Reflection and Relaxation by Kelty and Noam

Today we had our first morning in Kino. We woke up to a refreshing ocean breeze that was a welcome change from the swirling dust of Altar and the bustling city of Nogales. We are here to relax and reflect on the intense experiences of the past ten days, so after breakfast we broke off into our advisories and wrote in our journals. It was a time to process and get our feelings and ideas onto paper, as well as a time to gather our scattered thoughts into coherent beliefs. I don’t write very much at home, but I found myself writing three pages in a half hour. It was incredibly rewarding to have my experiences down on paper, because it helped me to let go of how difficult some of them were. After we wrote, each advisory came up with a symbol that represented the trip for them. The groups gathered together and shared what had been said and the symbols they had come up with.
Elissa’s advisory thought that one of the pieces of art on the wall made by Alberto Morackis summed up a lot of the issues and problems we had encountered. The piece had depicted a saguaro cactus with skulls underneath and the sun’s rays as knives beating down on the earth. We have all been blown away by the dangers that the immigrants willingly face. We have heard several times that, “It is better to die in the desert trying to feed your family than to stay at home and watch your family die of starvation.”
In Amir’s advisory, SooMi thought that that the flower that she made and gave to her homestay sister was very representative of the feelings she had about the trip. It was not the flower that made the gift special; it was the fact that she had put her own time into it. This was the same feeling I had had at the No More Deaths tent. It was not the glasses of water that we gave that made the deported immigrants happy; it was that we were there for them in the heat and dust to help.
Lauren’s advisory drew one of the crosses that we put on the wall as there symbol. ”. It had desconocido (“unknown” in Spanish) written across it. It was shocking since these are people that died in our country and some of them are still unidentified. As Dan said “They died without a name.” This was a reminder to all of us how terrible it is to die in the desert and not even have a name to be remembered by.
Andy’s advisory drew three symbols overlaid on top of each other: a dagger from an Aztec religious ritual to represent the sacrifices immigrants have to endure, the triple cross, that was hung in the CCAMYN building where people slept in Altar, to show how so many paths intersect within this issue, which is why it is not a black and white situation, and a single cross to show faith.
In the evening we loaded up in the buses and drove through the new age architecture of new Kino, and slowly made our way to the dilapidated concrete and tin casas of old Kino. It was very strange to see the differences. Avery said that new Kino really doesn’t feel like Mexico, and I agree completely. It is a perfect place to relax, but could easily be in coastal state in the U.S. There are no remnants of Mexican culture, architecture, or faith. Stray mangy dogs, and bicycle carts serving questionable clams and roasted fish swirl through the streets. We filled an entire restaurant with our group, and applauded the chef when all our food had been made.
We went back to the Prescott College station and went to sleep.
By Kelty and Noam

Casa de huespedes in Altar

Casa de Huespedes and R&R by Austin and Annelise

This morning we went to a guest house (casa de huespedes), which was an extremely cheap hotel for immigrants who were about to cross the border, or have crossed and were deported. While we were there, we met with these seven people who were all cousins from Oaxaca and had just gotten deported the night before. It made an impact on most people to actually meet these immigrants face to face because their story was so touching.
After that, we prepared for our six hour car ride to Kino Bay where we would get some down time and chill at the beach. Once we arrived at the branch of Prescott College, everyone was so excited to see the beach that right away we all went down to water and played in the sand. Since we were staying at Prescott College we needed to learn the campus ground rules, so this “gnarly” dude named J.C showed us around and we all found him very goofy, especially Amir.
Later that night we all sat down in a candlelit circle to commend each other and reflect on our trip. Some of the students commended the teachers who had to drive and Andy commended those who did an extra home stay in Altar.

Valentine's Day --- From the Colonia to Altar by Dave and Brandy

Today is a rather important day…it’s a fun day…it’s Valentines Day!!!!!! This is also an important day because we woke up in our first home stays. This time, we were lucky enough to have a group home stay with about 3 to 7 people in each home. I, Brandy, was in the largest group and it was pretty amusing. We had a few incidents involving beds, centipedes, spinning bottles and insane dances. But overall, it was a lovely time; we got amazing food, a lovely host mom who took our slow and slightly fumbling Spanish with ease, and two very kind host sisters who laughed at our confusion.

I, Dave, was in a smaller homestay with 3 other people. It was so confusing. We were attempting to play what we thought was a simple game to teach: UNO! Thank God for Elissa! We were so bad at teaching a game in a language that none of us were extremely familiar with. With Elissa´s translating help, we were able to play the game. It was so much fun and the night was filled with laughter. Soon after, we went to bed. We woke up to the most amazing breakfast ever! We ate and we were whisked off to the next event.

The homes in the colonias were rather tired looking. Most had tin roofs, cement-block walls, cement floors, tire stairs…and a few had their bathrooms outside of the house, or had very little running water. Inside though….was totally different. Everyone was happy or laughing, cooking, moving things around to make room for us, or just giving mini tours of their homes. It made the house I was in seem much warmer and cheerier than it might have been had there not been lots of cheer, smiles and welcomes.

Around eight in the morning, we packed up all of our personal bags, day packs and sleeping bags, then jumped in the van for a three hour drive down to Altar. Ahh, long van rides. What fun (really truly, there’s fun music and lots of laughter at lots of stupid things).

Eventually, we got to Altar, and what a dusty, windy little place it is. Well…that was my first thought, at least. There were quite a few migrants hanging around the town’s plaza, and many buying things for their trip through the desert (backpacks, clothes, etc.). Most of the shops seemed dark and kind of scary looking (full of things like dark clothes for blending into shadows while crossing the desert). In the town center, there were a lot of homeless dogs running around and some were sleeping all curled up in the sunny patches of the square.

After checking out the center of Altar, we went to the migrant aid center we were going to stay in, but no one was there! We decided to have our quick lunch of hummus or PB&J while we waited for someone to come open the doors/gates. By the time everyone had eaten, we were kind of bored and some were chilly, many had to pee…and then, we got a wonderful surprise. We had Valentine’s! Some were from parents, while others were from each other. Thank you all so much for our Valentine’s. They made everyone’s day so much better. The smiles and tears of joy were everywhere.
That evening we ate with the migrants staying at the center called CCAMYN, which provides free dinner and a place to stay for those about to cross the desert. They also provide information about the dangers of the desert. There were smiles all around the table as we shared conversations.
-Brandy and Dave

Barbed wire in Nogales

Hannah Anderson and Dan on activism and home stays in Nogales

Our busy day in Nogales.

Today we met with an interesting array of people. First we met with Alberto Morackis who is an artist who makes murals and sculptures on the border wall in Nogales. Alberto had a gentle and thickly bearded face (which stood out, because we have seen very few men with full beards) and he is of Greek heritage. His art, which he has put up with the cooperation of the city of Nogales, Sonora, and with funding from an arts organization in Arizona, depicts the perils of crossing the desert. After our session with Roberto, we got some time in Nogales to shop and eat lunch. It was very “interesting”. The shopkeepers were very involved in our shopping experience and would do anything to get us to make a purchase. Shots of tequila, drugs, and women were offered just with the purchase of an item. It was hilarious. There were also little children trying to vendor small goodies on the street. At first when we started walking around Nogales I felt a little nervous because I had never seen shop keepers offer just about anything to get you to make a purchase, but after a few minutes I relaxed and found it even slightly amusing, the things we got offered. I (Hannah) felt really sad when ever I saw these little children selling things. These were children ranging from about four and up, having to sell things on street corners to try and make money for their families. Life shouldn’t have to be like that. After that, we met with Teresa Leal at the border wall to put up new crosses with the names of those who died attempting to cross the desert in the U.S. Teresa was quite the character, sporting bright red lipstick and wearing a super psychedelic tie-dye T-shirt under a dress coat. Her dedication to human rights and activism toward border issues was off the charts. It was quite an experience. I was very moved by the sheer amount of people who have died looking for a better life in the United States. Many of us were climbing on the wall attaching crosses high up on the “ramparts” in a sense, with many locales looking curiously at us. It was hard for me (Hannah) at first to grasp that each of the crosses represented a person when we were just looking at the wall. Once I started to help re-write the names of people who had died (there was some old cross there on which them names were very fades) though, I started to think about how each of these people was a mother, father, brother, sister, cousin or what ever member of a family. They each had a life, maybe a job, education or house. These were people just trying to make a better life for themselves and there family, and then here they are being represented by a cross because they died in our country or trying to get to our country. To me it just doesn’t seem right that these people should have to choose between staying at home and watching their family starve or most likely dying trying to cross the desert. The whole experience for me was very intense. (Dan) I felt the same way as Hannah, but there were also people on the list that were “unknowns” who were unidentified people who died attempting to cross the desert. This really made me think of how terrible it would be to die and have no one know that you died… dying nameless… Once we were out of crosses, we paid our respects and went to the vans. With Teresa guiding us, we took a tour of Nogales and saw many disturbing things and many more impoverished areas were revealed to us. Teresa is very passionate about helping other people. I was just amazed by how she puts so much effort and time into everything she does to try and make the lives of others better when she has so little herself. She just seems so grateful to be alive and be able to help people. She wants to make the border issues known to everyone. By putting up crosses on the wall, not only is it representing the individual people who have died crossing, its showing people how many people have died, and that’s not even everyone. Also with the tour, she wanted to make it known how some of these people have to live. They live in small shacks that are falling apart, some of them out of toxic materials, because they are not able to afford better housing. Seeing these things on the tour made me (Hannah) really grateful for all the things I have at home and with me. Seeing some of these houses and other places though also made me feel almost ashamed. I own so many things and I always have enough to eat and a warm place to stay and here are these people that have next to nothing. We have more belongings with us on this trip than some people own all together. The tour made me really begin to think about how things came about this way, how we as Americans have so much, and these people here in parts of Mexico have so little. Finally the tour ended and the final stage of the day came. We prepared ourselves for a night of home stays in a colonia—a squatter settlement of cinder block homes in various stages of completion built on dusty hillsides.. I (Hannah) was kind of nervous at first because my Spanish isn’t that great. That nervous feeling left me right away. Our host mother was so kind to us and she was patient as we tried to talk to her and understand her. All the host families were so kind to be willing to share what little they have with us. The house I stayed in was tiny with two rooms. To us it looked like a little shack maybe, but once you were inside it was cozy and filled with love and happiness, and it didn’t matter what it looked like. There was a little girl of about two, Maria Jose, who lived there and she just laughed and played the whole time we were there. Here eyes were shining the whole time. There were groups of 3-5 in each house and we all ate marvelous food and got warm beds. It was enlightening to stay in one of these poor areas of town, but it wasn’t bad at all really. The houses were very pleasant and the people were amazing. The food was great and we all slept well. Overall it was a very busy day, but I learned a lot and I imagine my peers did as well. Dan & Hannah A.

Casa de Flores by Jamie

After visiting Chamberlain, we went to see Gloria, a sweet elderly lady with a lot of heart. We had a lunch that she had prepared since early in the morning and made paper flowers that turned out to be beautiful (when we learned how to make them properly). I could see in her eyes that she was pleased to have us at her house and enjoyed our company. During the day, she showed us the collection of things that she owned, but what I remember the most is her collection of things that resembled the Virgin of Guadalupe (such as a burnt tortilla with the image of the Virgin, a piece of wood in her shape, etc.).
While some stayed at Gloria’s small house, groups went to the No More Deaths tent or on walks in the colonia. No More Deaths is an organization that serves food and water to recent deportees being dumped at the border by the Department of Homeland Security after being apprehended and processed. These people have often been walking through the desert for days and have medical issues, no food, no money, and are not sure of what to do. People from as far away as Oaxaca are left at this dismal border crossing near Nogales when they are deported.
After another full day, we returned to the Casa de Misericordia. An inspired group of students went back to the No More Deaths tent in the evening with Andy while the rest of us prepared crosses to place on the wall the next day to honor those who had died in the desert with activist Teresa Leal....


-Jamie (and Lauren)

Alex Swanson: Our visit to the Maquilladora

Alex Swanson
Mexico Trip Blog Entry
2/12/08

Today the group went to a factory, maquiladora, called Chamberlain. This factory which is the #1 producer of garage door openers in the world, is located in scenic Nogales, Sonora.

As we walk up to the factory, I can see that it stands out from all the other buildings in Nogales with its polished windows and smoothed concrete exterior. The lobby was what one would expect of any factory in such a location—shiny and even better, sound proofed.
We are herded up to an air-conditioned conference room. Along the way we get a glimpse of part of the factory floor (part of the third floor, it turns out). It is an expanse of moving machinery and still people.
In the conference room, we meet with a company representative obviously well-prepared to tell us whatever he thinks we ought to hear. He begins the presentation by asking what we want to know; he was decently honest…
The presentation lasts for around an hour, and we begin our tours. My group (half of the total) are with two women who showed up about halfway through the meeting. One was the director of safety or some other title like that, and the other was head of PR. As we walk through a well-planned and small tour route through the factory, being shown how this does this and that also does this, we look around at all the workers there, and they look back. However, there is a difference in the eyes. Ours show curiosity, theirs show scrutiny. This is not where they truly want to be, and while they are getting paid, this is not their dream. Many of these people are trying to get to America, just saving up in the meantime. Looking at them made the tour, while interesting, feel very alienating. We are the students, they are the workers, and this is a big thick invisible wall between us. The fact that we were unable to actually talk to them, or touch them, made me feel like we were a world, or several, apart.
When we leave the factory, they line us up in front of the building and snap a picture. I at the time was not thinking about it too much, but afterwards I realized perhaps it was for some marketing ploy.
“Look everyone, we’re friendly! We even let teenagers in our factory!”
When really, despite all they say, they’re not. Just by the very fact that they are here in Nogales taking advantage of this cheap labor in such an impoverished city makes them almost barbaric, although that’s just an opinion.
Another day well spent, we head back to our safe haven in the midst of all the ashes and dust, and lay our heads to rest.
-Alex Swanson, 12 Feb ‘08

Garth on the Dawn Hike, the Border Patrol and arriving in Nogales

02/11/08
Para Garth D LeMessurier
We awake at the early hour of two. With breakfast sandwiches made the previous night, we embark like zombies down to the vans, in a semi-delusional state.
At two thirty the vans leave for the rendezvous point. Some listen to music, sleep, and the couples snuggle. Its dark out and the lights of the streets glow crystal beams of sunlight through the glass windows of a factory.
We arrive at a u-shaped shopping plaza, mostly closed except for the lights of a food mart. Elissa gets out and checks the nearly empty parking lot and signals to a blue SUV. We follow him for a few minutes to a dirt road next to a household with barking dogs. We get out and after a short introduction with Don Garrote, who proceeds to lead us through thorny bushes for 20 some odd minutes. It takes longer than expected as he loses the trail, or the lack of trail, until we find it under the path of power lines. Packs of coyotes howl, communicating with the local dogs, some kids are frightened. We follow the power lines to the power station and Don holds the fence down as we pass under it, it buzzes with charges. We follow down wet fields until we get to railroad construction. We cross a few sets of tracks until we get to the one we will follow.
We turn our headlamps off walking on the tracks in hope of seeing passing migrants, there is no hope though as we can be heard from miles away from our chatter, and falls on the dirt/gravel parallel to the tracks. Don shows us an old blue metal barrel, supposedly old water barrels unmarked and un-flagged, some migrants won’t trust it, and culverts under the tracks where migrants often sleep in hope of slightly warmer conditions, yet probably only from the wind. We stop miles down the tracks and pass almonds around as the sun rises with yellow-purple-green tints in the sky.
We pass two large ranches as we walk down the wide gravel path in-between the tracks. One is a vast open dirt field with a few cows, the other pristine green lines of grass, where exotic horses graze. Several cow carcasses and bones are spewed around the tracks—victims of oncoming trains. A freshly killed horse is melting in the dawn, its organs fumigating, its hair stained with blood.
We take a longer path to the nearest bridge downriver, Don wishes he had planned for a raft to cross earlier. We walk through a marsh/swampland, with drooping barren trees, a trash ridden dirt path, with the occasional stream. We cross a 20 foot bouncy plank bridge, bending a foot down at times.
We travel down a crushed gravel road under arching trees to an open field with a steeple, the tallest point in the mission. A small village of historical sites surround the old church, a sprawling garden, a chorus loops in the entrance to the cryptic monument.
Soon we are whisked away by two of our three vans. Back at the campsite we catch a quick nap and lunch before packing and setting off for the boarder patrol offices. We sign in at the building with camouflaged security guards bearing m4-a1 rifles and 40mm grenade launchers. We watch a heavily scripted power point presentation, lead by two Mexican-American officers. Every officer bears an H&K USP 45 CAL. pistol. They cannot answer if there are cameras on the railroad tracks we had walked on earlier in the morning. The surveillance room spots two dogs crossing illegally. A detained female migrant stares towards the group from behind bars.
We cross into Mexico, getting stares all the way through the city. A top a hill, on the far right side of town, we arrive at the casa. Pictures of revolutionaries are painted on the concrete wall near the playground of the casa. The sun sets through the fractalized clouds. We sleep on beds for the first time since the 3rd.

Kori on the Dawn Hike and the Border Patrol

Day five, we all scramble in the morning at 2:30 AM to get ready for a seven mile hike, exhausted we slowly marched towards the vans. Everyone is half awake and ready for the day to begin. We meet up with this guy named Don Garate, a middle aged man, with a big belly and a long handle bar mustache. He carried a cane with him and he didn’t look like the guy who would walk seven miles every day he has to work. After introducing ourselves we walk off into the darkness, where migrants usually walk everyday to find a better life. We followed the old man into harsh thick vegetation, where we had to cut through branches and avoid spiky plants that had needles that would stick to your jeans. Everyone kept thinking that border patrol would come and wonder why around thirty people where walking in the dark with headlamps towards civilization. As the night went on, all we saw was nothing but trees and plants. Eventually we ran into a water station, which was put out by a humanitarian group for migrants to get water when they’re out walking in the desert. As we came upon the railroad tracks, we decided to turn off our head lamps and walked in the dark. The night felt so long without much sleep and food. Everyone was so tired that no one was talking, all you could here were the footsteps of twenty five people. We kept running into gates and every time we saw a tunnel under the tracks we checked to see if any migrants were in them trying to stay warm. As we kept walking we noticed this figure lying across the tracks, the closer we got to the lifeless figure, it turns out it’s a cow that was hit by the train. It’s seems like its skin was the only thing left from the hit, but as we went further we found everything else. All around me I could hear some people in disgust and others bursting out laughing. As we finally make it to Tumacocari state park, everyone was relieved that the hike was over. After resting up for a few hours back at the camps site we headed off to go meet with the border patrol. We all came into the meeting expecting them to be like Roger from the minute men, who was vocally anti immigrant. Turns out they were like normal people with jobs. We spent around an hour watching a presentation in an a hot and stuffy conference room in which the air conditioning wasn’t working. Most of us, exhausted from the hike earlier in the day could hardly stay awake. They took us around their quarters and showed us their surveillance room, where you could see any migrant trying to cross the border. We followed border patrol around and we came upon this room where through a window, you could see migrants who were caught and going to be deported. They were put into these rooms that separated males from females and unaccompanied juvenile. It was sad to see some of these people locked up in cages for trying to come into the United States for a better life for them and their families. But others were just trying to smuggle in drugs.

Rebecca and Tucker on No More Deaths

This morning we awoke in Pena Blanca Lake, the beautiful campsite with the infamous immigration warning sign. We split ourselves into two groups- one going on a hike with No More Deaths to distribute water in the desert, and the other one going to the No More Deaths tent outside right off the border in Nogales.

For the seven of us that went to the tent, we went and picked up Danielle, a staff member we had met the day before, who was incredibly sweet. The van was parked on the US side of the border, and we walked into Mexico. It was quiet for the most part; only a couple of vanloads of deportees were dropped off, but we still managed to have many powerful experiences. The one that sticks out in my mind the most was meeting Guillermo, a guy who Dan talked to for a long time. He had been married to a US citizen, and lived in the US for 19 years, and had recently been deported. He had been living in the No More Deaths tent for the past week. He told us he was planning to cross back over the border later that week. For two hours we handed our soup and water to extremely grateful people. When we left, I had the overwhelming sense that it wasn’t right. I was able to leave and walk away from that. These people had nowhere to go, and many had no idea where they were going to stay that night- I wanted to be able to tell them that everything was going to be okay and everything would work out for them, but who knows if that’s true.

That same day another group of students went on a hike with the No More Deaths volunteers to see if there were any migrants in the desert that were in need of assistance. The group did not find anyone, but we did find signs of drug smugglers and migrants. As a group of students, we like to think that all the migrants are just people who want work and a better life for there family’s, but we concluded, without a doubt, that there were drug runners and all manner of dangerous individuals that also moved through the Arizona desert. The thought of the illegal drugs being brought into the united states by the migrants left a unbearable bad taste in the mouths of the students.
-Rebecca and Tucker

Hannah Venman Clay on No More Deaths and camping

February 9, 2008
By Hannah Venman-Clay
After a night of reflection with the group around the campfire, we head on into our third day in Arizona. As a whole we feel that this trip could not be going any better, and meeting around the campfire last night really gave us a moment to sit as a group and remember that we’re here together. None of us can truly believe that we have 12 days left on this trip and so much more to come.
This morning Dan woke us up early so that we could eat breakfast and pack up our things. Tents and everything had to be stuffed in the vans so we could move down south, out of Catalina State Park on the northern outskirts of Tucson to Pena Blanca Lake, a more remote camp site only ten or fifteen miles north of the border. No running water at this campground. Let us all bond in a… new way. This campground is beautiful with lots of things to look at. The toilets smell, but the view is one of a kind. Right at our campground there is even a sign warning people of immigrants and how they are around. Most of us found this very funny and there were lots of pictures taken. Hopefully we’re not disturbing our neighbors too much with our big group.
Today we met with the organization No More Deaths. No More Deaths provides humanitarian aid to people who have crossed the border and were deported. They also go into the desert and try to find migrants to give them aid. NMD’s base is located in Tucson in a nice church. NMD talked to us about the different aspects of their organization. Danielle, a woman who was the representative for NMD, talked to us about what the immigrants go through, before and after they walk through the desert. It was hard to listen to because it was so intense but it gave us a nice warning of what we may experience when we go to the tent. A man named Oscar also did a brief first aid training, teaching us how to treat wounds that we might see when at their tent tomorrow. Many of us did not find this very helpful, but mainly because he didn’t know we were actually going to be helping at the tent. As a group we are ready to start working with the migrants, and also go into Nogales, Mexico to look around.
We have recently been doing our Become an Expert Presentations. Become an expert presentations are research projects that we did before we left for Mexico on topics that we would be covering in Mexico, a person covered NAFTA, another covered the Minute Men. The point of the project is to have an idea of what it is before we meet or experience it. So far they have been a nice introduction to the different things.
Most of us have just come from food shopping for the next couple of days. A few people went with Andy and got supplies to make crosses for migrants who died while making the journey across the desert. Hiking, exploring and game playing could potentially go on today if we have time. At least today when we set up camp it wont be dark, and we won’t be exhausted
The group is excited to be getting closer to the big destination of Mexico. With a small taste of Mexico yesterday and more tomorrow, the group is eager to experience more of this much talked about country. But for now we remain in Arizona, where the days are beautiful, and the nights are cold and clear.
We miss everyone very much and hope that life in New England goes on without us and that you don’t miss us too much.
To those of you at The Compass School, how does it feel to have a 4th of the school gone?
Love and Peace
The Junior Class, Staff and Emmy

Soo Mi on Mike Wilson, the Minutemen, and the harshness of the desert

2/9

We get up early in the morning as usual and drove into town to meet Mike Wilson. At first we couldn’t figure out where the building was, but then we found it in the middle of downtown Tucson. Meeting Mike Wilson was like meeting a celebrity to us because we saw what he does in the movie Crossing Arizona before we left for the trip during class. He puts water out in the desert (on the Tohono O’dham Indian reservation) for migrants by himself. He does it alone because his fellow Native Americans don’t agree with what he does. Most of us were so tired because all of our days have been really intense. Some of us even spaced out a little bit during Mike’s talk.

After meeting with Mike we met with the Minuteman (civilian patrol group) named Roger. As soon as we saw him he gave us something to talk about. He was wearing a blue t-shirt with a map of all of North American with a walls on both the Canadian and Mexican borders. Written over the United States was the quote, “If we build it they won’t come.” He just made me laugh. It also made me want to ask him if he thought that the Great Wall of China worked, and if he thought if it was feasible for the government to build the fence now, although I didn’t end up asking either question. But to answer them myself, the Great Wall didn’t work, it made it somewhat harder for other countries to invade and destroy China, but so many people hated the government because they had to sacrifice themselves to it. They had to take care of their families and farms but the government didn’t let them do it, because they didn’t have voices and rights, they couldn’t do what they had to do. I also think that the U.S. government can’t make a wall running along the whole border like Roger would like, but citizens here have voices and they are powerful and they won’t stand for it. Most of us didn’t agree with what Roger had to say. He sees things in black and white. He said that all migrants are dangerous, and he even carried a gun.
After Roger talked to us, we went for a walk with him in the desert. We drove for a little while, got out of the vans and started walking. A couple of minutes after we started walking we started to see trash everywhere, water bottles, backpacks, clothes, cans, etc. It was really emotional for most of us. I got really emotional when I saw a little kid’s backpack. I the back of the bag had a little drawing of a cross, a couple of people and the kid’s name on it. I wondered if he made whether he made it the U.S., died, or got sent back to Mexico. Even if he made it, to cross the desert like that is a lot for a little kid to go through—the brutal sun can make you go crazy. It’s hard enough for grown men, but imagine a little kid going through the desert—that’s pretty harsh.

In class some of us read the book Devil’s Highway, including me, which describes in minute detail what its like to get lost and die in the desert from exposure. One thing that happens is that people go crazy and think that the sand is an ocean and they try to dive into it. It was really intense and amazing to see how totally trashed the ranch was by migrants, and it made me imagine actual migrants on the trail.

Clothes At a "Layup" Area Left by Migrants

Mike Wilson and the Minutemen by Avery, Allison, and Soo-Mi

Friday February 8th

It was an early start today, we were in the vans at 7 and drove into the city (from our campground 10 miles to the north ed.) to meet with Mike Wilson, who sets out water for immigrants in the desert. He spoke to us about his thoughts on immigration and how it affects his native tribes land, the Tohono O’Odham in southern Arizona. After thanking Mike and saying goodbye to him, we headed out to desert to visit a ranch patrolled by the Minutemen—(a civilian group that patrols the desert looking for migrants so that they can report them to the Border Patrol ed.) They shared their feelings with us about the immigration issue, and so we had a chance to hear “the other side’s” thoughts. Although most of us didn’t agree with what they said (that the immigrants represented an insurgency into the United States that threatens to erode the core democratic nature of our nation ed,) we did our best to listen respectfully.
They led us on foot through a trail in the desert (after a bumpy ride in the vans about seven miles in ed.) and we saw everything that migrants have dropped in the desert while walking to America in an effort to start a new life. (Literally thousands of tattered backpacks, tubes of toothpaste, boxes of pills, jugs of empty water, jackets, pants, and even a pair of children’s underwear ed.). It was depressing. I thought that they guy (Roger the lead Minuteman) was going to be a jerk, but he wasn’t too bad. At one point in the middle of his speech about the evils of immigration, Avery asked him if he had ever killed anyone (he was wearing a pistol on his belt). Not skipping a beat, Roger answered nonchalantly, “oh absolutely,” and launched straight back into his spiel. (Many of us think that he misunderstood the question.)

After we walked through the desert, Roger drove us to the a new fence in Sasabe (a popular crossing point for migrants) that separates Mexico from the U.S. It was an odd contraption of twenty foot high metal bars that stretched for several miles in either direction from the town ed.) After we milled around the fence for a while and took some photos, we made a sudden decision to drive across the border and briefly check out the Mexican side. It was really easy to cross. We saw a cemetery that was colorful with fake flowers. Coming home to camp after a long day was nice. We ate a delicious spaghetti dinner. Amir made a fire and we ate smores.

Remnants of the Migrants' Arduous Passage Through the Desert

Roger Plank, Minuteman, talking with students in the desert

Nina and Allison in the desert

Desert Inspiration by Kelty

Day 1
Today was our first day in Arizona, and it was very intense for nearly all of us. We started our day late since we were all incredibly drained from our previous day of travel. We woke to our first glimpse of the desert. The large rocky mountains, and rolling sand dunes were so different from the green, pine-covered slopes of home, and as the sun rose we could feel the frigid twenty-degree night melt away into a scorching desert day. We went for a hike to get acclimated. We saw cactuses that were a foot around and thirty feet tall, and others that were an arm’s length around and topped with fruit that some of us tried eating. We had fun crossing the many streams that crisscrossed the trail surprisingly. By the end, Tucker was giving piggyback rides across in his waterproof boots so people didn’t have to take off their shoes.
After lunch we met with Isabel Garcia, a lawyer and huge figure in the immigration debate. She was incredibly passionate and very moving. We heard stories from here about crimes and abuses committed by the Border Patrol. They were very moving and opened our eyes to the seriousness of the situation. It didn’t feel like just a political debate anymore. We heard how real people were having their human rights ignored. Hearing the actual name of someone who is held for days without food or water adds such a sense of reality to the border situation. It was a little embarrassing because she is such an important person, and since we had learned about her before we came she almost felt famous, and we faltered over our questions. Thankfully, Dan and Alex were stirred enough by what she was saying that they were able to come up with great questions despite their fatigue. By the end of her talk, some of us were moved to tears and all of us had so many thoughts reverberating in our minds…
It was getting late by the time we finished talking to her, and we were all in a daze from her passion and intensity, so we went to a small Mexican restaurant around the corner. The menu was our first experience trying to decipher Spanish, and we all had fun with it. Some people were a little surprised by what they ended up getting.
Finally we made it back to our camp after a very long and incredible first day.

By a very tired Kelty

Compass School Mexico-US Border Trip

The Junior class of the Compass School is embarking on the 2nd annual trip to study immigration and border issues with Mexico and the United States. Herein, will be their story...