DAY 1 - SATURDAY

TRAVELING TO EL PASO 

Whelp!

It’s been an interesting travel day. Debbie and Camilla left this morning from Tucson and arrived as planned in El Paso. We were scheduled to arrive there around 130pm, in time for our orientation at 330pm at Cristo Rey.

 

However, mother nature had other plans. The five of us started our journey in Minneapolis, boarded for our flight to Denver (which left a little late but was still scheduled to arrive on time), and we got in around 10:38am. We then sat on the tarmac for over two hours, waiting for planes ahead of us to deplane. It sounds like they weren’t quite anticipating the mess of this winter storm. Yikes. Runways were closed for quite some time while snow was cleared.

 

As we sat on the plane, we learned our connecting flight was canceled. Turns out over 1000 flights were delayed or canceled today out of Denver. We were all rescheduled on different flights (Pam and Bob through Houston; Tom, Judy, and me on a non-stop to El Paso, scheduled to leave at 820pm). Pam and Bob made it to Houston, but too late to make their connection to El Paso, so they are stranded there at the time of my writing. Around 5pm, our flight to El Paso was delayed; departure is now 10:20pm. We will see how the evening unfolds. I’m keeping an open mind 

 

I’ve spent the afternoon at the United Club, eating snacks and reading. I took a brief hiatus to walk through the airport and now have returned to a new perch where I can watch the snowplows and other airport trucks work on the runways. It’s quite a sight in the night.

 

While not the day we’d planned for, I’ve been surprised by the generosity of strangers and others making the best of annoying situations. I think I speak for all of us when I say we are eager to finally arrive (all seven of us!)  in El Paso and immerse ourselves in this week of learning. 

 

More to come. 

Anna Helgen

Meanwhile in El Paso...

Upon arriving in El Paso we were welcomed to the birthday lunch for Pastora Rose Mary's daughter. We then prepared bread and salad which we served to a small group of about 20 people at one of the local shelters. Some of their residents are women who now live in Mexico, but are required to live in the U.S. for a month every six months to maintain their pension. The cost of staying in a hotel would be prohibitive.

After dinner one of the longer term residents shared her story of coming to the U.S. from Guatemala. After facing significant challenges and requiring hospitalization, she is grateful to be alive and able to see her 13-year-old son, even if it's just on her phone. We appreciated the courage required to tell her story. When asked what she would like people to know about immigration, she said she would like people to understand why people need to leave the country they have always known as their home.

Camilla Madson