My time here so far...

Hi! I'm Allie Deyhle, a first year student at the College of Wooster. I'm a potential psychology major, going into social work. This is my first time on this trip, as well as my first time out of the country. And I am loving it so far! Here are some highlights of my trip here so far: firstly, how absolutely beautiful la posada is! Today after a long day at work I took a little cat nap out by the fountain, the sun was perfectly warm, a nice 70 degrees today (mom if you are reading this don't worry I wore sunscreen), and I had one of the adorable little cats from the area on my lap. She's fuzzy and gray and adorable. Another highlight was yesterday, we went to friendship park and me and my friend, who has never been to an ocean, ran into the water and then walked along the beach. The art on the border wall was also incredibly moving, as well as heartbreaking at the same time, there was a man there who talked to us about how the United States deports its' war veterans. There's really not a word in my vocabulary for how awful that is. But it makes being here, and learning, and helping, all the more meaningful. Another thing I've really enjoyed about this trip so far is just driving around, with Phil blasting his cool rock music, and the windows rolled down, and the beautiful palm trees, mountains, and the ocean in the distance. The artwork around Tijuana is also remarkable. The people are just as remarkable, yesterday we met with one of the families that Esperanza built a house for last year, the house is bright pink and very nice, me and a few of the other girls on the trip had a very nice conversation with Arturo's daughter, April, she has lots of career aspirations, she also talked to us a lot about school and life in general. It was really a good bonding experience. We're all so unique but so similar. We all just want to support our families and follow our dreams, it makes the fact that there is a giant wall and armed men in cars patrolling the border all the more upsetting. Everyone needs to come here and see this, actually meet the people they are so convinced need to be blockaded from us. Today, we began our work to make a difference in these people's lives, most of the work was just digging and moving bricks and rocks, the simple nature of the work is really relaxing, especially for stressed out college students, it was a productive day and it's great to see that we've made progress so far. I'm so grateful already for the few days I've had here, and so excited for the rest of the week!