ALMOST HOME!!

I shall be going home to McAllen,Tx Dec. 16th -26th!  My best friend in the world, my rock. my other half....thats right my twin sister! Marisa will be graduating the 18th of December!! :) I am so proud of her!!! These past 3 weeks I felt like I was at home already. I have booked a band for her grad party, reminded her about ceremony tickets and taking about food plans for her party. WOOO PARTY!!! :) :) Here are two of my favorite pic of us :)

Marisa and me :)

Marisa and ME :)

Betty Ford Family Recovery Workshop!

In my last post you read that I am part of the Betty Ford Family Recovery Workshop--well this past week was my first workshop. What I love about this program that it just doesn't concentrate on the addict but the family as well.  The family is very important in ones path in recovery.  I was excited and nervous, but totally did an awesome job for my first time. Me and Brother Pat were in charge of the Communication Workshop, which went really well. We were a good tag team on this. Aside from the Communication workshop I was the "tech" person, I and also the help of my housemate Mike re-did the powerpoint for the workshop and set-up and took down the set-up (thank you Student Union) It was a long week but being able to talk to these ladies in our small groups was amazing. Ofcourse there was a lot of talk about their lives at home and how alcohol and drugs have effected them, but I was truly amazed at their strength. I saw God in every one of those ladies, they truly give me hope.  They came to this workshop to really make a difference in their lives and find that support they need to be in sobriety.  The value of social justice that us Jesuit Volunteers live by is surrounding me constantly and this workshop let me see that up close and personal.

Loooong time!

I know I know, I havent posted anything in a while :( my bad!

For those of you who dont follow our house blog I am going to paste my recent post to the house blog here..so you kinda know whats going on over here.  It was my turn to blog about my experience here on Rosebud reservation so here is what I had to say..

A Change of Pace

Who knew 2 weeks ago there will be no kids at my one of work places. I work with religious ed classes with St.Francis Mission and Spring Creek. Starting this year St.Francis Mission came across a conflict between an agreement with St.Francis Indian School. The school has an agreement that with parent permission their children are be able to attend religious ed classes once a week for an hour.  We knew the students haven’t been meeting the states testing requirements, but didn’t know that their electives will be taking out and place some extra math and science classes and religious ed cut out.

Taking religious ed out is nonsense! There is so much anger, hurt, and addiction here that by the time they are in middle school alcohol and drugs are their only outlet.  Religious Ed is a chance for us teach the children to know God and understand there is someone with them who loves them unconditionally.  Its sad because on the res some parents don’t even show their children what love really is; even then most parents are out drinking and not caring to shower or feed their child.We just offer a chance for these children could have a safe and loving environment. You might think that these children wont get who God is, but OH THEY DO! They know that He keeps them safe and is with them when they are sad or happy—they know. We are giving them faith, hope, and love…which is something their family and school environments are not. A chance to love and be love my God instead of surrendering to alcohol, drug, or even to suicide.

I am a flexible person, so when it came to starting work here we were not having all the 200 1st-5th grade children that we were expecting but only 75 1st and 2nd graders– which was okay with me. I made the most of teaching religious ed to these kids, which I LOVED (especially if arts & crafts were involved)! These kids were adorable, although some might have been brats at times but they would totally make my day. Two weeks ago we got word that they are seizing all kids coming to religious for the rest of year and that was including my 1st and 2nd graders  .  We are currently in the process of dealing with this conflict and hopefully by March we will have an after school program for 2nd graders in preparation of a Native School Fr.Hatcher (President of St.Francis Mission) is wanting to start. Until March, I am continuing working one day a week at Spring Creek teaching religious ed.

Neil and I made these turkeys  -- One of our projects for Spring Creek to decorate the place... HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! 

So NOW the question is, What else do I do with my time? Well, speaking with my awesome Jesuit spiritual director, Brother Pat, I mentioned how the Betty Ford/SFM Recovery Workshop was something I was interested in and maybe even helping out. ( You can check out our other blog “Call Me Sober for more details about this program).  During this workshop there is a whole section on communication.  For those of you who do not know, I graduated from UTPA with a degree in Communication Studies.  Within this major, I learned and adopted communication styles and methods on how to communicate effectively interpersonally, interculturaly, nonverbally, in group, and in conflict ( These were all semester courses! It was so a fun and interesting major …I’m missing a few but they were all great classes).  I feel that God is showing me and giving me opportunities to use my different talents here on the reservation. This is a chance for me to broaden my experiences and even use my major.   This is new for me, but I love a challenge!! I am going to be in charge of the communication aspect of this workshop, which I am EXTREMELY excited about!!   YAY!

So all-in-all, I’m still able to work with children in religious ed  and have started officially on the Betty Ford SFM staff  . OH one more thing, I will also be helping out at Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum, which is actually one of the two Lakota museums in the WORLD!  So hopefully I learn and hopefully remember some Lakota words, traditions, and way of life. 

Keep our JV community and the people of Rosebud Reservation in your prayers and you all will be in ours.

Blessings,

Monica

Please subscribe to our house blog too....

http://sttheresehouse.wordpress.com/  

JV life in St.Francis thus far....

HELLLLO!!!!!

Well for those of you who dont have facebook and haven't been stalking my pictures of life in St.Francis...Here is some for ya...this is a photo of my 3 community members.

                                                  From Left: Mike, Maggie, Meee, and Neil!!



My community members are different but they are all pretty cool.  Mike is working at the local radio station, which is a big thing. KINI FM 96.9 is how the natives get their information about news, deaths, announcements around the reservation. Maggie works with Religious Ed too but in Rosebud and Neil works with music in masses and during Religious Education.Things have been going a bit slow especially with Religious Education. I have started teaching some classes in Spring Creek and St. Francis but hopefully attendance will rise pretty soon, apparently everything runs a bit slower and so does attendance.. There has been conflict with the kids being released during the school time, which has been taking place for the past years. This past year, St.Francis Indian school  receive low test scores and wants to eliminate the religion classes that is just for one hour per week for grades 3rd-6th to try to increase the numbers of the scores. Which is NUTS!! I mean one hour every week away from school work will not hurt a person academically but really feed the soul of a child in religious ed. ALSO its not like it is forced either way, is it ONLY with parent permission that they are able to go... Hopefully we can get this running soon, if not my job will be really really slow! We and all the people who work for St.Francis Mission are praying that there is a resolution to this conflict at the moment.

 This is St.Charles Borromero church in St.Francis, SD and yes its really PURPLE!! :) I shall post more pictures of the inside when all is done. The paintings and the windows have been restored, so the only thing we are waiting for is statues to come back in...

Ofcourse every city/town has to have a water tower..and here is St.Francis water tower ----------------------------------------->

Mike who took most of our pictures gets some really good shots! So I gotta give him some credits.

Will post more pictures about our adventures next!

-Moni

Ohh baby jesus....

I just want to say that weather is great, kinda of bipolar but such a change from the Texas heat!

This past week has been a little slow start but many things have happened.
Last week we start with orientation with included Brother Pat and Fr.Steve driving us around showing us around the different cities, churches, and religious ed building we will be working with.   After driving us around, the priest that is in charge Fr.Hatcher comes in and starts us with some talks and presentation about life on the reservation.  We had a talk about St.Francis Mission, the recovery program ( addictions to alcohol and drugs is a big problem on the reservation), religious ed program, radio station, and finally the lakota culture.  Lakota culture is so interesting and ofcourse sad, but the traditions are so unique. Sam High Crane came and spoke to us about his experience as an Indian and even sang a prayer for us..yes I said sang. He came out with his drum and sang in the Lakota language, what we found out is that when ever someone is praying like that, it is respectful to stand up.
THEN thursday August 19 was my birthday woohoo finally 22yrs.  Well i got to admit very different, I really missed home that day-- but my awesome housemates made breakfast! This was pretty cool because we were able to use our stove so they found a hot plate to make some eggs and bacon! YUMMMY. Through out the day people congratulated me on my birthday was really meaningful because it made me feel welcomed and apprecitated :) THEN we had a cookout that day to welcome us JVs into the local community, we had some good burger and hotdogs && a birthday cake for me! They even sang happy birthday :) I recieved a present from the Jesuit Community which was a keychain.. I totally needed a keychain, it was the perfect gift! YAY...
Friday we went kayaking!! Nice outside but the sun was a little strong, we spent 6 hours on the river...LOONNG day!

Things to know:

- we are 15min away from a gas station
- 30 min drive from a grocery store
- a 3 min walk to our main office (St.Francis Mission) and the religious building I will be working at
- our backyard is a place where drunk people like to hang out/passed out
- we still dont have our washer and dryer ( hopefully by next week)
- my roommates and fun,crazy, and random!
- our water works now ( hot water works too)
- we need a new stove ( our oven doesnt work)


I dont officially start till Sept 13 sooo meanwhile i will be helping organize and set up classrooms and stuff...

Well we off to our spirituality night! Mikes turn this weeek.

Hasta Luego.

P.S.  The title is from ricky bobby :) we watched it on sunday..good community night

The adventure begins..

Well after days at orientation in Pinehurst,Tx I got to meet my other 3 housemates who are pretty aweosme! Heard some good talks on our four values JVs(Jesuit Volunteers) live by--Social Justice, Simple Living, Spirituality, and Community. On Sunday August 15, 2010 our community of 4 boarded a plane to South Dakota. We arrived at around 6:30pm in Rapid City,South Dakota and were welcomed by a Jesuit brother, Brother Pat, and Jesuit Priest, Fr.Steve, who took us out to eat at Chilis. Then to a looooong drive to St.Francis and arrive about midnight to find out we didnt have running water(JUST GREAT) The Jesuits brought us some water  while we decided to have a slumber party in one the rooms. Our house is pretty neat!! We live in an old rectory but was awesomely redecorated for us. We have a basement which is awesome!! We each got a room (will post pics soon on here or facebook). Monday morning we started our local orientation which was really driving around checking out places we will be working at and places to shop.  There are really no restraurant around us, we have to take a 45 min drive to Valentine, NE to find some entertainment, well a library, movie theater, and a bowling alley.  There is a grocery store 30 min which is pretty descent. There will be some pow-wows and town fairs soon, so we will have some fun!! OHHHH the weather is AWESOME!!!! It has been in the low 70s since we've here.

For the record, we have running water now!! :) YAY

Okay will  post some more later on my housemates or picturess....

hasta luego!

-Moni

A few days away.....

I am almost ready!!! I will be sending my lugage on saturday through fedex.  I'm kinda sad to say bye(for now) to my awesome freaking friends in the world, family,  and this place called home.  I think its funny when I tell people about my new adventure to come and where I will be going (South Dakota) and to them it seems to be the randomist place  and then I tell them about living among the Lakota people and living on the reservation --they are just amazed.  Every morning I am one day closer to an experience that is going to challenge me emotionally,spiritually, and physically.... all I have to say to BRING IT! haha. I am nervous, excited, scared, and happy to get this started. I hope you all bare with me while I start my transitioning on Tuesday,August 10 to Pinehurst, TX ..... keep in tuned while I update as much as I can :)

JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU.

Getting things ready!

Hi everybody!!

Well,you guys know that I am Monica Benitez I got accepted in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and recieved a position in St.Francis, South Dakota for a year.  I am EXCITED!! Although I am a little nervous about the COLDDD weather. I will be living on Rosebud indian reservation and be surrounded around the Lakota tribe. I am excited to absorb a new culture and a way of life.

I am slowing getting together things thatI would need to take to South  Dakota.  The first on my list is a parka and thermals,haha. I will be leaving August 10 to Pinehurst, TX where orientation will be for 5 days  and then take of to South Dakota with my new housemates, YAY im anxious to meet them. I hope they like hugs, because I love hugs, haha.

This is my first blog, I hope to keep up this so you can read what is going on in my life in SD!!

Peace!

Moni