Day 1(ish)

So first, a recap of the rest of yesterday (Day 0):
I ate dinner with the other volunteers and a few of the house guests; we had rice, beans, chicken "flautas," salad, and some other things. As usual, I was the last to finish eating since I'm an incredibly slow eater.  I was able to talk to a couple of the guests, Margarita and Rosa for a bit in Spanish, and it was really nice.

All of the guests had a lot of trouble with my name. Margarita kept thinking i said my name was "Yarda" (meaning yard in Spanish as you probably guessed). So in order to clarify, Taylor and I kept repeating "es como Sarah, pero con D" (It's like Sarah, but with a D).  We had a good laugh about it.

During the main part of the meal, the other new volunteers and  I didn't really talk to the guests too much. For me, it was just a bit intimidating.  Once people began to peel off throughout the meal, though, I began to feel comfortable enough to talk to Margarita, an older Mexican woman from D.F. (Dist. Federal, Mexico City). She told me about either her granddaughter or great-granddaughter ( I couldn't tell whether she was saying mi nieta or bisnieta) who is studying las artes plasticas (visual arts). She seemed very proud and loved talking about her.
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I started writing the above yesterday afternoon around 3pm, but then had to go...so here's more about yesterday (Day 1)

When I stopped writing yesterday I got to meet the two new summer interns from Casa Vides, the sister-house used for longer-term family stays.  most of these longer-term family stays from what I've learned so far are for Social Security.  I had no idea before that this was an issue. Many times a non-citizen will be married to a US citizen (who has obviously been paying into Social Security), but if his/her spouse dies, then in order to collect the social security payments, they must have residency established in the US.  They can fulfill this requirement by spending one month out of every six at A. House or Casa Vides or by signing in once a month.

After that, all of us went to Casa Teresa located just down the street for an all staff Mass. Not Mass as in Massachusetts. Mass as in Catholic Mass.  It was actually really interesting, and I liked it a lot. It was not what I had pictured or anticipated at all. All of us (maybe 12-15?) crowded into a small second story room with brown fluffy shaggy carpeting. It was pretty much roasting inside. We opened the window to allow for some airflow, and along with it seeped in sounds from a baby crying next door and later on some Daddy Yankee.

The service was very much focused on the work that we do in the House, serving the migrant and the poor and promoting one of Brandeis' favorite things... social justice! More than half of the service was in Spanish and it was very inclusive and surprisingly laid back.  It was certainly solemn and serious, but I would say it was the opposite of austere.  There was color everywhere and while the priest flung holy water at us he did so with a small branch of leaves he had grabbed on his way in....au naturale as he described it, in comparison to the ornate silver apparatuses used in most churches.

After the intimate mass we headed back to A House to pick up supplies for a cookout at Ascarate Park celebrating the 25th anniversary of Father Bill's ordination as a Columban Priest.  I was so relieved to be feeling better because the food was great.  I had missed orientation earlier in the day because I had gotten sick again and went to the doctor.  The doctor gave me a shot in the butt (after talking to others at A. House apparently a shot-in-the-butt is the Mexican panacea) and two prescriptions. I'm not sure which one did it...but I'm better!

Anyway, we had burgers and hotdogs, ice cream, etc.  All delicious. My veggie burger with fresh guacamole was excellent...definitely doing that again! While we were eating a mother and her daughter came over to our party asking if we wanted to buy cacahuetes. We didn't...we had more than enough food already, which was why we shared what we had with them! The little girl was precious, and I'm glad they sat down to eat with us.