chinese food in to eat tonight and then we went on to do our homework. It will be sad leaving the hotel because it was so nice, but we're in for whole new adventures tomorrow! I can't wait!

Day 2

Welcome back to Day 2 of my trip to Arizona! Today was the first day we actually got to go around and visit different places all day, which was great. I couldn't have imagined a better day to get started on learning about this beautiful place!

To start out the day, we got up nice and early, got breakfast, and hit the road by 8:15. The first place we went was the Living Desert Museum. It was an absolutely incredible place. Picture a zoo, but instead of the paths being concrete and knowing exactly where every exhibit is, you actually feel like you are part of the zoo. The entire place is set up as if you are in the desert and as you walk around, you run into different types of animals you could encounter in the desert. They are still in enclosures so it's still safe! Some of the animals we saw were incredible though. The first we came across was a mountain lion. I was expecting it to be much bigger than it was, so I was pretty surprised when I saw it! It was extremely cute and I took a couple pictures of it, including a selfie.

We saw some Mexican wolves which were beautiful, some prairie dogs, lots of snakes and these pig-looking things called Javalina's. The coolest part though, was this bird show we went to. It was all about raptors, otherwise known as birds of prey. The trainers would call the birds one at a time and fly them to different spots around where we were standing. We saw a raven, a great horned owl, and a couple of falcons. The most amazing one we saw, though, was the red-tailed hawk. The trainer let it fly away, and when I say fly away it literally flew a couple miles away and flew about a couple hundred feet into the sky. Then from where we were, the trainer signalled to the bird and it came flying back immediately! It was back to us in about 10 seconds. It was the most incredible thing I'd ever seen and I got a good video of it too! After we left the zoo we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then it was on to the next location!

The second place we went to today was the Arizona State Museum. I actually found this place fascinating! It was all about the different Native American tribes that lived in Arizona/Mexico. We learned all about how they lived, their different cultures, we got to see different things they made and learn different traditions each of the tribes. It also had a lot of different artifacts, like pottery, clothing, jewellery, baskets and there were some beautiful Navaho blankets there too!

 It's just incredible to look at what these people did without any of the tools that we have nowadays. We think we're resourceful with all our tools and technology, but the Native Americans learned how to do everything we do by living off the land and using what resources they could find. It's amazing to think about. After going through the exhibit we went to the gift shop, where they were selling actual handmade jewellery made by the Zuni and the Navaho people. I ended up buying a beautiful pair of earrings made by the Zuni and it had actual mother-of-pearl in them. I can't believe that they're handmade.

We had some free time after the Arizona State Museum, so we went back to the hotel and just hung out. Then we went out to dinner at this amazing pizza place called Magpie's. I have to say, that was some of the best service I have ever received. First of all, instead of bringing out bread at the beginning like every other restaurant, they brought us popcorn!! Then the owner of the restaurant came and talked to us and was friendly and he brought us samples of the frozen yogurt that was being sold next door. On top of all that, the pizza was delicious. Then we came back to our hotel and spent more time in the jacuzzi! It was another amazing day here in Arizona! Tomorrow is going to be great as well. We're going to the Sabino Canyon and then to the Mission San Xavier del Bac, which is a church. I've heard amazing things about both, so I'm really excited! I'll let you all know how they are tomorrow!

Day 1

Hello everybody!

For those of you who love me and have read my blogs before, welcome back to a new trip! Those of you that have never read one and this is your first, welcome! I hope you enjoy!

Today was the first day of my trip to Arizona. Why am I in Arizona you ask? Well it's a part of my International Fellows course at Elon. We travelled to Tucson, Arizona to learn about immigration and the Mexican/US border. It's a lot more complicated than that, but there's the basic gist of it. So today started...well...yesterday. Our flight was at 5:30 this morning and we had to meet on campus at 3:30am so none of us really slept at all last night. We took off at 5:30 and let me tell you, I was unconscious before we left the ground. We got into Charlotte and then went right to our next flight which would take us to Phoenix. Once again, I was fast asleep for all 4 hours of that flight. Including the hour and a half we had to wait on the tarmac before we actually took off. The first thing we did once we landed in Tucson was go to lunch at the Phoenix Country Club. It was a beautiful place with a golf course (which my dad would love) and a nice restaurant. We got to eat some Mexican food which was delicious and tasted like actual authentic Mexican food so that was great. I'm anticipating a lot of Mexican food while here in Arizona!

After finishing our meal we got on the bus and drove for about an hour until we got to Coolidge, AZ where we visited a place called Casa Grande. It is a national monument consisting of the ruins of multiple structures built by the people of the Hohokam period in the 13th century. We only got to visit one site, the actual Casa Grande, and it was amazing and so beautiful! I gotta be honest though...one of the highlights of visiting the Casa Grande was meeting this gorgeous and extremely cute Golden Retriever puppy named Rudy! He was the cutest thing and I know my mom would have loved him! He was so friendly, and so was his owner! He demonstrated some tricks for us and it was great!

After we left Casa Grande we grabbed some dinner before we continued the drive to Tucson. When we got to our hotel it was pretty much do whatever you want until tomorrow. We didn't have any homework to do tonight and so from 6:00pm on we got to do whatever! All of us decided to go to the outdoor jacuzzi and that was probably the best decision of my life. It was so nice to relax in the hot water after such a long day and just hang out with each other. Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day! We're starting out with going to the Living Desert Museum and then the Arizona State Museum! I'm not really sure what either of these entail, but I'll let you all know tomorrow! It's good to be out having another great learning experience in a place I'm not very familiar with! I can't wait to see what this trip will bring!