Something very exciting happened here a few days ago...we had snow!!! By which I mean the ground was dusted in a 1/4 inch of powder and resembled frosted flakes. Everybody was really freaked out about it, but I couldn't for the life of me understand the fuss. I asked one of the sisters when the last time they had snow was, she said: "1985." "Nuh Uh. No way. Really?" "Yes." Everybody was really concerned about the ice too; having just driven on a fair bit on my way down here I felt like people were over-reacting, but then I read in the paper that there were 500 accidents in those 2 days. Maybe I should have stopped being snarky and started praying...
The sisters here are a class act. We have been having a lot of fun because, as Catholics, we have an important feast day at least several times a week. The sisters actually celebrate them. We decorate, and reflect and eat special food...it's all rather fabulous. These last two weeks have been Big though: Laura Vicuna (a "blessed" Salesian pupil in Chile who gave her life for her mother's virtue), then Francis de Sales (one of our patrons, our namesake and a doctor of the church), the conversion of St. Paul, Sts. Timothy and Titus, St. Thomas Aquinas (another d to the c), then DON BOSCO (our founder, along with M. Mozzarello), the Presentation of Our Lord (in the temple-used to mark the end of the Christmas season, and there is a Mexican tradition involving a plastic baby in the King's cake (from the 12th day of Christmas) where the person who gets the baby has to throw a party...the animator got the baby and tamales were enjoyed by all), then St. Blaise (we had our throats blessed) and finally St. Agatha, one of many virgin martyrs in the early church. Man, it's been an exciting 2 weeks! Oh and did I mention there have been 3 birthdays so far? And we just celebrated the Chinease New Year and our Vietnamese sisters prepared a wonderful feast...basically it's a party all the time.
Okay, not really. There are a lot of very serious aspects of being here, we spend a lot of time in prayer, entrusting ourselves to the Lord, and many of the sisters have very real and prohibitave medical conditions that set the tone of everything we do here. But at the end of the day, it's all about having joy in the Lord and delighting in the good things he does and continues to do for us.
The mental enrichment programs are going well, the sisters really seem to be getting something out of it and I really enjoy the time to get to know them better and challenge my own mind and laugh with them about how silly we are. Rather than treating it like school, I really have tried to make it something that is meaningful for them personally, and the sisters have responded with such grace and appreciation for my efforts.
Most of all, I feel that the community has really welcomed me here with open arms. I felt instantly at home, probaby due in part to the time I spent with the Salesians in El Salvador. One of the sisters told me that she was praying for me, and at first I kind of scoffed (like, "why are you praying for me?") and then I caught myself and she explained, "No I'm serious, you gave up everything to come here and help us and be with us." "Thank you" I said.
I am blown away by thier gratitude, generosity and sweetness.
These women are funny too. One of the sisters dances to the ABCs with pom poms for the kids she teaches. On her birthday she wants to have it "high key" and plans to seranade the community with mariachi music. Another sister was telling me about her youth in Egypt and how she used to get in trouble for goofing in class and have to write lines. So she started writting the lines ahead of time; she would finish her homework (sometimes doing a wrong copy and a right copy for extra effect) and go straight to writing "I will not misbehave" 100 times so that she could whip it out directly after she got in trouble. We did a skit when the Provincial came to visit about excercising our prayer muscles and the ad-libbing was hysterical...so was watching them groove to "Go Make A Difference" with light up batons. And almost all of the sisters love the Spurs, they gather 'round the set and cheer and even stay up late (9:30!) to watch the games on the west coast.
The moral of this story is I'm having a very blessed time here, and I hope you are all doing well also.
Love love love
m
ps everybody knits (or crochets) :)
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