New life in El Paso

This here blog will be utilized for detailing the life of Karen. She loves life and many other things, thus the name the life and love of Karen. I should not make important decisions like what to name a blog after a day of travelling. Soooo many have been asking about what I am doing now and sooo I am hoping to update you all. I will also try to blog on a semi-regular basis.

So I am in El Paso, Texas. Hence the large map of Texas. See the far left. It is at about 4,000 ft, which makes running interesting when I am used to the valley floor :) It is warm and dry. Around the 90s-ish. It is also very flat, though they say they have "Mountains." Soooo far I love it. Though that description does nothing for the place :-P Also for those concerned at how close it is to Juarez, know that it is the third safest city of its size in the US, so you have no worries!

I am here working with an organization called Border Servant Corps. There website is a little out of date but it has the basics. In brief summary, I live in community (I have 4 housemates from NY, MO, CO, and Iowa) and there are 6 volunteers in another house 45 minutes away. My housemates are all girls the other house includes two males. We commit to live by the tenets of simplicity, intentional community, social justice, and spirituality. I am sure you will hear more on these later.

I will be working at least 40 hours a week at Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center. We just visited today and I am WAY excited. Apparently over 70% of children who end up in the United States and go to trial do not have representation. Since entering the United States not at a designated entry point and/or without papers is a federal crime these individuals go to trial, I believe they said about 600 in this area per year, just children. This can mean kids who some how cross on their own, whose parents are killed in crossing, or if family detention facilities are filled the children will be seperated from their parents-parents to adult facilities, children to kid facilities. In El Paso though 99% of ALL individuals have representation because of non-profits like Las Americas. They take about 1/3 of the kid cases in this area. They also do ALOT of work with Asylum seekers, for those who do not know to claim asylum these individuals must have one foot on US soil and then be able to claim a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country because of religion, race, nationality or membership in a certain social group or due to political affiliation/opinions. Lastly, they work a significant amount with women escaping domestic violence. I don't currently understand how all that works so I will save you many more words until I know the details. I will be working for one of the immigration attorneys with 3 full time staff, and a couple part time, two of whom are Maryknoll nuns.

Other major events include, attending a way cool concert right on the border, going to the Border Patrol Museum/talking with Border Patrol, and just getting to know my community members.
I think that is way too much info for you now. Thanks for reading!