Thursday, August 11th
Today we had the first Casa Bayanihan big community assembly! Representatives from each praxis community as well as professors, staff, and other partners attended and we shared our dreams for the program. The meeting started with going around the circle and introducing ourselves and our role with the Casa and then we were asked to answer one of three questions:
1. What is the best pasa-lubong (sp?) or gift you have ever received?
2. What food do Casa students need to try when they visit the Philippines? or
3. What is your favorite song to kareoke?
Number two was the most popular question and the answers ranged from mangoes (which I have tried and must say are AMAZING!) to like a fried beetle dish (haven’t yet tried and not making any plans to) to of course one of the famous Filipino foods halo-halo (haven’t tried yet but super excited to find time to go to Chow King where apparently they are the best!). I, of course, answered number 3: “Lose Yourself”. I’m not sure if our Filipino community members are Eminem fans but my very basic introduction of myself in Tagalog (Ako si Betsy) was a hit!
At the end of the meeting Father Mark, a Jesuit on Casa staff with me and also the students' Philosophy teacher, shared a prayer that has been dedicated to Oscar Romero, the Salvadoran archbishop who was assasinated during the civil war for speaking out against injustice. Although I had heard it before, looking around the room at all the new faces and thinking about the future of this program I was really touched and inspired by the words. I’m posting it here because I find it very beautiful and I think it’s always a good idea to remind ourselves how small we are and that the big picture will always be much bigger than we can even imagine!
"It helps, now and then, to step back
and take the long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of
the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete,
which is another way of saying
that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No programme accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about:
We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything
and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results,
but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders,
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own."
Amen!
Friday, August 12th
Today was my birthday and I seriously could not have asked for a better day! It started out with an amazing Skype conversation with our staff in El Salvador about accompaniment and the best ways to give support to students as they go through their experience. From there we went to Sitio Payong, one of the community praxis sites, where I was greeted with a complete birthday feast! There was pancit, a noodle dish that is traditionally served at birthdays because the long noodles are good for long life! There was also this vegetable dish that was made with liver that I had to mix with a bunch of rice to try to stifle the taste and then barbecued pork. And on top of everything there was a beautiful cake that had “Happy Birthday Betsy” written with icing on it! As if the food wasn’t a gift enough, the women who served us lunch also engaged us in an amazing conversation about the Filipino history and current climate. I have recently been feeling very frustrated with my limited knowledge of the Philippines so I seriously could not have been more grateful for this impromptu lesson! And then the gifts just kept coming when they busted out a guitar and began to sing for us! Because they don’t have electricity for a TV, at night they play the guitar and sing to entertain themselves. And they were so good! I seriously could have stayed there all day just enjoying the food (minus the liver), conversation and music but unfortunately we had to take off and get back to “work.”
So Guillermo and I headed to the mall with a long list of items we still needed for the houses. I felt like I was on that game show where you race around in a supermarket because we were seriously running around this huge department store buying pots and towels and pillows and trash cans, all the while attracting a lot of attention which only added to the stress. But we were able to finish the shopping in time to meet Kev and Trena and their four girls at the mall’s movie theater to see the Smurf movie! Although I hate to rag on anything Neil Patrick Harris is a part of, I have to be honest, it wasn’t a great movie. The best part was hearing Hannah, the six-year-old, crack up anytime someone was getting hurt or any part having to do with bodily function. Gotta love first grade humor, right Mom? When we got back from the mall there was a group of women with children congregating around a park close to our house asking for money. Unfortunately programatically we have been advised not to give anything to people who come to the houses because it could cause problems for our neighbors and it has really been a struggle knowing that I could easily give a couple of pesos or even just left-over food. But this day was especially difficult because we were carrying thousands of pesos worth of items in all of these plastic bags and had to just walk by these women with their children. As soon as we were inside the house I broke down and cried. It just doesn’t make any sense and I know that these are exactly the questions and feelings that this program is designed to provoke but at the moment it was all too overwhelming. Luckily I am surrounded by the most amazing and supportive co-workers who were all there to share in the pain and confusion. At this point I was ready to scrap going out to dinner for my birthday but we had all been working so hard we knew that we were in real need of a celebration. So I asked the Yonkers-Talz girls to come over to help me get ready and seeing their excitement in helping me pick out an outfit or put on lip gloss cheered me up immensely! Sometimes we really do need to look at life through a child's eyes.
We ended the night at a low-key pizza joint and going to sleep I couldn’t help but feel an immense amount of gratitude for the day. Although all throughout the day I especially missed my family and friends back at home and kept imagining myself at Ruby’s on the pier :( So here’s to another year of life and hoping that Blink-182 wasn’t right when they said “nobody loves you when you’re 23!”
Saturday, August 13th
This morning we went to the EDSA memorial to celebrate the anniversary of Tulay ng Kabataan, a non-profit that works with street and slum children at various sites in Manila. We celebrated mass (in tagalog!) and then watched part of an all-day talent event put on by all the kids in the various programs. So as part of my job I get to spend a little time each week in my own praxis community to learn more about the Filipino reality and also help evaluate potential sites for future Casa students. So we’re hoping that one of the TnK sites, Vitas, could be my community placement for this upcoming year. I haven’t had to a chance to visit the actual community site yet but I totally fell in love with the organization and their mission and the couple of people I met from Vitas. So hopefully there will be more to come on this topic! In the meantime check out their website: http://www.tnkfoundation.org/
Sunday, August 14th
Last day before the students arrive! Guillermo and I spent the whole day covered in about an inch of sweat and dirt, constantly running between the houses exchanging fans, hanging white boards, making signs, putting together pots and pans, and cleaning cat poop :( But the houses look amazing! We had a party for Sophie- it's her birthday on the 16th- in the afternoon in my house so the girls came over early to decorate with streamers and balloons and stuff which I think I’ll leave up for the students’ arrival. I promise to post photos of my house and our neighborhood once I get this camara sitch figured out :/ By the way, I’m really into the emoticons right now...I think it’s because my main method of communication here is text messaging and so now my brain just automatically translates things into the most succinct version. But don’t worry Monique, I’m still trying to avoid abbreviations at all costs! We're exhausted but thinking about the ten students arriving tomorrow is totally keeping up going. They are all probably in the air right now- craziness!
So students arrived yesterday. I left for the airport at 3AM to pick up Diana, who was actually a student in El Salvador last fall so it was so great to see her and reconnect. The rest of the day was trips back and forth from the airport, mini-tours to the folks who were awake enough to walk, and teaching peeps how to lock the padlock that we have on the front gate of all of the houses- super tricky! Today was our first full day of orientation and started with a brief history of the Casa program and our first group reflection. We were asked to reflect on why we are here and also our hopes and fears for this upcoming semester. I was so impressed by everyone's reflections and can tell already that this is going to be a really great group! In the afternoon we waited for the rain to stop and then did a little tour of our barangay (neighborhood), Barangka. I'm still feeling my 3AM wake up call so I'm calling it an early night! It's all nuts and bolts stuff tomorrow so I gotta be on top of my game. I promise pictures are on their way! Much love!
