Arriving

Hello, hello!

I am attempting to reactive a blog that I haven't written in for a few years now, so we will see how this goes...  

Tonight I find myself in El Paso, Texas, having just completed day two of a 10 week journey as a summer intern at the Annunciation House.  For those of you who I haven't talked with about this place, I'd highly recommend checking out this video, called "A Place At The Table," which I found very inspiring as I dreamed about coming here.  I still have a lot to learn about all that this place is and does, but the basic work is to provide hospitality and direct service to the undocumented in El Paso.  

These past few days and weeks have truly been a whirlwind.  I left my full-time job last Friday, spent the weekend saying goodbyes and watching way too many episodes of "Parks and Recreation" (my new guilty pleasure), did last minute shopping and packing on Monday, and left on a plane at the crack of dawn on Tuesday.   I can't help but feeling like I left behind some loose ends and unfinished business in Philly, but it's too late now, Kensington feels many miles away from dry and dusty El Paso.

Here are some first impressions: El Paso is beautiful.  I love the mountains and the heat.  I was glued to the window of the plane as we descended into the city. I had never seen terrain like this before; sienna red, cracked hues of pale yellow and brown, mountains scattered and popping boldly out of the landscape.  We went on a drive today to check out various landmarks on the border and from one vantage point we were able to see the entire El Paso/Juarez region and where it divides, the largest binational urban area in the world.  It was clear how artificial the divide truly was, as El Paso and Juarez form one indistinguishable city.  

Our orientation schedule is pretty packed.  I am trying my best to get some rest and stay hydrated and soak in all of the information, stories, faces, street names, and other clues to figuring out life here as a volunteer.  Everyone is super friendly.  There are seven other interns, six here now and one more that's on his way.  Almost everyone is in college or just graduating college, but I was relieved to find out that there is at least one intern who is a few years older than me.  All of the sudden at the tender age of 25, I feel jaded and geriatric next to these sprightly young college kids.  

Overall I feel relatively relaxed and excited,  hopeful and grateful to have arrived at this place at this time.  This morning during one of our first orientation sessions with the director, Ruben Garcia, I sat in awe as he shared about how the Annunciation House came to be, back in the late 1970's.  Back then it was just a small group of young people trying to respond to a need they felt to live lives of deeper significance.  They didn't know what it was going to look like.  They didn't know what they could offer or who they would be serving, all that they knew and believed was that God identified first and foremost with the poor.  Their mission came to be when one undocumented person first came to them, having been turned down when he went to seek assistance at the Salvation Army because no tenía papeles, he didn't have papers.  It was then that they realized that the most un-welcomed, unwanted population in El Paso, those who did not have a place at the table, were those without documents.