tucked away at Bethany


(<-- View from the kitchen window: upstairs is the chapel, downstairs is the Gathering Room where we have most of our sessions, and the red picnic table is where we wish we could go to eat if it weren't for the sweltering humidity).

I have been tucked away in a quiet corner of New York for a week now, just a 15 minute walk from the Maryknoll Mission Center (for all you Catholics out there who get the magazine). It is a retreat center called Bethany, and it has been a peaceful and centering place so far. The group of people here is amazing. The other people (17) who are headed off to serve this fall are all kindred spirits. The group is 14 twenty-somethings, only 2 of which are guys (they are so brave! ;o) and three women between the ages of 50 and 70. Two of the three women are nuns, one is a Notre Dame who plays a mean African rattle and one is a Gray with a lead foot and a fast guardian angel, and the other will be my housemate in Guyana (she's stellar!). One of the twenty-somethings is a woman from Guatemala who is serving her mission in New York, and her wise perspective after the past three months of adjustment has been invaluable to us. It has been a great group with whom to share, argue, be theatrical, and have as suppport. In the weeks and months that follow we will scatter to the winds and land in places like Guyana (but you knew that), South Africa, Honduras, Paraguay, Haiti, Peru, and one TBA "somewhere in Africa".

So, the question that's really on your minds ... what the heck does one do at a three week cross-cultural orientation in the middle of Nowhere, NY? Well, first off, we're practicing living in community, so we divide up household chores (ie. cooking, cleaning, tidying up the rooms we use and leading a short focusing prayer once a day) and have meals together. No, there is no bedtime, and our first sessions don't start until 9 am, so it is really a pretty relaxed schedule.

The first few days were mostly spent doing community building activities and being introduced to our current process in this journey as the transition (as in, we're not at our service sites yet - and some don't leave until October, but we need to be preparing to leave where we are). We told a bit of our life stories, explored the expectations and theology of our sending mission groups (mine is the Mercy Volunteer Corps), learned about the spirituality of mission from a wonderfully foul-mouthed priest who cut through the crap, gave it to us straight, played a Bette Midler monologue for us and left our heads positively spinning, and we also talked about what a rotten time we're going to have adjusting, on SO MANY levels. I found buddies to run with and play ultimate frisbee with, we had a campeonato futbol game in which our dear Gray nun nearly took out several members of the cheering section with a stellar kick. Oh, and the Maryknoll building where we occasionally have classes (much to our delight, because that wing is the only place around with air conditioning in this ridiculous mugginess!!) is a CASTLE, all gray stone with an Imperial Chinese-styled roof, honoring Maryknoll's first missions to China.

The weekend was ridiculous. First my burning urge to get back to the AT took me and a few new friends to Bear Mtn. State Park NY where we barely made it to the top alive (the humidity was really just unbearable, and I was the only one who thought to bring water .... oops!!) We then went home only to have another amazing adventure in an Ecuadorian restaurant downtown. Now, you may not know this, but Ossining, NY is actually the "little Ecuador" of NYC - they just prefer to be in the campo (a rural area). So EVERYTHING was in Spanish, the food and drink were not quite what we expected, the looks that we got from the neighboring tables that went from ogling to amusement to amazement to friendliness as we chatted with the families around us was unforgettable. We were certainly the entertainment for the evening. OH, speaking of which, one of the other nights we went to a local parish on our free time to hear a presentation about world hunger (I told you, a very dedicated and special group). Trouble was, we couldn't find it at first, and whoever was at the front of the troop somehow got directed to a group upstairs in a chapel. Once we sat down, we noticed that the entire population around us was Latino, and we were asked if we were the whole English-speaking community. We didn't really understand what he was getting at, so I offered that some of us spoke English and some spoke Spanish. Then he asked if we were all there for the baptisms - HA!! Well, we decided not to get baptized, but to find the presentation in another building. We met a wonderful woman named Eileen, who invited us to write our senators for the Bread for the World program, and then invited us to a peace vigil (which turned into more of a rally once all of us crazy youngins got involved - I even played a little on my tin whistle!!). It was a wonderful time. (Maryknoll Peacemakers featured include (from L) : Sr. Therese Marie, Tuleisha, Sr. Mary (hiding behind her HONK FOR PEACE sign (camera-shy)), Eva, Eileen, Tierney, Mikayla, Abbie (TOCA LA BOCA PARA LA PAZ!?! - bocina isn't a real word anyway)).

Okay, back to the weekend: after Bear Mtn., I was cajoled into seeing a Broadway show with my ultimate buddy - we saw The Producers (just excellent, excellent - ONLY Mel Brooks could make Springtime for Hitler so delightfully irreverent), took in a sidewalk festival (pretty sure it was the same 12 booths that kept picking up and moving a block ahead of us as we mosied along - LEH-MOHN-AY-AH-D!!) and went to mass at St.Pat's Cathedral - a real New York experience, if you ask me (except no french fries for breakfast, Hamel ladies). Very enjoyable. Highlights of the day also included but were not limited to: running into a fellow Greely High School theatre junkie after the show; being freaked out of our minds by a dude in a SpiderMan costume jumping at us and shooting his "imaginary webs" out of his wrists in our general direction; learning that it doesn't really matter whether "gyro" is pronounced jy-roh or hero, you still can't eat one while walking; that the word "lemonade" actually consists of about 8 syllables when sung by a street vendor; and that your favorite pair of pants will undoubtedly have a HUGE rip right across the top of your crack after a full day in the city.

Other than that, just trying to be playful about the idea that Eileen and I are "in training" for Guyana with this 90+ degree heat and 90%+ humidity ... tee hee frickin' hee. :o( Please send snow in my first care package, knowing that it will take 3-10 weeks for delivery ;o) (just kidding, not quite that long).




I leave you with a serene shot of St. Patrick's cathedral in NYC. This is a picture of many confused Catholics leaving mass after the organist led a race through the fastest mass EVER, and the Welsh (?!?) priest played along, but somehow still managed to deliver one of the longest homilies I think I have ever heard about one passage of scripture without straying off topic.

Wasn't that a first week.