Opening Our Eyes in the Desert - Work Team story

August 11, 2009

By: by Daniela Osegueda ‘11

Over Spring Break ‘09, ten Wesleyans
traveled to Arizona to serve and learn about
current immigration issues.

This year’s work team trip was more
of a service-learning trip than in years past
an immersion, is what Jan called it. For two
days we picked up trash in the desert, and
while it may not seem like much, it opened my
eyes. We weren’t just picking up plastic
bottles and candy wrappers along the road;
we were picking up people’s personal items
clothes, backpacks, shoes that they wore in
the desert until they made it to a pick-up point,
where they would change into new, more
American-looking clothes and discard
everything else they had brought in hopes that
they wouldn’t be identified as immigrants.
Putting those items into our trash bag, I
wondered where those people were now.
Were they safe? Did they have water? Did the
Border Patrol find them? The nameless
changed from statistics into real people. I
wondered about the father who had left his
family to find work so he could send money
home; and the family left behind. Would they
be reunited? As we picked up the trash, I felt
helpless knowing this was all I could do for
them this and pray...

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