Just finished dinner after an 8hr day at the respite center. I arrived at the center around 8:30am to find it already humming with activity. The first thing you notice is how many children under 10 have made the journey with a parent or relative. Next I signed in on the volunteer log and met briefly with one of the center’s coordinators, Cesar. Cesar appears to be in his early 20s doesn’t get much rest for one working at the center full time and going to school full time.
Cesar proceded to lead me outside to the back of the building where the Department of Health and Human Services parked a mobile shower unit. This mobile shower unit is essentially an semi-trailer with 3 showers for men and 3 showers for women. It was there that I met another out-of-state volunteer from Seattle.
He was a retired police officer who had visited with a group last month to volunteer. Then last week he got a call from one the nuns operating the center to tell him how the center was being overwhelmed with new arrivals. So he decided to come down by himself and give another two weeks of service to the center.
My first job was to help him clean the showers and wash the towels after the morning arrivals finished showering. Clean the showers amounted to refilling the soap dispensers, wiping out the shower bottoms and removing any hair left behind, throwing away dirty clothes, and collecting used towels for the washer.
In between loads of laundry, we moved to our next project of filling the refrigerator full of turkey sandwiches that would be included with snacks packs each arrival would recieve before moving on to their next destination. Each sandwich got two pieces of white bread, 2 thin slices of Oscar Meyer turkey meat, and a slice of American cheese.
Once the fridge was full, we then replenished the supply of snack packs. Each snack pack includes two bottles of water, two granola bars, two small bags of chips, animal crackers, small bag of goldfish, and a small bag of pretzels. In between assembling snack packs, we also served a bowl of chicken noodle soup and a glass of lemonade to the morning arrivals.
After all the morning arrivals were served, we went back to filling snack packs. In addition, we were put in charge of putting together the last 5 gallon batch of chicken noodle soup from ingredients previously prepared by a pair of saintly women earlier in the day.
Soon it was time to get ready for the afternoon arrivals that would be arriving at the bus station just after 3:00pm. Not surprisingly, the head count for morning and afternoon arrivals changes day to day. The count for this afternoon’s arrivals...500.
I was asked to assist with meeting first two bus loads of immigrants released from the detention center and escort them the two or three blocks from the bus station to the respite center. Like when I first entered the respite center, you immediately notice the number of small children coming off the buses. I personally took two trips of 20-30 men, women, and children to the respite center.
By the time I escorted my second group it was almost 5:00pm and I decided I’d better call it a day if I want to avoid burning out on the first day. So I signed out and headed out to find dinner and return to the hotel. Overall it was a great day filled with doing exerting work and meeting precious souls created in the image of God. But what I will remember most are the children.
CJE