by Rita Gondocs

As a Tau volunteer this past summer, I had the opportunity to spend a month with the School Sisters of St. Francis in El Paso with their border ministry.

My time with the sisters was divided into two areas. I spent Monday through Thursday working in the colonia Agua Dulce located 25 miles outside of El Paso and the rest of the time in El Paso.

When I boarded the plane in Chicago on June 15th, I knew I would be teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) to adults and a writing workshop for youth, but I knew little about the people’s realities along the border.

That soon changed as I began accompanying Sister Fran on her numerous activities of delivering food, visiting residents, and recruiting students for my class. During these car rides, I got a sense of Sister Fran’s unique gift to touch people’s lives regardless of their circumstances. Speaking fluent Spanish,  Sister Fran connected with a mother raising a child with Down's Syndrome,  a father who had lost his mother in Juárez and could not attend her funeral due to his immigration status, and adolescent sisters who were separated from their mom because she was caught by the Border Patrol and deported. I found great resilience among these people

Residents of the colonias met most of our definition of poverty – they have no running water, live in dilapidated trailers and most have to do without air conditioning in a region where summer temperatures can easily climb over 100 degrees. Despite these obvious challenges many of those I taught exhibited a deep faith in the Lord. I realized what they lacked in financial resources they made up through their spiritual  connections and/or family ties.

Now that I am writing my conclusions about this experience, I have a sense of one of the gifts I was given by the people of the colonias – their ability to live in the moment and face their lives with humor and dignity. One of my greatest joys was when Luis from my writing class understood how to nail a thesis statement.

When I reconnect with my hectic life in Chicago – cell phone, errands, family obligations – I will choose to embrace each moment of life and attempt to live it more balanced, having been unconsciously imparted a crash course in the “Art of Being Happy” by people living in the colonias.