Border Trip: The Journey Begins!

Our crew braved a bit of weather to get to Denver, and then to do the long-term parking routine. We flew from Denver to arrive in Tucson at 6:30 pm and then took our rental van for a circuitous (read directionally challenged) trip to the hotel. I personally am blaming google maps. 

Arriving safely, we checked into the hotel and had a quick dinner in a local Mexican restaurant. When we arrived back at the hotel, we had an opportunity to meet with a representative of the organization “No More Deaths,” thanks to Clare Twomey. I would recommend the website for an understanding of the harshness of the conditions people endure to come to the United States:  http://www.nomoredeaths.org.

He told us what motivates their work to bring water and basic medical care to people who are sometimes close to death as they try to cross the desert in Arizona. Many do in fact die there, and he said that their only mission is to prevent deaths if they can. He spoke of a young couple in their 20s with a baby in their arms and how volunteers with the organization were worried that the couple would not make it the rest of the way across the desert. They gave them water and had to let them go on their way, since the couple could not bring themselves to return to the situation they had come from and since, if they offered a ride, even back to the border, the volunteers from “No More Deaths” would be considered smugglers. 

Second Picture: Clare Twomey from First Congregational Church; Deb Walker, First United Methodist; Vicki Witte, First Presbyterian; Sarah Jackson, Vanguard Church; Corey Almond, St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral and PPIRC; Norma Robinson, First Presbyterian; and Jesus Reyes, Centro Familiar Nueva Vida.

~ by strangerswelcomed on February 22, 2010.