Volunteers

HUMILITY OF MARY VOLUNTEERS
BRING YOUTH AND DEDICATION TO CASA URSULINA

For Caryn Olsen and Kristy Calaway, life after college is offering an extraordinary challenge some 5000 miles from home, in a world very different from the one they grew up in.

Volunteers Caryn, Kristy, and Bridget celebrate with new mom Jennifer and her son, Rodrigo, after the blessing of new babies and mothers at Casa Ursulina. Working in the program for pregnant teens, the volunteers sorted donated clothing to meet the needs of mothers and babies and helped the expectant mothers to make baby mobiles, blankets,and diaper boxes. They also took part in classes in preparation for birth and parenting, and they helped take care of new babies while the mothers were in classes.

In August 2007 Caryn, from Minneapolis, and Kristy, from the Cleveland area, began 15 months as volunteers at Casa Ursulina, the Dianna Ortiz Ursuline Center for Women in Chillán, Chile. Kristy and Caryn are affiliated with the volunteer program of the Sisters of the Humility of Mary, who strive to empower others by inviting “generous volunteers to be partners with us in mission and to bring life-giving service and love to people who are poor, weak and oppressed” (Mission Statement). They are the sixth and seventh HM volunteers to serve at Casa Ursulina in the past six years.

In early December the Casa Ursulina community said goodbye to the fifth HM volunteer, Bridget Sammon (also of Cleveland),who had just completed her 15 months of service.

What inspired these young women to choose this unusual and demanding path for their lives?

For all of them, service has been a longtime motivation and joy. Throughout her college career at DePaul University, Caryn served as a volunteer . . . in a church soup kitchen, in the city schools, in a pregnancy prevention program, with the homeless, and in a center for women. At one time she coordinated a volunteer program at DePaul. Living in a poor area of Chicago, she served as a supportive house parent for volunteers there.

Caryn and Kristy spend Tuesday mornings teaching English to third and fourth-graders at El Libertador school near Casa Ursulina. The children are always happy to see "Tia" [Aunt] Caryn" and "Tia Kristy." This is a school where the gift of new pencils is an occasion for a big celebration.

After receiving her DePaul degree in English and sociology, Caryn enrolled in the social work program at the University of Chicago, which she completed in spring 2007. As a graduate student, she began working with immigrant families at a youth center. She also worked in a family support center with special programming for women. “I found this especially interesting,” she said. “It wasn’t as structured as my other volunteer experiences. I liked that.” All of these settings required a knowledge of Spanish. Caryn dedicated herself to learning the language.

Kristy’s years at John Carroll University, Cleveland, were filled with service activities and immersion trips. She volunteered with homeless people weekly at a Catholic Worker house, and, as co-leader of the school’s justice organization, worked in advocacy and volunteer projects. Raising awareness on campus was an important part of her volunteer work.

During her junior and senior years, Kristy participated in immersion experiences in El Salvador and Nicaragua. As a junior she was a volunteer in the Humility of Mary program in Immakolee, Florida, where she worked with immigrants . . . the beginning of a longer relationship, as it turned out. During her senior year, she studied for a semester in the Casa de la Solidaridad program in San Salvador, where she spent two days a week volunteering at an orphanage and school.

Kristy and Bridget work with Carola (left) and other women to make empanadas (meat pies) to sell at the Chilean Independence Day celebration at Casa Ursulina on September 18.

In May 2007, when she graduated from John Carroll with a degree in Spanish and political science, Kristy knew she wanted to be an international volunteer. And she knew she wanted to go back to Latin America.

Bridget remembers doing volunteer work in middle school. “But I think it really started when I was a little girl and went with my grandmother to visit a nursing home.” In high school she had her first foreign experience, an immersion trip to Guayaquil, Ecuador. As a student at Saint Louis University, she was involved in the Christian Action Program, working in a detention center. She made a spring break trip to New Orleans in her freshman year and another to El Salvador as a junior. A major in international studies and Spanish, Bridget also studied abroad in Spain. Her motivation for mission work was influenced by Jean Donovan, a member of the Cleveland Lay Mission Team, who was one of four missioners killed in El Salvador in December 1980 . . . before Bridget was born. “She was a friend of my aunt,” Bridget says, “and I was deeply inspired by her.” In fall 2006, as a Humility of Mary volunteer, Bridget began her work in Chile.

“Overall, it’s been a great experience,” Bridget reflected as she prepared to return home after 15 months in Chillán. Caryn and Kristy, from their viewpoint of four months, are already quick to agree.

“There’s such a sense of community here,” Caryn notes. “Families live close together.” She describes how Chileans love getting together, having a good time, enjoying each other’s company, even though they lack a lot of opportunities and resources. “At home I used to skip big parties, and it’s sometimes exhausting for me to be part of the celebrations here. But I have to say I enjoy them.” 

Kristy enjoys a memory card game with a group of senior citizens at a weekly soup kitchen in the neighborhood. To her right is Lorena, a young volunteer at Casa Ursulina. Caryn and Kristy spend Wednesday afternoons with this group.

“I’ve gotten to know a lot of amazing people, and I’ve been surprised at how much these women already know,” Bridget says. “They are skilled and creative.” One of their skills is making ends meet with what they have, and seeing the world more simply. “They don’t take things for granted . . . hot water, good food, sharing. If you happen to come by at mealtime, they make up a plate of food for you, even if there’s really not enough.” She finds the women determined and resilient. “I am amazed at how women can come here smiling and cheerful . . . then I learn what their life is like, what they’ve been going through. They have the strength to keep going . . . and I compare all this with how easy my life is.”

Thinking about the challenges the volunteers experience here, Kristy reflects that she’s used to working in an efficient setting, getting things done. “This more relational experience is really good for me . . . it’s not so much about getting things done as with being with people.” Her life at Casa Ursulina has forced her to look at her values with new eyes.

Both Caryn and Kristy see the Chileans’ approach to food preparation as an example of the different perspective they have experienced. Rather than relying on quick, packaged foods, Chileans generally cook from scratch, going to the market often to buy what is in season . . . and so fresher and less expensive. “So much care and time go into food preparation here,” they explain, seeing this as both an economic necessity and a different attitude toward work.

“Living here gave me a new light on everyday living,” Bridget says. “It’s a new way of seeing what are necessities . . . what you really need to be happy.”

For most volunteers, language is at or near the top of the list of challenges in this new culture. Even with a solid preparation in Spanish, entrance into the world of Castillano . . . Spanish as the Chileans speak
it . . . can be strenuous. Bridget, Kristy, and Caryn have struggled with
the distinctive Chilean accent and the modismos, or idioms, that make Chilean Spanish unique. It takes several months of studying, listening, and speaking to become reasonably comfortable and fluent. They have made amazing progress . . . Bridget is sometimes mistaken for a Chilean on the phone.

Living with Chilean families has been an effective way of developing language skills and cultural understanding for the volunteers. Bridget
lived with a family throughout her time in Chile. Kristy and Caryn will be living with families beginning in February. They will continue to volunteer at Casa Ursulina and in the surrounding community.

At Casa Ursulina, the volunteers’ activities have included assisting in the program for pregnant and parenting teens, participating in the spinning and weaving class, teaching an English class for children, and leading exercise sessions. One day a week, Caryn and Kristy work in the Casa Ursulina stand in the downtown plaza, where the women’s crafts are sold. In the community, they have taught English in the elementary grades in a poor school in the area. They also plan and conduct activities for the senior citizens who come to the weekly lunch and social time at a nearby church.

Caryn and Kristy laugh as they talk about their “list of things we didn’t know we’d miss,” like cheddar cheese, sour cream, showers with consistent water temperature, reliable toilets, really warm blankets, and perhaps above all, insulation and central heating. Being away from family and friends is also difficult. E-mail, Skype, and slow but dependable “snail mail” take on a new importance for these young women far from home.

Both Caryn and Kristy were students in the weaving class last semester. Here they set up a loom in preparation for weaving a scarf.

Looking back on the past six years, Sister Mimi says that all seven volunteers “have enriched what we can offer here.  They offer their time and talents teaching women much older than they are, with much more life experience than they have, as well as working in the community. She marvels at their adaptability. “Caryn and Kristy are not English teachers, but they have managed to learn how to work with young and boisterous children in a very poor school in a system much different from what they’re used to. And the next day they were with the senior citizen group.

Sister Mimi also reflects on how the volunteers have really become involved in the culture, seeing the world from a different perspective, learning different ways of reacting to situations. “The Humility of Mary volunteer program has certainly enriched my life,” she says. “These young women have spent at least part of their time living here at Casa Ursulina in community with me. They have enriched my own community life and, I believe, this has been a good community experience for them.”

How will this volunteer experience affect the lives of these women when they return home at the end of their commitment in Chile?

Bridget gets a big hug from Popy during her farewell party in early December.

“Once you step outside the suburban lifestyle and see how others live,” Bridget observes, “it’s hard to deal with returning to it. When I returned from other mission trips, I was angry about the way I had lived, and angry about the system . . . buying things we don’t need, wasting water and food.” Now she hopes that her experience will lead her “to a job that is a reflection of my passion for social justice. I want to help people for a higher cause, not just a big salary.” She knows that her academic and professional future will be deeply impacted by what she has experienced here.

Both Caryn and Kristy see themselves working in the public sector, using their professional skills to help others. Kristy looks forward to graduate school, concentrating on social justice and social ethics, with a strong theology component. “I see myself as an activist,” she says. “I want to work to change structures that are harming people.” 

Already a licensed social worker, Caryn talks about finding a balance between professional skill and “heart” in her relationships with those with whom she works. She hopes to find a career in the public sector that will fulfill her personal motivation. “I’m not just out to find respect,” she says. “I want to use my skills to be a caring person.”

Caryn, Kristy, Bridget, and the previous four volunteers at Casa Ursulina, have already established a firm basis for a life of service to others founded on faith, generosity, and love.