Throughout the whole SLM discernment
process, including the application, phone interview, discernment weekend, and
three-week orientation, the importance of community was stressed over and over
again. I distinctly remember being asked during my phone interview my previous
experiences with community life, and as I had never had a bad roommate
situation during my time at Vanderbilt or my study abroad experience in Australia,
my response was that community was great and helps to build you up. To this
response, I was told by the director that community can also be and was one of
the hardest things about his time as an SLM. I can now say after living for
8-and-a-half months inside the hogar where I pretty much exclusively interact
with the same volunteers, staff, religious sisters, and girls day after day
that I agree with him. However, although the negative aspects of community have
been the most challenging thing about my time here, the positives have also
made it the most rewarding.
Living
in community here is pretty much like living in a huge family, and if you think
that there are people that don’t get along in your family (however big or
small), think about how many different personalities there are with potentials
to clash with 130 people! However, one thing I have noticed about the girls is in
general the amount of solidarity they show for one another when they really
need it, especially because all of them come from some sort of broken family
background. For example, last week one of the girls’ moms came to visit her,
and I was walking past the door where she was crying just after her mom left. I
wasn’t sure if something specific was wrong, and I asked her if she wanted to
talk about it, but she didn’t, so I just gave her a hug. We were standing there
for a while, and three or four girls walked by and asked her what was wrong.
When she didn’t respond, they didn’t just give up and go about their business,
but stayed and started joking around trying to make her smile and then afterwards
she started talking a little bit about her family.
Another
example of positive community within the hogar was during the feast day of
Saint Joseph (or San José) a few weeks ago. All of the girls’ dormitories have
different names here, and the dormitory of oldest girls is San José. So, to
celebrate the feast day of the patron saint of their dorm, we took the older
girls to a nearby resort for the afternoon, where there was a nice restaurant,
pools, a sauna, and a lake with a couple of canoes! As part of the festivities,
each girl was randomly assigned another girl to make a card for, and these
cards were exchanged before eating lunch so the girls could show each other how
much they mean to them. Of course, some of the girls complained about having to
do them, but others put so much time and effort into these cards and were so
heartfelt when giving them out.
Two of the girls exchanging cards |
They wanted to take lots of pictures by the pool! |
We found a really friendly baby deer (I think) |
I accompanied some of the girls to dance and recite poetry for their Father's Day celebration at school! |
I
have seen examples of this sense of importance of community not just in the
hogar, but in Montero in general. I would say that many people in the US think
that your religion should be kept to yourself or at least in your church, but
here the churches want to get the whole community involved. For example, during
Lent, every Friday there was a Via Cruces, or Way of the Cross, which is very
different from the Stations of the Cross that we do in the US. Instead of just
staying inside the churches, everyone walked around Montero after Friday
evening mass and stopped to pray at different homes and businesses that had
prepared a station. This led up to Good Friday, when there was also a dramatization
of the stations put on in the back of a flatbed truck that drove in front of us
to all of the stations. It was really cool to see that whole community get
involved, and I would say that we pretty much always grew in numbers as we
progressed and people saw us passing!
The Good Friday Via Cruces |
I
was also so blessed to have a member of my family community (my wonderful
sister!) come visit the hogar during Holy Week. It was awesome to have her here
to see and participate in my community. Just like our relationship, where we often
have our disagreements but are always there for each other when we need it,
community in general can cause a lot of problems, but can also be so
rewarding and build you up when you really need it, which I have experienced
myself and seen among the girls. I hope all of your communities had a blessed
Easter Sunday and continue to have a blessed Easter season! J
So true about community--and family too. Thanks, Cara. God bless you and your girls (and fellow volunteers).
ReplyDeleteThank you for a wonderful reflection. I love the pictures - and especially the one with you, Alissa and Mayra!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the realness/honesty/hope/gratitude. And I'm doing my best to live it up for all fifty days of Easter...happy Easter season to you too! :)
ReplyDelete