The days here at the Oikos Mission go by so fast!! I wake up on Monday morning and before I know it, the week is over and it's Monday again! No day is really the same here. We have office days, mission days, rest days and community days like the ordinations we went to last week. I usually don't know when I wake up in the morning what kind of day it will be! Things change quickly here and many times plans made the night before are different in the morning!
Here is an example of one of my office days:
5am-wake up and get ready for mass
6am-mass...the cathedral is about a 2 minute walk from our home, and in the early morning, the weather is perfect!
7am-morning prayer with the Sisters
7:30-breakfast
8:30-10:00-usually I have my own time here. I clean my room, make plans for the weekend catechesis, study my language vocab, work on anything Sister Minerva gives me, call home, send emails, etc.
10:00-On most days, I have some task I work on. More on that below.
12:30- Lunch
1:30-3:00-continue with the work above.
3:00-Divine Mercy Chaplet
3:15-7:00-sometimes I continue with the day's work, sometimes I help to make dinner, sometimes I take a nap!!!
6pm- Rosary followed by evening prayer with the Sisters
7or8pm- Dinner
the remainder of the night is usually mine to do with what I want.
I always take a shower at night. Makes falling asleep easier and the cold shower, yes, always a cold shower (!), really cools me off!
This is probably my schedule for 3 out of 5 days. On Thursdays, the Sisters have a bonding day where they do Eucharistic Adoration, have lunch together and a meeting and usually at least one day a week we are off somewhere doing something in a barrio...most likely this happens more than once a week, though.
Sister Minerva has given me tasks to do.
1. She has a dream of a student center where scholars can go to after school to study, use computers, get tutorial help, have someone available to talk if there are any problems, emotional or what ever. So, I am going to be spearheading this for her. Right now, I have a table in Nazareth Home...not so much of a student center!! But I have begun a writing workshop teaching the students who like to write how to write articles for a newsletter for the benefactors here in Borongan and will be working with the kids who have a sponsor for their education in the Poor Household of God in making Christmas cards for their sponsor.
2. There are a few livelihood programs the Oikos facilitates for the poor in the barrios, the piglet recycling and fattening program and FAITH (Food Always In The Home). The Sisters are always looking for more ways to help the poor people here help themselves. Another program the Sisters want to start is a cooking program where the mothers can learn new ways of cooking the ingredients that they have and sell them in the market. I have had a few ideas... I don't think anyone in the barrios has an oven. Food is usually always grilled over a fire or fried in oil. I did some research and found directions for making reflector ovens. A reflector oven sits beside a fire and is made of metal. The heat from the fire reflects off the top and bottom of the oven and bakes the food on a shelf in the oven. It is supposed to work just like a real oven...we will see!!
3. I will continue my weekend catechesis with the grade and high school students. I brought a good book with me, Did Adam and Eve Have Bellybuttons, written by Matthew Pinto. It was given to me by my brother Fr. Mark when I was just getting into learning more about my faith. In the book, Matthew answers tons of questions asked by teenagers and cites the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the bible and Church teaching in his answers. It is a great book, and I showed it to Sister Minerva, who now wants me to do a "real life" segment in the formations the Sisters do for the sponsored high school and college kids.
I also have other tasks...I'm on the food team whenever we go to the barrios, cooking and serving food, I am going to be helping with the facilitation of the Educational Sponsorship Program that the Sisters are involved in, I conduct a bible sharing hour in the house where I live with the college students and a few more things!! I won't be bored here!!
By the way, I don't know if I ever mentioned this before, but if you were interested in becoming a sponsor for a student here in Borongan with the Oikos Sisters, please check out this website... http://www.PoorHouseholdofGod.org You can learn more about the other programs the Sisters are involved in too.
When I was in Africa at an orphanage in Ghana, I once wrote that I wouldn't have a weekend until I returned to the US...that was pretty accurate. Here in the Philippines, our weekends are usually a little slower than the weekdays and I get to spend some down time with the kids, and with the Sisters. I usually spend a little time reading, a little time napping, a little time cooking and a whole bunch of time having fun. There is a nice balance here...it's not a guaranteed balance as sometimes we are on go-go-go speed, but for the most part, for me anyways, I have a decent amount of down time. I am quite appreciative of that!!!
And usually a week doesn't go by where we aren't invited to someone's home for a dinner or a lunch... a birthday party, anniversary, or any number of occasions. So, I can pretty much guarantee that you will never open to a page in my blog and read me saying that it's just the "same-old, same-old" here! I'm glad of that...keeps me busy and on my toes!
xoxo
