A day at the migrant shelter

September 5, 2023. I got up with sunrise and checked out the town and its markets early. The downtown was bustling with trucks bringing in supplies from surrounding areas. Laborers voices filled the air as truks maneuvered, doors opened, boxes were quickly handed out and brought into stores.

Managing the receiving in the market in Ixtepec

At 9:30, Steve and I went to the lobby and found our ride back to the migrant hostel. We’re starting to understand that the bodyguards provided by the Federal police are not just bodyguards. They are part of the core administrative team of the hostel. They take migrants for interviews, take people to the hospital, and many other tasks. One of them has worked with Fr Solavide for over 10 years. It’s a relationship that’s hard to understand to North Americans.

As we arrived back at the migrant hostel the main yard was full of people hanging out in shade, finishing up washing tasks and tidying up tents or other housing.

A desperate family needed immediate consultation. They are indigenous people from a remote part of Ecuador, and recently suffered serious injures to almost everyone in the family. They were riding in a small combi bus when the right front tire blew out and threw the vehicle rolling off the road. Three members were hospitalized with their injures and others have obvious bruises and sutures. They were terrified to keep going north and wanted to return to Ecuador.

Alex ( Fr Alejandro) had helped them to get a temporary permit in Mexico. This gives them the right to live and work in Mexico for one year. He explained to them that they had a reasonably good chance to get residency status in the US. Also, that if the US rejected them they would get transport back to Ecuador by plane, provided by the US. But they were too traumatized and could not think of going forward. The Center will help them to get help from the Mexican government to get back to Ecuador.

In the above photo Fr Alejandro is expressing his outrage that a rapist is still at large in the area after having assaulted residents staying in the Center. He had received a promise that the man would be deported, but is now reported as being seen in the area. Women in the Center often have severe PTSD from being assaulted and raped on the way.

It’s still important to children to be able to go to school. There is a small school in the migrant shelter. The little Ecuadorean boy from the family mentioned above was eager to get to school. His home school had been tranmitting assignments to him by internet that his family received on the cell phone.

As the heat of the day rose to 100 degrees F, I went into town with the bodyguards to find some medication for a small girl. We went to 3 pharmacies , but could not find the correct medication, which should be very cheap. At the third pharmacy I decided to accept an alternative med that hopefully could helpher.

Back to the shelter I engaged random people in conversation

As darkness fell, we shared a light supper with the shelter team. Thunder and lightening promised heavy rain soon, wo we headed back to our hotel and arrived just as the storm was about to hit.