'Tis the Season

The past week and a half have been filled with lots and lots of events that prove it really IS that time of year. Everyone in my house has celebrated the holidays (usually Christmas) with their agency, and everyone is on their way (or already) home.

‘Tis the Season for OLG

Last Sunday was the festival of Our Lady of Guadalupe. On Friday evening, Julie, Zach and I joined a group of students and staff from verb at a play about Her life at the Cathedral. I’ll be honest – I was expecting a small production of Christmas pageant caliber. Boy was I wrong! The show was an incredible musical production with an enormous cast, elaborate costumes, lights, and more. It was all in Spanish with English subtitles projected on the front of the Cathedral. I loved loved loved the show; the story of OLG is such an important one for much of Latin America. The apparition of Mary to Juan Diego, a native of Mexico who was on the receiving end of Spain’s conquering cruz y espada, marked an important transition in the faith of many in South America. It legitimized for many Spanish and Natives alike that all people are brothers and sisters in Christ, regardless of their nationality.  The story occurred centuries ago, but I was reminded just how relevant it is today during the play. 

‘Tis the Season for Celebrations

Many people all over the city gathered for masses, feasts, and processions to celebrate OLG.  After celebrating Katie’s (of Casa Ita Ford) birthday and Dana’s return to LA with a great 80s themed party, some brave souls headed to Dolores Mission at 3:30 am to begin a very full day of mass, parading, and posole (a pre-Colombian Mexican soup).  The celebration was a bit early for my liking, but I heard great things about it!

Throughout this past week, each of us has celebrated Christmas with our agencies.  Since our schedules were a little crazier than normal, we set aside Tuesday night for a Casa DK Christmas celebration. It was the last time we would all be together for dinner before we started leaving for break!  After a beautiful spirituality night by Julie, I took our ham (yes, we splurged) out of the oven and we feasted.  It was a delicious meal, if I may say so myself!  I’m so grateful for the opportunity to celebrate the holidays, albeit a bit early, with my community. 

Someone encouraged me to reflect on everything that has been new in the past year during advent.  I find it almost overwhelming to acknowledge all the “newness” since last Christmas: a new immersion experience in Mexico, new professional experiences (student teaching and summer internship), new degrees (graduation feels SO long ago!), new friends, new loss, new happiness, new pain, new challenges, and now a new city, new roommates, and a new job. WOW, that’s a LOT of new things in one year. So, we celebrated by doing something not so new: we shared a good meal, good company, and good conversation.  Below is a picture of my roommates around the dinner table, and below that is the picture we used for our house Christmas card to send to our families!

Not super cute, but good enough.
(Note the makeshift advent wreath on the table!)

Much cuter!
Julie, John, Cara, Zach, and Me in Santa Monica
Yes, we coordinated on purpose.
Merry Christmas!

‘Tis the season for glitter and gifts

And now, what has really been consuming my week: the Urban Compass Holiday Party!  Preparations started weeks ago when we gathered gift wish lists from each child, and continued right up until Saturday morning.  Last Sunday, Theresa and I went shopping for food to fill holiday dinner baskets for each family (turkeys, corn, stuffing, potatoes, etc) and gift bags for many of the families. We took over Food4Less and got many strange looks as we checked out with 30-count of, well, everything.  All week we made decorations with the kids, meaning my clothes were constantly covered in glitter and hands covered in paint.  We made clay ornaments, glass ornaments, foam ornaments, wooden ornaments…you get the picture.   The kids had short days all week for parent/teacher conferences so we had them for even more time than normal.  Theresa and I spent Friday transforming the multi-purpose room at Verb into a Christmas wonderland. It looked so good!

the calm before the storm

our tree with all homemade ornaments!

Today, about 120 people filled the room: Urban Compass students, their siblings and parents, high school volunteers, college volunteers, board members, donors, and other families. We had crafts station set up so the kids could decorate cookies, make ornaments, decorate bags, etc. Then, lunch arrived, the kids got their presents (donated by Mater Dei high school students), and the families got their food baskets and gifts.  Some of our families were adopted by friend of Urban Compass. One family with 8 kids under the age of 10 was adopted by a particularly generous family from Pasadena. They had five or six huge Target bags stuffed with clothes and toys. The parents in both families got to chat for a long time which was really cool to see.  The whole party was filled with touching moments like that, as well as lots of sticky, sugary, icing covered treats. I really enjoyed meeting a lot of the parents of my kids and chatting with them for a while. I also got to give some of the families their gifts, and they were elated!  Despite the pouring rain, we had a great turnout and sent everyone away with lots of smiles. It was a great way to end the year J

Merry Christmas to you all! I'm looking forward to my time at home with family and friends over the holidays, and am sending love to those all over the country & world who I won't see! 

Westside vs. Watts Weekend

Last Friday night, a few of my housemates and I attended a Christmas Concert at Mt. St. Mary’s college. The concert was at their Chalon campus, located in the very ritzy hills of the west LA (We heard you pass Dustin Hoffman’s house on the way up to the school?)  The view from “The Mount” was absolutely breathtaking…we could see the lights from all over LA, as well as the ocean. The next day, we went out in downtown Santa Monica to explore the nightlife scene there. We had heard a lot about the bars, and wanted to see for ourselves.  On Sunday, we went back to Santa Monica in the evening for a Christmas tree lighting and holiday concert with some representatives from the other JV houses. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain all evening, so the concert was postponed.  We did get to see the tree lighting and participate in setting the record for most driedels spinning at one time, thanks to the Santa Monica synagogue’s efforts to break the Guinness Book of World Records entry.

My festive weekend was dampened (literally by the rain, but also figuratively) after a few powerful moments in which I recognized what the holiday season is like for my students and their families.    A few stories to illustrate…

1.       On Friday afternoon, I was sitting around with two of my girls, a third grader (PA) and a fourth grader (GG).  (I’ll use initials instead of full names).  I was being super silly with them, singing Christmas carols and asking them questions and talking about who knows what. There was no one else out on the field, so we were just chilling.  At one point, I started singing “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” to make them giggle. (It worked!)  But then, we had this conversation:

GG: Ms. Z., Santa’s not real,

Me: Of course he is, G! Of course Santa’s real!

GG: Nuh-uh, know how I know?

Me: How?

GG: Cause I never get a present.  Only from Urban Compass.

Cue teary eyes. Thank goodness I was wearing sunglasses. My heart broke, right there on the spot. Not knowing what on Earth I could say, I changed the subject and started singing another Christmas song, one that most definitely did NOT include Santa Claus.

2.       Yesterday, Mattel Inc. brought a “Snow Day” to 112^th St. School. It was incredible – they brought in snow machines, a slide for toboggans, free lunch, gifts for all the students, and probably 50 “elves” (staff members).  It was a great day for the kids – they got to play in the snow, have a giant dance party on the playground, etc.  One of Urban Compass’ partner schools (an elementary school in Pasadena) brought down a food donation for 112^th St. School. About a dozen fourth and fifth graders came to deliver the goods and see what the Snow Day was all about. On the way, some of the moms were explaining to the kids that for the 112^th St. students, this might be the most exciting thing about their Christmas season; they don’t get a lot of gifts a home, they don’t have a lot of money, and their families often can’t celebrate in the same ways those students do.  One kid asked the mom, “Well, why don’t they get gifts from Santa? Does Santa like us more than he likes them?” Talk about taking the magic out of the myth.  Again, my heart broke when I heard this story. Watching the visiting students take in the Snow Day was interesting. To them, everything they saw was “so cool!” The kids at 112^th St. were “so lucky!!” “Why don’t we do that?”  Unpacking the reality that this was a very special and rare treat for our students was challenging. Theresa did a great job of explaining that our kids are pretty poor and don’t often get to leave the projects, which left the visiting students pretty depressed.  However, they got to meet some of the Urban Compass kids, and I was amazed at how friendly they were and how quickly they clicked. Every day these kids amaze me.

Remembering Dorothy

Thursday December 2, 2010 marked the 30^th anniversary of the martyrdom of Jean Donovan, Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, and my casa’s namesake: Dorothy Kazel. These four churchwomen were living and working in El Salvador in 1980 with the Maryknoll and Ursuline Sisters. Over the past few months, my community has been learning about all these women.  The four LA communities are named for these martyrs, whose faith and dedication to the poor serve as supreme examples for any of use striving to live out our faith.  I encourage you to read more about their lives and work.

On Thursday evening, we, Casa Dorothy Kazel, attended a remembrance service at Mount St. Mary’s college. The prayer service has been held each year in LA by religious sisters from all different orders.  It was an honor to be invited, and the organizers were thrilled to have the “people who live in Dorothy’s house” attend. At the beginning of the service, everyone – all 60 or so people in attendance – introduced themselves and stated their connection to the four women and where they were when they first hear the news of their deaths. The stories were incredible; the people in attendance all seemed to be on their own journey of faith and service all over the world, but were all devastated upon hearing the news of this martyrdom.  There were religious sisters, middle school students, LA Catholic Workers, community members, members of the press, college students.  They have protested at Fort Benning, lobbied in Washington, lived and worked all over the world, attended the 25^th anniversary of the martyrdom in El Salvador, celebrated the lives of these women for 30 years, been arrested, taught in schools, worked in parishes…you name it, some woman in that room had done it.  The response to petitions read during the service embodies for me how the men and women in the room had been inspired:

God, give us the courage to respond by imitating their lives of service.

Clockwise from top left: Jean Donovan, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, Maura Clark
Also, fun fact: if you do a google-image search for "Dorothy Kazel" you will find pictures of my community from JVC orientation!

Two guests stood out to me in particular: one Ursuline sister who went to college with Dorothy, and who was in the same religious community as she in Cleveland. They were friends.  Also, one of Ita Ford’s nieces was in attendance; she told us how her family was forever changed by the events in El Salvador, and how they have been carried by the many religious men and women.  Making personal connections to Dorothy, Ita, Jean, and Maura was an invaluable experience. Before Thursday night, Dorothy was important to me because her story is so moving, but meeting people who knew her was, well, so personal.  I left the service so grateful for the opportunity to participate and feeling much more connected to our community’s namesake.  At the beginning of advent, it was touching reflection on how my community members and myself are living and serving.