Community Time

I realized while thinking about something to post today that I haven´t talked too much about my community or the type of things that we do all together. It is an important part of why I chose to do JVI and is such a prominent (both for better and for worse - well, not worse, but at times a struggle) part of life down here, that I feel like I should share a bit.

Every Sunday night we have community night, and that can range and include from playing a game like Spinners (a really fun form of dominoes), to going over house issues, to talking about some interesting issue with some informational prompt (like when we watched a documentary on immigration and discussed it), to simply checking in with each other on how we are feeling and doing.

Every Wednesday night - though with the business as the school year has reved up, this often changes around - we have a Spirituality night. Last night, our in country coordinator - a Jesuit named Father Dolan - came over and we celebrated mass with just our community. I really enjoy those little celebrations because we get a chance to share our own petitions, ask him questions about different parts of the mass (I had not realized before last night that the symbolism of the mixing of wine and water was that they can never be separated once they are mixed). We also sometimes do guided reflections or discuss some issue of spirituality. It usually is just a nice time to relax and reflect a bit - and again, to share in community some feelings and thoughts.

One of the nice things about stressing these times and community dinners (we have three a week in which all five of us committ to being there to eat) is that when the conflicts or little issues arise, we have enough of a foundational relationship of trust and understanding that usually we can discuss the problem from a positive place. For instance, if there is an issue with dishes being left in the drying rack and not being put away or not being cleaned all the way, it is brought up and discussed and usually resolved (though maybe not perfectly). Obviously there are other times when the issue might be harder to discuss or it might brim beneath the surace, but our desires to support each other and the bonding that we have shared definitely helps it all out.

On a different note, I had my second adult English class in Habitat this past Tuesday. Adults are definitely a different challenge to work with (and I am finding that a lot of the interesting resources like worksheets and fun activities out there, that I can find at least, are for children). I am still sort of nervous about the classes - mostly I think because I try to think how I will fill two hours of time - but I am starting to feel like I at least know what my group of students will be like (a little consistency) and what their levels and interests are, which definitely helps.

Another little tid bit - I went on retreat this past weekend with Cristo Rey, which is the wealthy school with which I did Mes de Mision. In the middle of the retreat, as a little exercise, the priest in charge (who happened to be Fr. Dolan) asked the kids if they wanted to continue with the retreat. No one responded and after some awkwardness and a lot of silence, eventually half of the kids did end up leaving. Whoops. I guess it shows that there are spoiled kids and kids who don´t want to be involved in school communities/personal formation everywhere.