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| At "Cuatro Vientos" with my Friend Berenice (August 2011) |
The day before the grand arrival of the Pope to hold a major "World Youth Day" Mass, I and along with million of other Youth pilgrims all traveled to this place called "Cuatro Vientos" which translates to "Four Winds" in English.
At the this large open field we were required to camp out for the night and wait for the arrival of the Pope. However, growing up in a clean environment a rather advanced city myself, I really had no experience of actually camping out. What was worse was that Madrid's climate was extremely hot and dry in the summer. On the day we all had to go camp out on this large field it was 39 degrees Celsius outside. Growing up in Canada, where hot weathers are not that extreme, I was totally unprepared of what was to come. Furthermore, we were not exactly allowed tents (I wouldn't have been able to pack on anyways) due to the limited spaces in each section the pilgrims were assigned to. The large field was organized into sections where each and every pilgrim was assigned to. I remember clearly, I was assigned to section D8 with my other parish friends. However, by the time we got to "Four Winds", our assigned section was so full, we were moved to section E8. That was when my nightmare began.
E8 was also a very packed section with thousands and thousands of people everywhere, my group was not able to see the stage where all the performances took place since we were quite far. But we had a large screen that would broadcast live what was happening on stage."Great, I can't see the stage, it is super hot and crowded out. This is not gonna be good." I thought. My group looked around for about 15 minutes to find a spot that could accommodate 13 people together. After much effort of searching we finally found a large spot.
We quickly unpacked our sleeping bags, put on sunscreen and sat down waiting in the unbearable heat and sun. Hoping the Pope would arrive soon. However, little did we know that the spot we found was left unoccupied for a reason. Just as we began to feel a little bit more settled and comfortable in our zone, a whole group of approximately a hundred ants (big and small) crawled all over our sleeping bags.
That's right. ANTS. I have never been a huge fan of any insects. Back at home, I would freak out at the appearance of a small fruit fly, the size of a sesame seed, let alone hundreds of ants crawling everywhere. Of course, my fellow girl friends and I immediately screamed and ran away from our sleeping bags, fearing that the small ants would attack and bite us. The guys from our group immediately began laughing and attempted to get rid of the ants, but well after multiple tries they knew they could not do it since, we basically picked the spot where there were at least 4 anthills around. No wonder no body picked that spot.
The evening did not get any better as the weather began to become extremely cloudy. The sky was so dark and dense, we knew it would rain soon. The World Youth Day organization handed out bags of food that contain meet, canned foods, drinks, and snacks that would last us for the whole 2 days we were at "Cuatro Vientos". Unfortunately, we were never able to eat in peace as we had to share our food with the ants. In addition, the washroom conditions were extremely poor. There were portable washrooms set up at the camp, however, due to the high capacity of people, the portable washrooms become over flowing with waste and there was not enough water to use. People began using the drinking fountains to brush their teeth and wash their hands.
After hours and hours of anticipation and suffering from the scorching heat to sharing a crowded space with millions of other people and of course ants, an announcement came on (spoken in at least 5 different languages) announcing that the Pope had arrived. I have never really thought or viewed the pope as a celebrity figure. But for some odd reason, seeing how the other pilgrims acted and how they screamed at the top of their lungs with joy upon his arrival, I got excited as well and joined the fun. It felt as if my favorite idol had arrived.
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| Participating in the Eucharistic Adoration in the Heavy Rain (August, 2011) |
I must say, I have been rather spoiled with a lot of materialistic things in life and I have never really truly understood the hard conditions the homeless people had to experience when living outside without a home. Through the experience of sleeping outside on an extremely packed open field with insufficient supplies of food, clothing, or shelter. I finally realized how fortunate I am.
I will never forget that experience I had at "Cuatro Vientos". Sure it was harsh and I must admit, I didn't enjoy it very much. However, it lead me to have an epiphany of how fortunate I am, of how I really have a lot I can cherish, and that well living "homeless" may not be as bad and as dirty as I think it is. After that adventurous yet harsh experience, I truly respect and admire at the adaptation skills that the homeless people have. Despite of the weather conditions or environment, they are able to still find a way to survive on the streets with limited supplies and food resources.
