All posts by lathamke

Day 3

Community, Human Rights, Migrant Death
Day 3 group picture with smiles and three fingers in the air
Day 3

Day three started in a similar fashion to the others. Amanda and Justin went with Sister Pam to fill water stations, Ryan worked with Hailey filling in missing persons reports, and I worked with Eddie to make modifications to the training course that had been requested we repeat on Friday for a wider audience.  When Justin and Amanda returned we worked on constructing new water stations.  The barrels had been painted and drilled and the lids had been numbered, but the poles needed to be drilled in order to construct the long flag poles.  The poles are made from three pieces of pipe of different sizes nested into one another.  The largest in diameter was fitted upon a piece of rebar that had been pounded into the ground. The middle pole had a slightly smaller diameter and was nestled into the larger pole with a screw strategically placed to stop the smaller pole from sliding all the way down inside the larger one. The smallest in diameter carried the flag and was nestled into the middle pole in a similar fashion.

Beyond Borders team members drilling holes into a pole with safety gloves and glasses on

Ramon, a local Falfurrias High School student, was spending his summer volunteering at STHRC and arrived in time to help with this process.  After the poles were drilled, Sister Pam asked Justin, Ramon, Ryan and I to help her repair some of the damaged stations on one of the routes.  Amanda was to go with Eddie to fill stations on another route.  The repairs we needed to make mostly involved the flags and poles.  The long poles bend in the wind and eventually sag to the point that they cannot be seen as prominently as when they are placed upon a straight pole.  So we would take the long poles apart, straighten them and put them back together. We also had to repair a few flags.  I learned from Sister Pam that the cost of constructing a new water station is about $60.  The flags get damaged relatively quickly and cost about $20 a piece. In addition they spend about $50 a week on water. To construct and maintain the life saving water stations relies on donations to the STHRC.

Beyond borders team members setting up a flag pole with a white flag with a red cross on itThat evening Sister Pam invited us to dinner at her house.  When Eddie and Amanda arrived they had an additional volunteer with them.  We learned that this young man came into STHRC with five other family members to report his uncle missing. They had traveled from Las Angeles, CA to Falfurrias, TX because they knew he was last seen in Falfurrias.  His uncle was traveling through Brooks County and stopped to rest.  He didn’t feel he could continue with the group he was traveling with, so he told them to continue and that he would try to get to the road to turn himself in to Border Patrol.  That was a month ago.  They came to STHRC to file a missing person report and go everywhere they could think of to find their family member (hospitals, morgues, detention centers).  The missing man’s nephew wanted to help fill water stations and asked to volunteer. He then joined us for dinner.  He asked us questions about the identification process and told us more about himself and his family.  Then he looked at us and said “It’s sad, but it is life.” It’s hard for me to imagine a kind of life where going missing or dying is almost considered normal.  That statement speaks volumes to the hard life these migrants face.  The actions of this family speak to their strength and courage in a difficult situation.  They traveled to Texas and spent two days going to different organizations looking for their missing family member.  Even though their hearts were breaking they volunteered at STHRC to save others and took time to get to know us and share an evening with us.  After dinner we all watched Who is Dyani Crystal, a film that follows the identification process of a body discovered in the Arizona desert.  It must have been a difficult film to watch considering  their family was in a similar situation, but he wanted to see it to understand more about the journey and the identification process.  Sharing the evening with him was a special experience.  As we said our good byes we wished him luck in finding his uncle.  He hugged each of us and thanked us for helping his family.  What started at as a routine day filling water stations ended with a very unique experience that none of us will forget.

~KEL

Day 2

Human Rights, Migrant Death, Reflections
Day 2
Day 2

Today we spent an emotional day near the border with Sister Pam of the South Texas Human Rights Center.  We spent the hour and a half drive to McAllen listening to Sister Pam tell stories of her work in Brooks County, and the triumphs and struggles she has encountered in her mission for human rights.  Our first stop in McAllen was the Home Depot where we purchased the supplies the make the flags for 25 new water stations.  After that we went to visit the wall.

Our visit to the wall was short. We were there for less than ten minutes before being chased away by Border Patrol officers.  But it was long enough for all of us to reflect on what the wall is and what the wall means.  Portions of it were towering and ominous while other areas were made of smaller chain link fence materials.

12My first thought when seeing the wall was that people died to make that line and people are dying to cross that line. The ones that made it are considered the war heroes that helped to define our nations lower extent. The ones who cross it are considered the criminals who break the law.

Yellow flowers growing over the border barrier attached to the border wall with Mexico visible in the backgroundAs you look along the fence the large steel bars stop and a simple chain link fence begins.  Wild flowers grow on either side with their roots in one country and their flowers blooming in another.  As I reached across the fence and picked a flower from Mexico I thought about the fluidity of that line for the flowers. They grow in the direction of the sun. They twist and stretch past the shade that blocks and oppresses them and stretch towards a place where they can get what they need to be healthy and thrive.

A hand with a red bracelet grabbing a pillar of the border wallAs I touched the bars I was thinking how this line has caused so much recent death. This is the reason so many bodies were (and still are) buried in Sacred Heart Burial Park, and so many bodies are being recovered from local ranches.

Sister Pam and Ryan standing infront of the border wallAfter the wall Sister Pam took us to the Sacred Heart Church where the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley provide humanitarian services at the Humanitarian Respite Center.  We got to assist a refugee family as the arrived at the Center.  My family was a young mother and her two daughters ages 3 and 5.  I’ve never seen faces look so completed exhausted.  The children came into the center with sad and vacant stares.  We made sure to smile as much as we could, especially at the children.  After helping the family get basic personal hygiene items and a warm dinner, I got to help the family pick out a clean set of clothing.  The items were used but clean.  I was paired with a local high school student who volunteers at the center regularly.  We brought colorful outfits and glittery shoes over to the girls and watched their faces change.  They held the little shoes and looked at the sparkles, not even realizing the glitter had already been worn off the toes of the shoes by the last owner.   Seeing their eyes start to shine is a moment I will remember forever.  They are like the flowers blooming on the other side of the fence.  They are finding their sunshine.

~KEL

Day 1

Environment, Human Rights, Migrant Death
day 1 group picture with one finger raised and all smiles
Day 1

What an amazing first day in Falfurrias.  We hit the ground running this morning and didn’t stop until the sun went down in the evening.  We were immersed in an aspect of this human rights crisis that was new to us. We transitioned from helping the dead to helping the living.  We began the day by conducting a workshop on forensic archeology that was organized by the South Texas Human Rights Center and the Brooks County Sheriffs Department.  Various law enforcement personnel and Justices of the Peace were in attendance to learn about the strategies we use in the recovery of human remains and to work together to discuss ways to modify those steps to the unique situation in Brooks County.

Eddie standing in the doorway of the south texas human rights centerAfter the workshop we went to the South Texas Human Rights Center (STHRC) to learn more about their mission and ways that we can assist them over the next week.  They strive to save lives, stop the militarization of the border, work for human rights and provide life saving water stations.  Eddie and Sister Pam immediately put us to work.  Justin and Amanda made about 25 new water station barrels that will soon hold jugs of water to prevent dehydration.  They painted the barrels, numbered the lids and drilled holes to allow for air flow to keep the water from getting too hot.

Team members spray painting a "U" with a stencil on a water station barrel outside with multiple barrels in the background

Ryan spent time with Hailey, currently an intern at STHRC, learning the process of taking missing persons reports.  Ryan will be replacing Hailey at the end of the summer and was eager to learn more about his role there.  I went with Eddie to buy water to replenish the water stations already set up by STHRC and to fill the new stations that will be set up later this week.  After each group completed their various tasks we split into two teams and headed out to fill the water stations that were already placed on some of the nearby ranches.  The sun was hot and the humidity was sweltering.  We moved through areas where the brush was thick, the thorns stuck to our clothes and our skin, and the sand made it difficult to walk and to drive. We were hot and thirsty and we had the luxury of driving in a four wheel drive truck. It was hard for me to imagine what my body would feel like after walking for miles in these conditions. Our goal was to inventory the barrels. We counted how many jugs were left in the barrels, if any, and to replenish the barrels with new jugs.

The group and Eddie taking notes and looking into a water station in the brush with a white flag with a red cross in the air

Our role for the past two years has been the exhumation  and analysis of those buried without a name. We were working to return the dead to their families.  Now we find ourselves working to save lives.  We learned a lot from Eddie, Sister Pam and Hailey today.  We accomplished more today than we thought possible and look forward to the new adventures tomorrow has in store for us.

Dirt road in the brush with a wire fence on the left side and trees to the right

~KEL