Meager worldly possession. What do you bring with you when you travel thousands of miles by foot and bus to begin a new life? The answer for asylum seekers is, not much. I took this photo at the airport. These bags contain the possessions of a mother and her teenage son on their way to family in Miami.The purple tote is one that we gave them packed with two water bottles and snacks for their journey since they had no money to buy food. Even though it's been over four months since I met them, and we've met countless more asylum seekers since then, I remember this couple well because they were the first ones we ever transported to the bus station or airport. The mother only spoke Mam (a Guatemalan indigenous language) so we had to communicate with her son, and then only through Google Translate (that's a post for another day). When we loaded our guests into our car I was shocked to see that all they had in the way of luggage were two backpacks and a shoe bag. I wondered how I would manage with a school-size backpack for a short trip, let alone a new life. The answer is - not well! I know what was in these bags because the TSA agent unpacked every single item in front of me and ran his wand over them all. One change of clothes. That's it. That's what they brought with them. Most of our asylum seekers travel by bus and on foot to the US border. Traveling light is a necessity when you don't know how far you'll be walking and when any extra luggage will only attract thieves. You wear one outfit and hope you can find a way to wash the other when you stop somewhere. Mothers carry their babies and even the small children walk - we have only seen one family with a stroller and that was a father whose little boy had cerebral palsy.
Clothing donations. Some of our monastery guests have even less than this - just the clothes on their backs. That's why we have a clothing room set up like a store where they can choose up to two changes of donated clothes for each family member. Shoes are always a problem - we never have enough shoes. We have a box of shoelaces because either Border Patrol or ICE confiscates those. I have no idea why. I'll never forget a father and son from Brazil being escorted at the airport by another volunteer. Their belongings were stolen in Mexico and their passports taken by the authorities. All they had was what they were wearing and they were tired and overwhelmed. Somehow they had missed the clothing room (probably because we don't have any Portugese-speaking volunteers). It broke my heart - if only we'd known about their dire need we could have given them warm sweatshirts and clean jeans for their journey.
I watch the children play and wonder how they entertain themselves on their two-, three- and sometimes four-day Greyhound bus journeys. They have no toys or books. No wonder they love the toys at the monastery, they probably haven't seen any for weeks. When we can we give them all a small soft toy to cuddle and keep and sometimes even a small backpack with a coloring book and some crayons. It's not much but it's something that's theirs when they have so little.
As always we are in need of donations:
Disclaimer: The opinions in this blog are mine alone and do not represent an official Alitas account. Any mistakes are mine and mine alone.
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I watch the children play and wonder how they entertain themselves on their two-, three- and sometimes four-day Greyhound bus journeys. They have no toys or books. No wonder they love the toys at the monastery, they probably haven't seen any for weeks. When we can we give them all a small soft toy to cuddle and keep and sometimes even a small backpack with a coloring book and some crayons. It's not much but it's something that's theirs when they have so little.
As always we are in need of donations:
- Aid to migrant women and children - how to donate.
- Official GoFundMe for the Alitas program.
Disclaimer: The opinions in this blog are mine alone and do not represent an official Alitas account. Any mistakes are mine and mine alone.
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