Day 5

Yesterday, Thursday April 18th, was the best day. As Ben said later that day during prayer, itwas great actually doing something towards the effort of helping immigrants. We went to the Shrine. We carried a gallon of water, which is approximately 8 pounds, and a can of beans across for about 1 mile (I think it was more). The journey had a lot of hills, rocks, branches, slipping and falling. When someone wa having diffculty, eeryone helped. We traveled like a team in the daylight at a normal pace. It struck me that the immigrants don't have these advantages. If they are walking too slow of fall, no one is going to wait for them to catch up. No one is going to help them climb a rock wall. Throughout an immigrant's traveling, he or she can only depend on themselves; individual success instead of a team. They also don't have the luxury of traveling in the daylight, but instead at night with little or no light. I know I almost walked straight into trees and branches in pure daylight so I can't imagine how scratched up the immigrants would get. Walking to the shrine allowed me to step into an immigrant's shoes. It's one thing to sympathize with immigrants but it is a whole entirely different thing to empathize with them. When I saw the shrine, I saw it as a symbol of hope. if I was an immigrant, I would cry from the overwhelming feelings that accompany the sight of this shrine. An immigrant would see this as a sign that there are people that actually care. People that care for his well-being, enough to leave good and water. It also shows that people have faced the same struggles, hunger, thirst and fear as he or she that is immigrating. At the shrine, God's presence was evident. All the religious objects that immigrants of the past have left behind provide a sense of security and comfort to the immigrants that I arrive there to rest. The shine reminds passing immigrants that they are not alone in the journey, but they have people's spirits, activists and past immigrants alike, and also God always with them during this hard time. The feeling of God's precense at the shrine and making an extremely mini journey ( about 2 miles overall) like an immigrant, I hope will stay with me.

- Adianna