Climbing out of the Grand Canyon after a very restless but beautiful sleep on the Mesa.
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Libby :)  | Pictures can say a lot, but sometimes not enough.  |
Ersida and Nate at the beginning of our hike in the Canyon.  | Our little yellow tent.  |
Nate: My butt's in the Mexico! Me: Could he get in trouble for that? Ofelia (O'odham elder): Does his butt have papers?  | Mama Sherrie.  |
Jessie and Marcus entertaining us at Borderlinks.  | Pretty Faith at the border on O'odham land.  |
The Borderlinks yard now. It's a fun place to be together.
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The Borderlinks yard before we made it beautiful.  Click here to start typing your text | Almost beautfiul.  |
Friday, May 14th was spent at the Tohono o'odum reservation. We talked to people at the Sells Health Clinic, passed the afternoon with Ophelia, and encountered the Border Patrol over and over.
Ophelia showed us the artificial border that separates the people of Tohono o'odum reservation.  You can see the monument in the background that marks U.S. teritory as of the treaty of 1853.  | Sherrie and Maeva stand at the border with Ophelia.  I felt so many things taking this picture. These great students straddle many fences right now and the U.S. border is just one of them.  |
Thursday, May 13th was trash day. We went out to the Arivaca Desert Aide Camp and worked with the Caesar Chavez kids to clean and prepare it for the summer aide season (we'll be the first inhabitants next week).
Libby and Marcus sort through donated clothing.  We set off in Eugene just before the great desert flat tire adventure.  Yusra and a Caesar Chavez student clean up camp.  | Gene Lefavbre, a volunteer at No More Deaths, showed the students a map of the migrant trails.  Chelsey and a Caesar Chavez student clean the kitchen.  After cleaning camp we settled n for the now traditional group picture.  |
The steep dust road leading to the NoMoreDeath camp site.  | It felt like riding a roller coaster.  |
A plant grows out of an abandoned baseball hat.  | Click here to start typing your text |
Oh, hello destination.  | Organ Pipe. A beautiful adventure.  |
Flower in the desert.  | Cacti are cute too.  |
Kitt Peak and the setting sun.  | Have you ever climbed a mountain before noon? Why yes, I have.  |
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Kirsten and the wall.  |  |
A torn red coat abandoned by the wall.  | At the border.  |
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The ugly wall.  |  |
The garden at Southside makes me so happy.  | Little peppers! How exciting!  |
 | No Human Is Illegal. The Coalition of Human Rights.  |
Cadillac Ranch.  | SB1070 protest at U of A.  |
 | Making our first mark.  |
Monday, May 10th we started our photo workshop with the students at Cesar Chavez school. As usual, we were amazed. These students are so incredible and we are so proud to know them.
The students came up with the great idea of taking a picture of their assignment instead of writing it down.  Ersida and James interviewing staff at Cesar Chavez on SB1070.  Cesar Chavez students on top of the "A Mountain."  | Having some interesting discussions about life. Something was amusing. If I had to bet I'm sure Faith said something funny.  A bird view of Tucson with Cesar Chavez students.  Funny face time!  |
Jessie with Maria and Cythia at the photo workshop.  Faith and Angel work out the mechanics of the camera.  This is x, y, z, and q in our workshop.  | Collette, Eddie, and Jullissa begin to use their cameras.  The Cesar Chavez kids were just geeked with the cameras.  I tried so hard to get Jullissa to stop posing. Once she did her pure joy shone through.  |
Cesar Chavez's sustainable garden.  | A classroom.  |
Two of the four facilities that comprise Cesar Chavez Middle School. The Two vans to the right transport the students from one site to the next.  | DeJashua and Principal Sister Judy.  |
Sunday, May 9th, Mother's Day--the UM students and I have had our tussles and our total joys. They take care of me and I'm doing my best to take care of them. Thank you moms and dads for raising such incredible human beings. They bought me flowers for Mother's Day. My family just grew. Warning to family members everywhere--they're mine!
Chelsey, Mava, and Yusra are preparing food for the group before the Sunday afternoon barbecue.
Sunday, May 9th: Our small group trip to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (only those willing to get up a 5:30 am on a Sunday went on this tip)
Emily and Libby had some minor run-ins with cacti. Let's just say the tweezers from the first-aid kit were put to use...haha
Nate being an extreme daredevil!! Hopefully your mom isn't going to kill you when she sees this one.
Saturday, May 8th: We went to Kitt Peak National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO). We started out with Saturn and moved on to the oldest nebula that human eyes have seen. That's us--we've seen them.
One of the biggest optical observatories in the world.  | There are so many telescopes on Kitt Peak.  |
We had such an amazing time driving up the mountain. Nicole relaxed when we stopped to go "wow".  Beautiful sunset at Kitt Peak  We walked at sunset and talked about all the different observatories at Kitt Peak. Marcus scans the panoply of buildings.  | Standing on the edge of the mountain at Kitt Peak. We spent a lot of time on edges (Nate's mom--ask him to send you his edge picture from Organ Pipe.  When we stopped to go "wow" halfway up the mountain, Jessie spent some time contemplating the view.  After all the warnings about the ways that white light would ruin research at the observatories, Sherrie, while trying to turn off the camera, got this really cool picture of a telescope--even if she did get into quite a bit of trouble for being such an idiot.  |
Friday, May 7th--we decided NOT to cross the border. But we walked along it for a long way. We talked to border patrol agents and people who live along the wall all along the border instead.
Peeking at Nogales, Sonora.  A plastic bag tries to cross the border - which way is it going?  Faith and Libby walking along the wall  | What is it like over there?  A group of us climbed a steep hill and approached a Border Patrol officer to ask him a couple questions.  Sherrie makes use of spare chain link fencing lying around.  |
We are NOT crossing the border   An iron wall separates the two Nogales. 
| As close to Mexico as we will get this trip.  Hello, Nogales, Sonora, Mexico  Nicole found a message on a rock. It's says "Hola, Mexicans". We couldn't decide whether this was a good message or a bad.  |
Friday, May 7th We spent the morning with Southside Presbyterian Church food and day labor program. Several of us are going back oer the next few weeks as we keep our connection to an amazing group of people.
Nicole, Collette and Chelsey work to make juice at Southside Presbyterian.  Chelsey talks with one of the men at Southside. She translated for other UM students.  | Maeva, Yusra, Ladan, and Jessie mug before serving food.  |
Nate, Faith, and Emily prepare to serve.  | Nicole and Sara dish it up. Libby almost in the picture.  |
Kirstan spent so much time talking with her new friend it was amazing.  | Nicole, Sara, and Libby serve food.  |
At the Epic Cafe in downtown Tucson downloading photos and writing in the blog.
 The beautiful view from the top floor of the Student Union at the University of Arizona |
After the Rally the U of A student government held a forum. It gave students an opportunity to voice their opinions on the Law in order to help them form a statement on behalf of the Student body as a whole. Some of our students took advantage of the opportunity! Marcus and Sara spoke up, offering perspectives from across the country! They encouraged U of A to keep fighting and reminded them that we are looking to them to be proactive and make change happen.
May 5th--the anti SB 1070 rally at the University of Arizona
    Some of us chose to sit and observe the action from under a shady tree |     One of the rally organizers tells us about his work |
 Making creative signs in preparation for the U of A rally against SB 1070 |  Faith's extremely clever sign! |
May 4th, 2010
The whole team assembled (minus Ladan, international photography award winning photographer) to enjoy a delicious meal at Maya Quetzal, a local eatery owned and run by Sandra.
Tuscon!  | Tuscon!  |
The bird view of Michigan.  | The bird view of Tuscon.  |
May 2 ~ The Arch!
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May 1st, 2010
The vans have left Ann Arbor! Chelsey, Sara, Maeva, Nate, and Ersida all did an amazing job. Everyone was absolutely on time and I am in awe of their packing. I have to go home and start throwing things out of my bag. The vans rolled out about 8:30, on their way to pick up Marcus, Nicole, and Collette in South Holland, Illinois.
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One of the many wind farms we saw along the way
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April 17th, 2010
We were having one of our planning meetings before we actually leave on the trip. Our group banner picture was taken that day as were all of the pictures below--showing us hard at work to prepare.
Jessie, Ersida, and Libby work on this blog site.
In this picture and the next, Kirstan (no front pictures--oops), Emily, Nicole, and Faith work out the workshops.
Chelsey, Marcus, and Collette make the translation for our photo permission sheet.
Amber, Sara, Maeva, and Nate firm up the van trip plans.
n this picture and the previous, Kirstan (no front pictures--oops), Emily, Nicole, and Faith work out the workshops.
It was a challenge to get a group picture but we did it--rose thorns and all.
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