Here is a newsletter that the Tucson Borderlands YAVs recently wrote to update and thank our supporters. Thank you so much for reading, donating, and encouraging me this year!
Hello
Hola
안녕하세요
Greetings from the 2014/2015 Tucson Borderlands
Young Adult Volunteers
We are now halfway through our year of service and want to take a moment to thank you for your continued support.
Here is a quick update on our year so far…
Grace Dover
Hometown: San Mateo, California
“In the last few months, the border has come a part of me. It is present in my thoughts, my tears, my worries, and my prayers.”
Grace works for Borderlinks, an educational non-profit that teaches people about the current state of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and immigrant communities in the United States. She has led several immersion trips along the border with colleges and churches. Grace is enjoying facilitating discussions, leading workshops, and supporting participants as they come to terms with harsh realities and organize to improve their communities.
Last fall, Grace led a trip with 30 fourteen-year-olds. Here, they are observing the wall on the Nogales, Arizona/ Nogales, Sonora, Mexico border.
Emily Oshinskie
Hometown: West Hartford, Connecticut
“As challenging as this work may be at times, even just acknowledging that a lack of a bridge exists and figuring how to begin building bridges between cultures, ethnicities, religions, backgrounds, upbringings, socioeconomic statuses, etc. is a start!”
Emily works as a Volunteer Coordinator for Iskashitaa Refugee Network, a grassroots organization that strives to reduce food waste while simultaneously empowering refugees through harvesting produce and leading food workshops. She is enjoying the opportunity to work with refugees from Somalia, Burundi, Eritrea, Iraq, and Sudan.
Emily picks pumpkin leaves with a friend from Bhutan at a harvest she helped coordinate. The leaves were later used for a food workshop.
Hanbyeol Nam
Hometown: Busan, South Korea
“While staying in USA, I have realized that it is not important to speak the same language. The most important thing is an eye contact, smile and salute by nodding.”
Hanbyeol is hard at work with Community Home Repair Projects of Arizona, a non-profit that does emergency house repairs, addressing health and safety concerns in low-income communities. During the last seven months, Hanbyeol has not only learned many colloquial English words, but has also mastered technical terms like “weirsbo,” “sawzaw,” and “shut-off valve.” Also, she is interested in American and Mexican history, often practicing her Spanish words during our trips to Mexico.
Hanbyeol and her favorite client, Leo, spend time together fixing his roof, eating lunch, and wearing hats.
Allie Gosselin
Hometown: Dothan, Alabama
“Every morning on my bike ride to work, I get to see the sun rise over one of the mountain ranges and it is a reminder of the possibilities that each day holds.”
Allie, like Hanbyeol, works for Community Home Repair Projects of Arizona. She is starting to work part-time in the office and part-time in the field. Allie finds this work satisfying because she gets to speak with clients over the phone during the initial intake and then meet them in person when making repairs. Also, it has been interesting for her to see how a non-profit runs from inside out.
Community Home Repair staff and volunteers cut open and examine the inside of a water heater and then make a CHRPA mascot during a training in early October.
James Martin
Hometown: Wenatchee, Washington
“…in my time being on the border I have found that our media and politicians are ignoring the most important things that are on the Arizona/Mexico border: strong sense of community, friendly people and a place of cultural and language exchange between two countries.”
James works with Frontera De Cristo, a bi-national mission in Douglas, Arizona and Agua Prieta, Mexico. He works with children along the border, teaching English classes. James also works at the Migrant Resource Center, connecting immigrants to shelters, food, and other resources. He is an active community member, making these border towns a place where Americans and Mexicans can meet and learn from each other. James has enjoyed utilizing his passions for education, cultivating relationships and living out God’s call for love.
James with volunteers at the Migrant Resource Center in Agua Prieta, Mexico.
House Life
The four Tucson YAVs (Grace, Emily, Hanbyeol, Allie) live together with April, a volunteer through the Methodist Church (check out her blog) and Gabrielle, a student at the University of North Texas, who is doing an internship at a non-profit. We enjoy hiking, biking, watching Friends, hosting dinner parties, and attending events downtown together. We have learned a lot from living together and are excited to see what is next for our community.
Family photo (minus Gabrielle) taken during our first month living together.
Gabrielle taught us how to be MMA fans. We are now all die-hard Rhonda Rousey supporters.
We love getting to see James every month when he visits us in Tucson or we go to Mexico. Here we are about to embark on our Lenten Sojourn Retreat in Cascabel, Arizona.
On May 25th, we will be saying goodbye to our fearless leader, friend, and mentor, Brandon. We are so excited for his family as they move to Singapore and embark on a new adventure. Thank you, Brandon, for dedicating so much time to this program and supporting us!
Thank you all, again, for your prayers, emails, phone calls, care packages, and for following us on this journey. If you’d like to continue to support this program and YAV placements, check out the Tucson Borderlands YAV website.
