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Day 8

Community, Snapshots

Group photo with 8 fingers up and dirty clothes

It was another early morning for the UIndy team. We got to the cemetery before sunrise and moved loose dirt in our quadrant by flashlight. Overall, today was an amazing day in the field. I would have to say it was the most productive so far. I don’t know what was different about today than other days, but the Baylor students came together as a team and cleared three of their quadrants. The site was relaxed and the students worked with efficiency and confidence. We are really proud of the amazing job they did today! We have two days left and we are confident that if we continue on this pace we will be able to complete this area of the cemetery.

Burials being worked on with shovels while other team members sit in the background and Erica sits front and centerFor the UIndy team, the best part of the day came in the evening when we were invited to the La Mota Ranch by Peggy and Bill Clark. We had the pleasure of meeting the Clarks when we were in Falfurrias last summer and they were gracious enough to invite us to their home for a swim. La Mota is a 300 acre ranch and Peggy is a descendent of the founder of the town of Falfurrias. The few hours we spent at La Mota were exactly what we needed! It was a time to relax and clear our heads.

Ryan lays in a hammock with a yellow dog and a brown and white dog by his side Peggy told us a story about a migrant that came to their door on Sunday. He was a young man from Guatemala that told her he was lost and had been walking for three days with no food or water before he collapsed on her front lawn. She said they gave him water and peanut butter crackers and called Border Patrol to come and help him.  She said she gave him a new shirt because the one he was wearing was full of sticker burrs. But before giving her the old shirt he reached inside and unpinned a small charm of the Virgin Mary and attached it to his new shirt. He then passed out on the front lawn and Peggy checked on him regularly because she was afraid he would die there. This is what the people of Falfurrias are dealing with everyday and with each story we hear we don’t know how they can deal with death and broken dreams on a daily basis.

Peggy and Bill told us many other stories. We learned more about the ranch and their  families. Peggy’s family founded the town of Falfurrias and started the creamery that makes Falfurrias butter. We talked about the weather, and the plants and animals native to the area. They had 10 baby peacocks (peachicks) on the ranch and we got to see them. They were adorable and not what I expected a peachick to look like! All in all a very relaxing and special evening for the team.

Group picture in nicer clothes with Bill and PeggyFor a short news feature about our work, please see this piece by Nadia Galindo: http://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=1055564#.U5Z6_CjyS1g

~KEL

The Critter Getter

Environment, Snapshots

For those of you who don’t know me very well I want to let you in on a little secret, I’m kind of a nerd.  OK, maybe a little more than kind of a nerd.  I have always loved biology, especially those creepy-crawly things that normally terrify others.  Here in south Texas there are plenty of little misunderstood creatures all over our dig site.  Usually, people’s first response to something like a tarantula in their excavation hole is to smash it with a shovel.  I would hate to see any harm come to them out of misplaced fear and ignorance, so I have tasked myself as the resident “Critter Getter.”

My "Marshmallow" Toad
My “Marshmallow” Toad

Since I have been here I have liberated countless spiders, including dozens of tarantulas and a few brown recluses (I usually don’t tell anyone about the brown recluses for fear of dangerous freakouts).  I’ve also freed a few snakes, dug out a fire ant hives, and shooed away a bevy of other bugs from the clothing of my fellow excavators.  I usually don’t have the free time to photo-document every beautiful bug or splendid snake that I find, but occasionally I’m allowed to geek out about geckos and capture some caterpillars.  So if you will, come with me on a Tour-de-Nerd of some of the local creatures that inhabit Sacred Heart Burial Park.  I will spare you the spiders and scorpions, and only show some of my lesser seen friends.  I ensure you that none of them can hurt you, at least not via the internet.

The Silver Serpent
The Silver Serpent

Day four was the day of toads.  We were able to save about seven of these adorable little marshmallows, and move them into a safer section of the cemetery.

Day six contained the widest array of critters.  We freed a couple small silver snakes.  These snakes were so small that even Erica managed to find them charming (Get it?  Snake-Charming?).  I also happened upon a patch of small caterpillars.  This little beauty will later metamorphose into a pipevined swallowtail butterfly.  Ryan also managed to help me capture a tiny whiptail lizard, which was no small feat considering how fast they are and how tired we were.

I hope you never change, caterpillar.
I hope you never change, caterpillar.

My favorite find happened yesterday.  This lovely lady is the larval stage female from the family Phenogodidae, better known as a glow worm.  In this stage of their life, the females are predators of other insects like centipedes and ants.  Best of all, they are bioluminescent, meaning they glow at night!

Green lizard looking at the camera out of a yellow glove
Tiny Whiptail Lizard

I don’t expect everyone to care about my little pals in the same way that I do, but I do hope that they might make a little effort to understand them.  It is not unreasonable to fear spiders and snakes (in fact it is often wise), but here in South Texas we are invading their homes.  They likely fear us more than we do them.  Next time you find one of these tiny buggers, admire it instead of reaching for the shovel.  You might be surprised at how truly amazing they actually are. ~Justin

Orange and black caterpillar
The Glorious Glowworm

Justin

Demolishing Our Roadblocks

Community, Environment, Reflections

The past couple days have been filled with frustrations and successes, making the highs and lows of a day so dramatic it is difficult to adapt emotionally.  We have three days left of excavations in the cemetery.  It seems like we just got started this year and already it is coming to a close.  It seems as if we never left last year.

Justin dumping a bucket of dirt with an unknown remains burial marker closer to the camera

University of Indianapolis photo by Guy Housewright

Yesterday we completed our first quadrant.  This time last year we were on quadrant 3 or 4, and they were larger areas.  It is frustrating because we all feel we should be doing more, be more efficient, work harder, work longer, take less breaks, clear more area in far less time.  It is difficult to keep in mind that the area we are in this year is completely open with less shade, smaller so that teams are on top of one another, and that the ground is harder with more compact soil than takes more effort to cut through.

It is also difficult to remember that we are human too, and can only do so much in one day.  We move all the dirt we shovel and trowel by hand.  We also have to carry it further because of the small area confining the locations we can pile our cleared dirt.  We have to take frequent breaks that we see as inconveniences, just so that we can stay hydrated so we can work harder and longer, and so the indescribable Texas sun does not make us collapse in defeat.

In addition to this we are all in leadership roles because of our experience and training.  We love this, but it is yet another difficulty we face when we try to measure our success by how much area we have cleared of unknown individuals.  The more we can recover and clear, the more that have a chance at being identified.  It is so important to work slowly and methodically, and to be 100% positive that we miss no one.  If we do it may be years before we can get back to go through that section, if ever.  We consider it unacceptable.

All of these factors, and more, put a lot of additional pressures on our team.  It affects us all differently.  We have written several posts on what we think the migrants face when they arrive in Brooks County, yet we have no idea really.  What we perceive they face is probably very different than what they actually face.  That alone is difficult to absorb.  We have not really written much on ourselves.  Due to the fact we get extremely uncomfortable and awkward when speaking of ourselves, our feelings, our emotions, and our experiences.  It is hard because we just think our words simply can’t convey it adequately.

For my team, we need to remember that we have an incomparable work ethic, our motivations and drive will never fail us, and we cannot be deterred by simple frustrations, no matter how they may pile up.  We have our goals, and we will complete them because there is no other option.  We will adapt to our daily challenges and overcome every one of them because we do work so well as a unit.  Our physical and emotional capacities, while they may be strained, will also not fail us, they instead grow and strengthen with every person we meet in this journey, particularly those already mentioned throughout these blog pages.  What we have achieved so far is incredible, and we are not done yet.

Group picture in work clothes with sister PamThanks to the support from all the wonderful people we have met (and will meet) and encouraged us every day.  A special mention to Sister Pam who joined us for a couple days and has asked us questions we haven’t thought to answer since we first got involved with this crisis in Falfurrias.  She has been so moved by what we are doing she has actually reminded us of our motivations at a time when we greatly needed it.

–Jessica