accomplishing the common things

“You are a unique person made by God capable of loving and being loved. Accomplish the common things in life in uncommon ways.” –George Washington


At this point in my life, I am realizing that being a missionary isn’t necessarily about have a packed schedule of organized service, but about turning everything I do into an act of service. With that, I’d love to fill you all in a bit on my day-to-day activities…

It’s about ten o’clock in the morning right now and I’m sitting at my kitchen table typing on the laptop. We don’t have internet in the house but it’s nice to have a computer so we don’t have to spend so much time on the internet when we want to write e-mails or blogs or print documents. I’m realizing that I haven’t shared many details about my living situation in general, so I’ll share a bit more about the house. Our house is located on the edge of Dos de Mayo and Magdalena, two neighborhoods in northeast Chimbote. They are well-established neighborhoods, but still considered “young towns” because they were originally started as invasions, or essentially squatter communities. Most of the houses around us are constructed of cement and are fairly good in terms of quality, but many have unfinished second floors or attachments constructed of estera, or a woven reed-like material. Walking north or east of our house will lead you to the edge of Chimbote, where there are many more houses constructed completely of estera. Our house is very similar to those in the immediate vicinity minus the fact that it’s huge. We have two complete stories, with four bedrooms, a huge living room partially divided in two, two bathrooms, a large dining room, kitchen, and large patio and garden out back. Just before Thanksgiving we painted our living room orange, so it feels much more lively and homey than it did before. We are slowly making changes and improvements using the resources we have to make it our own and make it a welcoming space for visitors. In terms of amenities, we are a step above most of our neighbors because we have a water well behind our house and a pump that carries the water to a tank on top of the house. All the houses in this area of town have running water, but the water is only turned on for a couple hours in the morning and night, so houses without a well are more limited in terms of water usage. A few weeks ago our pump broke for about a week, so we filled buckets from the well to use for showering, drinking, washing clothes/dishes, flushing toilets, etc. For drinking or cooking the water must be boiled. What else… ah, yes, we don’t have a water heater, so the options are a cold/lukewarm shower or a hot bucket shower. When it was colder I generally opted for the bucket shower, but now that it’s summer the cold showers are no problem. We also don’t have a washing machine so we wash clothes by hand and hang dry them, but it’s not a bad chore. Our other big chore is dusting and sweeping, because our street isn’t paved yet so the dust is incredible. We cook all our own food in the house, but fruits or vegetables must be eaten cooked and/or washed with dish soap.

This week we got a new addition to the house – ducks! A friend of ours has about a hundred ducklings to get rid of, so after a careful decision process we decided to adopt three of them. As you can see in the picture, we built a little corral in the back corner of our patio for them. We have yet to name them but that’s our next task! And that’s our hammock in the background… :)

Now a little bit in terms of daily activities… it’s a little difficult because I don’t necessarily have a regular schedule, every day is a little bit different. That fact is intensified because of summer vacation (Jan-Feb), when most programs take a break. I’ve started to fall into a bit of a routine this week, though. I’ve been getting up at 6:15 to go running with a couple friends, which I love! Some mornings it’s a little painful but we run down the street I love on straight out of Chimbote to a sand dune. I love this little escape into the country, seeing all the farmers heading to town with donkey carts loaded with goods to sell (usually corn). This morning while the others ran laps on top of the sand dune (which my legs don’t find very agreeable… haha), I picked a little peak off to the sand and did a little meditating… it was so beautiful to sit there, looking out over the fields, listening to the sounds of birds, donkey hoofs, and distant mucic, letting the cool morning breeze wash over me. I’ve learned to wear bug spray when I go running, because the other day I returned to the house with 30 bug bites between my legs and arms. I’m still recovering from that one!

Anyway, back to my daily activities. My mornings right now are generally filled by cleaning the house, going to the market, or running random errands downtown. Yesterday morning I went with Sister Katty, who recently returned from a semester studying in Mexico, to the public university, where she was part of the leadership team for the campus Catholic ministry. It was their last gathering of the school year, as classes just ended about a week ago, but it was so good! The priest was super animated and the mass was very participatory and informal… it was the most life-giving mass that I’ve attended here. They don’t start again until April but if it seems appropriate at that time I might get involved with student ministry there. Sister Katty, who is actually a student at a private university here, prefers to participate in the campus ministry at the public university because tuition is free, so the students with more economic challenges study there. It also just felt really good to be back on a college campus. So we’ll see what comes of that!

There have also been some exciting advancements in the parish: we have officially opened the youth center! With a couple games sent by my sister (they love playing UNO, Ginger!) and some games that we bought here, we open the youth room three nights a week from 8-10 so they can come hang out and play games. We also open the parish center for sports one additional night and Saturday afternoons to play soccer or volleyball. So right now I am at the parish Wed-Sat from 8-10 at night plus Saturday from 4-7, and then I have theater practice at the parish on Sundays from 10ish-1ish, plus masses and miscellaneous meetings. I love this time with our parishioners and am really starting to feel at home with them.

And I can’t forget to mention the blank spaces filled by summer activities! Trips to the pool or the beach are also at the back of my mind to plan, though so far I’ve only made it once to the pool and have yet to get to the beach. But summer in Chimbote means VOLLEYBALL! Peruvians love their volleyball and they are GOOD… it’s a sign of summer to see a group of kids (or adults, really) playing volleyball on side streets with their nets stretched between two telephone poles. There are a couple families that put up their net every night about a block from our house and I finally went and played with them a few nights ago. Since then I’ve played almost every night, and even won a little money! It does make for some late nights, but hey, that’s summer! The weather is hot, but there’s usually a cool breeze and it’s quite comfortable in the shade, so taking advantage of our hammock is a favorite after-lunch activity…

Okay, if you made it this far, you are probably tiring of reading, so I think I’ll stop there. You are all continually in my thoughts and prayers… my prayer for you all right now is that you continually find the JOY in the small things. I had a conversation over ceviche the other day with the coordinator of the theater group and expressed my doubts about having anything real to offer to this community. He said, “Of course you have something to offer, tu alegría!” (your happiness!). So that we all remember that in every encounter, in every situation, we do have something to offer!

I would love to hear from you, or answer any questions or cloudy spots that may exist about what I’m doing here… or about life… or really anything!

PAZ y ALEGRÍA for you.

the church in chimbote

Since studying a bit of liberation theology in college I have developed a strong interest in the Catholic church and how it lives out its mission, but I had no idea what I was getting immersed in by joining the Incarnate Word Sisters in Peru.  I really had no intention of getting super involved in parish activities… and then by some strange twist of fate (or maybe that’s just how God works) the parish work here just drew me in.  It has been in many aspects frustrating, in others encouraging, in others very life-giving.  I have definitely seen mixed signals of the vitality of the church in Chimbote… we face challenges of participation and commitment, but we also have many religious and lay people are who dedicated to building the reign of God here in Chimbote.  

This week was the Diocesan Assembly to reveal the pastoral strategy for the coming year in light of the most recent Latin American bishops conference, Aparecida (a conference in which the bishops gather to re-orient the direction of the Latin American church).  I really enjoyed hearing the bishop speak on this topic – he spoke very passionately and directly about the challenges and opportunities facing the Church in Chimbote.  Always being a bit cynical I would have liked to hear more about our personal responsibility to restore dignity to the poor and less about the need to make sure young people learn the Creed… but it was made clear that the Church has a preferential option for the poor, and I do understand that there are real problems with catechesis programs here, so I’m overall pretty satisfied.  He also said that every family should have a copy of Aparecida in their home, which is pretty amazing, especially for me, coming from the U.S., where it seems very, very few people actually read anything put out by the bishops.

Along the same lines, our monthly diocesan newspaper came out this month and included an article written by a Spanish priest who works in San Luis, one of Chimbote’s “young towns/pueblos jóvenes” (area of new development, but very poor development with terrible living conditions).  He offers a great introduction to the message of Aparecida and the preferential option for the poor, which I have written about before.  I liked it so much that I took the liberty of translating it into English so you all could read it and understand a little bit more about the role the Catholic Church plays, or should play, or tries to play and often fails, or plays in some occasions but not others (you get the point), in Latin America and in the world.  I especially love his interpretation of charity, which is inseparable from a critical assessment of the structural causes of poverty.  Enjoy.

The Church and the hope of the poor

by Father Fernando AsínCastellón (Mar Adentro, January 2011)

“(The option for the poor) asks us to dedicate time to the poor, pay kind attention to them, listen to them with interest, and accompany them in their most difficult moments, choosing to share with them hours, weeks, or years of our lives and searching with them to transform their situation” (Aparecida, 397).

“All that which has to do with Christ has to do with the poor, as Jesus said, ‘When you did this for the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it for me’ (Matthew 25:40)” (Aparecida, 393).

The preferential option for the poor should permeate all of our structures and pastoral priorities.  It must be manifested in visible options and gestures, principally in the defense of life and of the rights of the most vulnerable and excluded and in the sustained accompaniment in their efforts to be agents of change and transformation in their situations.

The social doctrine of the Church (I prefer to say “the social message of the Church”) is capable of stirring up hope in the midst of the most difficult situations, because if there is no hope for the poor, there will not be hope for anybody, not even for those called rich.

“Only the proximity that allows friendship permits us to profoundly appreciate the value of today’s poor, their legitimate yearnings and their own style of living the faith.  The preferential option for the poor should lead us to friendship with the poor.

“Day after day, the poor make themselves agents of evangelization and integral human promotion: they educate their children in the faith, they live a constant solidarity between relatives and neighbors, and they constantly seek God and give life to the Church’s pilgrimage” (Aparecida, 398).

Of course, each parish community should have a catechetical team and a liturgical team.  But it would remain crippled without also having a team for parish charity.  And, at the diocesan level, the diocesan charity team promotes and supports the parish when they don’t have the capacity for full human development projects.

The charitable team must meet three objectives.  First, it must provide social assistance, which would help and accompany those who suffer from immediate lack of food, medicine, money for transportation, etc.  A second objective is the communication of these necessities to the greater Christian community and the denunciation of the situation of poverty and injustice and its causes.   The third objective, no less important, is to carry out human and social development projects which signal the Reign of God.

The preferential option for the poor, said Pope Benedict XVI in the opening address of the Conference of Aparecida, is implicit in faith in a Christ who God made poor for us, in order to enrich our lives with his poverty.  I hope that we have the same attitude as Christ and continue his path.

me pican mis ojos! an anecdote

If anyone ever tells you that Peruvian chili peppers are like no other, believe them.

Kelli and I went to the market on New Year´s Eve morning with stir fry on our minds for lunch.  One of the last items on the list were peppers, so by the time we started looking for them we were a little tired and came upon a stand with ricotto peppers, the hotter variety, and asked if they had some that were less picante, or spicey.  They man pointed some out and we bought them.  We got back to the house in somewhat of a rush because our friend Giancarlo was going to be coming over to help us finish our muñeco, or doll, that we were going to burn that night to celebrate the coming of the new year, and we had to clean the house in the afternoon to get ready for the night as well.  So I frantically started cutting up the vegetables.  When I cut the peppers, I made a mental note to wash my hands before doing anything else.  I didn't notice any burning sensation in my hands or eyes so assumed they were probably good enough to cook and eat with the stir fry.  Just as I was finishing, I heard a knock at the door so I stopped to let him in to work on the doll.  I walked from the kitchen to the front door fixing my pony tail a bit, typical mindless rearrangements that I do a million times a day.  And then... for some unknown reason also felt the mindless urge to wipe my eyes, one hand on each eye, a really good wipe, no messing around.  Just as I opened the front door, it hit me, and I doubled over, squeezed my eyes shut and yelled out.... ahh, the pain!  Poor Giancarlo, so confused, helped me run, eyes closed, to the bathroom and started to help me throw water on my eyes, yelling instructions at me all the while.  ¨Don´t use your hands, Emilia, they pica!  Here, wash them with this bar of soap.  Nope, they still pica.  Keep washing them.¨  Then he filled a bucket with water and just had me stick my head in it, essentially.  Ah, relief.  And come out to breathe.  Still burn.  Resubmerge.  Here let me rub ice cubes on your eyes.  Ah, relief.  Dang that´s really cold.  Still burns.  Let me wash my face with soap.  No, your hands still burn.  Wait.  More ice.  More water.  Relief.  Ok, use a little soap.  And apparently Peruvian medicine says that oils in females´ hair relieves the pica, so we rubbed my hair over my eyes as well...  it was all very chaotic.  And very painful.  I was a little worried about damaging my eyesight.

Luckily the redness went down before the New Year´s Eve celebration.  Just one of many crazy things that happen here, to give you a little taste.

Next time you eat something and have the option to use hot sauce... do it.  And think of Peru.

christmas in peru

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of my family and friends!

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve last written, and lots of exciting things have happened!  Most of my activities have finished for the moment because of the holiday season and summer vacation, but the past week was busy with Christmas preparations.  Perú has very strong Christmas customs, and I really enjoyed immersing in the local traditions.  There were also lots of bittersweet moments as the joy of the holidays clashed with the hard realities faced by this community.

During the week leading up to Christmas, the city was busy withchocolotadas, which are celebrations, generally for children, with hot chocolate and panetón, a sweet bread with dried fruit and gummy chunks in it.  On Monday the youth movement in our parish hosted a chocolotada for children in need in our parish zone, and I wrote about it in our community blog here: http://www.iwmissions.blogspot.com/

My week was also busy with rehearsals for the Christmas play, put on by TEFA (TeatroFranciscano), the theater group in our parish.  Due to a bit of a personnel shortage, I played Elizabeth, then an innkeeper, then a shepherd.  I’m really enjoying getting to know the members of the theater group… they have lots of good energy and it is so apparent that sharing the spirit of love and community through theater makes them feel alive, and this brings me life as well. 

Our Christmas festivities began with our theater performance at 9:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, just before the Mass.  It went well and the Mass was beautiful with the choir singing Christmas songs.  It is Peruvian custom to gather with family Christmas Eve night and wait for midnight of Christmas Day, when the celebration really beings!  We had been invited by the family of our friend Analí to join them for their family celebration, so we headed over to their house after Mass, arriving around 11 p.m.  They had arrived just a half hour or so earlier from selling things downtown all day (because the downtown is packed with people on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day), so they were pretty tired but in good spirits (despite low sales… there hasn’t been much fish lately so there’s not a lot of money in Chimbote… the whole city’s economy depends on the fishing industry). We hung out with them until midnight, talking and watching Gregory, their 7-year-old son, play with sparklers.  Then at midnight, the custom is to give everyone a Christmas hug (family and close friends), place Baby Jesus in the nativity scene (which they asked Kelli and I to do!), light fireworks (the whole neighborhood was full of the sights and sounds of fireworks... it was crazy!), and eat Christmas dinner.  Our Christmas dinner consisted of turkey (delicious… though they said they had never eaten turkey for Christmas before… probably because it is much more expensive than chicken), French fries (with mayonnaise and salsa, of course), lettuce salad, hot chocolate (which they drink tons of during Christmas, even though it’s summer here… and they make the real kind with bars of chocolate, milk, water, cinnamon, and cloves), and panetón.  It was a great meal.  Then we sat and talked for a while… and around 1:30 or so Analí received a phone call asking if she could come sing at a Christmas party (she sings as a side job).  Even though she was feeling terrible and very tired after working all day, she said she had to go because she is trying to earn enough money to get an ultrasound of her baby (she’s six months pregnant and the father wants nothing to do with it).  The party happened to be close to our house, so we left in a taxi with her and came home.  It was a great night, and they are a wonderful family… but it is hard to feel really good about it having to end like that.

We had been told prior to Christmas Eve night that the custom is to celebrate all night long.  Well, we got home around 2 assuming our night was over, when five minutes later the phone rang.  A few of our friends were wanting to go out!  So we did…. We went to a friend’s house and listened to music, danced a bit, and talked… until about 7 a.m.  It was super fun!  It wasn’t quite as fun three hours later, when we woke up to get ready for Christmas lunch at the Sisters’… but definitely worth it! 

Christmas Day, then, we had lunch at the Sisters’ with a group of about 20 religious men and women from different congregations in Chimbote.  It was a lot of fun getting to know a few sisters and a brother sitting at my table, and the food was great!  After lunch we played cards for a couple hours with some Dominican Sisters from the states.  And after that I got to Skype with my family!

That about sums up the festivities.  Now we await New Year’s Eve, which we hear is an even bigger all-night celebration, beginning at midnight with dinner with family, after which everyone goes out to celebration in the streets with friends and neighbors.  Should be a great time!

It is definitely difficult to be so far from family during the holidays, and I miss them a lot!  I am very blessed, though, to have already begun to form mi familiaChimbotana who help me to feel welcome and loved in my home here.

If you aren’t tired of reading yet, I again encourage you to check out our community blog (site above).  I hope you all are feeling the love of family, friends, and God this holiday season!  

a bit of economics

 My desire to volunteer abroad has always been rooted in a strong belief in a preferential option for the poor. That can mean many things and can be explained in many ways, but for Catholics it comes from our most fundamental call to serve God. While he was alive, Jesus told his disciples very plainly that when they acted concretely with love for the poorest members of their community they were serving him. It all seems a bit abstract, which is the point. I continually fail to grasp this concept, except when I actually live it out. That’s when it becomes so clear.

 

I want to share a story with you with as many details as possible, not to try to stun anybody or make your feel guilty, but just to paint as good of picture as I can of what it’s like. Yesterday I went with two social workers who work for LENTCH, a program for children who are or have been working on the streets (selling stuff, singing or dancing, etc.), to visit some homes of the children. (Side note: I think this is going to be one of my regular activities in addition to the parish work). We paid four soles (Peruvian currency, pronounced SOUL-ace, more to come about that below) to travel up to Villa Leslie, a recently “developed” area of the city, with sand streets, no electricity yet, and limited water access. One of the homes we visited was that of a mother and probably five or six of her ten children, at least three of whom are grown women with children of their own, all living in the same structure. I say “structure” so as not to give you an image of a typical house in the U.S. The walls are made of a woven reed-like material, and two rooms had roofs of the same material. I only saw into one of the two rooms, which had an old, small twin bed with a thin, dirty mattress. The rest was a large open area, serving as the family room, play room, and chicken coop. The turkeys and chickens roam freely among the children, with the rabbits in a hutch against one wall. The mother tells us that the large turkey will bring 200 soles when she sells it. I remember just a few days ago when we were dismayed by the high price of turkey for Thanksgiving.

 

On the positive side, this family had been selected by LENTCH to receive a prefabricated wooden house, and we were there to deliver to news that it will be delivered next week. While the social workers were explaining this to the mother, one of the children came in from behind the house and told us that the neighbor girl (also part of our program) had been bit on the leg by a dog. When she finally came in we saw the gash, not huge but definitely cause to worry. Long story short, I ended up cleaning it, with a bit of water (generally not clean), soap, and a T-shirt rag. As I wiped the wound as rigorously as I had the heart to, Lourdes remained expressionless. I knelt there in the sand, trying to block her leg from the wind, wiping the blood, thinking there was no way I could get all the dirt out of her wound, hoping the dog didn’t have any diseases, wondering what was the likelihood that her mother would take her to the hospital, picturing the large bottle of peroxide and tube of Neosporin sitting unused in my own home, balancing the soap on my leg so as not to drop it in the sand as well. When we contemplate the crucifixion of Jesus, we wonder, what would I have done if I had been there? Surely I would have done something to help, we think. What a shame that I wasn’t there to wipe Jesus’ tears. I tell you, Jesus is crucified every moment of every day. That’s why we have a “preferential option for the poor,” but we only generalize with a title like that to make it more accessible. We really have a preferential option to wipe the blood from Lourdes’ leg.

 

So I didn’t begin this blog entry intending to go into all that… but sometimes it’s best to let flow whatever seems to be coming! Part of a preferential option for the poor is the attempt to walk in solidarity with communities living in poverty. We could talk about the philosophy of solidarity for hours, but I merely want to highlight part of it from a very practical point of view!

 

Most families here make small amounts of money each day, so most things can be bought in tiny quantities. We try to purchase our food daily in small quantities to practice this type of living as well. To give you an idea of money here, we (my community) came up with the following list. The Peruvian currency is called the Nuevo Sol. The exchange rate right now is 2.77 soles to one dollar, so one sol is about $0.36. Seems like very little, but (thank goodness) a little sol can go a long way!

 

Things you can buy for 1 nuevo sol

• 10 medium-sized tomatoes (1 kilo)
• ¼ kilo of oatmeal (about 4 cups)
• ¾ kilo of rice (about 5 cups)
• 1 kabob of anticuchos (beef heart, fire-grilled to order)
• 10 individually-wrapped Halls
• 9 pieces of bread (freshly baked twice daily)
• 5 eggs (gathered from the chickens on the roof)
• 8 mini bananas
• 1 order of French fries from the street vendors (cup of oil included, haha)
• 1 avocado
• 2 trips to a public restroom (if you want toilet paper)
• 1 one-way trip downtown in a colectivo (a car with a set route that picks up passengers all along the way)
• 1 one-way trip to the church in a moto taxi
• 2 oz. of raw fish for ceviche (Chimbote’s most famous dish, look it up)
• 1 hair clip
• 1 glass of freshly-squeezed fruit juice (mango, strawberry, pineapple, etc., take your pick)
• 3 pieces of poster-sized paper
• 4 picarones (a delicious fried snack with the texture of a funnel cake but smaller and made with squash and sweet potatoes)
• 2 roses
• 2 packs of chicken bouillon (2 cubes each)
• 2 rolls of toilet paper
• 20 mini lemons
• 1 hour of computer time in an internet café
• 1 ice cream cone (one scoop in a cake cone)
• 1 2-minute conversation via cell phone
• 5 small white candles
• 2 “besos de moza” (“young man’s kiss,” a chocolate filled with marshmallow cream)

Thanks for reading :)  Blessings to you all during the holidays!  I would love to hear from you!

affirming graces

I used to be really intimidated by the thought of teaching high school-age youth. I walked into the Confirmation class here less than three months before Confirmation day and introduced myself to a room of 20-some teenagers.  Some looked at me with curiosity, others with amusement, the rest with boredom.  All made me self-consciously stumble over my words as I spit out some attempt to explain why I was there.  A few were interested to know a little more about the U.S., but most paid me little attention.  After a few more classes of minimal involvement on my part, the bishop informed us that our Confirmation celebration was moved a month earlier.  This provoked a somewhat frantic response from Tino, the Franciscan who leads the class, as he attempted to spread the word to the students, whose telephone numbers and addressed he hadn’t thought to gather beforehand.  We held a couple of emergency meetings with no more than ten students in attendance.  Tino quickly made a plan for the next two weeks leading up to Confirmation, squeezing a month’s worth of final preparations into little over a week.  We lost about half the class who couldn’t commit to the daily activities newly required in order to be confirmed. 

As Tino also had little time to prepare, this was an opportunity for me to take on some of the responsibility for our activities, one of which was a weekend retreat now cut down to one Saturday morning.  As my Spanish is still developing, we decided to leave the talks to Tino and Sister Sofia and let me lead icebreakers and small group discussion.  I would have liked more than the one afternoon I had to prepare, but I was satisfied with the material I found and excited to carry it out!    On Saturday morning, we started with the icebreakers, which really helped me as much as it helped them.  As I attempted to explain the directions, it became clear that I was lacking a few key words but they were patient and helped me along.  Overall, it wasn’t as I imagined it (is it ever?) but it was successful.  After a talk by Sofia, the group was really lacking energy, but Tino, who usually fires them up, hadn’t arrived yet.  So it was up to me!  I pulled out a little “God is good/all the time” chant (in Spanish, of course) to animate them and then put on some music while they broke into groups to come up with three reasons why youth are (or aren’t) important in the Church.  We chose this question because one of our goals is to keep them active in the Church even after Confirmation is done, but I had no idea what to expect from their responses.  When it came time to present, I was blown away!  In turn, they presented statements like, “We are important because we have the ability to change the world” and because “we are the new face of the Church.”  In that moment it became clear to me that some of them, at least, understood the importance of their role in the Church and in the world. 

Perhaps their preparation could have been fuller with more time, but the urgency of the moment created a sense of camaraderie.   I began to see their personalities, learn their names, and have more conversations.  At the same time, the plans for developing a youth center were completely stagnant and I was very discouraged.  We seemed to lack interest, initiative, and organization, and at times I was questioning my involvement.  I had momentum with this small group of students, but Confirmation was soon approaching, and I feared it would all be lost once the class was done.  Still, by Confirmation day I was very excited for them and the celebration was successful.  Though I had done very little, I was proud that this group of 16-strong followed through on their commitment.  Camila, one of the students, came to hug me before she left, and asked if I was going to continue being involved in more activities.  I told her yes, we are hoping to plan many more things for the youth.  She told me she would be attending mass on Sundays, and asked that I keep her updated.  I told her I would, of course, and reminded her of the open invitation to visit my house at any time for whatever reason.  She received it very warmly, then she told me she would see me Thursday to plan the retreat that they didn’t get to have!  It was a simple exchange, lasting only a few seconds, but within it were the seeds of everything I hope to experience with the youth.  As she said, this week we will meet with those who still want to have a retreat.  I don’t know how many will show up or what the likelihood is that we will follow through with the idea, but this seedling was an affirming grace from God to press onward, even when it seems fruitless!  That we all may hold tight to these moments which keep our hearts burning with hope and energy!

looking around, I am so blessed

The celebration began last night at midnight as Kelli, Guancarlo and I celebrated the first minutes of my birthday.  They sang to me, one in English and one in Spanish, and I blew out a single candle on the delicious pineapple-upside-down cake that Kelli made for us.  We shared some Inca Kola while we dug into the cake.  My first birthday in Peru!

As I sit here this afternoon listening to Kelli play the guitar and gathering myself together before a full evening, I find myself wanting to share this day not only with my roommates and Peruvian friends, but also with all of you!  I’d like to share a short reflection on my birthday that I wrote in my journal yesterday:

“My ambition is not to achieve but to love.  Coming on 23 years in this world, many young people from a similar background would be just beginning a career, eyes on opportunities for advancement and promotion, thoughts directed toward completing tasks and projects, emotions swirling around marriage and settling down with a family.  And what ambitions am I realizing?  I am, or at least I like to think I am, continuing my search for love and truth.  But where this search is unlike a typical “ambition” is in the fact that it will never be achieved by looking forward; it can only be achieved by looking around.  That is to say, it is only found in the present moment. …  The real challenge is to be authentically ME in every moment.  By looking at this as a goal to be achieved, I will never be content, and I will never achieve it.  In each moment, I must ask, who am I?  And then I must lovingly answer with a smile on my face, this is me!”

Tonight I will be attending reconciliation and adoration before Mass, and following that I have Confirmation class.  I made some M&M (Chin Chin, as the Peruvian brand is called) cookies to share with my students, and afterward some of our friends are going to come to the house for more pineapple cake and dancing!  Kelli, Marcelle, and I made a picnic lunch earlier and took it to the park/zoo/forest to enjoy together.  This morning Kelli made me an omelet with toast and coffee before we spent the morning baking!  I opened a few wonderful cards and gifts and received several phone calls from friends and family wishing me a happy birthday.  Every moment of this day has been uniquely full of joy and celebration!  I am so grateful for all that has made this possible.

I would also like to share with you all some of the quote that Kelli wrote inside her gift for me, a Spanish Bible.  It was written by aIta Ford, aMaryknoll Sister who was martyred in El Salvador during the Civil War, to her niece on her niece’s birthday in 1980:

“…What I’m saying is, I hope you come to find that which gives life a deep meaning for you … something worth living for, maybe something worth dying for … something that energizes you, enthuses you, enables you to keep moving ahead.  I can’t tell you what it might be – that’s for you to find, to choose, to love.  I can just encourage you to start looking, and support you in the search…”

That we may all support each other in this search to find that which gives our lives meaning!