(kind of) HOME VISIT

This is Manuel´s wheel chair set in front of our little store that he manages. He was hurt by the train 2 years ago and only recently has begun to be able to use his legs. Since I´ve been here he has progressed from being able to balance standing to last week the Dr said he should no longer use the wheel chair. It´s now time for the walker only. We just got the parallel bars finished in time for him to really work on his exercises. He is so motivated. Thanks for donations from many of you. These parallel bars have been needed for a long time. They are being used by the abuelos (elderly men) and young ones alike.



Here Manuel is doing his deep knee bends and high leg lifts.

Donar, who has bilateral amputations, sews in the sewing shop. They help support the shelter with the things they sew. He made me a beautiful skirt.

The last foto is of Olga. I´ve been wanting to get a photo of her that shows her like I always see her. This captures her with her great smile and enjoying the people she is helping. She has wild dreams for people who are sick or injured and knows how to work to make them come true.

The guy with the cap used to live at the shelter. He has a below the knee prosthesis. Alma, the seamstress has bilateral amputations......all from the train.

I´m making a kind of home visit in May! I´ll be going to the Annunciation House board of Directors meeting and our annual Voice of the Voiceless dinner. This year the recipient of the Voice of the Voiceless Award is Roy Bourgeois. I´m looking forward to meeting him and hearing him speak at the dinner. I plan to be there May 10-26.

An extra special treat for me is that my sister Jeanette will be coming down the week before the meeting just for a visit. We will be talking English, watching movies in English and eating ice cream!!! I can´t wait!

Many people have asked how they could get donations to me. It looks like this will be possible now in a relay type activity. Katy Brandes, a Saint Joseph worker, will be coming to El Paso and we´ll meet there. She is willing to bring supplies down from the Twin Cities. This is her response to my request.

"I would love to bring some supplies down for you. You can have people send them to me or Suzanne (Herder at the Administration Center) by Wednesday, May 14th. If people want to contact me to coordinate a drop off, they can call me at 612.418.2190. Glad to be of assistance."

Suzanne´s phone number at work is 651-696-2762.

As far as the supplies, I´d recommend that people don´t go out and buy supplies, but donate things that you already have. If you want to donate more than that, sending a monitary donation is easier to pack and I could buy the supplies in Tapachula. (Refer to the "things we could use" on the right hand side of the blog.)

While I´m in El Paso I hope to sell coffee to benefit the shelter. We sew cloth bags with our "Jesus el Buen Pastor" stamp and go straight to the ejido (communal farm) to buy the coffee fresh. If anyone has suggestions for where I might be able to sell them in El Paso, I´m open for suggestions.

Looking forward to seeing many of you in El Paso.

Blessings

Lillian

Arriaga and more train stories

Lining up for dinner.
This young guy in blue reminded me so much of my nephew Tyler. He was one of so many kids 15-17 years old in Arriaga this month. We had 44 people
register in one day. In addition to them, people had missed the last 2
trains so there were about 150 people staying at the shelter while I was there. The well went dry....and to add insult to injury, the next night robbers stole the copper pipes, so even if we bought a tank of water, we had no way to pipe it to where it was needed. Luckily that happened the same night that everyone left on the train.












The 2 guys below (in the center) are brothers, Oscar and Felix (no joke). They´ve both lived in the US and were deported. Felix was a cook in NY and likes NY. Oscar has been a cook in a chain restaurant in many states, including MN. He prefers California.
I tried the train (but only dared this while the train was stopped!) It was scary! I had been close to trains in the past, but to actually climb up on it was something else. It´s huge. The wheels are huge and powerful. The ladders start at about chest height. One of the women in our Tapachula shelter had her legs cut off when she grabbed the ladder and her legs swung under the train and she fell. As I tried to climb up the train when it wasn´t moving, I could see how easily that could happen.













I had the good fortune to be at the shelter at the same time as Edineo, a journalist from Minneapolis. He shared his fotos and stories with me. In this photo he is with a woman and her 2 kids who also rode the train. He told me about a woman who had carried her baby all night to get to the train. When she got on the train with her baby she fell asleep. When she woke up, the baby was gone. She must have dropped him while she was sleeping! They haven´t been able to find the baby. I can´t imagine what that woman is going through.



Edineo rode the train with the migrants and took pictures all along the way. He happened to be there at the time the army and immigration stopped the train for an "Operativo". This is one of the pictures he took that shows a soldier grabbing a woman as the rest were fleeing. I have other pictures that show them beating the migrants with clubs. Edineo was there and talked about it and other people who were beaten told me about it. There are also accusations of 2 women who were raped by the authorities. Edineo said what was so distressing to him was how the authorities seemed to be enjoying it. They were beating the people then standing around in groups laughing together as if they were a bunch of guys out hunting.

After talking about what the immigrants go through, it´s hard to switch gears, but I´m going to do it anyway!

I realize that I still keep thinking of myself as young because I am one of the youngest in my community. In Arriaga I was reminded many times that the rest of the world doesn´t see me as young as my community does. I have been called ¨Jefa¨ (boss lady--a respectful title for a woman of some stature.) I was asked by the woman who is standing beside me on the picture of the train above if I wouldn´t take her to the US and claim her as my daughter (to me she doesn´t look much younger than me!) The wildest one was being called "Abuelita" (Little Grandmother!) by one of the guys. ---All of these terms were said with respect and affection. They have no idea how shocking it is to hear myself being called "Abuelita!"

Today I was at the Dr with a man who is deaf. He lives in the mountains and is very poor. He reads everything he can find. They say he knows the bible inside out and backwards and is an expert on vatican II. When we were at the Dr I wrote him a note. He had some old reading glasses that were all dirty and scratched up. He was holding the note as far away as his arms could reach and said he needed a new pair of glasses but they were too expensive. I handed over a pair that Kris had given me. He read with them and had a great smile on his face. He said he could read very well with them. I said ¨keep them¨ he responded "You will go straight to heaven, sandals and all!" I have a couple of other pairs of glasses here so not to worry about me. (Sorry to say, I´m not generous enough to give away my only pair!!!) They will be put to great use--------giving a deaf man a way to communicate with the world is a wonderful feeling. He can´t hear but he´ll be able to read the words.
Blessings
Lillian