Today was, as usual, wonderful. We had our first day of Orientation Training for BSC and, as cheesy as this sounds, I feel a lot more connected to this wonderful group of people who I have the honor of sharing this experience.
Erin and I slept out in the living room and will have this be our designated bedroom until June 7. This morning we all ate breakfast together. I really like how we eat meals together. As cheesy as this sounds, it's a wonderful way to start the day and it really feels like more of a community when meals are shared. We left the house about 10:40 a.m. to be at Cristo Rey Parish for 11:00 a.m. mass. I had no idea that I was going to have such a cultural experience at this mass.
When we got there we were introduced to Pastor Rose Mary. It was great to finally meet her in person after our phone conversations about this summer. She is a faaantastic person and is very much full of life and love. In the Mexican culture, you greet people with a hug and a kiss or a hug, but a long embrace. The mass itself gave me goosebumps throughout certain parts of it. Since Cristo Rey is a primarily Spanish-speaking population (as is most of El Paso), the mass was mainly spoken in Spanish but was also split with some English. The songs that were English were sung half in Spanish, and the rest were all Spanish songs. I followed along with the program so that I was able to understand the order of the service and where to look in the hymnal. From now on whenever I hear or sing Open the Eyes Of My Heart I will always think of Cristo Rey. :) Rose Mary had all of us BSC members stand in front of everyone, and she and the whole congregation gave us a blessing. Of course, this was also followed by giving each of us another hug. It was lovely! Rose Mary then had each of us introduce ourselves and tell the congregation which sights we were at. The part of the mass where you give everyone the sign of peace (Paz, in Spanish) was probably the biggest shock for me. It was a much longer time period and you actually were able to walk around and go to almost every single person, hug them, and say "Paz." It made me wonder why we can't do this during other services. Plus, not to go completely off topic, but the physical contact of another person is a therapeutic feeling. I've never been a very touchy-feely person, but I absolutely love how hugging or giving someone a touch on the shoulder is a common act in the Mexican culture. I'm worried that I'm going to start doing that when I get back home and people will think I'm some creep. Hopefully, this will someday be integrated into the United States' culture?
The rest of the mass was very moving in general. Another church was visiting from Colorado and they had 2 high school youth groups present. They're a great group of kids, too! After mass we ate lunch at Cristo Rey (authentic Mexican food - score!) and sat with the 2 youth groups, families of the parish, and KIDS! It was so fun! :) I sat with 4 high schoolers from Colorado, Erika, Erin, Hannah, and a HILARIOUS/adorable 10 year old girl named Kenia. Kenia is also a part of the Cristo Rey youth group and when I told her that I was working with her this summer she just responded with a joyful sounding "OH GOOD!" :) She also said some of the funniest things during our time there... I'm still kind of laughing as I'm writing this just thinking about it all. Kenia was playing this trick on us for a period of time. It's a long story, but she threw in a line saying "I don't want to have kids. I want to keep it simple." and when I told her that I was 22, done with college, and studied to be a teacher, she told me "Daaaang!" with the biggest eyes. Kenia made our whole table laugh, and I got to know some of the high schoolers pretty well. Rose Mary pulled Erin and me aside and explained more about our schedule for this week at Cristo Rey. We are both going to have a lot of fun working together!
After mass, Hannah drove all of us interns up Rim Road. B-e-a-YOU-tiful view! It was also great weather because there was a nice breeze. We had a much better view of El Paso and Mexico, and the cities are so huge that we couldn't even see the edge of the city from our very high view in the mountains. Pictures will be posted to facebook! It was so gorgeous. If I ever can afford to do this, I would love to build a house up there :) It was one of those moments when it hit me again that I was in Texas. Not that I forget, but sometimes it's weird thinking "You're living in Texas now." That beautiful view also made me feel so thankful to have that opportunity. Someday I'll get over it, but for now I am still always taken aback by this beauty that is constantly surrounding me.
We drove to a park that is located not too far away from the overview. It is also on Rim Road. We read through our manuals there and had some soul talk about what it means to be in BSC and the responsibilities that we have to impact lives at our sights. I definitely left our meeting feeling more informed, slightly overwhelmed, but also very much at peace.
When we got back to the house, we made a grocery list as a group and planned out all of our meals for this week. We are only given $100 per month to split for groceries per month. We all have various dietary needs, but as a team we were able to work it out and plan one kick-a** grocery list. Erika and Erin went bought the food, and next week Lily and me will go.
While Erika and Erin went shopping, Lily and me chilled at the house and had some downtime. We were finally able to talk one-on-one and get to know each other better; tremendous person that Lily girl is. I feel so thankful to be experiencing this trip and opportunity with her! She also has a fancy-dancy camera, so between the two of us we will have some high def./pretty pictures of our trip!
Part 2 on the next post...
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