[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text letter_spacing=””]Today we started out day at a church in Jacumba, California. After a short breakfast, we proceeded to the US side of the border in San Diego to visit Friendship Park. We talked to U.S. Border Patrol Agent Gonsalez who mans the Friendship Park section of the border. We learned about the various challenges surrounding border security, including lack of adequate staffing and the use of organized human traffickers. We then met a gentleman named Daniel Watman. Daniel is an environmentalist and former Spanish teacher at UC San Diego. Daniel gave us a tour and a brief history of Friendship Park. He taught us the importance of championing the local flora and fauna. We then walked down to the beach adjacent to Friendship Park. After a discussion we came back and drove to Ped West. Ped West is the land entry immigration link between the U.S. and Mexico. We got all of our bags and walked about a mile under a bridge to Customs and entered Mexico. Three blocks from Customs were our apartments. We checked in, had lunch from the restaurants in our patio, and had some down time to rest. We met up Maria Galleta and walked to Madres y Familias Deportadas en Acción to hear her story about how she started the organization, along with the stories of Amy (a student working with her), and Sylvia (one of the women that Madres helps) and her ten year old daughter Kayla. We walked seven blocks through downtown Tijuana to a restaurant for dinner and got to see the city. After dinner, we got cabs back to our apartments late, and went to bed.
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