Friday

Friday is always our day for closing reflections and cleaning. The teens worked hard to make our living space at Immaculate Conception spotless. We really appreciated being able to use such a beautiful space and wanted to leave it just as we had found it. In addition to our cleaning, we had a chance to reflect on the events of the week. We spent time as a community reconciling any hurts as well as affirming one another. In today’s blog picture, you can see our closing affirmation activity. Each person in the group affirmed another group member, sharing what that person had contributed or taught them that week. They also threw them a ball of yarn, while at the same time holding onto their end of the string. In the end, we had a giant web that represented the connections we had made during the week. We are woven together in a special way after our time in the Skagit Valley. To end the activity, we passed the ball of yarn back in the opposite direction and shared one thing we had learned this week that we will take back with us. As we left, we took pieces of the yarn with us to help us remember the lessons we learned and to inspire us to keep working for change.

Thank you to all who read our blog, prayed for us, cooked for us, drove up donations, helped to chaperone, shopped for us, hosted us, visited us, and donated to the cause, etc. You made this week possible!

Thursday

On Thursday, we sent groups back to the Small Potatoes Gleaning Project farm and the Head Start Center for one final day of work. The teens were motivated to put in some hard work on their last day. They were also encouraged by a number of visits. In the morning, Deacon David Olsen stopped by Immaculate Conception to say hello to everyone and drop off letters of support. Later in the morning, TerryAnn Bowen and Helen Oesterle, both from the Faith Formation department at St. James, dropped by the Head Start Center and the farm to visit with the teens. They were impressed with the work the teens were doing and were glad to see kids playing on the play structure that our teens built for the Head Start Center last year.

The evening started off with a delicious meal, handmade and delivered by Scott. After that, everyone packed in the cars and headed to another migrant camp in the area to attend an outdoor Mass with the residents as well as the group from St. John the Evangelist. The teens sang and helped to carry a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe around the camp, which is the way they call people to worship in the camps. It is always a moving experience to share our universal faith with people from a variety of places and ways of life. It makes the themes of solidarity and the dignity, which we discussed in our reflections, come to life in new ways.

In the evening, Fr. Jim Dalton from Immaculate Conception stopped by to visit the teens and thank them for their work. He shared with them that they are the future of our Church. In reflection that night, the teens came up with a list of ideas for helping to make life better for the migrant workers in our country. They all signed the paper as a commitment to work together for change.

Wednesday

Wednesday morning found us back at the Small Potatoes Gleaning Project and the Head Start Center. One group at the Center worked in the classrooms while the other group helped to clean all of the outdoor play toys. It was a hot day so it was fun to have some cool water outside. As you may have guessed, a water fight broke out!

The rest of us were back at the farm, where we learned a little more of its history. The farm was owned by a Christian group who also owns adult homes around the property. The adults in the home used to help care for the land but the program eventually let go of that piece and now leases the land to the Project. All of the food collected there goes to the Bellingham Food Bank and helps to supplement the visitors diets with fresh fruits and vegetables. They occasionally have flowers to donate as well. The farm, like the Head Start Center, is organic so there are lots of weeds to pull there as well but there were many other jobs for us too. Today we weeded the basil patches, harvested cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower, and cleared weeds from a large section behind the barn. We also planted seedlings in the greenhouse, including Swiss chard, Chinese cabbage, lettuce, and spinach. Inspired by the fact that migrant workers often work up to 14 hours a day, we decided to have an intense hour of non-stop work in the hot sun before lunch. It was challenging for many of us but we were motivated by the idea of solidarity that we had discussed in our reflection the night before. The teens shared how that intense hour taught them a lot about work ethic, patience, and perseverance. Several teens actually worked through lunch to accomplish a goal they had set as a group. You can bet that many slept on the car ride back down to Burlington!

In Burlington, the group continued their hard work. They helped set up food, face painting, and arts & crafts stations for the families that were about to arrive. Every Wednesday night, St. Charles hosts a meal and food & clothing distribution for people in need in the community. A volunteer explained to us that the visitors are about 60% migrant workers and 40% local residents, mostly from Eastern Europe. The teens from St. John the Evangelist had sorted all of our donations on Monday and Tuesday so there were huge piles ready to be handed out when we arrived. The distribution started at 4pm but many were gathered around the clothes as early as 3pm, waiting to pick up some articles for their family. José explained to us that it is hard to keep clothes clean when you work in the field all day so they give as much clothing as possible to the families. Our teens enjoyed doing crafts with the children and worked hard to serve food with a smile to all who came through the line. At the end of the evening, we handed out the art and school supplies to the kids. It was great to be able to help but hard to see so much need.

Back at Immaculate Conception that night, we reflected on the wisdom we have gained so far from our interactions with the migrant workers. Many expressed how impressed they are by the amount of hard work the migrants do and said how much respect they have gained for them. Some said they did not know if they could work that hard while others talked about how it motivates them to want to work harder to get ahead in life. Some talked about how small their complaints seem compared to the lifestyles they are witnessing while still others were realizing the great things their families have done from them. It is easy to see how much people are growing and learning.

Thank you for all of your prayers!

Wednesday's photos
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Tuesday

Tuesday was our second day of working at our sites. Our groups switched places and headed back to the Small Potatoes Gleaning Project farm and the Head Start Center. At the Center, one group worked out in the community garden pulling weeds. It was a tedious task but it allowed us to have nice conversations and to get to know one another a little better. The garden is organic and they do not use any pesticides because it is near the playground where the children play. That means that there are a lot of weeds that all need to be pulled by hand. Epifanio is in charge of the garden and I think we all gained a huge amount of respect for him and the work he does on a daily basis. The farm helps to feed the families who participate in the Center so it was nice to know we were helping them out in a variety of ways. Inside, the teens divided up to help in the five classrooms at the Center. The children range in age from infants to 5 years old. Many arrive as early as 5am when their parents head out to work in the fields. Some go home around 3pm but many head to another center in the afternoon because their families are working until sundown (after 9pm). The Head Start Center provides meals, naps, education, play, and hygiene for the children. Our teens enjoyed playing with the kids and helping the teachers. Many were reminded of little brothers and sisters at home.

In the evening, the entire group visited one of the migrant camps and put on a fiesta for the children there. We were joined by youth from St. John the Evangelist, who are also up here for the week doing service. The teens played games with the children, handed out cake and ice cream, and did a piñata, which is always a big hit. José Ortiz, who runs the Youth Migrant Project out of St. Charles Catholic Church in Burlington gave the teens a tour of the camp as well. A woman named Alicia invited us into her small living space to show us the conditions in the camp. There was a single room for Alicia and her husband. They had brought in scraps of carpet to cover the floor. All of their belongings were stacked on top of a bunk bed. The light was broken and there was no lock on her door. She said she was scared sleeping there at night. She had a small range to cook on but no running water or bathroom. The camps have communal bathrooms and laundry facilities and you can see clothes drying on lines around the camp. Being in Alicia's home made a big impression on all of us. Several teens were moved to tears by the living conditions. When we got home, the teens leading our evening reflection asked us to share a word to express how we felt after being in the camps. The words ranged from shocked and sorry to inspired and hopeful for the changes we could make in the future.

Thank you for reading our blog. Please continue to keep all of us in your prayers. They are helping us all.

Tuesday's photos
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Monday

Today was our first day out in the fields and daycare center. We divided into two groups and headed to our work sites. One group went up to Small Potatoes Gleaning Project farm in Whatcom County. The Project, as described on the Whatcom Counts website, "partners with farms, home gardeners, and farmers markets to harvest excess produce that would otherwise go to waste. From the scale of a single apple tree to an entire farm field of vegetables, gleaning volunteers work to collect unwanted or unused produce and distribute it to 27 different emergency food programs in Whatcom County." Today on the farm we harvested cauliflower, broccoli, raspberries, and spinach. We also planted leeks and picked weeds. The farm was about 3 acres and it was amazing to think that it is kept up entirely by volunteers. It was also gratifying to know that the fresh, organic foods that we harvested would soon be on the table of someone in need. We learned a lot about farming and hard work. By the end of the day we were covered in dirt and ready for a nap. The other group went to a Washington State Migrant Council Seasonal Head Start Center where they played with the children and helped with some outdoor maintenance/building projects.

We are back at Immaculate Conception now and are looking forward to a home cooked dinner. Later tonight, we will enjoy some bowling in Arlington and end the night with prayer and reflection. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Monday's photos
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Sunday

The 2010 Youth Migrant Project started on Sunday with the groups from St. James and St. Mary's receiving a blessing at Mass in their respective communities. After that, it was a mad dash as we loaded up our belongings and many, many donations. Thank you to all who donated and to all of our drivers. We had twice as many items this year! The donations will go to good use. We dropped off a lot of it at St. Charles in Burlington where the Project is centered. There is a food and clothing distribution center there. Teens from another parish will be sorting all of the donations this week and we will all be a part of giving them away on Wednesday night.

After we dropped off the donations, we drove to Immaculate Conception in Arlington, which we will call home for the week. The teens were very excited about Immaculate because they have a youth room filled with pool, air hockey, couches, etc. We settled in, played some games, met in our small groups and enjoyed a BBQ prepared by Juan. In the evening, we prayed together. Joseph and John led us in song and then each person made a symbol out of wax that represents what they bring to the group this week. We placed our wax symbols on lit candles that stood beside candles from years past. It was neat to see the continuation with the groups that have gone before us. We then headed to bed for some well-deserved rest.

Please keep us in your prayers this week.

Sunday's photos
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