Mission Accomplished

This is my final week in Mexico and it´s kind of unbelievable that something that seemed so far in the future is coming to an end. There are still lots of sights and touristy things that I haven´t done and I had plans to cram it all in this month. Though I have seen a couple more museums and such, I realized that I would rather try to enjoy being with my friends and people here rather than rush through a checklist of stuff to do.

Last Thursday was Martha´s birthday and Miriam (a lifelong missionary who once lived in Mexico) came to visit a few days later. This meant parties at the parish. For her birthday toast, Martha said she remembered arriving to Santa Fe about three years ago and Padre saying that they would make a family there. (Martha is a few years younger than me but lives two hours away from her family in order to work in commercial Santa FE.) As I looked around the table that night, full of people who are a little disconnected from their own families, but welcomed by Padre to share parish life, I realized how fortunate I have been to be part of such a hospitable community. Padre accepts people as they are without much show about it, and that is something I can do as well.

Martha and I were the last two to stop celebrating and we made jokes about being comadres. (A term of endearment, but literally a promise to be the godmothers of each others´ children.) We started getting closer during walks home together from the Iberio as she started working at the university while I was taking Spanish classes there. It feels good to have a Mexican friend my age, but a little sad that just when this has happened it is time to leave.

I have also been tearing up at the Missionaries of Charity as I think the girls are those who will most miss my presence. Still, I have never been able to get over the sadness that follows spending time there and I realize that I would never want to work their full-time or be a nun. While I feel a little guilty for leaving, I also realize that this experience will give me more motivation to prevent abuse, drug addiction and lack of education so that there are fewer terminally sick or abandoned persons in the world.

I will also bring back a newer appreciation for my family. In Mexico, family life is so important, and people find it strange that the other missionaries and I have lived on are own and would leave them for several years. Thus I am looking forward to being home and being part of holiday celebrations and birthdays once again.

Right now, the most important thing that I think I have gotten out of this experience is too be more patient and and understanding of both my own faults and those of others. While everyone wants love in their loves, the only way to give and receive unconditional love may be through God and we have to understand that humans are limited.

I know that there is a lot I would have done differently in retrospect and a lot that I can be proud of. Instead of analyzing what kind of missionary I was, what I am focusing on is that spending a few years doing service in foreign country is something that I have had a hidden desire to do for about fifteen years. So, now I have accomplished a life goal and that´s a really good feeling.


It´s appropriate that I´ll be arriving in time for Autumn. The change of leaves is one thing that I have most missed but symbolically I am looking forward to seeing something different that is familiar and comforting.