Chalice: Notes from the field...

So…I have been asked to do the final blog post for our Guatemala Solidarity Tour.   I’m not a very good writer but, writing from the heart and by the Grace of God I’ll give it a shot. Not only was this my first mission trip, but it was my first time outside North America.   Why you ask?   Because I was afraid.   Of what? Everything.    I heard so many horror stories about people missing flights and luggage being lost, etc.   I soon realized even if those things DID happen it didn’t matter; everything would work out in the end.   Even the language barrier didn’t seem to slow us down!   The warm welcome we received from everyone we met was amazing, it was like we’d known each other forever and were just coming back after a long time away.   The love, care, concern and support that we all showed one another no matter what the situation just blew me away.   It felt like family.   I have worked for Chalice since 2009...

My 1st day back home and when I open my email this is the message that is there from Neal Donald Walsch whom I get inspirational messages from daily: On this day of your life, Sharon, I believe God wants you to know... ...that words may help you understand something, but experience allows you to know. Yesterday as I made the drive back home from Calgary in silence, I didn't feel a need to turn the radio on as I needed time and quiet to process the 12 days I spent in Guatemala. These words written above are so true, it is difficult to explain all I experienced but there is a deep knowing. To read more, check out Sharon's personal blog here.... http://smoser2013.blogspot.ca/     At work in the Nutrition Centre   At Hogar Luis Amigo (home for girls)   Big smiles with our new friends!        

I spent most of my service time during this Guatemala experience at the Nutrition Centre in Champerico. This centre is a residential program run by Sister Rosa who is a most caring, capable and knowledgeable woman with a nursing background. The children in her care are suffering from malnutrition. It was shocking to see how small and fragile these children are, especially given their ages. Our first tour of the Centre brought many of us to tears. One little girl was 11 years old and was no bigger than a four year old. Another child was almost 4 and looked like a one year old. These children responded so well to our time and attention; and we saw noticeable differences in their abilities and social interactions by the end of the week. I am a physiotherapist who has worked in the field of Infant Development for many years. It is rare – if ever – that I saw a child who was significantly malnourished in Canada. And so it was shocking for me to see the impact of malnutrition on the deve...

We started the morning with running water.   Yeahhh!   We had a very good breakfast of eggs, beans, ham, toast and fresh pineapple, papaya, and cantaloupe.   After breakfast, most of the group went to the Nutrition Centre on tricycle rickshaws because the white van was being repaired (we noticed a loud squeak the day before).   A smaller group visited sponsored children at Andres Giron. Norma went to the Nutrition Center to help pack 600 bags with donated items (brought with us from Canada) such as pencils, crayons, sharpeners, notebooks, colouring books, jigsaw puzzles, soccer balls, stuffed toys, toothpaste, tooth brushes and more! Along with Norma, Tim, Nicola, Cathy, Sandy, Damien, Patty, Diana, and others worked in an assembly line to get this done.   The conditions were very hot (mucho calor!) and mucho humid.   The bags will be handed out to the sponsor children and their families on Sunday at the Community Picnic.   Others who went to the Nut...

We have heard in John’s Gospel, “Love one another as I have loved you.” One way to live agape (unconditional love) is through the virtue of solidarity. Solidarity calls us to “an active commitment to our neighbor and demands of us a shared responsibility for all of humanity. This duty is not limited to one’s own family, nation or state, but extends progressively to all…so no one can consider himself or herself extraneous or indifferent to the lot of another member of the human family.” John Paul II 6 Days into our Journey and where do where do I begin?   I have seen on TV and in pictures such areas of the world but to experience it and see it first hand is truly an experience that will change who I am as a person.   Each evening we gather to share our day and we are to reflect   on where we saw God or perhaps where we saw the absence of God.   God is here and very much in the work that Chalice, the Sisters and the support staff and all are involved with.  ...

It was our first morning waking up in Guatemala! Most of the twenty-five of us had travelled long hours the day before in order to wake up in a beautiful, quiet and hidden away gem of a retreat centre in San Jose de Pinula (a forty minute bus ride from the airport in Guatemala City). We had spent the night there and, after a Sunday morning mass and breakfast, we were on our way. As I packed my bags, getting ready for the long bus ride to Chalice site in Champerico, I found myself feeling a bit sad and teary. I shared with this Father Duncan, reflecting on how I initially wondered why I was feeling sad: “All I did was sleep here." But then I realized the same thing that Father Duncan said to me: “There are many things that have and are happening here.” This, for me, sums up the Third Annual Chalice Solidarity tour so far. Between all the travel, conversation, and mission work at the Chalice sites, there are indeed many things happening. However, more than the...

My friend and colleague, Alisha, is currently on an adventure in India!  As Chalice's International Department Administrator, she is visiting our Sponsor Sites this week and next week will be facilitating training for our Site Staff.  Her Blog ( Alisha's Awesome Adventures ) is fabulous!  It will bring you right into life at our Sponsor Sites in India - her stories are heartfelt and the photos are beautiful! Her most recent entry ... Last night (Friday) Sr. Deepa and I took the overnight train (7 hours) from Bangalore to Bellary (northern Karnataka state)... "The pride in what little these people have far surpasses the pride that many of us well-off people have in our abundance of things. "    "One sponsored child showed me a frame that he made with all of the photos his sponsors sent him."   "The community gathered in their small church. There was a small baby, maybe 2 months old, whose mother died soon after she was born...