We are in Week 6 now--the last week of the summer program. I've had a chance to read some evaluations from departing volunteers. There have been "issues" this summer, there always are. Personality issues, and space usage issues, and food issues, and so on. This is hard work. We get up for breakfast and eat in a big room full of relative strangers morning after morning, then on to peer group, arts and crafts, lunch set-up, lunch dishes, pool duty, blanket time, supper dishes, evening meeting, lodge duty........ ending by bed in a cabin you share with several others. No privacy, no luxuries, no maids or butlers. No air conditioning. This place is an old farm that has been variously upgraded (or not) over the years. I can't even stand up straight in the volunteer shower room, I hit my head on the fluorescent lights. That made scrubbing it out this Saturday a bit of a challenge.
So, why do so many who come here become so .... captured by this place?
We've had a large retinue of local teen volunteers all summer. On any given week I have had a squad of them for many jobs big and small. We had eleven babies last week, so it was all hands on deck for babysitting during peer group time. This week, the youngest child is four, so I am finding jobs for the teens that are related to closing down the program for this year. Things like scrubbing and storing our baby supplies, or testing all our school scissors to see if they can actually cut anything. (Turns out, a large percentage could not. I think they may be the original school scissors purchased by Mother Boniface in 1924.)
Why do they come? Why would someone leave their comfortable home to sweat all day here, washing dishes and so on, and in the case of the local teens, test a gross of school scissors? It does not make any kind of sense. And the families: granted, they do not have to work the way the full-time and local volunteers do, but they are essentially trapped here for a week, eating food not of their culture, sleeping in dorms with people they may not have met before arriving here, going along with our schedule and our program and our silly songs with motions. What is the big draw?
Even now, when I am tired and frankly ready to shut things down and move on, I am simultaneously sad to realize that next week they will all be gone and it will be very, very quiet here. There is something about this place, even at its most difficult, that pulls us in. We cannot explain it to our friends, we cannot show it in pictures or capture it in video. We come, we live life here, and some of us just keep coming back, ruined forever, captured. It is no real explanation to say this is holy ground, and yet it is the only explanation. All ground is holy, but here.... it is just easier to recognize.
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2 comments:
Hi Deb – you’re up late probably preparing for the morning program.
Why do they come....? For most of us it’s “Coming Home”.
I can only speak for my family and our experiences – being a camper who converted to a volunteer.
It wasn’t always easy growing up and living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan several blocks away from the Catholic Charities on Grand Street. There was always something lingering in our minds about knowing that once the summer was near the thoughts of going to Trinita brought so much joy to so many of us. Preparing our suitcases, buying flashlights and extra batteries and let’s not forget the bug spray. My family started going up to Trinita I believe in 1979: in fact my younger sister who is now 30 took her first steps on the hills going up to the White house for an evening meeting. Memories – many wonderful Memories.
One hot July morning we all got up closed our suitcases and off to Catholic Charities we went. Once there we found a bunch of other folks we didn't know but were soon to be long time friends. We all boarded the bus and with a morning prayer we were off. Two hours later we arrived at Trinita. I remember people saying that it reminded them of Puerto Rico, the casitas (small houses), the trees, for many of us it was the first time ever going on a family vacation. No one was aware or prepared for what was to come – afraid to open up to the experience but all that changed after the program started on Monday.
Back in those days, there were goats, chickens, a horse and a pony; The Barlows were living there when I first went to Trinita. For me Trinita was/is paradise, a safe haven where I can be me, I didn’t have to be a tough kid I didn’t have to hide behind a facade because I believed in God.
I love to think back to those days when we had to take showers down at the lodge, and run down the hills ringing the bell for the meetings. Back then, we didn’t have modernized cabins, internet, ceiling fans or a cook who came in to help. (We were roughing it and it was the best.) The families and the volunteers did the cooking, cleaning and campers even helped some of the volunteers with their tasks and speaking as both camper and volunteer, there were mornings that I didn’t want to get up for breakfast prep or to cook meals. But doing those things with our family members, preparing meals, sitting down to eat with them, sharing our feelings, who gets to do that all the time – maybe some but for many families Trinita open us all to that experience.
I became a volunteer, to first fulfill a dream for my sister Laura who mentioned once that she wanted to serve at Trinita and in turn I too wanted to become an MCV. I wanted to give back to Trinita what I had received. Trinita is a special place, it’s a holy place and for me its home – I place I grew up and my faith grew stronger.
Yes, there was bug juice and sloppy Jose’s but there were tears in our eyes when we had to get back on the bus.
Oh and let me say – it doesn’t stop when you arrive home – families come together at different times throughout the year. Volunteers come to visit. Trinita – is the Gift that goes on, and on.
Great Friendships and Wonderful memories are formed there.
Love you always Smirna
Wow!
I didn't think there was any Internet information based on TRINITA. The general word for this was a "Catholic Charities" retreat facility for families. Based on what Smirna said, I too, believe that this was/is the place to reinforce your faith and especially the close bondange with your immediate family. My families experience at TRINITA was soo strong that, to date, we still tell stories and relive those special moments. We were truly blessed by TRINITA. It was wonderful to meet families and share different cultures through talk and meals. Oh, how we looked forward to Wednesday's meal when our mothers cooked and Friday for Fiesta Night's treat. I was more blessed by experience on behalf of being the child and then being the mother. I thank you so very much for the words of wisedom and "the don't lose your faith" pep talk when times are rough. Since Sr. Margarita to Sr. Lucita, I have had the opportunity to express utmost gratitude for sharing God's words through actions by setting good examples for my children. Now that Sr. Lucita "retired", my family was a little heartbroken because the question remains, "Are we going to TRINITA this year?" TRINITA has truly been a blessing in my household and an extra special emotional feeling that we share in memory of Lucy Vega, my mom, who showed me to be the Good Christian I am today. Thanks Again!Love always,
Lillian Vega (Horton)
children: JJ, Austin & JoAnn LaBoy, BamBam too.
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