1st half heritage trip and Nogales Mexico

The Novices went on a 3 week Heritage tour. We traveled from Milwaukee, to Colfax IA, Denver CO, Albuquerque NM, Tucson AZ, Nogales Mexico, Oceanside CA, Moraga CA, SF CA, NAPA, Orangevale CA, SLC UT, Cheyenne WY, Omaha NE, then home. Is was a trip to see the different Salvatorian Ministries in the US. It was a very good experience and a very eye opening experience. Every place we stayed was very hospitable. Everyone was incredibly friendly and generous. People like to help out. In Tucson we saw Jordan Ministries who put on retreats, talks, and seminars throughout pima county. They even to jail ministry visiting prisoners in Florence AZ. When then saw Southwest Medical Aid. They collect supplies that are going to be thrown away by hospitals and ships them to countries in need of them. Like Mexico, Honduras, El salvador and more. It is a well thought out organization where they only send it to credited places and they ask to see there medical equipment in use. It is a very well run organization who is doing it the right way. That is the problem with a lot of foreign countries when you send money or supplies you need to know who exactly is taking it and what is it exactly being used for. We also did the soup patrol one night in Tucson. We drove to the homeless and feed the soup and hot chocolate. I was shocked to see homeless children who were maybe 10 or 12 yrs old. It is sad. As soon as we pull up in the truck they all come out like zombies. I couldn't believe how many are homeless in there 20's. It is unbelievable. There was maybe a 100 people who should up at the downtown library. Some of them were crazy, some were drunk, some were really old. Something needs to change. How do you separate the crazy ones front the drunk ones, from the ones that just need a chance of hope and have given up on life, from the ones who are comfortable and want to be homeless. It is a sticky situation. I saw a variety of people in Tucson. Friends, family and more. I spoke at Most Holy Trinity church little about my life and how I got here. I had many good meals in Tucson. We then headed down to Nogales to the Jesuit project in Mexico. It really opened my eyes. 

The living conditions is awful. The Mexican government is so corrupt. The drug lords are in collaboration with the government. People who cross the border have to pay the drug lords just to cross because they are on there land. There were two guys that crossed without paying the drug lord and they got whipped with chains. The drug lords higher teenagers to stand on hills and watch for people who cross the border without paying the drug lords for crossing or asking without there permission. They then tell the drug lords. 100% of the people who cross have to use a coyote to get across who works for the drug lords. That is a guide they have to pay that might even beat them or steal there money. They will hold some people for ransom. But they can't stay in Mexico making $6 a day when milk costs $3 a gallon. It's crazy. Then we saw the mile long line filled with semi trucks taking goods to America. The long line of cheap inexpensive labor goods for us so we Americans can save money. It is a messed up system. We got to see where the Jesuits take in the people and feed them. All the people from the compenero had been caught and got deported. They are homeless in Nogales because they are not from there. They have no money and don't know anyone. There from southern Mexico, or Guatamala or even further south. So thank God for the Jesuits who feed them everyday and tell them there rights to be treated as human beings. They provide food, clothes, and a phone call so they can let there loved ones know what has happened. They area doing great work. It was a good experience . Especially to talk with the people. Most of them are going to keep trying. They have family in the US and there going to keep trying until they get to there family. They see it as there only way to survive.

The US spent 18 billion last year trying to protect our borders. What a waste of money. I was wondering what if we took down the fence and opened up our borders to everyone? Majority the people are good people. They want to work hard. But then you are also letting in all the criminals as well. Would it lead to more crime? Over crowded. So they only allow 50,000 Mexicans to become citizens a year. And about 3 million apply. Wow slim chances. It's like winning the lottery. The system has to change. Why can't we give everyone a work visa. Show that they have to be employed and want to work. Oh no America would that mean our goods wouldn't be cheap anymore because everyone would leave Mexico and work here to get better wages. But then I think about my little brother who is half Mexican half American and is lazy. His parents are lazy and feed off the system. Are the Mexican kids that are born here have become lazy. Have we Americanized them. They don't want to go into the fields and pick strawberries even though there parents do. The younger generation is an entitlement generation . They just expect everything. Maybe I am speaking too harshly. I have time to think about this on the road to Yuma.

The Mexican government is so corrupt it makes our government look like saints. This isn't very Christian like but how can we wipe out all the politicians and drug lords. Maybe Ron White the comedian said it best, " The US should by Mexico. That is where all the harder workers come from. They could fix up our country and there country. Then if we want to well sell it back to Spain." I think he went a little far in the quote but I do agree. Mexicans are number one growing population in America and we should accept it.

One more thing. Private prisons. What kind of crap is that? Prisons that make money off the government. It sounds like they have a quote. For example if AZ has 40,000 people in there prisons they get a cut from the government. If they have less they get a smaller cut. So the more they have the more money they make. So of course they want to catch people and leave them in jail. That is crazy. They say 85% of the illegals in jail just want to make money. They are not drug dealers or violent. Good people in jail for crossing the border. I know it is illegal but still there is much worse crimes if you ask me. Did getting a speeding ticket going 86 in a 70mph send me to jail. No but I could have killed someone at that speed. By the way that never happened just giving an example. They say 6,000 have died in the desert the last 4 years. Now that is a crime against humanity. Thank goodness for the No more Deaths program that puts water stations in the desert for these people to get water if they do make it. Yet there are some jerks out there that will shoot them or stab them and drain the water out of them. That is pretty low. 

 Myself, Octavio from Mexico, Patric from San Jose, and Marcel From Nigeria ready for our trip

 This is me speaking at the 9am mass at Most Holy Trinity Parish in Tucson

 This is the place where the Jesuits feed the deported homeless in Nogales Mexico

 This is the line of semi truck goods from Mexico entering the USA. The line is over a mile long

 There is a teenager who is paid by the drug cartels to stand on the hill and watch for people and for illegals crossing into the USA without paying or notifying the drug cartels.

We are filling tooth paste in small containers for the homeless that have been deported. Most have no place to go and no money. They have to figure out what to do. Whether try an attempt again or hitch hike back where ever they came from.

Marcel had a bad experience at the border. The border patrol detained him and lock him in a room with no explanation. They told him to sit and wait . Marcel got pissed. He felt like a caged animal. They held him for probably 15 minutes and then told him you are free to go with no explanation. Marcel kept asking "why are you detaining me?" No explanation was given just " you are free to go". I felt bad for Marcel. He got very upset over it. It was not right. He had the correct documents. Was it racist? Was it racial profiling? Was it because he is from Nigeria? I'm just sorry the toll it took on Marcel. It was embarrassing for him. When we were driving back and we stopped at the border patrol check point in Tubac I lied to them. He asked if we are all citizens and I said yes because I didn't want to put Marcel through any more and he just let us go as I expected. I was glad I was driving as opposed to anyone else. Because I'm sure every one else would have been honest with the border patrol and we would have had to give him all our documentation.
 Sorry for the long rant but social injustice really gets me going now days. It was a good experience in Tucson. I think we all learned a lot. And we have a lot more to learn.

WolfCreek and Tucson

 With Jim Chan at Wolf Creek. Awesome skiing conditions. Snowed 7inches 2 days before I got there yet we were able to find powder every single day. We found the hidden gem area.

 This is on top of the ridge looking off to the back side of the mountain. 5 days in Wolf Creek was well needed. plenty of hiking, skiing, and snowboarding. It was nice to hit the hot tub at the end of the day

 Got to enjoy spending a few days before Christmas with my brother. Wearing Jerseys helps to find each other in the crowd. It was a blast. No injuries thank God.

 This is at randy's house with Austin and Reed. They are growing up really fast and they both remembered uncle Michael. They never get tired of being picked up and tossed around. They will ALWAYS come back for more.

This is looking west at wolf Creek, Mike and Carolyn graciously host me every year for this ski trip. I love the mountains and I love the snow.

Being Sick

I think I have the flu. I have been laying low the last 2 days. A week ago we had our Intercommunity Novitiate Party which was fun. It was a party with Sisters of Calabrini, Holy Cross Sisters, Sisters of Casmir, Mary Knoll Sisters, Augustinians, Sacred Heart Fathers, Mary Knoll Fathers and Brothers and Sisters of St. Joseph. We had a potluck with food and dance. It was neat seeing the different ethnicities doing there singing and dancing. I got up and danced with the Africans.
There is a reading from Ronald Rolhieser that is really sticking to me the past few weeks. "Faith isn't where your head is or where your heart is. Faith is where your ass is at".  That seems to make sense to me. Some days I wake up and think where are you God. I don't feel your presences at all. Do you even exist. Then there are days where I wake up and know the presence of God in me and in my life. So do I have faith some days and not other days. I guess it is trusting in where my ass is at. That is where I am suppose to be right now. I am learning to sit and just deal with whatever comes my way. If it is something bad to try and hold it and embrace it.
I know my brother has called me Peter Pan because I am always on the fly and never seem to grow up. I think there is a lot of truth in that. I hope I am learning how to be grounded and just sit with things. But it is very tempting to go on to the next adventure and just keep going from adventure to adventure. But does doing that mean I have a superficial life. A life that is not real with any substance ? Peter Pan was the life of the party always having fun always making people feel good. Does he really connect to people in a deep meaningful way. Is there real connectivity? Is Peter Pan just avoiding pain that he doesn't want to deal with? I don't know maybe I am thinking to much.
I am really looking forward to my short Christmas break and to get out of my head for a bit. Merry Christmas everyone.
The novices attended a videotaping mass here in Milwaukee that will be shown February 2nd at 9am on the Ion channel and I believe 5:30am on February 2nd on Fox. Supposedly. And it is nation wide. I am sitting in the front row so I am sure I will be visible with my mouse nest of a beard.

 Doing an african drum march around the room, Martha -uguanda, Marcel- Nigeria, Susan - Tanzania

 These are the Holy Cross Sisters who are from India and Bangladesh

 We hosted Thanksgiving we had 3 Colombian, 1 Venezuelen, 2 Uganda priests over to celebrate

This is Father Reed our Novice Master. 

This is Susan from Tanzania. She helps me brush up on my Kiswahili

I forgot to take pictures but my roommate from college Tierney visited me. We went to the Buck vs Nets game and went to the Pabst brewery

Poverty

Milwaukee supposedly gets 190 days without sun. That is depressing just to think about

I just watched 60 minutes and Diane went to Camden New Jersey where it is one of the most poverish cities yet New Jersey is the richest state in the USA. It seemed like all that was there were drugs, abandoned buildings and schools. No shops. Most of the drugs are being bought by kids from the suburbs. The murder rate is 7 times higher than the national average. 1/3 of the teens in the city have been caught with some sort of drug activity. The parents that are there mostly single have little education and there are no jobs in the city because most of the industries have pulled out due to violence. It is sad for the kids there. They have hope and lots of them said, "For Christmas I want a home, I want a room. "There only escape is going to school.  My initial reaction was New Jersey should bull doze the whole city. But then where are all these people going to go. I’m sure the other cities don’t want these people. A kindergartener was asked what are the three meals a day. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He didn’t know that because he only eats when his mom finds food. Mom can’t read, single, two kids, no house, or an apartment, can’t get a job, has no skills. What do we do? How do we change the system? There has to be answers.

In Milwaukee the average homeless person has 7^th grade education.

Poverty has been on my mind a lot lately.

Grocery stores have to throw out most of their food to cover themselves legally. If they gave someone food or let them dumpster dive and they get sick they could sue. We have to change the system. We waste so much food here. I remember dumpster diving next to the Hostess story right by my High school because they were throwing out all the expired cupcakes and Twinkies and we thought what a waste we can’t let this happen. It takes years for a Twinkie to really expire.

Then I think about Tyson chicken in Pennsylvania how most of there workers were illegal immigrants working in barns packed with Chickens walking around in chicken shit and there job was to catch a 1,000 chickens a day and get them into a truck. They got paid by how much they did. Many got sick and now have wrist, back, arm, and leg problems. That is poverty to me. People have to work like that and get basically nothing.

I'm reading a book called Fire in the Ashes. This single mom with two kids who lives in the Bronx surrounded by the crack dealers and gangs gets an opportunity to move to Montana where a community has raised money to get them there and get them a place to stay until she can afford to find her own apartment. Everything was going well, Kids doing well in school except the son struggled in school, Mom got a job and is working hard and gets a bank account. It sounds like a success story. Then as the years go by the boy gets into drugs and stealing then kills himself in his mothers place. The mother goes into depression and becomes and alcoholic loses her job and goes back to living on well fair. The daughter was a success and broke through. Have a great job, husband and four kids making it in Atlanta. It sucks sometimes you try so hard to make a difference and you are expecting great results and then it can all turn. You do what you can but you have to let go of the results. That for me is really hard to swallow.

I guess it boils down to what am I going to do about it. Poverty is someone in need or deprived of necessity for life. This can be interpreted in many different ways. I know I can be present to people and try to have an awareness of the charitable things I can do and try to figure out how to have a voice in the change of the system. I guess one day at a time, one act at a time and one person at a time. I think that is what I can do right now until I figure out how to live for the life of others.

 Vikings vs Packers and an unhappy Packer fan at the time in the background.

 I volunteered at the Folk fair, This is a voyager. half French half Native American. I cleaned dishes at the Native American fry bread stand where they sold Indian Tacos

 Jo Jo at the bucks game excited as ever. His first professional basketball game.

On a positive note I went to a buck’s game with Dave Holton and his son JoJo who is 7 years old. He had the time of his life. Free cape because it was cape night. He got a t-shirt that they threw out and it fell under the bleachers but he was able to crawl down and get it. He also got a basketball because the same thing happened. I bought him popcorn and Mountain Dew. I think he had the greatest day ever and that was a real joy for me.

I guess with everything in life you witness the hardships and the joys.

Type 7 Enneagram

I’m a seven on the enneargram. It is like the myers Briggs and is a personality test. Very useful tool to learn about yourself and about others. I highly recommend to check it out if you haven’t. I had a great visit to Minnesota for my cousin Carlene’s wedding. It was great seeing all the family. It went by too quickly. I wish I could have spent more time catching up with extended family.  It was a wonderfully spent weekend. I went out and celebrated Halloween which was fun. Indoor soccer just started. I’m in an over 30 league so I am the young buck on the team. I scored three goals in the first game however I sprained my ankle and still recovering from that. A few days before that I got a rock climbing membership at a climbing gym in a suburb. It felt great to get back climbing. I went climbing today. I have no stamina like I use to when I was climbing about a decade ago. I also have little strength compared to back then. It is going to take me a while to get the endurance and power back. So that is an exciting challenge for me.

This last week was a really hard week. Sometimes I feel I am the only person who is about helping the community and not about the self. People will always think differently and some peoples view of community is totally different from mine. Infact it is almost as if  its “let me do my own thing mentality and you do your thing.”  One would also think that striving for religious life would mean that everyone in the community would strive to make themselves better holy people. Wanting to go the extra yard to make a difference in the world. Instead is filled with rumors, gossip,  and filling up lives with unnecessary drama.  Today I feel God must be shaking his heads thinking what are these people doing? They don’t get it!

During the weekend I went to New Glarus Brewery. Probably the best Brewery tour I have ever been on. I think Spotted Cow is the best beer in Wisconsin followed by Moon man. You can only get there beers in Wisconsin. I was also able to go Mountain Biking one last time because it warmed up a bit. I’m sure the cold front will be coming back soon.

Here is a quick over view of a Type 7 on the enneagram which is my type.

Type Seven in Brief

Sevens are extroverted, optimistic, versatile, and spontaneous. Playful, high-spirited, and practical, they can also misapply their many talents, becoming over- extended, scattered, and undisciplined. They constantly seek new and exciting experiences, but can become distracted and exhausted by staying on the go. They typically have problems with impatience and impulsiveness. At their Best: they focus their talents on worthwhile goals, becoming appreciative, joyous, and satisfied.

         Basic Fear: Of being deprived and in pain

         Basic Desire: To be satisfied and content—to have their needs
fulfilled

         Enneagram Seven with a Six-Wing: "The Entertainer"

         Enneagram Seven with an Eight-Wing: "The Realist"

Key Motivations: Want to maintain their freedom and happiness, to avoid missing out on worthwhile experiences, to keep themselves excited and occupied, to avoid and discharge pain.

 We had our first snow fall of the year. Luckily it has already melted

 This is in the town of New Glarus which is known as Little Switzerland. Stopped and had a aVenison brat and swiss cheese fondue.

Testing the beer to make sure it tastes right at New Glarus. I like the tour because you have the ability to interact with the employees. Infact I spent about 15 minutes wight the microbiologist who was testing the beer for different mold or bacteria in the beer. 

Triggered

Triggered. I really got triggered today in Just Faith. Just Faith is a a 30 week class where we meet once a week to talk about poverty and Social Justice  in the world. We meet at St. Mary's Parish in a Suburb of Milwaukee. We were talking about poverty. I talked about my experience in Tanzania about poverty there and yet they were happy and I talked about the frustrations I had with there type of thinking of only the present and not the future. They would eat everything they had now and starve in the future because that is how they have done it from generation to generation. Anyways there is this woman who left the conversation and talked on her phone for about 15 minutes and then when she came back I felt she attacked me. She said, “that is so American and cliché that we assume and think they are happy. We do that just to make ourselves feel better. They are struggling in life and they know life is hard.” She went on for about 10 minutes staring at me telling me how I am wrong infront of everyone because she had been to Haiti and seen extreme poverty there. Maybe it wasn’t a direct attack on me but it sure felt like it. I was ready to rip her head off and prove her wrong. Then I realized why and I getting so upset of this. Why am I triggered. Is it because she is right? Is it because she is attacking my view? Is it because she is like me a is a rich white person who lives in suburbia in a bubble who occasionally goes out and volunteers to make themselves feel better and feel they have contributed to society and then goes back to there bubble with a 50 inch flat screen TV. I refrained and let it go. I don’t need to prove her wrong or prove anybody. That is my ego that wanted to rip her a new one. My picture below is how I felt. I was King Leonidas for Halloween. He is a character from the movie 300.

Maybe the people in Tanzania weren’t happy and just putting a mask on.  Maybe they were happy to me because I was from America, or white or just someone who wants to listen to them and talk to them. I know for a fact though some of the happiest people I have ever seen in my life live in Tanzania. I am sure they are all not happy and some don’t know any different but I do know what I experienced.  I haven’t written in my blog for a bit but I needed to vent.