Hi! It’s been a bit of a while, sorry about that! I’ve been up to some very interesting work here in Esquipulas, and I just got back from my weeklong Christmas Vacation with my family in Belize! I feel so bad about leaving you all for so long without a post, so I’m going to make it up to you by making two posts! One about the work I’ve been doing for the last 2 months, and one about my time in Belize. Let’s get into it!
So, what have I been doing for work since I got back from the trip in Mexico? Well, if you are a Scott Spangler Super Fan™, then you may remember that in my Mexico post I mentioned that I would soon be starting work at a migrant shelter in Esquipulas. Well, I’m a man of my word, and that’s exactly where I’ve been! The shelter is called Casa del Migrante San Jose, and is located just up the road from the Monastery here. It is an organization independent of the monastery and the Basilica, which started in 2017, though the facility they run was built on land donated by the Basilica, and they have a sort of working partnership, which allows for people like myself and Fredi to help out there as volunteers.
The shelter gives support to migrants in transit from all over the world (most are trying to get to the U.S) and provides migrants with food and a place to sleep, medical/nutritional attention, psychological help if needed, and showers and laundry. Most migrants stay one night, though there are a few who stay longer because they are seeking asylum in Guatemala. Currently there is space for about 250 migrants, though as long as we have been there, they have not reached their maximum occupancy.
Fredi and I have been going to the casa every afternoon for the past several weeks, and have done a variety of jobs there depending on the need. Most often we have been helping prepare meals in the kitchen or with giving the rules to incoming migrants and checking bags at the front door. Other things we have done include preparing cleaning kits for the bathrooms, organizing donations, entering survey data on the shelter’s computers, and loads of other short random tasks. To be honest, I’ve quite enjoyed the random nature of the work, and not knowing what I’m going to be tasked with every day. Plus, all the people we have worked with at the shelter have been absolute gems of human beings, and Fredi and I have become friends with several of them. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that a significant part of the reason I go back every day is the people we work with.
Now, normally this is the part where I’d like to tell you some interesting stories about my experience there and some of the things I’ve seen, but the shelter is very particular about protecting the privacy of all the migrants who come through the shelter, and I want to respect it as well. So, while I can’t give you specific details or stories, I would like to share some of the many lessons I’ve learned and the insights I’ve gained in the short time that I have been helping out at the shelter. In just two months, the work I’ve been doing and the things I’ve seen have expanded my worldview a lot, and I’d like to share a bit of that with all of you.
DISCLAIMER: I know that migration has become a highly politicized topic. With that in mind, my intention here is not to evaluate the merits of one political philosophy or another, but rather to share my own experiences and how they have changed my understanding of human beings and the way I relate to people. I’m not trying to persuade you towards any one way of thinking, and my own political views on migration are irrelevant to what I am writing here.
The first lesson I took away from this experience occurred pretty early on in my time at the shelter. I saw a ton of people coming in every day, from a variety of places and from an even bigger variety of backgrounds. However, I realized that regardless of who a person was, when their basic needs were not being met, people become pretty darn similar. There were chefs, soldiers, nurses, single mothers, artists and engineers. But when all these people came in to the shelter dead-dog tired, having walked on foot for days to get here with not enough to eat, you wouldn’t be able to guess their past if you had 100 tries. It was pretty shocking to see the way in which their travels and tribulations had taken away the aspects of their lives that formed a significant part of their identity, and yet it was also an extremely important reminder: Deep down, all human beings have the same basic needs: Food, water, shelter, and rest. When everything we have beyond those four things gets taken away by the powers that be, we see ourselves for what we truly need. Every level above the base level of Maslow’s pyramid is quite fickle. People like to use our non-physiological needs to find differences between us and drive us apart, but take away those needs from a large group of people, and I will show you a group that is shockingly identical.
In my realization that people become remarkably similar when their basic needs aren’t being met, I realized something even more important: The difference that providing such basic needs can make. Day after day working at the shelter, I saw people walking through that door who were at a very low point mentally, yet when they got a hot meal, or some new, warm clothes, their countenance changed completely. People became more talkative and playful, they expressed gratitude when before they expressed nothing, and at times I could see a spark of hope in eyes that were previously devoid of it. This isn’t to say that it made everything better forever, but even such a small change that finally met their basic needs made such a positive difference for a person’s outlook on life.
One last realization I gained from working at this shelter is that human migration is an absolutely unstoppable force. Most of the people that passed through the shelter were well aware of the socio-political situation in the U.S, and before leaving their homes they were well aware of the dangers along their journey to wherever they were going, yet they chose to go anyway. Once people realize that there is a chance for them to make a better life for themselves- even if it is a slim chance- they will go out and take that chance. There is no human power that can stop the desire to seek a better life, and I saw this in the tenacity and the hope of the guests of the shelter on a daily basis.
Truth be told; after writing these words, I am coming to the realization that these people are probably some of the bravest humans I’ve met. I’m going to make up a random scenario that draws on several experiences I’ve seen to briefly illustrate this. Imagine a family living in Venezuela, one of the most violent places in Latin America, where constant food shortages make them afraid for their own survival in their own country. They decide to leave, not knowing where they will end up, because if they don’t, they might not live. They cross the Darien Gap on foot, one of the most undeveloped places in the world, where disease, robbery, and assault are all common occurrences, and continue on foot and on bus across Central America, to a place where they might not speak the language and might know absolutely nobody. And yet, they brave these dangers for the hope that it will, after much difficulty and much suffering, result in a better life for their family. To me, that makes these people as brave as any explorer the Earth has ever seen. Some might call it foolhardy or futile, but without truly being able to know the conditions these people are leaving behind, I think it is unfair to make such a judgement.
To sum up my thoughts on all this, I think it will be best to directly quote something I wrote in my journal on December 6, after a particularly challenging day at the shelter: “I may not be able to help these people cross the border to find work in the U.S, or even stop them from being persecuted, but I sure as hell have the power and the means to show them the sort of simple kindness that will make them feel- even if for a moment- that good things still happen in this world.” I am immensely grateful that my time at the Casa del Migrante has helped me and empowered me to be able to share this simple kindness with some people who desperately need it. We cannot stop migration. Some of us might not even like it. But we should all be able to agree that human beings deserve a little kindness now and then, and if we can give that kindness, who would we be to deny such an opportunity?
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
-Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning