Category Archives: Snapshots

Random things about us

Day 7

Community, Snapshots

Group photo in dirty work clothes with Sister Pam, all holding 7 fingers up

Day 7 was a good day. We started with an amazing breakfast: kolaches! We were all bummed because we would miss the stop in West, TX to pick up kolaches this year.  But Ryan’s dad surprised us with a few dozen and we started off the day with savory sausage kolaches.  With full bellies we decided to head to work early. The sun gets dangerously hot around noon.  Since we spend so much time working with the Baylor groups each morning on technique and strategies, we don’t get to our own quadrant until mid-morning when it’s already getting pretty hot. We can’t stay late due to the heat, so we decided to work early today. We had loose dirt over a portion of our quadrant that we knew didn’t contain any remains. So we headed to the cemetery to shovel in the dark by flashlight. True UIndy dedication!

Team members digging with shovels in the darkOver the past few days we’ve had the pleasure of having Sister Pam at the site. Sister Pam is a Catholic nun who is currently living in Ohio. She feels the calling to move to Falfurrias and work with the human rights groups here.  She traveled to Brooks County to observe our work in the cemetery and look for a place to live once she moves here. Sister Pam has been a pillar of support for our group as we maneuver through this intense situation, and I’ve relied on a few Sister Pam hugs to make me feel better.  You can see Sister Pam with the team in our day 7 photo.

Team members digging with shovels within a burialWe had to move a lot of dirt today.  When we have a sense of urgency to get a task done we call it “Beast Mode” and we embraced the beast mode today! This occurs when we kick into high gear, we jump into certain roles and get them done with no questions.  Today the “Beast Mode” allowed us to get one half of our new quadrant completed.

The Sheriff and Chief Benny were kind enough to bring in equipment and move some of our back fill dirt today. We have managed to pretty much surround our grid with large dirt piles, and only small pathways leading in and out.  The Sheriff moved our large dirt mountains to an area of the cemetery out of our way. This is really going to help us as we move into the final days of the excavation.

Large red backhoe in the distance behind multiple mounds of dirt~KEL

Day 6

Snapshots

Ryan's dad and Sarge along side the UIndy team smiling and all holding up 6 fingers

The UIndy team finished their first quadrant today. That means we moved dirt (average depth of 80 cm) from a 4 meter by 4 meter area in the cemetery.  We also dug test pits and probed the soil to make sure the area was free of burials to an average depth of 150 centimeters.  While I am too tired to do the math right now, I can tell you that is a lot of dirt!  We recovered a total of six individuals from our quadrant. The UIndy team can’t take all the credit for this quadrant though.  The team next to us had burials that extended into our quadrant, so they actually did the western edge of our quadrant for us.

UIndy Team member using a trowel in a burial with 4 circular test pits dugToday Ryan’s dad visited the cemetery (Ryan’s dad and Sarge are the guests in our day 6 photo).  He spent all day with us in the sun, going from group to group to observe the process and ask questions. I hope he had a positive experience with us today and that this provides him with a better understanding of the training Ryan is getting at the University of Indianapolis. I also hope he was able to get a glimpse of the dedication and passion Ryan has for this work, and observe Ryan in action as one of our Field Experts.

We just passed the half way mark of our time in the field here. I personally am feeling quite broken today. The sheer physical exhaustion is unavoidable as we average 3 to 4 hours of sleep per night, every muscle aches and the blisters and bruises are reaching numbers so high I can’t keep track of them. The mental exhaustion of the project is also unavoidable. We are immersed in this crisis while we in Falfurrias. We hear the stories, we see how everyone here is impacted and we see the bodies adding up each day. We know these represent parents, children, siblings and spouses. But we keep going. We are supervising the field work with no compensation, there are times when we get snapped at and there are times that we get frustrated. But we keep going. At our debriefing this evening Ryan stepped up and delivered a pep talk that brought us back to the place we needed to be. He got everyone in the room back on track, raised our spirits and motivated us to keep going and get this job done. We have four days left and we need to walk away proud of what we did here and knowing we gave it our all.

Beyond Borders team members using shovels on a wall inside a burial

~KEL

Testing Out the GoPro

Environment, Snapshots

We came to the field this year equipped with a GoPro camera, hoping to get some great action shots of our work and how we do things. Justin has been wearing it on his hat quite a bit, and we’ve all been passing it around to get some interesting shots. So I’ve finally put a little bit of the footage together to give our readers an idea of what it looks like through the eyes of Team UIndy at Sacred Heart Cemetery!

As always, thanks for reading and watching!

Ryan