Orientation

Hello all!

The past week has been nothing short of a whirlwind, with more things packed into each minute than I could possibly explain. Along with three other new volunteers, I've been going through a really intense orientation that have included 16-hour days with information sessions and shadowing shifts. Tomorrow (thankfully) is my last day of orientation, and then I'm out on my own.

The atmosphere here is a lot different than what I expected. With the phone interview I had received a few weeks before coming down, my interviewer (Amy Joyce) was really intent on making me realize how much of a challenge it is to live down here, not only because of the heat, but because I would literally be living alongside the poor. With that explanation, I expected everything to be extremely serious and somber. However, the first day I got here, the volunteers all got ice cream and went to the bar. I think people really try to be as lighthearted as possible because of the nature of the work that we do. It would just be too overwhelming if the volunteers didn't allow themselves to be carefree and have fun.

With that said, there is a HUGE emphasis on self-care here. I've never met a group of people who are so aware of themselves in terms of what their bodies or minds need in order to keep doing the work they do. Coming from school, where I completely exhaust myself in order to get good grades, the volunteers here really emphasize the importance of keeping yourself balanced. It makes a lot of sense - You have to take care of yourself and make sure your needs are met before you attend to someone else's needs. If you have problems that you need to deal with, you're compromising your ability to be there for someone else. So, I've heard so many times from other volunteers: "Just do what you have to do so that you can work here."

This week I've really learned the importance of self-care the hard way. The orientation has been so intense, I've barely had sleep. Also, the change in climate and diet has been wearing me down. All day yesterday I was sick throwing up, and all of the other new volunteers have been sick as well. Today I'm feeling better, and I've resolved I need to start sleeping more and eating a healthy, balanced diet. To get some peace of mind, I'm also thinking about taking a yoga class at a community college - it's something that I enjoy doing that will keep me relaxed.

Annunciation House has something called "Community Day" once a month, where all the volunteers go somewhere and bond (with $8 to spend - woohoo, right?). Saturday was Community Day for the month of May, so we all packed into a van and drove to a park in New Mexico. There's an area where there's a dam in the Rio Grande, and it makes for a good beach. It's funny - we were searching forever for the park in the middle of the desert, and all of a sudden, amid cacti and mountains, there was this river. It was a lot of fun, especially since the past week has been over 100 degrees every day (suprisingly no sunburn, or even a tan for that matter...).

I've been making a lot of good friends here. The new volunteers are all my age - either still in college or recently graduated. Even the older volunteers are only 24-26, so the group is really tight. It's nice to live all together; it reminds me a lot of the coops.

Everything about this place makes me more and more grateful about being able to stay here. I know a lot of you are worried about the kind of work I'm doing, so I thought I would take a little bit of time to explain the types of guests that we have in the house. Before I left for Annunciation House, I honestly wasn't sure about what I would be doing or who the average guest is in the house, but after a week of orientation, I could probably tell you anything you need to know.

A-House is an emergency shelter, which means they try to serve the poorest of the poor - those with absolutely no option left. How we determine this is by working really closely with other shelters in the area, like Salvation Army, the Opportunity Center, Rescue Mission, and Dame la Mano, just to name a few. If there is no way that a person can stay in any of these shelters, we take them in. For El Paso, those with the fewest options are often those who are undocumented. Usually, undocumented immigrants are not able to find an emergency shelter that is willing or able to cater to them.

This does not necessarily mean that everyone at A-House is undocumented; in fact, most of them are not. Really, those that are housed at A-House are those without any other options or resources. There are several common situations where US or Mexican documented citizens can stay in A-House. The most common example is Social Security dependents, which makes up probably 40% or more of people who stay here. To explain this situation better - say that a man who is a US citizen marries a woman who is a Mexican citizen (and it works the other way too). This doesn't automatically make the woman a US citizen - the man has to go through a legalization process in order to grant her citizenship. Although it's a pretty easy process (from what I've heard), some couples go decades without ever going through the paperwork. Now, when the man dies, this creates a really complicated situation where the woman is entitled to social security benefits, even though she's not a citizen. For whatever reason, if the woman was of any other nationality, the US government would send her a check in the mail once a month. However, because she's a Mexican, she has to do this absurd thing where she is legally obligated to live 1 month out of every 6 months within US borders. If she has friends or family within the States, this might not be a problem. But you might ask, what if she doesn't? How can people who are dependent on Social Security checks afford to move to the US for a month and then move back, only to do it again in five months? That's where A-House comes in. A lot of the times those who are dependent on these Social Security checks (usually older women who are unable to work) come and stay at A-House because they can't afford to stay anywhere else for the month they are obligated to live in the US. So, these women are in the US 100% legally, and are forced to be here because of a cumbersome law that only applies to Mexicans.

Whatever the situation is (and I'll explain more about the house in other blog posts due to lack of time), the guests here are amazingly grateful and nice. For the most part, everyone does their part in keeping the house clean and orderly. We have a lot of rules for the guests, but they make the house so much more sane than the other shelters in the area. This way, it feels more like a community, rather than a homeless shelter.

I really enjoy it here, and I'm definitely learning a lot. My experience at A-House is really helping me to understand the type of work I want to do in the future. I appreciate the community aspect, where all the volunteers live and work together. I also love the idea of living simply, whether it's living "alongside the poor," which is A-House's motto, or not. Another volunteer showed me the CNVS (Catholic Network of Volunteer Service, I think), which is a network for organizations very similar to A-House. After looking at a few of them, there are some that I would love to be involved with that are closer to home in Chicago or Michigan. Some are even tied to AmeriCorp, so I could get a yearly stipend...

Anyway, that's far ahead in the future, so I'm trying not to think too ahead of myself. The point is - I'm really enjoying my time here. Hopefully I'll be able to post soon, since my crazy orientation is almost over.

Love you all!