Hello from Chile! I will be in Santiago, Chile for the next 18 months with the Holy Cross Overseas Lay Ministry program. I found this program through the University of Notre Dame, where I went to college, because Holy Cross is the religious order that founded the university, much as the Jesuits and Franciscans and other orders have founded other institutions! I decided to commit the next year and a half to this program because I wanted to do a period of service after graduation. As I have learned from my church, St. Cecilia's, and my time at ND, service is inherently connected to our faith. It is something that God calls us to do. I hope, during this time, to not only learn how to love and to serve with my whole being, but to know myself more. The goal of the program is to assist the Holy Cross mission in Chile (Holy Cross has had a presence here since the 1950s) through teaching at one of the two Holy Cross Catholic schools in Santiago, serving at another one of their outside projects, or "apostolados," and living in community. I spent the fall semester of '07 studying abroad here in Santiago, so it's really really good to be back despite the cold - it is winter here now! Anyway, I will try to write regularly to this blog in order to let everyone know what's going on down in the southern hemisphere.

I arrived in Santiago on July 26, after a two week long training at Notre Dame and Maryknoll, NY. During this time we learned a lot about the art of international service and various problems we might encounter, including culture shock, dealing with violence and other trauma, and of course, health issues such as giardia and explosive diarrhea. Luckily in Chile I am able to drink the water so I don't need to worry about that, thank goodness! Anyway, on July 26 I arrived in Santiago with Shanna Pereira and Joe Coulter. Shanna and I were friends from Notre Dame. We get along very well. She's one of the most passionate, joyful people I've ever met - about everything! She says it is because she's from Hawaii and there's nothing to be sad about. Joe, originally from Boise, recently graduated from the University of Portland (also Holy Cross) and he is great too. He's very outdoorsy so this is the biggest city he's ever lived in. I think it will be a great year and a half together!

To talk a bit more about community life, I must explain that it is not merely me, Shanna, and Joe together. We also live in community with two guys thathave been here for a year, Brian Smith from ND and John Power from UP. They will leave in 6 months, and then a year from now, another group will come. So each group stays for 18 months. The idea was to live all together but the house that they lived in had only three bedrooms and they were unsuccessful in finding a place big enough for five. So they moved out of their house, we three moved in, and they moved to an apartment complex about two blocks away. We've finally been invited over after 3 weeks now that it is "furnished" - I think there was some sneaky bachelor pad stuff that they didn't want us to see. Just kidding. The house we're living in is small but very cute! There are three rooms downstairs, all in a line, if you count the tiny kitchen as one room. The tv room doubles as a dining room, and then there's a laundry room in the back that is always freezing. Climb up the winding staircase (top stair is broken) and there is Shanna's room, my room, Joe's room, and a small bathroom at the end of the hall. My room is the smallest (and it's without a window since it's in the middle), but it's also the one with a library that various Holy Cross volunteers have added to over the years, which I really like. And since Brian and John were accustomed to living here, they usually hang out after school every day and eat here.

Aside from these 4 other gringos, I am part of the Holy Cross community of priests, brothers, and sisters. The first Monday we were here we were invited to the Holy Cross house to eat dinner with Father Mide, the district superior, and his four priest roommates. Apparently some sisters live nearby too, who we have yet to meet. It's definitely interesting being part of this majority men, majority older, community, but I like that it seems to give my purpose here more meaning, more ground. It's good to realize too that religious folk are people too - very normal human beings.

The two Holy Cross schools in Santiago are Saint George's College and Colegio Nuestra Senora de Andacollo (pronounced On-duh-coy-yo). I am working at Andacollo with John and Brian, while Shanna and Joe are working at Saint George's. There is a definite difference between the two schools. While they are both Holy Cross founded, Andacollo is located in the center of the city, where we are living, with a more urban population - poorer kids who might not go to college after they graduate. St. George's, on the other hand, is one of the best colegios (primary and secondary) in the country. It serves a wealthier sector of the city, people with lighter skin and more money. These are the future leaders of the country though, so working there does have a huge impact.

Work has gone ok so far. I work at the school four days a week, and then on Fridays I will work at one of the other social projects that Holy Cross has, like a soup kitchen or Confirmation classes or something. Thursdays are jornada days, or day-long retreats for each curso, or homeroom class, who stays together from first grade until 12th. I'm also working with the pastoral team, so each Thursday I will go on the jornada. So basically I will teach English three days a week as a teacher assistant, help the Pastoral team on Thursdays, and then work somewhere else on Friday or Saturday.

Teaching has been interesting too. Finding classes to help with has been difficult, though. Something about the Chilean school system that I didn't realize before is that at each colegio kids are divided into two classes of about 40 kids each, which is called a curso, and this homeroom class, or curso, stays together for all their time at the school. They don't switch classrooms as we did in middle and high school but rather the teachers switch classrooms and visit each group of kids. There seems to be benefits and drawbacks to this system - the drawbacks being that 40 kids is a huge class size, and also there are no "advanced" classes, so the teachers get the slower learners along with those who pick the subject up quickly in the same class. an advantage would be that being together for 12 years makes you like family. Most college age Chileans who went to private school would still consider kids from their curso their best friends.

After two days, I decided to be proactive and find a class to help out with. John told me that all the teacher's schedules are posted in the teacher's lounge, so after lunch on Tuesday I went there, intercepted Claudio, one of the three English teachers, and asked to accompany him in his next class, which turns out to be 11th graders. Excellent. We are learning phrases like "slightly more than half," and "roughly a quarter," etc., and then Claudio announces the assignment. The students are to break up into groups and write three questions for the other 11th grade curso, which as 36 students in it. The idea is to be able to ask the other curso questions so that the answers coming back will be reported as a fraction. Each group's questions should have a theme, like, "pets." "Does your family own a dog?" should suffice. I walk around the room, making sure the students are writing in English, and I ask one group what their topic is. One guy answers, "Losing your virginity." I thought for sure he's just messing with me, but I look and sure enough the questions are "How old were you when you lost your virginity?" "Do you use condoms?" I was totally taken aback and said something like, "Por favor, chiquillos, a nicer question..." and then headed to another group while Claudio handled that situation, but the next group's questions were all about marijuana and drug usage in general. Yikes! I was definitely not prepared for that. It will certainly be an interesting time at this school!

Well, I think this is enough for now. Please pray for me, I'm going to need it as I struggle to get my schedule as set as it can be in Chile, struggle to get back into Spanish-mode, struggle to relate to kids who are dealing with things I never thought about in my comfortable home, and to survive the cold - Chileans don't use central heating and nights are freeeezing! But I'm really happy to be here, back where no one looks at you strangely for putting three (heaping) spoonfuls of sugar in your tea, where I know what direction I'm going by where the mountains are, and dwhere little children run up to me daily on the pasillo of the school and scream "HOLA TIA!" (Hello Aunt! Respectful term in Chile) and offer me their right cheek for a kiss. Future posts won't be this long, I promise!