My Mission Movie's posted on YouTube:

The last year summed up in about 18 minutes: http://youtu.be/dmhvptvvg18

Et aussi en français: http://youtu.be/DhGLLvwOjnQ

Be sure to click on settings to turn it up to HD!

Down to the last month.. and finishing strong!

Jessi, after we finished Mt. biking
and a little map reading class.
I suggested he pose like that.

The last couple months have continued to go well.  There seems to have been at least one school/federal/religious vacation for each of the last 3 months, and so we've been busy with field trips and planning activities to keep the kids occupied.  The Valdocco keeps getting bigger!  We've grown to about 35 kids, 4 full-time and 2 part-time tudorers, and we've almost run out of room in our building. Carnival, Lent, and Easter have all come and gone.  The CCD classes are still going well, and we're expecting 6 kids to celebrate their first communion this Sunday.  And the Alter Server team's gotten bigger and more confident!  Right now we have 3 who are pretty experienced and capable and we've just added 3 new, young recruits who're still in training. Ultimately I'm confident that they'll have no problems carrying on once I leave.

This last month I've been pretty lucky in that I've gotten to take two trips to Italy.  One was with a group of 12 kids from the Don Bosco and Nazareth (the other Salesian school in Nice, run by the Sisters) high schools to visit the Colle Don Bosco, the birth place of Don Bosco, right outside of Turin.  And the second trip was when my Parents came to visit.  I was able to take a week off to meet them in Rome and to spend a couple days with them when they came here to Nice, it's been a great month!

For the last week in February and the first in March the school had a two week vacation, and so the Valdocco put some activities together for the first week.  Since it was during Carnival we prepared an arts and craft workshop to make our own masks for wearing to

Enjoying the snow before it
melts, in the Mt's outside Nice.

one of the many city parades that were going on. Unfortunately, it rained that day so none of the kids showed up, but since we were already there we decided to make our own 4 to 5 masks, and they turned out pretty good.  The second day we had a better turn out and took the kids up to the Mountains, about an hour drive away, to do some sledding.  The snow was still nice and it wasn't too cold so it turned out to be the perfect time to go.  On the last day of camp we took a handful out to a park that had a little fitness trail. Ismael showed them the importance of having proper form and I taught them a couple military chants for running, and they surprising really liked them...


For Holy Week the Dioceses of Nice chose to
celebrate the Chrism Mass at our church, Notre
Dame Auxiliatrice.  It really turned out to be an incredible event.  Almost all the priests from the Dioceses, the brothers, the sisters, and a lot of the parishioners came to watch the bishop bless this year's sacramental oils.  And the turnout was pretty impressive, the church was packed.  We ended up having to leave the doors open so that people could see and hear from outside.

After Easter the school had its Easter/Spring break for two weeks, and the Valdocco had another week of field trips and games.  Since we're also working with the kids to renovate our garden area in front of our building, we thought it'd be a good idea to take them out to park that had a huge exotic/indoor garden to get some ideas and inspiration.  It also had a mini zoo and an inflatable obstacle course so it was easy to make a day out of it.

It's an urchin and not a crack in the glass.

On the last day of camp we took a day trip to an island off the coast of Cannes to visit an old fort and to play some games.  The island turned out to be really pretty, and had a lot of good spots to play Capture the Flag and then to have a nice picnic on the shore.  In the afternoon we visited the old fort and the kids got to see where the "Man in the Iron Mask" was imprisoned and to learn about his interesting story.



















Two weeks ago Manu, myself, and another animator from the Nazareth High School took a group of 12 kids to Turin, Italy for a 3 days visit of The Colle Don Bosco.  For the kids, the purpose of the trip was to have a great time in meeting other kids from all over France (more than 300 kids showed up) and to learn a little about their faith.  As for the 75+ volunteers that participated, the camp served as a dry run for the larger and upcoming Campo Bosco (in August) and the celebration of the Bi-Centennial of Don Bosco's Birthday (in February), which will both be held at The Colle Don Bosco.  In the end, the trip went really well, we stayed busy the entire time playing games, learning about Salesian History, and participating in prayer and Mass.  It was especially interesting to have been able to see the original homes of St. Don Bosco and St. Dominic Savio, The Basilica of Don Bosco, and then to have taken a trip into town to see the original Valdocco and all the things that Don Bosco was able to establish.

On top of Colle/Hill Don Bosco

Homes of St. Don Bosco (above)
and St. Dominic Savio (below)

Signs of a good trip!

An incredible church design by
Don Bosco at the original
Valdocco in Turin, Italy.

This last month was uniquely special in that my parents were able to come visit.  We met in Rome and spent a couple days seeing the sites there, and then they came to Nice with me to see and meet everyone at the community.  It was a great time, they really seemed to enjoyed Nice, we ate some really good pasta and French food, and by the time they left we were all exhausted.

The Vatican Gardens

In the courtyard of the Don Bosco high school

And so it's finally come down to my last month here in Nice.  It's been an incredible adventure, and I'm grateful for every minute of it.  Once I've returned home in June I'll be sure to write my last blog post to sum up all my experiences, thoughts, and to give the details of my going away.  Until then!

Just 5 months left, but...

Everything's going well and we're staying busy!  The Valdocco's been continuing to grow, we're up to about 15 kids now, the CCD classes are coming together and starting to prepare for the end of the year, and the Feast days of St. John Bosco and St. Francis of Sales all happened this last month.

For the Christmas break the Valdocco put on a little holiday camp.  On the first day we thought it'd be good to introduce the kids to a taste of the United States with an authentically American home-cooked breakfast.  After hunting down the right ingredients and figuring out the measurement conversions, we started cooking!  All-in-all it took us about hour to fix, we included some basic cooking lessons in between, and by the time we were finished we'd made about 20 chocolate chip pancakes, some eggs, sausage, and plenty of bacon.  It turned out great, and we ate just about all of it, ugh..  We also had some "beurre de cacahuète" (peanut butter, not easy to find) and jelly toast.

The feast's over, time for a nap..

The second day of camp Manu organized an activity that let the kids melt and make their own chocolate candies.  We worked with an assortment of toppings ranging from sprinkles and fruits to leftover peanut butter and jelly; then on top of that a couple of the kids decided to add leftover syrup to theirs, for that unique 5 kinds of sugar taste..  The candies were left in the fridge to harden and give to the kids to take home at the end of the week.


















For the last two days of camp we had some homework-tutoring sessions and built a paper-mache/cardboard version of United States, as a geography lessons.  And on the final day we all went out to a local Christmas market for some ice skating and to see some mountain animals in a wild life show.

On Christmas Eve the children of the youngest CCD classes, not the ones I help with, put a little skit together for the Christmas Mass.  They acted out the Nativity and did a great job!

After New Year's we were quick to get back to work.  On the first week Manu and I took a two day field trip with a special group of kids from the school that are in need of some mentorship.  The group's called SLAM, or "Systeme Local d'Accompagnement aux Metiers", and it's designed to work with kids who've been struggling with school or other social issues in preparing them socially and professionally for potential careers, or for life after high school.  For a change of scenery we took them out to a local exhibit on the 5 Senses.

Jeff  experimenting
with new hair styles..

..a solid choice!

The exhibit had about 75ish different smelling stations.

Everything was left just as we found it.
Playground equipment can really take a beating.

On the second day we went up to the park for some mountain biking and a picnic.

Our CCD classes are going great.  Manu's been able to keep the kids interested and coming to class, and about a month ago we added another 3 students to the older group.  Of the 3 CCD classes I help with, the youngest, ages 9-11 meet on Tuesdays during lunch, the middle aged, 11-13 meet on Thursday for lunch, and the oldest, 13-14 come on Friday evenings, with each class having about 7-9 students.  For the two younger groups we've been working on and reviewing the basics of Catholicism (prayer, the gospel, the sacraments and saints) in preparation for confirmation.  And with the older group, and being that they've mostly all already completed confirmation, we try to make it more of a fun and games/something to do on Friday night-type thing, with the last 15-20 minutes of each night spent discuss faith and in prayer.

She found the baby in the King
Cake.  In France they have their
king cakes for the Epiphany
holiday.. makes since.

They're not always happy that I take tons of pics..

One Tuesday last month we were taken on a tour of the Crypt of our church, Notre Dame Auxiliatrice, by one of the older brothers.  He told the kids an incredible story about how during WW2 the church was able to successfully hide 50 Jewish students from the Gestapo.  It was even more impressive being that we could hear the story while seeing how small the crypt (maybe 500 square feet) really is.

It says: In this crypt in 1943, hunted by the Gestapo, Jewish children and adult were put
under the protection of the fathers Michel Blain and Vincent Simeoni.

Tuesday and Thursday night activities with the boarding school are still going strong. They've recently been obsessed with ping-pong, I think in part due the weather being cold and rainy, so we've been hitting the tables pretty hard.  With it getting nicer out I look to restart my push to popularize football soon!

An action pic of the Champ.

The Fetes!

For the Feast of St. Francis of Sales, on the 24 of January, we got together with the Salesian Sisters, who run the Institute of Nazareth, another Salesian school across town, to have a nice dinner. We celebrate the Feast of St. Francis of Sales because it's he who St. John Bosco, the founder of the Salesians, developed his methods of teaching and accompaniment of the young from.  That's also where the name Salesians comes from.

Top: Another volunteer helping to
explain a game for the school's
celebration of St. Don Bosco's Feast day.
Left: The Salesian Community of
Nice on St. Francis's Feast day.

The next Friday, the 31st, was Don Bosco's feast day, and we celebrated for the entire weekend. It all got kicked off with both Salesian schools having a sort of game/fun/adventure day.  A lot of the kids came to school wearing costumes and were ready to play games, dance, and eat all kinds of junk food. 

The next day our Parish had its celebration.  We had about 25 kids show up and we played a variety of different games, ate all kinds of homemade desserts, and then finished with a Mass; the bishop of Nice came to preside. 

On Sunday, the parish came back to watch the Don Bosco movie.  It also happened to be the same day as the Fete of the Chandelles, a celebration of when the Pope fed hungry Roman pilgrims crepes, which in turn has become a Holiday celebrating crepes, so fittingly we ate an assortment of crepes after the film.

The church was packed!
Left: The kids from our parish.

And Finally..

What I'm most proud of doing these last couple months, is getting the opportunity to put together a team of alter servants.  With our aging congregation the church has been without alter servants for a while, and it's generally been rare to even see kids at Mass, so doing this felt like a needed contribution.  The first step took place about a month ago in convincing Father Pascal to teach me how to be alter server, being I'd never done it before.  After that, I practiced for a couple weeks and then we started putting the word out. It didn't take long to find our first two volunteers. We were able to get together last Tuesday for a class, and then last Sunday we helped with our first Mass, and they did great! 

Looking back on it, I think our participation made the whole parish and Mass feel a little different.  It reminded me of how it feels to go to Mass at home, and how the Mass is an event for the whole family (the alter servant's families came to watch), rather than just the elderly.  I think the parish noticed a little difference also; afterwards there were a lot of the loyal elderly ladies who came up to us with big smiles on their faces. They talked about how happy they were to see us and wished us luck in continuing. Hopefully it all works out and were able to keep the team growing.  By the time I leave I think this will be the contribution that I'm most proud of, and if they continue once I'm gone maybe it'll be my sort of small legacy.