Happy Brithday, Maryknoll.

Written Wednesday, June 29

Today marks the 100th Anniversary of the foundation of Maryknoll. I feel blessed to be a student at the Institute during such a commemorative occasion. We celebrated 100 years of service with cake and congratulations, and this weekend will be a special mass with the Archbishop, followed by a fiesta! I'm all for fiestas. I hope there's dancing.

I talked to a lot of people about my trip before coming to cbba (that's Cochabamba's abbreviation for itself, I think). I got some mixed reactions- some positive, a few negative, and lots and lots of, "Why Bolivia?!?" Why would I want to learn Spanish in the poorest country in South America? Why woud I go to a place with a deep history of political unrest, a controversial president, and a drug problem? The answer is Maryknoll's Language Institute.

The Institute was founded in 1965 with a unique mission: to teach Spanish, Aymara and Quechua, and to do it in a sociocultural context, for missionaries to work with the poor in the LatinAmerica. It evolved over the years with changing times and opened its doors to laypeople, like myself, who have the intent of working with Spanish-speaking populations in other parts of the world.

As I learned about Maryknoll this week, I've come to love and respect the Mission. I like their definition of a missionary, "One who is destined to go to a place where they're not wanted, but needed, and where they are destined to stay until they are not needed, but wanted" (Sort of sounds like being a Hall Director). The point is for missionaries to go and empower communities to establish their own churches, inspire local leaders to promote good,learn to speak for themselves and know their rights, and then leave to another place and do it all over again. (It smells a little Freirian to me! I'm lovin' it!). And you have to give credit to a religious organization that is willing to "roll with it" and change its style of mission based on the needs of the populations with whom it seeks to lift up, as Maryknoll has done over the past 100 years. For example, in Cochabamba, the focus changed from rural campos to the city, and the Institute opened its doors to the laity.

I love it here, I love that I came here for Maryknoll, and I'm so grateful to be here to celebrate her (yup, I'm making the mission feminine, although in Spanish, she's actually masculine, but this is my blog, so whatever...), yes, her birthday. I'm also grateful for the exposure to the Mission, and for the deepened respect I have for Katie Coldwell, my former college roommate and a current Maryknoll Lay Missionary in Brazil, dedicating at least three years to living and working among "los mas pobres de los pobres," the poorest of the poor. Maryknoll has accomplished a lot in 100 years, and I will forever be inspired by the work that She does.

Love and fiestas,
K