Monday, September 2, 2013

Le Valdocco Camping Trip and Campo Bosco:

Lac de Montriond. On the other side, in the little valley is 
where we camped at: Les Albertans - Centre Jean Bosco 

After VIDES France Camp and a little time off, I arrived at my final mission site in Nice on 10 August.  Their wasn't a whole lot of time to get situated before we went to work planning for the next two youth camps.  For the first camp, Father Manu, my sponsor/boss, and I left Nice on the 12th with 5, 15 year olds for a week long camping trip at Les Albertan's Centre Jean Bosco.  At first I only had a basic idea of the agenda and I wasn't really sure of what all to expect, but as soon as we arrived and got started I was immediately impressed with all the activities and games that Father Manu had prepared; mind you my French and his English still aren't great, so conversations explaining details and actives have been somewhat limited. This trip, similar to the VIDES France Camp, was one in which religion was not 
The Front part of Les Centre Jean Bosco. 
necessarily the obvious focus, with 2 of the kids actually being practicing Muslims. So instead our emphasis was again on establishing that relationship and trust with the kids, to hopefully later develop into a relationship based on religion. But! The area that we camped at, the Centre Jean Bosco was very Catholic and operated by a Priest.  So for one of the days we (those from our group who wanted to participate) were actually able to celebrate Mass with the other campers, which was nice.  And of course without having discussions and regular worships we had a lot of time to do awesome mountain-like activities, like: white water rafting, mountain biking, hiking, swimming in the pond by the lake, and playing games in the woods! (Unfortunately my memory card died last week so I lost the pictures, so what you see are just general pics from the internet..)  In the end everyone was exhausted, I hardly ever saw Manu sleep, but being this was the first camping trip for the majority of the kids, and the amount of activities and fun we had, I'd call it a great success! 

....now for Campo Bosco!!

Tons of Dancing!
Small group discussions were a great way for the
kids to talk about there faith and how it applies
to their lives.
From what I've seen and heard, Campo Bosco is the Flag Ship event for the France/Belgium Salesian Community.  From 22 to 26 August, 75+ Salesian Priests, Sisters, Brothers and lay volunteers from all over France and Belgium came together to support on incredible Summer Camp and faith building experience for about 250 kids! From start to finish there was always something going on!  Every day was packed with 
The last night we had a big show for all the kids to
show off the activities that they had been working
on all week.  This was part the demonstration by
the "Arts du Cirque" activity group.
some sort of dancing, prayer, testimonial, game/activity, small group discussion, we had Mass two or three time, and every night ended (once or twice at midnight) with evening prayer and some inspirational/guiding thoughts from the head priest.

The majority of the days were taken up with a huge variety of activities for the campers to take part in, there was: Martial arts, Guitar lessons, Campo News (a couple of the videos are posted on the FB link below), Theater, 4 types of dance, Arts du Cirque, Art de Table (my activity, we made something like 300 cupcakes for everyone to eat on the last night’s celebration!), Poetry, Photography, Scrap booking, and a couple others..  Needless to say there was an activity for everyone, and on the final night everyone got to demonstrate their newly acquired skills in a big final going away show. 

There were something like 15 priests!! And an
awesome old castle.
In the end it was great to see the kids get so excited (even emotional) about there faith.  It was also great to see that Catholicism can be made fun and appealing to that age group (not that I doubt it could, I just never really saw it happen when I was that age).  Next year will be the 10th addition of Campo Bosco, and to celebrate the continued growth and success, it’ll be held in Turin, Italy, the town in which Don Bosco first began his work!

To sum up the last couple weeks… I definitely still feel that this year in France is and will continue to be a huge blessing.  It's incredible to witness the amount of time and effort that goes into coordinating these camps.  The France/Belgium community of Salesians has an incredible passion for sharing the love of God with the youth, and I’m truly grateful to be a part of it!

One of the kids slack lining during the going away speech.  
Looks just like St. John Bosco!
..I’m still waiting to see how exactly I’ll be working with the school and kids this year.  Right now it looks like I'll be starting profession french lessons soon, and helping out with a couple different programs within the school.  I expect to have a more definite spot/job by mid October or early November.

More cultural differences:
- The French are more social.  While having lunch and dinner they take the time to talk to each other throughout the majority of it.. and therefore lunch and dinner typically last for an hour.  Also contributing to the time is that there’s usually appetizers, then the meal, then fruit and/or fromage for dessert.
- Picnics and lying in the grass are very popular!  Along with eating lots of fromage I plan to keep this practice when I return home!
- They have huge vacations!  People with similar levels of education and experience as me get roughly a month of vacation a year.  And everyone seems to take their vacation in August, and therefore not a lot gets done.
- As you probably know, everything’s a little smaller (or more economic); from showers to cars. but whenever you need a little taste of home there's always a McDonald’s near by with a delicious american sized servings!

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Saturday, July 20, 2013

What a blessing France will be!  It’s only really been a week and a half that I’ve been here in Lille, but already it’s been an incredible experience.  These first two weeks I’ve been working with a group of VIDES France volunteers, in a very similar situation to what I went through in San Antonio.  What we’re doing is organized to where each mornings we pray, learn, and study about the Salesian values and methods of accompaniment(mentorship), and then in the afternoon’s we implement what we learn by putting on a sort of Vacation Bible School for the local community.  What’s uniquely challenging about this camp is that France has incredibly strict “separation of church and state” laws, so even though we’re organized through the Don Bosco Catholic School, we can’t talk or discuss any sort of religion.  So instead, our focus is on providing good examples and hoping that these kids, ages from 5-18, will realize the true spirit and meaning behind what we’re doing, or at least we pray they do…
All of us repainting the teenager's youth group room.  It was a constant battle to keep them painting the wall and not each other... 
The finished youth group room, it looks much better!

The sisters and volunteers were interested in having some great American desserts,
so we made bread pudding.  In Europe they measure  all their ingredient by weight, so
working through that was interesting, but it turned out alright!

They insisted I make real American pancakes, but they don't sell
Bisquick here!  luckily I was saved by the great taste of maple syrup!
Don Bosco and Mary Mazzarello stopped by!
We performed the Boot Scootin' Boogie for the end of camp show.
As for my experience in working and living in the French culture, it’s been great.  Everyone is very friendly and patient with me as I struggle to comprehend what’s going on.  A couple other volunteers speak broken English so I’m able to have a general idea of the daily plans, but participating in discussions is difficult.  The community is nice, much smaller than in San Antonio, with only three sisters and a priest living in the house, as compared to the 35ish that we lived with in TX.  They don’t wear any of the traditional uniforms for safety reasons, not sure if it’s a French Salesian or regional Catholic thing.  Unfortunately, we haven’t spent too much time outside the convent and local area, but last weekend we did go downtown to celebrate France’s Independence Day, Bastille Day, and saw a bunch of fireworks.  I’ll have some of those pictures up on Facebook soon.

That’s about it for now.. After camp I’ll be headed to Paris for a couple weeks, before going to my final destination of Nice.. Pretty dang rough!!  Oh and before school starts in September we’ll be going a summer camp in the French Alps..

Feel free to let me know what you think or if you have any recommendations.  I’d love to hear from you!  Here are a couple major differences I’ve noticed, and have had to get used to…

-  Breakfast isn't big here.  If you eat it’s usually a piece of toast with Nutella or jelly, and some coffee.  There’s always a variety of cheese (fromage) available and passed around at the end of the meal.   

-   There’s a lot more sun light!  The sun comes up around 6:30 and sets around 10:00.
-  No hugging!  To greet and a woman you kiss both cheeks, and a man with a handshake.  However when in southern France you apparently kiss men on both checks as well...  I’ll be maintaining my American customs instead.

 À bientôt!
All the volunteers!
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Wednesday, July 3, 2013

My Formation/Service Camp experience…

June 5 - 20, San Antonio, TX

Will prepares for the first day with the kids at camp.
Our first day at Vacation Bible School.
Hey! My name is Will Cook, I’m 27, and I’m from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I graduated from Oklahoma State in 2009 and have spent the last four years in the U.S. Marine Corps.  Now that I'm finished with the Marine Corps and have a little time on my hands, my plan is to work with the Salesian Sisters and VIDES in France for one year, beginning in July.
Last week, while at formation/service camp, we had the opportunity to work with the local parish in putting on a vacation Bible school. While we only had about 20 kids, it turned out to be a great experience, one that I think everyone really benefited from. The most inspiring part was seeing the kids learn about God’s love and forgiveness, especially when not all of them had really been able to understand it before.
Will with two of our young campers!
Will with two of our young campers!
These last couple weeks here at the Formation Service Camp have been incredibly rewarding and an experience that I won’t forget.  It’s been a privilege and a blessing to have someone so full of love, as Sister Gloria is, to teach us and guide us in how to be better mentors, leaders, and followers of Christ.  I look forward to putting into action all that I’ve learned as well as seeing what great things the other volunteers accomplish!
Will plays Jesus in one of our skits with the junior high campers.
Will plays Jesus in one of our skits with the junior high students.
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