All posts by lathamke

Back Home Again in Indiana

General, Snapshots

We went to bed late yesterday after a final debriefing meeting and packing. We felt good about the work we did as a team. We woke up to news that all domestic US flights were grounded due to issues with the FAA computer system. But we packed up Monica and headed toward San Antonio hoping for the best.  I’m responsible for my student team members and getting them home safely, but I’m also painfully aware that our barriers to travel are mere inconveniences compared to the those faced by many.

Our view of the sunrise as we packed the minivan for the last time

We stopped for a last round of Whataburger breakfast taquitos and decided to eat breakfast in a park at the base of the Eagle Pass International Bridge. Here we saw the Rio Grande and a wall constructed of box cars and barbed wire. The river looked clam and peaceful, yet we were facing what caused the death of many of the individuals we had just exhumed from the cemetery. This was our last memory of Eagle Pass before leaving town.

View of the Rio Grande from Shelby Park

While driving to San Antonio we were notified our first flight was delayed but not cancelled. That gave us a few hours of sightseeing and time for lunch. This down time creates a buffer between our work in the Texas Borderlands and returning to Indiana, something that is essential for the mental health of the Beyond Borders team members. There are many coping mechanisms enacted by last responders and forensic scientists who repeatedly confront things that are disturbing and emotionally challenging to interpret and better understand. In Texas and in our daily casework in Indiana I try to instill facing, rather than avoiding, the emotional response of casework.  I teach my team to rely on each other for support and to come to me with any feelings or questions they have. The hope is this will create a healthy pattern of mindfulness but I also have resources for professional help with coping strategies. So our last day of sightseeing is not meant to downplay the mass disaster situation in Eagle Pass, but is always highlighted to show some of the deliberate steps we take in making sure we stay capable of contributing to do this work.

The Alamo
The River Walk

After several delays (of both flights) we were finally headed home. Our last flight experienced a lot of turbulence, so we were all wide awake for the 1am landing in Indianapolis. Please continue to read the blog for the next week as we all post our post-trip reflections.    

Waiting at the airport

~KEL

A New Year

General, Reflections, Snapshots
A New Year - 2023

The New Year means saying good bye to all that troubled us in the previous year and welcoming new beginnings for ourselves and our loved ones in the new year. We make resolutions aimed at making ourselves better, healthier, more successful or more economically stable. We dare to dream and hope for all the things we think will make us happy and safe.  We send blessings of peace, love and prosperity to our family and friends. But how far do those good tidings extend? Who is worthy of this peace, love and prosperity? These are common questions for people who work as first responders, last responders and in human rights contexts. While it is said that “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members” (Mahatma Gandhi), these professionals see the worst of what people do to each other. And yes, there are bright spots, glimmers of hope that restore faith in humanity. But shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t the good outweigh the bad?

Jan 2023 Beyond Borders Team
Jan 2023 Beyond Borders Team

Each time we travel to the Texas Borderlands we highlight the amazing people we meet who are doing good and selfless things in the midst of humanitarian crisis and mass disaster contexts. But we have created a situation where we need these people. Issues of borders, migration, poverty and violence extend beyond recorded history. Yet, we have no solutions. If it were easy to fix it would have been addressed by now. Or perhaps we are just not approaching it the right way or with the right perspective. Part of why my team returns year after year is a practical and applied reason: to volunteer a specialty service that fills a need in the current crisis situation. Part of it is to expose the next generation to a situation they have a platform to address. The next generation sees the world differently than we do and I am continuously surprised by their innovative ideas and approaches to complex situations. They will be the change we see and we need.

Grave marker from Falfurrias, TX
Grave marker from Falfurrias, TX

During this trip we will be returning to cemetery exhumations for the first time since January 2019. We will be working closely with colleagues from Texas State University, Remote Wildlands Search and Recovery and the South Texas Human Rights Center. We will also be meeting new colleagues from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Exhumations are hard work physically and mentally because it will bring the team face to face with the victims of the border crisis. We will be in a new county and faced with many new experiences over the next week. All we can hope is that we contribute in some way to positive change and progress.

Thank you for supporting us and coming back each day to read about what we are doing and to learn more about the situation in the Texas Borderlands.

~KEL

A country road in south Texas

Sometimes the Hardest Thing to Do is the Right Thing

Community, Environment, General, Human Rights, Migrant Death, Reflections

My first trip to Brooks County Texas was in May 2013. With that initial and each subsequent trip, my understanding of immigration and the crisis along our southern border has changed. As have my thoughts on how the Beyond Borders team can contribute to the prolonged mass disaster situation facing many counties in south Texas. I will focus this post on what we learn and what we take from these trips. To date, thirty University of Indianapolis students and faculty have participated in at least one Beyond Borders mission to the Texas borderlands.  Our trips focus on quality over quantity, in that a small group of students travel each time for a truly immersive experience. The goals are 1) to provide the practical forensic anthropology and forensic archeology skills of our program and 2) to provide an immersive and transformative experience for the students that focuses on empathy and global interconnectedness.

Team members searching the brush in south TX
Line Search

With every trip I learn from the people around me. From the community members who are immersed in this environment year-round, to colleagues who are also contributing in various capacities, to my students who depart Indiana full of energy asking just the right questions to consider things from yet another angle. This trip we were able to briefly meet with Sheriff Benny Martinez. I haven’t seen him since our January 2019 trip. He is a big reason why this work has continued and the success in exhumations and identifications in Brooks County has been a model for other counties in South Texas. He always says something that puts things into perspective for me. This time he said “Sometimes the hardest thing to do is the right thing”. He was telling the team about how things have changed over the years in regards to preventing deaths and immigration policies. Things have gotten so political that people say and do what they think that have to rather than what they know is right.

Team members searching the brush in south Texas
Line Search

Changes in perspective often do not occur until a person or someone close to them is directly impacted. That is why empathy is such an important goal of these trips. To experience how one’s own assumptions and perspectives influence their thoughts or behaviors, and how immersive experiences can be used to question those assumptions is powerful.  Extending that to understand that one’s own life experiences create the lens for how they view all situations and stepping back to consider another’s feelings or experiences can create a better understanding of the world we live in. I hope my team always chooses the right thing, even when it’s the hardest path. Experiencing global connections is also important in that it shows how we are all connected as humans regardless of geography, political or other social borders. We can work together to do the right thing, even we have different ideas and perspectives.

May 2022 Beyond Borders Team

Every trip I watch the team transform with each day in the Texas borderlands. They grow not only as professional forensic scientists but in so many other ways as well. They learn the power of teamwork and friendship. I allow each team member to contribute ideas to our plans to build confidence in their own abilities. Just telling them what to do does not help them grow. But placing them in an environment where their contributions are heard and valued is important for their personal and professional growth.  This group was no exception. I am proud of their work and growth in the especially harsh environmental conditions of this trip. I am proud of what we accomplished as a team.

~KEL