TUCSON BORDERLANDS YOUNG ADULT VOLUNTEERS

  • Home
  • About
  • Current Volunteers
  • Community Partners
  • Get Involved
  • Blog
  • Donate
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • About
  • Current Volunteers
  • Community Partners
  • Get Involved
  • Blog
  • Donate
  • Contact Us

Views from the Weekend - Graham

9/5/2016

0 Comments

 
Hey all, the YAVs of Tucson have somewhat successfully navigated the first weekend of our year in Tucson. Orientation is over. We get to meet our placement site staff tomorrow at a community brunch and just like that our year will officially be underway. The path to get to this point has been long, challenging, and not without its share of tears, but its here. We begin the volunteering part tomorrow.

I just wanted to put down some final thoughts before I fear things become too busy to update everyone here as much as I already have. First, the support for YAVs in Tucson is incredible. Sorry to all the other YAVs but Tucson has to be the best environment in which to serve in the entire YAV program. Not only did we get to move into a clean and basically already fully furnished house (thanks to the Tucson Borderlands Steering Committee), we had a YAV shower with Mountain Shadows Presbyterian Church yesterday after attending a service there and we received even more household items (a recliner, which is obviously the most important part of any home, was my favorite) and the leftovers from a meal they served after the service (including a massive cake, obviously an important part of the food available in a kitchen). This is just the tangible stuff that I can see and have experienced since being in Tucson. People that I’ve met in the community are also incredibly nice and always willing to help the “newbies” to the neighborhood.

Second, the challenges are already upon us. We’ve had the ability to engage each other in deep and sometimes hard conversations as we’ve begun the process of community building. This is heartening to me. Hopefully it will make the rest of the conversations easy…or at least easier. I’m looking forward to learning from my fellow YAVs and hope that I can impart even half of what I have learned so far in my first week here.

Third, I’ve managed to forget the fact that we have to work while we’re here. The real part of this experience is here. Up to this point, the YAV program has felt like a glorified summer camp to me. The adjustment to working will be hard, I haven’t spent a day working in over two weeks now and the environment here in Tucson is very different from what I’m used to. The Primavera Foundation is where I think I’m supposed to be for this year and I’m looking forward to joining them in their ministry there. Here’s to hoping that this first week of work doesn’t bite me too hard in the butt!
​
I am also super glad to report that I have met one of our neighbors in the community! Her name is Lucia and she is originally from Italy. She became a naturalized citizen of the United States and she retired from being a hospital nurse for years. One of the coolest parts of our brief encounter was when I shared what it is that we YAVs are doing in Tucson. When I mentioned that we were volunteering at various agencies through the community, Lucia mentioned an interest in finding a place to volunteer to fill her time now that she’s retired. I thought that was pretty cool. I look forward to getting to know Lucia better and hopefully encouraging her in her desire to begin volunteering.
Picture
Here we are. We have our bikes. We have been oriented to the extreme. We’ll probably get lost on more than one occasion, but that’s okay because we have each other…and our site coordinator.
And so we go.
​
Thank you, Loving God, for your comfort in uncertainty, your constancy in times of transition, and your ability to show up in the least expected ways.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    2017 2018
    2017-2018
    Agua Prieta
    Biking
    Border
    BorderLinks
    CHRPA
    Colonization
    Community
    Community Food Bank
    CRREDA
    Deportation
    Desert
    Education
    Emily Oshinskie
    Expectations
    Faith
    Flash Blog
    Florence Project
    Frontera De Cristo
    Grace Dover
    Hospitality
    House Of Neighborly Service
    Immigration Detention
    Iskashitaa
    Jake Crowther
    Justice
    Keep Tucson Together
    LGBTQ
    Migrant Resource Center
    Migration
    Militarization
    Posts In Spanish
    Primavera Foundation
    Privilege
    Race
    Refugee
    Sermon
    Southside Presbyterian Church
    Spiritual Practice
    The Inn
    Tucson
    YAV 2014 2015
    YAV 2015 2016
    YAV 2015-2016
    YAV 2016 2017
    YAV 2016-2017
    YAV 2018 2019
    YAV 2018-2019
    YAV20192020
    YAV Life

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

Tucson Borderlands YAV
400 E University
Tucson, AZ 85705
(520) 355-4YAV

Donate
Creative Commons License