- June 4, 2019 Social Justice
by Jenny Beatrice, Director of Communications
Another CSJ squad of volunteers went to El Paso, Texas, in May to serve the influx of migrants through Annunciation House, a sanctuary program that offers migrants and refugees hospitality, advocacy and education. From St. Louis, Sister Patrice Coolick and Associate Marie Martir took the journey, while from Albany, Sisters Doreen Glynn and Maureen Mastine made the trip.
Srs. Doreen and Maureen and Marie worked at the Mesa Motel, used by Annunciation House to provide services to more than 100 people daily. S. Patrice served at Annunciation’s warehouse facility, which was filled to capacity with 500 people.
Marie spent 8-10 hours a day at the site, with much of her time being spent distributing water and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to the weary sojourners.
Marie says, “When I talked to Sister Moe (Maureen Freeman) about going, I said, ‘I don’t know if I am up to the task.’ Moe told me to ‘just be a presence of love.’ So there I was, helping all these people going through difficult times who were unable to be in the present moment, and when our hands would come together while handing out water and sandwiches, we’d smile and the room was permeated with the understanding of what they had been through.”
At the detention center, migrants’ shoelaces are confiscated, so Annunciation House volunteers distribute them as well. Marie recalls, “While I was passing out shoelaces, a gentleman gave me a smile and a nod, which said to me, ‘No need to worry about it.’ When I looked down, I could see he didn’t even have any shoes.”
In their reports back home, Srs. Doreen and Maureen recounted the struggle some of the immigrants have "trying to write for us the names and telephone numbers they carry so carefully on tiny, precious scraps of paper they pull from their bosom or pocket—their hope for a place in the United States.”
They also shared how the loving care offered throughout the process was transformational: “The extreme weariness of the migrants with their few possessions in a plastic bag and their frightened kids holding on, brought to the shelter by border patrol, compared to how they look a day or two later, showered, in clean clothes, with a care package of food, happy to board a plane or bus to take them to their relatives or friends who bought their ticket.”
S. Patrice’s main role was to assist with the airport transportation for between 40 to 80 people each day. The stress of delayed and cancelled flights along with the usual airport glitches is multiplied by what is at stake for these families.
S. Patrice recounts, “There were flight cancellations and a number of the families were rescheduled for the next day, but they couldn’t return to their shelters because their cots were occupied with new people. The men and boys spent the night at the airport and some of the women and children I put in a hotel next to the airport.”
“There are mishaps daily,” she says. “When I start the morning I wonder what the new challenge will be. It is never dull. Tiring, but never dull … somehow or other, it all works out. It amazes me.”
S. Patrice expressed she has witnessed many joys but has seen the sorrows as well. She met a Guatemalan woman who was separated from her daughter. “The 18 year-old-girl was kept in detention because anyone 18 and older is considered an adult.” She encountered a small child crying quietly at the airport, and asked him why he was so sad. “He said, “I had to leave my new friend at the shelter,” she recounts.
A hallmark of the El Paso experience is collaboration. S. Patrice says of those she encountered, “Amazing women from every community. Amazing volunteers that come on their own. Amazing people of El Paso. Many amazing and resilient refugees.”
“I could not believe the generosity of people that came to help from making simple sandwiches to the more complicated task of intake,” says Marie. “I met so many wonderful people with wonderful spirits, and all were grateful. The experience opened my heart.”
