warning this is going to be a bit of a long post so feel free to take it in sections.
academics
Initially training started with the history of the Sisters of Charity, self analysis, living in community, staying healthy and progressed to socio-economics. This week we had a few presentations from Larry Boudreau, which were very interesting, but difficult at the same time. Essentially he tried to give a semester's worth of information in just a matter of hours. I think he's a very smart man so he went on tangents, making it even more difficult for me to follow along. I'm going to try to sum up some info I got from his presentations because he did have a lot to share.
Critical Thinking is very important in our society and often not engaged in enough. It is often overlooked because it is so easy to go with how we were taught without questioning. Larry made a comparison to children learning to draw railroad tracks in contrast to the way adults draw them. Adults consider vanishing point whereas children draw it straight forward before they're trained. It's a way to see through what we're programmed to do. Our world could make a lot of progress through dialouge. That is the key.
Cooperatives We started out watching Tomorrow We'll Finish which reminded me a lot of China Blue. This pointed out if the girls worked together they could have pulled together the little resources they have to make their own co-op. Co-ops entail everyone who is a member to be part of the community and own at least one share. While all this information was very dense and heavy and hard to deal with everyday it takes intentionality & as i always try to remember: every little bit helps.
I'm excited for the market that will apparently be right outside our door in Santa Fe on Sundays. mmmm... delicious. locally grown fruits & veggies.
Support your local farmers' market: one sort-of co-op
I definitely still have a lot to learn on these topics.
Larry's quote: "If you can name it, you own it."
and now the etc.
Friday night we had mexican dinner at Lisa's (yes... Lisa's) Mexican Restaurant. The priests that are staying at the MACC right now (for spanish lessons) decided to take us out to dinner. It was so much fun =) Margaritas all around. Except for having to sit at the head of the table and the "live" music being a bit disappointing it was AMAZING and just what I needed. on the way out mike gave me tortillas to take back to MACC so they wouldn't get thrown away and he told me to put them in my skirt pocket. sounded like a great idea. i did it and got white flour all over my black skirt. then everyone else kept asking me why i had flour all over my skirt... bad idea.
we went on retreat friday and saturday full of reflection and prayer. it was extremely challenging when i was so exhausted, but good at the same time. i'll admit by the end saturday evening my head hurt and energy was low. one fun story is when Sister Luli asked Mike to put his sandles in the middle of a circle for a symbol, but the rest of us didn't know about this so I walked in the room, saw Mike's sandles in the middle so i was like alright and put my sandles in the middle too. soon everyone followed suit. Sister Luli walked in and was surprised and said, "Wow this is going to be even more symbolic than I originally thought." =) I like the community here.
"Estoy aqui."
i love kids and elderly. i think it's because i think all they want from you is time. they want you to play/listen to them.
saturday afternoon we went to mass at the IW retirement community. it was a special mass because the Sisters had their annual renewal of vows. and i realized another thing i often take for granted. english mass. this was the first english mass i've been to since i've been here. it was refreshing. i love the spanish mass, but it's nice to know everything that's going on.
then we were having lunch there as well. i'm not sure how Sister Margaret found me, but she grabbed my arm and we walked to the cafeteria together. she was so wonderful and i don't think she understood how much i needed her right then. she was 90 years old and had QUITE a life! she was more than willing to tell me all about it. we found a good seat in the cafeteria and she started telling me about all the places she's been and what she did there. amazing!
i think i found another penpal. she wants me to write her. and i most definitely will.
the celebration was amazing too! there was mexican food (yum) and a wonderful mariachi band. =)
just what i needed.
misa. mesa. musa.
saturday night i felt like a bit of a party crasher. we went to a Sister of Mercy's 50 year jubilee celebration. we missed the mass portion because we didn't get back from our retreat in time so we were waiting around for the dinner (it was at MACC). we were probably the only one's there who didn't know her before, but she was so nice to us. but i still felt like a crasher.
then she got up to talk about her future plans and said she's going to start working with human trafficking. did you know ohio is #3 of places this is happening? i was very surprised. i admired her courage and spirit. she was a very genuine person.
melissa & i worked on our santa fe presentation last night and we looked at a picture of mexico city and i got all excited inside!!!
i feel like i smell pancakes all the time, but then i realize it's the smell of people making tortillas =)
i got a dreadlock. andrea did it for me. mike keeps talking about all of us getting IWM tattoos (i think he's the only one who's actually into it). andrea & i decided our dreads will be our own tattoos.
i just got introduced to peanut butter jelly time. apparently according to melissa and mike i'm about 3 years late, but that's ok with me. =) it makes me laugh
there are all kinds
alright that was A LOT! love to all!
we leave in 8 days for our trek to mexico city!
academics
Initially training started with the history of the Sisters of Charity, self analysis, living in community, staying healthy and progressed to socio-economics. This week we had a few presentations from Larry Boudreau, which were very interesting, but difficult at the same time. Essentially he tried to give a semester's worth of information in just a matter of hours. I think he's a very smart man so he went on tangents, making it even more difficult for me to follow along. I'm going to try to sum up some info I got from his presentations because he did have a lot to share.
Critical Thinking is very important in our society and often not engaged in enough. It is often overlooked because it is so easy to go with how we were taught without questioning. Larry made a comparison to children learning to draw railroad tracks in contrast to the way adults draw them. Adults consider vanishing point whereas children draw it straight forward before they're trained. It's a way to see through what we're programmed to do. Our world could make a lot of progress through dialouge. That is the key.
Cooperatives We started out watching Tomorrow We'll Finish which reminded me a lot of China Blue. This pointed out if the girls worked together they could have pulled together the little resources they have to make their own co-op. Co-ops entail everyone who is a member to be part of the community and own at least one share. While all this information was very dense and heavy and hard to deal with everyday it takes intentionality & as i always try to remember: every little bit helps.
I'm excited for the market that will apparently be right outside our door in Santa Fe on Sundays. mmmm... delicious. locally grown fruits & veggies.
Support your local farmers' market: one sort-of co-op
I definitely still have a lot to learn on these topics.
Larry's quote: "If you can name it, you own it."
and now the etc.
Friday night we had mexican dinner at Lisa's (yes... Lisa's) Mexican Restaurant. The priests that are staying at the MACC right now (for spanish lessons) decided to take us out to dinner. It was so much fun =) Margaritas all around. Except for having to sit at the head of the table and the "live" music being a bit disappointing it was AMAZING and just what I needed. on the way out mike gave me tortillas to take back to MACC so they wouldn't get thrown away and he told me to put them in my skirt pocket. sounded like a great idea. i did it and got white flour all over my black skirt. then everyone else kept asking me why i had flour all over my skirt... bad idea.
we went on retreat friday and saturday full of reflection and prayer. it was extremely challenging when i was so exhausted, but good at the same time. i'll admit by the end saturday evening my head hurt and energy was low. one fun story is when Sister Luli asked Mike to put his sandles in the middle of a circle for a symbol, but the rest of us didn't know about this so I walked in the room, saw Mike's sandles in the middle so i was like alright and put my sandles in the middle too. soon everyone followed suit. Sister Luli walked in and was surprised and said, "Wow this is going to be even more symbolic than I originally thought." =) I like the community here.
"Estoy aqui."
i love kids and elderly. i think it's because i think all they want from you is time. they want you to play/listen to them.
saturday afternoon we went to mass at the IW retirement community. it was a special mass because the Sisters had their annual renewal of vows. and i realized another thing i often take for granted. english mass. this was the first english mass i've been to since i've been here. it was refreshing. i love the spanish mass, but it's nice to know everything that's going on.
then we were having lunch there as well. i'm not sure how Sister Margaret found me, but she grabbed my arm and we walked to the cafeteria together. she was so wonderful and i don't think she understood how much i needed her right then. she was 90 years old and had QUITE a life! she was more than willing to tell me all about it. we found a good seat in the cafeteria and she started telling me about all the places she's been and what she did there. amazing!
i think i found another penpal. she wants me to write her. and i most definitely will.
the celebration was amazing too! there was mexican food (yum) and a wonderful mariachi band. =)
just what i needed.
misa. mesa. musa.
saturday night i felt like a bit of a party crasher. we went to a Sister of Mercy's 50 year jubilee celebration. we missed the mass portion because we didn't get back from our retreat in time so we were waiting around for the dinner (it was at MACC). we were probably the only one's there who didn't know her before, but she was so nice to us. but i still felt like a crasher.
then she got up to talk about her future plans and said she's going to start working with human trafficking. did you know ohio is #3 of places this is happening? i was very surprised. i admired her courage and spirit. she was a very genuine person.
melissa & i worked on our santa fe presentation last night and we looked at a picture of mexico city and i got all excited inside!!!
i feel like i smell pancakes all the time, but then i realize it's the smell of people making tortillas =)
i got a dreadlock. andrea did it for me. mike keeps talking about all of us getting IWM tattoos (i think he's the only one who's actually into it). andrea & i decided our dreads will be our own tattoos.
i just got introduced to peanut butter jelly time. apparently according to melissa and mike i'm about 3 years late, but that's ok with me. =) it makes me laugh
there are all kinds
alright that was A LOT! love to all!
we leave in 8 days for our trek to mexico city!
Hey kiddo, yesterday we saw a terrific report on PBS all about Our Lady of Guadaloupe and how she became the patron saint of Mexico, then all of the Western Hemisphere.
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