LA-dventures!: November 2011

When I last left off, we were just starting our Urban Systems class and looking forward to our visit to the border. Shortly after that post I got really sick for a few days, went to the doctor who sent me to the hospital and ended up getting my appendix taken out! It was a pretty crazy 24 hours, but the surgery went well and I was out of the hospital quick and back into class and work. And even though I was missing an organ, I felt well enough to make it to Mexico so a few days after the appendix episode we went to Tijuana. We took the trip with a few students from Point Loma Nazarene University which gave us the opportunity to see the beautiful campus and get to know some other college students which enriched the diversity of our perspective at the border.

We spent all day around the border and then in Tijuana. We spent the morning talking to the border patrol (we asked questions, they evaded them) and they escorted us to the US side of the border which was very heavily protected and restricted. Then we walked over the border into Tijuana and walked up to the Mexican side of the border, which in pretty stark contrast, was incredibly easy and no one escorted us or restricted our movement. We spoke with an American and a Mexican that are doing work to heal and reconcile the borderlands through gardening and cross cultural communication, which was really interesting after the speeches from the border patrol about maintaining separation and "us" and "them."

We moved on to Casa del Migrante, a safe-house for those going south-north and those coming the other way, north-south. We ate dinner with the men staying there and talked with them about their plans. They were great guys and the man I was sitting next to tried very hard to include me (with my total lack of spanish skills) in the conversation. After dinner we talked with the Point Loma students about what we'd seen and what it meant.

The next morning we went to local church that was led by one of the friends of our group leader's and were fed and welcomed into their congregation. I didn't understand much of the service but it was nice to sit with families and be included in the congregation.

After lunch with the church we got in line to cross the border on foot and walked back through to San Diego. From there we got in our vans and went back to LA.

Even with the reading we did before we went and discussing the problems with the American immigration system, there were pieces of it I couldn't grasp until I saw them. Seeing the wall was very impactful for all of us because it's such a huge symbol of the broken immigration system that drives immigration to incredibly dangerous means. But getting to know Mexicans and seeing how the wall impacts them was also really powerful. And those that are trying to reach beyond the wall and encourage communication, cultural exchange, and understanding made us hopeful for the future of the border.

The Border from the American side.

After Tijuana we only had a day of class and work and then Thanksgiving break! I spent the break with my friend Rachel at her family's house in Fresno, California. We had a great time and I really enjoyed getting to spend the time with Rachel and eat, sleep, and watch lots of Star Wars movies (they'd just bought all of them on blu-ray). I am very thankful that I have great friends that are very willing to share their homes with me.

Helping with a community Thanksgiving dinner in Fresno with Rachel's family.

Rachel and I modeling our aprons.

And now there are only 2 weeks left! Just a few more days of class and work and I'll be home for Christmas break, which I am looking forward to, but it's hard to believe it's here already. I'm going to try to fit in as many adventures as possible these next few weeks and enjoy being in LA with such a great group of people!

Our religion class just ended with a bang (14 page paper) and we are now moving into our final LA Term class. Writing the paper was my favorite part of Urban Religious Movements because we had to be connected with the community we were studying and wrote our paper on, and I had such a great experience working with the Messianic Jewish community I studied. The level of scholarship in the congregation was impressive and I had so many great conversations with so many of the members that it was a pleasure to go and learn about their religion from their perspective.

It was also interesting to see how their perspective informed my faith and my view of Christianity and Judaism. Mainline evangelicalism tends to be thousand miles wide and about an inch deep so encountering the richness and depth in the intellectual approach and historical tradition of the Messianic Jewish faith was refreshing.

I also had a friend in town a few weekends ago which was so fun. We went all over the place and squeezed as much LA as we could into one weekend.

My internship has moved into serious grant writing and I'm in the middle of consolidating a letter of intent which will be our stock letter to send to all potential donors. We'll see how far I get before the amount of things I don't know about grant writing or the organization get in the way, but that's what I'm attempting to do.

And this past Monday we went back to APU briefly to watch a screening of MissRepresentation, a documentary about womens' representation in the media which was very thought provoking and definitely worth watching.

Next week we start Urban Systems off right with another paper due, and then we're off to Mexico for the weekend to study immigration. I'm looking forward to learning about the immigration system and border issues where they're taking place, and getting a new stamp in my passport.