Daniel - Orientation

A little after midnight on August 16, I boarded a red–eye flight to Baltimore with my best friend. We both had chosen to dedicate the next year of our lives to living in service with the Jesuit Volunteers, fighting for social justice, and growing spiritually.

Our flight brought us to Texas and then to Baltimore, where we caught a taxi that would take us to the Hagerstown Greyhound bus station. We anticipated meeting other JVs at the bus stop. My thought was that we would arrive, chat with other JVs, maybe meet my first housemate, and then board the bus that would take us to Blue Ridge Summit for our four-day indoctrination into the JV community.

That was the plan. But—as I and nearly thirty other JVs learned, plans have a mind of their own.

The wait at Hagerstown, which was supposed to have been about a half hour, turned into a 5 hour ice breaker. Greyhound decided that it best to over book their buses for that particular day. Looking back, I don’t think that I would have had it any other way. The long wait forced many of us into those early awkward conversations of asking each other where we were from, where we went to school, where our placement was located. As ordeals often do, it bonded us in our hatred of a common villain—the Greyhound bus depot. I should really send them a thank you card.

We were finally rescued by members of our support staff—Beth, Katie, and Stephen. So instead of riding in a cramped bus, filled with strangers, we were able to travel in style, crammed in three 12 seater vans in the company of those who, just hours before, were nothing but strangers.

Once settled in our rooms, the thought on most minds was lets have some food—or was that just me?

Over the next few days, I met amazingly gifted, goofy, and interesting people from all parts of the United States. Many from schools I’d heard plenty about, but never visited. It was a chance to put faces to names, and shake off the anxious feeling of wonderment as to what your housemates were going to be like.

I remember thinking to myself, both on the way to the retreat center and during, that I wanted to be active and step outside of my shell. This was an opportunity to share my gifts of spirit and laughter with others who had chosen a lifestyle similar to my own. I told myself that I wanted to be present in every conversation, mindful during every prayer, and open to new ideas and outlooks on life.

I don’t want to ruin the surprise for future JVs, so I’ve decided, will all the restraint I can muster, not to go into any real detail about the activities we did, prayers we offered, masses that were held, people that spoke, games that were played, or food we ate. When Sunday rolled around, I found myself driving with two of my housemates on our way to Newark, New Jersey, a place I had often heard about in the news, but had never stepped foot in. As we drove I noticed something really amazing. After only three days, I already felt so close, not only to my housemates, but to the mission of JVC.

For all those that were concerned, Greyhound did refund most of our tickets. You can rest easy now.

Learn more about Daniel here.

Gisella - How I got here

JVC is something I have been looking forward to for quite a while. Growing up in Peru I was used to volunteering here and there but I had never heard about people taking a year off to volunteer, especially in the United States of America where stereotypically everyone one is supposed to care only about themselves. So when I heard about my friends from Loyola Marymount University joining a volunteer program to intentionally serve the population I have always longed to serve, to grow in faith and community with each other and to be challenged to grow, I knew it was for me.

I specifically decided to apply to the Midwest because no one in my school applied there. Whenever I told anyone that I wanted to go to the Midwest, they would look at me weird and say “ . . .But why?” That’s when I knew that it was the place for me. I wanted to go where not many people want to go, I wanted to go to a place that would challenge me to experience different things, a place that will challenge me to grow into the person I long to be – a servant for and with others. What can be more different from Lima, Peru and Los Angeles, California than THE MIDWEST!!!

I didn’t take my application process for granted, I had a systematically organized system of what I needed to do and when. The application was so long but it helped me understand more and more why I wanted to do JVC and what I wanted to do. I waited anxiously for the interview and I cried when I was finally accepted. I was actually taking an Ignatian Spirituality class during the time I decided to apply to JVC so I used Ignatian Spirituality throughout the process. As I got interviewed and heard all the amazing opportunities I would have to experience with JVC I couldn’t stop smiling. I felt what the Jesuits call a sense of “consolation” or God present in my life every time I thought about being a JV. I had so many people encouraging me and helping me read my application and giving me honest feedback, like my spiritual director Brendan and my “advisor in JV life” Tom, both who are former JV’s. I also had my little English angel Maria who helped me correct my application so I would use the best words possible to describe my feelings. In writing my application and throughout the whole process I grew much stronger in friendships and faith, knowing that through the process God was there letting me know that what I was committing myself to was his will for me. At the end of the process I felt that I was following God’s call for me, I knew I was called to be “Ruined for Life,” THE JVC WAY.

Learn more about Gisella here.

Kathleen - Life on the Border

El Paso is really unlike any other city I have seen. With the downtown right on the U.S./Mexico border, it is truly an international city. For 35 cents, we can walk across a bridge to Cuidad Juárez and with 30 cents (exact change) and a license we can cross back to El Paso. Yet, while the international boundary line divides these sister cities, they really operate more as one large community—with one being a part of the so-called “First World” and another in the “Third World.” The dividing line between these two cities is clear, and disparity in economic and structural wealth is readily apparent.

As part of our local orientation, two of the JVC support people—local residents of the JVC city who are there to assist the JV’s throughout the year—took us to a part of the border fence in New Mexico. Within seconds of parking, a Border Patrol agent drove over and asked what we were doing at the fence. In our conversation with him, he said he had seen some pretty difficult things at the fence—especially the children trying to cross. But, he added, his training taught him to leave his heart at home and that is what he has to do.

As the conversation ended, some children ran up to the fence. We chatted with the five boys for a while, then, spying my water bottle, one boy asked for a drink. Through the chain links, I offered the boys my tap water—clean, safe, and free. Two thoughts immediately hit me: how lucky we are to have that necessity running through our taps whenever we need it, and how I wished I could just touch them. It just felt wrong to have people fenced off from one another because they happen to be born on one side of this arbitrary line. Those were my brothers standing on the very same soil as I, but we could not embrace, or hold hands, or play games.

I cannot stop thinking about this first encounter with the border. And I cannot stop thinking about the immigration debate in Washington taken up, for the most part, by people who have never actually seen this border and how much these cities depend on each other economically, with thousands crossing every day for work and to visit family. Certainly, the whole immigration debate in our country is a complex issue, and it appears very different on the soil of El Paso/Cd. Juárez. It is not an easy question to answer; nor is it a simple issue to comprehend. I just keep thinking of the dignity we owe to one another, whether that person is on the opposite side of the fence or guarding that fence.

Learn more about Kathleen here.