Saturday, July 17, 2010

Group Leader- Marty Mellett

Before too much time passes, I wanted to share some thoughts and reflections from our experience working with Esperanza in Tijuana last week. I have been a group leader for about 5 years and have been organizing a group of between 15-20 adults/teens to travel to Tijuana to work with Esperanza. I am not affiliated with a church or civic institution. I have been organizing these trips to give my sons and their friends/colleagues an experience of living and volunteering briefly in another country – particularly our southern neighbor – Mexico. After participating in 2 trips each for my older sons, they have “graduated” to other adventures. My oldest, Luke, was very much inspired by the work of Esperanza. Following his two week long service trips with Esperanza, he did a summer experience in Nicaragua and a year ago, he spent a year working as a volunteer with a human rights organization in Chiapas, Mexico. This summer he is doing an internship with migrant farmworkers in North Carolina and he heads to Bolivia for a fall semester abroad. While my other son has not returned to Latin America, he has carried with him a deep sensitivity for immigrants and others left out by the mainstream.

This year I had the opportunity to travel to Tijuana with my youngest son, Ben, and 12 of his friends and colleagues. I also had the support of 4 great adults who made the trip possible. While these trips are always good for my soul, it is especially gratifying to watch as these young men and women freely throw themselves into the experience. They worked hard digging and carrying blocks, doing the bucket brigade, and mixing cement. They also worked and played side by side with the Mexican family and their neighbors over the course of the week. We talked about important things like the cost of living, immigration to the United States, when the colonia would get paved roads. We also sang songs with the family’s little girls, danced in the bucket brigade and discussed the all important World Cup.

Apart from the work day, our group had an opportunity to visit the health clinic, the border fence, and to share a meal with recently deported men as the Casa de Migrantes. And we had a chance to reflect on what the US immigration policy does to families when breadwinners are deported. We did not come up with solutions – but our teens are much more aware of the challenges facing immigrants in our country and I know they will be more engaged in the debate over immigration reform that hopefully, will soon take place.

All in all, the experience was fun, challenging and hope-filled. My son and his friends have already asked if they can come back next summer and bring more friends with them. For me, that is the best evidence that the experience was moving.

I wanted to share some thoughts about the topic of risk. Each of us has a different risk tolerance when it comes to stretching beyond our comfort zones or when we move into areas that may present safety and security issues. Myself and many of the kids and adults in my group have lived and worked in the DC area for many years. We take the Metro and we bike and walk on streets and in neighborhoods that sometimes experience different types of violence. Unfortunately, shootings and drugs are part of the life of our city and our neighborhoods. We learn to be street smart and we learn how to minimize risk. But we have chosen not to move to far out suburbs with large houses and supposedly safe school buildings. I believe that risk comes not only in the form of violence and physical danger. Risk can also come in the form of living within an overly protected environment where we never meet those who are poor and struggling, or those who speak another language, or those who live in different cultures. This is the risk of ignorance and sometimes, prejudice. It limits our ability to form relationships across various boundaries of class and race and nationality.

Within the context of the above reflection on risk, I wanted to share what happened last Friday on our way home from the work site. We were about 2 blocks from the posada when our bus was turned around by a police tape and a number of police cars. I got out of the bus and walked over to the police line and asked what was going on. I was told that several people were shot and killed. I learned the next morning reading the newspaper that 3 young men were killed with a 9 mm pistol. We don’t know yet if the shootings are a result of a domestic dispute or a land dispute or drug related violence. While I am saddened by the violence and the lack of respect for human life that can result in unnecessary deaths, I did not feel unsafe at the posada or with the Esperanza team. I feel the staff are attuned to what is happening in La Gloria as well as the various colonias in which we work. The posada is almost too safe – it is an enclosed community with gates and walls. I also trust that the Esperanza staff will look at this particular experience of violence close to the posada and determine whether additional security measures are warranted. I believe there is a difference between an active gang war where there is an increased possibility of violence reaching into the lives of the Esperanza volunteers and an isolated incident. If this is an isolated incident, I am not sure what additional security measures would look like. I do believe that if a permanent decision is made to remain isolated within the four walls of the posada with the exception of traveling to and from the work site, the experience of being in La Gloria would be severely limited. On many nights after work, our teens walk down to the pasteleria and the ice cream shop to talk with the workers and the residents, to taste Mexican food, to experience a regular neighborhood. This is an invaluable part of the Esperanza experience and I would be disappointed if an isolated incidence of violence permanently closed this part of the experience.

I have already talked my son who wants to return to Tijuana and Esperanza next year. One of older teens who will be attending college is planning on introducing Esperanza to her Catholic youth group with the hopes of sponsoring a trip next spring or summer. These trips are life changing to many teens and young adults and I am grateful for the many hands who make it possible – and I hope it will continue.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Reflection from Steve Hinderhofer


I remember Father Ted asking me to join the Newman Club for a mission trip to Mexico. He asked several times actually, and for many semesters and years in college I turned him down.

"College Life" always seemed to get in the way. Whether it was the baseball season or a girlfriend or laziness, they just seemed to take precedence in my life and inhibited me from being there. Father Ted was persistent to say the least, and he knew better God's plan for my life and the direction in which He needed me to travel.

I have again returned from Tijuana, Mexico, after another life liberating week of service and fellowship through the Esperanza program. I regret not being there in those early years in college. It isn't a regret that takes over my life and effects the future, but one that keeps me hungry to keep after those that haven't been their to join a group and come with us in the future, no matter what "Life" is getting in the way. It is a small regret that keeps me fighting on this side of the border, hanging Mexican flags and displaying pictures of our trips in my classroom at school. It is a small regret that helps me to get through one minute showers here in Iowa during the frigid winters, even when turning the water on would feel much better. But mostly I do these things not out of regret, but prominently for my simple, yet passionate love for Mexico.

Mexico is the first place where I truly felt the Spirit of God in my heart. God was finally able to break through these tough scales and remove the blinds from my eyes. My life has never been the same. Mexico is where I asked my wife Mary to marry me. Mexico, Tijuana, the Posada and surrounding community is the place I love the most in this world and Mary is the person I love the most in the world. The setting appeared to be very obvious to me. I remember how proud and joyful the folks at the work site were to know that I decided to ask Mary in their country, as opposed to anywhere else in the world. Mary said "yes", and we received a wedding gift from Catalina, whose house we were working on that week. We hugged Catalina and cried and shared a wonderfully intimate moment...I have trouble not crying even as I write, but why hold it in, what a wonderful moment. Finally, Mexico is where some of my closest friends live and work daily. This closeness led my wife and I to name our son, Thomas Zavala Hinderhofer, after our good friend Eduardo. Thomas is nine months old now. I thought we would probably wait until he was at least a year old before we practice putting away his toys in a bucket-line like formation between himself, Mary and I. I hope one day that he will be able to find something in his life that he is crazy passionate about to pursue.

I don't like returning from Mexico. I always cry on the last day during the reflection circle. Sometimes to the point where I can't speak. Two years ago we just hugged, and sobbed, and it was more than words could ever describe. Leaving there is always tough, and I feel as though part of me has been taken away, has gone missing, is lost. We have been home for about two weeks now, and I still awake slowly in the morning, hoping to wake up on a squeaky bunk-bed, body soar, hands calloused, hungry for more...I miss you so much...

I encourage you to continue your fight for what you love and what you hold dear about Esperanza. We all have so many stories and memories about why we continue to travel to the wonderful community. Whether it be the Esperanza Clinic or the girls orphanage, perhaps the families or the workers who give their lives each day. Continue to move, to press on, to make a difference where you most feel led. May God Bless you all and the seeds that you sew. May He make your paths straight, showering your lives with peace. May He give you the courage to step out and step forward towards His people with a love that is unstoppable.

My best to you, safe travels.

Steve Hinderhofer