Reality Check

A conversation I had yesterday afternoon with one of my favorite third grade girls:

P: “Ms. Z., my mom had to leave early this morning to take care of my grandma. She sick.”

Ms. Z: “Aw, I’m sorry to hear that, sweetie…if it your mom’s mom or your dad’s mom?”

P: “My dad’s mom. But he can’t take care of her, ya know, ‘cause he’s in Tijuana.”

Ms. Z: “Is he coming back?”

She shakes her head. P: “No, he needs papers.”

Ms. Z: “Can you go visit him?” She nods.  “Can your mom go?”

P: “No, she needs papers, and so does my grandma.”

A few moments later:

Ms. Z: “Did you know I went to Tijuana last weekend?”

P: “No! Really?”

Ms. Z: “Yeah! I bet you didn’t even notice I left early on Friday.” P laughs.

P: “Well if you see my dad tell him you’re Ms. Z and you’re from Urban Compass and tell him I love him soooo much and that his family misses him.”

Ms. Z: “I was there last weekend, P, and I don’t think I’m going back anytime soon.  Plus, it’s a huge huge huge city with lots of people.”

P: “Really? Is there lots of dirt there? I picture it with lots of dirt.”

Maybe I shouldn’t have pried for info about her family. Maybe I shouldn’t have told her I went to Tijuana. But I knew a little about her family – her dad was in jail and upon his release was deported.  I kept thinking about the men I met at Casa del Migrante, and how so many of them probably had kids just like P, families just like P’s.  And I had the privilege of being able to cross the border for a quick weekend trip, all with the flash of a little blue booklet.

De Colores

This weekend, I was privileged to join a group of about 30 LMU students on a service/immersion trip to Tijuana.  Just two hours south of LA, TJ is a different world.  Each month, a group from LMU goes down to the community.  After around 25 years of these monthly trips, the link to the community is quite strong; students and staff have built strong and lasting friendships, and many students go back month after month. As JVs, Chris (from Casa Maura Clark) and I were guests on the trip and got to participate and experience the weekend while sharing our experience with undergrads, many of whom hadn’t heard of the Jesuit Volunteers before.  It was really interesting to accompany the students on the trip, as for some of them it was their first exposure to service projects or international experience.

So, what did we do?

On Friday evening, we drove from LMU to the North family home in San Diego. The North’s are a fantastic family. The parents actually met on a similar trip when they were students at LMU, and eventually married. They continued working in TJ with LMU and with their own foundation.  You can read more about their story and Build a Miracle foundation here!. The North’s graciously hosted us all and talked about the experiences in Tijuana. They were truly inspiring!

On Saturday, we crossed the border to Mexico and arrived at our first project site. We mixed and poured concrete in a true assembly line style.  We laid the slabs for rooms on two homes that are currently being built by Build a Miracle. Families are chosen by a committee of community members who identify those with the most need.  Families are asked to contribute service hours to their own home, but many are so grateful for their homes that they keep helping build homes two and three years later. There were about a dozen men and women on the work site with us in addition to the parents who were preparing for their new home!

El Florido, the neighborhood where we worke

Mixing cement in tray

One of the wisest parts of this whole operation was the development of a community center in the neighborhood.  The center was built before all the homes were constructed, and has been the single most unifying element of the community. With no local parish, consistent work, reliable schooling, or really any sense of camaraderie between neighbors, the neighborhood was previously full of strangers. With the advent of the community center (which offers adult education, trade skills classes, mental healthcare, and so much more), the families have come together to form what Father Greg would definitely call kinship. Beautiful.

So anyway, after a delicious lunch at the community center, we headed to Casa del Migrante, a shelter that houses recently deported migrants for up to 12 days. We had the chance to talk to Brother William, who works at the shelter, and ate dinner with men who were sent to TJ just a few days or hours before. Talk about a powerful experience.  With all the talk about the border patrol and immigration issues, I had never met someone who had actually been deported. Some of the men I talked to had been living and working in the US longer than I have been alive, spoke English beautifully, or were born and educated there. Can you imagine!?  I’m still not sure I know what to make of the experience, but I do know that I kept thinking of my students; some of them have parents who can’t come to the US or who have been deported. 

Later Saturday evening, we played a soccer game with some of the kids in the community.  We also colored valentines with them and had a great dance party.  On Sunday, we visited an orphanage in a different neighborhood and made valentines with the kids that live there. We played with kids from 2-12 years old.  They were beautiful and happy and reminded me so much of my students.  I must say, this wasn’t my favorite part of the trip.  I was so sad thinking that while my students don’t have much, at least they have family to go home to at night. 

View of the US/MX border fence

In the afternoon, we ate lunch and then headed back North. It took just over an hour to get through border patrol. All along the highway where cars are backed up for miles to get back to the US, there were all sorts of street vendors selling everything from chorros to puppies to sombreros to Mario piggy banks.  It was a bizarre experience to see so many people making a living off of the very captive audience of vehicles waiting to have their passports okayed by Customs Border Patrol.  After we got through, we pulled off to a great viewpoint of the fence that separates San Diego from Tijuana.  One of the student leaders presented a little bit about the physical border history and how he’s seen the policy change even just in the two years that he’s been going on De Colores trips. 

That is a super abbreviated version of the weekend…please feel free to shoot me an email if there’s anything else you want to know about!

It was a busy weekend at Casa DK...here's a quick recap: 

Hike to Hollywood Sign: On a beautiful yet slightly smoggy Saturday afternoon, John, Zach, Emily and I took off to Griffith Park and hiked to the Hollywood sign.  The websites with the hike info classified it as a “strenuous” hike, and right they were!  They hike ends above the sign, but high gates prevent you from actually getting close to the letters.  Alas, we were successful…and sore.

Hollywood Sign, from behind

Me and Emily!

John, Me, Zach, and lots of LA smog

Chinese New Year party: One of John’s co-workers at Chrsalis hosted the local volunteers for a Chinese New Year dumpling dinner party on Saturday. It was nice to mingle with other volunteers/interns in LA.  There were lots of JVs, Episcopal volunteers, and Vincentian Volunteers in attendance.

Ground Hog’s Day party: After dinner, we went over to our lovely FJV friend Rose’s apartment for her (4^th Annual) Groundhog’s Day party. She’s a riot – she made all sorts of appetizers and desserts in groundhog’s day theme, and hung up pictures of Puxatony Phil all over her apartment. It was nice to meet some of her friends!

On Saturday morning, I met up with Mariel and Caitlin (both BC ’10 – Mariel is a JV with me and Caitlin was visiting from Denver!!) at the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market. The market was cute and VERY busy.  The vibe was totally different from anything in my neighborhood, but such is Santa Monica, I guess.  Earlier in the morning, I went to Mass: The Musical at St. Monica’s church.  It wasn’t really a musical, but the “contemporary” music sure made it feel like one. The church was packed and the whole time I kept thinking of Miley’s line “everybody seems so famous.” Everyone was dancing along to the very upbeat music.    

Note Zach's Green & Yellow Poncho (back left)!

Go Pack Goooo!: Later in the afternoon, the LA JVs joined us to watch the Super Bowl.  Thanks to a last minute save by Casa JD’s digital converter box (ours only gets Fox when our remote feels like working) we were able to watch Zach’s Pakers take out the Steelers.  Zach is a Packer’s fan through and through (see below).  Everyone brought awesome food too, so the party was a success! 

ReOrientation

“Ms. Z, you broke my heart!”

Alondra came running up to me straight from her classroom, and attacked me from behind with a bear hug and this oh-so-dramatic declaration.

“What do you mean I broke your heart Alondra?!”

“You didn’t came yesterday!”

(And no, 'came' is not a typo)

Apparently, while I was at ReOrientation for the long weekend with the other 80 or so JVs in the Southwest, the kids missed me! Another of my favorite third graders told me that they weren’t able to have any fun while I was gone.  Ah, their flare for the dramatic keeps me laughing!  I’ve realized that stories about my kids are generally lacking from my blog, so from here on out I’ll do my best to include some of the funniest, most inspiring, or heart-wrenching anecdotes.

Today with the kids was wonderful. We had just the right number of tutors and just enough homework to keep everyone occupied. Over the retreat, I thought a lot about patience.  I’ve noticed that my patience has been tested in many ways in the last six months. Overall, I’ve done a decent job at keeping my cool, but keeping frustrations inside is not always good.  Today I felt like a different person with the students – I was so even-keeled, so calm despite their typical craziness.  I attributed this to being away for a few days and missing them. I was so excited to come back! I want to hold onto that feeling, and some of the talks from ReO gave me some ideas on how to do that. More on that as the weeks go by...

And now, a brief ReO Recap.  The theme of the retreat was Social Justice, which is, after all, one of the four tenants of JVC.  We started the weekend with a reflection based on the words that we, current JVs, used in our application essays. It was neat to hear our own words reflected back to us, and to realize that we were all drawn to the program for similar reasons. 

Over the course of the weekend, we heard from four guest speakers:

1 – Mike Duffy: USF professor who spoke about Catholic Social Thought and shared an extensive social justice/Ignatian spirituality book list.

2 – Fr. Greg Boyle: Previously mentioned in this blog, G gave more or less the same talk I heard back in September at USC.  He also incorporated some stories from his book into mass on Saturday evening!

3 – Kate Carter: Former JVC staff member who spoke about Faith in Action.  She shared some thoughts about incorporating our spirituality and our work.

4 – Fumi Tosu: FJV and theology teacher who spoke about Ignatian discernment. This talk was super helpful and comforting. 

Perhaps my favorite element of the retreat was that each morning and evening, a different casa led a unique prayer or spirituality activity.  We did all sorts of things: created our own prayer flags, had a feet washing ceremony, read an adapted version of the stations of the cross with a social justice focus, shared – and burned – prayer intentions, drew in sidewalk chalk, and went down to the beach. We also had time to reflect with our casas and with people who have jobs in similar fields. I appreciated the chance to talk to other people facing injustices in education systems throughout the region – it helped me feel a little more connected to justice issues that affect my students. Some days I go home feeling like a glorified babysitter and forget about the many issues that my kids face each day in their neighborhood.  It was good to hash out some issues with other teachers and educators.

The absolute highlight of the retreat was the talent show. My casa kicked it out with a fantastic skit about the Program Staff.  We nailed it (she says as humbly as possible)! Seriously, we were hilarious.  The other acts were also great. All the LA houses performed (JD read from one housemate’s grade school diary, CMC performed a 20 minute original musical by one of their housemates, and Ita did a fantastic puppet show. Video links to come!).  Other houses did skits too; one house baked for everyone as their talent…yum!

In other news, tonight we had two Jesuits (one novice and one scholastic) who work at Verb over for dinner. Thanks to our newest house investment, a crockpot, we prepared a delicious meal (though let’s be real…everything we eat is pretty delicious!) and had a blast with our friends.  They live right in the neighborhood and invited us to their Jes Res soon for dinner with their community!

Justice Symposium & Update

On Saturday, I attended Mount St. Mary’s College’s annual Justice Symposium with my community mates, John and Cara. The theme was My link, Our link to Human Trafficking.  I was first formally introduced to human trafficking  as a justice issue while on a service/immersion trip with BC last winter in Puebla, Mexico. Along with my group, I heard a talk about the trafficking, sexual exploitation, and forced labor of women in the southwest region of Mexico.  The talk was powerful and eye-opening. Though our trip primarily focused on environmental justice issues, that one hour session stuck with me.

This weekend I learned so much more about the problem of human trafficking in the United States. Since this “issue” is relatively “new” to the justice system and academia, the terminology is actually quite misleading. According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (an act which reauthorized and expanded the Trafficking Victims Protection Act enacted in 2000), trafficking laws cover sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, and forced labor; basically, trafficking covers all forms of modern slavery.  The facts and figures thrown around during the day evidenced proved that slavery didn’t end with the emancipation proclamation.

If anything, slaves today are more disposable than they were during the Atlantic Slave Trade era. “Owners” (traffickers, employers, exploiters, etc) no longer have to invest the time and money to keep their slaves alive because the trade is faster and more readily available. Slavery goes hand in hand with many other crimes – kidnapping, drug trade, smuggling of weapons and persons, forged documents, assault, etc.  In the arena of illegal immigration, the differentiation between smuggling and trafficking is an important, and often misunderstood one: persons who are smuggled pay others to help them enter the country illegally, and are then on their own once they cross the border. Persons who are trafficked may believe that is what they signed up for, but once they cross the border they are forced to work in factories, homes, fields, brothels, etc to pay of the ‘debt’ incurred during the smuggling process. Often, the ‘debt’ can never be paid off.   I attended a workshop on the laws and policies in California and the US surrounding trafficking, as well as a workshop about different elements of slavery.  

I could go on and on writing about what I learned during the day. I’d love to continue the conversation, and hope to keep doing research about what I can do.  Instead of rambling any more, I’ll point you to some websites that were shared with us as resources:

Keynote speaker: Ron Soodalter, author of  The Slave Next Door   (I have this on hold at the library…can’t wait to read it.)

Keynote Speaker: Kay Buck  www.castla.org

Free the Salves: www.freetheslaves.net

Not For Sale Campaign: www.notforsalecampaign.org

Polaris Project: www.polarisproject.org

***

A activity few updates since my last post: 

• Julie’s birthday! We celebrated by going out to dinner and with cake back at home. Afterward, Julie, Zach and I went to a West LA karaoke bar where Julie’s boss – and birthday twin! – was having a party. It was hilarious! We didn’t sing but we certainly were entertained.
• VEGAS! Over MLK weekend, about 15 JVs took off for Las Vegas. We did the trip on the cheap by staying in the travel lodge, bringing some of our own food & beverages, gambling only at penny slots (I won $3!), and finding clubs with no cover charge. It was a fantastic weekend filled with lots of football watching, hotel exploring and dancing. [[Note: everything in Vegas really does glitter…we went to mass at a local church and the even wall behind the altar was sparkly!]]
  

  

  The Ladies in Vegas
  

• MLK Spirituality Night: To commemorate Martin Luter King Jr, John planned a spirituality night around his famous “I have a dream” speech. We listened to the speech in its entirety, which I would recommend if you haven’t heard it before.  We then talked about the ‘freedoms’ that are still being fought for in the US today. It was a great night. 
• Dinner with the Petersen’s: After “Fiesta Friday” at Verb (a monthly staff Friday afternoon gathering with food and drink aplenty), Zach’s parents and sister took Casa DK out to dinner in Santa Monica.  It was a treat to spend time with them, as well as with Zach’s youngest sister.
• UCLA Recruitment: On Sunday morning, Julie, Ben, and I went to the 10:30 mass at UCLA’s University Catholic Center. Julie made an awesome announcement about JVC with hopes to recruit a few prospective volunteers.  On Monday, all of Casa DK went back to the UCC for dinner and a panel discussion with interested volunteers. It was interesting to see what campus ministry is like at a secular school, and experience a university setting where Jesuits and JVC aren’t so well known!
• Up Next: We are off to ReOrientation this weekend. For five days we will be at Camp St. Francis in Aptos (where we had orientation). I'm looking forward to the retreat.

Back to School

While I was enjoying a three week vacation from students, two of which I spent in the comfort of my “home home” in New Jersey, many of my students were, to be frank, bored. Three weeks with no classes is a wonderful reward for college students who study their butts off – or don’t – for a semester. But for elementary school students who are still learning study skills and how to be successful, three unstructured weeks is a nightmare. On Monday, the kids were actually excited to be back in school. They complained of being bored at home, and expressed their gratefulness for having a full day of activity between school and Urban Compass (although they still complained come homework time.)

What’s worse is the stories they told of what went down in the projects over break. There’s no knowing what really happened, but as I listened to these stories and imagined them through their eyes, I was scared and sad. “Ms. G,” one of our fifth graders told us, “there was a war in the projects over break.” Another students’ mom was jumped and robbed of a necklace when walking her kids home. Another students’ cousin was shot. The kids’ reactions to these incidents is confusing. They appear sad, but tell the stories so matter-of-factly that I can’t tell gravity of the situation. Not that it matters, really.

This week has been a good one, productive in the office during the day as well as with the kids. I was so excited to see them on Monday, and am grateful that they all came back to the program safe and healthy. Of course by the end of the week I’m exhausted again – that hoarse voice that my mom hears on the phone when we chat during the week hasn’t had much of a rest once program time rolls around. My frustration levels are constantly in flux: in one moment I’m laughing at the hilarity of a five year old playing freeze dance, but in the next I’m so frustrated with a first grader who won’t speak to any of the teachers, and won’t even try to read.

The laughter, though, outweighs the frustrations. Today, I taught a fourth grade boy how to throw a football. Though I don't claim to be a football expert, I've gotten a lot of practice in the last few months and showed him how to hold the ball. This student is particularly challenging - he has trouble controlling his anger and is often mean to other kids, especially if he doesn't get his way. He's a tough nut to crack, and often prefers to play with his first grade brother than kids his own age. Today, for the 10-15 minutes that we were playing catch (the longest I've ever held his attention), the smile on his face didn't go away. He was so proud of himself for being able to throw...he's pretty good! And when I threw to him, he was so excited and yelled, "Ms. Z I catched it!" when I turned to talk to another student. I did a little victory dance for him and he started laughing. I was so proud of him, and honored when he asked me at the end of the day if we can play again tomorrow.

This past weekend we had a few houseguests to Casa DK, and threw a party for the LA JVs, a few former residents of DK, and volunteers from other groups. Otherwise, the weekend consisted of watching playoff football (bye bye Eagles) and bowl games (bye bye other Eagles). This week has been low-key, with most of our energy and excitement going towards planning our spontaneous trip to Vegas this weekend (yes, really!) and making plans for Julie’s birthday!

That’s all for now.  I’m a few hours early, but Happy Birthday Mom!!

Christmas break has come and gone, and it feels like the Urban Compass holiday party was months ago. I was blessed to be able to go home for 10 days, where I spent lots of time with family, friends from Cherry Hill, and even a couple BC friends! It was a lovely break from LA, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss my students and housemates. In fact, I still miss my kids because they have another whole week off before school starts! Oh, LA Unified School District… (but that’s a whole other story). 

Being away from work made me realize how much I do in fact love my job at Urban Compass.  I got lucky Being away from Casa Dorothy Kazel made me realize how important my community is to me on this journey.  In fact, this morning as I was listening to Juanes’ new album (thanks, Santa!) and a line from the first song, “Amigos” stuck out to me:

Compañeras, compañeros de este viaje,

Brindo por ustedes, Brindo por ustedes

Ustedes los amigos verdaderos

Por eso yo les quiero dar

Gracias por estar conmigo

Rough translation, not nearly as poetic as Juanes:

Companions on this journey,

I toast to you, I toast to you,

You, my true friends,

For this I want to give you thanks,

For being with me

How beautiful! The lyrics are just as true about all the family members and friends that are such blessings in my life. What a nice thought at the beginning of 2011.  Happy New Year to all of you!