Wow!  What an immersion!  From the moment we arrived, we have been immersed in the Ocean Tides hospitality.  This week is a different kind of SOUL experience.  Four of us are in Narragansett, and four are in Pawtucket.  We’ll stay like this for Monday and Tuesday; Wednesday the Pawtucket group will rejoin us in Narragansett for an educational conference day.  And then…..we switch!  One group will stay and the other will leave to experience a new aspect of the many ways that the Lasallian Brothers are affecting the social workings of Rhode Island.

Here in Rhode Island, we’re primarily working with at-risk young people and criminally convicted young men.  Rather than being placed in a juvenile detention center, the men at Ocean Tides are in a rehabilitative school and residence.  The incredibly patient, caring, and hard-working staff and faculty work to fill in many of the gaping holes that these students have from years of being “in the system” and for not having been raised in stable, loving environments.  So far, getting to spend time with these young men has been eye-opening and filled with lots of graces.  I’m excited for you to read of the SMUMN students’ experiences!

While Saturday was our travel day, and Sunday was our orientation/free day, we’ve spent a lot of time near the ocean so far, but never fear, we’re certainly getting a mental work-out of service giving and receiving.  Today, I was grateful to bookend my day with watching the sun rise (OUT OF THE OCEAN!) and then set in an evening walk through the boulders on the water’s edge.

Peace!  Thank you for taking time to read our stories!  No doubt the students’ will be much more interesting!