A New Life

In the book Refugee by Alan Gratz, a girl Isabel and her family along with her friends' family are fleeing Cuba to go to Miami, Florida. There is a part in the book where Isabel stops to think what the United States will be like. “ ‘Shelves full of food and the store’, Señora Castillo said. ‘Being able to travel the anywhere we want, anytime we want!’ said Amara ‘I want to be able to choose who I vote for,’ Luis said.” (p. 84) As they continue to go through all the things that they can have in the United States, her father says “Be free”(p. 85). In Cuba they were rioting on the streets trying to get Castro out, there was no food, no work and they were searching for freedom. For people coming to America they are looking for freedom and wanting to start an new life. In the book The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family had the same idea that America would be a place to start over, where they can finally be free and make a better lives for themselves. 

Happening right now is the Honduras Caravan, where thousands of people are leaving Honduras and walking to the United States. These people are leaving for a better and safer life, free of gangs and kids being able to go to school; to start and new life. “Many people are leaving because they fear for their lives if they stay, because they’re being threatened by gangs and the local government is either complicit or absentee. They’re seeking asylum, even if their circumstances may not fit neatly into the definition of “persecution” in US asylum law.” When Isabel and her family finally made it Florida, it became their home, a fresh new start, but in the Grapes of Wrath the Joad family was not welcomed with open arms. How are the people from Honduras going to be welcomed?

The Bigger Picture

“Palu, in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province, was ravaged on Sept. 28 by a 7.5-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that lashed the coastal city with waves up to 20 ft. tall. The twin disasters claimed nearly 2,000lives, according to the U.N., with thousands more injured and missing.Survivors will feel the consequences for years: some 74,000 people lost their homes, and will live in refugee camp-like settlements for the foreseeable future.”

Climate change is making the U.S. Southwest, drier, hotter and dustier, and there are predictions that more disasters are coming. Ferocious storms used be very rare, and it would be a small storm here and there, but now these huge storms are becoming more frequent it is destroying homes and families. “In March 2017, “wildfires raged across four stated, fanned by wind sand fueled by a drought-starved prairie,” reported by New York Times, “killed at least six people and burned more than2,300 square miles.”

 “Earth is on track to face devastating consequences of climate change – extreme drought, food shortages and deadly flooding – unless there’s an “unprecedented” effort made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by2030, a new United Nations report warns.”  This is very sad, and I think that people are so focused on unnecessary things that are not opening their eyes to see what is happening right in in front of their faces.

CNN news headlined that President Trump gets two scoops of ice cream, while everyone else gets one; that is far from important, and people want to know why this world is coming to this terrifying end. Thousands are dying from heat alone, and they have dust storms towered 8,000 feet high and buried entire homes. “climate change presents a risk to people and infrastructure around the globe.” We need to look at the entire picture, because a ton of little things add up to big things.

Open Your Eyes

“There’s a dying world outside your stained-glass windows;depressed people, poor people, addicts and widows.” (Clayton Jennings, 1:33-1:38)

“Cool and comfortable behind their air filters, with their A/C and recycling, they might not even care that the world was falling apart outside their windows.” (43) In the book TheWater Knife I read about a guy named Angel driving through Phoenix and he sees people trying to cover up because of the dust in the air. There was broken glass, women on the corners and refugees squatting at traffic intersections, begging for work and cash. He then arrived to Hotel 6 where the as soon as you walk in everything that happened outside seems to no longer exist.

The past two summers I was able to help lead a team of 5^th graders on a mission trip. When I hear about mission trips and people telling testimonies about kids who have to walk far water, or they have not eaten in an week, it’s one thing to hear about it, but it’s another thing to see it. I went on the mission trip it broke my heart  see women on the streets to provide for their families, and to hear that the only food some people had eaten, was the food that we had given them during Vacation Bible School. While on the mission trip it opened my eyes to see how blessed we are, we don’t have to worry about when our next meal will be or how long we need to manage water to make it through the week.

 In America we have so many things that other countries do not have, but we are like Angel driving through and just watching it, and as we get into the comfort of our homes, we forget what is happening in the world around us. “Indonesian officials have said the search for victims of last month's earthquake and tsunami is to end on Thursday - despite the fact hundreds of people are still unaccounted for.”