Fun With Nuns

My first day of real-live, grown-up, 9-5 work was a lot like my first day of school (minus the unabashed crying and desperate pleading with my mother not to make me go. But who knows? That could still be within the realm of possibilities.) Scarring childhood memories aside, Monday brought all the enchantment and wonder of starting a new chapter in my life at a new job in a new city. So when I arrived at the Community Center, only one thing could quench my excitement and thirst for adventure: A pilgrimage.

8a.m. I arrived at the main office. I met an ocean of new faces, shook a gaggle of hands, and pretended to memorize a litany of new names (apparently no one here has last names; they all introduced themselves as "Tom" or "Linda" etc. Perhaps I've stumbled back in time to pre-Middle Age England. Then again, perhaps not.) During two separate conversations, I think I agreed to become the coach of the school's golf and lacrosse teams, so we'll see how that goes. Anyway, my colleagues (I have colleagues!) and I proceed onto a bus to take part in a pilgrimage around the city of Baltimore to visit historic sites having to do with the founding of our school. Do people with real jobs really go on field trips?

The first stop on our little religious tour-de-force was at the original mother house of the Oblate Sisters of Providence. For ye laymen (and laywomen), the OSP was founded by Mother Mary Lange, who also founded Saint Frances Academy (yes, the very one that now employs this blogger!) Lange was of Haitian descent who came to Baltimore with her family (I think). She began teaching slave children and other children of minorities in the lower chapel (what the nuns now call Chappelle Basse), and this would officially become St. Frances Academy in 1828. A year later, she and three other women took their vows and created the OSP. St. Frances can claim to be the oldest African American Catholic High School in the United States (and some parts of the building look it!)

The tour then continued to the outskirts of the city, where we ate lunch with the sisters at their convent (or mother house, or novitiate, I couldn't tell which..seriously, these religious types have a lot of names for where they live). The sisters provided a delicious meal, and later, I would tell my roommates that I had meat for lunch- HA! After shootin' the breeze with the good ol' sistas, we left the house and traveled to the cemetary where Mother Lange is buried. I was suprised to learn that during the early days of the OSP, when a sister died, she was not permitted to be buried in the main cemetary. Rather, because of the color of her skin (the OSP is predominantly black) a deceased nun was buried on the side of a hill, in a really plain plot of land. It was with a sorrowful feeling that I realized that, even in death, these women still could not achieve equality.

The day was certainly an interesting and appropriate way to start my year. As I meet my new coworkers and continue to learn about the school and community center, I can see Mother Lange and the work of the OSP everywhere. The sense of pride and purpose that the people here have regarding their history is incredible, and I can see the work of Mother Lange permeate through each faculty and staff member.

Today there was no field trip, but I had meat again for lunch! We spent most of the day getting to know each other (meaning the faculty and staff) and later, Mr. Moore took me for a walking tour of the neighborhood. So much did I learn during this healthy gait around Johnston Square that a separate blog is necessary. Suffice it to say that Mr. Moore has an encyclopedic wealth of knowledge about the neighborhood and Baltimore in general, and I cannot wait to learn all I can from him. (And in giving me an idea of what I'll be doing this year, Mr. Moore ran down the calendar of events for the community center, among which is a franks & beans fundraising event in June- more meat!)

So, for being in the real world, this ain't so bad. And hey, I'm still riding my bike to work, just like I did to elementary school. Except this time there aren't any dirt trails to conquer, and my mother isn't looking out our back window to make sure I got to school on time. But who knows? That could still be within the realm of possibilities.