Day 4 - Vamos a Ovalle

Today Sr. John Marie and I were scheduled to travel to Ovalle to visit the other St. John Villa Academy in Chile. (For you fellow SJVA alum, this is where Sr. Helen taught for many years. From what I hear, she is a celebrity in these parts.) Before we left, Sr. John Marie had one more meal to cook. Today was Pasta with Gravy (red sauce), Baked Chicken with stuffing gravy (brown sauce) and salad followed by Jello and Russian Tea cakes for dessert. !Que Rico!
















Here's Sr. John Marie with Sr. Anni...





















And here's Sr. Teresa and Solange with the great desserts.






















And here is the evidence of Guaton's adventures last night.


















After lunch Sr. Teresa drove us to the bus station in Downtown Santiago. We found out that the bus was a double decker, and we were in the front seat over the driver. And thanks for that, I got some wonderful pictures to share with you.
















Here is a slide show from our ride. If there weren't marks on the window of the bus, I'd have a million more pictures. (Special thanks to Sr. Justin for telling me about Movie Maker!)





Considering it was a six hour ride, we were fairly comfortable. Except for a few things. 1)The bathroom was on the 1st floor of the bus, and the steps were hard to negotiate, especially if the bus was moving. 2)There was a constant beeping sound (which Sr. John Marie explained to me meant that the driver was going over the speed limit.) 3) There was a (very cute) three year old girl on the bus next to us with her parents that after a nap had quite a bit to say, and if her parents didn´t listen the first or second time, she would get louder until they acknowledged her (four hours of this...not so cute).

We arrived in Ovalle around 8:30pm and had some soup and headed to bed. We arrived too late for me to take pictures today...But it is really beautiful.

A LITTLE STORY ABOUT THE SCHOOL IN OVALLE

Sr. John Marie pointed out the various sites in the city and she told me the story of the school in Ovalle, which was the first school for the Sisters of St. John the Baptist in Chile.

There were lots of foreigners working in the mines in the area, and they needed a place for their daughters to go to school. They asked the Sisters to start a boarding school in which the parents paid for the students to attend. The school did very well until there was a change in the government in the 1970s to a dictatorship, and all the foreigners left, taking the students with them.

Sr. John Marie said that the sisters thought that this was a sign from God that they should be teaching the children of Ovalle. The only problem was that unlike the parents who worked in the mines, the parents of Ovalle were poor and wouldn't be able to pay for tuition. The sisters would still need money to run the school and pay the teachers.

The Sisters decided to go ahead and open the school to the poor. They did this in the tradition of their founder, Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco. He never turned anyone away even when there was a scarcity of food or absolutely nothing. He always turned to Jesus and help would come.

The Sisters went door to door and told the parents that they would be able to send their children to the school for free, but in exchange, the parents would have to be involved in the school.

Sr. John Marie said that the people of Ovalle were so happy to be able to send their children to this beautiful school. Fathers and Mothers showed up to contribute in any way the could. The school was so full that they had to have grades come in shifts, older children in the morning and the younger children in the afternoon.

Money came eventually from a charitable organization in Germany, which the Sisters wrote to for help. This was followed by subsidies from the Chilean government after the school had its first successful year. With the changes in the government and economics of the area, the school eventually returned to funding through tuition.