Well, Dave and I made it to Santiago sin problemas. Had to fly to Chicago then to Toronto where we had a 5 hour layover and then fly 10.5 hours to Santiago. I won the coach-class lottery on the overnight flight to Santiago…A young Argentine couple asked me if I would mind switching seats so they could sit together. I was reluctant because I had specifically chosen an aisle seat, but they convinced me when they said there was a pretty young lady in the seat adjacent to the one they wanted me to move to. She was quite gorgeous, but she was from Argentina and I’ll probably never see her again. But, even better, the seat was in the very front of the coach section and had about twice as much legroom. Good start to this 10-month journey!
Some are probably wondering why I am back in Chile…wasn’t I just here? So, I should probably explain a little of what I am doing. After graduating from St. John’s I signed up for the Benedictine Volunteer Corps (BVC), a volunteer program that is sponsored by St. John’s Abbey, a Benedictine monastery that runs the university. The BVC has various sites throughout the world where they send SJU grads to live and work in Benedictine monasteries for 9 or 10 months. One of these sites is here in Santiago with a Benedictine lay group called the Manquehue Movement. Manquehue is the only BVC site that isn’t a monastery. Rather, it is a lay community of about 1,600 members that follows the rule of St. Benedict and runs three Catholic, Benedictine schools in Santiago (San Lorenzo, San Benito and San Anselmo). Instead of monks and nuns, they have oblates, some celibate and some married, who work within the community and get together a few times a day to pray the liturgy of the hours and lectio divina. I am volunteering with David Allen, a fellow Johnnie grad who is also in the BVC and we are staying in a house in Santiago with other Oblates who work at the schools.
The first week has been hectic. On Monday, the day we arrived, we went to the house and unpacked our stuff and then one of the Oblates took us on a tour of San Benito school, where we met more people than my brain can process in one day. Tuesday and Wednesday we spent at San Lorenzo and San Anselmo and on Wednesday night we also volunteered in a women’s shelter. That was quite the experience. We talked with some of the women and served food. The place was full to capacity with women who otherwise would have spent the night on the street. One woman had three young kids and was pregnant. Dave and I hadn’t eaten and were starving, but didn’t eat there because we were afraid more women would show up throughout the night and that they would run out of food. Thursday and Friday we’ve been at San Lorenzo. All three schools are pretty big and nice. San Benito and San Anselmo students are generally upper-middle class. San Lorenzo is more inner city whose students mostly come from rather poor families. San Lorenzo is where we will be volunteering mostly, helping with English classes and a mentoring program called Tutoria. We are kind of confused about exactly what our role is at San Lorenzo and spend a lot of time hanging out and talking with the kids. The school has internet and that’s the only time that I have access to it until I find an internet café near the house.
The days have been long so far leaving the house at about 7am and getting home at 7pm. I hope the weekend is a little less intense. This weekend there is a big soccer game between Chile and Venezuela…if Chile wins this they go to the World Cup. Some people our age from the Tutoria program at San Lorenzo invited us watch the game with them. I am hoping the Oblates will let us go.
It’s been cold and cloudy but I have lots of warm cloths. Everyone has been very accommodating and it’s been great to practice Spanish daily again. Will write another update soon. click for photos
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