Byrd Camp and the people in it

July 12

It is Tuesday. After an hour and a half car ride, the jeeps and trucks filled with new volunteers drop us off at the NMD camp, close to Arivaca. The camp is called “Byrd Camp” and no it is not named or inspired after the roadrunners we see scurrying about all the time or the vultures circling overhead. Byrd is the first name of a woman who lives close to us and supports the work NMD does and has given us access to her land. She is one of many people in the small town of Arivaca who is sympathetic to the plight of the migrants. Arivaca is only a few miles away from the border, and closest to the “alien invasion” that some right-wing pundits like to speak about. Yet it is one of the most accepting places for people who are crossing the border.

The camp is set up in a way clearly designed to be accessible and provide maximum aid to the migrants, as well as to provide an orderly and accommodating place for the volunteers. The first thing you see driving in is a NMD sign, our territory is clearly marked out and everyone (volunteers, migrants, Border Patrol, anyone in the area) knows it is a No More Deaths camp. There are several large tents. One is the Medical Tent. It has 5 cots, as well as a desk with medications and wrappings including painkillers, Tums, bandaids, gauze. There are also cold packs, which come in very useful for dehydration, and which I found out soon enough. There is a back office with more medications. Although NMD is not a religious organization and most of the people I am with are not, there is a cross hanging above the desk. Most of the migrants are Christians and I am impressed by how this was thought of by the organization.

There is also a large kitchen which contains the food we will be eating. It is kept in coolers which are usually pretty cold although not always as ice melts quickly here. Fruits and vegetables need to be eaten quickly before they rot. The food is pretty varied, although for the most part vegetarian. I have to confess I’m a bit of a meat eater, but it is really good. People take turns cooking for the camp as well as washing dishes. There is a sign in Spanish telling the people walking through that they are welcome to help themselves to whatever they want.

There is another tent that contains coolers filled with migrant food packs- ziplock bags filled with electrolyte water, energy bars and other food that won’t go bad if kept in a can like tuna and beans. We take these with us when we go on patrols but also hand them to migrants when they come in. Other tents contain clothing that is donated by people, which is given to migrants we encounter or left with the water we drop off. The water tent as you can probably guess contains several dozen gallons and jugs of water, we fill them up at Myrna’s and leave them on trails or use them for ourselves or dishes.

We have two washrooms/bathrooms… a bit of an aside. Everyone I know in Winnipeg uses the word washroom but down here they call it bathroom. I once asked to go to the washroom at a general store in Arivaca and the lady looked at me very strangely and told me they don’t have washrooms down here but maybe I meant bathroom. So bathroom it is. You relieve yourself into a ‘sh-t bucket’ and it is covered with soil and when it is full with a lid held down by a rock. When the buckets are full they are taken to Arivaca to be emptied into a septic tank. My friend N and I had the honour and distinction of being on the sanitation committee (also known as the poop patrol) and to take care of emptying them before the session ended- we had some help from other volunteers although to our disappointment to septic tank was full already and there was no other place to dump it so we took the buckets back to camp and to the best of my knowledge there they remain. When the tank is less full or we find another source, it will be disposed of. I made up a story about this hip hop artist from Winnipeg: first name “Big C”, last name “rapper”.

Camp schedule is pretty intense. The day starts at 5:00 in the morning, at dawn. It is insanely early (as a substitute teacher my wake-up time is usually 10 after 6:00) but it makes complete sense. The first 2-3 hours of the day are that short glimmer of comfort before the sun heats up the place. We have breakfast and delegate people for patrols. Each patrol involves between 3 and 6 people and involve different things. We all drive out into the desert, close to trails we know migrants walk. Some patrols walk the trails, leaving water bottles and clothing as well as handing food packs to people we meet. Others map out new terrain, they have more of an exploratory component. Some involve a lot of walking, others mostly driving from place to place in the outback. Most involve a combination of both. There is a Spanish speaker and a medical person with each patrol. People who stay behind prepare meals, do camp chores, and greet migrants who may come in. Some patrols last half a day, others 2/3 of a day, others the whole day. During the evening we eat supper, debrief, and plan the next day’s patrols. We are usually done around 9:00. There is a lot of work to get done and comparatively little downtime, but people are committed and everyone enthusiastically takes part.

The fellow volunteers I am with are great to work with. We are about 20 in total, all young adults in the 20s or 30s. People come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. Quite a few are medical students or nursing students, taking a few weeks out of their very short summer to apply their skills helping people who are almost always dehydrated, often suffering, and in some cases on the verge of death. Others are college students taking a variety of courses, who have also chose to spend their summer working in often gruelling conditions with people many in their country see as ‘aliens’ and ‘illegals’. We have people with jobs whose break is often even shorter than those of the students and who choose to be here. Some are from Arizona, others drive or fly over from California, North Dakota, other states. Some people make very little money (in many US states the minimum wage is far lower than it is in Manitoba) and coming here and volunteering is more of a sacrifice for them than it is for me.

I am struck by how well everyone gets along. We have an unofficial leadership of several volunteers who have been doing this for several months or in some cases several years. They know the ins and outs of the camp as well as the trails and first aid and any questions you can think of pertaining to life at camp and the work we do, they can probably answer. They are always accessible, and there is no such thing as a dumb or stupid question in their eyes. They also do not lord over anyone however, and I am impressed by their humility and complete lack of arrogance. There is another thing that is lacking at camp, and it is whining or complaining. We work in temperatures that are in their 30s on a cool day and 40s on a hot one. We’ve also been hit by storms and showers almost every day and strong wind during our first few hours there that has flattened some tents (mine included), ripped up some of the med tent, and thrown chairs around the campground; we also have several wildlife neighbours-more on that later. People have gotten sick from the sun, dehydrated and a few have sprained ankles or pulled muscles. All of this would provide ample and some would argue more than understandable room for negativity, but it’s not so. People are courteous to each other, hang out together in the very little free time there is, and everyone gets along very well. It reminds me of the CPT delegation.

Another thing that I really enjoy is the fact that all the camp chores get done, by everyone. No one is really officially delegated for most of the jobs, but people see a need and step up and get it done. There is no one slacking at the expense of everyone else.

People come from a variety of different worldviews and beliefs, and we’ve had some great discussions at times. I pray that God blesses every one of my fellow volunteers with protection as they serve in the camp and when they go back home to their other lives to work or school, I also pray that everyone will be blessed with the eternal peace and joy that comes in knowing Him. Our team at Byrd is fantastic and I can say without hesitation I would trust anyone here with my life. There couldn’t be a better group of people to spend a week like this with. There is however one individual at camp who I must say definitely has not been a friendly or outgoing member to be around, and I think everyone agrees. More on him later…