An Evening -- and Morning -- at Nuestro Ahora

When I first visited El Salvador in March of 2011, with a Crispaz delegation from the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, one of our first stops was at a program called Nuestro Ahora.  University students who are coming from orphanages or shelters live together in community at the program’s rented house near the University of Central America.  They welcomed us with a couple of ice-breaking games, told us about the program, and then we all went out for pupusas.  Despite my limited Spanish, the students in the program were eager to chat – about music (Don’t let anyone tell you that Michael Jackson is not relevant to youth around the world!), sports (Vladimir is a Messi fan), travel (Maricela would like to visit Greece someday), Salvadoran culture (“Without the sauce, they aren’t really pupusas,” Manuel told me), and their studies.  The visit was brief, but, for me, memorable.

Once I decided to return to El Salvador over the summer, I asked Vickie Cavanaugh, a 2007 BC grad and founder of the program, if I could come back and visit.  I had been thinking a lot about the issue of how, in our moral formation, it is virtually impossible genuinely to feel global concern if we do not have real connections with other parts of the world.  I was hoping that maybe we could arrange some sort of cultural exchange between my own high school students and the students at Nuestro Ahora, a chance to make El Salvador and the United States more real to each other in some small way.  Vickie told me that, in addition to the university program, she hosts two dozen high school students on Friday evenings and Saturdays.  On Fridays they have some spiritual or personal enrichment programs, and on Saturday they attend academic enrichment programs with volunteer tutors from the university.  She invited me to join them for a Friday dinner and to do the reflection with them.



Brian and Coca discuss futbol.



On that day I was joined by Brian Rhodes, who teaches high school Spanish at St. Ignatius Prep in San Francisco.  At dinner with the high school students he quickly discovered, and exacerbated, a rift in the house: FC Barcelona and Real Madrid were playing the next day, and there was no such thing as neutrality.  He made everyone at the table declare their loyalties!  Ice broken.



The Friday Evening Reflection



Fortunately, and under some duress, Brian agreed to translate for me during the reflection time.  He was not sure that he had the chops for it, but, in fact, he is a gifted translator and added immensely to the evening.  In groups of about five, the high school students reflected on empathy – times they had felt it, times they wanted someone to empathize with them, and how they might cultivate practices of empathy in their own lives.

Two of the university students, Vladimir de Jesus and Manuel, asked Brian and I if we would stay over that night and go for a jog with them the next day.  It sounded reasonable enough, and we were both enjoying ourselves, so we agreed.  We chatted some about music – Vladi had recently discovered “Down Under” by Men at Work, and was amused when I confessed that it had been my favorite song when it came out – when I was like eleven!



Manuel, Vickie, and Vladi run at 5!



At quarter of five the next morning, Vladi and Manuel were prodding me awake.  I thought there must be some emergency, but, no, that was not it.  Perhaps they had mentioned it and I had not understood because of the language, or perhaps they purposely “forgot” to bring it up at all, but they go running, usually with Vickie, at 5.  In the morning.  “We like to run before that sun comes up and it gets hot,” they explained.  I guess.  Fortunately, the pace was OK for those of us whose fast days are behind us, and it was on this day that I particularly enjoyed the coffee back at the Crispaz office.



Anyway, I was wonderfully impressed by Vickie and the students, and was fortunate enough to be able to visit a couple more times.  I am still hoping to work out an intercambio between my students and the Nuestro Ahora students.  I shall post about that if we are able to make it happen.