 |
 |
Misión en Yaruquies, Riobamba, Ecuador Mission in Yaraquies, Riobamba, Ecuador Mission in Yaraquies, Riobamba, Ecuador |
|
 |
|
Fiesta Party Hier wird gefeiert! |
|
 |
|
Llevaron la Auxiliar para misionar They brought the Auxiliary – the great missionary Geheime Mitte der Mission war die Auxiliar |
|
 |
|
Experiencias que nunca olvidarán Experiences they will never forget Erfahrungen, die sie nie vergessen werden Fotos: JF Ecuador © 2005 |
ECUADOR, Angie Santo/Mariuxi Pino. Because of the crisis that Ecuador has been experiencing during the last few years, the central theme of the journeys for the Branches are to fall in love with your country once again and to contribute heroically and concretely to the building of a new Ecuador. The testimony that follows narrated by Mariuxi Pino, member of the council of the Schoenstatt Girls' Youth, follows that theme which until now continues to be implemented: With the motto "Schoenstatt Heroes, my life for Ecuador", at the end of January, a group of secondary girls' had their week-long camp, in a town in the Ecuadorian sierra, and they were missionaries for the simple people. According to reports, the pastor affirmed that in one week, the girls covered a radius of evangelization that would have taken a whole year. The last day the girls received a visit
from the Bishop, who came to express his gratitude for their support.
Thursday, January 27th in Guayaquil. A group of Secondary Girls' Youth and an apostle of Mary, were in the Shrine eagerly awaiting their departure for Riobamba, in the Ecuadorian sierra. They did not know what awaited them, but anyhow no one would have been able to prepare them for what was to come. While all the girls arrived a "technical" problem with the bus had to be resolved, we departed late. But this did not dampen the missionary spirit that we had. On the bus, the most of the time was spent eating and sleeping, what else!? ...Finally we arrived at our destination. The retreat house was in a far away town. We were warmly greeted by Sister Garis, who welcomed us and gave us a brief tour of the place.
Quickly we went to our rooms to leave our things and then come down for lunch. Once the meal was finished, several girls volunteered to clear the table, wash, dry and put away the dishes. After resting a while we went to the hall. where the Branch Council welcomed us. We were given a presentation about the motto, "Schoenstatt Heroes, my life for Ecuador", and the camp jingle. With group dynamics, songs and games, we began to know each other; the girls attending for the first
time were introduced to the "veterans". The Sisters gave us some practical announcements and those in charge explained the Capital of Grace and the feared PATA-PATA (the assignments of tasks) from which no one could escape. One group of girls, to whom we all owe a strong applause, had to clean the bathrooms along with the Sisters. That is how the afternoon progressed and then it was time for supper. After supper we continued with the motivational talks, and we sang the jingle again...only God knows who many times we had to sing the jingle. Finally, it was time to take a bath. We only had water for 45 minutes and the water heater only worked in some of the bathrooms. Most of us thought that we had cold water in our homes until we experienced the water of Riobamba. It would have been more courteous if the shower had thrown ice cubes at us! But we took all in silence and with heroism...well... most of us did. And after the marvelous first day, we all went to sleep. But nothing could have remotely prepared us for what happened to us the next day.
Learning to be a hero...in Schoenstatt style
It was 7:00 a.m. We were all dreaming on the fifth cloud, when all of a sudden the fire alarm sounded. Noises and banging on each of the doors in the dormitories were heard, and what appeared to be Marieli dressed as a military entered our bed-rooms with a megaphone to wake us. All of sudden all the girls from the upper and lower floors were formed in squadrons under the command of a battalion of generals with very bad intentions....They made us run a lap around all the floor singing a song that was about no one being sleepy, and believe me after Cristi Tenorio yells in your ear a couple of times, you begin
to forget about being sleepy. That is how the day of heroism began. We had morning prayer and Mass. After breakfast came the PATA-PATA and the cleaning of rooms. To start the day we had a marvelous motivational talk on how to be a hero; all the hall and the chapel were decorated with posters of each one of the Schoenstatt heroes and their most important phrases and mottos. We had a presentation in which we were told about the different Schoenstatt heroes, and later that same day, we had a test of heroism and group activities about how to be a hero today. Also Lily, Marieli, Cristi, and Sister Maria Emilia portrayed four Schoenstatt heroes to give us an idea why each one was a symbol for Schoenstatt. That day we learned that we did not have to do great things or have a "super" suit like "The Incredibles" to be heroes in our daily lives; it begins with small things.
We had more group dynamics and guess what?...we sang the jingle! Night prayer, time for a bath, and to sleep, hoping that we would not be awakened the next day by an armed squadron of crazy girls with megaphones.
The following day it seemed that the girls had pity on us and they awoke us with the usual bell. This day we focused on the sequence of the celebration of the Eucharist. Carlita was the priest and along with other girls they explained the reason for each part of the Mass, and what could or could not be done and how we were to respond. Furthermore, Sister Maria Gracias presented a slide show about Christ and the Eucharist that touched us to the depth of our hearts. We had a very private encounter with Father and Sister Maria Emilia gave a talk which answered many of our uncertainties. After all these activities, we had supper, PATA-PATA (but with much heroism) we bathed and to sleep!
Revitalizing our patriotism
Nothing could have prepared us for the next day. It is just 6:15 a.m. when, there was knocking on each one of our doors, Natalia, Angie, Stefi, la Cami. la Cristi, and Mariuxi awoke us singing the song of the soccer team. All of them were wearing t-shirts for the soccer team of Ecuador or something distinctive that made them Ecuadorians, and they carried the flag high, they formed the girls into squads and they made them sing the National Anthem of Ecuador. That is how the Day of Patiotism began. After this beautiful welcome, we went to Mass, to breakfast and PATA-PATA, we had a very animated motivational talk in which the girls spoke to us about their feelings towards Ecuador, and they opened up a forum so that everyone could participate. We also had the opportunity to see a video about our beloved Ecuador and to hear the testimony of Tati and la Cristi Tenorio about Mission Ecuador accompanied by a slide presentation. Probably the most entertaining thing of the day or of the camp was the "gymkhana" which we did that afternoon. The tasks included running, blowing flour, bursting balloons, singing, dancing, acrostics, paintings, this acitivity allowed the girls to unite more as a group and at the end it did not matter who won or lost: we had an incredible time.
In the afternoon we saw a movie filmed by Nicole Gomez and Titi Plaza was the "star", in which a very charming and animated character, Sacha Pandora, invited us to know her Guayaquil. Then we had supper where we decorated the winning group of the "gymkhana" with a sash of Ecuador, PATA-PATA, and then a special surpirse...BONFIRE! We made an incredible bonfire under a completely starry sky. We sang, we danced, we laughed and especially we had a good time. LONG LIVE THE GIRLS' YOUTH!
A small town touched by the hand of God
The following day and for three days, we were missionaries. To do this, each day we had a motivational talk given by one of the leaders of each group of missionaries, the talks were focused on the Three Graces of the Shrine. Our attitude during these three days were truly that of authentic heroines because we had to walk to and from the town of Yaruquies, where there were schools, academies, and daycare centers that we visited. We went to the houses in that zone, offering prayers and petitions to those who opened the doors of their houses and of their hearts. At night, when we returned to the retreat house, we had a moment of prayer in which we asked for all the intentions of each person we had visited.
It was fabulous to see how happy the children were when they saw us arrive at their schools in the mornings, and in the afternoons we held workshops on values in the parish at which many small children attended. We did practical activities, like a denary of thread, and also
theatrics about how to apply values, all with the objective of giving these children faith and hope in God and the Blessed Mother. During the mission days the persons we visited insistently asked for rain, since there was a severe drought, so we offered most of our sacrifices so that it would rain. A group of girls accompanied by Sister Maria Emilia, visited another small, nearby town called "El Batan", where they had the opportunity to go even farther on pilgrimage with the Blessed Mother. What these girls most remember is the friendliness and the commitment of the persons, that feeling of wanting to give the little they have and even what they don't have to make them happy, when we were the ones that wanted to take joy and prayer to their homes.
The last day of mission, at night, we invited the people of Yaruquies to go on pilgrimage with the Blessed Mother, after Mass We crossed the threshold of the parish and our pilgrimage started, accompanied by many of the inhabitants of Yaruquies. We went singing, praying the Rosary or walking in silence and at the end God granted us a miracle...drops of rain began to fall over the dry lands of Yaruquies. The happiness, the joy, and even tears fell and all of a sudden everyone was full of the Spirit of God. On their way back to the retreat house, the girls expressed their joy in the form of songs, phrases, or they simply yelled, to let the whole world know that we were here, the Schoenstatt allies, that we had fulfilled our goal, and now Yaruquies is also a small town touched by the hand of God.
Upon our return, the usual, supper, PATA-PATA, (that we now do with feeling) bath and to sleep.
The last day of our camp we had an outing to Chimborazo, where many girls were able to reach the second refuge and touch the snow. When we returned we met with our groups of life and we tried to relive all that we experienced. At night we had an animated fiesta in which we had to be disguised. There was everything, from Hawaians made with sheets, to punkers, and even four fairy godmothers! we had contests, karaoke and we danced until we couldn't go any more! Then it was time to pack and to sleep.
The following day we arose with a sort of nostalgia, knowing that this was the last time we would do it; we were leaving Yaruquies behind, but always in our hearts. After breakfast we finished arranging our rooms, we gathered everything, we thanked, and ADIOS YARUQUIES!
We will never forget this camp in which we discovered ourselves, we made new friends, but, most of all - we gave our all to the persons of Riobama.
Translation: Celina M Garza, Harlingen, TX, USA