Dominicans

So today we got back from the overnight retreat at the Dominican place. It was interesting to meet all of the other Holy Cross priests and brothers and to see how they are each trying to accomplish their mission in Chile. We only had meals with them for the planning and the meeting were a little over our head and pay grade, so we on Saturday went around the city a bit by there. It was interesting to see the little market that they have set up on Saturdays. On Friday on our way home from school we witnessed a pretty vicious dog fight right out in front of our house. It was between a pit bull and another dog that are in the neighborhood, some people were trying to separate them and I figured it was wiser to leave them the hell alone. Brian and I just made sure all the kids were inside their house and out of harms way. It is interesting to notice the difference in the treatment of animals between the U.S. and the rest of the world. Down here they are pets, but that is it. They were trying to save the dog, put if they were to realize it couldn’t be saved they would have simply moved on.
Friday night was fun because we got to meet the priest and then we went through the religious services, but after that was all over at 9 from then on there was happy hour with all the priest intermingling and gossiping like a bunch of high school kids, except the beverages weren’t just pops. But I liked how everyone was very open to question and to debate. I was able to pick up most of it and you had a fair amount of the priests who seemed happy to have an excuse to speak English, so they tended to favor that when addressing me. They all indicated that that was their reason also, they were not insulting my intelligence, but they wanted to practice their English along with keeping me informed on what was going on in the congregation.