Retreat Groups!

Retreat group season is in full swing! It is an important and large part of our year in Ecuador so I thought I would take advantage of our 36 hour break between groups and write a short post on it.

11 colleges and high schools will visit Mount Sinai during our year. Each group of about 10-14 students has one volunteer leader. In Sinai, while there is only one leader who stays with the group the entire week, it truly is a group effort splitting up cooking, driving, and translating responsibilities.

The groups come down after months of preparation to live a week by our pillars (simplicity, hospitality, community, spirituality, and service) and in solidarity with our neighbors. They embrace the Rostro mantras: “Participate don´t anticipate” and “Being instead of doing.”

This past week I FINALLY led my first retreat group. An AMAZING group of 12 individuals from St Joseph´s University came down and brightened our home and our community with their presence. We visited my community mate’s worksites at the San Felipe Neri school, Damien House, Nuevo Mundo school, and Casa Don Bosco; visited with some neighbors of Mount Sinai; attended masses; and played a lot of soccer! 

Leading a group summoned in me energy I didn’t know I had and gave me new perspective on my volunteer year. On the last day during a visit with one of my closest neighbors she told the group that they put color back into my face; I had been pale before. While I’m not sure how much truth there is to that as my Ecuadorian neighbors are always exaggerating comments on appearance, she did correctly identify something. I entered the retreat a little burnt out and in a rut with my routine. Experiencing Mount Sinai through fresh eyes regrounded me in my calling to be here and in gratitude for the 10 months I have had here.

We have four more groups to come and I will be leading my second group the beginning of June. These last two months will fly by with many gringos coming in and out of Sinai!