Hector the Loneliest Saguaro

Hola from Arizona!

Today, our ABST team was lucky to spend the day with John Lohse, our alumni guide for the trip, who was gracious enough to show us some of Tucson’s finest sights. We started with an early morning stop at Gate’s Pass, a beautiful overlook where we could see miles and miles of Arizona’s natural, cactus-filled landscape. Then, we drove through some windy and bumpy terrain to reach our next destination: The Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.

John led us around the museum, pointing out some of the larger wildlife exhibits as well as some key aspects of the vegetation native to the area. The javelinas and river otter as well as the lush cactus garden were definitely some crowd favorites!

Next, we headed for the Mission San Xavier del Bac, nicknamed the “White Dove of the Desert.” Here, we took the time to explore the gorgeous mission started by Father Kino, and even climbed up to a cross overlooking the mission grounds (and surprisingly, no one was injured in the process).

We ended our day with an Alumni Dinner at El Molinito, one of John’s favorite Mexican restaurants in the area. We had a full dinner table that included our group members as well as Gannon alumni local to the area, including John, Phil, Sharon, and Sabrina. It was really special to end the day experiencing some of the fellow Gannon family, as well as sharing in some great conversation!

All in all, it was an amazing, fun start to what we are sure will be an incredible week of service!

XOXO,

AZ ABST

Comments

Guac and Talk

Hello everyone! Welcome to Day 3 of our Arizona Border ABST trip. We started off the day with donuts and headed to Casa Alitas, a migrant center in Tucson. We were greeted by Sara who explained to us what Casa Alitas strives to accomplish. Casa Alitas is a center that helps migrants who have recently crossed the US-Mexico border. They provide many important resources including shelter, food, transportation set-up, and can help migrants connect to sponsors if they have lost their original sponsor along the process. We gained insight into some of the political policy behind recent changes in immigration, in addition to the history of Casa Alitas, which essentially started overnight. In fact, the house that we are currently residing in is where the program first started and it has since grown into a huge center that is able to take in up to 180 guests at one time. After getting some background information and going on a quick tour, we started our volunteer work for the day which

20 Hours Later

We departed Gannon on a yellow school bus at 2:25am headed for Pittsburgh International Airport. It was cold, bitter cold in the early morning; however, the smiles of the teams (both AZ Border and Navajo) warmed up our hearts. Our ride south on I-79 was cold inside the bus as many of us had our eyes closed trying to sleep and never falling asleep. We were blessed with a safe trip as our bus driver did a wonderful job. Our flight was in the early morning out of Pittsburgh. As we flew west we were riding away from the eastern sunrise. In time the sun caught up to us and the Midwest was covered in a beautiful blanket of frost. The arrival into Phoenix thawed us out of the cold of Erie. It was sunny, very warm, and beautiful blue skies. We had a 40 minute delay to get off the flight which only enhanced the anticipation of beginning our ABST trip! As we exited the Phoenix airport we waited in line in a busing terminal for a bus to take us to a rental garage for our van. In the term

Here’s the Buzz!

Bienvenidos to our BEEautiful blog! This morning we split our forces between landscaping at the Pio Decimo lot and painting at the John Valenzuela Youth Center (JVYC). The landscapers continued working on weeding the Pio Decimo apartments, while the other force painted murals in various locations around the JVYC. The group reconvened for lunch, and today we experienced Sonoran hot dogs and authentic tacos from local food trucks. After lunch, we received a tour of the JVYC. John Valenzuela was a law enforcement officer who gave his life in the service of young people. The youth center was founded in his honor to actualize his dream of a better life for local kids. They just recently planted a pollinator garden, so our paintings were “bee-themed”. Once the children got out of school, we were able to assist with the after school program. A little girl named Penelope took a quick liking to Rachel and stuck with her until she was picked up by a parent. Beth, Clara, and Sher

AZ Border Experience ABST

Search This Blog