Chalice: Notes from the field...

Praying at the Grotto at CMAVIL Site Our last two days have come much too soon.  On Monday, a small group travelled to the Dominica Site to visit a few more sponsored children.  The larger group stayed in Villeta and worked on finishing a variety of tasks. Tuesday was spent completing a few last minute tasks and saying good-bye.  We have all been touched by what we have done and seen, and by the people we have come to know on this journey.  It is our hope that you, who are journeying with us through this blog, have come to know a little bit about Chalice's CMAVIL Sponsor Site, and the people here in Paraguay. Sojin entering the Dominica Site office.  The doorway is quite small! At the site office we got to meet another dynamo and "kid magnet" - Sor Ursulina.  She came along on the visits.  Here Javier is excited to see what his sponsor sent to him.  His family was eager to welcome us to their home.  They had decorated a...

One member of our team had two family visits today.  Each home was different. This family has property and a new brick home on its way to being finished. The family has to complete payment before they are given the key to the front door. While they earn and wait they live in a small "casita" with a covered kitchen and a sleeping area.    These are the grandparents who are raising their daughter's children after she died of cancer. Both are sponsored. In Canada, the family of Natalie MacMaster-Donnell will be receiving these gifts from their new sponsor child, Alvaro. In a community of Indigenous families, a young mother gets water from the well. Three tribes live here on 15 acres. They were excluded from their previous location and have built homes and lived here for the past 6 years. The day after this one, 4 children from this community arrived at the Sponsor Site Office to ask if they could go to school. Sor Graciela prepared backpacks with school suppl...

We were told this morning that we had to be ready a whole half an hour  early, because Sister Graciela was just so eager to get us to this  particular community on our itinerary,  called Sol Naciente (Rising Sun). She's particularly fond of this community because it is a relatively new development. Families have been given plots of land and they are building homes. The roads are unpaved and are riddled with ridges and mud puddles. It would be very difficult to drive anything larger than a motorbike on them, and that's after only a few days of relatively mild rains. Surprisingly these are better than the ones that they had had previously, and the sisters from the Site have been integral to those road improvements. There are no schools or medical services yet and the only convenience stores or take-out spots are small, family-run kiosks. Children have to walk 4 km each way to get to school. There is also no police presence, which makes the area dangerous at ni...

Today our group split up.  One group stayed in Villeta and worked at the Open Centre and the Site Office.  The other group headed off by bus to the Don Bosco Site, and a number of home visits.  They were there for the entire day.  Here are photos of their day: One family had prepared a snack for the group. This woman was thrilled with her quilt! The Don Bosco site office. During the day there was a downpour of rain.  After that there was a power outage. So some visits needed some help with the light. "Thank you, God-parents" (sponsors) was a sentiment which echoed and re-echoed throughout all the visits. Those of us who stayed back at the Open Centre and CMAVIL Site Office spent our time continuing with fix-it jobs, working with the children, and making cinnamon buns. All the donations were brought over to the Site Office. (These are just some of them!) Hasmukh made kites for our next group visit. E...