HOWDY!

Wow, SO much has happened since I last updated.

I am writing to you all from the beautiful, the historical, and incredibly HOT San Antonio, Texas!

My roommates and I walked across the street to a small, locally-owned, non-profit coffee shop with free WiFi - I couldn't wait to update all of you on what I have been doing!

So, on August 10th I said goodbye to my family and boarded an absurdly early flight from LAX to Pheonix, where I met up with Megan (my good friend from USD who is living in the JVC house also!), and we had a quick layover and boarded our flight to Houston, Texas! We stepped off the plane and just experienced a few seconds of the overwhelming heat and humidity as we walked off the plane to the gate, but that few seconds was definitely enough. We wandered around the HUGE Houston airport (everything's bigger in Texas!) and found the baggage claim, where we proceeded to call parents, friends, and the entire USD University Ministry staff (naturally) to chat and let them know that we got there safely! Once we got our baggage, we headed to a different terminal (by way of a underground train - yes, the airport is that big), and met our first roommate, Laura! Once we set our things down, herds of people started congregating around us! We realized that we're not ridiculously popular, but that all of those people were there for JVC! It was so great and fun to meet so many people, but also pretty overwhelming and tiring. Once all 56 Jesuit Volunteers of the JVC South Region had gathered, we boarded a big yellow school bus (which was not air-conditioned, might I add), and headed to Pinehurst, Texas for our orientation retreat.

Once we arrived, we moved our things into adorable little cabins and started the crazy whirlwind they called orientation. That first night, I have to admit that I had an incredibly rough time. I think that everything hit me all at once, and I realized that I was incredibly homesick. That night, I wrestled with why I traveled halfway across the country to serve, when there are plenty of social issues to deal with back at home, or in San Diego, where I’m with the people I love. But, after some tears, some contemplation, and a lot of prayer, I realized that I was missing the point. And, while it’s okay to be scared of transitions, I realized that this is something that I need to work with God on. And I wasn’t really doing that in my first day, and I wasn’t being as open as I could or should have. Anyway, from then on out, orientation was so much fun! We listened to talks given by various people on the four values: Social Justice, Simplicity, Community, and Spirituality. They were all great and very inspiring, and I feel like I learned so much! The simplicity talk was my favorite, and it really affirmed me in my choice to do JVC. I learned that living simply is not giving up ALL things, but making sure to be intentional in your use of things, and to put people/relationships BEFORE things. I really want to incorporate this idea into the rest of my life, so I’m glad that I have this year to practice! At the end of orientation, we had a beautiful Commissioning Liturgy, which was where we really committed, through mass, to our JVC year. They sang some songs from Founders (the chapel at USD) and I obviously wept through the mass because of that. However, I was quickly comforted by everyone around me, which was such a wonderful feeling, even so far from home. Orientation was filled with beautiful prayers, incredible conversations, exciting challenges, a lot of laughter, and fantastic dance parties! It got me so excited for this year!

On Sunday, the last day of orientation, the 7 girls of our community waved goodbye to all our new JVC friends, and were picked up by Brother Gus (a Jesuit Brother at the parish church attached to our house), and drove 3 1/2 hours to San Antonio. Once we arrived at the house (screaming in excitement, naturally), we almost got to go inside our new home, but were stopped by the flooding of children from the neighborhood coming over to meet the new JV’s! They were followed by Nicholas, one of the JV’s from this previous year, Jose and Margie, Carlos and Pearl, Lee, Fr. Ron and Fr. Marty - all members/employees of the parish church and neighbors of ours! It was amazing to meet our new community, and they were so amazingly welcoming! It almost brought me to tears how wonderful everyone was, and it made me so excited to get to know them better and to become involved in this incredible community. Once we were finished meeting and chatting with the huge group of people that came to meet us, we were finally able to get inside our new home - Casa Guadalupe (or, Casa G, as we call it)! The house is HUGE (an old convent) and, although kind of cluttered, SO amazing! There are 7 of us girls - Megan, Owen, Janine, Kait, Laura, Christina, and myself - and we each get our own bedroom, and then there are 4 bathrooms. Also, we have a huge living room, a nice kitchen, dining room area, and a chapel IN our house, complete with a life-size crucifix! It’s an amazing place, and since we got here we’ve been cleaning and organizing and getting settled in. It’s taken a while since we’ve had hardly any time to ourselves - our days have been filled with people taking us here and there, and bringing us food, and inviting us over for yummy desserts! It’s been an amazing couple of days so far - we’ve even got a tour of each of our agencies, which I will explain in my next blog entry!

A great story to end with:

Late on our first night in Casa G, we were cleaning (as we had been the whole day/night already), and two of us, Janine and Owen, decided to clean the bathroom. They turned on the water in the shower, and, much to our surprise/dismay, the water would not turn off! It was gushing out of the tub faucet and the drain wasn’t draining very well. Needless to say, we needed a solution, AND FAST. We acted quickly and emptied our trash cans to use as buckets, and scooped the water out of the tub, into the sink. We had a sturdy assembly line going, but nothing was stopping and we did not know what to do! You could imagine our panic - we were convinced the house was going to flood on the first night here - how embarrassing! We tried to get a hold of Fr. Marty, Bro. Gus, or the janitor, and finally all three responded and came over, and had to shut off all of our water. Thankfully, we had saved some water in other buckets that we could use for washing our face and brushing our teeth, so it wasn’t a huge deal. And the shower was fixed in the morning! Phew. We laughed the whole way through AND took pictures and videos in the midst of the crisis. We figured that we got the emergency out of the way, and if we ever have another one, we’re 100% prepared!

Anyway, I will update more later in the next couple days, but we all have our first day of work tomorrow, which should provide me with a lot more updates! I’m so nervous, but also incredibly excited!

Thank you everyone for your support, love, and prayers. I have needed it during this difficult, but beautiful, transition!

Shout out to my other JVC best friends, and my family and friends at home, and everyone at USD!

Love, peace, and prayers,

Kelsey

P.S. Pictures!

Just got to the airport! Megan and I say HOWDY Texas!

Circle Lake Retreat Center - beautiful!

Mary's Garden at Circle lake

Our cabins at orientation!

Just arrived at our new house, Casa G!

All my roommates and Brother Gus :)

Don't worry, if there's an emergency, the girls of Casa G have it covered!