Campamento

A few weekends ago, I went with Femi and Kristina to the Schoenstatt university women's branch wide "campamento." Aparently they have different words for retreat here, "retiro" for the ones that are more silent, reflective, and personal, and "jornada" for the ones that are more like big meetings or workshops. The "campamento" was more of a social retreat. We heard a few talks that were really good, and spent some time in small groups discussing the themes. The theme of the whole retreat was taken from a line in St.Paul's writings, "caritas Cristi urget nos" or "el amor de Cristo nos urge" (Christ's love urges us). We spent alot of time discussing St.Paul's writings, in honor of this being declared the Pauline liturgical year by PB XVI. The little chapel where we had daily mass was nice too, and we met a new priest who just came back from the Holy Land full of good stories.

The retreat house where we stayed was gorgeous! The inside was plain and tidy, a cosy wood cabin (cosy except for the super skinny tall bunkbeds, haha) and the outside was covered in flowered vines and surrounded by green lawns. We got a little lost in the way there, it was about an hour from downtown, but it was a fun ride.

I really enjoyed the "comunidad" or small group time. It's exciting to be able to talk about deeper themes and read bible passages in another language. I've missed the bible discussion group I go to every Thursday back in the states, and this felt a little bit like it.

It was definitely a Chilean style retreat...every meal lasted a long, long time, and was always complete with a coffee or tea afterwards. It was very laid back, we were never on schedule (except for morning prayer!) and thus very relaxing. The funniest part was definitely singing bits of Moulin Rouge, Disney songs, and Sound of Music in English with the Chileans girls...it is hilarious what that we could really share all that with them, just being silly and belting out the lyrics and having a good time. Some of the questions they asked (which Chileans usually ask us) were pretty funny too, and a little bid of a sad reflection on our culture: Are the fraternities and sororities really like they show in the movies?!?! Are there really people like the girls on "The Hills"?! Do people really have crazy "Spring Breaks" like in the movies?! You're from Texas, so you have cows and a ranch and horses, right?.....Oh dear.





The campamento was a lot of fun, with out much sleep (of course!), but with some good thinking and praying and discussing. I really enjoyed getting to know some of the girls better. The next week on campus I had lunch a few times with some of them, which was really nice too.