WEBVTT - CZM Rewind: Title 42, Pt 3: The Mutual Aid Response 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:09.239 Try and carpool, try and shove into cars as best 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:11.680 you can, just so that we don't have a mile long. 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:14.440 Line of cars. 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:19.200 We have trash bags, we have gloves, we have things 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:22.560 that we're bringing up there, so what we have cars 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:24.440 that you can get all of that out of. 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:28.880 Once we pull over. We're also setting up a couple 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:29.560 of pop ups. 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:32.760 Hocumba, California, is a tiny town. You've probably never heard 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:35.440 of it. It's actually really charming. There's a hot spring 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:39.040 and a gorgeous hotel, a few stores selling our drinkets, 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:41.320 that kind of thing. There's a lovely lake fed by 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:43.680 the spring. And on this Sunday morning, there are about 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:47.240 fifty people outside an old petrol station, nervously pounding bottles 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:50.080 of water, applying sunscreen, and getting ready to head out 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:52.320 of the desert to clear up the ad hoc migrant 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.040 camp that has held as many as fifteen hundred people 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:57.520 out in the open when Title forty two ended and 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:00.960 Border patrol made no plans to keep them anywhere. It 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:03.400 was a diverse bunch of people hidden beneath sun hats. 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:06.119 There's an Australian film producer who was at a conference 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:08.840 in Orlando and booked a fly over a grad student painter. 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:11.520 The folks who were in the Hookumber hotel who organize 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:14.520 this whole thing, they're friends from the hospitality industry in 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:17.880 San Diego. There were students and mums and dads and 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:21.440 about the entire population of this tiny desert town. There 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:23.640 were also two former International Aid workers who are in 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:25.640 a tower where you can look at the desert, which 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:27.960 is actually a much cooler thing than it sounds. And 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:30.240 there's also a museum of boulders right next to it. 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:32.920 You should proably check them out during the area. I 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:35.640 spent the day helping out in Neucumber after the refugees, 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:38.560 some of them in handcuffs, had been taken by private 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:42.720 contractors to be processed by CBP's Office of Field Operations. 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:45.520 We met at a petrol station in the middle of town. 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.520 The space where the pumps should be was filled with tons, 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:51.400 and I do mean tons of bottled water, masks, hand 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:55.440 sanitized and other necessary supplies. When I'd arrived the night before, 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:59.000 around ten pm, the eerie green and yellow lights reflecting 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:00.920 from the roof had lit up palace of water like 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:04.320 some kind of giant lava lamp, and driving across the desert, 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:08.120 the town looked like it was glowing. The town certainly 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:09.280 has had a bit of a glow up in the 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:13.120 last few years. Three business partners purchased their Cumber hot 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:15.959 Springs hotel down in the mouth property that had once 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:18.959 been a glamorous desert resort, and they've been restoring the 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:22.760 place for nearly two years. Inadvertently, they also purchased a 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:24.920 lot of land and a few other rundown buildings in 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:26.880 a town that were sold as a lot with the hotel. 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:30.000 It was in one of these buildings, the old gas station, 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:33.000 that they set up a de facto mutual aid hubbo 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:36.360 almost overnight. The hotel's not finished yet, and they probably 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:38.280 didn't make much progress on it during the week when 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:40.600 they were feeding more than a thousand people in the desert. 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:44.320 The town's lake, fed by a natural spring an old 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:48.079 bath house used to be attractions. Today the bathhouse's roof 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:49.880 has fallen off, but it still makes a pretty cool 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:53.680 concert venue, and the whole town offers commanding views of 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:55.799 the border wall, which sadly is only a couple of 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:59.200 one hundred yards from the main street. When I arrived 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:02.360 in Houcumber, everything was close. The mini Mark was sold out, 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:04.840 the hotel was still being worked on, and the hotel 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:07.320 kitchen was churning out food for volunteers at the clean 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:11.000 up effort. I asked Marissa, one of the volunteers I 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:13.800 met that day, about her first impressions on arriving at 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:14.440 a meeting point. 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:18.520 I was incredibly impressed by what the people of hu 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:23.440 Kumba and the hotel group of individuals that have organized this, 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:27.560 Like I couldn't believe seeing their donation depot in that 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.240 old car wash, just to how well organized everything was, 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.960 and that they provided so much for the volunteers, and 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:41.119 the just the level of love and compassion and was. Yeah, 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.160 it was an amazing opportunity to be part of, very humbling. 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:47.080 I've been there since late the night before after visiting 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:50.360 border crossings in California and Arizona, and Jeff, one of 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:52.560 the co owners a hotel, can you let me put 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:54.520 up my truck in some desert behind his house. 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:55.640 Now. 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:57.720 I'm a person who enjoys sleeping outside, and I do 0:03:57.760 --> 0:03:59.640 it as often as I can. I try and camp 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:03.720 police a month. But that night I was cold even 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:06.480 underneath my down blanket, and I couldn't help but think 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:08.720 of how desperate it must have been to spend nearly 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:10.720 a week out there with nothing but in my last 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:14.000 base blanket and some thorny bushes to keep you warm. 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:16.240 It's certainly not the welcome that one would expect from 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.200 their richest nation on Earth, which had three years to repair. 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:22.000 For the day, Title forty two ended to get a 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.080 bit of background out of town. I spoke to Natalie. 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:28.799 So the previous owner bought it at an auction, and 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.040 I don't think that the previous owner didn't realize how 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:34.640 much she was getting, and he kind of just like 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.000 neglected a bunch of it, you know. And then he 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:39.720 was older, and so he finally sold off the hotel. 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:41.440 He thought he was just buying the hotel, but he 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:44.280 buying all the land as well. So they when they 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:46.920 bought the hotel, they acquired all their land. And they're 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.159 actually putting money into it and fixing and everything up, 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:50.520 which is really wonderful. 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:53.160 The hotel in Lake and hot Spring really are wonderful. 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:54.640 But the scene that had played out there on the 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:57.480 eleventh of May with anything but within a short period 0:04:57.520 --> 0:04:59.800 of time, more than a thousand people of all ages 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:02.640 and nationalities will be held in the open desert and 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.720 left defend large for themselves. I let Natalie describe the 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:06.440 space there in. 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:11.920 There's lots of cactuses everywhere, so there's environmental like a 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:16.400 watch out where you're walking that it's hot. It's hot 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:18.480 in mid day and really cold at night. Because it's 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:22.240 the high desert, there can be gusts of wind that 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:27.200 can just take over, get dust in your eyes, your hair, 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:30.640 everything's just you're just filthy and lack of food. 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:33.000 I mean, there's no resources. You're in the middle of nowhere. 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:35.320 I talked to a lot of the volunteers, many of 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:36.960 whom have been in the desert for me yet week. 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:40.200 It'd first been made aware of the impending humanitarian crisis 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:42.799 late on Thursday night, but one of the people working 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:44.600 on the renovation of the Hot Springs Hotel got a 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.440 call about it. Within a few hours, the hotel, zwners 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:49.840 and all this stuff were running what became very nearly 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:52.160 the only source of food, shelter, and water for more 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:54.920 than a thousand people trapped and held in the desert 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:59.920 by CBP. I spoke to Sam, another volunteer, to get 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.880 sensor response. Now, Sam is a kind of guy who 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:06.080 just looks like he's a home in the desert. His 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:08.680 Wi brim hat, boots, and long cleeved shirt and pants 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:10.880 told me he spent plenty of days under the baking 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.159 sign out here. And his redness with an isoproble alcohol 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.200 spray disinfect people's boots after walking in an area that 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:20.000 was likely covered in human shit told me he'd been 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:22.400 around one or two situations like this in the past. 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.120 I spent a great deal of my life as his 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:29.839 second career, working for in developmental relief logistics in Southeast Asia, 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:35.160 mainly working with large age organizations for example World Food Program, 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:39.920 Doctors without Borders, shild units, many many differrom that place things. 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:42.000 In the context of that kind of experience. It's easy 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.000 to understand why people come to the United States, but 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.320 I asked Sam to put the situation here into perspective 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:51.240 for me. It's understandable that folks came to the US, 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.320 but why to a tiny desert town of five hundred people. 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.159 These people were radically unprepared for what they were going 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:59.240 to go through because they were sold a bill of 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:02.520 goods by coyotes on the other side about what was 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:05.440 going to happen to them. You understand. So they had 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:07.880 really no idea what they were getting into at all, 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:13.680 and so there was not anything in the way of 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:17.520 life threatening situations for any of those people in any 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:20.640 meaningful way, a great deal of discomfort. It could have 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.880 turned very badly if these people here had not stepped up, 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:29.840 because the border patrol was completely overwhelmed, and so there 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:32.880 was never that bad of a situation here compared to 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:35.120 what I have seen in other places in the past. 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:37.520 A sound pointed out the migrants were now gone, but 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:40.520 we were still surrounded by times of supplies. But at 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:43.040 the time there was no way of knowing the scope 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:46.080 or scale of the need. People reacted as best they could. 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:50.240 Actually it was overkilled, but you had no way of 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:52.560 knowing right at the time. There's just no way to know. 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:54.360 How do you know ahead of time? You always ask 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:56.760 for as much as you can get, because why would 0:07:56.800 --> 0:07:59.440 you not. I mean, you never know what. You don't 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:01.040 know how many of them with babies that are on 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:03.240 the other side of the wall right now might be zero, 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:04.440 might be five hundred. 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:07.240 You have no idea, you know, before anyone knew how 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:09.400 if this was going to end, or really what even 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:12.400 was going on, dozens of people across the county decided 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:15.960 to help. One of them was Katie. Here she is 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:18.320 describing some of the volunteers she worked alongside. 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:22.680 There was a hard hodgepodge of people and as volunteers 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:29.200 and leading it were some of the owners of a 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:34.320 hotel out there, and that was the main organizers. But 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:38.520 who showed up were people from the town, people that 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:43.200 I knew and recognized. There was some really devout, like 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:45.720 they're twenty four hours a day, and then there was 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:50.400 some coming in and out. But I met people from 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:56.199 all over the county, and most of them answered the 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:59.520 call through Instagram of the hotel. 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:03.320 All those volunteers called their friends, who called their friends, 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:07.280 who gradually coordinated response. Natalie first became aware of this, 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:10.520 as many volunteers did, through an Instagram post by Melissa 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:12.640 and another the three co owners of the Combo Hotel 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:14.960 on Thursday night, just as title forty two was ending. 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.880 Natalie saw the post and decided to help. At first, 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:21.000 she wanted to leave right then at one am as 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:23.840 soon as she'd seen the post, but after consulting her family, 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:26.559 she decided to make her own post, asking for people 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:29.920 to bring supplies that were needed. Soon she was overwhelmed 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:30.600 by the response. 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:33.880 Yeah, I mean immediately, even at one in the morning, 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:35.880 I was getting messages because I posted it. 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:36.880 That's when I posted the. 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:42.840 Story, I immediately got messages from front say I'll bring 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:43.760 a blanket over. 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:45.560 What's your address. 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:49.480 Yeah, everyone just kind of rallied and started bringing supplies over, 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:53.760 collecting money as well. Some friends started collecting money and 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:58.240 then bought stuff and brought loads of food and things 0:09:58.320 --> 0:09:59.360 to my house. 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:02.480 Her husband and ferried the supplies to Akomba, where they 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:04.959 were joined by donations from all over the county in 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:08.719 the old petrol station. Like Natalie, Katie also saw a 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:11.960 post and immediately felt compelled to help. She called a 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:15.199 friend and some members of her family instead about raising 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:16.360 funds and buying supplies. 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:20.559 So I met my friend at a cafe and in 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:24.120 that in the meantime, and I don't know how much 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:28.560 of this is really important. So in the meantime, I 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:32.960 text my mother and my two sisters who live on 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:35.800 the East coast, and just it was late at night 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:40.000 for them, and I just said, I would love for 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:52.760 you to send prayers, because that's something that I believe in. 0:10:53.080 --> 0:11:02.000 I believe in prayer or intention and thought reality, and 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:07.280 some of it was just because I felt so touched, 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:15.839 like praying for the community that I love too. And 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:19.160 the next thing, I know, like my venmo was blowing 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:21.520 up and there was one thousand dollars in my venmo 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:26.800 sent from my family members. And so by the time 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:29.840 my friend arrived, we were like, let's go and we 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:38.320 filled our car with Amazingly, we found like organic, there's 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:42.880 grocery outlet, right, so we found organic soup for you know, 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:49.080 dollars something a can, and we spent a few hundred dollars. 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:53.400 And the next morning we met early and we stopped 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:55.560 in El Cone on the way and we spent all 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.360 the rest on We went to three or four thrift 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:02.000 stores and bought every blanket and hat and baby carrier. 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:11.800 Because we have both focused on motherhood in our careers. 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:13.679 I asked the people I spoke to about a week 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:15.520 later how the experience had impacted them. 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:22.360 It was overwhelming, just the the way the community really 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:27.040 came around and supported the people in Hukumba that were 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:32.679 trying to help. You know, after we finished cleaning up, 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:38.680 when we're back at the gas station, the Amazon driver 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:42.199 was delivering like I think he delivered three hundred and 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:46.560 fifty boxes and so we had to open them up 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:50.800 and sort them and it was there was so much food. 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:56.920 I think that it was insane amount of food, and 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:58.960 it was awesome. It was really cool just to see 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:02.199 how many people stabbed up and donated. 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:05.800 I like some of the people I saw in Santa Cedro. Natalie, Katie, 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.400 Sam and Marissa are not part of an NGO or 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:11.600 a mutual aid collective. They're just people who wanted to help, 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:15.200 and that describes most of the people in Ucumber, although 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:17.880 some of them did have previous and regular volunteer experience 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:21.080 with excellent groups like Border Kindness. I asked Katie to 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:23.920 reflect on the mutual aid approach and the absence of massive, 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.640 multimillion dollar organizations. Yeah, wasn't there, right. 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:31.640 No, they weren't there. We were told that the Red 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:35.040 Cross couldn't come unless Border Patrol called, and Border Patrol 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:37.800 told us that they weren't allowed to call the Red Cross. 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:39.480 Yeah, that's a pretty standard. 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:42.199 The one institution that did show support to people in 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.520 Hucumber was one that you might not expect, given the 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:46.959 support for this cruel immigration policy by almost all the 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:50.679 Democrats in DC. But things are different when you can 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:52.960 see the results of these policies with your own eyes. 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:55.400 Perhaps that's why I didn't see a single elected official 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:58.720 in my entire week at the border. But one person 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:02.240 I missed whoever one mentioned, was a lady who worked 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:06.360 for California Senator Steve Pidia. I won't name her as 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:08.880 I don't have her permission, but hopefully one dayssume we'll 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:11.079 be able to interview her. I'll let Katie describe the 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:12.000 role this woman played. 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:16.920 There was someone from Steve Padilla's team, and that's the 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:18.320 woman I rode with. 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:19.600 And. 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:25.280 She was incredible. Her brother in law is the chef 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:30.520 at the hotel, so I think, I mean, she might 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:35.200 have came anyway, but she came faster and there was 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:40.120 true connection, and she stood up to the border patrol 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:43.440 and said, you know, said we're allowed. We're here on 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:47.720 behalf of this senator. So I mean I saw some 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:52.840 like had had like arguments about our right to be there, 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:57.640 and most of us didn't. Weren't paying attention to that. 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:01.520 We're paying attention to the people that we were, you know, 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:07.520 around and no one that was out there what didn't 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:11.280 believe that we should be out there and that more 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:13.160 help should be out there. 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:17.520 Sadly, part of that familiarity with the system this woman 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:20.360 brought to the team also meant a familiarity with the 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.560 cruel and arbitrary nature of it. Katie says that they 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:24.840 had to organize for that as well. 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:29.360 So my friend and I we ended up writing in 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:37.600 her truck, so in Steve Padia's Senator Padia's assistant truck. 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:42.080 So we had the opportunity to ask some questions that 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:46.800 probably everyone out there wanted to know, including the migrants, 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:53.120 And it was like, what will happen in what's the 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:56.360 process from here? And how do you know that these 0:15:56.400 --> 0:16:00.520 people are being tended to? And I literally heard her 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:04.720 on the phone getting as many bodies on the ground 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:08.120 to start going to those centers where they're being taken 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:12.320 to make sure that they were that that we would 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:20.040 follow them through the entire process as best possible, monitoring 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:24.480 their well well cared for, that they were well cared for, 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:30.920 as well cared for as possible in a system and 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:38.480 a process like that. Yeah, yeah, but she literally said 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:43.440 they're going to be busted off and putt in cages 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:47.000 and that they would do their best to make sure 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:52.320 that that no one was split up, and that everyone 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:59.400 was fed, showered, and they weren't allowed to bring anything 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:04.040 with them, So a lot of the cleanup was all 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:11.520 of the things that everyone donated that had to be 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:16.399 left behind, including some of the stuffed animals. 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:18.919 For all the volunteers I spoke to, the chance to 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:23.000 be of service was empowering. Here's Natalie discussing that, Yeah. 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:24.359 I mean, well, like and so many times do you 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:28.200 like feel overwhelmed with like so much suffering in this world, 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:30.160 and like what can one person do? 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:31.199 You know? 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:35.560 And so it did feel good that to actually see 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:37.960 an immediate impact, like I'm doing this and this is 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:42.200 a result, because sometimes you can just get discouraged, you know, 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:43.480 like we're just one person. 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:45.840 What can we really do and can we really make 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:46.840 an impact? 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:50.840 And just seeing that and being able to see directly 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.200 how that one person can impact, you. 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:54.919 Know, can rally. 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:58.520 Like just seeing how my friends came together, you know, 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:02.679 went shopping, bought things, gathered money, collected money. You know, 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:06.240 my really good friend Sam, she went to her local 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:10.080 bar after she collected a bunch of money, went and 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:13.240 dropped stuff supplies off at my house. She was just 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:16.960 down at her local bar and just chatting with them 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:19.119 and like, oh, what did you do today, And so 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:21.200 she told them, oh, I collected money and I bought 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:25.080 supplies and the people She ended up collecting about two 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:28.360 hundred more dollars at the bar from people hearing her story. 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:30.720 And so then the next day she went and bought 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:33.719 more supplies and she actually ended up driving them out herself. 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:37.640 She ended up doing like three trips just from her 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:40.359 own talking to people and collecting. So just like the 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:43.560 little impact that, you know, everyone just kind of coming 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:44.840 together and making a difference. 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:12.359 Santa Sedro, a pretty diverse range of San Diegan's came 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.159 to help. On the first night. I personally left at 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:17.760 about one in the morning, after spending almost two hours 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:20.480 trying to leave but needing to get charged phones back 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:23.840 to their owners by loudly in Spanish and French, then 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:27.440 English describing the backgrounds on the phone or the color 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:42.960 of their case. It wasn't a great system, and by 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:45.400 the weekend, Cabra and others had seen that more help 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.640 an organization was needed and they decided to plan a response. 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:51.359 Here's cable describing how they prepared for that. 0:19:55.240 --> 0:20:02.440 Abe. I'll just grabs, you know, I was paying attention 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:05.119 to people I knew who were doing and what supplies 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:08.399 they were saying was needed. The particular store near me 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:12.040 has like a wall of travel size like these giant 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:15.240 times where you can basically just scoop out one hundred deodorant, 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:17.240 hands and to paste and things like that. 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:19.480 CAPA met up with some other members of a local 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:22.520 mutual aid group. I'll make sure to include donation links 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:24.159 for all the groups I've mentioned at the end of 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:26.200 this series, so please make sure to listen right through 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:26.600 to the end. 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:30.159 I met up with him and he had just received 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:34.679 a bunch of donations through through mutually networks, so we 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:37.080 we know even more of a travel size I got 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:42.359 some Truth Truth hygiene kits and deodorant and UH and 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:45.280 and a bunch of friends and papers because because the 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:50.200 kids that are between the walls don't really have actually 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:54.439 do unfortunately, so so that those were those wren really fast, 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:57.320 and so we got a whole bunch of bands of 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:00.200 all those kinds of supplies, and then we just done 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:01.000 of the break from there. 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:04.800 By the time they arrived, various organizations had organized areas 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:06.719 along the wall for different kinds of aid to be 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:10.960 passed through. Everything clothes to food, to medical supplies and 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:13.440 toilet paper was piled up, given. 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:16.640 Out the relations and you know, organizing toilet paper, food, 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:18.760 everything like that, and people just come up to the 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:20.879 wall and if their family needed something, they would just 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:23.800 kind of going to it or ask us if we 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:25.440 were able to, you know, if there was a common 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:28.280 language there. So yeah, we just kind of, you know, 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:32.920 gave things as people needed them. I know that I 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:35.080 helped give out some of the friends and times of 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:39.000 paper and those were all those were tons of kids 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:41.800 all came running over from the whole, all the parts 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:43.720 of the camp when they heard that there was there 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:47.560 were toys being given out, So that was it was. 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:51.399 It was heartbreaking, but it was also you know, it 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:53.200 made me smile to see them smile. 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:55.480 And the smile because of the need to use c 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:57.359 BP one and of course they need to stay in 0:21:57.359 --> 0:22:00.240 touch with families back home. There was a conn in 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:04.120 an overwhelming demand for phone charging. News reporters took phones 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:06.960 back to charge in their cars. Some people bought charge 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:10.520 bricks and power strips, and mutual aid groups wrote names 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:12.800 on the back of the phones using painter's tape and 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:16.280 sharpie so they wouldn't get separated from their owners. By 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:18.639 the second day it was a better system, but on 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:21.239 the first day it was chaos. I let Kber, who 0:22:21.280 --> 0:22:23.800 spent a whole day charging phones, described the system that 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:26.440 volunteers came up with to mitigate that chaos a little bit. 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:30.560 And obviously they couldn't charge their phones if they're just 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:35.399 in this kind of desert gap between between the walls 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:39.520 that doesn't have any kind of romanies or anything. So 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:43.680 we had a system where they would passive phone through 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:47.440 and we had we went, we would put a piece 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:50.240