The Shameless Tourist - Adventures in Santiago

Today, I spent the day doing shameless tourist activities. Yes, I had my camera out for all to see. Yes, I was consulting maps. Yes, I had fun. And how else am I to get to know this wonderful city of Santiago without doing shameless tourist things? No more apologies. I can't wait for the next installment of my touristic adventures. But more about today...

One this my first day of shameless tourism, I was joined by Natalie, a Holy Cross Associate, who is in her last month and a half here in Santiago. She has been her for nearly two years and still has a sizable list of things to do and see before she leaves. The goal of the day was twofold. I wanted to go to the Book Fair in Parque Forestal and she wanted to go the Cementerio General. So off we went.

First, we got off at the Banquedano metro stop and walked through Parque Balmaceda to Parque Forestal. Both parks run adjacent to Río Mapocho, which runs through the north side of the city. Parque Balmaceda has huge dirt walking/biking paths. It is not a green as some of the other parks, like Parque Forestal, and it is a bit dusty, but it does seem to be a great place for a bit of exercise. Parque Forestal is quite green and surprisingly tranquil for being in the middle of the city. 

As Natalie and I were looking for the Book Fair (all I had read was that it was in the park somewhere), we came upon El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (The National Museum of Fine Arts). It is a beautiful building and we had to take a closer look. This closer look ended up in us going inside. Admission was only $600 (Ch pesos), just over a $1.25 (USD). The building was equally impressive on the inside with an opaque roof held in place by an iron lattice, letting in natural light into the principal display floor below. The featured exhibit, Lost In Nature, was a series of photographs and models of architectural projects in Norway. The houses and offices buildings  that were featured were designed so as to take advantage of their surrounding natural contexts. I was impressed by the innovative designs. I will definitely visit the museum again. It is beautiful place and the admission is inexpensive.

The Book Fair turned out to be right behind the museum. Books are very expensive in Santiago. The good news was that there were a lot of really amazing deals at the fair. I bought three books, all in Spanish, which should keep me busy for sometime to come.

After all that activity, both Natalie and I were hungry. We added fire to our hunger flames by eating a churro (fried doughnut stick) filled with manjar (reduced condensed milk goodness - a Chilean staple). Both Natalie and I had been wanting to visit and eat at the famed Mercado Central - the huge downtown fish market. We were close, so off we went. The market was incredible. The structure was antique, made of stone and the same iron lattice, opaque roofing as the Bellas Atres museum down the street. Restaurants fill the central part of the market and stalls of fresh fish, along with fruits and some meats are along the periphery. 

Looking through the fish stalls, I did find what I was looking for - pico rocos, large, live barnacles. They look like rocks with little critters sticking their heads out from time to time. I knew that I was going to have to try one for lunch. And I did, along with a sizzling plate of rich scallops in a parmesan and oil mixture. The pico rocos were prepared like mussels, stemmed in a broth and then smashed a bit for easy eating of the critters inside the rock. Natalie had a flavorful sautéed sea bass. We did eat at one of the tourist traps in the center of the market to take full advantage of the atmosphere. Next time I will try on of the cheaper restaurant in the depths of the market, which are better priced. Yet the food, atmosphere and company were excellent. El Mercado Central is a must see - must eat at place in Santiago. I will be a regular.

To walk off our lunch, Natalie and I stoled down 21 de Mayo to the Plaza de Armas, which was full of people enjoying the last Saturday before the start of vacations, and on down El Paseo Estado to La Iglesia de San Francisco. It is the oldest surviving colonial building in Santiago and a beautiful example of a Franciscan mission church. 

The last stop on our shameless tourist adventure was to another got-to-see Santiago site, the general cemetery. It is huge - a city unto itself of family tombs and mausoleums. We found the monument dedicated to the disappeared and politically executed during the 1973 golpe and dictatorship of Pinochet. The wall is quite large and gives the sense of the lives lost during this time of Chile's history.

I have posted a few of the pictures I took today in this blog. For more pictures, look on my Picasa site, which can be accessed from the side bar menu.  

Coffee With The Scriptures

I started another blog yesterday. It is called Coffee With The Scriptures. The idea is to share my points of reflection regarding the daily Scripture readings from Mass with others. These are rough and unpolished thoughts, but maybe they will be of some use to others who are trying to enter into prayer with the Scriptures.

As I write in my header, I sit down with the readings and a cup of coffee every morning. I usually spend somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour meditating on the Scriptures, seeking to apply them to my life, and listening for God's words to me. One of the first things I do after I read the Scripture passages, and after a moment of silence, is to write down a key phrase from the passage and a couple of points of reflection. These will be the things that I will use later in my prayer session. The advantage of writing these points on a note card is that I can carry these points around with me through out the day, giving me opportunities for recollection and continued reflection.

If you would like to see the new blog, click on the link on the sidebar.

My Schedule

I have recovered from the mission trip. I was very tired on Monday when we got back and Tuesday. Thankfully, I got my energy back on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, I started meeting with the people I will be working with this year. First, I met with the chair of the theology department. She had a very pleasant surprise for me. I will be teaching two classes by myself this year! I knew that I was going to get into a classroom this year, but I thought that it was going to be a team teaching situation - which wouldn't have been a bad thing at all. In fact, I would have welcomed such a thing. After all, I am still working on my Spanish fluency. And I had a very good experience team teaching at my previous school. Yet, I get to fly solo! Evidently, they think that my Spanish is good enough and that I can make positive contributions in the classroom. The department chair is hoping that I can help reform the department. She thinks that the faculty needs to be inspired and that new methods of instruction needs to be introduced into the department. Evidently, theology is the least favorite subject of the students. The good news is that I have had success of making this subject interesting and fun - or at least provocative. I am going to use the lessons I learned at my previous school and build off that success. I had really good system in place, especially with the Junior level, that I will try to improve upon here. Fortunately, the subjects that we as a class will be covering in the 10th and 11th grades (I have one section of each) are very practical and "hands on" concepts. 

I have only two classes because they did not want to overwhelm me in my first year, especially with the Spanish. Thus, the rest of the time, I will be working with the elaborate campus ministry team. I met with the directors of campus ministry on Thursday. They have an impressive list of activities throughout the year, including a day of reflection with a different section every week. That's right, a school retreat every week! Besides the retreat work, I will be doing retreats and other projects with alumni, helping with the confirmation program, working with two groups of students doing projects at Fundamor, our orphanage (more about that later), helping coordinate student reflection groups, and lending a general hand in a billion other things. For my contribution, I will be pushing for a busy person's retreat during the year. In all, I am projecting that I will be serving at St. George's for about 45 hours a week. Not bad.

Today, I had a meeting with the directors at Fundamor. I will also be working with the orphans/abandoned children. The center is right behind our house here in Santiago. The children do not live at the center, but in house around the neighborhood. There are four house in Santiago with 50 or so children in the various house. Each house has three women or tías who take care of the children. The professional staff are housed at the center, where the children come for programs, tutoring and recreation. There are also other house outside of Santiago. My mission is to accompany two houses in the small town of Talagante, an hour and a half outside of Santiago. I will go there, by bus, on Wednesdays after I am done teaching at St. George's at noon and return to the house around 10pm. I will also spend the whole day Saturday in Talagante. I will divide my time between the two houses. I'll visit one on Wednesday and the other on Saturday. The next week will be the reverse. This will require a lot of traveling - but it will be worth it to be a positive role model and presence for the kids. 

Also, as mentioned, I will accompany two groups of St. George's students in their projects at Fundamor. On Mondays, a group comes and puts on workshops for the kids, such as computers, art and music. On Fridays, another group comes and does one-on-one tutoring. On Thursday mornings, I won't go into the school until midday. Instead, I will spend the morning visiting the house in Santiago. The children will be at school. This will be my time to minister to the tías. They are a hard working group and need (read starving for) pastoral care. I will go and visit with them and pray with them. In all, I am projecting about 20 hours a week with Fundamor (not counting travel time to and from Talagante).  

I am quite pleased with this schedule. I feel that I have sufficient projects and challenges. I love variety and I love challenges. I cannot wait for the programs to begin. In the next few weeks, I will start in ernest with Fundamor. The school year doesn't start until March. Thus, I have time to plan my classes, prepare the retreat at the beginning of March for an alumni group that is helping out with confirmation and to relax and enjoy Santiago. This is the time of vacations. From what I hear, Santiago, a bustling and vibrant town, is dead in February since everyone is away. Thus, I am told I will have good luck exploring the city without traffic and full subways. All the museums are open (except on Mondays) and there is a lot of free entertainment in the city at night. My plan is to explore Santiago and have some fun this summer! 

Back From Chiloe

I had a great time on the mission trip with the St. George's students. We just got back this morning at around 11:30. When I wrote last, we were in Queilen, a small town east of Castro on the coast of the Gran Isla. The communities we went to were part of the parish of Queilen. Two of our groups served on a smaller island off the coast of the main island. The other two groups went to two different communities along the coast. I was on the main island and served at a little town called Aituy, about 8km away from Queilen. The place was breath-taking and the people were equally warm and inviting. It is easy to fall in love with Chiloe.

Our group was fortunate enough to stay at the rural primary school in the community. We had a spectacular view. I will post two pictures below. But I do encourage all readers to look at the pictures on my Picasa gallery - picasaweb.google.com/brothermattmckenna. There is also a link on the sidebar of the blog.

Since basically the whole community is Catholic, our mission consisted of putting on special programs for the children and the youth of the community, as well as organizing prayer services, Mass and communion services. Parish in Queilen has only one priest and he serves over twenty communities on the main island and on other smaller islands, some of which are only passable during the summer summer months. Thus, the missions serves the communities by making the church a bit more present to them.

Below are two pictures. The first is a picture from the steps of the school, looking out to the sea and the mountains on the other side of the channel. The second is of two fellow missionaries, Nacha and Damien, and the cow that also wanted to be included.

Chiloe

Greetings from Chiloe. We left St. George's at 7:45pm last night and have just arrived at our destination. More details on that latter. The landscape was really impressive. I got to see the volcano that erupted the other dayat around 6:30 this morning. It was still smoking. The other highlight was the sea loin swimming off the coast as wee took the boat from the mainland to Chiloe. The land is vibrant green farmland with water all around. I will try to post pictures later, assuming that the little town I am going to has an internet cafe. We are staying in the large town tonight (yes, I admit, I'm not quite sure were I am - I was shown were we are on a map, but there were no names of towns on it).

Off to the missions!

I'm off again on another adventure. This time I'm going to accompany the students of St. George's College on their annual mission trip to Chiloe, in the south of Chile. I have seen pictures and it looks like an incredibly beautiful place with an unique culture.

As a result, I will be away from my computer and the possibility of posting for 2 weeks. I'll post pictures, stories and updates when I get back.

By the way, please pray for the people of Kenya and our Holy Cross community there. We have received reports of people being killed and houses burning in the parishes and neighborhoods were we live and serve. Amid this, three seminarians are about to be ordained in the next couple of days. Please pray for everyone's safety and a speedy resolution to the crisis.

Happy New Year!

I spent the New Year at the beach house in El Quisco. The house is right on the beach. I could feel the force of the waves. After waving goodbye to the sun setting into the Pacific Ocean, I had dinner with a couple of other community members who wer ewith me. We celebrated the change from 2007 to 2008 by walking down to the public beach in El Quisco. Thousands of people were out, filling the beach and sea walls. The New Year was brought in with a huge fireworks display over the ocean. Not a bad way to kick off the year, huh?

Renewal of Vows

The meetings concluded with the renewal of vows of the temporarily professed members of the District of Chile: Marcelo, Luis and Rodrigo. All three are seminarians. For this, we went to our retreat center in El Quisco. Fr. Mike DeLaney, CSC, the District Superior celebrated the Mass and received the vows of the three men. Here are some pictures of the event.

December on the Beach

I just returned from the community retreat and meetings. We stayed at the diocesan retreat house in Punta de Tralca, down the coast from Valparíso. It was a lovely place. The first three days were for retreat. Various members of the district led the community in times of reflection. The theme was persons in the life of Christ. The last two and a half days were spent going over district business. Yes, into every life a little business must fall. But this is not to say that I did not have fun. I full took advantage of the beach time - cold but beautiful water. And I had a chance to make the very short trip to the next town over, Isla Negra, to visit Pablo Neruda's favorite house. A friend took pictures. Once I get them, I will post them. Here is a picture of the beach at Punta de Tracla.