Category Archives: Reflections

I am so incredibly grateful to have been given a second opportunity to go back to Texas. Although our time in Texas is now over, the work in south Texas continues on in our absence. We accomplished a lot in the 11 days that we were there and it was mostly thanks to working efficiently as a team, especially at Texas State University.

At Texas State, we surpassed our quota of 8 skeletal analyses even though we had 2 half days where we worked on other things. I can’t believe how much work we were able got done in such a short amount of time. I enjoyed working with Dr. Spradley and her graduate students and Dr. Gocha. Good things always happen when we get together with the Texas State team. I also enjoyed getting experience in intake and working with personal effects, which was something I didn’t get to do on our last trip to Texas.

I had a great time helping out at the South Texas Human Rights Center. Those couple of days in Falfurrias were a whirlwind of activity. We did something different every day. I enjoyed the hard work of repairing and maintaining water stations. I only wish that we had more time in Falfurrias to help out. It takes so much time and effort to keep up with the stations. I don’t know how they do it. It was also interesting to participate in the cemetery survey project. So many cemeteries with unidentified individuals are being found and mapped out. Progress is being made! Working on this project also gave me a new appreciation for Texas wildlife. Texas is unbearably hot and humid, but beautiful. Finally, I’m happy I got to see so many of our friends again and catch up with them.

This trip was a little less emotionally difficult than our last trip, at least for me. We had less interaction with the Falfurrias community and with the migrants themselves. Not to say that it wasn’t emotionally difficult at all. Missing in Harris County Day was intense with loved ones of missing individuals telling their stories and reporting their cases. I felt like this trip was a little more manageable. I hope that in our short amount of time in south Texas that we were able to make a difference.

–Amanda

Words cannot describe how immensely grateful I am to have had the opportunity to go to Texas this year.  I met so many wonderful people at Texas State University, Missing in Harris County Day, and Falfurrias that I will never forget.  The experiences I’ve had on this trip have helped me gain new perspectives and have greatly increased my knowledge on this human rights issue.

At Texas State University, I was exposed to other aspects of  the human identification process.  In addition to conducting skeletal analyses, I learned a lot about forensic odontology with Dr. Fancher, processing human remains, washing the clothes of the deceased, and taking photographs of the clothes.  All of these experiences have broadened my understanding of the human identification process, and I am very thankful that so many people were willing to share their methodologies with me in addition to improving my skeletal analysis skills.

Missing in Harris County Day was my first experience directly working with the families of the missing.  While I contributed mostly by compiling data from intake forms and documents, I was still able to interact with those who are directly affected by this humanitarian endeavor.  I hope that our work will positively impact them by finding their missing family members.

In Falfurrias I was really excited to be able to help and work with people who are in the thick of this issue.  It’s hard for me to imagine constantly working on border crosser issues and border crosser deaths after such a short immersion.  But the individuals we met there are incredibly passionate and inspiring.  Helping Sister Pam make T-shirt bags for the families at the Respite Center and Eddie with the water stations were just a few small ways in which we could help, but I’m grateful we got the opportunity to do so.

Before going to Texas, I had heard so many stories and tried to understand the complexities of the issues surrounding migrant death.  By being in Texas, I realized how much more complex the issues really are and how many people there are working on all kinds of facets of this matter.  Leaving Texas, I still feel like I can’t fully understand the difficulties faced there in such a short amount of time, but I do have a greater appreciation for what everyone I have met is doing to help resolve this issue.

I am also very thankful to have gotten to work with this team.  We not only achieved the goal of 15 cases in a week, but exceeded it by completing 17 skeletal analyses.  This group of people are hardworking, dedicated, and passionate about helping in any way they can, and they all truly inspire me every day.  We had a lot of fun moments in addition to the work we did, including visiting the Alamo, creating the blog videos, hanging out at the hotel pool, and all the inside jokes that were made along the way.  I’m happy I got to work alongside this team, and I hope to be able to continue helping in the future.

–Helen

Our 11 days in Texas flew by quickly. It seems like we were just packing our bags to go and now we are already heading home. While our time there was short I feel like we accomplished a lot and made the most of our time. I am very proud of our UIndy team and, as always, inspired by our friends in Texas that work towards positive change on a daily basis.

We started our time at Texas State University assisting members of Operation Identification with skeletal analyses.  While there, teams from UIndy and Texas State University completed forensic anthropological analyses on 17 individuals.  Next we drove to Houston to participate in Missing in Harris County Day. While there we worked with volunteers from a variety of organizations to collect missing persons reports and educate the community regarding the processes of exhumation and identification.  We spent the last leg of our trip in Falfurrias. We helped sister Pam make cloth bags for the Sacred Heart Humanitarian Respite Center, assisted the Forensic Border Colaition in mapping cemeteries in two counties and helped Eddie at the South Texas Human Rights Center to build, repair and fill water stations. If we were able to help just one person with our actions than we were successful.

But our work is not over. We have case reports to complete, case files to manage and plans to make, to name just a few tasks. We will continue to post daily blogs over the next week or so as we reflect upon our most recent trip to Texas. Thank you for reading and please feel free to share to bring awareness to this crisis on our border.

~KEL