St Ignatius College Prepatory - Ignatian Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

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El Salvador 2 by Brian Hurley By ihe end we wanted for nothing, save a hard nap. It's been two big weeks, and. man, I feel immersed. Layers of Salvadoran dirt entrenched in our pores attested to the wealth of work that Brian Hurley. Chris Martinez. Elena Orque. and Jessica Perez had given to the spirited compassionate, impoverished people of San Salvador. Memories resurface daily: singing Salvadorian folk songs by moonlight with Max. the crazy civil war veteran, leading an army of school- children on a playground clean-up project only to discover fresh trash the next day. soccer and baseball with the inner-city kids, wasted teenagers clinging to their exalted bottles of glue, the elderly whose humble eyes shone as we deliv- ered them enough rice and vegetables to make it through the week, fingernails scuffed and the dirty from building shacks, learning firsthand the myths and realities of poverty, freedom, and oppression, and the meals-chccse and torti- llas and rice and beans given without reservation or expectation by destitute families whose finest china was cheap plastic. Through all our complaining, pouting, and outright dissension we knew that San Salvador was breaking us and making us new. and when we got home. I refused to take a shower for fear of washing away my hard-earned Salvadoran dirt. Tijuana by Marisa McCarthy This summer eight seniors. Vicki Who’s your daddy? Tcrhcyden. Steven Silvestri. Diana ”1 have one of the Queens Wang. Kristen Sound of Music” Corridan. Vicki “Burrito Hartanto. Katie Supermarket Sweep Biinrose. Marisa Is Joseph going?” McCarthy, Molly Catwoman” McGovern, traveled to Tijuana and Nogales. Mexico for two incredible weeks. Along w ith the two leaders. Dan Vollert and Michelle Musante. the group tlevv to San Diego, and then hiked across the border to Tijuana. For one week, we lived at La Casa de Los Pobrcs. a soup kitchen, medical center, and refuge for the poor ofTijuana. Every day the group prepared the meals with Ihe 'i'ters of the Cava, and the donas, layvvomcn who offered the cooking skills for the Casa. After the meals and clean up. the group got to interact with the community of Tijuana. visiting houses, talk- ing with the elderly, and most significantly, playing with the children With much diffi- culty, we hail to leave Tijuana, and travel to Tucson. Arizona We met with an organiza- tion that we would be traveling to Nogales with calleri Borderlinks. In Nogales, we met w ith representatives from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, local merchants, lawyers, political party leaders, and then visited a maquilla ami a local orphanage. In Nogales, we stayed with captains liv ing on land invasions without electricity and water. The people ofTijuana and Nogales, despite their lack of resources, welcomed us into their homes and offered us all they had. We all gained so much from this trip, so much more than we were able to give back. Hopefully our memories of our experiences will never fade. San Francisco Maybe we didn't change the world. Maybe we didn’t end hunger or homelessness or poverty. But we did what we could to help, and in our ow n way. we touched lives. We gave a little bit of ourselves- our gifts and talents, our minds and souls- lo people w ho arc alone, desperate, and in need. And we received much more in return. •Catherine Avcndano I asked them where God had gone. Had he forgotten them, left them in their misery? I looked for I Inn. hut found only a dirty and diseased old man with tattered clothes and a battered face. There was God. ”l’m sorry. I didn’t sec you there! : and I held his hand. • Doriana Bailey One cannot realize how big one’s small world can be until one steps out of one’s shoes and lives in another’s. Do not be afraid to reach out. touch someone clse’s life with love, and bring happiness into another’s life. •Knstinc Cachola “There is no greater tragedy than doing nothing for fear of doing too little. On im- mersion I met people who have left a mark upon mo forev er. I realized then that through community service I must do the same for others. Never again w ill I fear what I am doing is not enough. Just by giving your time, a listening ear. a warm smile, and your heart, you give everything. •Vicki Ng East l.os Angeles by Sheila Gifford and Audrey Harris Ali Schlageter, Dominic Comoli. Audrey Harris, Lewis de Dios. Jaehec Lee. Alexa Smialovvicz, Angi Barriscne. Father Miller and I spent two weeks liv ing within the East Los Angeles community. We were able to work with F. Boyle and Homeboy Industries. We stayed in a church in the Hollenbeck Park district, which has one of the highest concentrations of gang activity in the country. Between working with the gang members, serving food to members of the community, at- tending Board of Supervisors meetings to protect welfare cuts, singing in a peace march and working with runaway teenagers in 11 oily wood, and working with AIDS hospices in the greater L.A. area, we were kept very busy. Our most meaningful experiences however came when we ventured into the East Los Angeles community and befriended the people we had come to serve. As we drove away from Los Angeles, we realized that by sharing their experiences with us. they had given us something more precious than anything we set out to give them. 14 immersions

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16 Campus Ministry