Five and a Half Meters

In soccer, the goal keeper has a zone where he can practically do whatever he wants…   five and a half meters from his goal, he is untouchable.   

Here, people are attached to their personal space.  To quote one of my favorite singers, Francis Cabrel: “… to graze someone on the arm, you need a password.” [translated from French so some things may have been lost in translation] 

Here, I think that personal space is for people like water is to fish.  Even on a crowded bus, it’s amazing how people manage to avoid touching their neighbors… That must be good to stop the spreading of disease but, sometimes, in this jungle of individualism, one can easily feel lonely…

But yesterday, Sunday…

A group isn’t fully a group once you know the name of each member, or how many siblings they have…   or even in what they are majoring in… No…

I knew that we became a group yesterday when we didn’t use our five and a half meter zone…  Yesterday at mass, all 12 of us were sitting on the same bench, giving up our vital space to allow someone else to enter in our zone…   This is when I knew that we were a group and that good things were going to happen during this week and then good things started happening…

On Monday March 5^th, we met with Chris…  He was explaining to us our work, and that today, we would be working with 7^th graders in order to help them understand what it is like to be a refugee.  Priceless moments: watching Joe and Ben terrorizing the little kids (I think that Joe hid his face so the children wouldn’t see the laughter in his eyes).

Afterwards, we had  lunch with the JMU group and got to know them…

Later on, we visited the ESL center where we will be helping to teach.  At the same time, we got to visit the deserted Saint-Antoine de Padoue church.  Quality time: climbing and getting on the roof of the church…  We were that close to being like Quasimodo and ringing the bells of the old church…  What prevented us from doing it: a good ladder to access the bells and a functional bell.

The day was not over or should I say that the best was yet to come?   We got to visit downtown Louisville, we stood in front of the KFC center (unfortunately, it was past 5:00 PM and it was already closed) and we had dinner with an alumnus and his wife.  We were met with generosity but not just any kind of generosity.  It was the kind that left us speechless.  In a society where everyone is always so busy, an alumnus found the time to open his heart and have dinner with a bunch of college students that he didn’t even know a week before.

Today it’s Monday and we have not yet met refugees to work with…  But I know that we are on the good path, doing the will of God. 

How do I know that?  All along the way, I’ve met Love and where there is Love, there is God.

--Cynthia