El retiro con las ninas de noveno grado

Yes, I am trying to show off with my title in Spanish, although I am sure no one is impressed.

This past Thursday-Saturday, I joined one of the three groups of 9th graders on retreat. Before the year began, Ana Elisa told me she was hoping I would know enough Spanish to join her in retreat with a group of students. Although I wouldn't say I know enough Spanish, last week she invited me to join her on a retreat. I, of course, was more than excited to go. (Everyone knows how much I LOVE overnight field trips.)

What's funny about being invited on this retreat is that the group of 9th graders just happened to include the girls who have taken it upon themselves to teach me some "conversational" Spanish. Once I realized that, I knew it would be fine that I didn't yet have enough Spanish.

We got on a chartered bus Thursday and headed to the retreat house in Cartagena. In prior posts, I referred the retreat house as Crespo. I realized this time that the neighborhood in which the retreat house sits is Crespo. The name of the retreat house is Sanville.










I really cannot put into words what a great experience I had on the retreat. Since it was my first retreat with La Ensenanza (and my first 3-day retreat), I asked Ana Elisa if I could be a participant. Ana Elisa planned 3-days worth of activities that included everything from scripture study to writing a (short) personal history. It was wonderful to have a great deal of time to meditate and contemplate on my relationship with the Lord. After each activity, Ana Elisa asked the girls to share their thoughts, feelings, impressions, etc. She also made sure to ask me for my input. Since my input was in English, the girls explained to her in Spanish what I said. It was awesome! I loved, too, that ALL of the girls participated in every activity fully. The first pictures are of Sainville and the girls working individually on a spiritual exercise, and of Ana Elisa in action.














When we weren't in the middle of a spiritual exercise, we were having fun. (Not that the spiritual exercises weren't fun. They were just a different kind of fun.) The first afternoon, while the girls were working, I swam in the ocean with Sr. Marie. The water was nice and relatively warm, but we stayed in it for an hour and a half and my hands were purple when I got out. Since the retreat didn't include allowing the girls to enter the ocean, I left stealthily to swim and returned fully dressed. The only problem was that my hair was wet when I returned. I tried to pretend like the girls were crazy to accuse me of having wet hair, but wet hair is obvious. The next day, we all took a break on the sand and had a great deal of fun taking pictures (as I am sure is obvious). For some reason, the girls decided to notice the color of my legs. I am not sure why, as they blended in so well with theirs. It didn't take long for them to start calling my legs "milk." The picture with the shrimp seller (my new boyfriend) and me is proof that milk and dark chocolate go well together :). Along with Ana Elisa and me, one of the 9th grade homeroom teachers came on the retreat. Her name is Mayra and she is awesome. The last picture in the beach shots is of Mayra and me.




All of the girls were wonderful to me. They laughed with me, joked with me, shared with me, confided in me, and took care of me. I could not have asked for a better group of girls to share the experience with. I need to move tangentially for a moment to talking about how different it was to be on an overnight field trip with only girls. Although the boys slept away from the girls on LP field trips, they were always there providing comic relief, occasional naughtiness, and unbridled excitement for every activity. I am sure had this been an LP fieldtrip, I would have found myself in the ocean with my clothes on :). Back to the retreat...With all girls, there was a great deal of laughing and playing, but there was also crying and talking about deep feelings. It actually reminded me of my youth when I used to go to girls' camp - and boy did I love girls' camp (Shout out to all my girls' camp homies).

In all seriousness, I think I actually grew during the retreat. I have never spent three days in a row focusing on my spiritual life. Having done so last week, I realize how important it is for me to take time away from the hustle and bustle of life to just be.