Day 2: We all speak the same language: FOOD (Kathy and Brandon)

Happy Sunday! Blessed be the hands that prepared our food… and today those hands included ours. Our bloggers today have a lot to say about the day– thanks for joining in the experience! Here are Katherine Zhagui (11) and Brandon Ramirez (11).

Ms. Martinez: Today’s experiences centered around food and culture and food and togetherness and more food. Our wake-up was slightly earlier than day 1 but worth it for a homemade breakfast from one of the CASFA student parents. Y’all, this wonderful woman woke up at 4am to make Arepas filled with fried egg for 40 people. It was an absolute delicacy but unfortunately didn’t take a single picture of them!!! We ate breakfast as a group after some more icebreakers and warm ups.

Today was also Mr. Dale’s birthday! Together, we celebrated him at breakfast, after mass, during icebreakers, at lunch… you name it, the day was about our service and exchange with undertones of celebrating another year in the life of Mike Dale. So much energy in the room just with that!

The Franciscans use the TAU symbol to signify they are a people of peace, humility, and kindness. When you see it, you know their intentions. Our CASFA friends also mentioned that one of the core values and symbols tied to the Tau is that of service. Cristo Rey is familiar with that as our Ignatian identity lives in service as well. This is exactly what we felt when we put in the work to learn more about Bogota culture and the lives of the CASFA families through story-sharing while cooking together. We even got some family secrets for their recipes! Not that I can share those with you, but I heard it. That’s what this is all about. CASFA parents joined us to make and enjoy the lunch for the day and the #1 thing we noticed was the authenticity of the people in the room. It was not about discussing differences but bringing all to the space where they could be who they are. It was amazing to share a meal with people of Bogota, Colombia and feel at home with them. They also played games, incredibly competitively I might add, with the students and showed true love for us. It’s been two long and beautiful days with our friends and they are quickly becoming family. All of those present gave themselves fully to the activities of the day and it was blessings on blessings on blessings. So much more to say but CRJ students will do that for you.

Here are Katherine and Brandon’s perspectives of the day!

Kathy:

We all started off our morning pretty early. By 7:30am, we were all on our way to CASFA. Once we arrived to the school, we all greeted each other with hugs and went to the courtyard to play some games. We were all having fun and laughing at each other when we couldn’t memorize the song that we were making. For breakfast, we were given an amazing traditional dish called arepas, and of course everyone loved it! After eating breakfast we all went to a room and had a paraliturgy, at this time we were all talking about being united and being together. When we were done with our reflection we went off and were split into groups to start preparations for our lunch.

My group was assigned to dekernel the corn. After a while we all started to get tired since it was kind of a time consuming process, by the end we weren’t only tired but our thumbs were in pain after having to take off every individual kernel off the cob. At the beginning we were all split up but at the end we were all working with together at either peeling potatoes, preparing the herbs, decorating the lunchroom or, dancing and singing. After a while we all ended up at the courtyard playing soccer.

Once it hit 1 pm, lunch was ready we all went and sat with our partners and their families. My partners mom and older sister came. Once they saw me they both greeted me with big hugs and a kiss on the cheek, at that moment it made me think a lot about my family since that’s the way we all greet each other. When we all sat down and settled in we started to talk and get to know more about each other. My partners mom reminded me a lot about my mom since she was so energetic and happy to be there.

When it was time to eat, we all ate happy. We made a traditional soup called ajiaco and another traditional dish called envueltos. The envueltos reminded me of  sweet tamal, it had queso fresco and some guayaba paste inside. After we were ate and spent some time talking, we were split up again but this time we were with the parents as well. We had three stations, one was karaoke and dancing of course, another one was a traditional game called la rana and a game that combined hula-hopping and rock paper scissors, and finally the last game was like soccer but at each goal was to knock over a tower of bottle lids.

After the games the parents said their goodbyes and left. Once they left we went to the courtyard again and split up into new groups and did a scavenger hunt. We were all running over over the school and trust me, the difference in altitude is so real. When we were running up the stairs, I started to breath heavy and my throat got dry right away. I remember being at the top floor and taking a break when Isis’ partner Francisco told me to keep going and keep running, all I did was look at him like he was crazy because all I wanted to do at that moment was pass out.

By the end of the day were were all tired and ready to rest. Before leaving we all shared out something were seeking to accomplish by the end of this amazing trip. I shared out that I wanted to learn, so far during this trip I have learned many things about not only my partner but also the culture.

Brandon:

Today was a day full of craziness, unity, happiness and of so much exchange and you will find out in just a moment why. We woke up a little early and we left the convent at 7:30. I was really tired. We left early because we were going to have breakfast at CASFA. When we arrived we went to a little soccer field they have to do an activity that is a little ice breaker. For breakfast we had these delicious arepas with egg inside that, let me tell you, were amazing. After breakfast, we went into a room to have liturgy and it was planned to have mass but the priest couldn’t show up. We learned a little about the Franciscans because their school was built by them. After that we celebrated Mr. Dale’s birthday and he got a cake, with a lot of bags of chips.

After liturgy is when all my emotions that I didn’t even know I had came out so many things happened in such a short amount of time. We started cooking, peeling and dancing we had people peeling potatoes, others grinding corn to make masa for envueltos, few people setting the tables up and others making the flavored water. During this period of time we had people switching roles and when we had a little bit of time we would start dancing. US showed Colombia how to dance to our music and they showed us how to dance to their music. I did a little bit of everything from cleaning the berries, cutting and squeezing limes to grinding and making the envueltos to also peeling potatoes, a little bit of setting tables up and the other thing is sweeping. We all had fun doing all the prepping and cooking because we did it as a community. We worked so hard on everything we did.

We made everything with love and a lot of things went into making the food, like our literal sweat and blood. Nobody ever complained and everyone wanted to pitch in on everything. This felt like a family the way I felt today is something I have never felt in my life, the great joy and love I felt is something unbelievable. Even though we all knew we had to get things done, we all found time play around and dance. This reminded me of my country of Mexico and also of my family because anytime we cook we do it with love and passion. Another thing is that we all dance and come together when we have food. When us as Latinos we have food we have a huge party and we share a meal while we talk, dance and everything in between. Our basis of life and our culture is to always make new family and this is exactly how I felt.

After we were done with the food we all talked, danced and played a little soccer. I kept on getting told not to play because I have ankle injury but when you are in the middle of a soccer country you have to play specially if it’s my passion. So me being me I didn’t listen and played but I played goalie most of the time so I wouldn’t get hurt worse than what I am already. Sharing the field with people of different backgrounds and skill levels is so fun because we leave everything behind and just focus on this beautiful game.

After this hard work of prepping food and our small soccer game everything paid off when I got to meet my partners aunt and sister because of how loving and welcoming they were. The food was delicious and the conversation I had was something that I wouldn’t trade for anything. I also got to meet Felipe’s parents and they were hilarious and so interesting. The parents were so welcoming and they made me feel like I was their kid because they didn’t care that they didn’t know me. They still hugged me and talked with me like I was a friend or someone they knew for a long time. The love and unity we had today was so crazy because these things are not something that I can experience back in MN and it’s so weird to have these mixed feelings. The energy that everyone brings is so cool that when the parents left we were all sad to see them go, even the parents didn’t want to leave because of the connection we built with them.

The last thing we did before departing was a scavenger hunt which was so energy draining because of the altitude. We ran around the whole campus and we could barely run while we saw our CASFA partners running so fast. I though that the altitude was not going to affect me but when I started running up the stairs I knew the altitude is no joke. I know I’m a little out of shape but usually I could  have run up all the stairs but not in this country. After we finished we had a small reflection and we all said our goodbyes and left.

This day thought me so much about life, Latino culture, love, respect, care and so much more. I personally felt so many new emotions I had never felt and I was scared because even though it has only been 2 full days, I am so attached to them that I know it will hurt so much to say good bye. Just saying bye to the families were hard now I cannot imagine having to say bye to my partner I don’t know how I will do it.

Now to prepare for a longer day tomorrow!

Kathy and Brandon (and all of Colombia Crew)