Email: Lilli Mann

Greetings friends,

I am settling in to my new home here in Barrio Kroeger Lane, a primarily Latino neighborhood on the south side of the city. Our house is located on the banks of the Santa Cruz River (which is actually a dry gully most of the time but becomes a rushing river when it rains) and at the foot of Sentinel Peak, also called “A” Mountain because of the large “A” that University of Arizona students created on the side of the mountain years ago. Until a few years ago, the house and its sizable backyard were home to the Niche Community, a group of environmentally focused citizens committed to living in community. It has since become the Tucson Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) house, but we carry on many of the environmental choices incorporated into the architecture of the home. We are lucky to have Terry, one of the former residents, living in a small house on the property and keeping the Niche spirit alive. Among the interesting features of the house are an evaporative cooler (also known as a swamp cooler) instead of air conditioning, a solar shower and composting toilet in our yard, a gray water system that reuses water from our kitchen sink and outdoor washing machine for irrigation, and shading outside the house that helps keep us cool. My room is part of a straw bale annex on the house, consisting of walls made of mud and straw.

I share this unique home with six fellow YAVs from around the country. All are placed at local nonprofits and congregations that address issues of poverty and injustice in Tucson, the border region, and on an international level. Leisha, the eighth member of our YAV community is based in Agua Prieta, Sonora (just across the border from Douglas, Arizona), co-managing a migrant resource center that provides food, medical care, and human rights assistance for migrants that have been deported from the United States. She returns to Tucson several weekends a month, and we are able to stay in touch with her between visits.

As a community, we have created a covenant outlining the key values that shape our life together. We also pool a portion of our monthly stipend to cover utilities and food. We are beginning to explore the joys and ethical considerations of shopping and cooking together on a budget, as well as the great benefit of using the Community Food Bank as a resource. We have designated Friday as our community day, meeting in the mornings for our VEV (Volunteers Exploring Vocation) sessions, getting out in to the Tucson community as a group, and enjoying a meal together. The VEV sessions promise to be a true blessing, allowing us to meet regularly with a spiritual director who helps us to use our experiences this year to discern where we are called next.

This year’s YAVs have taken our commitment to simple living to the next level by becoming a bus- and bike-only site. While we have not yet sold the community cars used by YAVs in previous years, we try to keep car trips to a minimum. This aspect of the program was a source of some anxiety to me prior to my arrival in Tucson because I do not know how to ride a bicycle. My housemates have been extremely supportive of my efforts to acquire this new skill, but in the meantime I have been using an adult-sized tricycle to get around. This has been a valuable lesson in humility, patience, and the importance of a good sense of humor. The novelty of my tricycle has made me somewhat notorious around town.

My fellow YAVs and I have begun to integrate ourselves into the greater Tucson community. In addition to serving as an important source of wisdom and support, Brandon, our site coordinator, has helped us immensely in this regard. He serves as associate pastor at Southside Presbyterian Church, where I have found a truly inspirational community of faith. Southside began as a primarily Native American congregation, and today continues to be a multicultural community. The worship experience features a Tohono O’odham (a local Native American tribe) blessing, Scripture and hymns in Spanish, and gospel music. Southside was the birthplace of the Sanctuary Movement, a national, grassroots, faith-based movement that began in the 1980s to help Central American refugees fleeing civil war find safety in communities throughout the United States. Southside Presbyterian has long maintained a commitment to social justice and is currently applying it to the new crisis on the border. Not only does the congregation provide essential services to the local homeless and day-laboring populations, but it also supports several groups that work to provide humanitarian aid and prevent deaths of migrants in the desert between the border and Tucson. These efforts are direly needed here, as the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border has forced desperate migrants to cross in more remote areas where the terrain is more dangerous, it is easier to get lost, and access to water and other necessities is extremely limited. So far, 246 bodies have been found in the Arizona desert this year. The actual death toll can be assumed to be higher, as the remains of many of the migrants who die are never found.

We YAVs have started to plug in to other networks in Tucson, including the intentional community where Brandon lives, various activist groups, the University of Arizona graduate-student community, and the biking (and triking) community. We even made it to a contra dance (a favorite diversion of mine in college) at a Methodist church a couple of weeks ago. I was recently put in contact with the United Methodist campus minister at the University of Arizona, and am planning to attend a Wesley Foundation worship service this week. I am looking forward to connecting with a Methodist community in addition to the other communities I am finding here.

I really love my work at BorderLinks, which is a truly wonderful bi-national organization that grew out of the Sanctuary Movement and carries on some of that movement’s key values while responding to the current political, economic, and social situation on the border. Currently, BorderLinks works to encourage cross-cultural understanding about border issues and to promote leadership, education, community development, and social change on both sides of the border. Their main program is the one in which I am involved: delegation trips or experiential educational seminars along the border. Guided by Paulo Freire’s philosophy of popular education for social change, we follow what we call the “see-think-act” model. We organize trips of one to twelve days for groups from U.S. universities, churches, and other organizations so that they may become familiar with the reality of border life and begin to understand the experiences of migrants and the impact of globalization on the lives of individuals. They visit organizations and agencies on both sides of the border to experience a variety of perspectives on migration and international economic policy, to interact and dialogue with individuals (including migrants themselves), and to participate in hands-on exercises to better understand the issues we are discussing. We then facilitate reflections to help trip participants to process what they have seen, heard, and felt. All of this is done with the hope that they will share these experiences with others in their home communities and act upon them.

BorderLinks also offers a unique semester-on-the-border study-abroad program for university students. As a bi-national organization, we also have a facility in Nogales, the Casa de la Misericordia, which is a community center that seeks to empower border residents to strengthen their families and communities. Casa offers a child nutrition program, a low-cost daycare center for working parents, and adult education classes in computer and basic job skills. It is also home to a women’s cooperative that produces jewelry for sale on both sides of the border. As a trip leader, I get to visit this special place on a regular basis with groups.

I feel extremely fortunate to be part of a very gifted and diverse staff at BorderLinks. Many of the Tucson staff members are young people who, like myself, have spent time in Mexico and are committed to learning and raising awareness about border issues. Nevertheless, one of my fellow trip leaders, Lil, is in her 60s and served as a Maryknoll missionary in Bolivia for 20 years. Her continued dedication to loving those around her and promoting peace and justice is inspirational, and I have a lot of fun working with her. Delle, our executive director, is a United Church of Christ pastor who spent several years working with indigenous groups in Chiapas in southern Mexico. Her activist and inclusive approach to ministry has already taught me a great deal. I also enjoy working with members of the Nogales staff, as each delegation trip has at least one U.S. and one Mexican co-leader. Our Mexican colleagues bring a variety of experiences to the table. For example, Cecilia has been involved in this type of work since her participation in the Sanctuary Movement in the 1980s. Kiko has 15 years of experience in the maquiladora (U.S.-owned assembly-for-export plants located in Mexico) industry before serving as director of the Nogales Chamber of Commerce during the time that NAFTA came into effect.  He is director of the Casa de la Misericordia, and is involved in a local micro-credit program that encourages the development of family-owned businesses through community banks.

I have already participated in three delegation trips. The first was an orientation trip attended by all Borderlinks delegation leaders (old and new), which was a great opportunity to get to know one another and the situation on the border. The second was a trip for my fellow Tucson YAVS, and we were joined by a group of Hollywood YAVs who also live in a mostly immigrant community. In the past two weeks, I have helped to co-lead day trips for an immigration law class from the University of Arizona Law School and for a group from Catholic Relief Services as part of a workshop on fair trade. All of these have been growing experiences for me and have given me a chance to familiarize myself with the area and feel more comfortable driving a 15-passenger van in Mexico and interpreting during presentations in Spanish in front of a large group. This fall I am responsible for planning and co-leading a day trip for business students from the University of Arizona and a four-day trip for a group from a Presbyterian church in Minnesota. I am excited about getting to know these groups and helping to facilitate a learning experience for them.

September was a heavy travel month for me, as I also spent four days at Ghost Ranch retreat center in Abiquiu, New Mexico, at the national orientation for the YAV program. It was great to meet the volunteers from other sites around the country and hear about their work, and my time there provided a chance for both spiritual renewal and some beautiful hikes. Immediately following that trip, I attended BorderLinks’ annual bi-national staff beach retreat at beautiful Kino Bay, on the Gulf of California in Mexico. I really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know my co-workers from both sides of the border and their families a little better.

Thank you so much to those who have sent messages of encouragement and support, and I apologize for being somewhat out of contact this past month, but as you can see it has been a bit hectic. Please do keep me posted on how things are in your part of the world, and know that I am thinking about you! Also, I can’t express enough how grateful I am for your financial, emotional, and spiritual support that have made and continue to make this adventure possible for me. I can already tell that it is going to be a transformative year, and I hope that the groups with whom I work have powerful experiences as well.

Peace and blessings,

Lilli

Please keep all Young Adult Volunteers and the communities they serve around the world in your prayers.

For information about serving as a Young Adult Volunteer, visit the YAV Web site.

If you'd like to support the Young Adult Volunteers with a financial gift please make tax deductible donations out to:

St Mark's Presbyterian Church
("YAV support" in memo line)
3809 E. 3rd Street
Tucson AZ, 85716