Our morning started in the early hours this morning. Needing to be in the cafeteria by 6:00 am to pack lunches and eat breakfast. After breakfast, we head off to La Posada to do more work on the fences. Today our main task was to secure the metal fence to the poles that we have put in last week. We worked for about an hour, then some of us took a break from work to start on our final projects.
Securing the fence with wires. Izabel Love and Jadyn Kaufmann hard at work.
Our final project for this class is to interview an influential individual that has had a part in dealing with immigration. We will then present to the class the main points we have learned from the interview. My group was able to interview
Morning interview with Azalea Aleman-Bendiks, public defender in the Rio Grande Valley and recently retired.
During the hour-long interview with Azalea, I was able to learn a lot of interesting things. I was surprised to hear that a normal morning for a public defender is to have fifty to seventy- five plus cases everyday and she is only able to have 10 minutes to figure out what her case is going to be for her clients that have misdemeanors. One thing I did not hear yet but Azalea explained that Title 42 was being lifted and this could cause an increase in the immigration rates since the borders have been closed for two years. There are a lot of people that are waiting to get into the United States and there have been a few families that have children under the age of six years old that have been allowed to come in each day. Also at the border they are allowing all Cuban’s to come in because the United States are not allowed to deport anyone back to Cuba.
After the interviews, we went back to work until 3:00 pm. The staff at La Posada surprised us with popsicles this afternoon before we left for the day to try to beat the Texas heat.
Now I think it is about time to introduce all of the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers that are here working with us. We have four volunteers that are helping us during the three weeks that we are here. They are doing an excellent job at making us feel at home while in Texas. We have grown very fond of these folks over the past few weeks and have made strong connections.
The first person I will introduce is Connie. She was mentioned in a blog post before and she is our fantastic cook that is providing all of the meals while we are in Texas. Connie is from Canada and has been a cook for MDS for about 10 years now. She is very flexible and does a tremendous job accommodating everyone’s dietary needs for every meal. We appreciate everything that Connie does for us, waking up in the early hours and staying late in the kitchen to make sure things are ready for the next morning.
Connie, MDS volunteer cook. Canada
The next people that are working alongside us are Bev and Roger. Bev and Roger are married and are from Nebraska. Bev is in charge of all the finances and administrative work during the three weeks. She does not come to the worksite with us but we enjoy her smiling face and hugs when we return from the worksite in the evenings. Roger is a very hard worker and works to clear the land at La Posada so we are able to put up the fence easily. He also uses his Bobcat to dig holes so we do not have to dig holes by hand. These things are much appreciated as we would not be able to do the great things we are doing for this community without them.
Roger, MDS volunteer staff, in his bobcat digging holes. Nebraska
The last volunteer is Larry. Larry is a retired plumber that lives in Kansas. Larry helps around the worksite and with tasks around the church we are staying at. At the worksite, Larry will set up a group doing a task and go help another group do something else. One of my favorite things about Larry is when he is around us students he wants to be young again. He takes walks with us in the evenings to get ice cream, goes with us to the beach, and goes down blow-up water slides even if he might be sore in the morning. He makes everyone feel special and we appreciate all the work that he helps with at La Posada.
These are our amazing MDS volunteers. We appreciate everything that these individuals do for us to make this a home away from home!
MDS staff: Roger, Bev, Connie, and Larry (left to right)
-Izabel Love, Goshen College Class of ’23, Nursing major
