MVS Tucson Unit

Much of our initial relationship building with the church revolved around a hiking trip to the Grand Canyon the weekend of Oct. 14. Seven hikers from Shalom (including myself and Emma) met up with a larger contingent from Phoenix’s Trinity Mennonite Church to undertake the 21-mile rim-to-rim trail. Followed by lots of sleep and a monstrous brunch to begin a Saturday of rest and card playing on the canyon’s north rim, the group returned Sunday to the south rim by way of a slightly longer route, bringing the hike’s total mileage to about 44 miles in three days. While challenging, the group was excited about the beauty of the canyon and felt confident after training nearly every weekend since mid-August. Each of these hikes have felt like a blessing to me as opportunities to get out of the city and into nature, deepen relationships with hiking partners, and take advantage of the beautiful southwestern landscape I had been aiming to explore before arriving in Tucson.

Name:Emma Stahl-Wert

Hometown:Pittsburgh, PA 
School:Eastern Mennonite University
Area of study:Environmental Sustainability (i.e. Env.Sci. + Applied Soc.)
Favorite item at Santa Cruz Farmers’ Market:Handmade olive oil tortillas that a family makes together en masse
Current placement:Primavera Foundation
Job description:Garden Coordinator for Primavera, an organization that “provides pathways out of poverty through safe, affordable housing, workforce development, and neighborhood revitalization” (mission statement). My job is a new addition to the ways in which they address the root causes of poverty. I work with residents of Primavera’s many transitional housing programs to start, care for, and eventually harvest from their own gardens. The intended purpose is to increase food security by teaching garden skills, to provide some fresh healthy food for the houses, and to engage people in life-giving collaborative work.

Scott and I have thrown ourselves into the beautiful, vibrant, flawed, fun, heartbreaking city of Tucson from the first day, and though there’s still so much we don’t know or haven’t seen, we feel like we’ve gotten a pretty good big picture of our new home. We both work with low-income and/or homeless people. Because of my work, I’ve even begun to recognize clients all around town that I may not have even noticed otherwise. We attended a No Mas Muertes training, learning about the brutal journey that migrants attempt across the Sonoran Desert (and too frequently die during). We’ve explored the cafés, bars, thrift stores, and food co-op along the hip 4th Avenue. We’ve hiked the two biggest mountains: Mt. Wrightson and Mt. Lemmon. We’ve gotten plugged into the larger volunteer community in Tucson and are already fast friends with the Jesuit volunteer house, former MVSers, and University of Arizona garden interns.

Early impressions of our city Tucson is a town of contradictions. Close to the border, it lies on one of the oldest continuously human-occupied lands in the world. Despite the deep roots and rich history of people in the Sonoran Desert, the descendents of those who have lived here for the last 2,000 years are now treated like outsiders, particularly by Border Patrol utilizing racial profiling to catch undocumented immigrants. Tucson feels like a small town to the point where even Scott and I run into people we know all around town even though it’s only been two months! Yet it’s a city that has been urban sprawling through the desert to its current girth of almost 20 miles. (I bike 8.5 miles to work each morning from our neighborhood on the East Side to downtown.) There is a strong outdoor hiking, biking, gardening culture here, probably due in part to the beautiful mountains that ring the entire city. The Santa Rita 6 Mountains lie to the south, the Tucsons to the west, Catalinas to the north, and Rincons to the east. Yet there is a blatant disregard for the ecology of the area (aka desert), exemplified by the unnatural, water-wasting lawns that people maintain despite the rapidly dropping water table and impending water crisis this city will face in the next decade or two.

I am already falling in love with this place for its incredible people, stunning landscape, and endless outdoor activities. Plus, I’m in love with my job. Like anywhere, Tucson has its flaws and challenges, but it feels good and right to be here learning and working in organizations that are dedicated to healing what’s broken and lifting up the “least of these.” It’s going to be a great year.

Cool things we’ve seen/experienced/done so far

• New friend Tygel is a Navajo kid who flute beat-boxes. (Maybe you have to hear it to understand, but it’s crazy). 
• I visited a makeshift house in the desert. A family had built themselves a rather pleasant place to live out of mattresses, tarps, pallets, and a good dose of creativity in the middle of a random patch of desert south of town. They were somehow surviving the 105-degree heat and in many ways were thriving.
• Raspados. Mexican-style snow cones. Think blended ice and syrup plus REAL fruit and ice cream … and sometimes they’re even spicy. Mmm-Mmm!
• Watching columns of rain move across the desert accompanied by extreme lightning bolts.
• A sandstorm (caused a 30-car pileup on the freeway, which Scott was thankfully not in). It’s like a whiteout … desert-style.
• Prairie dogs, roadrunners, hawks galore, coyotes (one ran right through our driveway!).
• Hiked 17.5 miles on Mt. Lemmon with a 5,000ft. elevation change (down, then back up).
• Bike-commuted more than 500 miles (between the two of us).