Maranatha

My morning started with a brisk walk over to Santa Sabina College to the convent to meet the sisters for morning tea and join in their meditation community. I received quite the ego boost as I came to discover that my upcoming visit had made it into their monthly newsletter and all who were able were sitting in the common room, waiting to meet "the American." Soon after, I found myself sitting with them in the convent chapel and was instructed to meditate on the word "maranatha," which translates "Come, Lord Jesus." In this brief half hour, I realized this was the first uninterrupted chunk of time I spent simply quietly sitting, without thinking of my event-packed week, arranging flights to Auki, or getting in touch with family and friends back home, and it provided a much-needed moment of peace. 
Following meditation, I met with Sr Patricia about the No Interest Loans Scheme that a handful of the sisters run in the NSW Strathfield area. This program loans out money to purchase essential household goods such as washing machines, televisions, refrigerators, computers, and furniture that low-income members of the community would not be able to purchase otherwise. The NILS program grants up to $1000, depending on the goods to be purchased, and gives the borrower 12-18 months to repay the loan without charging interest. Not widely publicized and run through an office space only 1-2 days a week, the NILS program relies on word-of-mouth to reach the target population that would benefit from this social justice service. Patricia said that the program itself showed a lot of promise- during the summer months, they averaged processing about 2 loans a week- however, their man-power may be suffering due to volunteers growing older, which threatens the long-term success of the program. However, they are inspired by the joy that the community members express after receiving a loan- many cry, hug or kiss the NILS volunteers and there is a good return rate of borrowers applying for additional loans (one mother is just finishing paying her 5th loan through NILS!). Despite the hardships faced due to the economy, members of the community are still able to find hope through one of the many social justice programs run by the Dominican sisters here in Sydney. 
This afternoon Sr Rose Mary and I traveled back into the city to St Vincent's Hospital to check in on Nancy Rukia. Through talking more with her today, I came to find out that she is a 4th year medical student from Malaita who was diagnosed with muscle cancer early this year. She has spent 7 months in Sydney, being treated through surgery, chemo, and radiation, and in the past four weeks has made amazing progress. In fact, she received news that she will be discharged from the hospital ward tomorrow and will return for daily check-ups and treatment. She was extremely cheered by the promise of going beyond the walls of the hospital and exploring a bit of Sydney. Sr Rose Mary wanted to give me the chance to sit down alone with Nancy and have her teach me a little bit more about the Solomon Islands, which she hoped would give her a sense of usefulness after spending these long months alone in the hospital. In addition to giving me some pointers ("It's going to be hot! None of this winter stuff!" she said), teaching me a few necessary Pijin words, she then started asking me, in amazement, of the world of New York City. She was completely fascinated with the idea of snow, incredulous when I told her of Ridgefield's 9 snow days this past year and wanted to know how ski chairlifts worked after seeing them in the movies. As I've learned in my public service courses, this relationship building through communication is a two-way learning street and I saw it happen when I saw the smiles across both our faces as I left this evening.