Chicken Soup + Hospitality

Chicken soup simmered on the stove at the hospitality house last weekend as El Refugio Executive Director Amilcar Valencia served as house coordinator, something he rarely has a chance to do. 

Amilcar and his wife, Katie, who have been with El Refugio since the beginning, have two young kids, and it is hard to commit to a weekend in Lumpkin. 

But Amilcar carved out time last weekend, and he was determined to start the weekend off right.

He brought the ingredients for chicken soup, because it is a comforting, universally familiar dish. “For us Salvadorans, soup is central to our cuisine,” he said. “We can have hot soup even when it is 100 degrees.” 

And in Georgia in September, you just might get a 100-degree weekend!

He started cooking as soon as he got to the hospitality house. A team of bilingual Emory medical students arrived to visit people at SDC, building on a long tradition of support from Emory University for people detained at SDC. First, they helped with peeling and chopping. 

The students went to SDC to make their visits with Rebecca, a regular El Refugio volunteer. By lunchtime, guests began arriving at the house. 

Among the 27 guests El Refugio welcomed over the weekend were Allison, along with her 12-year-old daughter, and Rose. Allison was visiting her husband, who is French, and Rose was visiting her boyfriend, who is Mexican. They became friends at SDC and now ride together from Atlanta whenever they visit their loved ones. 

We love these stories of the community that gets built inside SDC, an institution designed to isolate. 

On Sunday, Amilcar and Rebecca welcomed more guests, including a Guatemalan woman who was nervous about going to SDC to visit a man she had known since he was a child and loved like her own son. The chicken soup comforted her, as did the camaraderie with other families.

Amilcar shared how beautiful it was to witness people bonding at the hospitality house. Friendships form quickly when the shared experience is having a loved one at SDC. 

Before the group left the house to go to SDC, they surrounded Amilcar and Rebecca, and prayed for them and everyone involved with El Refugio. After, Amilcar and Rebecca said their goodbyes. “We said hasta pronto, and they headed to SDC.” 

Amilcar remembered to get a group photo.