Saint Thomas is gone

Yesterday the group of six students from St Thomas Aquinas in Ames left after 11 days visiting, working, having fun.

It was a very busy time for me – arranging events, rides, meals, and doing most of the translating. Thank God that one person in the group – Shzamir, a student from Puerto Rico – was totally bilingual and that two more could follow a lot in Spanish.

Visits to several sites that serve children here in Santa Rosa moved them deeply. Children do have a way of touching our hearts.

For me, a highlight was the time we spent in El Zapote de Santa Rosa, one of 45 towns and villages in the parish of Dulce Nombre. The parish is using the church and small hall there for training sessions but there was only one bathroom and an inadequate shower. So we helped build another bathroom and two showers together with people from that area of the parish. Though we didn’t finish everything we got a lot done in two days.

After working we spent some time playing with the kids in the village – throwing around a Frisbee and showing them games with jump ropes.

The first night we went in two separate groups to base community meetings, there was a short meeting with people in the church. We introduced ourselves and then people spoke. One woman noted that this was the first time that people from the US came and stayed with them. (I think there may have been a Peace Corps worker here many years ago and I have brought a few people here for short visits.) But the presence of Catholics from the US working with them really encouraged them. They often see fundamentalist groups coming in and so many think that there are no Catholics in the US. So our presence gave them a sense of the wider Catholic Church!

But working with the men was quite interesting. As opposed to the normally macho society, they treated the women and men equally well. In fact, at one of the base community meetings one of the men mentioned that women can do work like men and men can help out in “women’s” work.

In many ways what happens during these types of experiences is what I call “building bridges,” making connections so that the poor of the world are not faceless. Hopefully that will lead to changes in the lives of the participants as well as in the lives of people here.

It’s what solidarity is about – not money, but relationships. We need to be able to feel the concerns of others as our own.