Chicago!

On Monday the 13th we left Columbia and St Francis House to go to Chicago. But first we had to pick up my (Susans) jacket at the Peace Nook because she forgot it there the day before. We thought it was a great little shop and were surprised to find it in a relativly small town. We even found a button there with a Dorothy Day quote on it!
After doing some grocery shopping we went on our way to Chicago. The drive was fairly uneventfull, almost boring. The land here is flat like the NEtherlands and the roads very straight. We did pass a dinner with an UFO and a pink elephant in the parking lot. Unfortunatly it was on the wrong side of the road. Halfway we parked near a field and had lunch in the grass.
In Chicago we first picked up Ina at the airport. She had had an almost 24 hour journey so was very tired, and then drove to Su Casa CW where we were warmly welcomed with some food and soon went to bed.

Ina sitting at the kitchen table in Su Casa, still looking tired.

Su Casa is housed in an old rectory. The church that it belonged to burned down and was demolished and the open place it left is now a garden. Zachery showed us around the garden the next morning and explaine how they were starting a small foodforrest there and worked with permaculture. They also keep bees and catch rainwater in four large barrels.

Su Casa started with housing refugees from South America. All through the house are pieces of art made by former guests of the house. Below is a picture of the dinning hall where 9 large painted cloths hang on the walls in three groups. On the left they show what their country (I think it was Guatemala) used to look like, in the middle the dark times of oppression and torture and on the right the present, with hope but also a bit of the dark still in it.

One of the days we were here (i cant keep track of dates anymore it seems) we met Brian Terrel in downtown chicago where he showed us around and took us to have dinner with Rosalie Riegle. I will talk more about Brian later because we will meet him again at his farm in a few days. But here is a picture of him in front of a Trump building we passed.

We forgot to take a picture of Rosalie! Probably because, like Brian, she is full of stories about the Catholic Worker and we love to hear those. Rosalie met Dorothy Day when she was younger but because she had children and a husband that didnt like the CW much she wasnt able to become active until later in life. And then she started her own house and later wrote  books about the Catholic Worker movement. We worried we would be back at Su Casa too late after all the stories, but Rosalie said she was one of the trustees of the house and would call and say we would back late.

The above picture is of the soupkitchen attached to Su Casa. It is run by Frieda for 20 years or so and is thus called Frieda's Place. We missed the serving on tuesday but hope to join today, so maybe we will write more about the kitchen later.