The time is almost here, in just over a week i’ll be boarding an airplane with an amazing group of people to head to South Texas. It seems like it was just a few weeks ago that we sat down for our first meeting and started discussing items on our agenda that, at the time, seemed so far away. I find myself having trouble putting into words how I feel or what I think the next couple of weeks are going to be like. All I can think about is how I still need to go shopping for last minute items, and making sure the animals and my partner have enough food to survive the next few weeks without me. All those things seem so minuscule and unimportant compared to what our group will be doing while we are in Texas.
While in Texas, our time will be divided up into doing excavations at the Sacred Heart Cemetery and most recently, we found out that we will be spending time at the Sacred Heart Humanitarian Respite Center, among other items on our agenda. At the center, we will be volunteering our time to assist immigrant families while they wait to be reunited with their family here in the United States. I wish I felt more prepared but I don’t think there is any real preparation one can do to make yourself feel 100% ready.
I have never experienced first hand a crisis like what has been happening in South Texas and other states along the border. What compelled me to want to participate in this humanitarian effort, is the thought of being able to give closure to families. To assist in getting these unidentified border crossers identified and then return them to their families. If I was in this position, I would like to think that someone would do the same for my loved one and my family although I cannot really understand what these families and gone and are currently going through.
As for now, I will continue procrastinating my packing and shopping for last minute items. I am actually looking forward to my first blog post after being in S. Texas for a few days. I am as ready as I can be when it comes to the amount of emotions I will be feeling and the culture shock that I will experience. Until then, cheers to the New Year and when I come home, I welcome the change that this experience will give me- just like with every new year, we strive to be different, to be better and never the same.