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