Update 5

Hello everyone!

Life in Texas is going well! I’m super busy with my work at Workers Defense Project. It is a local, grassroots nonprofit that works to keep low wage workers safe at their construction sites and to make sure all are being paid fairly and accurately.  You would be amazed at the number of stories of people working for months without getting paid for their work–its really upsetting. I am the Campaign Outreach Coordinator, so my role is to coordinate all of our major events coming up in January and February to put pressure on our legislators during the legislative session. We’ll be having a Press Release for our Construction Study Report on Jan 29, a speaker tour in San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, and Austin where a worker member and staffer will go to each city to build support for our upcoming day of action on Feb 27th called We Build Texas! I also have meetings with legislative staffers and my supervisor, Emily, who work with us on potential bills, and who are in support of our work. Many of them are helping me get rooms booked for all the events mentioned prior.  I actually have already been to the State Capitol 3 times!!

We also have weekly Construction Worker Committee meetings where members of WDP work on plans for these events, our legislative agenda, and our other campaign which is to challenge specific developers to create safe working conditions and living wages for their construction worker employees. This is one of my favorite times because I get to work directly with our worker members (those that have paid to be a part of our organization) and where I get to practice the most of my Spanish!

I am actually not doing direct work with immigration (or teaching ESL classes, etc. like I originally thought), however I am working with many immigrants, documented and not. They are taken advantage of on a daily basis because of language barriers or lack of resources, and that is where WDP comes in. We truly believe that the change needs to come from those who are being oppressed, so we empower our members and give them the access they normally wouldn’t have–through being board members of the organization, speaking at City Council, and even working directly with state legislators. What we do here at WDP is SO important. At first I was a little uneasy about my work and wasn’t really sure what I felt about it-everything was so new and not what I originally expected. But now, after having been here a full 2 months (wow!!!), I really am proud to be a part of this organization and cannot wait for the legislative session to start so that we can really start to push for new laws that will protect our citizens, our members, and my personal friends.

Please keep all of us in your thoughts and prayers!

God Bless, Sarah

Update 4

Well it’s been about a month since I’ve blogged last. I really am bad at this!  The past month has been crazy for me–I’ve been going through an insane amount of transitions, starting a new job, living in a new city, and simply trying to find my place and my peace in all of those areas. The transitions seem to be waring off some–I don’t feel as overwhelmed as I did a few weeks ago, and life is starting to feel more normal here. Each day I go to work I start to feel that much more comfortable with what is required of me and with my work environment.  Working 40 hours a week still makes for a long week, plus other activities, going to the gym, appointments, and community building. I am one busy girl! Busy is good though, especially for me. Though I’ve often complained about it over the years, I find that I do better work and live a more fulfilling life when I am busy–especially doing things I love =). I haven’t gotten to the point where I love what I’m doing yet as a YAV, but I certainly am starting to like it–which is a really good feeling. Gaila, one of my housemates, told me the other day that her first 6 months last year in the AYAVA house were really rough, but now she couldn’t be more thrilled to be doing it a second year because life got so much better and she really came to love it! So that gives me great hope for the year to come =). Life isn’t always easy, and I know this year will be (and hasn’t been) any different, but I know that this is where I’m meant to be. I’m learning a lot already and know that God has big plans for my growth this year. I’m excited to see where God takes me =).