On Wednesday morning, after a bit of confusion at the car-rental place, we began our trek to the HEB Foundation Camp, which is about 12 miles North of Leakey, TX. It was a five-hour drive, and once we got past the familiar drive to San Antonio, it was really quite beautiful. The landscape in the hill country was absolutely stunning, and I had never seen any place in the world that looked like Frio River Canyon, where our campsite was located. The water was so clear that we could see the catfish swimming along the bottom, and it lived up to its name. "Frio" is the Spanish word for cold... I might have jumped into the river one afternoon. I might have been FREEZING. But I might have also been exhilarated.
We ended up renting this monstrosity, since it was the only rental car left in Houston- I secretly loved it. I ended up driving my own car, but we put my name on the drivers list so that I could take it from the rental place to the house.
The retreat was based around the pastoral circle, and was led by a Jesuit, Fr. Fred Kammer. I really enjoyed his lectures and the opportunity to meet in small groups with other JVs in other cities. We were grouped by population, so I was with JVs who teach in other parts of the country- one in NOLA, one in Arizona, and one in South Dakota on a Lakota reservation. We all shared experiences with our students, and as the retreat went on we talked about social analysis and theological reflection, two parts of the pastoral circle. We then talked about advocacy and how we could look at the systemic changes that need to be made and what we can do about them as JVs.
You can see down to the bottom of the river there- it's hard to tell where the edge of the water starts... it was so beautiful!
It was a somewhat overwhelming experience, and it of course made us realize that our students struggles are linked to poverty, hunger, the criminal justice system, immigration, and the whole gamut of social problems that JVs work with as a whole. We realized that while not everyone works with our students, their work affects our students, or students like ours in their respective cities.
As much as I really enjoyed nerding out over Theological reflection and tracing social justice throughout Biblical History, it was also really nice to take some time to hang out with JVs! I bonded with the South Dakota community, and I'm trying to save up enough money to go visit them at some point during this year. It's three wonderful guys who work so hard on the reservation, and they feel very isolated a lot of the time, though they love their work. They spend some time as radio DJs, actually- you can check out the res' station website here, and sometimes you can live stream to listen to them!
We also made concrete plans for our first trip (hopefully not our last) to NOLA- for MARDI GRAS!!! I will be in New Orleans celebrating Mardi Gras the weekend before actual Fat Tuesday this year... and I can't wait. We'll stay at the NOLA JV house, and will have a whirlwind, most likely exhausting celebration before heading back in time to go to work on Monday. I think by now you all know how special New Orleans is to me, and I really can't wait to see it at Mardi Gras.
We had a really lovely mass at our retreat center, and I got to participate in a few ways more than I usually do. I was a part of our musical group, consisting of two guitars and five singers. It was fun to sing mass songs that I know and love and don't hear very often at mass here. I was also asked to give a reflection after the gospel instead of the priest saying a homily, along with Jimmy, a JV in South Dakota. I was honored to share my experiences with the other JVs, and it was a lovely mass. We had a re-commissioning ceremony as a part of it, where we anointed the hands of our other community members with Holy oil as we go out to continue our good works in the world.
Fr. Fred, our Jesuit-in-residence for the weekend, had misplaced his regular glasses along the trek out to us, and only had his prescription "aviator" style sunglasses with him for the weekend. He wore them during his talks, and in addition to his really cool JVC-inspired stole, plaid flannel shirt, and sweatervest, he wore them during mass.
The weekend allowed me to take a step back, reconsider my motivations for applying for JVC, and remember why I'm here. I learned a lot about myself, and I know that I'll be able to grow significantly over the course of the next six months.
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