Category Archives: Reflections

Reflections on how we feel and how the mission is changing us

Thanks to the Baylor Bears

Reflections
Baylor and UIndy group photo with some sitting, squatting, and standing in 3 rows

The UIndy & Baylor teams

This field season we were very fortunate to be able to have specialized positions that allow us to interact with the Baylor students in a very different way.  The Baylor students are divided into 5 different teams and each team was assigned to their own quadrant (a 4 meter by 4 meter area of the cemetery).  We have had more of an instructor role this season and have been responsible for explaining and showing how to use certain archeological techniques to best utilize the equipment and document what each team is uncovering. I have been amazed by how well the teams are doing,  these students are incredibly inquisitive and enthusiastic and continue to work hard in this hot Texas sun.  Just a few days into this season and it is evident how much the students have learned and still want to learn.  It has been great to see the teams work together to brainstorm strategy and support each other and the other teams. The teams quickly learned that the quadrant distinctions are being blurred as the burials cross the set grid lines.  However the teams were able to quickly adapt and are doing an excellent job working together to coordinate people, equipment, and documentation.

Going into this field season we knew that this section was going to be more challenging and it has already proven to be different from last year’s section as far as soil density, burial depths, and burial types.  We would not be able to complete this excavation alone, this is a large site that we would not be able to tackle without all of the help from Baylor University.  They provide so much support in the field and they truly make this project possible.

The more we become invested in this human rights issue, the more we are seeing the many different organizations, universities, and individuals that need to work together to solve this daunting issue.  I am honored to work with Baylor University and I look forward to seeing the students further progression throughout the next week in the field.

Erica

Through different eyes

Human Rights, Migrant Death, Reflections

This has been the third day of 5:45 wake ups and each day I am slowly getting to breakfast later and later.   Every day I have gotten in the pool but mainly for a type of medication. I never realized how much better mosquito bites feel in chlorine or maybe it’s just the water. I do not know but it’s about the only time in the day I am not scratching bites.  Since I did not post yesterday I have two birds of the day but I am not going to give a list of the birds I saw since they are mostly duplicates.  But yesterday’s bird of the day was the golden-fronted woodpecker and today’s bird of the day would have to be the summer tanager because I saw the male and female together almost the entire time.

UIndy team members working in a tight area of a burial from the ground levelToday was a big day on site and the team took a big step.  For me this was a huge first of something I would not mind doing the rest of my life.  Today I think everything really set in.  I wrote earlier about the fact that these individuals were unknown.  After accomplishing today’s task I really reevaluated life.  There are so many things that come so easily and unexciting to many of us that we unconsciously take them for granted.  I can’t sit here and say that I will never take anything for granted ever again.  However I can say that each day is a gift and I am grateful.  After the events today and after reading “Showdown in the Sonoran Desert” by Ananda Rose I was torn:  I have read about the reasons why people leave in search for better lives but there is no way I can actually fathom it.  Leaving family trying to make a better life for them is a sacrifice. Not knowing if what they seek to accomplish will be a success is also a sacrifice.  These people are doing what they think is best and today I embraced that they are making the ultimate sacrifice.  I am grateful to be a part of this group and to feel as though we are making some difference.  I appreciate the welcome that we have received here in Falfurrias and hopefully we can continue to help this crisis and help people realize every little bit does help.

The cover of Ananda Rose's book reading Showdown In The Sonoran Desert Religion, Law, and Immigration Controversy - Ananda Rose with an image of 3 people assisting each other in climbing a fence
By Ananda Rose

Cheneta

Southern Hospitality

Community, Human Rights, Migrant Death, Reflections

Metal grave marker reading "Unknown Female Remains"

What I do is not very glamorous.  I specialize in forensic anthropology, in short I deal with dead things (specifically bones).  When I tell people that I specialize in forensics, I am usually greeted with a disgusted “Why?”  Occasionally, people are intrigued.  In Falfurrias, the community has been nothing but appreciative.

I don’t know what I was expecting the first time we travelled to Falfurrias.  Initially I thought we would be faced with hostility.  Immigration and border issues are a hot-button issue.  Border concerns are incredibly politically volatile and polarizing.  I was certain that our human rights work would not be well received or at the very least misunderstood.  I could not have been further from the truth.  Instead of fear and animosity, the community has truly embraced our work.  I never could have anticipated the reverence given by this far-away community that I now love as my own.

The people of Falfurrias never asked for death at their doorstep.  They are merely the victims of circumstance.  The community had no means of dealing with a tragedy of this magnitude.  Our work, however slight it may be, helps to ameliorate this crisis.  While what we do is no quick-fix, we offer whatever assistance we can.  Our work is not a solution- it is but a bandage on a very deep wound.  Hopefully, more exposure will bring more assistance and discourse to help solve this problem.

We could not do this work alone.  In fact, we are tourists in this problem.  We are here for a few weeks a year to lend whatever assistance we can.  We stand shoulder to shoulder with a force of amazing individuals; the people of Falfurrias, the professors and students of Baylor and Texas State, and the local police and border patrols.  They face these issues every day, and should be recognized as the true heroes for this cause.

Justin