I’m on my way to the comedor with my little group of 5 Samaritans.\u00a0 We park on the US side and walk across the border, dodging construction workers that are putting up the wall—probably the ugliest thing on the planet.\u00a0 There are exposed ditches, wires, lavender pvc pipes (lavender!)\u00a0 What the h—?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Huge cranes are\u00a0whipping around like dinasours.\u00a0 The wall will keep the bad guys out and give all us Americans peace of mind.\u00a0 Yeah, right.\u00a0 I think about the Berlin Wall, the Great Wall of China, the walls we erect within our own minds. \u00a0Hello. \u00a0They don’t work.\u00a0\u00a0 People will climb mountains, scale walls, and cross a desert if there is a dream of economic survival.<\/p>\n
We pass through the Mexican customs area.\u00a0 Men in uniforms smile at us, say “Buenos dias”, point out the last bathroom stop.\u00a0 We pass through the American customs area.\u00a0 Many more men in dark blue uniforms with assault weapons hanging from their shoulders look at us.\u00a0 They are sweating bullets and seeking shade.\u00a0 I feel sorry for them.\u00a0 What a miserable job.\u00a0 They don’t look happy.\u00a0 I wave and try to make eye contact.\u00a0 Nada.<\/p>\n
It is a mile walk along a major highway.\u00a0 The windshield wiper guys are out in full force washing car windows while a long line of people in autos\u00a0wait to get back into the US.\u00a0 They yell to us:\u00a0 “You are all angels!!\u00a0 Do you have any sox?”<\/p>\n
We approach the comedor.\u00a0 I can smell the breakfast the nuns have prepared for the migrants.\u00a0 There is a line of 40 or more men and women waiting on the sidewalk for their first of two meals that the Jesuits prepare for them.\u00a0 Frankly, the food smells deliciosa.\u00a0 Homemade tortillas, beans, vegetables of Mexican squash, corn, onions, cumin, and eggs are wrapped in fat burritos.\u00a0 Dishes of homemade salsa are set at the tables.\u00a0 Hot coffee is being poured by Mexican volunteers and the nuns.\u00a0 The migrants seem happy and talkative.\u00a0 They will get one more meal today at 4 PM with a little bit of meat.\u00a0 The nuns are singing in their makeshift kitchen.\u00a0 Things are upbeat.<\/p>\n
After breakfast we hand out clothing and personal toiletries, and I scan the group for anyone that is limping, looks to be in pain,\u00a0 is needing medical care.\u00a0 Interestingly, the people want food and clothing first—their medical needs can wait.\u00a0\u00a0 I tell people in my embarrassingly poor Spanish that I am available across the street in the clinica to render medical aid.\u00a0 Several immediately begin taking off their shoes to show me their feet.\u00a0 It is another foot day—-sprains, bruises, cactus puncture cuts, and the most god-awful blisters I have ever seen.\u00a0 So I sit with them in the clinica, soak their feet in plastic tubs of warm water, and listen to their stories.\u00a0 But I’ve learned that things always seem a bit better with a full stomach of nourishing Mexican cuisine.\u00a0 And with the nuns singing as they wash the dishes, well, things just don’t seem quite so bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m on my way to the comedor with my little group of 5 Samaritans.\u00a0 We park on the US side and walk across the border, dodging construction workers that are putting up the wall—probably the ugliest thing on the planet.\u00a0 There are exposed ditches, wires, lavender pvc pipes (lavender!)\u00a0 What the h—?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Huge cranes are\u00a0whipping around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}