La Navidad en el Verano (Christmas in Summer)

 

 

I just celebrated my first Christmas away from the United States, away from snow and cold, and away from my family and my friends.  To say that it was strange is an understatement.  To me, it never really felt like Christmas, or at least the Christmas that I normally have... Regardless, Christmas came to Chile.  I had a Christmas Retreat with the staff of Andacollo on the 23rd.  I gave a presentation to everyone on the theme of Jesus being born poor for the poor.  I was super super nervous beforehand but I think that it went pretty well--and the best part is that it is done!

 

 

I had a rather laid-back Christmas Eve; chatted with the fam, slept in, etc. I went to mass at the parish

at 9 that night.  It was a lovely mass and the church was full of parishioners.  I was invited to the Alvarado house afterwards to celebrate with them.  We had drinks and dinner together, and two of the Haitian seminarians joined us as well.  Anais was so soo excited to open her presents that she could barely wait until midnight (as per her mother's rule) to arrive.  So she scarfed down her dinner while the rest of us had barely begun.  So while the rest of us were eating and talking, Anais was shouting over everyone to tell and then show her mom and I her new presents. 

 

 

I gave her headbands and my mom mailed the game Uno for her as well.  So after dinner, while drinks and conversation flowed, Anais, Luciano, and I played numerous games of Uno.  Icemick and Jacquy also joined in a few games.  Victor's mom and sister/brother-in-law showed up around 3 in the morning, but I was only able to make it for an hour more before I had to cry off and head home.

 

Christmas morning, I woke up and opened my Christmas presents that my mom had sent.  Victor and the rest of my "family" picked me up to head over for an asado (bbq) at Nana's house.  I stayed for a few hours, with lots of food and more Uno games, before Victor dropped me off at the event on my side of town with the Congregation.  The other ex-pat priests, brothers, and nuns and I had a very lovely dinner and conversation.  It was overall a very lovely summertime Christmas.

 

I am headed off on the Misiones trip to Paradones, Chile on January 3rd with Andacollo.  I am sure that there will be some great adventures that occur that I will share with all of you.  Until then...

Colegio Nuestra Señora de Andacollo

So the school year has come to an end here in Santiago.  Summertime is officially upon us.  And I am finally getting around to putting up pictures of the colegio.

The Congregation of Holy Cross runs two colegios down here, St. George's College and Colegio Nuestra Señora de Andacollo.  Andacollo has kindergarten through 12th grade, two courses of each grade.  

Front of the colegio

The rush to class after the final bell

Recreo (recess.)  

(on days when the smog isn't too bad, you can make out the Andes in the background)

Monday morning assembly

My classroom

My 4th graders

My other 4th graders

The Church

Now that the school year is ended, I have spent this week in preparation for the Misiones trip in the beginning of January.  A group of 35 high schoolers from the colegio and 10 adults will be heading to Paredones, which is a poor community in the country about 4 hours southwest of Santiago, for 10 days doing mission work with the people who live there.  More info on that soon!  But right now, we are planning the trip and getting to know one another.  I am very excited for the trip!

The Gift of Anais

 

 

It has been a while since I have posted a blog and so I thought it would be a good time to take some time and reflect and then share one of those reflections.  And the first thing that came to my mind is Anais.  Anais is a seven year old adorable/beautiful/spunky/center of attention/patient/generous/won't let me sit there in peace/singer-dancer little girl. And of everyone that I have met down here, I think Anais is the one who has helped me, taught me, and reminded me of all the places where I can find the face of Jesus.

 

That top picture is the first gift that she ever gave me.  It was the first time I met her and her family, and I went over to their house after mass.  I was a little nervous because they spoke no English, I was not confident with my Spanish skills, and this was my first time really spending time with a Chilean family, and yet there I was sitting in their living room while Janette and Victor put together once for us to eat.  Anais was so excited to have me there--she was bouncing all over the place; showing me her Monster High markers, her Violetta notebook, her beading jewelry kit, and her favorite little plastic dog.  (She loves dogs but doesn't have one).  We sat there and made jewelry for each other and for her little perrito before the food was ready.  At the end of the night, Anais gave me that little toy with its brand new collar.  I, a little stunned, took her favorite toy and could not find the words to explain what it meant to me and how I would treasure it forever.  The perrito now sits on my dresser and every time that I come into or leave my room I see it.  It reminds me of generosity, of kindness, and of Anais' beautiful approach to the world.  

I normally see Anais at school every day.  Sometimes I will catch her eating lunch, but normally it is later in the afternoon during a recreo when she is sitting in the steps close to the gym holding court with her friends.  She will give me a regal wave and shout "Vero" and I am summoned over.  The other little first graders are always in awe as I sit down and she tells me about something she learned that day or shows me a new toy she has found.  She never fails to brighten my day.

She likes to have me do her hair the way I have my hair done for that day--the timing is never right, either we are in the car or in the middle of the consecration at mass or the bell has run for class--but I quickly braid/ponytail/twist/bun her chin-length hair.  And then I will hear her explain to everyone she sees for the rest of the day that her hair was done by Vero, who is a gringa, and now she and I are gemelas (twins).  I like giving her little presents: a princess notepad, the vegetarian stew, Halloween hair ties, street chalk, cookies I baked, because of the manner in which she receives them.  You would think I was giving her the moon by the way her entire face lights up, the shy smile that creeps up, then the hug and besito she bestows upon me, and the super-accented English "thank you" she says. 

She also gives me presents.  She painted my face during mass once with the face paint she snuck into church.  She gave me a glow-in-the-dark bracelet that she won in a competition at school.  She gave me a friendship contract that she created so that we would always be friends.  She gave me a cardboard house that she made for her favorite perrito that she gave to me in the end of August.  She also gave me Spanish lessons, where she would explain something slowly so that I could understand or where she created worksheets with important vocabulary words or where she would repeat some word I didn't know over and over again umtil I could say it correctly or where she would explain some word that I didn't know so I would understand what was going on.  She gave me a place in the choir on Sunday evenings with her and her dad, and then she gave me singing lessons (more often than not in the middle of mass) so that I would know the songs.  She gave me a friendship continually reminds me that I am loved in the new place. 

The gift of Anais is something that leaves me breathless with gratitude at being on the recieiving end of such love.  She has reminded me, and continues to remind me, of what it means to be a child of God and how to love, accept, and treat the people who come into our lives.

 

(Anais make quick work of 3 donuts :))

Welcome to the Hotel Patagonia

So I spent the weekend in Mendoza, Argentina.  Mary Jeanne's and my work visas are still in the process of being approved and our tourist visas expire later this coming week, so we needed to leave the country of Chile and reenter it.  I don't totally understand how it works, but by reentering Chile our tourist visas renewed and so we now have another 90 days to work with.  (Also, I really was slacking on the whole taking picture thing over there, so I apologize).

We took an overnight bus late on Friday from Santiago, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina.  It takes over 7 hours to get there, including going through customs.  The bus seats about 40 people, and all of the seats recline so that you are semi-laying down...We arrived at the border around 2 in the morning, and we all had to unload, get our passports stamped, pay the reciprocity fee, and then our luggage was checked by the customs guys.  Mary Jeanne and I arrived in Mendoza around 5 in the morning on Saturday, and so we hung around the bus terminal until the sun rose and we could head to the hostel. 

Mendoza is a wonderful small town, situated against the Andes in a high plains desert (so much like Colorado, I felt right at home!)  It is known for its wine and olive oil, and is a bit of a tourist hub.  The city is centered around Plaza Independencia, and then there are four other smaller plazas surrounding that main one.  Our hostel was just a few blocks away from Plaza Independencia, so we spent the majority of the time walking around, window shopping, eating lunch, and hanging out in the shade of Parque San Martin.  Parque San Martin is 393 hectares and has over 300 different types of plants and trees.

 Parque San Martin entrance

 

In the afternoon, Mary Jeanne scheduled us for a horseback riding evening.  The company picked us up from our hostel and took us to the site where all the horses were.  Joining us was also a group of Australians, two Argentinian couples, a couple from New Zealand, and two ladies who were also from the USA. We got all loaded up on our horses, and were off with two gauchos (traditional Argentinian term for cowboys), named Diego and Nico (short for Nicolas). 

 Our horses underneath the beautiful sky

 

We took off, and headed back into the Andes, for about two hours.  As you can see, it was a perfect day for a horseback ride!  I quickly got the hang of saying "vamos" (let's go) and "pare" (stop), and very much enjoyed the incredible landscape surrounding us.  The gauchos took us up to the top of a ridge where we could see into Chile but it was so windy that the horses got really restless and we were not able to be up there for more than 30 seconds.  (I asked Nico later about the wind, and he explained that it is called "zonda" and it comes from Chile and builds up so much coming over the Andes that it is very strong coming into Mendoza.  The winds can be very dangerous, and so we had to eat dinner inside.) 

 Vamos!

 

At the end of the ride, we came to a campsite tucked into the mountains where an asado was prepared for us. We were all happy to get off the horses and spent a few minutes stretching and walking around.   Dinner (meat and potatoes grilled) and the wine were delicious. I sat next to the couple from New Zealand.  They are making their way around the world, literally, they have travelled through Asia, Australia, and most of South America so far, and are headed next to Brazil, then Europe, and finally the USA.  They both had such interesting stories and it was fun to get to know them.  After dinner, a fire was made and Diego, one of the gauchos, took a bottle of wine and a guitar and began to sing us traditional Argentinian songs.  After a while, (I think thanks to a little/lot of liquid courage) he began to take requests...One of his particular favorites was "Hotel California" but he insisted that when we all sing along that we change the words to "Hotel Patagonia".  It was a wonderful evening, and the wind finally calmed down so I could go out and look at the stars and full moon. 

 

Back at the hostel, I took a shower--which was desperately needed, since I was totally caked with dust, and headed to bed.  We shared our room with three French guys (who all elected not to wear any clothes while sleeping...such a surprise in the morning!)  We had breakfast, checked out, and headed to mass, then had a quick lunch before we had to catch the bus back to Santiago.

 

 Leaving Mendoza

 

On the bus ride back, we encountered a little bit of a problem at the border of Chile and Argentina...you have to go up and through the Andes, the border station for Chile is called Los Libertadores and is about 11,000 feet above sea level.  Well, so we left Mendoza and it was 80 degrees and at the pass it was freezing cold and snowing!  Buses were not allowed to pass, so we had to wait for over three hours in the bus, on the border, until it stopped snowing and the winds died down.  Three. Hours.

 Springtime snow at Los Libertadores

 

But, the weather did clear and soon enough we were on our way.  Mary Jeanne and I made it home in time to catch the metro home and then we both fell asleep immediately upon entering the house.  It was a wonderful, very short, vacation.  I hope to be able to spend a little more time next time I am there.

 

brazos!











Things That They Say...

I think this will be a reoccurring blog post title because the kids just have so many good, ridiculous, and/or funny things to say...

I sat with some first graders earlier this week at lunch; they are adorable with their giant brown eyes and missing teeth.  I sat down near four boys who all turned and stared while shoving food in their mouths.  Soon, one little boy asked me, "Tia, do you know when my birthday is?"  Since I had no idea when his birthday was or who he was, I had to say no.  This was a huge disappointment to my new buddy, but the other little guys were not deterred...
"Tia, do you know how many brothers and sisters I have?" "No, I don't." "Oh, I have 7."
"Tia, how many kids do you have?" "I don't have any kids..." "Why not?"
"Tia, are you married?" "No, I do have a husband." "Why not?"
...and so forth...

I taught my fourth graders this past Thursday, it was the last class of the day before the holiday, Fiestas Patrias (Independence Days), began.  At the beginning of class, Benjamín, told me--straight up, that he had no interest in focusing today because he had stopped paying attention in school yesterday.  I told him I appreciated him telling me but we were going to still learn English today.  Fast forward thirty minutes and Benjamín was true to his word--goofing off, hitting other kids, not doing his assignments, only answering to the name Obama (he is half-black). So, I called on him to read something and he looks up at me and goes, "What the fuck, tia?" I was shocked and so he and I stepped out into the hall, where I explained that he is not allowed to use that kind of language and how offensive it is in English.  He needed to apologize before he could come back inside... So, Benjamín sighs, shakes his head, and then looks up at me all smooth and goes, "I am sorry for say 'what the fuck, tia'"  At this point, I was worried I was going to burst out laughing so I sent him back inside.

There was an asado at the parish last night to kick off the Fiestas Patrias celebration, and, in typical Chilean fashion, it didn't actually start until a couple hours after it was supposed to.  So, I was playing games with Nicole, one of the 2nd grade girls that I know from jornada, in the patio area of the parish.  We played hide and go seek, tag, and ran races.  And despite my most valiant efforts, I never seem to win a single game.  Finally, I told Nicole that there was a "gran injusticia" going on-- she always won, how fair was that? And she just looked and me and said so matter of factly, "Tia, you are too old to win games." I think I was rooted in place because she had to pull my hand and remind me that once again, it was my turn to count for hide and go seek.

And an Anais story to top us off :)  I wore my glasses the other day, and she had not seen me in them yet.  We were singing in the choir at mass on Tuesday and she just kept staring at me.  Father Chris was giving his homily, when she leaned over, and told me in this really loud whisper that the microphone happened to catch, that I was like Clark Kent with my glasses on and that makes me Superman on the other days.  Everyone turned to look at us, Father Chris stopped speaking, and I just sat there laughing...

Vow Renewals, Misa a la Chilena, and the Fonda al Colegio Andacollo

Saturday September 7th was a busy day for me!!  I began the day off by attending the renewals of vows for the three Haitian seminarians here in Chile.  Icemick, Jacquy, and Mickely are studying to be priests here in Santiago with the Congregation of Holy Cross, and at mass yesterday morning they renewed their vows before fellow seminarians, the District Superior, Holy Cross priests and brothers, and myself.  It was very exciting and it was wonderful to be able to share in this experience with my new friends!

Icemick and me after the renewal of vows

 



The Fiestas Patrias (Chilean Independence days) are coming next week and the Colegio Andacollo kicks off the celebration a little early with a Chilean Mass and then a fonda (kinda like a fair) at the school.  The mass began with a procession of Andacollo students in traditional Chilean garb as well as more traditional music and readings that were more or less tailored to the celebration of the country of Chile.  The church was packed and all of the students were adorable all dressed up!

The mass

 

Students in traditional Chilean outfits at mass

 

After the mass, everyone made their way next door to the school.  There were booths all around the courtyard selling food, like anticuchos (kebabs), dulces (sweets), empanadas, choripans (chorizo and bread sandwichs), and completos (hotdogs), as well as sodas and little toys.  All of the proceeds went back to the school, parish, and the classes that were sponsoring the booths.  I worked at the choripan station, as a part of the Pastoral--which was one of the most popular booths because we ran out of all of the food in two and a half hours.  I had the grunt, yet very important work, of cutting the chorizo links apart and separating the bread so it could be grilled.  We were crazy busy up until all of the choripans were gone. 

 

The best part, or at least I thought so, of the fonda was the giant stage that was set up in the middle of the courtyard so that all of the classes could dance.

The stage

 

So, grades kindergarten through 12th all danced traditional Chilean dances in traditional Chilean outfits.  It was really cool seeing these kids dancing these beautiful dances and how excited and proud they were to be up there. 

First graders dancing the cueca

 

High schoolers

 

High schoolers

 

 It was a wonderful way to kick off the celebration of Chilean independence!!

Finally, I thought that I should include a picture of Anais and myself, since I talk about her all the time. :)

 

Viva Chile!





Caminata de la Solidaridad

On Saturday, I and a couple thousand other youth in Santiago participated in the Walk of Solidarity.  This month of August is the month of solidarity in the Catholic schools and churches around Santiago.  The solidarity is in remembrance of St. Alberto Hurtado, who was a Jesuit priest and social worker here in Santiago, as well as a reminder to all about the need to help one another carry each other's crosses. 

 Poster for Mes de la Solidaridad



 

I walked with a group of people from Andacollo.  We began at the park nearby our school and parish- Parque de los Reyes.   There was a huge stage with a band, a couple emcees to kick off the festivities, and a few priests to lead the beginning prayers.  For over an hour, everyone gathered in the park and sang songs and bought little bags of confetti that they then threw at each other.

 

 

Beginning at Parque de los Reyes

 

We soon began the walk to the sanctuary of Padre Alberto Hurtado.  It was a slow process... the street we began on was quite small.  Simply picture salmon all trying to swim upstream during the migration time and that was what the beginning of the caminata was like.  :) Because everyone is trying to begin walking all at once, and at the same time stay with the colegio that they came with, and yet all the teens were pumped from the rock-ish worship music so it felt a bit like a rave in the beginning with confetti flying everywhere and teenagers bouncing off one another. 

 

 

Some of the youth on the caminata

 

I walked with Mary Jeanne, the students and families from the colegio, a few members of the Pastoral, and Icemick & Jacquy (the Haitian seminarians).  It was a slow process as we all made our way the 8 kilometers from the Parque de los Reyes to the Santuario del Padre Hurtado.  There were booths every kilometer or so, normally with bands, priests, and youth volunteers passing out prayer cards or pamphlets about the need for solidarity in Chile.  Anais, a second grader from Andacollo, my new best friend, and daughter of a family that has sort-of adopted me, thought that one of the best ways to pass the time on this caminata was to sneak up behind me and shove a handful of confetti down the back of my shirt every 15 minutes or so...so 8 kilometers later, you could tell where I specifically had been walking because of the trail of white confetti pieces that were dropping out from beneath my shirt. 

 

It was a sunny day, and for a couple hours actually pretty warm.  So, during the caminata, when we would pass underneath apartment buildings, normally the youth would all come to a stop and shout to the people in the building, "agua!"  Some of the people would then come to their balconies and throw buckets of water down onto the walkers.  So fascinating to watch and made for some extremely slow moving parts of the caminata.  

 

 

Stage and priests at the santuario

 

 

Three hours and 8 kilometers later, we all arrived at the Santuario del Padre Hurtado.  There was a huge stage and music playing that you could hear for several blocks when we arrived.  The archbishop of Santiago and several other priests said an informal mass and there was blessing on all of the youth who had participated in the caminata.  Most of the people took this as an opportunity to sit, eat a snack, and rest.  At the end of the mass, some people headed into the santuario but the majority of people, myself included, flocked to the metro to take it back home, in order to disperse of the confetti that was now starting to make me itch all over!  Overall, it was a wonderful experience that was unlike anything I had ever done before.  I enjoyed spending time with fellow young Catholics that were on this "journey" as well.  I feel that as well as being a spiritual type of activity it was also a cultural one!   

 

 

The santuario at the end of the caminata

 

Besos y brazos, as usual

"Injusticia" and the Assumption

I am spending two days a week in Pastoral (campus ministry) at Colegio Andacollo and this past Wednesday was my first time accompanying a class of students on their jornada (retreat).  Every Wednesday there is a jornada, alternating weeks between the basico grades (elementary) and the medios (middle/high).  Each class, there are two for each grade--1st to 12th-- has a jornada once a school year.  Next school year, I will have the responsibility of planning and then running jornadas; but, for right now, I just accompany the Pastoral team to observe, pray, and help herd children.

I joined 2A on their jornada this past Wednesday.  Hermana Saturina began the day by introducing me to the class of 35 second graders and their teachers, as tia Veronicca who is from the USA (cue the collective gasp from the kids and the shouting of questions about if I knew English) and will be joining them today.  We all loaded on the bus and headed across the city to the Congregation's Formation House.  After an hour on the bus, the kids needed some time to run around and so we adults set up and took a tea/coffee break.  The 2A students were having a jornada that focused on the idea of sharing and working as a team in the classroom.  The activities, readings from the Bible, and presentations all revolved around these ideas.  At the break after lunch, I provided direction for a game of "Luz Roja, Luz Verde" (Red Light, Green Light) for the kids (no one wanted to stop at Luz Roja so I ended up being tackled each time we played because they thought it was more fun to simply sprint at me...), and then watched as some of the boys played a highly competitive game of soccer. 

We loaded back on the bus to head to Andacollo.  I was sitting half-way back on the bus, kind of dozing off, when all of a sudden a little hand taps me on the shoulder and asks me, "tia, ¿cómo se dice perro en inglés?" I responded and this began the game of 15 second graders shouting over one another to ask their gringa tia what random words were in English.  As I would respond, translating whatever word they asked, sometimes the child did not like the way it sounded in English, like Vincente and Vincent, this is when the child would shout "injusticia" (like a grievance of sorts).  All 15 would join in shouting, I would shrug and laugh, and then the injusticia was seemingly forgotten because a new word would emerge for translation.  This game was not something that they tired of after 10 or 15 minutes, no, we played for over an hour until the bus dropped us off at Andacollo--thank God.  I know understand why the Pastoral team and the teachers sit waay at the front of the bus!  Each of the kids gave me a hug and besito goodbye and I returned home for a late day nap...

Thursday was a national holiday-- the country and the Church celebrated the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.  I celebrated this miracle by heading to the beach and the house that the Congregation owns in El Quisco, with Mary Jeanne, Mike--a former OLM who still lives in Santiago, and two members of the Congregation-- Padre Mike and Hermano Mateo.  It takes about an hour to get from Santiago to the beach, and we arrived around lunch time.  We spent Thursday eating, getting to know one another, taking walks along the rocks and the beach, and playing a great game of Apples to Apples.  I could hear the waves crashing ashore as I slept, so I was a very happy camper. 

 The Pacific Ocean from the front of the house

We had a lazy start to Friday with a late breakfast and then had good conversations focused more on the goals and expectations of the program.  Mary Jeanne stayed at the beach with some friends, and I headed back with the men to Santiago.  We stopped at a restaurant halfway home and all ordered good old-fashioned hamburger and french fries.  A comfort food of sorts...

The weather is turning a little bit warmer so I am looking forward to spending some time outside this weekend...

Brazos

"Soy Veronicca"

I thought this an appropriate title for my first blog post from Santiago because I feel like I have been constanly introducing myself or being introduced over and over again throughout the past week... 

Mary Jeanne (my companera in the program) and I arrived late last Wednesday night in Santiago, and were picked up by Father Mike (a gringo who is the Provincial down here) and a couple of Haitian seminarians (Jacquy and Icemick--my new besties).  We spent the night at the priest's residence nearby our house and then moved into our home Thursday morning.  Thursday was mostly spent sleeping and preparing to leave for a reunión of all of the priests/brothers/seminarians in the Congregation of Holy Cross District of Chile.  This was basically an opportunity for Mary Jeanne and myself to meet everyone, and for them to meet us.  It was held at a retreat house in the Sanctuary of Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, which is a beautiful and holy place to be.  The seminary here is an inernational one which means there are men from Brazil, Haiti, Peru, and Chile all studying to be priests.  The only way any of us can communicae with one another is through Spanish.

We then began the week with shadowing Hermano Mateo at Colegio Andacollo (which is where the two of us will be working during our time here) in his English classes and meeting with the Pastoral (campus ministry) staff.  I will be teaching English to a fifth grade class and an eighth grade class on Monday mornings, working in Pastoral on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then teaching English again to two groups of fourth graders on Thursday.  Friday will be a day for a secondary ministry, which I still have to decide about.  Colegio Andacollo is a kindergarten through 12th grade school, it is huge! I very much enjoy recess where I can watch 4 games of soccer be played on the same concrete court by 4 different age groups, all running in different direcetions and yet at the same time able to keep out of each others way-- it is an art!

Today, I had my first teaching experience.  I spilt my classes with Hermano Mateo, which means each of us have about 5-7 kids each for 40 minutes and then we switch groups.  The kids we teach are supposed to be the most advanced English speakers, and so they split off from the rest of their class during this time.  The first group of fourth graders were so so naughty! They were all boys, adorable, and much more interested in talking to me in Spanish about their soccer teams than practicing 'to be' verbs in English.  One little boy, Ignacio, told me he will only go by the name Cristiano Ronaldo.  :) I spent the majority of the hour and a half laughing and asking myself how in the world I am going to teach these kids anything.  The second group were brilliant and are very interested and focused on learning their English.  I am excited for all of my groups and getting to know all of the students!

I took some pictures and attached them so you all can see where I am now living:

 Our street: Calle Armstrong

 

 Nuestra Casa

 

 The first floor

 

 The dangerous (!) staircase

 

 Second floor hallway and bahroom at the end

 

 My room, it has a window!

 

 

Besos y brazos

 

 

 

 

 

Preparation from the Seminary

Hello All!

I am going to try my hand at this blog-thing for the next 18 months or so in an attempt to help keep all of my friends and family back in the states informed of all of my adventures...

Most of you know that I am now an OLM (Overseas Lay Minister) through the Congregation of Holy Cross.  I spent the week of July 14 in the Moreau Seminary here at the University of Notre Dame with the other 4 OLMs getting oriented with our programs, learning how to teach, as well as the becoming more familiar with the cultures and he customs of the places  where we will soon be living.  It was a lot of information in a short period of time, which was a bit overwhelming but we were all so excited to be here and to begin our training. 

I am not entirely sure what exactly I will be doing in Santiago, so more on that will come when I am in country late next week.  I will most likely be working in the Pastoral (campus ministry) and teaching advanced conversational English to high school students at Andacollo, which is just down the street from where Mary Jeanne and I will be living. 

The OLMs for Uganda left last Friday, so my site partner--Mary Jeanne--and I are hanging around the Seminary until July 31st. I have been biding my time with a lovely trip to Michigan City and one to Chicago, sharing meals and masses with the priests, watching TV, exploring campus, practicing Spanish and English with my new best friend priests, and reading a lot (the library here is in the basement and cold!). 

With my upcoming travels and this huge adventure I am taking on, I would appreciate the continued prayers and support because there is no way I would be here if it weren't for all of you!

(Also, I have attached the link to the Holy Cross Mission Center in case any of you are interested in more about the program I am a part of-- http://www.holycrossusa.org/missions/holy-cross-mission-center/)

Besos y brazos