Lily’s Reflections on Her BP Internship

by Lily Eichorst

Three months with Border Partners passed in a flash. My time as an intern has officially come to an end. I know I’ll miss the friendly folks (and dogs!) of Palomas quite a lot. But, I’m endlessly grateful for the time I had there, and know that I’ll surely be back to visit.

When I started with Border Partners in March, there was an early spring snow on the ground. I was adjusting to using my Argentine-flavored Spanish in a professional context. (In Argentinian Spanish, the “voseo” form for “you” in English is a both formal and informal address, so you can use it with anyone. In Mexico, I had to remind myself constantly to use “usted” and not “tu” to be respectful to my colleagues!) By the time I left at the end of May, temperatures were creeping up towards the 90s. And, I’d certainly polished my Spanish, while adding a few uniquely Mexican phrases to my vocabulary. ¡Qué padre! (That’s cool!)

Aside from weather changes and the strengthening of certain language capacities, you may be interested to hear what I did during my time as an intern these last months.

Accomplishments

From the beginning, one of my main intentions in doing this internship was an immersive, cross-cultural connective experience. The work of challenging one’s assumptions about a certain context can only be done outside one’s comfort zone. My time in Palomas certainly served to expand mine. It was important to me to seek to understand the dynamics at play in the border region, not as they are described in the news, but by living and engaging with a community on the opposite side of the border. Another important intention was to familiarize myself with the inequalities seemingly inherent and apparent in border communities, the causes of that divide, and best practices for alleviating it.

In finding my footing initially, I was welcomed by BP staff to contribute to a diverse array of activities. These found me doing many  things:

• I donned a promotora uniform and drove the streets of Palomas distributing meals to local seniors.
• I interviewed staff and wrote profiles for each team member for the website, and
• I hauled bags of beans.Significantly, I joined community festivities. These included the Women’s March and the famous Cabalgata, a binational event commemorating Pancho Villa’s 1916 raid on Columbus, New Mexico. This event celebrates the peace that’s existed between the two nations ever since. It features an impressive show of riders on horseback who travel from southern Chihuahua all the way up to Columbus, New Mexico.

Learnings

As time went on, I grasped both the organizational importance of Border Partners as a community actor in Palomas, and the unique cultural fabric of this community through this type of varied engagement. Eventually, I found that my skills were best in communicating with those who could not be present to see or participate in what we’re doing here. So, I became involved in social media and fundraising on the administrative side. I also helped with daily operations since I was working alongside staff in Palomas. This meant occasionally:

• attending school library inaugurations or municipal governmental meetings on public health matters,
• helping to organize monthly food and supply distributions,
• translating plans for new constructions in the garden, and
• documenting all Border Partners sponsored events, from bike races to community health fairs.

I was also in the unique position to spend some time volunteering with the municipal migrant shelter across the street. That tapped into my interest in migration as an academic study by bringing the personal dimension to the fore. I’m particularly interested in the social construction and heavily securitized reinforcement of the border, even as transcendent issues such as climate change threaten ecosystems, livelihoods, and entire populations indiscriminately.

BP Makes a Difference

Where the policy response is lacking, the areas where collaboration on these issues exists locally, between empowered communities operating on any one side of the border, becomes vital. That’s one reason why Border Partners’ emphasis on resource-sharing resonated so deeply with me.

I became eager to contribute to project development on the sustainable technology front. I was able to collaborate on a project proposal to expand the existing efforts to heat homes with biochar, an emissions-free energy product and fertilizer made by burning pecan shells, which the region possesses in over-abundance.

During my time with Border Partners, I contributed to a diverse set of projects and met passionate people with a drive to improve their community. I also observed how integral this long-standing work–particularly in project areas such as public health–has been for Palomas. Border Partners can certainly be described as a stalwart for community empowerment.

I’m grateful to have called myself a part of the team for the last months. That’s a drop in the bucket of BP’s more than 15 years in Palomas, but it’s enough time to make a change both within and without.

Engaging with the community both through and outside of my work enriched the experience tenfold. Simply calling Palomas ‘home’ for the last several months did, too.

Lily’s Announcement

Although I’m now back in Germany to complete my studies, I’m pleased to say that I’ll continue my work part-time with Border Partners remotely as a Development Associate! I’ll be busy behind the scenes working on the fundraising team.

But, you may also see occasional posts from me on the website and weekly on social media. Additionally, I’ll be working to launch a new sustainability information sharing section here on the website. So watch for the first installment on biochar in the coming weeks.

If you have additional questions about interning for Border Partners, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at lilian@borderpartners.org. I’d be happy to get in touch!