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.