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Spring Break Service Trip CSE March 2008 El Paso & Juarez
I am very glad that I could participate in this service trip. When I
saw the children's smiles, all the things I did were rewarded. The children
there are poor, but their hearts are strong. They know how to share things
and cherish what they have. That's what we should learn from them.
Xue Lian (Emma) Cai
Just wages, the empowerment of women, respect and appropriate health care
for Aids patients, opportunity for education, freedom from oppressive
governments, and immigration were the issues we encountered with the very
people living them. We worked, prayed, discussed, reflected, cried, and
laughed with the women, men and children of Juarez. Their amazing courage
and gratitude and the response of the students on the trip has given me
tremendous hope that united together we will bring about the change in the
world that God desires.
Sr. Pat Dotzauer, SC, Volunteer Director
The experience in El Paso and Juarez Mexico was by far an eye-opening
experience to another world, another culture. It was a spiritual journey for
me and I will always remember it as an embarking chapter in my life. When
experiencing the unfortunate I learned to appreciate!!
Jasmine Griffin
I have never seen poverty like the poverty I witnessed in Juarez when
working with Santa Catalina. It was mind blowing for me to imagine living in
a one room home made from a pile of garbage. More amazing however was their
unwavering faith in God. Of all of my service and mission experiences, this
has surely made the biggest impact on me.
Stephanie Morgan Kirby,
Senior Psychology Major
From visiting the houses in La Colonia in Juarez, to tutoring the students
in Santa Catalina, to playing soccer with the AIDS patients and children in
La Tenda, I can only describe this experience as indescribable.
Laura Kufta
There was something divine and spiritually transforming when Jesus, an HIV
positive patient at La Tenda di Cristo talked to me about the peace that
prayer brought to his life. Being able to listen to Jesus’ testimony while
looking at his sparkling, joyful eyes was priceless! The presence of God at
that moment was undeniable and my heart was filled with an explosive emotion
of happiness and hope.
Laura Munoz
One of my greatest experiences on the trip was that I met many wonderful
people. One in particular was Glibber. He is HIV positive and Jasmine and I
practiced English with him. He was so happy talking with us. He doesn’t look
like someone who is sick. The people we visited in Mexico are people of
faith. They may live in poverty but they are happy. Another experience was
that every one of us who came on the trip learned something special.
Marceline Pepe
There are many barriers in life: physical borders, economic disparity,
language differences, and many other factors that drive people apart. What I
learned from visiting La Tenda, the AIDS community in Juarez Mexico, was
that despite many barriers all people can be connected through faith, love,
and a hope for the future.
Gina Persico
It's shocking how different life can be just by the division of one little
fence. I went from running water and free education to economic devastation
and deprivation just by crossing the border in less than 3 seconds. It is
shocking how this boundary between two countries can lead to such harshness
and severity, economically and individually. I learned a lot from this
experience but most importantly I learned that fences and walls are not the
answer. Rather, there should be outreach for economic justice and most of
all, for peace.
Aracely Tagliaventi
Any situation is affected by the attitude we bring. The Spring Break Service
Trip gave me a new understanding of poverty and illness. It will help me to
stop complaining and judging. It will be the beginning of seeing life with
greater appreciation. Let's learn the attitude they have, let's love, love,
love...
Ruixian Wang
When the night is eventually over is when people treat everyone as their
sisters and brothers. It is a true connection and a right relationship. We
are inter-connecting with each other, regardless of our nationality or the
imaginary line.
Ting Zhang
Reflections of the New Orleans Volunteer Service Trip
January 1 - 6, 2008
When I first heard about the trip to New Orleans, I found out as much as I
could and applied for it right away. I love to participate in service trips
because I love to do service. Just knowing that I can be a help to someone
means a lot to me. Also, ever since Hurricane Katrina, I have wanted to help
in the rebuilding efforts. This was the perfect opportunity.
As the time for the trip drew near, I got increasingly more nervous about
it. I didn't know anyone going on the trip; in fact, I had never even met
anyone who was going on this trip. I knew everyone on it would be really
friendly but I'm really shy, so I was nervous about the whole thing.
When we finally arrived in New Orleans, it seemed to me that we were doing
pretty mundane tasks. Picking up shells and weeding a yard were not really
what I had in mind when I signed up for the trip. But as we were clearing
out the bar/restaurant, I brought out a wheelchair from one of the back
rooms and put it out on the curb. When the older woman we were helping saw
it, she began to cry a little and told us that it had been her husband's,
who had passed away. It struck me then that the real reason I was in New
Orleans was not to help rebuild it. The reason that God called me to go to
New Orleans, was so that I could help rekindle hope in the lives of everyday
people. Although we may not have done the most strenuous tasks, we were
doing something that was much more important. We were bringing smiles to the
faces of people who had been discouraged; we brought back hope to people who
had despaired of life ever being the same as what it once had been. The
people we met there and the people who were volunteering were really what
this trip was about. I wasn't rebuilding New Orleans. I was lending a hand
to a person in need and in the process, meeting other young men and women
whose service and joy in service really struck me and was an inspiration to
me. In all, it was a totally awesome experience.
So it was pretty much very silly of me to worry about anything or expect
anything. Everything is in God's hands, and He will do with it what he will.
I only hope that I have the obedience, the humility, and the courage, to
follow him.
Elizabeth Appert
Seton Hall University Student
Beforehand, I considered that the opportunity to volunteer in New Orleans
may cause for sacrifice. Actually, I had come to see it as a growing,
learning, and service enrichment, in which the cause outweighed the
sacrifice many times over. What I gained is incalculable to what I have
experienced in my 19 years of life thus far.
I had some first experiences on this opportunity: flying in a plane,
visiting New Orleans, and being with a great group of people that in all 6
days didn't have any conflicts. We were all patient with each other and
together we tested our ability to be patient when times called for it. The
moments I spent on this journey allowed me to bring something significant
back, a strengthening in values and the focus of my dreams. I feel more
confident about my career goals and the paths that lie ahead.
I believe that I will never forget this experience, but the most difficult
to forget would be to forget my waiting brothers and sisters of New Orleans.
Thank you to those who supported the plight of the victims. I will continue
to do my part to do as much as I'm able to do not only for the victims of
Hurricane Katrina but for humanity.
Carla Ayers
CSE Student
(Uuh!)
Down in New Orleans
Where the blues was born
It takes a cool cat
To blow a horn
On LaSalle and Rampart Street
The combo's there with a mambo beat (from "Mardi Gras Mambo", The Hawketts)
We were blessed to have a New Orleans resident along for our adventure in
Lousianna. She introduced several of us to the song "Mardi Gras Mambo"
during an impromptu singing contest while we were caravanning from one
project to the next. I think the words from the first verse(quoted above)
sum up our experience, beginning with the "(Uuh!)" It is natural to come to
a city devastated by a category five hurricane expecting the "uh" factor.
Driving through deserted neighborhoods where houses still bear the grim
markings of health and safety inspectors or witnessing the field of concrete
slabs that was once the community of the Lower Ninth Ward, it is easy to
become angered or depressed. Frustration builds as we realize that it has
been almost three years since the storm hit, but the brokenness of the city
dates back much longer than that.
But I am proud to say that there are many "cool cats…blow(ing) a horn" in
New Orleans. The people we met have not become jaded by their situation.
From the homeowner who has had nearly everything taken from her and yet
feeds the homeless three times a week to the family who worked alongside us
as we reduced their once boisterous bar and restaurant to an empty concrete
shell, we saw hope. From the smile on the face of a homeowner as we scraped
rust from his wrought iron porch to the pride in the voice of our local
guide when he told us that the Martin Luther King Jr. school will be
re-opening soon in the Ninth Ward to the homeless man who rushed from the
room, where he had been forced to relocate, to gleefully share the results
of the Iowa caucus, we shared in that hope.
I heard the song "Mardi Gras Mambo" a second time while we were sharing
lunch with the residents of a nursing home. They had a jukebox in the corner
which our group put to good use and one of the residents blessed us by
offering to teach us the infamous mambo. Another left the party and returned
with bags of beads which she joyfully shared with us. These are people who
were forced to evacuate the city and now had returned home. They had never
met us before, and we will probably never see many of them again, but they
welcomed us with open arms. If there were was any ever doubt about the
ability of the city to recover, I can only say "The combo's there with a
mambo beat" and as long as the spirit remain, it’s there to stay.
Alicia Clark Barnes
CSE 2007 Grad
God does not do anything by mistake, nor does he place people in certain
circumstances just because. Sometime when people think a test and a storm is
for someone else, really it may be for them. I say that because my
experience in New Orleans was the beginning of a transformation inside of
me. God opened my heart down there. When we were helping those people God
opened the eyes of my heart to see his grace and mercy in the physical. To
do God’s work was awesome and to see the hearts and strength of those people
who went through the Katrina tragedy was an inspiration. The faith they had
in God to keep keeping on was an experience in itself. To see the face of
God in the victim’s smiles and tears, and also in the volunteers and the
sisters, I knew I was at the heart of his grace. I felt the spirit of God so
strongly in every project we worked on and in our reflection time. To be
down there and make a difference and represent Christ in our actions and
work was amazing. To help and to be a light of hope was heart changing. The
transformation was what God wanted for the New Year. New Orleans was one of
the greatest experiences I have ever gone through. I pray that the seed
we’ve sown will reap prosperous benefits that will be great in God’s will
for those people.
Jessica Harris
CSE Student
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