It has been a huge gift to get to know some folks in our community who are day laborers and/or migrant workers. Twice in the past couple of weeks, I've walked down the two blocks from our house to the area where (mostly) men gather in the hopes that someone will drive up looking for a few hands to help with some physical labor. Our neighbor across the street is one of those who waits each morning, now in the cold, sometimes in the rain, hoping. It has been a gift to hear some of their stories--of their children (sometimes here, sometimes very far away), of their border-crossing (sometimes painful and dangerous, sometimes relatively easy), of their friends (or their isolation), of their past or present faith communities, of their plans and hopes, of the desperation that they confront as the economy gets worse and the trucks pulling in front of the building dwindle. On Wednesday, only one truck came by the whole morning and left with two workers. There were probably around 30 workers standing nearby.
It is good just to chat--to talk about daily life, to learn more about what they do with their days, what they enjoy. I look forward to getting to know some of them better.
Last Friday, OPB's Think Out Loud program (one of my favorite radio shows) featured migrant workers. I highly recommend it:
http://stream1.opb.org:9000/tol/episodes/2008/1121.mp3
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