El Paso, Texas

When my friend Marion saw on Facebook that I was in Texas, she mentioned she has a sister who lives in El Paso, and put me in touch with Carol.  I was still trying to find a volunteer opportunity working with migrants at the border.  Unfortunately, my passport had just expired and I had to send for a renewed one.  Carol kindly let me have the new passport mailed to her address.  

So on to El Paso to pick up my new passport and meet Carol and Bill Schlesinger  They are both ordained ministers and are co-directors of Project Vida - a network of community based social services for the people of El Paso, supported by the Presbyterian Church  It's an amazing organization which operates from a model of listening to the needs of a community and then partnering with them in creating programs to meet those needs.  They are involved in community health with multiple health clinics, including offering exercise classes and diabetes counseling, as well as a mobil unit which visits rehab and halfway houses, providing on site health care.   Bill kindly set me up to shadow Jessica, a PA and her assistant Melody, MA for the day while their unit was parked at a center for women who have completed acute rehab and now, with their children, are working to put their lives back together.  I was really impressed with Jessica and Melody's respectful, thorough and kind care for each woman.  This is what healthcare should always look like and often does not, especially for people most at risk.  Project Vida also has a program to help health teachers in schools incorporate a curriculum on preventing pregnancy.  They also have several high quality day care and after school programs. And a program to help Mom-and-Pop businesses develop into solid companies who can employ more people.  Also a program for homelessness prevention and recovery, including affordable housing units which they built, own and manage, and some special units for people who are chronically homeless to get extra support.  What a wonderful organization these two people have devoted their lives to creating!  You will know they are Christians by their love.  

I thought I took some pictures but can't find them.  Sorry about that.  Wish I could send you pictures of Bill and Carol at least.  It was a pleasure to get to know them.

They introduced me to their friend Lee, who is a geologist and who was living in her 5th wheel trailer in the same RV park where I was staying.  Ever since getting to West Texas, I've been fascinated by the rocks, mountains and canyons, which all look like geology on parade.  You can look at the strata of different rock layers anywhere here, and immediately see some geological process at work, over the millennia.  Lee took me on a hike to The Hermit's Cave in the Organ Mountains and talked geology the whole way.  I was in heaven!  

Lee at The Hermit's Cave -- a naturally occurring shallow cave where an Italian monk lived for many years in the 1800's.

Native people lived in this cave for generations before Europeans arrived.  This is a grinding hole they wore into the rock, grinding corn and seeds.  There are several of these grinding holes in the rock slab near the cave.

Behind Lee are formations of rhyolite, a kind of stone formed from hot ash spewed from a volcano millennia ago, which stuck together and was compressed.  Because of its hardness, it has not eroded as easily as the surrounding land, and stands up in these formations.

The ryolite formations rise right out of the desert.  

Lee also took me to a lovely old town in New Mexico called Mesilla.  We went to her favorite shop to buy a pretty green blouse she had seen there before.  A few days later, I came back and found just the right material to make a duvet cover for my camper!

I chose the red one on the left.  

Doesn't it go well in the camper?

At Bill's suggestion, I had contacted Frontera de Cristo in Douglas AZ about volunteering at the border.  So after my week in El Paso, I continued there.