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
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