Rural

Visiting farms in real life is really something I could not have prepared myself for even if I tried. I expected rows of neatly planted plants, sprouting uniformly from the ground, but instead marveled at fields of drooping and dying plants, exploding with the last of the season’s fruits and vegetables. I expected serious, stoic farmers with gruff voices, but we were greeted by Eddie Alvarez and Lon Inaba, who were both passionate and enthusiastic about their work, and they willingly answered any questions we had and didn’t hold back from telling us about their lives and their families. I never expected my takeaway to be summarized in two words: passion and aspirations.

The amount of passion and dedication to their work was truly inspiring. Both farmers told us their stories of how farm work had been their way of life and then became their passions. They both came from immigrant families, Alvarez from Mexico and Inaba from Japan. They had immigrated to the US to find work and better lives. Their parents started with nothing, but they worked incredibly hard to make sure they could provide for their families. There were obstacles like unfair sharecropping and land-owning laws and Japanese internment that caused them to lose everything, but they overcame. They worked hard and passed on their dedication, perseverance, and ingenuity to their kids who carried on the family business and have grown their family farms into successful and wonderful businesses that bring fresh produce to communities in Washington.

In listening to these stories out in the middle of a field or a production plant, it became clear that farming is a job just like any other career, in that it requires just as much passion and dedication to pursue, if not more. Learning about their long work days, the communities they belong to, the innovations they have come up with, and the hopes they for both their individual farms and the agriculture industry in the future tells me how much they truly love what they do.

As an environmental science major, one of the coolest parts of visiting both Alvarez Farms and Inaba Farms is that we got to see sustainable and environmental agriculture practices being used in real life. Techniques I had learned about from textbooks and class lectures, like drip irrigation, crop rotation, alternatives to pesticides, and composting, were there for us to see in person. It made me excited and hopeful to see that farmers were proudly using these practices to make their farms not only more efficient but also more environmentally friendly, all so they could make better produce to give to the community.

Being on the farms and seeing the workers and the farmers’ passions really inspired me. Their messages about working hard, being “discriminating consumers”, and respecting the land resonated strongly with me and I know that I will carry the things I’ve seen and heard on this immersion trip with me for the rest of my life.

-Jennifer Ng, Rural Immersion 2018

Amazing. There are no words to truly describe this experience, but if I were to attempt, it would be amazing. Everything that we have experienced on this trip has been life changing for so many of us, but Tuesday was the day where so many things changed for me.

On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to serve and teach English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at Nuestra Casa. Nuestra Casa is an organization that caters to the Latinx population in Yakima and surrounding areas. They offer ESL, citizenship and a variety of other classes to the population that they serve. For those who are parents, Nuestra Casa offers child care/pre-school hybrid to those that choose to attend classes. As a group, we served through the ESL classes.

We self-selected into the levels we were all the most comfortable serving. For those of us that did not have much experience speaking Spanish, we either chose to help out in the pre-school or assist in the Level 3 class where the students were comfortable speaking only in English. Others placed themselves into Level 2 if they were comfortable speaking a little Spanish but more English. The rest placed themselves into Level 1, where more Spanish was required of us as teachers.

I originally chose to serve in Level 2 because I personally thought that I would be unable to cater to the needs of those in Level 1. I did not think that I knew enough Spanish to get through the two hours that we were there. So, I chose the easier route and stepped into Level 2. Practically seconds after I gave my introduction, a woman came in asking if someone from our group could go into Level 1 since more people were coming in. I looked around hoping and praying that someone would do it so that I wouldn’t have to, but no one did. I pushed back all that was holding me back and mustered up all the courage I had to go into Level 1.

Right when I sat down with the man and woman I would be spending the next two hours with, I knew that it was where I needed to be. I was greeted with excitement and warm smiles by the both of them. The man was so funny. He was such a jokester and so full of life. I learned so many things from him. The woman was a little more quiet, but I saw so much of my mother in her. Through this woman’s dedication, hard work, and dedication I saw my mother’s story slowly unfolding and becoming life to me. The two hours I spent with them were amazing. And though I was supposed to be the “teacher”, I honestly was the one doing most of the learning.  

This entire trip, I have been constantly amazed by the fact that I have gone in with the mindset of serving others when the people that I was supposed to be serving have served me in so many more ways than I could imagine. This specific experience was one that was needed, and I will never forget it for the rest of my life. Through being a person for these other human beings, I found strength and empowerment.

-Angelica Dampier

Our first day started strong. Around noon we stopped by Riverside Community Church at Hood River, meeting with advocates for immigrants at the NORCOR prison. These advocates were Vicky, Jean, Graciela, and Lorena, and the amount of passion they exuded affected us all. Many of us had known little about the experiences that immigrants faced- to hear dedicated people share first-person encounters opened another side to the story, one that isn’t muddled by popular media.

One two-hour drive later we arrived at Yakima to meet with Eamonn Roach, an immigrant attorney. We’ve learned more about the history associated with immigration law in the United States. One fact that stood out to many of us was the alarming amount of time it takes for immigrants to gain green cards, or even work permits. Not many of us, at least for me, had not immersed ourselves in the technical sides of this issue. It only lets us be more aware of the sheer difference between how being and not being born in the United States can deeply affect someone’s life.

As I said in my reflection earlier this evening, I was impressed by how much we have learned in one day. I can’t imagine what else we’ll learn as we progress into the week and gain more perspectives of this social injustice.

-Alysha Naone, Rural Immersion 2018