I stopped in at Annunciation House at 7 AM on my way to the Centro San Juan Diego shelter where I work in search of coloring books for the bright-eyed young ladies who arrived among the ninety guests delivered to Juan San Diego (SJD) by ICE on Wednesday afternoon. No one seemed to be moving at such an early hour… it was a holiday after all, so I quietly left. On arrival at SJD I was surprised to see virtually all of the guests already at the breakfast tables. It seems that each of the seven houses in the Annunciation House network has its own character and personality.
The 90 central American migrants Ice released to us yesterday were added to the 30 or so whose sponsors had yet to complete travel arrangements from earlier in the week. Most families are a single parent with one child. A few parents have two children and I think there was only one or two couples with children. Our tasks at the shelter are to do intake, getting their information from ICE forms and contacting sponsors to decide how to have the migrant families join them. While they are with us, we provide food and shelter.
On a series of well-designed tri-fold boards, the progression of each family is tracked day by day.
Of the ninety migrants who arrived yesterday, 50 or more are already on the road, or in the air to join families. Some 16 more are due to leave by noon tomorrow before ICE releases another group to us.
The doctor visited yesterday and was back this morning to check on a young girl who came to us with pneumonia. She is the older of two children traveling with their mother. It should not be a surprise how many of the children are ill, with bad colds if nothing worse. So much coughing and sneezing, it is no wonder so many of the regular staff are sick.
The low light of my day was taking three families to the airport to find out that one of them had a confirmation code for a Greyhound bus rather than for an air flight. I accompanied the other two families to the TSA security entrance, and was chased from the security are by customs enforcement officers. So, I went to take the dad and his son to the Greyhound station only to realize I did not know where I parked my car. It is a rental, and I could not recognize it the way I would if it was my own. I must have walked three-quarters of the parking lot before I found it using the emergency button on the key fob. One can only imagine what was going through this refugee dad’s mind as he and his son were taken to the airport by mistake and then the driver cannot find his car!
A local parish brought their leftover turkey dinner for us and volunteers arrived an hour or two later to serve. There was lots of pumpkin pie!
I left SJD at 8 PM to drive two more families to the bus station. One dad and his 4-year old daughter are taking Greyhound from El Paso to Massachusetts. I hope we packed enough food drinks and toys for the ride.
Because I work closely with the shuttle driver and pass out the travel bags with foods for their journey’s, I am often at the door as families are leaving. I was caught off guard today when one four-year old young lady wrapped her arms around my legs and said “Gracias!” Her mother soon followed with some tears and a hug. They were not alone in sharing warm thank-yous and good byes. I am sure the gratitude was meant for all of the staff, but I was honored and deeply moved to be the recipient.
After leaving the bus station, on my way “home” for the evening, I stopped back at Annunciation House to look again for those coloring books. I do not want to see the light in the youngster’s eyes dimmed tomorrow if I have to say we have no “libre’ for crayons. The college age volunteer pointed me to the basement where, thankfully, I found a case of coloring books I could take—along with some more crayons.
Gracias a Dios!