Day 26- A trip to A. House

I went back to Sun City clinic today (Friday). However, since patients do not come in on Fridays, the clinic was pretty dead. Everyone was catching up on paperwork and filing and all that boring stuff and so I helped with that.

Things looked up, when we decided to go visit Dara and have dinner at the Annunciation House or A. House, where she is currently interning. Really quickly, A. House is similar to a homeless shelter that caters to economically vulnerable individuals and families and people who are undocumented. As I entered the house, I was a little nervous simply because I knew there would be so many people with different stories and backgrounds all under one roof. And all Dara said was "Don't worry, just say hi."

But she was right. Sarah, Laura, and I walked into A. House with smiles and maintained them all throughout our visit because everything was so homey. Dara quickly showed us a couple of spots in A. House, including her room since it was time for dinner. We all gathered to the second floor where the kitchen and dining room was. We stood around in a circle and held hands and prayed. We then got into a line for fooood! I had just eaten dinner because I was starving after I came home from work. But I really wanted to take in the whole experience of being at A. House and found myself reaching for a plate and spoon. The man serving ham asked Laura something regarding me and then looked at me asked me: “Are you Indian?” Me, with my hair tied in one braid put to the side could not look any more Indian and so I replied “Yes” with the cheesiest smile ever. We sat down on tables that resembled tables I used to sit at in elementary school. As I ate dinner, I saw how everything was still moving around me. Across from where I sat, was a woman and a new born child, behind me were adolescents who had just come home from seeing the girls they liked and to the side of me was a baby in a stroller jumping up and down. It seemed like an extended family. And I was a part of it for that moment.

After dinner, Dara continued the tour of A. House and showed us the family rooms where families stay, the women’s side, and the men’s side. She showed us the volunteer space, the office, the prayer hall, and she even took us to the roof which showed a great view of El Paso and its mountains. But I think by far the coolest place she showed us was the basement. It was like a thrift shop with donated clothes all lined up neatly one after the other, with cowboys boots and sneakers, and lotions and body wash. Everything was donated because A. House relies on donation for EVERYTHING to function. As we made our way back upstairs, we decided to help one of the volunteer separate the good produce from the bad produce. All of it was once again, donated from supermarkets that would have otherwise dumped the produce. After we made the initial separation, we then divided the good produce into two piles, one for A. House and one for its sister house, Casa Vides.

The ladies and I decided to chill outside for a bit since the house was burning up (there was no AC). Ricardo and Pedro (the two adults for confidentiality purposes) and Justin (the teenager for confidentiality purposes) were already outside playing basketball. They asked if we wanted to play and we all said no shyly. Then for some reason the girls called me out and started to encourage me to play. And so I decided to play. Right before we were about to begin, Justin started to bleed from his knee and so Dara took him inside to get cleaned up. As the three of the players waited, Ricardo passed me the ball saying “Let’s practice.” I shoot the ball one, twice, three times and continued until I reached my seventh try and still did not make it in the net. At that point I handed the ball back to Ricardo and he scored. He moved to another spot to shoot and missed so he stayed there. Pedro did the same. So I figured we were playing HORSE. Fortunately Justin came back and I did not have to keep missing shots. But it honestly hadn’t struck me that the game had begun since Justin was back and we now had 2 players for each team. I was wondering why Justin was standing so close to me and like right in front of me too. I was confused as to why whenever I moved left, he moved left and so without realizing that he was trying to block me I tried to get away from him because I needed my space. Then as I looked up I saw Pedro trying to pass me the ball and all I could do was break out into laughter because I had just realized the game had started. Moments like that happen too often with me.

Now, I was all into the game running around, throwing my hands in the air trying to block Justin and Ricardo, and always trying to pass the ball to Pedro because knowing me, shooting the ball is just not the best option. All this was happening with a hair tie that was not tight enough and in pretty little chancletas. But it was a lot of fun. At some point, even Laura and Sarah joined the game. But as the intensity of it increased, I decided to take a break and watch the game with Dara.

Soon after it was time for us to leave because the bus stops running at 8:30 PM and we needed to make sure we caught it. So we said our goodbyes and I took one last look at A. House and could not help but be grateful for its existence.