Good Shepherd Volunteers

Just Love from Paraguay

2012-01-31T13:03:00.000-05:00

GSV’s motto is as follows: “Just Love”— short, simple, and to the point.

To “just love” someone, genuinely authentically with your whole being is not always so simple. It is easier said than done, especially in “extreme” cases like murderers or abusers or whatever labels you want to give it. To Just Love, every being you encounter is hard work. It takes discipline, reflection, commitment, and an open mind and heart, to say the least. To JUST LOVE is a life(s) long journey, walking, running, and stopping—infinitely. As I continue to walk, run, stop, go back, re-walk, re-run, stop again and go forward, I continue to be amazed about how capable, we beings are, in loving, in just loving. The thought of trying to share with you my experience here in Paraguay feels like I would need to write you a book in order to try to express maybe half of the intensity of what I’ve been a part and what I’ve felt over the past half year. So, to keep things “simple,” I will say I have experienced what it feels like to Just Love and to Just Be Loved and for that I am blessed. To JUST LOVE is what I like to call one of life’s “simple complexities.”

In 2010, I was privileged to be a college student trying to make sense of how to live life outside of classes, ice cream, and soccer practice. The year after, as a 1^st year GSV, I was privileged to take an urban hop into the world of NYC’s 17^th street, Euphrasian Residence, a diagnostic-receptive center, a group home for girls 12-18 years old coming from extreme unjust situations of neglect, abuse and violence. As a 2^nd year GSV, I am privileged to “tiré un paso” into the world of Paraguay, South America, of tereré drinking, scorpion killing, bumpy road walking, bus squishing, ñanduti making, cumbia dancing, story telling, Spanish/Guaraní speaking, empanada making, and more. The past three years have been distinctively different from one another.

Life is different for every person, everywhere, every day. I don’t know where I will be this time next year, but what I do know is that no matter where I am, no matter what I am doing, or who I am with, I will continue to try to understand what it means to JUST LOVE for what it has taught me so far is that it is the only thing that makes us all ONE. It is the only thing that binds all cultures, all religions, all races, all sizes, all shapes, all sexes, all genders, all sexualities, all education privileges and lack there of, and so on. I’m 23 years old and have a lot to learn, but I think if I can keep my head and my heart centered in this simple-complex GSV motto of “Just Love,” I’ll continue to solve life’s puzzle, peace by peace.

by Jess Simonetti, Paraguay 2011-2012

Delight.

2012-01-05T22:25:00.000-05:00

Wow. How this year has flown by so fast- Up here in Washington Heights, we cannot believe that it's already January! Our fall was full of a lot of exploring NYC, getting used to life here and enjoying all that the big apple has to offer! We have enjoyed a lot of the touristy spots, but also enjoyed the parks in our neighborhood (in Upper Manhattan) and of course, Central Park! You can see a picture of the 911 and the tree at Rockefeller Center memorial below:)

All three of us went home for the holidays, and while home, were faced with many questions from family members-- What will come after the GSV year? What will you DO with your life? What are you going to do after this GAP year? What do you want to do when you enter into the REAL world?
All legitimate questions- expressing concern and care for our lives. However, it made me really think...

Is this GSV experience really a 'gap' year experience? Am I still not a part of the 'real' world? Hmm. I'd say that the experiences that GSVs have are almost more REAL, raw and authentic than some people will ever face in their life. We arent really taking any sort of BREAK or GAP, but really plunging into difficult positions where we face challenging questions and being forced to ponder- who defines this so-called 'REAL' world, anyways?

Seeing the effects of abuse, poverty and neglect on the lives of clients, students, families, children, people we have grown to truly deeply care about-- that has really shown us a lot about what the REAL REAL world is like.

So what will I DO with my life? Well, I sure hope I have the opportunity to do more of THIS life. Surrounded by fellow social justice nerds who listen to me as I passionately rant about my day. Supported by an intimate group of recent grads who loves to have fun, and also loves to help under-resourced communities. Interacting with families and students who have such resilience, intelligence and creativity- I feel blessed to have the chance to work along side them.

So for now, for this moment, in this very day. I will delight in what is right here, right now. The beauty that surrounds me through the opening of hearts. The stubborn student who finally gives math a chance when I effortlessly try to make it fun. The bullied girl who stops empowering the bully- stops letting the bully have the power, and takes it back into her own hands.

I will delight in cheaply made meals- rice and beans, pasta with vegetables- the yogurt, oatmeal and PB & Js. the 2 for 1 soup deals at the bodega down the street. I will delight in the creativity that surfaces as we often scrounge around for something to eat.

I will delight in the creaky, hissing old pipes of our apartment, and my consistent failed attempts to use my limited Spanish to communicate with our neighbors. I will delight in the trips to the 99 cent store to buy a can of beans to accompany our rice for dinner. the commute to and from work, where people-watching has become less of a fun hobby and more of an every day occurrence.

But most of all- I will merely delight in the blessing it is to be right here. right now. Through the trials, the struggles and the challenges. A beacon of light always shines through those grey clouds, no matter how daunting they may seem. There is ALWAYS something to be delighted in, even though sometimes it just takes a bit of digging away the dirty grime to get to the hidden treasure.

Our community has put a large emphasis on GRATITUDE and focusing on what we DELIGHT in.
We created a Thank Tank and a Delight wall, created out of chalkboard paint (pictured here)
We write various things that we are thankful for and put them in the Thank Tank. We also write small things that we delight in with chalk on the Delight wall.
We encourage any of our visitors to do the same :)

So come visit us and join us in our movement of delighting.
or consider starting a revolution in your daily life. a revolution of turning frowns upside down. seeing the glass half full. and most of all embodying joy in this world that often works so hard at telling us to settle with hum-drum, mediocre lives.

We invite you to join the Wash Heights GSV Community in embracing the ordinary this year.

Greetings from Astoria!

2011-12-17T19:22:00.001-05:00

It has only been four months since we have arrived, and surprisingly the start of transitioning from our former lifestyles to our current is long and gone. While it is safe to say that the adjustment period of learning to live with five other strangers is a continual process of practiced patience, compassion, and understanding, our community has learned that it is also a time to rejoice and delight in each other whether it is through conversations on what each individual’s spirituality looks like or through laughing and enjoying each other’s company while exploring new york city all together. From ice skating to celebrating St. Nick’s Day to community dinners, we have not only found ways in which forming community happens but rather we have actively sewn together the bonds of what we strive for our community to look like.

One of the lessons I’ve learned so far from this year has thematically paralleled with what New York City ultimately lacks: space. At the beginning of this year I thought that as volunteers and now current residents of NYC, there definitely was an imbalance of distribution in these two categories(lives as volunteers and lives as NYC rezzies).

By this I mean...

... when I earnestly rush to the train doors of a car that has just arrived in hopes of making it on time to my destination only to discover it is clearly the sight of an opened can of sardines, I feel powerless and unable to do anything but let that train pass. There is no way my body will fit inside that train.

...when I walked past the 11 of the 17 unoccupied rooms of our living quarters, I used to feel that there was too much space for six volunteers. We could not possibly create what is needed most when six strangers move in together: intimacy.

However, with this imbalance of physical space and lack of closeness, what comes with this is perspective. I realized that this year is about choices. We have the choice to make this year what we want it to be. I can push through and into that crowded train or I can let that train go and jump onto the next one. I can wander the hallways of my home and feel overwhelmed by the excessive space or I can explore its abundance and see the opportunity we all have to be creative in ways community bonding can occur other than community nights and spirituality nights.

The point is, being a volunteer is exactly what it sounds like. It is about making the choice to act, create, build relationships, reconfigure perspectives, and if none of that, then it is to ultimately delight in each other and this world.

With Love,

Cat & and the Astoria community

To know, to love.

2011-11-06T23:54:00.001-05:00

Hello from Malaysia!! I'm so excited to blog here and share some of our life with you because it's like throwing out a life/love line. Courtney and I have been living at a hostel for teenage girls. It's basically a boarding house for these 20 girls - it's more convenient for them to live here because their homes are too far from school. We "journey" with them - some English lessons, lots of fun activities especially as the school year is coming to an end and exams are over, lots of everyday things like cleaning, cooking, hanging out.

But even as we find ourselves constantly moving from one thing to the next (it's never boring when you live and work with so many teenagers), Courtney and I often find ourselves talking about what it means to be a volunteer here. In simpler terms, why are we here? Or, what are we doing?? I think that could be the number one existential query for us volunteers. Last year, as a Good Shepherd Volunteer in NYC (yes, I just can't get enough), I realized that I was a volunteer at my placement mainly as a WITNESS. I was there to be a witness of the lives of the residents. I wasn't there to make their lives better. I wasn't there to fix things. Yes, those results sometimes became wonderful side effects. But mainly, I was there to witness. And in so doing, share life and love with them.

This year, it is very much the same, but of course different. First of all, we're in Malaysia. Courtney and I say that to each other every so often so that we don't forget. Usually to complement feelings of joy and wonder and gratitude. But also sometimes to remind ourselves of why we may have felt off, or more tired than usual, or just super frustrated about all the bug bites.

It's also different because Courtney and I will be hopping around different placements. Four, to be exact. We leave this beautiful place with these girls next week. We'll have been here for 2 months. Next we go to the city to spend the holidays at a pregnant women's crisis shelter (if I think 20 teenage girls is something, I'm sure 14 pregnant women will be something else). After that, we go to another hostel for primary school kids, both boys and girls, for 6 months. And then back to the city for 2 months to work at a youth center with college aged kids. Phew. This isn't a normal volunteer year (though, I suppose there is no such thing). We don't get to spend a full year at any placement. And Courtney and I have had to accept and love that.

So. Why exactly am I here? A month or so ago, our hostel director Amy was talking to us over lunch and she said something that hit me. She said, "It's so nice that you are exposed to this new culture, meet new people, see new things." And I wholeheartedly agreed. It was kind of a "duh" moment. In saying that, Amy gave me permission to fully embrace what I had initially felt guilty about feeling - I had this niggling thought that more than anything, I am here to learn new things, new ways, new beings.

Then, my beautiful NYC community member Alaina sent me an email in response to a birthday email I had sent her. I want to share her words with you: "among all of the messages i received for my birthday, what hit me the most from them and from yours was the feeling of being KNOWN…thank you for this great gift: the feeling of being known, appreciated, significant, and loved by one you love so much. which is then also the greater gift: your friendship, your attentiveness, your support…we fall in love with our friends because we know their difficult and beautiful in's and out's. i know my life is somehow better and different, my heart is somehow better and different, through our friendship."

And I realized that Alaina's words resonate so much with me now because it is how I feel about the girls here in this hostel. Our friendship is not what I have with Alaina. But it is made out of the same stuff. Ultimately, I am here to KNOW the girls and, in so doing, love them. It is a great blessing to know them. To know their names. To know their faces. To know their likes and dislikes. To know of their beautiful existence in this world. It reminds me of going to Georgia with my community members almost exactly a year ago, for the School of the Americas protest and vigil. One of the things at the vigil that hit me most deeply was praying for "unidentified woman" "unidentified man" and "unidentified child". It made me deeply sad that, along with their lives, their names were taken by violence and injustice. That remembrance continues to remind me that because we simply are, we are holy. We are amazing! Beings of light and love.

So here are some things that I know, and therefore love, about the girls. Evyliana nicknamed herself "Corro" which means "small". Nani loves to do yoga (funnily enough, led by yours truly), even though she usually yells out in pain most of the time. Bernadeth sometimes likes to talk like she's a mobster out of the side of her mouth. Michelle can hula hoop really well. Denis has complete authority over the remote control during television time. Lala made a wanted poster when we had them make mandalas. Sunita can't stop laughing once she starts. Clay is an athlete. Martina can take a few chords and play any song on her guitar. (Oh and those pictures up there: the top one is some of the girls and me - in turquoise, I know I blend in quite well - looking like I'm helping them at the Good Shepherd volunteer appreciation beach day, but I'm mostly just laughing so hard my stomach hurts. The second picture is Bernadeth and Sunita sleeping so hard they collapsed onto Courtney, on a trip back from town).

Of course, not everything we know about the girls is as easy to love. The cliques, the cattiness, the dramas, the back talk, the bullying. But that is the beauty of knowing. We know that and embrace them, not in spite of, but because of.

So here's to the girls. Here's to the women and children we will have the privilege to meet and know along this journey of a year. Here's to knowing and loving many new things, new experiences, new people. My life will be somehow better and different, my heart will be somehow better and different, more open and full.

Just Loving in Wickatunk

2011-10-20T22:07:00.000-04:00

Hello! Here we are in Wickatunk, NJ, reflecting on the year so far. We started the year really embracing the tenant of simplicity. We spent the first few nights hanging out by candle light and playing games. Instead of watching TV and using the internet, we spent quality time together sweeping a 1/2 mile drive way, cleaning the bottom of a pool, climbing rock walls, and crabbing. We reduced the amount of water we used by skipping showers, flushing toilets sparingly, and refraining from laundry. The food we ate was stored in coolers to save energy that the refrigerator would have otherwise consumed..... and then the power came on ;) Hurricane Irene really influenced the way we started the GSV experience! Although the storm forced us to live this way, we wouldn't have changed any of it as we got to spend time getting acquainted with our new home, our wonderful neighbors (the Sisters of the Good Shepherd), and our community. Since then, we've started volunteering at our work placement, Collier High School. We hit the ground running, all busy in different areas of the school. We thought we'd each share a little bit about what we've been up to!

Hey everybody! This is Anne (also known as Miss S.)! I came to GSV from Colorado after graduating from Colorado State University with a degree in interior design. You may ask how interior design correlates with an alternative high school. God has yet to reveal that to me, but I do know that I couldn't be happier and that I am truly where I'm supposed to be... My involvement in choirs, musicals and art classes in high school have all proven to be helpful with this experience, in addition to the many art classes I took and loved in college. While working at Collier, I've been in the music, drama, and PE classes. I also sneak into the art classes as often as I can and lead the art club. I truly love being in classes with the students. I think they express their true selves through the arts, and it has brought me such great joy to interact with them throughout the day. I feel so blessed to be in this place and to have met so many wonderful people. That's all for now-- thanks for reading and God bless!

Hi! This is Sydnie and I come all the way from Chicago. I graduated from Augustana College with a degree in Psychology and English. I feel so blessed to be spending my volunteer year at Collier High School. I knew coming into this year that I enjoy working with teenagers, and my experience thus far has only strengthened my hunch. As I spend my day in the office of Smith Hall (the home of social services, the new middle school, and classrooms) I get to experience an array of activity. From paperwork to interacting with staff and students the day is never the same. Whether it's making copies or listening to how a student is feeling, I always go home feeling accomplished. Although some days are harder than others I wake up the next day with one of Collier's mottos in mind; "wipe the slate clean. It's a new day!" Until next time, thanks for reading!

Hey, this is Aleks. I am so grateful to be spending a year in Collier High School. I'm shocked that it's already the end of October and know this year will fly by so I'm trying to embrace everyday. My role in the school is pretty eclectic and I typically never know where the day will bring me. I am lucky to have my own little office in front of the principals and assist him in various tasks. I enjoy being able to do different things everyday and feel like I'm really learning a lot about myself this way. The staff at the high school is really inspirational, and the students are as well! Thanks for reading :)

Hello everyone--my name is Christina! I was born in Kentucky and studied Film Production at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. It has been so amazing embarking on this new journey with the Good Shepherd Volunteers. My time at Collier has been spent doing a wide array of things--helping out in the main office, subbing in the classroom, editing promotional clips for a website, creating my own animation and so much more. Our supervisor at Collier has been great about making sure that us volunteers are doing things that we are interested in. I personally feel that I am able to blend my passion into the work that I am doing and it makes each day exciting! On top of that I am surrounded by wonderful people! I feel blessed to be around the girls in my community, the staff at the school, the other volunteers in the area and of course the students that I work with. Thanks for reading!

Hello lovely readers - I'm Malinda. I was born in the BEST state, yes you guessed it, Minnesota! I went to College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, MN and graduated with a degree in Chemistry... I am sure none of you have heard of this place since it's in the middle of nowhere. So I am feeling right at home here in Wickatunk on 260 acres of land! So far, I am absolutely LOVING Collier High School. It is such a unique place and my days here at Collier are all different. I substitute in all sorts of classes, help out in PE classes, work in the office, work with students in biology labs, and help coach the soccer team. I am really enjoying working with the soccer players. Interacting with them, and getting to know them better outside of the classrooms has been such a rewarding experience. We went on our first away game today, and won 4-1.. and to the competitive spirits out there, it is always more fun when you win, right? Anyways, I feel so blessed to be a part of this supportive community here at Collier and am so excited to what these next 10 months bring! That's all for now folks!

Well, for the VERY last time now, we would really like to thank you all for reading! :) Over and out.

No worries, just adventures.

2011-10-06T20:28:00.000-04:00

This has become the Brooklyn community’s motto, and for good reason. For one, we are embarking on this incredible adventure with GSV (moving to The Big City, working for virtually no money, living with strangers, etc.). For another, our first few weeks in the city included an earthquake, a hurricane, and terror threats. Somewhere between the “planned” adventures of being a Good Shepherd Volunteer and the unexpected ones that Mother Nature and the like decided to throw our way, Lori coined this beautifully applicable phrase and it stuck as our community motto. Any time we’re unsure of something, one of us smiles, shrugs, and rattles off our slogan and we all feel better.

All in all, our first month and a half of GSV/NYC life has certainly been eventful. We were thrust into life in Brooklyn in the midst of Hurricane Irene panic, which meant stocking our apartment with essentials at the same time that everyone else on the East Coast was over-stocking for--seemingly--the apocalypse. Thankfully, being in a high-elevation neighborhood and Irene not hitting the City quite as hard as was forecasted, the fact that we weren’t able to stock our apartment well was the biggest war story we have from the storm.

However, as a consequence of the barrenness of our apartment, we ended up having some fairly interesting and underwhelming meals. “Soup party”, for instance. This involved taking two cans of Campbell’s soup--of different flavors--and mixing them together. We ate our combo soup with “salad”. I put salad in quotation marks because, as Mariella described it, it was “a head of iceberg lettuce and, like, two carrots”.

Slowly but surely, we all began to acquire our stipends and properly stock our shelves. The Brooklyn community has a weekly schedule that has us cooking for and eating with each other at least 4 nights a week. The amount of food on our shelves and in our bellies is the most tangible way to show our trials as we entered the program and is also a perfect way to show how far we’ve come since then. Our nightly meals is a time when our community can come together and make something delicious as a team, congratulate each other on a meal well-done, and share our thoughts with one another.

Life as a full-time volunteer in a city as big and unique as New York definitely has its ups and downs. We’re still getting used to the various (generally unpleasant) smells of our neighborhood, the fact that everything is more expensive than we’re used to, and long subway commutes. But when we take in the City’s beautiful sights, find a good bargain, or have a great conversation, somehow the amazingness of this experience outweighs whatever might be getting us down.

We’re already marveling at how quickly the time is passing; it’s hard to believe. Between work, home, GSV, and anything resembling a social life the days just seem to fly by--here’s to making every moment count.

With love, from Tewsdey and the Brooklyn community

The New Good Shepherd Volunteers!

2011-10-04T10:51:00.001-04:00

GSV Orientation this year took place at the end of August at Mount Manresa Jesuit Retreat Center in Staten Island, New York. We are so excited to welcome the 19 new volunteers and 5 returning volunteers to the 2011-2012 GSV year!

Now to introduce this year GSVs...

The Astoria Community
Top: Lily Roggenkamp (Chelsea Foyer), Alicia Miller (Family Foster Care), Haileigh Nelson (Family Foster Care)
Bottom: Christie Welch (Chelsea Foyer), Karin Christenson (Euphrasian Residence), Catherine Mock (Marian Hall)

The Brooklyn Community
Nicolle Walkling (GSS Public Policy), Lori Hendrickson (Safe Homes), Tewsdey Erickson-Million (Grady High School), Mariella McLachlin (Bushwick High School)

The Washington Heights Community
Kylie Brandt (MS 118), Erika Leksan (HandCrafting Justice), Catherine Scallen (HandCrafting Justice)

The Wickatunk Community
Top: Malinda Madery (Collier High School), Anne Skrobacz (Collier High School)
Bottom: Christina Hardebeck (Collier High School), Aleksandra Mazurek (Collier High School), Sydnie Birginal (Collier High School)

The Malaysia Community
Lara Torii, Courtney Montony

The Bolivia Community
Nova Lucero, Marianne Florentino

The Paraguay Community
Top: Jess Simonetti
Bottom: Krystina Monetti

Check the GSV blog again soon to read about the adventures of the new GSVs!

the final word is...

2011-07-25T11:31:00.004-04:00

Being a volunteer means redefining your life. It means adopting a new language and perspective, a new understanding of the context within which you exist. For my roommates and I, it’s been a process of constant growing: reinterpreting what we thought we knew about ourselves and finding new words to describe what we saw happening in our jobs and the world at large.

And at the end of that,
after 40+ hour work weeks,
almost 50 each of community nights and spirituality nights,
weekly supervisions with our supervisors
and 4 retreats…

...it means filling out a whole lot of paper work in an attempt to encapsulate that experience.

The final question of the GSV program evaluation asks for three simple words to summarize the greatest lessons your volunteer year has given you. I asked my roommates to share their responses. Though there are repetitions and similarities, the experiences that these words evolved from are as completely unique to each varied member of this community as it is completely shared and felt by each one of us. Reading them, I am reminded of the conversation we all had earlier this week: How on earth did we get here from orientation?

Ask my roommates their highlights of the year and the list looks something like this:

Road trip to the SOA protest in Georgia, events at Bluestockings, acquiring our Christmas tree Gabriel (and hosting him for many months after Christmas ended), dancing at Stonewall, attending GSV retreats together, sharing meals, slumber parties, “cry days,” working through challenges with our placements or residents, lazy movie days, a little something we like to call the ring of fire (don't ask), visiting the Highline, sharing books, making chore charts and devising a community grocery plan, walking the Brooklyn Bridge, celebrating marriage equality on Christopher street, weekend trips to the Shore or upstate, throwing a Christmas party, creating art together…we have certainly experienced NYC to the fullest (and on a volunteer stipend!)

But community is made through all moments, planned or unplanned, spoken and unspoken. Walking to the train earlier this morning with Lara, we were discussing the strange nature of community: what parts are intentional, what just becomes organically. Whether we wanted to or not, we bore witness to one another as we navigated our personal lives and our placements. Without trying, we were a part of every stumble, heart break, and happiness merely by proximity alone. The funny thing about intentional community is everyone comes in with their OWN intentions, yet I think what our community experienced this year is what can arise when we drop our intentions and expectations. Drop all that and the real lessons arise. Spoken or unspoken, these are the lessons we have lived. Spoken or unspoken, they have changed us. “Acceptance,” (K): supporting roommates through deep identity questioning, or accepting humility and taking ownership of our behaviors towards others. “Patience” and “Openness” and "Forgiveness" (MAAKL): patience with ourselves, community members, and residents; meeting people where they’re at; being open to others and to the experience, to the very idea of change. Understanding we are all human, making mistakes and growing together...and sometimes it's just healthier to let go. My favorites were “Adventure,” “Love,” and “Joy” (MAAKEL). They speak to our entire community’s zest for fun, laughter, and adventure, the willingness to seek it everywhere (E). And finally, “It just is.” (J) “It is what it is” became a guiding mantra for Astoria this year. We had a choice: accept what’s in front of you, or not. But it would always be what you made it to be. And apparently when you’ve adopted that attitude what you get is a rich tapestry of 7 stories that intertwine (and a whole lot of “You know you’re a volunteer when”… jokes.)

Some of us are great talkers; some of us are great listeners. Some of us put our words forth in writing and others words find expression through physicality and play, drawing, and laughing. However we expressed it, this was our Astoria life, our year stepping out of an ordinary existence and into something we couldn’t have created if we tried. What then is the answer, what got us here? I don’t think I have a word for that particular lesson. There might never be an appropriate word to describe this family of characters. It could be “just love” (GSV’s motto rang true through it all). Maybe it’s “MAJAKEL”, a surprisingly prophetic acronym we assigned ourselves. Or maybe it’s this: “thanks”. From my heart, dear Astoria community, thank you. GSV: thank you.

This year started out looking like an episode of the REAL WORLD: Astoria (find out what happens when 7 womyn are chosen to live in an old highschool…). We’ve come a long way, and now it’s ending. Whatever it has been, I don’t have the perfect word. I wouldn’t want to confine this experience or my roommates to a simple word anyways. But I can feel it. I can feel it to my core. I would venture to say that’s something we all share, too.

So, for the last time, this is the Astoria GSVs signing off.

This is us:
…rolling down grassy hills or down the hall on scooters,
…holing up in our 90s living room for community nights, slumber parties, and Truth or Dare,
…advocating for, bearing witness to and loving each of our residents,
…sporting rainbows at pride and pumping our fists at the Jersey Shore,
…playing charades on the Q train, dancing into the morning hours, eating free hot dogs at Rudy’s,
…being ourselves in the only way we know how: loud, energetic, intense, joyful, proud, defiant, open, contemplative, grateful, loving--

…and at last, saying goodbye. It has (it will continue to be) an adventure.

With rainbows, peace, and a whole lot of love,

Alaina with all of MAJAKEL: Madeline, Annie, Jess, Krystina, Lara, and (E)Liz(abeth).

Our first night in Astoria....we had NO IDEA what was to come...

Community Night, walking across Brooklyn Bridge and Grimaldi's!

From a series of really serious and artful pictures.... pretty much encapsulates this community.

Community Night: Astoria Dating Game (the outfits were part of making a good impression on our dates...)

It was love at first sight and fate when we came across Gabriel, our Christmas tree. He was decorated with artifacts from our room and lived happily with us into his old age. This belongs on Awkward Family Photos.com.

Part of the community on Halloween: 80s girl, abstract art, ringmaster, devil.

Jess and Lara in Albany for lobby day and LGBTQ rights-- a prominent social justice issue of our year together.

Jess, Krystina, Lara, and Madeline on New Year's Eve. I live with beautiful ladies, huh?

Lara, Jess, and Alaina at Pride!

Alaina, Jess, Krystina, Madeline, Lara, and Annie at the SOA protest.

Annie, Lara, Krystina, Jess, and Alaina at our women's appreciation luncheon.

A few words from Wickatunk.

2011-06-28T21:08:00.000-04:00

So- I offered to write the blog for our community therefore, I’ve been looking for inspiration everywhere. One of my fellow GSVs wrote her blog, which I found quite enjoyable to read, in a Starbucks… so here I am in Starbucks. Other fellow GSVs have included quotes or ideas from readings they’ve done… so I brought one of my recent reads (almost finished) Awareness by Anthony De Mello… I thought maybe the book could provide some sort of inspiration for some profound thought…hm… I could listen to one of my favorite Pandora stations… but then I thought the music might cloud my mind with lyrics and melodies which would lead me to think of fond memories which could again cloud my thoughts of the ‘profound’ words I’m hoping to share with you all…

My year of service has been one of both good and bad, which means, amazing. I wish I could explain to you in words or even melody how memorable and special this year as been but I can’t…although, I’m still here trying.

Groundhogs- these cute little animals run around the Collier property and pop their heads up to say hello and then they either pop back into their holes in the ground or waddle across the field. They are adorable and although the Sisters may have paid money last year to have them removed (not killed) from the property I find that their presence brings a lot of joy to my life.

Stink Bugs- now, I wouldn’t want to jinx anything since we haven’t had any major outbreaks of stink bugs in a while… but, these little ugly, no good, annoying, pesty, creatures have impacted this year in a lot of ways giving us something to think about and “hate on” always. I can’t help but mention them here.

Health Class- I was not born to teach health, I knew that in the 6^th grade when I couldn’t stop laughing and blushing at anything spoken about in health class, yet somehow, this year I ended teaching health to freshmen girls. If they actually learned anything, I’ll never know but it was an experience to remember.

Gym Class- I’ll just get this out right now… I’m afraid of the ball. Yes, I did used to play soccer… but that doesn’t matter. I did get hit in the face with the ball once… really hard. It hurt and I left the gym to go cry about how embarrassed I was… and then I continued crying because I was so embarrassed about crying in the first place. I went back to gym the next day though and life went on.

Music Class- I could tell from the first Sunday in Wickatunk that the music teacher was one musically inclined guy. The way he played the hymns was exceptionally beautiful. Then I attended my first music class, he played the guitar, bass, piano, and drums and could hear the song once and be able to play it on any instrument. Then I got to hear the students’ play and sing- that’s when I learned the beauty of perfection in imperfections. The students in the choir class loved to sing and that’s all that mattered. It didn’t matter if they couldn’t read music, couldn’t match pitch or if they even had perfect pitch. For the most part they thoroughly enjoyed each other’s presence, and enjoyed any opportunity to learn a new song and sing it. They seemed to be fearless trying any song they liked and I admired that so much. They are so brave.

Staff- the staff at Collier are such beautiful people. From the start they were all so warm and welcoming. I remember the first time I met our supervisor at Orientation. I was getting teary-eyed at the fact that he gave me a real hug the first time we ever met. That was only the start. This year’s Collier staff have experienced what I would consider great hardship dealing with huge budget cut backs, which resulted in the loss of jobs and many jobs being cut to part-time. They dealt with this matter so very professionally and were so respectful to each other and the students not letting it get to them that next year was going to be different. They always extended a listening ear or a hand to help when things were rough. They are simply amazing.

Students- challenging as they were, you can’t help but love the students. They keep life exciting. Each and every student has his/her own story, own unique personality, and own way of being. To get to learn from them, work with them, play in gym with them, teach them, listen to them, have them listen to you, eat pizza with them, go on field trips with them, have them get mad at you, you get mad at them, build relationships, give hugs good-bye… what more could a person ask for? These students are unique and beautiful and yes, sometimes very frustrating to be around but aren’t we all? That’s another way I saw the beauty of perfection in imperfection.

Flash Mob- not flash dance, mob flash or dance mob, yes, we did two (technically three) flash mobs this year. One in a faculty meeting, one at a secret Santa gathering and one at the underclassmen end of the year assembly. You’ll see a video attached below. What could bring one more joy then putting a dance together (props to my housemate Diana, the choreographer), teaching it to the staff, having rehearsals with the staff after school in the gym, devising a plan with the principal as to when to cue the music, seeing the principal all giddy during the assembly in anticipation for the flash mob, seeing the staff worried about getting the dance moves at the right time and then delivering this amazing flash mob to students who had their cell phones out in seconds, were clapping, trying to dance and then being pulled back to their seat by fellow classmates, students with their hats over their heads in embarrassment for the staff, and seeing the smiles as they go out to the bus. Being in such solidarity with the staff to bring something fun to the students… that’s what life is all about, right?

(Please excuse the sound not matching up with the dancing- it did match up during the the real thing!!) :-)

Community- in the beginning things were kind of tough, I couldn’t figure out why the fact that my housemate chews her gum loudly bothered me to the point of being angry-and then I’d get more angry because it was bothering me so much. I got over it though and I learned to love my community. It took a moment of out-of-control laughter for me to realize things are good, they don’t have to be perfect for them to be perfect- ah yes, another point of seeing the beauty of perfection in imperfections. My community is amazing- we have many laughs and sure, we avoid one another at times- it’s expected. Like our Executive Director once said, “conflict is a lot like goose poop” you can’t avoid it, and like one of the Sister’s said to us at our community retreat, you can’t avoid the dirty dishrag, because sometimes, a lot of times, it’s the little things that get to you. My community is composed of such beautiful people who are so loving and rewarding to be around. Then you throw in there the three other communities in NYC and the three communities abroad. I couldn’t be more proud of the people I volunteer with and have been able to befriend. Every time I am with them I feel so happy and lucky.

The year is quickly coming to an end and it makes me so sad thinking about that. Although I am off to grad school in the fall I can’t help but think about…”what if I stayed another year” or “what if I had waited and applied for a job near by?” “What if?” I suppose it’s part of life, making decisions, moving places, meeting new people, but saying good-bye is sad and it sucks. Being a Good Shepherd Volunteer has been one heck of an amazing experience and I am so excited for the next year’s volunteers and those to come later! They’re in for a real treat.

So- the Starbucks may have turned out to just be a place that happened to provide a tasty iced chai tea latte, and the Anthony De Mello book make have just sat in my lap this entire time and the fact that I still had Starbucks music pouring into my ears kind of ruined the idea of not listening to music… these are my thoughts, far from profound but true to the heart. Thanks for reading.

Diane~

Wickatunk, NJ (yes, it does exist!)

Hearts on Fire

2011-05-26T10:56:00.000-04:00

Hello from Brooklyn! I can’t believe that May has come and gone so quickly. But I can’t wait for summer in the city… so many free outdoor events to look forward to! The highlights since Brooklyn’s last post include hosting guests (holla @ the lovely Wickatunks), job searching & interviewing, Earth day celebrations, lectures & readings for community/spirituality nights, hanging out with our support person Katie, many community dinners together, and of course the silent retreat.

Game night with our wonderful support person Katie!

GSV’s open-mindedness towards spirituality is one of the features that made me choose GSV over other programs. Everyone is at a different stage in their spiritual journey, so we went into the silent spirituality retreat with a variety of hopes, fears, and expectations. When I talked with my roommates after the retreat it was crazy to hear what a different experience we all had. I was pretty nervous about not being able to talk all weekend, but after the first few hours I grew comfortable in the silence and actually found it very peaceful. Taking away the distraction of talking with friends made it easier to focus. I must admit, it took me awhile to stop trying to structure my time and set goals for what I was to accomplish. But after a while you just need to “let go and let God,” the phrase Melissa (our retreat facilitator & GSV alum) had used. I really liked walking around the beautiful retreat grounds and reading passages from the prayer & reflection books to stimulate thought. One of the quotes which really resonated with me was by Anthony de Mello: “Behold God beholding you… and smiling.” I was also able to talk with a spiritual director twice during the retreat which was really helpful. Some of the group also went on a silent hike together, which was a reminder of how much you can enjoy being in the presence of others without exchanging any words. Overall, it was a relaxing retreat that came at a great time in the GSV year!

GSV hiking trip during the Silent Retreat

There have been so many moments this year when I have this overwhelming feeling of gratefulness and joy from deep within. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many inspiring individuals with seemingly endless love in their hearts. My community is always there for me, whether I need to vent about a stressful day or am just on a crazy sugar high! Haha. But of course there are many difficult moments as well. Living in the city has been such an amazing experience because every day there are reminders of how much love & kindness exists in our world, as well as so much pain & suffering. I pass by hungry & homeless people every day and all I have to give them is a smile and a prayer. Each and every person with that look of desperation on their face breaks my heart a little. But I have learned to use it as a constant reminder that there is still so much work to be done. From sex trafficking to education inequality, my passion to work for social and economic justice has grown so much this year. My time with GSV has truly set my heart on fire. :)

Goofy character photo shoot for community night

Just Lovin' <3,

Amanda

Maté

2011-05-19T14:59:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I was once again blessed with the opportunity to get to know another woman’s story. It has been a while that I have been wanting to write this blog, but I didn’t have the time, got caught up with work, and forgot about the wonderful feeling I get when one of the artisan’s shares their story with me, until yesterday. What I’ve been wanting to write about lately is the amazing opportunity I get to communicate with my friends, artisans, strangers, etc., over maté or tereré. To refresh your memories mate/terere is tea where the tea leaves are put in a cup called a wampa, then there’s a metal straw called a bombilla, and last there’s a thermos where the server either pours cold or hot water in the wampa and you drink from it. You can be in a group of 5 people and each person drinks from the same cup. I know that in our culture that doesn’t seem too hygienic, but it is a beautiful experience.

I decided to make my blog a journal entry of mine where one day I was feeling very inspired. I feel like it describes my feelings perfectly. My disclaimer is that it’s a little sentimental, but my honest feelings. I really haven’t been able to write anything else that comes close to what I feel.

March 30^th

Today I began to write my newest blog (see how long I’ve been wanting to write about this). It’s about the spirituality of mate/terere. The most beautiful moments have been over mate/terere. Whether I was resolving an issue, laughing, conversing, sad, or giving advice, it has all been through this act of sharing. Lately being with the people and only the people, being a friend to them, a person whom they can confide in, gives me so much energy and happiness. I’ve been feeling more spiritual, more present, not worrying so much about material things, friends, and relationships. I haven’t been getting caught up in the pettiness of before. I’ve been on this “thirst” as Mother Teresa would say, for spirituality that I started reading her book. I want to quote some things from her book: “I cannot help them, because I do not have anything, but I go to bring them joy.” Then there’s the following, “The Sister’s are to cling to perfect poverty-poverty of the cross-nothing but God…love should be the word, the fire, that will make them live the life to its full. If the nuns are very poor, they will be free to love only God-to serve him only-to be only his.” I’ve been stripped away from a lot of things I’m use to, and I think its like Ashley said, that it’s more about being put in total isolation. At the same time living on the stipend and making much more simple choices has led me to change significantly. I’ve grown so much. I’ve learned to be a person for others, to be present, and know what it is like to fully give myself to my job and the people. I learned today that conversation could be a prayer—that’s where I find my spirituality. I love the people and I wish I could always be with them. As I interpret what I write and analyze the quote of MT, especially the passage about clinging to God and being only his, I realize I see God in the people, the people are God. It is through them that I find peace. Where I am now is beautiful and I am very thankful for that experience. If I find God, I hope it is at this time. How I have grown and where I am today is completely different to where I was last year.

“ Don’t look for big things, just do small things with great love…the smaller the thing, the greater must be our love.”

Melissa Martinez Itaugua-Paraguay

Springing Towards the End

2011-04-27T22:41:00.000-04:00

With May just around the bend, it’s surreal to see our volunteer year heading into its final few months. For the Washington Heights community, the last few months have been a whirlwind of hectic schedules and big decision-making. After numerous trips all over the Midwest and East Coast for graduate school interviews, and being accepted to pretty much all of them, our beloved Christian (aka Papa Chan) has finally made his decision to study at *SPOILER ALERT!* George Washington University in the fall! Kylie and I are so remarkably proud of the long hours he has devoted to organizing and finishing up all of those grad school applications, planning and scheduling interviews (everywhere from Chicago to Rochester), AND still finding the time to be fully dedicated and present at his volunteer placement AND to our community. Impressive indeed.

Sunday Funday in Central Park

Speaking of impressive, if there is one person in this world who has been lifted by her service and continues to lift me every day, it would be the lovely Kylie. So, it came as no real surprise when she decided to accept another volunteer year at MS 118. I know that she will continue to, with an open and caring heart, challenge herself in fulfilling the mission of GSV. I am continually inspired by Kylie’s passion and her never-ending commitment to social justice through youth empowerment. When I was placed at MS 447 in August, I was undeniably outside of my comfort zone; the majority of my volunteer experience had been with older populations. Truth be told, middle school students intimidated the crap out of me. Having Kylie in community has been the ultimate blessing and no one could have helped me more in truly appreciating (and absolutely adoring) those little munchkins.

And as for this Michigander turned northern Californian turned New Yorker, I am sincerely grateful for and treasure everything about the service that I am doing. I have gained extensive administrative and leadership skills working with adolescents at MS 447. But what I have personally gained, more than anything, is a deeper passion for building one-on-one relationships while creating a supportive environment of personal growth and understanding for each student. That being said, I might be getting ready to wrap up my volunteer year with GSV, but I am definitely not ready to move away from my agency, Good Shepherd Services. After many insightful chats with former volunteers turned GSS employees, community members, and loved ones, I applied for and was accepted as an Advocate Counselor at a new high school in downtown Brooklyn.

And so, with each day that New York City blooms with cherry blossoms and camera-clad tourists, the Washington Heights community blooms with enthusiasm for the future and a bittersweet willingness to soak up everything that this remarkable year has offered and continues to offer us. As Dave Matthews sings, “The future is no place to place your better days.” We all have a lot to look forward to, but we must remain present to the beauty of each unfolding moment…yes, even the moments of frustration when our toilet breaks and we’re rushing to any open restaurant/bar before it closes to take care of business!

Finally, in preparation for the GSV Spirituality Retreat next week, I’m wrappin’ up this little entry with one of my favorite prose poems by the poignant Max Ehrmann (holy alliteration, Batman!):

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender,be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant;they too have their story.Avoid loud and aggressive persons;they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,you may become vain or bitter,for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals,and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him/Her to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Be happy, dear ones. I certainly am.

Just love.

-Kat

The Winding Down

2011-03-27T11:01:00.000-04:00

Right about now we’re at the point where “life after volunteering” starts to become more real. We’ve been thinking about it all year (or not) and now as we wind down our year we really have to figure it out. Some of you even have it all figured out already, got into a couple of grad schools, planning another year as a volunteer, got a job. That’s AWESOME! Others are still trying to figure it out…that’s AWESOME too!

Personally I feel like I’ll always be trying to figure it out. As a second year volunteer I’ve felt this all too familiar angst of not knowing before. Last year I calmed that angst by staying another year which has turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made … it also only makes leaving that much harder.

For me dealing with figuring out what’s next has been a bittersweet struggle. On a “good” day at work I can’t even think about what is next because I love it here so much I can’t imagine leaving. On a “not-so-good” day at work I find myself coming home and counting the days till the year is over only to frustrate myself because that also means figuring out the future. Normally the good days are pleasant distractions from thinking about the future, but lately when the not-so-good has exceeded; add to that struggles outside of work (money, family, community) and perhaps a little bit of homesickness….you find that it’s really tough to focus.

Now I don’t mean to be a Debbie-downer (and do keep reading I promise this post ends on a high note) I’m just trying to be real and maybe not everyone experiences this but it can happen and that’s OK. But now you must be wondering: what should I do? How do I get rid of this feeling? I can’t presume to know actually, I suppose it is different for everyone. But I like what Alaina talked about in her post, about JUST BEING. I think that’s the biggest thing we forget when we are worrying about other things. Up until about a week ago this is what I was struggling with: just being. And then something at school happened that really helped put things in perspective. I was able to witness what to me is a true Collier miracle and I’d like to share this with you in hopes that it will at least brighten your day:

At Collier, one of our main goals is to make high school life as normal as possible for our kids. This is why things like clubs, sports and music/drama shows are so important for us to provide. Last week, we had an Open Mic event at school. Now its important for you to know that we don’t have afterschool activities at Collier since our students come from all over New Jersey so auditions, practices and set-up all had to happen during school time. As a teacher I can tell you this is really annoying because it takes a toll on classroom lesson time, not to mention the huge monitoring we have to do to make sure everyone is where they are supposed to be.

But it’s all worth it…for the kids.

It’s all worth it especially when you find out that one particularly student, who in the 3 years he has been at Collier has hardly uttered more than 5 words to anyone, is signed up to perform. It’s hard to explain to people outside of Collier what a big deal this is, but suffice it to say that it was HUGE. I mean when you’ve never even heard someone speak you are first really proud that they have to courage to perform in front of others and second curious to finally hear their voice. And how was his voice you ask? Words can’t even explain, I’ll let this video explain for me not only how amazing his voice was but how moved the audience was; you can hear it in the silence there is while he is singing and in the standing ovation he gets in the end (I had to cut the video because I too wanted to clap)

This was the moment that I realized how worth it it all is. I mean yes it’s hard, yes things will change. I’ll move on from Collier but I will always be struggling with what’s next and that’s OK. As long as I can live NOW and just be NOW, I’ll be able to witness moments like these that make it all worth it and I’ve got Danny to thank for that :)

Just love,

Diana

GSV Simplicity Retreat: Just Love, Just Be

2011-03-25T15:41:00.002-04:00

Who are you, at your most simple core? How do you experience the world around you? What implications will that carry for the way you experience your life?

I am lying awake in a wooden bunk bed. I can stretch my toes to the end, I can hear a four person chorus of breathing around me with a snore here or there. I can see the moonlight: calm, white, and stretching across the tiled floor, our resting bodies. Perfectly we lay, without intent or the usual bombardment of conscious thoughts, just being. Beyond the window the moon presides over the rolling and beautiful campus of Collier High School, and in the rooms down the hall 15 other bodies sleep. This is the first night of the GSV Simplicity and Social Justice Retreat, though it feels more like a giant slumber party (except unlike sleepovers of childhood, we watch social justice themed movies and snuggle under covers while we discuss the challenges of our volunteer placements). By the end of the weekend I will be contemplating a bit more than childhood memories involving bunk beds, though both could be defined by the simple joys of being open to experiencing.

Before I get into this retreat specifically, allow me to explain what one might expect during a GSV retreat. Retreats are about a weekend in length and include all the volunteers in New York and New Jersey. Usually nestled somewhere in nature at a retreat center, or in this case, a cabin, we spend the weekend focusing on one of the GSV tenets. Occasionally there are speakers and opportunities for reflection in solitude and group wide discussion. We share meals, sometimes taking turns preparing them for one another. We participate in a daily prayer activity, and although these spiritual activities may look different from retreat to retreat, they are inclusive to all regardless of faith practice or belief. Though mainly facilitated by our program directors, the retreats are very much shaped by all those who participate: volunteers, Good Shepherd Sisters, and presenters alike.

The sun has risen and you have about 18 GSVs huddled in a large room, cradling cups of coffee and tea in their hands. What happens next? As mentioned previously, our retreat focused on the tenets of Simplicity and Social Justice. Each of our three speakers approached these topics from different perspectives: Paul, who spoke of simplicity as it relates to our core values, Michael, who spoke to us on simplicity as a way of embodying and experiencing life, and Sr. Helene, who presented us with some of her findings from conducting interviews and research with women who are survivors of sex trafficking. (Though my one sentence didn’t accurately encapsulate the extent of Sr. Helene’s research, you should know that the Sisters of the Good Shepherd are incredible and greatly involved in working against this issue. In my opinion, they are rock stars of social justice.) What resonated from each of them for me personally were those same questions: who are you at your most simple core? What are your core values? Sitting with these questions, I realize the potential effect exploring their answers would have on my spirituality and understanding of social justice, even the way I love, serve, and be with other people

As we sat there, in the middle of the woods amidst snow, I was hooked by what our speakers were saying. It was such a subtle shift, so simple (couldn’t help throwing that in there). Something that really resonated with me came from a prayer activity we did involving the reading of and reflecting on stories. In one, a fish is swimming around and around asking everyone where to find this great, beautiful ocean. Finally, someone just says to him, “Hey dude. Stop searching and just look.” Coming into this year, I “knew” what social justice was because I made that a focus of my life at college. And to ensure simplicity, I was given a stipend. There are only so many options when you make $200 a month. Though believe me, if seven girls sharing the 3rd floor of an old high school can organize a functioning community grocery budget and live quite happily in NY on very little any one can! That’s a part of it too. But what about the other part? The emotional, spiritual, ideological, embodied sense of living simply, of being open to and aware of social justice?

I was particularly struck by Paul asking us: “What are your core values? Who are you at your most simple core?” Later, Michael to us about simplicity in an experiential way, of emotional attachments and definitions; things that tend to encumber a truly present and authentic experience of what is around us every minute. These two ideas are tied together. If I can identify at my deepest core what I value, even if that is just to be awake to each intricate detail of creation around me-- that changes how I experience my life. Maybe my core values relate to honoring my own dignity and honoring the dignity within others-- that might lead me to devote more of myself to activities or career that work toward restoring the dignity of people who experience injustice. And maybe all of that gets tied up into emotional attachments, definitions of shoulds and should nots. But it looks different for all of us, and that’s okay. Stop searching; stop trying to be any one thing, and just look. Just be. As we like to say in the Astoria community, be who you are; no one can do it better than you.

Retreats are an invitation to explore yourself and to explore life. It is never confined to a single weekend here or there, never limited to “that one year of your life you spent working at a shelter in New York City”. As a speaker pointed out to us, your volunteer life is life. It becomes your “real” life after (and who knows what “real” life is anyways, right?). If you are reading this blog because you are interested in becoming a GSV, you may already have your own ideas about what each of the tenets mean. You may be joining because of them, you may not. Regardless, the volunteer year and GSV retreats provide the space to explore not only the tenets, but life. One fellow volunteer mentioned something to the effect of “It’s not what I get rid of, but what I allow in.” The stipend does mean less money, less focus on the material, but ideologically it holds a lot of weight as well. Maybe making space by simplifying in our lives, whatever that means for each of us, would allow us to experience life in a different way. Possibly a more full way. Maybe the lack of clutter in our heads and hearts would allow us the space to attend to what matters to us at our core. As the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh has said, God is in the now; peace and life are in the now. However you perceive God or the world, it’s a truth that the world, life, is right here available to us, always—if only we can be here in the moment with it, to experience it unadulterated by our bombardment of thoughts and judgments.

By the end of the weekend, it looked like our retreat reflected our most basic value as GSVs: just love. Spending rare quality time together as a large group, finding joy in just simply being with one another. Becoming a volunteer can include a lot of experiences on the job, in community, and on retreats. You could find yourself looking at things a little differently, while also finding yourself amidst the kind of people that will both support and challenge you. You might find yourself in a cabin, in the woods; awake in the middle of the night, scribbling away about your life has been changed. With a couple stink bugs. (Did I forget to mention the stink bugs?) Regardless the scenario or players, stink bugs or not. There is a simple joy to be had in awareness-- of being, perfectly as you are, wherever you may be. No need to search, just look.

Alaina

Astoria Community

Update from Brooklyn

2011-03-22T23:22:00.002-04:00

Hello! It’s officially Spring. The days are getting longer; the weather is slightly warmer and therefore there is no need to bundle up in layers and thick woolen accessories. Thank goodness!

Anyway, much has happened in the Brooklyn community since our last update. We had some mishap with the chairs in our kitchen (they broke down on us while we sat on them!). We decided we had enough and threw out the remaining two chairs. We replaced them with four awesomely mismatched chairs (donations from GSV’s office). The night we got the chairs, we were hosting a group of students from Loyola Marymount University (Go Lions!) who were on their Alternative Breaks trip, and we wanted to share our GSV experience with them. They got a little lost since Queens can get a little confusing, so in the meantime Amanda and I tested a couple of the chairs to see which ones were to our liking. We felt like Goldilocks – this chair was too big and the other one was too soft. However, we eventually found four that we liked. Valerie and Michelle approved of course.

Apart from a little remodeling, we’ve been hanging out and discussing over some good JELL-O®. Michelle did a great presentation on Ireland and its wonderful culture. She made us JELL-O® using the colors of the Irish flag (Cool Whip® for the white). I had to wait an extra day to devour it since I decided to give up sweets on the odd-numbered days for Lent.

Last week, Valerie hosted a wonderful resume and cover letter workshop. It eased our qualms about our job search looming ahead. Even though we still have a solid 4.5 months until the GSV program ends, many of us are already thinking about what to do afterwards. Ms. Valerie gave good pointers such as looking up the recruiter’s name to put on your cover letter. That way, it shows you took the time to personalize your application and stand out from the crowd. We also invited two special guests: Pete, our program director, and Katie, our support person. (Katie volunteered with GSV International in Paraguay for a little over two years and she is now working in Brooklyn). Both were really helpful with their feedback on what to put on our resumes. I am looking forward to the future job search. I feel like I’ve been given a lot of responsibility at HandCrafting Justice. I am grateful for the wonderful opportunity to learn more about women’s empowerment and fair trade. Any work experience will only help you – maybe you discover you want to go into non-profits or you feel like you want to try something different. But you will never know unless you try.

I almost forgot to mention that Valerie cooked a mean batch of pancakes (with chocolate chips and bananas). Again, I had to forgo the chocolate chips for another day. Why does community night always fall on an odd-numbered day? Oh, the temptations. But I really enjoyed the banana ones – they tasted like dessert crepes.

Valerie's awesome crepe-like pancakes

Don’t want to bore you. Until next time…

signing off from the Brooklyn Lounge with love,

Caroline

Brownies with extra fudge frosting and funfetti. Oh yes.

Amanda turning 23!

5 Months South of the Equator

2011-02-07T17:48:00.000-05:00

Sorry we haven’t checked in a while, but the Paraguayan community is still around. Ashley and I are doing well, but practically melting in this HEAT!

We finished the work year in December and the “Obra Social” where we work closed down for a couple of weeks, and recently we just opened again. Ashley and I are super excited to start work because with the new work year, we now have the opportunity to create our own programs. We are going to begin teaching English, sports, and start a choir.

As we start this 2011 on the right foot, we have also reflected a great deal on the “new year” we began in September. For me personally the conversation Ashley and I had was really funny, because we realized that although we believed we did not feel vulnerable and lonely, like everything Julie told us we were going to feel during international orientation, we experienced all of those feelings! Looking back now, Ashley and I are in much better place and I know we are going to continue growing from this experience.

Throughout my time here in Paraguay I understand how important community is for the volunteer`s experience. Ashley and I are each other`s biggest support when we encounter problems--whether they are with friends/family back home, cultural, language barriers, job etc. From the beginning we have always been open with each other and we constantly express and reflect on the problems we are facing and what we can do to solve these issues. Because we have done that from the very beginning, it has helped us to trust and feel comfortable around each other. When you hit rock bottom in a foreign country, with limited access to your friends and family, it is great to know that the other person living with you in your house is a good friend that completely understands you. It makes the experience a lot more beautiful!

By the way, I forgot to mention that we have a new community member—Nala Mala Martinez, our new puppy the Sisters rescued from the streets. Nala is also very supportive and loves us unconditionally!

Beyond the community within our homes, there is also a much larger community that we have gotten to know. In the neighborhood we live in, everyone knows each other as well as the different problems that each family faces. Unfortunately, there is a family in our neighborhood that struggles with numerous problems and the most affected are the children. It’s difficult to see what the children in this family go through and wanting to help, but knowing that you can only do so much. However, the community has stepped in to do whatever they can to help this family. They see them struggle and together they help take care of their kids by giving them clothes or food and even giving them guidance. It’s not just one family that helps, but all the families in their neighborhood look out for them.

As the community looks out for each other, they also look out for Ashley and I. We tend to go to their homes and sit under a mango tree while drinking tereré (cold maté) for hours, laughing, playing the guitar-singing, and talking. The conversations we have with the community members are really helpful for our wellbeing. When we are struggling with a certain issue they will always listen to us. They will also advise us about what to do or not to do, what is safe or what is not, and give us insight into the culture so that we can take care of ourselves.

The best part about bonding with the community besides the great advice they give us is COOKING! During vacation we spent a couple nights cooking at a friend’s house. Everyone chipped in with different ingredients and we cooked dinner at night and it was a great way to bond with them. There are also these 3 sisters that we have become very close to and last night we finished a cooking lesson with them. We cooked for hours in our very hot kitchen, but it was so much fun as we learned how to make a new Paraguayan dish and showed them pictures of our families and friends.

There have been many challenges we have faced, but what makes the experience amazing and beautiful are the moments where Ashley and I support each other, or when we witness the community coming together to help the families in the neighborhood, or even the simple moments we have while cooking with our new friends. There is something truly beautiful about being somewhere completely unknown, yet, being able to have people in your life that are caring and supportive.

Greeting from Bolivia!

2011-02-01T22:45:00.000-05:00

For the past five months the Bolivian community has been having a very fulfilling, enriching experience in Oruro, Bolivia. As the first two volunteers to be placed here in Oruro there have certainly been bumps along the way, but serving as the GSV trailblazers has been an exciting chance to work out exactly where US volunteer fit in amongst the religious and lay workers of the Sayariy Warmi team. Sayariy Warmi is Quechua for ¨levantante mujer,¨ or rise up woman. The name reflects our mission of empowering women and the fact that many of the women who use our services speak Quechua (or Aymara) in addition to Spanish.

We live in ¨la Casa de la Mujer,¨ a home where women can come to stay with their children for up to three months if they a need a place to seek refuge from a violent home situation. Women living in this home, along with women living outside of it are offered legal, psychological, spiritual, and social support. Workshops are also offered to teach skills like baking and sewing to provide women with the skills they need to earn a living on their own.

Adjusting to the altitude and the food was a bit of a struggle in the beginning, but we began to fall in love with the culture right away. As the folkloric capital of Bolivia, Oruro is a place of many celebrations. It seems that every week there is a new cause for celebration, whether it be the first day of spring, the day for women, the day of the marketplace, the day for students, or independence day. Celebrations consist of lots of music, food, drink, and dancing. People dress up in traditional costumes and dance throughout the streets. They are also very surprised to learn that this is not common practice in America. That being said, we were very excited to share our American practice of thanksgiving with our new Bolivian friends. We made a chicken dinner (because turkey is hard to find) which turned out surprisingly well considering all the improvising we had to do.

Aside from celebrating, we have both been learning a lot at our respective work sites. Danielle is in charge of the comedor, a place where children up to age 18, whose families do not have the resources to provide daily lunch, and a few elderly people, come to eat lunch. Danielle facilitates attendance, homework help and English classes. After lunch she works visiting families and reporting on case files. She is also working on an investigative report concerning the migration of families from the country to the city. Working with the kids at the comedor has been very rewarding. They try very hard to make sure that we feel at home here. They even made sure to include Danielle in the Bolivian birthday tradition of putting raw eggs in the birthday girl´s hair!

Lynne has been working at the Casa de la Mujer supporting women who come seeking support around situations of violence within the family. She has been going on house visits, working on case files, brining women to appointments, attending workshops, and reporting on the work done at the Casa. The learning curve has been very steep for both us of, but as our Spanish and knowledge of Bolivian culture improves we are able to do more and more.

Carnival is the big event of the year here and it is coming up in March so we´re very excited about that! The carnival is a festival that combines catholic and pagan practices. Traditional pagan dances and costumes are used to honor the Virgin of Socavon. As February approaches, everyone is preparing for carnival and tourists are expected to start showing up soon. This should be different as we are currently two of the only foreigners in all of Oruro. We´re looking forward to sharing pictures and stories about Carnival soon!

Besos y abrazos

Lynne and Danielle

A Reflection on Funk (Not The James Brown Kind)

2011-01-13T22:57:00.000-05:00

Throughout the holiday season, and into the earliest days of this year, the Brooklyn community seemed to experience an unfortunate, but perhaps inevitable, stage in our volunteer life. Yes, after nearly 150 days of advocate-counseling, after-school-programming, and handcrafting all sorts of justice, we hit the dreaded doldrums. And this, as they say, was the fly in the ointment for a few weeks. (“They” being, apparently, someone’s Great-Aunt Edna.)

Could Christmas cheer save us? Do the numerous Claymation movies played during the month of December really hold the answer to all the world’s ills? Sadly, despite our best efforts (and Pete’s best tinsel, snowflake, and paper chain decorating work), this was a temporary solution at best. There was no way around it; we were in a funk.

(N.B.: My apologies for what may seem like depressing post. I hate a buzz-kill as much as the next girl; in fact, “buzz-kill” can be filed under the heading “Things Michelle Dislikes,” alongside such items of displeasure as spiders, racist/sexist jokes, gory movies, nuclear weaponry, those tiny little bugs you sometimes find in old books, and peanut butter. However, in the interest of full disclosure, I will proceed. So bear with me; maybe there will be a fabulous prize at the end! Who knows!)

See, the thing is, a year of service is hard. It’s not easy to live off a small stipend in NYC, especially if you have (or make) friends in the area who do not do so, and therefore never think twice about going out for some drinks or coffee, or going shopping, or seeing a movie in (gasp) a theater. It’s not easy to be faced with social justice issues on a daily basis, especially when you begin to match faces and stories to once-abstract theories and figures. It’s not easy to feel like you’re just one person facing all these huge structural problems. And it’s not even easy to live in community sometimes!

I’m not saying everything has to be easy. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to challenge yourself. In fact, I think challenging yourself is great, and a vital part of human growth. I’m not trying to kill your idealism either! Keep it, nurture it, it’s a beautiful thing.

However, there are good days and bad days here. The good days can be really great. Like, this-is-why-I’m-here, winning-a-gold-medal kind of great. The bad days can be really bad. Don’t-judge-me-for-eating-ice-cream-for-dinner, I-just-want-to-curl-up-in-bed-for-a-few-days bad.

Case in point: I work at the Young Adult Internship Program as an Advocate Counselor for young adults. Right now on my case load, I have kids (yes, I call them “kids” despite our similarity in age) who never go to their internship sites, who refuse to attend their GED programs, who have severe anger issues, and who generally make my workday much longer than it needs to be (literally and figuratively). But I also have kids who actually listen to me in workshops (and make others do the same), who tell me they have my back when they think the other participants are getting too rowdy, and who come visit the office after they’ve graduated from the program simply to tell my coworkers and me that they finally got that job we’d prepped them for, or they finally got into college. Somehow, it balances out.

At the very least on those rough days, you have someone to come home to and commiserate with. You have someone to call if you need to talk. And soon, you get the wherewithal to continue. You’re able to put things in perspective. You have the reserves to snap out of that funk; you just need to be ready and willing to recognize and use them.

And now for the good part: the upswing of emotions, the bright side. Maybe one of us has a really good day of teaching. Maybe one of us gets the feeling the kids might really respect her, even care about her. Maybe the Christmas rush is over, and there’s a little less pressure in the office. Maybe a co-worker, friend, or fellow community member made us laugh. Whatever it is, it happens frequently enough to make everything a little better, a little brighter, a little more worthwhile. And so it goes.

Peace, love, and snowflakes,

Michelle and the Brooklyn Community

It's December Already???

2010-12-01T23:59:00.001-05:00

Greetings From Wickatunk!

Sorry we haven't checked-in in a while..believe it or not its been Fast Times at Collier High lately! We've been busy busy bee's dealing with the daily and ever present drama at Collier. But don't let our busy work fool you! it hasn't been all work and no play..in fact its been more than fun. Here's a bit of what we've been up to:

OCTOBER saw us taking part in the annual Kateri Haunted Night Hike where we first helped carve over 300 pumpkins that would light the trail of the hike. We also became characters that made the story of Irish Jack.

HALLOWEEN is kind of a big deal at Collier (in all of New Jersey for that matter!), hence we made sure to take part of the festivities all around us. We pranced around the school as Fairies for the High School Halloween show. We made hot cocoa and watched scary movies in our scary mansion. We screamed our lungs out at a Haunted Hayride...all and all a great Halloweend (and Mariannes very first halloween dressing up!)

Carving pumpkins with our support person Jeanne


Halloween!

At SCHOOL we've really dived into new duties and responsibilities:

DIANA continues to teach (and learn) from her Spanish classes. She enjoyed an awesome sugar skull making activity for Dia de los Muertos with her classes. She also had her very first Parent-Teacher Night where she got great feedback from both parents and students alike.

MARIANNE always has a handful with the Drama kids as well as her own gym classes.She was a main force behind a successful production of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow that the students performed for a children's theater.

DIANE is still enjoying her work with the choir kids as well as running around with kids in gym.She's also one of the yearbooks strongest supporters running Fundraisers and selling mousepads for the yearbook.

NICOLE is a favorite in her pottery class and she's taking on important duites in the main office. She was also a big sport and volunteered her face to be made up as the Queen of Hearts for a project that the Special Effects Makeup class did.

Nicole as the Queen of Hearts

Some of the Sugar Skulls Senorita Garcia's class made.

NOVEMBER also brought the always popular ASAH conference in Atlantic City. ASAH is a non-profit organization that serves private special education schools (like Collier) and agencies. The weekend of the conference we had the chance not only to spend quality time with our wonderful staff but also to interact with proffesional in the special education field and learn many things that will help us in our journey at Collier.

Enjoying some McD's in Atlantic City with fellow staff :)

We really wish we could share everything that we have been experiencing here in Wickatunk but alas we hope that this has sufficed, FOR NOW...... Until next time we leave you with a little holiday cheer to warm your hearts in this chilly weather. OH! and keep us in your prayers as two of us are embarking on a new challenge: TEACHING HEALTH CLASSES!

love,
Wickatunk :)

Close the SOA 2010

2010-11-29T14:49:00.001-05:00

Two weekends ago, six of us GSVs (Alaina, me, Jess, Annie, Krystina, Madeline) road tripped down to Georgia to protest the School of the Americas. For weeks, we had planned and fundraised in order to go. In a nutshell, we decided to go to open our eyes to social justice issues outside of our NYC GSV experience. I don’t want this entry to be unbearably long, so I’ll direct you to the SOA Watch website for an explanation of what SOA is and why exactly we were protesting it: http://www.soaw.org/. But if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

So on the Friday our trip began, we six women loaded up our minivan (generously provided by our GSV program director Pete and fondly christened Darlene) and settled into our bucket seats, mentally preparing ourselves for the approximately eighteen hour drive. It didn’t disappoint. We rotated drivers, each of us driving at least once both ways, made a few wrong turns, sang to pop songs at the top of our lungs, guzzled coffee, played games, used sketchy gas station bathrooms, cheered when we crossed state lines, and snacked like there was no tomorrow (Oreos were a general fave).

Being in a van together for about forty hours over the course of the weekend (not to mention, cramped into a tiny two-bed Motel 6 room Saturday night) wasn’t exactly a soothing cup of tea the entire time. Deliriousness, crankiness, and exhaustion definitely arose. But at the same time, being in a van together as GSVs elicited good conversations, great bonding opportunities, and plain and simple fun. I couldn’t have picked a better group of women with whom to travel and share the SOA protest experience.

Let’s talk about that SOA protest experience. Now this protest wasn’t a door-banging, shouting-til-you’re-hoarse kind of protest. It was a non-violent movement. It involved awareness-raising events, a rally, and a vigil. The protest was about peacefully bringing attention to the SOA and peacefully demanding for the end of the institution.

I thought a lot about peace. Alaina used a tote bag all weekend, emblazoned with Mother Teresa’s beautiful words: “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” As a GSV and as someone who has chosen to work for social justice, I think a lot about this idea of belonging to each other. I’m understanding more and more how we are all tied up in each other’s lives. We have responsibilities to each other. And so that inevitably makes me think about the idea of “doing good.” Yes, we must serve each other, but in what capacities? How can I best use my gifts for the good of this world, so that they build and not destroy? At the same time, what can a couple thousand privileged Americans do by being at the gates of SOA?

The answer is create peace. Through the weekend, I realized that we can raise awareness, educate ourselves, and send a message of peace out into the world. We so often forget that we belong to each other. I myself sometimes look for peace as if I could pick it off of a store shelf. I wonder whether to talk to a friend, or go for a run, or journal in order to find peace. But at the end of the day, peace is solidarity. Peace isn’t a one-woman show.

At the beginning of the year at GSV orientation, we each wrote out a mission statement for ourselves. I adopted a quote from St. Mary Euphrasia (foundress of the Good Shepherd Sisters) that says, “Live in peace, unity, zeal, and trust.” I threw in “Just love” (the GSV motto) for good measure. I have tried to focus on the different aspects of that invitation in the last several months. It’s challenging. But during the SOA weekend, I began to see it in a new light. Peace is unity is zeal is trust is love. There’s a hippie saying: peace is underrated. And I’m starting to believe that. Peace isn’t the easy way out. Peace somehow has become hard work. We witnessed that at the protest, through the remembrance of those who lost their lives because they had no peace.

In the short time that we were at the SOA protest (less time than we spent on the road), we witnessed and experienced a connection to our neighbors in Latin America suffering the atrocities inflicted by SOA graduates. We couldn’t see these victims. We couldn’t hear them. But we could feel them. During the Sunday vigil, the main event of the weekend, we carried white crosses individually marked with names of victims. As singers beautifully chanted these names, we lifted those crosses into the air and solemnly responded, “Presente.” We did this for almost three hours. I felt like we were processing in the presence of those remembered. It was a very prayerful and moving experience for me.

Most victims were named. Others were not. Some crosses and chants merely proclaimed recognitions such as, “Unidentified woman, 30 years old” or “Unidentified child, 5 years old.” The word “unidentified” pulled at my heart strings. As a recent college grad, as a transplant from LA to NYC, as a volunteer and community member, my identity has been in a constant state of flux. In many ways, figuring out my identity has been my life’s work so far. I have the beautiful gift of discovering and rejoicing in my identity. Those “unidentified” persons no longer do. For violent reasons.

So, peace. Towards the end of the vigil, we had the amazing opportunity to see activists cross the line. Crossing the line means scaling the barbed wire fence surrounding the SOA and immediately receiving at least three to four months in federal prison for doing so. Two activists crossed the line on Sunday. I saw the second man, David, climb up the fence. He did so very calmly and quietly, before the throngs of people already congregating at the fence cheering and chanting his name. In an instant, he was on the other side. There were military guards waiting and they calmly took him away. I’m sure David had been preparing for that moment for months prior. It almost seemed anti-climactic. He didn’t scramble up the gate and fling himself over. He didn’t break into a run once hitting ground. The guards didn't hustle him. It was peaceful.

David and the others who crossed the line now have a six month sentence. These activists peacefully have given up six months of their lives in the protest against the SOA. They have found the cause worth enough to give up their freedom. That is enough to make a person like me cry. And it was weird. I wasn’t expecting to, but as soon as I saw David climbing that fence, I started to cry. Something in me was moved, but utterly helpless. I could do nothing. All I could do was stand there and witness.

After the vigil, there was a celebration with music and dancing, a parade and puppetistas, and vendors and food. It was so life-giving. Krystina, Jess, and Madeline somehow ended up holding a banner in the parade. Annie spotted two former GSVs. A couple of us saw friends who had also made the trip from far away and got to catch up. We made new friends. Everyone was so welcoming and energetic. Even after the heavy stuff, we couldn’t help but smile and laugh together. And I guess that’s peace, too! Peace is also a celebration in gratitude. For people, for solidarity, for love.

With that, I think I’ll simply bring this entry to a close. I’m sure I will continue to discover new lessons from our weekend in Georgia. But for now, thank you for reading this and sharing in our experience.

Peace friends,
Lara

Finding beauty amidst this chaotic life

2010-11-23T12:29:00.000-05:00

What does it mean to live this GSV life?

One of the biggest questions that seems to permeate our GSV life is, "How can we better embody the four GSV tenants of community, spirituality, simplicity and social justice"?

Social Justice

For us GSVs, it seems that social justice is one of the easier of the tenants to "check of the list" because of the positions we have working hands-on to advocate and empower women, children and young adults. However, I think it is incredibly important to step back and take a moment to dive deeper into what it means to be working for social justice in our everyday lives.

I have personally found this tenant to be incredibly life-giving, because of the day-to-day injustices that I am exposed to. I am working with youth in the Bronx, and realizing that much of their disadvantage is circumstantial, and not because "the poor are lazy".

In fact, I have been blown away at how incredibly hard-working many of the adults and youth are that I interact with on a daily basis.

Exposure to the injustice of disparity

Resources to receive a good education, and to break free from the poverty are difficult to come by. Many of the concerns and struggles of parents of my students were not of a concern to my parents growing up. I did not grow up with gang violence, hunger, homelessness amongst many other challenges. I firmly believe that education is the way to empower the next generation. Because of my passion for education, that is the best way for me to embody social justice is to work to provide educational enrichment and leadership development opportunities for youth.

Mom is working 3 jobs just to make ends meet and doesn't have time to help with homework, ensure that their child gets a nutritious meal and a good nights' sleep.

Teachers lose hope in their students very easily, and often a self-fulfilling prophesy occurs because teachers are told that most of their students won't "make it".

When it comes time to apply to high school or college, youth are often clueless about what to do because they do not have a positive role model that can guide them through the process.

I am realizing that all that most of these kids need is SOMEONE to believe in them. Their parent(s) are too busy and preoccupied to focus on education and teachers are often disillusioned and disenchanted by the powerful position that they are in.

Tough Love

My GSV position is as simple as that. BELIEVE in the kids to pass their classes, walk away from bullies, say no to drugs, alcohol and sex and be the strong, beautiful young person I know they can be. To do so, I have had to learn how to treat them with tough love, explaining to them that I am being strict about the rules because I want so badly for them to do well. Because I love them : )

The grace I've found in Paraguay

2010-10-29T06:47:00.002-04:00

“It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.”

This is something that I need to keep reminding myself in being here, because it’s hard to see one light in a mess of confusion sometimes. The program here, the Obra Social, consists of several social programs that function to holistically cultívate better lives for woman and their families in 9 surrounding communities. The institution here is always bustling. Everything seems to be already in it’s place and functioning swimmingly. So, where do I fit in? What is it that I have to offer and where am I needed? These are questions that Meliisa and I have both struggled with in the first month here (among a dozon of other things too, trust me).

It has been a spiritual struggle to figure out my purpose here, but through this struggle there has also been great joy. Much my spiritual work has taken place on paper, in practicing yoga, and in reflecting with Melissa (sometimes during our weekly spirituality night and sometimes just when the conversations needed to happen). In journaling, I am able to write out my thoughts, what I think I know, my confusion, my needs, what I am grateful for, and what I hope for. In Yoga, which by the way is very new to me, I have been able to clear my head and better listen to myself and God. But let me also take a second to mention that I do this outside and that this comes with a Price, as some of the Good Shepherd Sisters think I’m a complete nut job. Spirituality nights have helped in opening up communication in our community. It really helps me to listen to what Meli has to say and to understand where she is because I am often in a similar place. We always share our self-relevations with each other and this has brought us closer together. I’m really grateful to be here with her.

Through all of thisI have come to realize my purpose in being here. It is to build meaningful relationships with the peoplewho come to the Obra Social. I will be providing some direct service through certain work, such as working in the Fair Trade program and helping to translate sponsorship letters, but at the end of the day the most meaningful ministry is withing relationships. My ministry is in the friendship and love that I bring to the lives of peole I interact with here. And that is the most important thing for me to take from this experience too. My ministry here is in opening my heart up and opening up the hearts of others. This isn’t something that takes a lot of work either. It’s just about showing up for people and being present with them. And that’s what I get in return. This is where I am able to see God and to feel the grace in being here. Each person that I make a connection with is ‘’one candle’’ that is lit in my life; somthing I can appreciate amoung what seems to be darkness at times.

Gettin' real with Brooklyn

2010-10-24T20:32:00.007-04:00

As the brisk, chilly, fall air settles over the skyscrapers, parks, restaurants, sparse trees, and seemingly countless monuments of the New York City area, the GSV Brooklyn has settled into the borough almost effortlessly. Even though the cold temperatures make our journeys a bit more uncomfortable, our familiarities with our surroundings and the people around us gave us all the feeling that Brooklyn is truly starting to be “home.”

Rattling off the different subway line connections and street names, using “Hopstop” less frequently, knowing exactly where to get our groceries, finding the cheapest laundry, and knowing what to do in our free time has shown that the some of the wonder, awe and the newness of this city has certainly worn off.

Living in any new place and with different people forces one to learn, and learn quickly…Very quickly.

We were forced to learn how to get here and there, get used to the NYC commutes and long workdays, find things to do and eat within our budget, and live comfortably with our roommates in order to survive.

We got the surviving part down easily, and our interactions with each other were so pleasant. Such is why we in our Brooklyn community (or at least me) weren’t too sure how much the upcoming GSV community retreat would be needed or beneficial it would be.

Describing my roommates to everyone who asked I would always describe them as- super nice, so considerate, and genuine (so amazing). I even though I knew we were so polite around each other, we all seemed to know we became a bit complacent. Our friendship/ roommateness reached the plateau where politeness and politically correctness could only take us.

Then GSV whisked us away to Mary Knoll, north of the city, where we had the chance to enjoy not only the changing fall colors but the changing the group dynamics from when we all first met during the August orientation week.

As the weekend rolled along, we realized that Pete and Jon planned the retreat at a perfect time. During our community retreat days we not got to know how each of our roommates felt about our community, and in addition, we also got to know ourselves better through a wonderful personality test used by the Jesuits called the Eeneagram. (Seriously, try it. You’ll never think the same about your friends, family, and others again.)

After finding each of our numbers and sparking some obsession within us, we also looked deeper into each other’s roles, personalities, and tendencies. As we all began speaking the Eeneagram lingo… “Oh yeah, I’m a 9 wing 1,” “I think my boyfriend is a 4,” “That is so 1 of you to do,” we actually started to see and laugh at how our personalities shaped our first months of living together.

Brooklyn consisted of (in order of the pictures)Michelle a 5- the thinker, Amanda the 1- the reformer/leader, Caroline, the other 5- thinker and Valerie the 9- the peacemaker.

Even though we didn’t notice much of a difference during our GSV weekend get-a-way, it left a lasting impression that presented itself in the days to come.

Our conversations have become a bit lengthier, lighthearted, and more natural, our laughter and jokes a bit louder and more frequent, and the gaps between us closer. We have continued on our journey to be less like roommates and more like family. Despite us having to break out our scarves, hats and jackets as fall has brought in the cold, the inside of our Brooklyn apartment seems a bit cozier, warmer and more “family-ier.” Yay for community!! Our pop-culture plug/reference:

--This is the true story... of four strangers... picked to live in an apartment ...work in non-profit volunteer work... and have their lives blogged... to find out what happens... when people stop being polite... and start getting real...The Real World-GSV Brooklyn.
(Okay, so I realized I sorta unknowingly wrote this jingle after Wickatunk, but I feel it fits. Sorry Real Volunteers from Jersey.)

Again, with love and more wisdom- Valerie and fellow Brooklyn GSV community.

The Real Volunteers of New Jersey

2010-10-12T21:46:00.003-04:00

GSVtv is heading to the Garden State for its newest installment, The Real Volunteers of New Jersey. The highly anticipated series follows the lives of four of the most fun loving and dedicated Jersey Volunteers as they live simple lifestyles and deal with all the drama that money CAN'T buy! Read a little bit about the four jersey girls below:

Hello America! My name is Diana (Princess) Garcia and I'm back for my second season of The Real Volunteers of New Jersey. Last season was a great year for me but I guess it was not enough because I'm back for a bigger and greater season! This time you'll get to see me in my new role, as a Spanish Teacher at Collier High School. Even though I'm familar with the school and its surroundings I'm still battling the challenges that come with a first year teaching. You can find me lesson planning at almost any time of the day but I also try to help out with any other office and school duties including serving as an advisor for the senior class.
After school you can find me, chilling by the pool (on a sunny day) or heading to the YMCA for a Joy Aerobics class and some time in the sauna :) I also really enjoy practicing yoga with fellow staff members after school. Our weekends are packed with fun events; some are past favorites from last year, like crabbing and Hand Crafting Justice sales. While others have been new discoveries this year like Seaside Heights (where we hung out with our buddies The Situation and Pauly D) Movies at the park, outdoor concerts and one of my personal favorites..the library! One of my favorite times of the day is when I can sit back in our mansion enjoying a good book and watching the beautiful new jersey foliage outside my window :)

Hello, my name is Nicole (“Fat Cow”) Overton and I live in the smallest, yet coziest bedroom in our mini-mansion (yeah…I got the short end of the stick, but I love it). During the day I bask in teen angst (which exudes from every student at the high school), at night I kill stink bugs (not like it matters because there is an overabundance of them), and on the weekends I, along with my fellow community members, venture out to explore the surrounding New Jersey area. Needless to say I have experienced much for a state that is so small. From exploring the Jersey Shore to walking around the quaint little towns surrounding us, I have found so many surprises that one would not expect to find. The staff at the school is amazing and supportive, and the students (even with the angst) are interesting, talented, and beautiful people who deserve the best in the world. I love serving them their breakfast at the breakfast cart and helping out in the pottery class. Gym is an adventure too for you never know what you may learn (some of these kids don’t understand the meaning of TMI). Overall, my life as a volunteer has been amusing, enlightening, fun, and just a little bit challenging. Though if I am being completely honest, the most challenging thing for me has been dealing with the bugs (they really need to go somewhere else). I feel at peace when I wake up in the morning, if not a little bit tired, and that is all I need to know that I am in the right place in my life. On that note that’s all for now but y’all will hear from me again soon.

Love Love Love,
n

Hey There! I’m Diane (Big D) and I come from Wisconsin but in the convent I reside in the big single room with a bathroom that I share with Nicole! At Collier High School I help with the morning announcements, two of the gym classes and the vocal music class regularly while also helping with daily office work, making personalized mouse pads, subbing for teachers and sometimes taking on a lunch duty! From time to time we get the opportunity to attend meetings, accompany teachers and students on field trips, and join various clubs on Fridays! In my free time I like to go into the chapel at the convent to sing and play piano (the chapel has great acoustics!) It’s a great way to kill time while doing laundry too! With the pool open in the summer months to the tennis courts open late spring-fall, with the hiking and biking trails and all the forestry it’s hard to not see and enjoy the opportunities and beauty Wickatunk and the Collier Estate bring to us! A part of the year so far I found particularly enjoyable was our High Ropes Course training! Although it rained for the three days we were out on the course, we got trained in five different high ropes challenges so we can belay any students who are up for the challenge and we can also sit at the top of the zip-line platform to prepare the students for take-off! What a joy it is to have gotten the chance to take on the challenges, learn how to help others take on the challenges and to see them succeed daily! With that I am signing out! Big D~

Hellooo,
My name is Marianne but my friends call me Travel Size Brownie (pretty much because Im small, brown and sweet).
Im mostly involved in the theatre aspects in the school, from helping out in the Drama classes, to writing a script for a Halloween performance with the teachers. Besides Drama, I am usually in the fitness room helping out the awesome gym teachers while I lift some weights - those 5lbs are a killer.
You may not think I do any work in the school because of my brief description, but I'm someow always busy.
If not substituting for a teacher or doing my Drama thing, then it is keeping people sane just by talking or
having some medicinal coffee.

Make sure you stay tuned to for all the drama and good times that are bound to happen and find out what happens when people stop getting paid and start getting REAL.

Astoria's GSV Life

2010-10-01T19:19:00.001-04:00

First Night in Astoria!

Now this is a story

all about how our life

got twisted upside down

and id like to take a minute

just sit right there
ill tell you how i became a GSV
of a city called Astoria

In Jersey--a fresh community
born and raised
on the playground my Director said
watch out for the goosepoop
chilling out, icebreaking

and relaxing all cool

and all swimming it up

outside in our retreat house pool
when a couple of gals
they were up to some good

started creating peace and love in our neighborhood

i got in one little minivan
Jon said your moving

in with five other volunteers in Astoria

i whistled for a cab and 10 appeared
simple stipend in my pocket
6 crazy gals by my side
if anything i could say that this group was rare
but i thought nah, forget it
yo home to Astoria!

we-pulled- up to a high school about seven or eight

we yelled we here!

looked at our home...finally there

to sit in our family room...Astoria

the GSV life about to begin...

Our first few nights we're something. After getting the chance to visit everyone's program sites within the first week of living in NYC, we were thrown into work. Our crazy schedules of 9-5s and 2-10s plus community meetings, spirituality nights, community nights, and now job responsibilities all had us spinning.

Astoria+ on Sept 11th...candle lighting on the Hudson River

Jess and Krystina started their job at Euphrasian. Tough indeed but couldn't think of two better people for it. Krystina's already brought her love for tie dye into the community she's establishing there and Jess has been dodging balls left and right in gym classes, putting her soccer skills to the test. As we move forward they're each their own girls to work with as primary counselors and you can tell how much that means to them. Responsibilities are growing but the compassion that they bring to the girls is crystal clear.

Madeline, gets to travel and work right above these two crazy gals in Marian. Scoring us some leftovers for home, Madeline is also sharing her talents. The girls seem to be interested in baking and luckily cooking/baking are just her thing. And don't let her small size fool you, as the girls in Marian already know Madeline has the sarcasm and wit of 7footer. It's great for the nights we need to be distracted by hilarity from shows like the Office.

Alaina has been working hard over at the Safe Homes project. Always sending caring texts or emails to our community to lift us up if we're having a bad day...that's our Alaina. Her expressive and creative personality are contagious, I'm sure the women there have started to notice. We love her stories of these powerful women and amazing children she interacts with. One special piece of artwork even decorated our fridge.

LA Annie, back for her 2nd whammy. Annie, was a GSV last year in..yep you guessed it LA. She's now the GSV recruitment/marketing intern and we are honored to have her living in our community. Her wisdom of last year has certainly paid off for us all entering our first experience together. Always smiling and up for listening to our stories of the day, Annie catches a second wind with us. We love having her and I loved being able to help recruit from my alma mater in Boston with her. There was no one else I'd rather share 8hrs driving with. :)

Liz, Lara, Jess, Krystina-1st Night

Lara, she's okay. Ha. Only joking. I, Liz, get to work and live with this lovely roomie. She's very down to earth and has a calm presence about her. It's been great to share the Chelsea Foyer experiences with her. Having another volunteer to talk to about things at work within a community is great but it's even better when you have at least one that literally knows what things are like. She's been a great ally to have when trying to figure the Foyer out.

Annie, Liz, Lara, Jess, Alaina, Madeline- Sept Bday Party- "S" theme

Together, we make a motley crew called Astoria. Living in a former convent we now affectionately call "DLINK." We've grown a lot in just the first month. I can't wait to continue sharing in these work experiences, life experiences, and nyc experiences. It's already been a great time finding free events throughout the city, food, movie nights, etc. Thanks for making the first month so amazing and being already a very supportive group to come home to. I'll end on a quote...

"The final word is LOVE" -Dorothy Day

Blogging from Brooklyn.

2010-09-25T14:28:00.002-04:00

Celebrating our Brooklyn community night love on the Brooklyn Bridge walk (L-R) Amanda, Valerie (ME!) Michelle, and Caroline. (Photo credit: Caroline's Facebook and the nice tourist on the bridge who took the photo but didn't to actually put the bridge in it.)

It has been about a month since all four of us left our different homes across the country (from upstate NY to Minnesota, all the way to Los Angeles), met each other for the first time at the rural, lush New Jersey retreat site, and finally settled into the big city concrete life in GSV's brand new Brooklyn apartment.

Looking back on the past month's events and major life changes, we've realized that has been much easier to move in with, bond, and actually live comfortably with complete strangers in an entirely new place while carrying out GSV's four tenants (community, simplicity, social justice, spirituality) than we initially thought from orientation... Either they tried to prepare us for the worst during orientation week, or we are all just that awesome.

Yes, there were some bumps and minor challenges in the road that we initially faced being pioneers to the new Sunset Park, Brooklyn apartment like lack of curtains, fans, and wireless internet, but we were much too thrilled with the dynamics of the neighborhood and greater part of the city for those minor things to really get to us- all in the spirit of simplicity right? (But GSV made sure we got these eventually! Thanks guys.)

Since the first community grocery shopping trip we took together, we were immediately immersed in our eclectic neighborhood where we realized our English proficiencies don't exactly help us. Our apartment address sandwiches us between Brooklyn's Chinatown and a dense Latino/a community. On our walks each way to and from the subway, we get to see restaurants featuring both Spanish and Chinese food under one roof, many awnings written in Spanglish, places like "Hand-Pull Noodle," places where we know something is $3.00 but everything else is written in Chinese so we'd be pretty adventurous to order it, in addition to the smells of fish laid on ice just staring at us as we pass.
Our grocery shopping trips not only taught us about the community around us, but our own apartment community. We've figured out each person's likes, dislikes, priorities, and differences while also learning what each of us is willing to sacrifice, what we can live without and what we shouldn't sacrifice or live without. By now, we've learned that we cannot live solely on free bagels (even though they can be a fun, humorous adventure getting) and pasta each day and night.

One of the hardest parts of the GSV experience hasn't really been the simplicity tenant for the most part-except for when we have to describe it to family, friends, and peers not living in the GSV world. Most think we're crazy to live on $200 a month in NYC, don't understand why we are volunteering, and don't get why we'd move in with complete strangers as we are not college freshmen anymore.

In our meals that we share most every night, (we eat together much more often than the one community meal night suggested by GSV) we find ourselves home after lengthy work days and commutes and usually discuss such things like GSV life. We largely talk of the differences between our world-views and experiences versus our peers who went straight from receiving their college diploma right into the workforce who are making much bigger paychecks than we are. Yes, it would be hard for us to live and be content with the simplicity tenant if we didn't also have the community, social justice, and spirituality tenants to supplement it. Many of our peers in the workforce now may earn more money than we do, but they may not have the apartment life, fulfilling work experiences, and spiritual guidance that we have..well, at least for this one more year.

This has been a meaningful adventure in this short transition month as we've had each other to share our challenges of the work days, future goals and dreams, philosophies, and theories with. Having each other living with the same earnings has also made it easy to do free things, focus on what is really necessary in life, and focus on being more human rather than consumers. Now, some of our greatest concern is integrating back into normal, non-GSV life- But that's not for a while. In the meantime, we will continue to love NYC and become almost native-like New Yorkers.

Signs we know we are already New Yorkers:

We hate Times Square and everything to do with it
We almost have a photographic memory of the MTA subway system
We dislike weekends because of subway construction
We walk like we have a purpose wherever we go (even if we don't) and dislike when people get in our way
We laugh when we see people with New York books staring at street signs
We have an exterminator

Just loving.
Valerie and the Brooklyn community.

Greetings Earthlings!

2010-09-08T03:59:00.000-04:00

First night in the apartment!

Embrace the world!

On behalf of the Washington Heights community, I want to say hello to all former, current, and prospective GSVs. Hopefully, everyone is doing well at their respective sites as we are beginning our 3rd week (at least for the domestic sites). It has been quite a wild time at Washington Heights, and it is most intriguing to understand how cultural is the location of our community. The three of us are still occasionally struggling with language barriers, and I personally am trying to work with rusty Spanish. I think we need Rosetta Stone or something. Cashiers and other employees randomly start speaking Spanish to me, even though I don't say a word to them. I'm often left with this blank stare and fried brain for a response. Oh well. All you can do is try and smile. A reminder to everyone, smile at the world and the world will smile right back.

How was work?

Wash Heights @ Commissioning!

GOOD QUESTION. The first few days were pretty much acclimation to all our sites, which sometimes was a struggle because we could have just been sitting at a desk, scheduling, or organizing an office for 7-8 hours. I have been able to share plenty of my experiences with the Wash Heights community since my supervisor has me taking field trips with all my co-workers. They are all adding to this wonderful experience and education about the foster care system. Places are not limited to but include Manhattan Family Court, FEGS, home visits, and the Burnside office for GSS Therapeutic Foster Boarding Home (Remember that office we thought was the place we were going for the tour? Yes, I do some work out of there.) My co-workers are bomb. The interaction between everyone is downright hilarious.

How are the youth?
Amazing! They are absolutely hilarious and have minds of their own. Yes, I've already been noted for my laugh or the fact that I laugh for unnecessary reasons. Many of them are extroverts. It does take some time for them to open up, but the foster youth are doing their best to understand that there are people in the world who actually care about them. It's a process, not an instant one. Kat and Kylie started their work with school this week, so they finally get to meet more teaching staff and the kids!

There has just been so much that has happened in what is approaching on 3 weeks in the city. Some of those things include the following:

Getting lost in East Harlem at strange hours of the evening in order to find the new Target
Nearly getting lost and fearing for my life in East 132nd St. of the Bronx (believe me, you do not want to go there past 6PM)
Meeting up with other Good Shepherd Volunteers from Astoria and Brooklyn, experimenting with the food left in the house
Using the rickety scooter in Astoria's hallway
Watching American Beauty for the millionth time (except for Kylie; it was her 1st!)
Exploring Washington Square Park and the art festival
Making use of the dollar or value menu at several fast food restaurants around home and work
Choosing between the A train, 1 train, or bus to get to random places
Experimenting with the food left in the apartment by the last volunteers (by the way, Tapatio and BBQ Garlic sauce is a miracle worker; I also recommend cinnamon with everything)
Never wanting to eat the $1.50 cassava bread from the market...ever again.
Getting stares from the owners of markets from walking in and walking out only to compare prices
Setting off the smoke detector/fire alarm because there is no fan in the kitchen
Dealing with wet laundry because the dryer doesn't apparently dry (unless you go to the laundromat on the street)
Alternating between looking like a tourist, a fool, a genius, an expert, and all of the above sometimes simultaneously
Kylie getting stalked by a street performer in Washington Square Park
Making a double egg, spinach, hummus, BBQ garlic sauce, tapatio, and swiss cheese sandwich.
Completely fearing Upper East Side and the area around NYU because everything is out of our budget
Doing the most random things because we don't have papers to write
Living life to the fullest.

I am pretty sure I forgot plenty of things to mention, but they will come up sooner or later. Kylie is running a half-marathon this weekend. Cheer her on! Kat and Kylie will share more on the next update from us due to this week's beginning of school and, for some, a random Rosh Hashanah break. I feel like I am taking up time, space, sanity and all your other personal belongings. At least, you will have something different to read for your lunch break.

Just love,
Papa Chan + Washington Heights

Good Shepherd Volunteers '10-'11 Embrace the World!

2010-08-31T13:18:00.010-04:00

The Good Shepherd Volunteers 2010-2011 boasts a well-rounded and stellar cast of the largest GSV group to date! Coming from all over the nation, the GSVs are serving domestically and internationally, sharing their amazing gifts and living out the Good Shepherd mission.

Introducing...
The Astoria Community

Top: Madeline Hannan (Marian Hall)
Middle (left to right): Alaina Williams (The Safe Homes Project), Jess Simonetti (Euphrasian Residence)
Bottom (left to right): Annie Kelly (GSV Recruitment Intern), Liz Pontes (Chelsea Foyer), Krystina Monetti (Euphrasian Residence), Lara Torii (Chelsea Foyer)

The Bolivia Community

Left: Lynne Shea
Right: Danielle Phelan

The Brooklyn Community

From left to right: Caroline Kim (HandCrafting Justice), Michelle Roche (YAIP), Valerie Steffl (Grady High School), Amanda Javaly (HandCrafting Justice)

The Malaysia Community

Magdalena Mazurek (serving her second year as a Good Shepherd Volunteer Internationally)

The Paraguay Community

From left to right: Ashley Skoch and Melissa Martinez

The Washington Heights Community

Top: Kat Meier (MS 447 After-School)
Middle: Kylie Brandt (MS 118 After-School)
Bottom: Christian Chan (Foster Boarding Home)

The Wickatunk Community

From left to right: Diane Balfany (Collier High School), Marianne Florentino (Collier High School), Diana Garcia (Serving her second GSV year at Collier High School), and Nicole Overton (Collier High School)

Marching Forward! :)

2010-03-09T00:04:00.001-05:00

Sorry it's been awhile! The year has just been flying by and writing in the blog has completely slipped our minds. A lot has happened since we last updated!
After we returned from the retreat we got back into the full swing of things. We had parties almost every Friday at school - one for Valentine's Day, one for the Chinese New Year, and one for Black History month. We took a school field trip to the Science Center that was putting on an exhibit called "America I Am" - a traveling exhibit tracing Black History through the ages.

We also volunteered at a Windows (the art program that we use) event at USC called V-Day that put on a production of the Vagina Monologues and raised awareness about domestic violence against women and children. Amanda and Kate attended a Cornerstone Women's retreat at their church. Annie cut off 11 inches of her hair to donate to Locks of Love. And, the most exciting news of all...AMANDA GOT ENGAGED!!! Her now-fiance flew out to surprise her and popped the big question :) We spent this past weekend celebrating!
In terms of simplicity...we have chosen to give up certain foods for Lent. Amanda, Jordan, and Kate are giving up meat (it was too big a sacrifice for Annie) and all of us have given up sweets! This has been especially challenging because the sisters LOVE their desserts and we are constantly surrounded by them.
We are looking forward to the warm weather when we can start swimming in the pool again! Hope all is well with everyone and we can't wait to see you again :)

Love,

the L.A. Ladies

We Love the Jersey Shore

2010-02-03T20:47:00.008-05:00

Happy New Year, it’s been a while since we’ve checked in from Wickatunk and boy do we have some news to share.

So here’s a rundown since the last time we blogged.

In December the school celebrated the talents and gifts of both students and staff alike with the winter Music and Dance show, the student production of ‘Crimes of the Heart’ and to cap it all the staff winter show.

Here at collier the staff likes to party, so in true Christmas spirit we came together for our Christmas party. This was followed by us getting together with members of staff including former volunteers to rock it out on Rock Band.

We celebrated Christmas, a little early with the sisters, we had dinner and whilst we ate we had a surprise visit from Santa or as some of us call him Father Christmas. We very happily decorated the tree and the convent. It was great and we all felt that we had been accepted by the sisters into their family.

We all went our separate ways for Christmas and New Year, returning energized, refreshed and ready for the New Year and its challenges.

The biggest challenge that we have had to deal with, and most likely to deal with all year, is teaching health. We all have health classes to teach and we are developing new novel ways of teaching. It’s a challenge as none of us have taught before and the material is very wide ranging anything thing from sexual health to nutrition, fitness to first aid.

Although a challenge we are developing greatly from this responsibility and opportunity. However, we are still looking forward to March 12^th,as it will see us all going back to being Gym teachers- something we and the students are very much looking forward to.

Spiritual direction is something that all of us here have been participating in since our arrival. With each of us seeing our own Spiritual Director. In recent months we have had the opportunity to have group spiritual direction, something which has been eye opening and both new for us and our Spiritual Director. We are all entering with open minds and hearts and we will give you some more thoughts in the future.

This week has seen us return with fresh ideas from our discernment retreat. We have decided each week that we are going to take it in turns to challenge ourselves to live more simply and as a community more. This week our goal is to spend time without electronic devices such as computers, cell phones and the TV.

The week at Collier it is most enjoyable because it is spirit week giving staff and students an opportunity to show their school spirit. The spirit day have been

Blue and white day (school colors),

Crazy Hat day,

Costume day,

Inside out/ backwards day,

And finally fashion disaster day.

Today was costume day, so we naturally decided to dress up as each other with Peter and Diana swapping and Sarah and Luke also swapping. Not only did we swap clothes but also swapped personality, style, and of course accents. To say the least we were the talk of collier, with staff and students giving praises galore with some students also very confused.

Spirit week has once again shown us what a special place this is, and how we are very lucky to be part of it and how welcome and accepted we have been.

This Sunday we are hosting and celebrating our first inaugural Super Bowl party. The sisters are coming and we are very excited to share this occasion with and spend more time with our favorite sisters

We hope all is well.

With a fist pump,

Peace and love from your Jersey shore volunteers.

"Just Love " Column

2010-01-02T12:50:00.001-05:00

Why Las Alturas? As a columnist who writes about unknown artists, I try to seek out groups who simply live life and learn from it. I heard about Las Alturas and the work they are doing with (I believe the program is called Good Shepherd Volunteers) and I thought to myself, "This is different. What is Good Shepherd Volunteers? Why are they working for free? What is this spirituality, tenet thing? What does living simply mean?"

In the world of Nintendo DS, iPhones, and green paper initially in our wallets and now wrapped around the universe, we don't think about asking ourselves these questions. So, who is Las Alturas and what have they been doing these past few months??? I present to you, well who they are--fun loving, genuine, quirky, reflective, sarcastic, disciplined, sensitive, practical, optimistic, goal-oriented, hopeful, and caring.

Audrey and Magdalena have been working alongside each other at Handcrafting Justice these past few months and BOYYYY were their November and December busy! (I actually tried to meet with them in December and I couldn't even get through to them). I've realized by talking with them that we are living in a world of injustice and in order to promote and actively create fair trade, we've got a lot to do. The members of Las Alturas tell me resources, communication, and time are difficult for fair trade. What do the women in Mexico and Thailand do when they do not have access to the material we want for our products in the United States? How much can we do over here in the U.S. for fair trade? You know, Forever 21 and WalMart have really good sales sometimes! Audrey and Magdalena say their best approach to this issue is to spread the word about the reality of social injustice here and abroad. They try and share this info. with their fans all the time.

Priscilla has been working at MS 118 in the Bronx. I could tell she is enthusiastic about her work. I guess she must love children, well and education. Maybe all people because she wouldn't stop talking about how much she enjoys working with the staff as well. She's had a great journey with the children in the LEAD After School Program and Aiming High thus far. These middle school students sound amazing, running a store and interning at a Daycare Center and After School Program. She shared, "Education can be a catalyst for wonders in this world, especially one that practices injustice in many areas similar to the Bronx." She can relate a lot to her partners in Las Alturas because they like herself, work with the strengths of people and increase their self esteem in many ways. The beauty in a product that derives from a woman's appreciation for her culture brings her not only a living wage, but happiness. Learning and taking leadership in situations increases self awareness and self esteem in the students at MS 118.

Aside from their service, Las Alturas has been spending time with family. They say family is a huge part of their journey of community and spirituality. Audrey and Priscilla spent Thanksgiving with Audrey's family in Brooklyn and then Christmas at home in Kentucky and California. Magda had a great time at home in upstate NY. They have also been doing Yoga every week. They say it helps calm themselves, you know in the middle of all their work and numerous shows. They try and integrate reflection about their experiences at their community nights with their manager or what they call their "support person." These community nights sounded so cool I think I might try having a community night with my friends!

Las Alturas has tons of shows set up for the new year. They can't wait for all of them.

When I asked what is one aspect of the program they've taken with them so far, they said, "We're grateful we can attempt to live out these "tenets" not only the rest of the 2010 year, but we think the rest of their lives." Nice meeting and working with you Las Alturas. I look forward to our next encounter. As I've heard them speak about their program....

Just Love,

Billy Bob

Chipmunks in Tinsel-town

2009-12-17T00:26:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone! We're back!

Following the retreat we had the opportunity to spend an evening with our the Astoria GSVs. Despite being super tired, it was a great chance to hang out with our friends in NY and to get a feel for the community they have created.

After returning home from the retreat, we all went our separate ways for Thanksgiving. After our nice vacation, we plunged right back into work and the many holiday festivities that take place at the Shelter during this season. We have had several fun adventures with the moms and kiddos! We all went to the Aquarium where we got to "sea" TONS of Nemos, Doris, scuba divers, etc. We got to touch Sharks, sea cucumbers, sea anemones, sting rays, star fish, and the list goes on and on and on... Pretty amazing to say the least, both for the kiddos AND for the teachers!

This past Saturday we helped in hosting aftercare families who have moved on from the Shelter. They had the opportunity to come pick up Christmas presents and to go "shopping" in the convent, while we made all sorts of Christmas crafts with the kids. It was truly a neat experience to witness Sooo many families returning and to realize what we are doing here and now ACTUALLY has an impact on the future of each families' lives.

As the holidays are sometimes an emotional roller-coaster for many at the shelter, we make sure to help the families create new traditions in addition to honoring old ones. This past Monday we had a procession for the Virgen Guadalupe, which tends to be a Mexican tradition. This consisted of all the families and present staff walking around our spacious yard and singing a song. We are looking forward to our celebration of La Posada, which is an event in Mexico in which families go knocking house to house (usually for 9 nights total before Christmas) pretending to seek room in the Inn, a remembrance of Joseph and Mary on the night of Jesus' birth.

As the coolest, 2009 LA-GSVs, we have decided to go caroling for the families tomorrow evening. Needless to say we're pretty psyched. We are also making Grand preparations for our Christmas program at the school, which consists of the children performing a play, the moms singing, the staff singing a CHIPMUNK Christmas, and a "special treat" from the GSVs which cannot be disclosed yet.

As LA doesn't have "winter" weather, we have been getting into the season with fun and glittery decorations in our apartment, in addition to watching Christmas movies, jamming to holiday tunes, attending Christmas shows, and enjoying the many lights that make it rightfully named "Tinsel-town"! We are even competing with others in our building to win a "Best Decorated Door" contest, which we are bound to dominate!

It has been a quick holiday season and we can hardly believe it's time for Christmas already! East coast here we come!!!

NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED INTERVIEW WITH LAS ALTURAS

2009-11-04T17:51:00.002-05:00

On tour in Maine

FROM COSMO’S 2009 50 HOTTEST BACHELORS’ BASH

Let’s start in the beginning, what was your interview with Good Shepherd like?

Magdalena: It was like creating a verbal autobiography on the spot.
Priscilla: Yeah, they definitely have a holistic approach to finding the right person for the job.
Audrey: It really made me realize how much I wanted to be a part of the Good Shepherd family.

What made you want it so much?

A: We were all just finishing up some solo projects, two of us were just coming back from Europe and I think we were all looking for a new direction and a new way to express ourselves.

What is it like working with The Sisters?

M: They’re a true guiding force for where we want to take our careers. We couldn’t ask for better mentors.
P: It’s inspiring to see how much passion they still have after all this time. And the stories they tell!
[All laugh].

How have you evolved in your role?

P: We’ve seen a change week to week, especially in terms of self-direction.
A: Who would have thought such a glamorous job would be this much work!
[All laugh].

What is the biggest difference between you all?

M: Well, Priscilla’s a unicorn and Audrey and I are angels, but we have different shells, so…inside joke.
[All laugh].
P: No, seriously, obviously we all have our strengths and weaknesses, but we really come together in difficult times.

You guys obviously click, where does that come from?

P: I think that goes back to the origins of our group.
M: Good Shepherd really made a point of considering the longevity of the creative process. Sister Judy gave us all ceramic hearts at the beginning of the year with a guiding word and mine was humor. True story.
A: Exactly, we’re all so gosh darn fun!

Did you have any idea that Las Alturas would become such a crazy phenomenon?

All: Yeah we did!
[High fives all around]

Halloween Havoc Tunk Style

2009-10-31T14:15:00.014-04:00

Ghoulish greetings to all you ghosts and goblins!

For you city folk Halloween is a pretty big thing for us here in Wickatunk, the last few weeks have seen us in part preparing for the many events that we have celebrated for Halloween, as well as our first bite into the world of teaching and very importantly our first visitors!

One of the members of staff who is no less a former Good shepherd volunteer was out on maternity leave so we covered her classes; ranging from World Cultures, Holocaust Studies to US History 1, quite the mix. This has been a great way for some of us to not be mistaken as students, to dip our toes into the sea of teaching and in to the ranging ocean of discipline. We had to develop lesson plans, come up with creative means of teaching, making quizzes and setting homework. Not only was this a challenging experience but also an incredibly rewarding opportunity that has helped us all in our relationships with the students. Meanwhile our resident stock market guru Mr. Kelly, who as we write this is 2nd in the country in a simulated stock market game, continues to assist in Economic Math in which it is ran.

The weekends have seen us helping out with handcrafting justice, which has enabled us to not only see a variety of different churches in different parts of New Jersey, but also reminded us of the greater mission that the sisters run and how we are part of it…… and how Mr. Kelly can set off a defibrillator alarm during mass.

Mid October saw a busy weekend for us with a number of firsts, namely our first visitors and our first Haunted Night Hike- the largest fundraiser for the Kateri environmental centre (where we shall be having our retreat in a few weeks). Our visitors were Peter’s mother, Mrs. Kelly, and brother Stephen (a cutie according to Sarah), who came all the way from Ireland and England to see Peter. Although very short their visit was a fun packed and enjoyable time in which they visited a vineyard in Southern Jersey amongst other things.

In preparation for the Haunted Night Hike we along with our support person Jeanne, helped carve over 300 pumpkins- you do the math. They were used to line the trails of the Hike.

The hike was based around the story of Irish jack and in this story we all had our own parts to play, if you had visited you would have seen our stellar performances as Irish Jack, A story Teller, An angel in heaven and a Moaning soul, which we all worthy of Oscar nominations come March 2010.

Following from this we decided for our community night to take a trip to go on a haunted wooded trail, to say the least we were scared and had a good time and many laughs as we trudged our way through some heavy mud in the dark.

The culmination of the Halloween activities was the annual Collier Halloween fest, the highlight of the many activities was our appearance on film, as we starred as the ‘Cullen’s’ from the hit book and film- Twilight. The film although comic showed how Collier is accepting of everyone as part of the mission of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, even and especially Vampires! Despite the silliness of the film, its premiere showing brought all the staff and students together in a variety of costumes, and helped us all (staff and students) to remember just what a special place Collier is, and how we all have a part to play in making it a school for everyone.

Wishing you all delicious treats and a happy Halloween.

Tunk

Life in LA!

2009-10-23T21:55:00.004-04:00

Greetings from the chicks in L.A.

The past month has found us extremely busy. Our work at the shelter has proven to be very challenging and very rewarding. Everyday greets us with much work to be done, and not much time to do it. The kids and moms have been amazing and we all have fallen in love with each and every person at the shelter, especially with the Sisters. They have really taken us under their wings and made sure we have been adjusting well to the work and the L.A community.

We had a chance this past month to go with Sr. Anne and Sr. Regina to the Sound of Music Sing-a-Long at the Hollywood Bowl. We watched the movie with 20,000 of our closest friends as we sang along to all the songs. It was quite the experience!

We also were able to get Dodger tickets, thanks to the Sisters. We lucked out and were there for their free Dodger Dog night!

Although we have been fairly busy, we have been able to keep up our Wednesday Community Nights. One Wednesday for community night we went to the Los Angeles Catholic Worker. We were able to share in mass and a dinner with those who worked and lived there and since then have gone back for Gregorian Chants.

As part of a fundraiser for the shelter, there is an annual Gala, which we had the fortune of going to this past Saturday. It was a very special night in which we all got dressed up and were able to see the people who donate to the shelter, and make our work possible. At the gala we heard from two girls who were former residences, who are now scholarship recipients from the shelter. It was very inspiring to hear their stories and see how much the shelter has done for them and continues to do.

As far as living by our four tenets we have been pushing ourselves with weekly simplicity challenges. Currently we have given up caffeinated beverages. One week we gave up all sweets. Another week we tried to become conscious of our water consumption and tried to limit the amount of water we use when showering, washing dishes, and in all our daily tasks.

We have continued to form a community with Jesuit Volunteers in the area, as well as spend intentional time together. It has been difficult to stick to all the tenets as we continue to go day by day. We have experienced so much already and are looking forward to all which is to come. Next month we will be hosting an awareness night about Human Trafficking through the International Justice Mission. We encourage you all to look into it and consider hosting an awareness night. It is a nationwide awareness night which you can become part of by requesting a package from their website www.ijm.org

That's all from this coast. Hope fall is treating you well. Miss you all much and the beautiful fall leaves.

Peace, Love, and Justice,
Amanda, Annie, Jordan, and Kate :)

Reflections on Simplicity

2009-10-09T13:47:00.021-04:00

Anna here. Greetings from the Astoria community!

Living in New York City with a monthly income of approximately $289 is no easy endeavor. Museums, cafes, night clubs, shops, and countless other—needless to say, expensive—opportunities can lead us astray from our ultimate goal of living simply. Thus, as volunteers, we are challenged to live intentionally amid constant distractions and remain aware of our daily decisions, who they affect, and whether our ideals are in tune with our behavior.

Yummy soup dumplings from Chinatown in Flushing

This month, we have embarked on a journey of exploring GSV’S simplicity pillar in our daily lives, through thought-provoking reflections during Sunday Spirituality Nights, community discussions about our personal definitions of simplicity, and week-long simplicity challenges.

For our Community Night this past Tuesday, Nelly and Mary led an exercise which asked us to reflect on and share our simplicity definitions; choose something to work on in the next week in order to live a simpler life; and create a week-long challenge to be undertaken by another community member. Below are the results for each of our community members and some personal reflections.

Amanda
When I think about simplicity, I think about becoming conscious of everything we consume, use and waste and trying to regularly form the connection between our actions and who or what is effected by them. I try to think about the people who don't have access to the same resources we have or who are exploited because of some of the luxuries we enjoy. I try to be conscious of the effects of how we live on the environment: trying to use less water so as not to waste it, using less electricity, re-using bags, etc. For my challenge this week I can only take 5-minute showers...so far I'm getting closer to 5-min but not there quite yet ;O). Hopefully by Tuesday I will have mastered it. NYC is as exciting and lovely as ever! Peace and love! ~amanda

Amy
I often lump simple living with environmentalism. Being from LA, I often obsessed over my consumption of materials and how those things were never going to give back to the environment. Coming to NYC, I felt excited that I would be participating in a year round system of public transportation, but aside from that, simply living by conserving energy and limiting waste has been difficult.
I see waste in natural resources so much at Marian Hall. The girls there will keep the water running in the sink to wash a few dishes. They turn on the shower in the bathroom and let it run "to get hot" for upwards of half an hour to an hour, only then to take a 30 minute shower! They use styrofoam plates, plastic utensils, and use a whole roll of paper towels to clean the kitchen on any given chore night. it boggles my mind how much they waste, and I feel that it will be a great challenge for me to teach the girls about conserving resources and treating our earth well this year.

Aside from my personal reflection on living simply, I was given the challenge to "Not eat outside food." I thought this would be really easy, because I don't really have the money to buy food, but it turned out to be a difficult challenge. I did well the first few days, but then I found myself stumbling into a Starbucks and buying a drink early one morning. I rationalized this by thinking, well, my mom got me this gift card, so I'm not really spending my own money, so I'm not actually the one buying outside food.
During the weekend, a friend came to town and we met up in Manhattan and ate out. Fail. And then that night, I went out with everybody to get sushi. Failx2. It's hard to hold yourself accountable on a daily basis! But I will definitely keep this challenge in mind for the rest of the year, because eating out means wasting more resources! All that food at the restaurant had to travel there, and all those dishes I'm using have to be washed, and the lights in the restaurant have to be changed, and the tables have to be cleaned. I might as well just eat something at home or at Marian Hall and not go the extra mile to waste more energy. ;)

Anna
Simplicity
An act of solidarity with those who have no other option but to live simply with the bare basics.
Room for improvement
I need to work on being more conscious/intentional about simplicity on a daily basis—namely, in my shopping choices, food consumption, water usage, etc.
My challenge this week
1) Conserve electricity: turn off lights, unplug things in rooms.
2) Save water, especially in the shower.

Justin
Simple Living

For me, simple living means breaking away from technology that we don’t necessarily need. For me, it’s very easy to spend a few hours a day in front of a screen between the computer, the TV, and my cell phone. So in my life I have to make a very concerned and dedicated effort to live simply in order to break away from screens. I know this tenant will be tough for me.

Challenge

The challenge I got was- I can only spend 15 minutes a day on my phone and 15 minutes a day on my computer, so writing this is actually taking up some of my time. Haha. This will be really hard for me.

Mary Technology is by far my greatest addiction and the thing that I am most dependent upon. Any time that I am bored and looking for a distraction I automatically turn to my cell phone or the television. If I'm not sure of the answer to a question, I google. If I want to get in contact with an old friend, I facebook. If I want to get from point A to point B, I mapquest. With all of these electronic distractions available, it is difficult to live a simple lifestyle and really observe the world around you and appreciate the people in it. My idea of living simply would overall entail much less dependence on technology. Fittingly, my challenge for this week was to limit my time on the computer to 30 minutes a day. I have had the opportunity to take this challenge a step further by using the trains less and walking more as well as limiting the time I spend on the phone. So far, cutting back on my reliance on technology has challenged me to engage more with the people around me and appreciate electronics as a luxury and not a necessity.

Nelly I thought simple living meant living within my stipend, but I have come to see it is so much more than that. And it only makes it so much harder! I was not one to think about who is affected by how long I take in the shower or what choices I make when shopping. Being that I love to shop, I thought I could live simply by just refraining from shopping alot and thats it. But this week my challenge was to conserve water and limit my shower time to 7 minutes. I realized I really like long showers and I leave the water running when brushing my teeth. This was a great challenge for me to get, and I think I'm handling it pretty well. I'll take this challenge over Justin's challenge any day! :-)

Celebrating Audrey's Birthday!

Rockin Las Alturas

2009-10-02T17:34:00.000-04:00

Being the wordsmiths that we are, we have been agonizing over our blog entry for weeks. Finally, we perfected the wording, but writing the music to accompany it was more difficult. We were waiting for the studio to get back to us with the final mix before posting but, sadly, the studio executives did not seem to realize the vital importance of timely blog posting. Never fear, we will let everyone know when to tune into MTV to catch the debut of our music video. Expect a little bit of rap, a little country, and a whole lot of death metal. Most people cry tears of pure joy when they hear it. There is, of course, a rocking drum solo. But, until then, we’re afraid all we have to give you is the lyrics:

Oh, Washington Heights.
The name says it all:
near the Washington Bridge, way uptown.
It’s a great, Dominican neighborhood
with beautiful parks (just ask Priscilla)
and delicious food.
Unfortunately, our full-time jobs keep us away
from our beloved area throughout most of the week.
Nevertheless, we’re all rocking our placements.
Yes, we’re quite busy!

With sales for some,
trainings for others,
and chores for all,
we get booked up fast.
However, we’ve been trying
to soak up all the big city has to offer
whenever we can.
Now that the weather has cooled,
and we’ve figured out how to meet our basic needs
(no small feat),
we want to explore even more,
and are soon taking a community road trip
to “volunteer on top of volunteering” as Audrey likes to say,
for HCJ in Maine.
Apple picking,
guests,
and Internet access
are some upcoming highlights.

Love,

Kitten Eyes
Just Kidding
Hiphopopotamus the Second

PS. Pictures to follow as soon as the photographer gets back to us about the photo shoot

Never a dull moment in Wickatunk

2009-09-17T22:20:00.002-04:00

Life in the greater metropolitan area of Wickatunk has been greatly varied since our arrival, but there have been a few constants; the ever present Deer whose number is too great to list, and the presence of smiles and friendly welcomes from all whom we meet.
In the first few weeks of our time in the Tunk we all were trained to be high ropes course instructors.
Our training was given by Carl Schmidt (the Jolly Rancher man) who we all agree (and you would too if you met him) is one of the coolest people we know.

Cool Beans

One of the many people who have made our experience thus far so amazing is our Principal Raymond Bock III he has taken us for lunch, given us tickets for a preseason Football game, bought us hopefully enough toilet paper for the year, but above all the greatest experience was crabbing.
Ray along with his Father Raymond Bock II and a teacher from the school took us to the bay, where we proceeded to swim with nets hunting for the fleeing crabs that occupy the weedy, mucky, stinky bay floor. For lunch we stopped on an island and ate raw Clams from their shells (Jealous?) they were tasty, real tasty (after gagging and throwing up a little in our mouths we were able to get a few down).
Miss Garcia formally known as Princess Diana oversaw the whole operation from the safety of a boat, we thank her for the pictures while Ms Dodgson and Mr. Smith can thank the Sun for their third degree burns.

We Love the Crabbing

The much anticipated arrival of the students finally came after Labor Day, we were all really, really excited about meeting the students for the first time. With the arrival of the students came our new names and responsibilities

The Finest Gym Teachers Collier has ever had.
Mr. Smith Ms Dodgson Miss Garcia Mr. Kelly

We have now been at school for over a week and we have all started to settle in to the routine of community life and how we accommodate life as teachers and life as community members. For our latest community night we made cup cakes with Jeanne our support person and decorated one for each other.

For our spirituality night we went to a Prayer Vigil for immigrants and their families, it reminded us in part of why we were together as a community, we went with two of the sisters who live at collier Sr Debbie and Sr Carol – you’ll hear much more about them next time.

Till next time...
peace love and hope,
"Tunk"

ps: remember stay cool not cold.

Putting the LA in Hola!!

2009-09-14T00:12:00.006-04:00

Holla from the West Coast!

Sorry this is coming to you so late, technically a week late if we're going by your time! ;) Keeping up with all the celebs out here has really taken up a lot of time. But seriously onto an update....

This was our first week of school with the kids and the mommas after 2 weeks of training. It has been really hard with all the swimming and playing on the swings and such but we are managing through. Oh and of course all the wonderful food the mom's have been cooking and world famous PINKS hot dogs OH and don't forget the bubble lady!

The shelter and the sisters are really more than we could have ever dreamed. It is going to be a lot of work but we are really so excited to be working with such wonderful people.

Outside of work we are trying to live simply - which has been a task since the Sisters take such wonderful care of us. We are aiming to challenge ourselves every week, last week we survived without hair dryers and straighteners! We are quite proud of ourselves. This week in light of our training at work we are taking the negatives out of our vocab! As to get in the habit for speaking with our clients we are taking out the No's, don'ts, stops, can'ts, and nots - those would be the big 5! If anyone has any suggestions for our weekly challenge please let us know.

We have also made some new friends, our neighbors are great and we have met the other local JV's and other volunteer groups! We actually are just coming back from a cookout with all of them!

Overall things are going quite well, we miss you all and think of you often!

Peace, love, & happiness to all oh and of course justice!

A Big HELLO from Astoria

2009-09-06T09:53:00.007-04:00

Hi everyone! This is your long-awaited post from the infamous Astoria community.

As you all know, our first week was blessed with the company of the Washington Heights community. Check out some pictures of our first few days in Queens. We went to the Pizza Palace and had awesome wheat pizza on the night before Justin's birthday. And then we went to Astoria park and enjoyed some ice cream on a nice day.

We wanted to share our personal experiences with you.

So this is AMY and I wanted to tell you a little bit about Marian Hall so far. My experience has been really positive. I thought the ladies would be a lot more closed up and mean to new staff, but they all have been really nice to me and my transition has been great. I feel that my skills are being put to good use at MH. Some of the girls' stories are really sad. Some of them had hopes of going to a foster family and were 'rejected' last minute. Some of them have real trust issues, some have a lot of emotional problems, but all of them are great in their own ways. I'm finding it easy to feel at home there and relate to all of the girls on different levels. I've been entrusted with some cool tasks already. I have been able to go out on recreational trips with some of the girls - we went to see Final Destination last week in Union Square, and this week I went bowling with them up in the Bronx. :)

GSV 09-10 - A New Year!

2009-08-24T18:52:00.012-04:00

Hello Everyone from the GSV Staff Office in New York!

We just finished our Orientation Week with our new volunteers for the 2009-2010 year, and what an action-packed week it was.

Click the link below to check out our Facebook page for Orientation photos, and become a fan!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Good-Shepherd-Volunteers/18236227525?ref=ts

Also check out this video below of our GSV Talent Show, with Justin facilitating a groovy drum workshop!

We'll be thinking of you all much throughout this year and we're so humbled to join you on your journey of learning, growth, spirit of love, witness to justice, and, yes, good humor.

Thanks!
-Jon and Pete, GSV Staff

There is a place where the sidewalk ends...

2009-06-05T21:16:00.072-04:00

Well, hello there!

It's been such a long time! Up here in Astoria, we've thoroughly enjoyed reading about all your adventures these last months. What else have we been doing, aside from stalking you through the internet (joking, joking....mostly...)? Let's see....

There was the Social Justice & Simplicity retreat in February...

...after which we chilled with the New Jersey and LA volunteers....

We got all decked out in for St. Paddy's Day at the Crocodile Lounge....

And we learned just how dangerous New York really can be:

Laura & Nritya planned Field Day for community night. The first injury of the night goes to Hannah in the marble race. Coming second chronologically, but certainly not where severity of injury is concerned, is Nritya - dashing in for the win during another race, she slides the last food and slams into the wall knee first! Poor girl couldn't move it the next day and had to miss work...

AND SO MUCH MORE!

We could just fill this page with picture after picture of our fabulous adventures, but we figured we'd give you a little variety. So read on for more of what we've been up to and what's on our minds....

Reflections from Laura, Foster Boarding Home

Express Yourself!

We needed something to express our teens creative talent as well as brighten the walls of the agency so I began the art group Express Yourself! at Foster Boarding Home--kicked off on Earth day. Our teens came together to brainstorm ideas then draw those ideas onto a 12x9' canvas which would later be painted. Each teen was given 2 disposable camers to capture people, places, and things from their neighborhood. They returned with amazing shots--everything from ladies with shopping bags, homeless men drinking/smoking in a park, to a young man being arrested. These photos were not only framed for display but were also incorporated into the canvas for a multi-media project. 6 weeks and many hours later, rather than walk in to the agency and ascend to white walls, visitors are greeted with a colorful, real, and fun representation of the neighborhoods that make up NYC.

Art from the Museum of Modern Art (photos by Laura)

Ok, this one really isn't from the MoMA but it should be! It's actually a community and support person collaborative piece of work.

'Foster to Famous'

I'll be leaving FBH at the end of July which means completing my projects and making closure with the teens and staff I've grown close to. My final contribution to our waiting area wall will be what I'm calling 'Foster to Famous'-celebrities who were once in foster care or adopted. Another idea I had for the wall in May was to raise awareness that May is foster care month and encourage positive reasons to be in foster care. I made 'complete the sentence' cards for our teens which for example, read "Because of foster care I..." or "What I like about foster care is...". The completed cards were randomly posted all over the wall for all who enetered to get an idea of the good our teens find in foster care. As you can see, something I found important this year was working to make our space more welcoming with some creativeness.

Did you know these celebrities were once in foster care or adopted?

Nancy's Survival Guide to the Big Apple
A little while back, Jon Alvarez asked all us New York volunteers a few questions about our time here. Our answers are being gathered together into an NYC Survival Guide for future volunteers, but Nan thought you all might like to get her spin on the whole thing (you know, for the next time you're in town)...

Best things about NYC...the options...there's something for everyone. Great parks, museums, so many good eats (and cheap), bars with happy hours that last all day(!) and clubs with no covers...and of course great shopping and again something for everyone!

Most challenging things about NYC...it is uncivilized. Everyone is just out for themselves and always in a rush, they bump into you and not notice or care. As someone who was brought up to greet people, apologize and be courteous, it is a real culture shock!

Advice on getting acclimated...embrace who you are! I get stopped by tourists all the time and they ask me questions and I go "why do people always stop me?" I can have my ipod blasting and they still tap me on the shoulder. I think it might be that I walk at MY pace with a smile from ear to ear...

What do you wish you'd known ahead of time? How much walking you do...BRING THE APPROPRIATE SHOES!!!! Beauty before pain is my motto but man it's only cuz I can't afford a decent pair lol

Survival tips? POKER FACE!

Where to find the best, cheapest:
pizza- Best Brothers...$2.50 buys you two slices and a soda!
coffee shops- as an LA archetype, I love Starbucks! If you take an old Starbucks cup, they refill your drink for cheap! Iced tea is $0.50.
live music- wherever JA is playing...DUH!
clubs/dancing- if you like clubs, enroll yourself to Joonbug (newyork.joonbug.com) - great hook ups!
drinks- Continental for shots, Charley O's, Sushi Lounge (after 10pm), Off the Wagon, Tonic East (for ladies on Wed night 8-9pm all you can drink on house liquors...all beers, mixed drinks with house gin/tequila/vodka etc...)
parks/nature- for picnics, Astoria Park is great; for eating lunch and/or reading, I'd say Union Square; for riding a bike and hitting a parked NYPD car...definitely CENTRAL PARK!
karaoke- Tonic on Sundays after 10pm...expensive drinks (right Hannah?!?) but great appetizers
bowling- in the Bronx by Yankee Stadium (2 shoe rental 4.50/game)
movie theaters- my fav is the one on 34th St between 8th and 9th ave
Broadway tickets- TKTS on 48th St between 7th Ave and Broadway - pricey but SO worth it!
anything else?! Make friends with bartenders and/or servers and fake your birthday!!!!!

June Means
Baseball!!
We turn to our resident sports guru, Mike Kochczynski for a dispatch from the New York baseball scene...

The New Yankee Stadium:
Turning the Pantheon into a Parking Lot

Make no mistake. I am not a Yankees fan. In fact, I have only started tolerating them because my girlfriend yells at me otherwise. I think their fans are sadistic. I believe they buy World Series championships. I think George Steinbrenner is the biggest jerk in sports, but even I have to admit the old Yankee stadium was a cathedral of sports. It is the home to countless legends and celebrated moments.

The birth of the “old” Yankee Stadium foreshadows what would be a very auspicious and storied history. The New York Yankees and New York Giants shared the Polo Grounds, a storied baseball stadium in Northern Manhattan. The Giants owned the property and at first the coexistence was relatively peaceful as both teams enjoyed similar amounts of success and fan support. That amity continued until the Yankees signed a slugger named George Herman Ruth, from the Boston Braves.

Ruth’s signing led to renewed interest in the Yankees, and attendance soared. In fact, in Ruth’s first season, the Yankees outdrew the Giants. For Giants fans, players, and staff, it was one thing to share a stadium with your local rival, but it was another to be outdrawn to your stadium. In 1921, Giants owners gave Yankees owners the official notice to begin finding a new stadium. Yankees Stadium opened in the Bronx, on April 18th, 1923.

The stadium had an ambitious size, and the only reason it was even economically feasible was the presence of Babe Ruth, who brought with him a mass of sports fan. The stadium eventually became known as “The House Ruth Built.” The first game in 1923 hosted an announced attendance of 74,217. The previous attendance record was 42,000.

After it opened, Yankee Stadium hosted countless memorable moments in sports history: the Notre Dame-Army college football game that led to the introduction of the forward pass; the Joe Louis-Max Schmeling fight in which the African American Louis defeated the Nazi-sponsored, Schmeling; “The Greatest Game Ever Played” between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants was held there in 1958; In 1957, Billy Graham hosted a televised “crusade” that attracted a crowd of 100,000; and this is not to mention countless Yankees moments including Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series, Lou Gehrig’s Farewell to Baseball Speech, and many more including masses held by two popes (Benedict the 16th and John Paul 2nd). Unfortunately, the Yankees took the history and spirit of the old stadium and turned it into a half-filled, home run friendly, product placement behemoth. Sure, I am absolutely impressed by the steakhouse, Hard Rock Café, the million dollar club suites, but the new stadium lacks the energy, emotion, and intensity that the old Yankee Stadium captured.

Here Comes the Sun, and I Say, "It's Alright"
by Saralyn

Spring has sprung and the sun is shining

...between the rain and massive thunderstorms, that is. We're keeping our chins up, though, and focusing on the beauty of our blooming city! There are over 1700 parks, playgrounds and recreation areas in the five boroughs, providing tons of outlets for the over 8 million people who live here. Everyone knows about Central Park, so here's a little info on some of those other 1699 places to enjoy the Great Outdoors in the Big Apple.

Our first stop is to Brooklyn, home of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden (shown right, in a beautiful picture by Laura). Founded in 1910, BBG contains a Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, hosts an annual cherry blossom festival, and is currently running a rose festival and "Wicked Plants" exhibit.

Right next door to the Botanical Garden and just off Grand Army Plaza is Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Planned by the same landscape architects as Central Park, it has waterfalls, meadows, hillsides, a zoo and Brooklyn's only forest! The front plaza here hosts a small farmer's market from time to time and the park itself was host to a certain GSV-affiliated LOST themed birthday party *cough*JonAlvarez*cough*

Once upon a time, the architects of mini New York City communities would entice possible residents to their buildings with a private, landscaped oasis. Gramercy Park is the only of these private parks left in Manhattan (although there is another in Queens). Accessible only by a key that residents of certain buildings can purchase annually or guests of the hotel in the square, it's a beautiful little plot that just taunts you as you walk by! The statue in the center of the park is of a former resident of the square, Edwin Booth - a famous Shakespearean actor and brother of John Wilkes Booth.

And our own lovely little borough of Queens does not lack for greenspace, either! There are two fabulous parks just a walk away. The closest and largest is Astoria Park, which sits snugly up against the East River and under the RFK (formerly Triboro) Bridge and the Hellsgate Bridge.

It has playgrounds, big grassy knolls, and the city's largest public swimming pool. Sometimes there are impromptu musical performances (like the marching drummers seen in this photo by Laura) or Shakespeare in the Park.

Socrates Park is a little more unique. It is a sculpture garden sitting on the East River in Long Island City. Most of the sculpture installations change with the shifting themes of the park, the most current being "State Fair". On permanent display are life casts of three members of a Bronx community that were originally part of a public art piece in that borough but were removed amidst controversy (check it out in the book "Whose Art is It?"). They also have a wide variety of other sweet activities going on, like yoga, pilates, tai chi, capoeira, kayaking, arts and crafts, and a movie series in the summer. And it's all free!

As the sun sets over the lovely and iconic Brooklyn Bridge, we say farewell to you all. Pretty soon most of us will be saying good-bye to our fair City, as well. It's only fitting we sign off with a little update on what some Astoria GSVs will be doing when we leave here (and a reflection by the first person to do so):

Nancy will be: "in sunny Cali living with 3 of my best friends, hopefully in Redondo Beach, working as an operations manager for KCC, the best company ever. We have a nap room and a game room, not to mention every social event is open bar :)"

Hannah is: "staying in New York and learning to moonwalk."

Saralyn is: "heading back to Cali to do a MA in Cultural Studies at Claremont Graduate University, but, first and foremost, I'm gonna kick it Minnesota-style. WOO! Chilling with college friends, visiting family, going to football training camp (on a trip with my old work), visiting family and (hopefully) driving my stuff cross-country."

Melissa is:"DUE WEST" Back to CO to climb mountains, ride bikes and drink beer."

Laura: "just couldn't get enough of life as a full time volunteer and is going internacional Peruvian style but this time with the Augustinian Volunteers. Departure is not until January 2010 so I'll be sweatin' it back in Texas until then."

Nritya is: flying home to Dubai for a while, but returning to New York to start graduate school at Pace University this Fall.

A Reflection On Leaving - Nritya Ramani

The end of the year has come from nowhere. It wasn't unexpected and yet I cannot believe that I will be leaving on July 6th, which is like in a week. Ending up in Jefferson Avenue A.K.A 'the hood' instead of Maspeth for dinner with the sisters; facing the scare of a 'silent retreat'; or even trying my hand at dance like martial arts (capoeira). I also happen to play pranks on my poor supervisor David. One such incident stands out for me. Once a week we would get supplies in a huge container. I had finished stocking up the closet. My dormant mind schemed a wicked plan and I got the tiniest of my girls to sit inside the now empty container. I briefed my two coworkers who were only too glad to join in the fun. I threw some blankets over the girl and coolly rolled the container into David's office. As we all waited outside, one of us 'coughed' as a signal. But the poor girl didn't get the hint. Hence it took multiple stimuli to get the job done. David was concerned about the coughing and yelled if we were ok. And at that instant the girl jumped out. David screamed, fell out of his chair and against the wall, scaring the girl in turn who ran over to me. It was completely hilarious and I would have peed my pants but I can't remember. And you wonder how I still have a decent relationship with people at work? Or do I? LOL

The past two weeks have been marked by a flurry of goodbyes and memory book scribbles. My girls at Euphrasian have given me lil tokens whether it be hand made jewelery, drawings or even better behavior! A common question concerned my ever coming back to work. It is a possibility. After my masters in psychology, I might pursue further studies and with that I have the option of going back to work at Euphrasian or at a prison (I had volunteered in one back in MN for three years). Everything is a lot of supposition. But hey that's life for you. Dream big, aim high and more importantly... follow through! Peace out and Hare Krishna homies.

Yes we did love New York (or parts and times of it).

2009-05-19T00:17:00.062-04:00

It's 10pm....

Do you know where the flip your GSVs are?

Welcome to our May blogpaper! Hope you enjoy the articles to follow.

Thing-2 Corners Obama

A cartoon fished off http://crazy-jokes.com

By I. M. Gold

TREASURE COVE, New Jersey – Twas a merry day in May when we received the opportunity to own two young, healthy, feisty, ready to rock goldfish. Of course, we took them, as well as a 20 gallon tank and a little treasure cove. Along with some very realistic plastic plants and gravelly gravel in plopped our goldfish, one of a glossy, fiery gold tone and the other of a deep ebony hue. We aptly and respectively named them Thing 2 and Obama (aka My President is Black). They appeared to engage a budding friendship with one another, swimming together and practically cuddling one another for all of 5 captivating minutes. That sweet aura changed, however, the moment food entered the equation.

Thing 2 cornered Obama, WWF style, as real fish flakes drifted to the glass floor. (It was very exciting to find “organic” food for the goldfish, or food made from “real” fish, as opposed to fake fish. Apparently Thing 2 and Obama liked it so much they duked it out). It was a sad sight to see, our Obama waiting his turn for real fish flakes. Fortunately, though, it doesn’t matter too much because…

OUR PRESIDENT IS BLACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thing 2 running amok, fleeing the frightening finger

Obama (MPIB!), the speckled love of my life

Compost Heap Explodes

A cartoon wormed from Cartoon Stock’s website

By O. Door and U. Smell

FLEA, New Jersey – Twas a frigid day in February when the three Wickatunkians decided to embrace the life of simplicity and social justice. We chose to create for our apartment a compact compost heap. Compact because we do not have a lot of room and compost because we want to save the environment (yay Earth!) in our own little way. A compost heap, however, is complete only with winged bugs of many shapes and sizes, substances that very much resemble puke in appearance and smell, and the marvelous growth known as mold. Compile all of this with my decision to toss in some cantaloupe skin and you get a soupy, furry, aromatic mix that must be appropriately disposed. On the way to the receptacle, the bag breaks, the fumes are unleashed in all their fury, and cantaloupe remains sprawl across the Collier lawn. Eventually, someway, somehow, by the awkward maneuverings of the goodly volunteers, we manage to successively shepherd this heap of surprises to its destination.

Needless to say, we did not abandon our mission to embrace social justice and simplicity. Our compost heap is still smelling strong and we are proud of it!

Collier Goes International

A political cartoon from the Omaha-World Herald

By Jess Tuss

FAIREVILLE, New Jersey – Twas a fine day in February when I officially kicked off my teaching career and started teaching a social justice course one period per day at the high school. To cook up a lesson with international flavor for my students, I contacted a fellow teacher in Ecuador and we brought our classes together via webcam. My students hailed the webcam as “an amazing force of technology, bringing people together face to face.” In fact, both the Ecuadorians and Americans stared at one another as if they were seeing aliens descending upon the computer for the first time. In all seriousness, though, it was really fun – my students learned a little bit about what they had in common with Ecuadorian teens as well as how our governments differed and what kind of wildlife is native and common to Ecuador. Also in all seriousness, I love teaching the class. It’s an affirmation that my dream is, in reality, my dream, and that somewhere in me a teaching, growing, learning flame burns brightly.

The chilluns watching Ecuador!

http://socialjustice.collierhighschool.com/default.htm

A website I built for my class... check it out

Domestic Violence is All the Rage… Not

A gif document from yardflex.com

By E. Qual Rytes

HOPETOWN, Everywhere – One thing that the Wickatunk Community spoke about at the Simplicity and Social Justice Retreat was to pick one or two issues to support and learn more about in the next few months. We decided on domestic violence. With this being said, Meg and I attended “The Vagina Monologues” at Monmouth University and in the same week, we also went to Take Back the Night. We had both been part of sexual violence awareness weeks in college; however, both Providence College and the University of Scranton banned “The Vagina Monologues.” This intrigued both of us to want to see this forbidden play! I was very impressed by the honesty in the play. It was humorous, sad, enlightening, frightening and truthful. I would highly recommend this to anyone who has never seen it. What made this week of events at Monmouth even more special was that Meg and I completed a self-defense class called PREPARE at Collier High School. The class was for female students who had been sexually abused or had low self-esteem. We were taught how to use clear, directive language and to defend ourselves when we are in unsafe situations with a stranger, an acquaintance and a loved one. The five week class, the play and the open forum for individuals to speak out helped Meg and I educate ourselves and to discuss the issue. We bonded over a serious issue, but in the end, we became better roommates and friends from these three experiences!

Magnum opus

A photo of the infamous, most wonderful Collier High

S.K. Ool

Sometimes, whenever I’m working on my imaginary 67’ Ford Pinto, I stop and think about Horace’s “imperative” words, carpe diem. I think of these words and I scoff. I scoff because this term is used a lot, though in this day and age so much importance is placed on tomorrow and this is evident through the amount of blackberries, day planners, and agenda’s being carried even at this very moment. It is through the pondering of these words that I have come to terms with that we live in a paradox, or hypocritical age. (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing).
Coming into this year I felt really jaded and disillusioned with humanity and the human condition. Humans as a whole have so much potential to do good, to create concepts like agape, hope, yet humanity is constantly plagued with apathy and self- absorption. This duality though, is part of the human condition; people wake to mystery and beauty but also to tragedy and loss. Before this year, I had lost focus that Jesus and God were still in the business of redemption. I had forgotten that every moment of every day is another chance to turn it all around. Working at Collier, which is a place to grow, has reminded me of the intrinsic good in the world, and the potential to always change.

Collier High school is a lot like Oz, and feel like Toto within that world. I did not say I related to Dorothy, because, a, I do not wear pigtails, and b, she is annoying. Collier though is like Oz for it too is a magical place and separates itself from the rest of the world. Collier high school is able to create an atmosphere comprised of objectivity and subjectivity. It is in the atmosphere that one can see true altruism, the hand of God, the idea of “one person being of more value than the world”, put into action. True altruism is what helps Collier to move like a well oiled machine : The faculty, staff, and just everyone involved seem to thrive and breathe for the actualization of the full potential of the students. Objectivity and subjectivity are held in tension in such away, that every child at school is treated equally, but at the same time every child is tended as an individual with their own story and needs.

I began this verbal rant, or “written vomit” talking about carpe diem. There was a point to that and now I am going to make it. Carpe diem ……. was created just after the great conquerors had existed; Hannibal, Alexander the Great, Aeneas, Dido, and its purpose was to motivate people to get motivated and become immortalized in a poem or though sculpture. In this modern day there is no need for immortalization through clay or iambic pentameter, for one can immortalize themselves through Facebook and Myspace. Instead of seizing the day which sounds... archaic is not the word, but it is the first word that comes to mind, I call for people to just be and enjoy the day. Follow the word of Isaiah and the “Preacher” from Ecclesiastes, “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.” True happiness seems to be a state of mind and it seems to be best achieved when you do like Collier, and accept the dichotomies and tensions and life, and instead of constantly evaluating them, “ you roll with the punches and just live.”

Reflections on Spirituality

A design from Lane Community College

By U. R. Love

PEACE, New York - Prayers from Spirituality Retreat:

Dear God,
Enable me to sense the stirrings of the Holy Spirit in my heart. Guide me in seeing with my inner eye, intuition. Help me see how each person and each interaction, positive or negative, is some creative expression of You. Work through me to engage others in experiencing their own "original blessing" and the beautiful wholeness of who they uniquely are. Fill me with joy and insight and self-love so I may better love others. Paz y amor!

Love is an exponential number.

In your dealings with persons, imitate the eagle who takes its young a short distance, then higher. They rest and begin again with fresh courage. -SME in all her awesomeness

Good God, if your song leaves our lips

If your work leaves our hands

Then we will be wonders and vagabonds

They will stare and say how empty we are

How the freedom we had turned us up as dead men

Let us be cold, make us weak

Let us, because we all have ears

Let us, because we all have eyes

How they knew that this would happen

We’re so run down

Good God! Can you still get us home?

How can we still get home

I’m not dreaming

We’re forgetting our forgiveness

-too bright to see, too loud to hear
By underoath

Where Doors are Made of Oak: Avant Garde Media Reviews

Listening to playlist: singing soft and delicate

Heartbreaker- john legend(w/mstrkrft)
Daylight outro mix- matt and kim
Love letter- blaq adio
The recluse- cursive
Elanore rigby- the beatles
There is a light that never goes out- the smiths
Pace is the trick- Interpol
Existentialism on prom night- straylight run
This time imperfect
Someday you’ll be loved- deathcab for cutie
God only knows- the beach boys
Tiny vessels- deathcab for cutie
Rush of blood to the head- coldplay
Mad world- gary jules
Tell me what to swallow- crystal castles

Now watching and recommending (films)

Smart People-cool/ funny haha
Synecdoche NYC- tubular/great
Teeth- funny haha/ eww
Paperclips- ask dalferro for a Spanish review/ heart moving
Hard Candy- not funny haha, but good
Party monster- Home alone kid. Watch it
The Wackness- hit up Dalferro for a Spanish review of the film

Photography for Your Viewing Pleasure

Bona fide water balloon hustlers

The perfect teardrop (presented by Ms. Kate LaRousse): the elasticity of the rubber must not fluctuate, must remain constant at a temp between 70 f to 85 f, and must contain 75ml of pure H2O

WICKATUNK. Where miracles happen every day.

WE CAN DUNK.

WICKaDUNK.

We are those who...

See RataTat

Chill with Jonny Cupcakes and watch the Karate Kid

Websites for all who are GSV-minded

http://www.freerice.com/ - play it! you will never look back!

http://www.axisofjustice.org/ - check it out for some "just" music

http://www.twloha.com/ - could change your world

Thanks for Reading Our Blog!

Hope you enjoyed... much love to everyone!

To live and die in LA

2009-04-22T23:15:00.038-04:00

Hey, all!

Celia and Mary (and Tupac?) here! Hope your April has been treating you well. Ours has gone swimmingly thus far. To give you a few highlights since the last time we wrote...

Christmas at the Shelter was quite a handful. We had a program for the holiday, we made a slideshow of pictures for the families, and we put on a Posada (and a feast!) with the moms. Part of the festivities featured a karaoke dance and song by the teachers of the Good Shepherd School to "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas." Christmas at the Shelter was SO much fun, but it was quite a lot of work.
Luckily we had a break at the end of the month. We accidentally got more time for break than we should have, as a former principal made the calendar in haste with incorrect dates. Nonetheless, our lovely parents had already been so generous as to buy our flights before they could fix it. So we had some great time at home with the fams.
Then Lindsey Conlin came and visited us! We were minorly offended when she denied the invitation to stay at our sweet pad, but we were just playing, because we knew she just loves nuns that much that she wanted to stay with them. With Lindsey, we had a boatload of meetings crammed into a small amount of time, but we stayed out late to enjoy the city and see its sites.
Celia and Mary then went down to San Diego again during MLK weekend. The quick jaunt happened because Celia's friend was staying in a swanky hotel in swanky La Jolla and offered us a place to stay. We could not refuse. We returned to our favorite San Diego pub, The Field, where we got jocked by rand-o's. Hadam.
Celia and Mary took a trip to Ojai, CA with our lovely support person Elizabeth and her fiancee Mike. They are getting married there next month (we are going!) and went up for more wedding prep stuff. We had a great time, and we just love Elizabeth and Mike! (Elizabeth is GSV '07-'08)
The next weekend was Mary's birthday! We celebrated in style with literally every friend that we've made in Los Angeles (we are not boasting....we actually have few friends, but they all showed!). We visited our favorite spot to go out in the city, Old Town Pasadena. We had a grand old time (perhaps too grand!)! On my birthday itself, we went to a rooftop bar in downtown LA called "The Standard." We got dolled up and it was precious (great view, too!).
To celebrate the taking of the presidential office oath by our beloved Barack Obama, as well as a prominent annual football game, Celia and Mary had the Shelter staff over for our "Inaugural Bowl" party, in which we watched the SuperBowl, ate a lot of food, and left the Barack Obama channel on youtube rolling on the computer. It was a smashing success.
We came to retreat with all of you in early February! We loved the trip out, loved the homemade granola (extra crunchy!!!), and loved celebrating our many birthdays with you all in the East Village afterwards.
The next weekend we worked at the USC production of the The Vagina Monologues on V-Day! It was a great performance, and best of all Eve Ensler attended and spoke afterwards, along with Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege, about the horrors of sexual violence against women in the world. Very powerful for V-day, and very disturbing the kind of atrocities that are perpetrated against women all the time.
Then Mary and Celia didn't see each other for a whole week! Celia's parents came to visit late-February. Celia had quite the time romping around town with them. That weekend, Mary's friend Annie came in from Boston, and she spent the whole weekend with her. They continued in their love upon re-encounter.
Mary returned to NYC for an interview at the beginning of March, where I saw all of you lovely Astoria folk (minus you, Nritya!). The interview went well; the end result was less favorable. Hooray job search!
St. Patrick's Day in LA is absolutely nothing like St. Patrick's Day in the great Irish cities of Boston and New York. Nonetheless, we did find places to celebrate, wore our green, and listened to Irish folk music all day (care of Celia).
Then our school went on Spring Break! This sent Mary's parents to LA for a week of vacation fun, and it sent Celia overseas to Ireland! Mary had a great time, seeing old places and new ones with her parents, and absolutely adored spending time with her loving, loving folks. She also got to go to a taping of the Tonight Show and Price is Right, as well as to a Sox/Angels game. Celia had quite a wonderous in her homeland. She spent the majority of her time on the Western coast of Ireland, in Galway, reconnecting with her friends from when she studied abroad and revisiting the sites she fell in love with during her year there. All in all, a lovely time for the two of them!

And then here we are! We have a lot to look forward to in the upcoming future! (And perhaps now we will connect more with our lives by speaking in the first person :).

Mary's band is going on tour! It's called "Jackie Jormp-Jomp" and it's gonna be sweet! No, actually it's not, but Mary is in a band, and it is called the Los Angeles Winds (check us out! lawinds.org), and the first weekend in May she is going up to San Luis Obispo to play a few shows with them. It should be super and it features some A+ music.
Celia and Mary are ever so looking forward to seeing all of YOU at the retreat next week! We have just recently completed our preparation meeting and we are anticipating spending lots of hours of silence with all of you. :)
We have another sale on the weekend we get back, but just two nights after our return we will return to Angels Stadium in Anaheim to see the Sox take on the Angels once more. Hooray!
Memorial Day weekend holds another concert for Mary, as well as the marriage of Elizabeth (our support person) (!!!!!). We are so excited for this! It is up in Ojai, CA. Elizabeth has been an amazing support person and friend to us, and thus we are so looking forward to spending this day with her. Hooray for GSV friendships!
At the end of the month, Mary will head back to Boston for one of her best friend's wedding (sounds like a movie), and Celia will have some of her best friends come visit her in early June. All in all, we are going to have a crazy May!

A reflection by Celia

In the last few weeks I have felt a distinct turn in my understanding of my time in Los Angeles, changing from trying to process my current experiences and challenges to thinking about my post-GSV future. Given that it seems like just a few short months ago that I was applying for jobs at the end of my senior year of college, this transition is both exciting and stressful. I am excited about using the things I have learned teaching at the shelter to find a job I feel passionately about and best uses my “gifts”(as they say at work) but the thought of having to go through that process again is also pretty overwhelming and SCARY! I’m looking at mostly teaching jobs and probably heading back to the East Coast, although not because I dislike Los Angeles. If anything, I really like Los Angeles and the friends I have met out here, but I know I want to eventually come back to the East Coast, and the thought of having to say good-bye to these people after three or four years together, instead of just one, seems traumatic and difficult.

Part of coming to this realization was going back to Galway, Ireland, where I had spent my junior year of college, during my spring break from work. Being back there and seeing many of my friends I had met when I lived there reminded me how strong of a connection I feel to the city and how hard it was to leave after my year there was over. It also reminded me how lucky I am to have so many amazing people in my life (including you all!) and experiences that have made me who I am. Overall, going back to Ireland was such an amazing, amazing time and it brought back so many feelings, both anticipated and not. Amidst all that, it was such an incredibly fun week complete with many almost all-nighters spent in Irish pubs, funny stories, Irish music and making the most of my short week there. There are also Good Shepherd Sisters living in Galway and working with women who have been trafficked into the country illegally, so I now have a new goal of some day being able to live in Galway for a summer and volunteer with the Sisters there, thus combining my favorite type of nuns with my favorite place in the world. :)

Although it sounds cliché to say, I really can’t believe that it is already May. Time has flown by so incredibly fast since I arrived in Los Angeles and trying to look back seems like a blur. Everything seems to be so busy and sometimes it seems difficult to find a quiet moment to myself. There are still many things I would like to accomplish in my classroom with my kids so I look forward to trying to achieve some of these goals in the next few months. My time here at the shelter is short and I know it is going to go by so quickly so I am going to try and make the most of the time I have left. Can’t wait to see you guys in a week!

A Reflection by Mary

My GSV lovers, I will strive to give you my most honest impressions of life at the moment, while recognizing that that task seems very difficult right now. Life has been moving super quickly as of late, perhaps too quickly, and I just don't feel like I've even had a minute to stop and really appreciate it. With the visit of my parents mid-April, I've been busy ever since, entertaining guests, touring with my band (I still sound like a rock star), retreat, a Sox game, weddings, and more visitors, I am simultaneously overjoyed and totally drained. This year is turning out to be so much more than I ever would've expected, both in terms of things, it turns out, that I have in abundance, things I feel like I'm fairly lacking, and emotions that accompany those two extremes. But as I often say to Celia, "here I am," and I'm trying my darndest to make the most of it.

Life overall in Los Angeles, to give you an idea of a getting-to-the-year's-end wrap up, is good. I am altogether shocked that I can say that right now. Feel free to scroll back in the archives of this blog to how I felt last time we posted, because I wasn't telling the same story. I've largely settled in here (ha! after 8 months!) and, in many ways, recognize and appreciate my Angeleno existence for what it is. California, as a state, is absolutely beautiful; I can even say (although with certain hesitations) the same thing about LA (personal opinion--no hate for the native Angelenos :). My first year out of college has left me thinking time after time of my role in the world and what I'm doing with my life and how I'm making the most of my relationships and where it is exactly that I'm finding joy. There are shades of all of those previous things in my life here. I am thankful for that. And I think the most resounding theme of this year for me, perhaps, is one of gratitude. Although I do not believe that I have ever been one to take things for granted, this year has been full of opportunities to give thanks, reflect upon, and really truly appreciate all of the great things I have in my life. To name a few of those things for which I give thanks: the Shelter, all of you, every single one of my relationships, love, a brain, my family, a sense of humor, my weaknesses, my strengths, my successes and my failures, and my ability to even see these things. There is such an air of gratitude where we work, and that is something that has just made me feel comfortable there. Through recognizing how much and simultaneously how little I have here, I am humbled and overwhelmed with gratitude, and I will leave it at that.

But alas, still, the 800 pound gorilla on this website reflection (and likely this same gorilla exists in many of your lives) still persists: my fate next year is still very up in the air. It's that time where all of us non-grad-school-goers are starting to get nervous, I do believe. As I mentioned above, I did not get the job I applied for in NYC; I similarly did not get the job I applied for in San Francisco. I'm not gonna lie: that was disappointing. NY was especially disappointing, as it seemed to encapsulate everything I would've loved in my next year. My friend Lauren, who is going through a similar struggle right now as she finishes her masters at BC, described the job search quite well: "it is totally confidence-knocking and sucks." That seems to be the most apt description I've ever come across of this whole process. We couldn't have picked a worse time to be college graduates, and---even though this year teaches us abundantly what amazing gifts we have in our lives, and the joy we have inside us when we tap into those special gifts---this is most certainly going to be a long and (please pardon me) fucking hard process. As seekers, we are all craving certainty in one regard or another, something we can be sure about for the coming year. I have every idea of where I'd like to be and ideas of what I'd like to be doing, but getting to that point C is more uphill than I'd like. Not getting the two jobs I originally envisioned to be best for me shakes me for sure, but I remain confident in my abilities to serve, and I look forward to a yet-unpainted, but certainly bright, future. Again, we as seekers need to have this confidence in order to carry on; a strong sense of self is sustaining me and guiding me through this period of discernment and (hopefully) ascertainment. I wish you the best in your searches as well. :)

Links

We have some links that we would like you to check out, now that you know a little bit more about our lives to this point.

http://www.denimdayinla.org/ Central to Denim Day in LA's mission is the fact that there is never an invitation to rape someone. If you do not know anything about the history of Denim Day and how it evolved, it is quite a provocative (and enraging) story. Check it out!
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/04/27/for_law_graduates_a_public_service_detour_on_road_to_success/ This article from the Boston Globe describes what is happening to many graduating from law school right now, expecting $160,000 starting salaries: since the economy inhibits some corporate firms from being able to pay their newest recruits, some are trading in a year to work in the non-profit/service sector like us (but receiving a grossly larger stipend than we!). Good stuff.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103327927 A knock-off version of what women around the world do much better in HandCrafting Justice (at least we think :P)
http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/tp/tp090430a_hard_rains_falling Another standout program from our local NPR, this one details why it will be so incredibly difficult for us to find jobs when GSV is done (and why we're the shit for doing AmeriCorps ;)

WE LOVE YOU DEARLY, and we'll see you (in silence) Friday.

Hugs,
Wall and Dillon

Perucha (lil Peru)

2009-03-30T18:12:00.031-04:00

Greetings from a beautiful but always chilly Cusco! For a while I (Meghan) was a community of one here, but in August salvation from loneliness arrived in the form of Tasi and now we are an awesome community that does awesome things. We have included in our post a little about where we work, what we are doing with our time here in Peru, a recipe and some pictures, because they're always fun. Enjoy!

¡Drank Caliente!
Every Friday, we gather a group of friends to go out and give bread and tea to the people who spend the cold nights outside. We have been doing it for more than a month and so far it seems to be going well. Our community here has been very encouraging, and we even received a donation, that we used to buy ham to make sandwiches. We started doing this because we see a lot of poverty in Cusco and wanted to take some sort of action rather than passing by the same people every night doing nothing.

(the picture is of Meghan getting ready to be drinkcha for drank caliente! woohooo!)

Reflection:
As I walk down dusty roads or
busy concrete boulevards
help me God to take the time to see in the eyes of the other,
to recognize the other, in order to respect.

As I encounter many peoples, many races,
help me to appreciate the hand of the other,
to recognize those hands that create and build, in order to work together.

As my path calls me to various places,
help me to learn to walk together with others on paths that lead to peace,
recognizing that by walking with others, in working together,
we learn to recognize ourself in the other,
to recognize and appreciate our differences.

And begin to recognize what love is about.

Receta: Aji de Gallina (aka deliciousness)

Ingredients:

4lbs. chicken
1/2 cup of oil
1/2 lb. of chopped nuts
2 tsp ground garlic
6 chilis liquidized
1 large tin of evaporated milk
4 oz. grated parmesan cheese
1 large onion , finely chopped
salt & pepper to taste
6 yellow potatoes (or normal potatoes are fine)
olives, hard boiled eggs
(cooked rice - enough for 8 servings)

Directions:

Boil the chicken in salted water. Remove from bone and break into bite size pieces. In a saucepan heat the oil and fry the onion, garlic and chili peppers, salt and pepper to taste. Fry until golden. Cook slowly for 10 minutes then add chopped nuts, grated cheese and chopped chicken. Two or three minutes before serving add the evaporated milk.

Decorate the dish with halved potatoes and eggs quartered lengthwise and olives. Serve with the boiled rice.

Where We Work!

Meghan: I work in a home for older girls ages 16 to 22. The mission of the home is to give girls, whose families don’t have the resources to send them to college, the opportunity to do so. The girls all come voluntarily because they want to pursue a college education. We also have a bakery that provides most of the funding to support the home. When the girls aren’t studying, they work in the store selling bread and pastries to our mostly tourist clientele. My role is to work the cash register. I like it because it gives me a lot of time to interact and talk to the girls and I have learned how to identify all forms of false Peruvian currency. I also help with homework and was teaching English for a while.

Meghan and Laura working the cash register.

Tasi: My site placement is my bringer of life here. If it weren't for the girls at the home and the daily dose of joy they bring me, I would be completely lost. I work at a home for girls who come from many different situations. They are between the ages of 6 and 17. Some of the them are taken out of abusive homes, some have been abandoned, some have run away from home, and others are brought to the hogar because their families are struggling financially and can't support them. Since my arrival at the end of August, I have spent a few months on night shift (which entailed picking the girls up from school, helping the younger ones get changed and ready for dinner, helping with homework, and then the loveliest...getting them up at 5am for chores), a couple months helping Mami Angelica get her cook groove thang on in the kitchen, and my current assignment is teaching English with several groups of girls. I have found that whatever the case may be...whether it's helping Mami Angelica fight off mooching kids in the kitchen with giant choclo (big ass corn), trying to get Yanet to stop meoowing at me while I try to explain to Bety that "You have baby crazy" should be "You have a crazy baby," or trying not to laugh while 6 year old Melinda tells Diana Liset her mom walks like a skank (and then proceeds to demonstrate)...I am brought back to life everyday by such huge hearts that are ready to pour out onto me without restraint. It is both overwhelming and wonderful.

The girls at the hogar are tough. They have endured a lot at a very young age. Sometimes they are in just plain rotten moods for a number of reasons that seem more than reasonable. Sometimes I´m in a rotten mood for no good reason at all. Regardless of reasons for funk, those moments where laughter conquers and covers over pain and sadness are more than precious. Even if they are only a momentary relief and rest from something heavy, I am grateful for laughter.

(the picture is of Melinda and me on our way to Chachacomayoc, her school)

At our friend Oswaldo's brother's wedding.

frump #1

frump #2

Doing what we do best! (at our friend Juan Carlos' son's baptism afterparty)

Upcoming Events!
Saturday April 4: The Village People Live in Concert in Cusco!
Saturday April 12: Bomb-ass Easter Egg Hunt and Picnic
Thursday April 23: Cusco Community "Ven y Compartir" Potluck Dinner Night
Sometime in April/May: Beach Retreat!

muna kullay (just love),
Meghan and Tasi