Thoughts from San Antonio- The Issue of Immigration in the US

Hello lovely people who may stumble upon this blog post.  I had the opportunity to spend this past week, my Spring Break, in San Antonio through DOOR (Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection).  So while I'm no longer in Manila, this seemed like an appropriate platform to share my experience.

So what have I learned about immigration? Well the first thing is that it's a super complicated issue.  It's not just, "We should let everyone in, " or "We can't let anyone in," but rather a compromise must be reached.  Mostly who we dealt with on the trip were women and children seeking asylum in the US.  Most of these people come from the Northern Triangle, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The gangs and other injustices drive people to flee their country to take the potentially deadly journey to the US border. So this isn't a decision people take lightly.  We visited Brooks County, the county where the most migrant bodies are found each year.  While you may think that crossing the border is illegal, the sentence most surely shouldn't be death.  The most common cause is dehydration from the hot and dry climate in this area of Texas.  We were able to spend one day with the South Texas Human Rights Center learning about the situation in the morning and then placing new water barrels in the afternoon.  The water barrels are giant blue drums filled with 8-10 gallon bottles of water that any passerby can use.  They put up a big red cross flag to mark it.  This effort was started by the center in an effort to decrease the number of deaths of migrants.  We checked up on a few of the other containers and restocked the ones that had been used.  I really enjoyed helping out with this ministry.  It's probably the closest I've come to feeling like I'm saving someone's life or at least having a meaningful impact.

But the dangers of crossing the border don't end there.  On the first night, we cooked dinner for a group of boys who had crossed the border as teens, but had aged out of the foster system.  We heard their stories of why they left their homes.  For one boy, it was join the gang or be killed by the gang so he fled after refusing to join the gang but before they could kill him.  For another, the option was to sell drugs for the gang or flee.  One didn't even tell his parents before he fled.  Some of the women we talked to had similar stories.  Some had an abusive husband or other male figure in the family who had threatened their life or the life of their children.  And with corrupt governments and police officers they come to the US to seek asylum.  In some of these places, women are still their husband's property and they have no way to seek justice for the abuse.  The journey for women is especially dangerous and a lot of women are raped along the way.  I got to talk to a mother and her child who had just been released from a family detention center(in broken Spanish). The mom was just 22 and her child was 4.  We were just two years apart in age, but were living very different lives.  I can't even imagine some of the terrible things she had seen, terrible things she had experienced.

I don't know how to fix the system.  I barely know what's happening with immigration policy.  A lot of it goes over my head. But talking to these people, putting a face to the issue changed my perspective.  It's very easy to fall into the trap of generalizing a people.  And from there it is very easy to dehumanize them. I live in a country founded on the belief that we were all endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.  People deserve to live, not die in a desert of dehydration. They deserve a chance to seek asylum from their oppressors.  And they deserve the chance to pursue a new life, one filled with happiness.

There's so much more I could say, so many more stories I could tell. Perhaps another time.  But I'll leave you with this reminder:

Leviticus 19:33-34New International Version (NIV)

33 “‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them.34 The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

PICTURES!

To supplement my last post, I'd like to add some more pictures and a video I took while at the SONA protest.

In this video, I tried to capture the beginning of the march.  You can see all the different people with flags and banners.  At one point you can see the giant float of the President with a pig face holding to pistols to the air (only from the back but I can assure you that is what it is).  If you look in the background, you can see that they are on a regular road with traffic still trying to pass on the far side.  The jeepneys were used to block off more and more of the road as more people arrived.

This was the legal team.  They were the ones to brief all the foreigners on their rights and what they were and were not allowed to do legally.  However, everyone was ultimately allowed to decide in what capacity to participate in the march.

 The people in the middle in all white shirts with white flags are the religious group.  The priests made a wall around their marchers and were trained with how to handle the situations they could face being a part of this march.

There were plenty of great signs at the march. These are some of my favorite.

                                      

To leave the protest, we went up over the overpass to get to the opposite side of the road.  It was from there that I got some great pictures to put it into perspective.  

                                  

As you can see from above, the march goes in front and behind where I was for a fair ways each direction.  The crowd is decorated with banners, flags and signs.  The traffic is at a standstill right beside them because the line of cops has stopped them to also stop the marchers.  It's hard to see in the pictures, but the police have created a barrier up at the next overpass (thus our departure).  The police lined the side of the street in an attempt to keep the protesters confined to that side of the street and prevent them from continuing past the barrier on the other side of the road.  Many people came to the protest and this was only one of several protests going on throughout the day all over the city.  I forget the exact statistic but I believe somewhere around 10,000 police officers were brought in from around the provinces just for this day.  I am so grateful to have had the chance to walk with these people as they speak out for their rights.  I hope that by sharing this, you might consider how lucky you are, especially if you're from the US, to have the right to peacefully protest and the right to stand up for what you believe.  I hope that this opens your eyes to the injustices facing the Philippines. And I hope you enjoyed looking some of the pictures I took (and ignored any issues with the spacing...I tried)! I only went through my whole camera battery, my whole phone battery, and most of my iPod battery to get them! Hopefully more posts with pictures will come soon! :)

A Reflection on Two Marches

And you thought I was done writing. No, I happen to have put off writing about two very important experiences until I was well within the safety of my country's borders.  It wasn't anything that extreme, but one can never be too cautious. This is one of them. I apologize in advance for the length, but to leave it shorter would do it an injustice.

I think it took until today to really understand and reflect on my experience in the Philippines.  Today, I attended the People’s Climate March in NYC in response to the United Nations meeting to discuss climate change. 310,000 people attended at first estimate.  And I was one of them.  It takes about 5.5-6 hours to get from Ithaca to NYC by bus. One might think that I have better things to do with my Sunday than spend my day on a bus for only a few hours in the city. In my busy life there are exams to study for, homework to be completed, and social/club obligations to meet.  But when I saw my pastor, Taryn, post an article about the climate march, I knew I was called to be there. 

I walked with hundreds of thousands of people to show that this is an issue that I care about, that we care about, and that you and everyone in power should know we care about.  After all, true change should really begin with the people.  So I walked for those who couldn't.  I walked for God’s great earth. I walked for my future.  And I also walked for the friends I left back in the Philippines.

I don’t care what you think about climate change or how you think we should go about taking care of the issue.  That’s not the point.  People today held signs that I didn't agree with.  And that’s okay! We were united by the fact that we all want something to be done about climate change, something I witnessed first-hand in the Philippines. Just this week I read about more devastation due to another typhoon in the region. The science is there to show that the climate is changing. Whether it’s part of a natural cycle or not, the pollution that humans create is not helping.  Just yesterday I was working on some homework about SO2 scrubbers for a coal combustion reaction.  I really think that I can find a way to serve the environment using my gifts and skills as a future chemical engineer. 

I wouldn't have considered attending this march before my summer in the Philippines.  I grew a lot this summer, but I also learned an important lesson.  My presence alone can be a powerful tool.  I’m not a politician, but I can affect political change by using my voice and my presence.  I stand in solidarity with people, and I know that makes a difference because I spent most of my summer doing that.  I know what I care about and I want to make a difference.  In all honesty, if I had rolled over in bed after I shut my alarm off at 5am, it would not have made a big difference to the march.  But if everyone there said that, then there would be no march.  There would be no movement and no change.  The great thing about events like the climate march today is that I wasn't standing alone.  I wasn't one person, I was part of 310,000 people.  That is powerful.  And it gave me the courage to go.

It was a very different story a couple months ago in Manila.  The State of the Nation Address (SONA) is much like the US President’s State of the Union.  But the political climate in the Philippines is much more volatile.  There is a lot of corruption and ineffectiveness in the government.  The SONA tends to focus on the successes of the government.  The protest, where I went, tries to tell the other side of the story. 

At the end of the People’s Climate March, there was food, art, and music. 

At the end of the SONA Protest there was a police barricade.

I, as a US citizen have the right to peacefully protest my government.

The Filipino people do not have that right.  (Nor did I on my travel visa).

Knowing that we were not allowed to participate in anything political made me a bit wary about attending the rally in Manila.  But we were there to attend the worship service in the street before the marchers left, nothing more.  Once we arrived, I realized just how many people had come out for the event.  They were everywhere, slowly taking more and more lanes of the road.  They came from all walks of life.  And the best part was that I knew and recognized so many people there.  Migrante International, the migrant rights group we worked with was there.  There was a group representing the indigenous people, like the Aeta we visited.  There was a group standing behind a handmade set of prison bars representing the political prisoners we visited. (I promise I will write about that.) There were the people we had met at Hacienda Luisita. There were people from the NCCP and other missionaries and church people we recognized.  On top of that there were labor groups, women’s groups, professionals groups.  Everyone was represented in the protest.  This wasn't a problem faced by a few Filipinos.  This was a problem faced by an entire country of Filipinos.

After joining a worship service led by megaphone and witnessing the growing crowd, Nicole and I asked if we could stay and walk with the people.  We got the green light and were briefed by the legal team.  After a surge of foreigner presence at the protest last year, the police were on the lookout and could be taking pictures of us. However, there is nothing illegal about being a tourist on a tourist visa.  So while we were told it was unwise to walk in the protest, we were allowed to walk alongside and take pictures like a tourist.  So with my camera at the ready we set out along the route.  We weren't able to go all the way because there were often physical altercations when the police barriers were reached.  When we got close, we walked up over the overpass to the other side of the road.  From there, we could see the police line and the police all down the side of the road too.  But you could also see the long line of people back along the route.  And even more arriving throughout the day. 

I don’t think I can accurately convey the impact this experience had on me.  I know I've written a lot already, but I don’t think I could do it justice to say any less.  I now know how lucky I am to see police officers today and know they were there to help me, not stop me.  I realized that if I have this right, I can’t waste it.  When issues as large as climate change, human trafficking, and social injustice present themselves it can seem overwhelming to tackle them.  But never doubt the power of just your prayers and your presence.  Change doesn't come easy, but it can come.  And it starts when you decide it’s worth it to get out and do something.  

Hopefully these pictures come out okay and I can share more photos in the future!

Typing Up Old Blog Posts: Last Days in Aeta

July 24

Today is my last day in the Aeta community of Camachili.  We leave to go back to Manila tomorrow morning.  As sad as it is to say goodbye to the new friends and greenery, it will be nice to go back to the familiar and rest a bit. 

Yesterday, we went to visit another Methodist Missionary church in the area.  We started out with a wet walk down to another church, Evangel Christian Church, to wait for our jeepney driver (who is also Pastor Leslie's brother).  Then we set off on the most fun and interesting jeepney ride to date.  It was a bit like what I imagine and African safari would be like.  Not in the sense of spotting animals, although there were plenty of caribou, cows, goats and more.  But more so in the ride, fording giant puddles, bouncing up and down on the uneven roads, and having reeds and branches come in the windows and whack us.  It was quite the adventure. 

After driving as far as the road would allow, we set off on what would be an hour long hike through the mountains.  The views were incredible! It was muddy and we had to cross the river a couple times, but overall it was a fairly easy hike.  Every so often we'd come across a caribou or a cow just off the path.  Upon our arrival, we were able to wash our feet off and meet in the sanctuary.  We all needed the rest.  We ate some corn on the cob (not as good as in Jersey) before sitting down for lunch in the pastor's house behind the church. 

Pastor Arlene and her husband Aron were recently married.  The banner for their wedding still hung on the wall.  Pastor Arlene is only 25 (I think) and yet at such a young age she new she was called to be a pastor. 

After lunch, we split into two groups to visit members of the congregation.  They didn't speak English and the young girls leading us around were rather shy with their English so we mostly just greeted the families, saw their houses, and left.  One man owned and raised 41 goats.  At another family we met the Lola, or Grandmother.  She was 79 years old and had lived there all her life.  She also had inch thick glasses that were cracked and taped together on one side.  At that house I also met my kitty friend who I played with.  We left the house and he (or she) tried to follow, but was unable to.  I can still here him (or her) meowing goodbye. <tear>

We walked back to the church for a break and then said our goodbyes and headed back.  I found little pink/purple flowers to put in my hair.  I found one for Nicole to pin at the bottom of her braid too.  On the hike back we also found some red hibiscus looking flowers.  The guy who owned the house let me and Nicole each have one.  After getting tired of carrying it, I put it that one in my ponytail.  Nicole followed suit and twisted her hair up into a pretty updo with the flower on top.  I eventually let my flower float down the river that night when we returned and went swimming.

Today, I spent another day with Teacher Juliet.  This time kids actually came to class since it wasn't raining that hard.  They were learning body parts.  She was teaching them the English words while I was trying to pick up what they were called in the local dialect.  They sang the national anthem (at least I'm pretty sure that's what it was) before they started.  They also prayed, repeating back what Teacher Juliet said.  They had play time and story time.  I wanted to teach them the song Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, but I didn't want to interrupt her.  So when she asked if I wanted to teach a song for the afternoon class, I knew exactly what I would teach.  The 4 year old class is much more responsive and engaged than the 3 year old class.  They picked the motions up, but I'm not sure the English words came across well.  Later, Nicole showed up from her homestay and together we taught our go-to song which I'm going to call Paige's song because she's the one who taught us.  We did Head Shoulders Knees and Toes again and then called it a day.

We finished by swimming in the river for the last time.  I'm so glad we were able to have this escape and relaxation time in the river.  I look forward to heading back tomorrow.  They promised we would be able to stop and pick up some local peanut butter and local root plant cookies to take back with us.  I haven't personally tried the peanut butter but I've been told it's excellent.  And I can vouch for the cookies with the empty container we left in Pastor Leslie's kitchen!

Typing Up Old Blog Posts: Aeta Community

I'm home! And finally have a keyboard to type up some of my written journaling! This entry should follow the post from July 20, Best Day Yet. So if you want it to seem in order you can refresh yourself with that post before reading this. Or just read this. :)

July 22

I've had two more lovely days in the Aeta community. I'm actually writing this next to the river watching Nicole swim. (I would go swimming but for once it's actually cold here).

Yesterday was a much later start than Sunday. Once the students from St Paul's College arrived we joined them for another presentation about the Aetas.  They were also here for an exposure trip, but just for the day.  After lunch, we went to several different houses to meet some of the people.  One woman shared some delicious cookie things that are also at our house.  They are made with some root plant and are a local treat.  At the last house we visited, there was videoke, or video karaoke.  One of the girls sang and I thought it was Beyoncé herself singing! She was so good! Hopefully we will get to go again this week with some of our friends.  The afternoon was pretty chill.  We went swimming again (after I took a nap).  Overall, a pretty great day.

Today was homestay day.  I spent the day with Teacher Juliet.  She teaches daycare, the 3 and 4 year olds.  Unfortunately, it has been raining pretty much nonstop since 3am this morning thanks to typhoon Henry being in the region.  When there are heavy rains, children don't go to school.  We had a total of  students out of 24 in the morning.  I cannot imagine how she handles a full class of 24 3 year olds by herself.  It's a mix of play and focus.  She would guide them through simple coloring exercises for basic English using red and yellow crayons to distinguish between big and small or men's and women's clothing.  But the others ran around the building playing with each other.  There were lots of loud voices and running around and banging.  This one little kid, James, kept jumping up on the table and causing other trouble.  All I could do was sit in awe at what this woman accomplished everyday in that classroom.  I would've helped, but none of them have learned English yet. 

After the first batch went home, I went to Teacher Juliet's mother-in-law's house for lunch.  Juliet's roof is thatched and was currently being replaced. (They last about 5 years).  After sitting on a bench watching Filipino soap operas and talk shows for what seemed like forever, we ate lunch.  She made a dish with heart of banana which was really delicious.  I ate that with rice.  She also made sardines in tomato sauce from a can, but I decided to forgo that. (Probably a good move).  At her mother-in-law's house there were lots of animals roaming free throughout the house including chickens, a dog, an two puppies.  The puppies were adorable, but also troublesome, trying to bother us while we ate.  The home was small, but cozy and the lunch was great. 

We returned to the school for the afternoon 4 year old class.   We had one kid come to class and I'm pretty sure he spoke only two words the entire time.  So it was a bit dull, but I was glad to be there.  Juliet let the boy go home early and I decided to accompany her to pick up her daughter from the elementary school.  She is only 6 so the 1km walk is a bit far for her to do by herself.  We waited in the rain for about half an hour before Christine, the daughter, and her friend came out after their quiz.  They took their uniform skirts off and walked back in just their gym shorts that were underneath.  They were so cute but very shy.

On the walk back, we stopped for soda and snacks.  Juliet bought a bottle of soda and then distributed it to us each in plastic bags (which is totally normal here).  The lady who sold us the snacks was fascinated by my appearance.  Paleness seems to be idealized in Filipino culture.  Also, no one here has blue eyes like me.  She was also pregnant.  There are lots of superstitions around pregnancy.  Only look at pretty things.  No horror movies.  And apparently, rub the white girl's arms so that your kid will look like her.  It was a little odd (okay a lot odd), but we all have our weird traditions so who am I to judge.

And to wrap up the day, I'm sitting by the river.  A good day.

Paranaque Revisited

August 9

It was somewhere between this week and last week that I realized I wanted to come home. Luckily, this realization came when I only had a couple weeks left. This time next week I will be home.  I'm literally counting down the days.

I want to be honest with everyone. I'm having a bad week. It's really hard to motivate myself to the end. Certain things keep happening that have kept me down. I've spent too much time feeling angry and frustrated in my situation. It is in no way the fault of the program. This is a great program. I would recommend it to anyone who is between the ages of 18 and 30. But it's time for me to come home.

I think a lot of people may equate this with a vacation. I mean I'm in the Philippines with gorgeous beaches and tons of tourism. But it's not. It's work. And it's often hard work. And like any job it has it's ups an downs.

Today I'm going to try to share the ups because they are much more interesting and inspiring than the downs. But I want you to know that this isn't always rainbows and butterflies.

This week Nicole and I chose to stay behind from the trip to Cagayan to help fix up the building that is used for a weekend teaching program in
Paranaque. Unfortunately instead of building and fixing we were relegated to cleaning. But we were able to convince them to also let us decorate the place. I'm unable to add photos from here but when I get home I promise to try to upload lots of pictures.

We spent the first day getting supplies. We got poster board, markers and paper. Then that night we stayed up until 2 in the morning making the posters for the rooms. There were two rooms so each of us made a welcome poster, a Lord's Prayer poster, a shapes poster and a bible story poster. I did the story of feeding 5,000 and Nicole did the story of Daniel and the lions' den. By staying up that late, it allowed us to have a free day the next day to hang with friends, a much needed escape from our week.
On Thursday, we traveled 3 hours to Paranaque to clean the place. After a quick sweeping and clearing of the bookshelf, we scrubbed the walls of dirt. I can't tell the difference from the before and after pictures of the walls. But I saw a lot of dirt come off so I guess that counts. We were helped by about 5 or 6 of the children in the community. They were the best helpers! And we had a little fun doing it even though I ended up sweating buckets and being soaked with soapy water. After a 2.5 hour ride home, it was definitely time for some rest.

Friday was also a rest day. We started the morning with a workout. I forgot to mention I started working out with Nicole here about every other day. It makes me sore but it relieves stress and ultimately makes me feel better about myself. Hopefully I can continue the routine into the school year. We followed that up with a trip to the mall where I picked up some yummy souvenirs for friends and family. We attempted to sun bathe on the driveway but it didn't last too long. However I'm pretty sure it was long enough to get at least some color. Everyone thinks we are crazy because we want to be darker. People in the US pay for tanning salons all the time. But here paleness is valued. Every lotion, body cream, and even deodorant come with "whitening" properties. If I have to listen to one more Filipino commercial advertising for a beautiful white rosy glow I might have to throw something. Of course I feel the same way about tanning but that's a different story. This day has a lot of side stories. I finished the day by reading the rest of my Nicholas Sparks novel Message in a Bottle. I mean I was only 30% of the way through when I started but I finished it that night. It was just the type of relaxing day I needed.

Today started a lot later than expected so I got up, showered, ate breakfast, and went back to bed. :) After another long trip to Paranaque, which included a train ride on the national railway system, we started to decorate. The girls who helped with the cleaning also helped with the decorating. It looks so much more inviting and just fun. We followed that up with teaching for an hour and a half. That may not seem like much but when you are dealing with 3-7 year olds who don't speak English you kind of have to go with the flow. They understood some things and other ideas we had to scratch. We did a lot of singing and dancing and looking ridiculous for the sake of the amusement of the kids. But I don't mind. I'm good at that.

Our day finished with an interesting train ride back. Remember me mentioning the national railroad system? Yeah this is like old fashioned in many senses. They look a bit like prison cars and I'm pretty sure the engine car ran on coal or something else like that. And Filipinos love to squish. They have an all female car which makes the guys to girl ratio in the other cars much greater. Plus more guys take it anyway. But we were with Anthony so we went in the regular car. After following the crowd we finally found a spot to hold the rail conveniently provided by some really nice Filipino guys. Actually this was some refreshing kindness and friendliness that was sincerely appreciated. They created casual conversation that only slightly verged on invasive (but that's the culture so this was more moderate than usual). Eventually, one of the men even gave his seat up for me to sit. It might have been my bright red face or the gallon of sweat on me but it was still really nice. The train was like a sauna and it smelled of, well, sweat. One guy told us he takes it everyday. I could not imagine. I am definitely not destined to be a city girl.

While it was hard to get through the week, looking back I was able to do some really great things. This upcoming week is mostly free so touristy Manila here I come!

Hacienda Luisita

This is the first of the catching up. I'm pretty sure I wrote most of this the day of so that's the tense it's in. We went to Hacienda Luisita on Thursday, July 17.

Today, I got up at 4am to take a shower in the dark thanks to good ol' Glenda the typhoon. The early start wa because we had a 2+ hour drive to Hacienda Luisita. In case you aren't up to date on your Spanish, a hacienda is a giant farm, more closely related to a plantation. But to put it into perspective, it is 6,435 hectares of land or almost16,000 acres.

It took me a while to understand the issue at hand. A history of imperialism has messed a lot of things up. From my understanding, sometime after the Spanish left, there wa a document that said the land should be distributed to the people within ten years. This would be all fine and dandy except that the farmers still don't own the land. It is all owned by the same family, the Cojuangco family, which is related to the president's family, the Aquinos. It seems that several governments ago loopholes were created to get out of distributing the land to the farmers. This is how the Cojuangco's were able acquire it. Then, in another government they escaped distribution by forming Hacienda Luisita Inc where they made the farmers share holders. Now, there has been a Supreme Court case in favor or the farmers, saying that the land must be distributed to them. And the Cojuangco family started giving land away to people, but only their relatives and not the farmers. This is a confusing issue to me and I've done some outside reading, but there's still a lot I don't know. There's always two sides to a story and I invite you to look into it if you are interested.

One of the most vivid images I have of the hacienda is that of the concrete walls topped with barbed wire surrounding recently bulldozed fields. Farmers plant the land and the bulldozers would come. All they can do is replant because that is all they know how to do. The people against them use guns and government officers turning blind eyes. It's a big injustice to the people who just want to be able to provide for their families. There are so few jobs here that it is really sad people are destroying the only infrastructure they have. People are being evicted from their homes just so they can fence off the land and do nothing with it. Apparently there may be plans to build a sports arena.

We visited a section of about 8 hectares that the activists farmed organically. Unlike the US where everything is mechanized, in the Philippines everything is done by hand. After a quick presentation on the land distribution (or lack thereof) we worked out on the farm. One of their plots had actually just been flattened last week. After a muddy trek, we reached the rice paddies. I got to be like my fellow GJVs at ARI in Japan by planting rice. Let's just say it's probably better that they are there and I am here. It was fun to wade into the muddy, slimy patch, but all my rice stalks fell over in the water and my lines were anything but straight where I planted.

After lunch, we went to a community center where they were gathering the people to prepare to protest at the SONA (State of the Nation Address). This speech by the president usually says how great everything is going in the country, including the "success" of the land distribution act.

One of the first people to speak was a young girl named Angela. She is now 10 years old, but when she was 7, she witnessed a massacre outside the sugar refinery. They killed everyone with knives and guns. Though officially 7 were killed, it is likely many more were not counted. They spared her because she was a child, but she was scarred by the experience, witnessing her aunt be killed right in front of her. She has become very politically active for the farmer's rights because of this experience. She is a brave little girl, not only surviving the massacre, but being able to speak out about it in front of crowds that number in the thousands. She is protected by the community because she was the only survivor. They watch over her at school and at home. She is really a special girl.

It was a very long day that ended by going back to a dark house. Still no power.