Club Serena Welcomes Santa Clara University

Yes, you read that correctly. For those of you who don't know, Lindsay and I got a chance to actually take a vacation here in the Philippines and escaped to Club Serena in Moalboal, Cebu. It is about 2.5 hours away through mountains, rainy jungles and come out on the other side of the island in sun and heaven. We were greeted with a "welcome drink" of lemon grass tea/water and empanadas. Our cottage wasn't ready when we arrived so we lounged in the beach bed/couches, dipped our feet in the water, read our books and explored the beach. The resort is small- it accommodates a maximum of thirty guests and was probably hosting maybe 20 this week. We noticed quite a few white people but when we got close enough to them to actually hear them speak they were either German, French or from some other unidentified European country. We did notice that two older men were definitely from the US.

Here in the Philippines older American men (most with pot bellies) are a dime a dozen. They are almost always Ex-Pats who fought in the Philippines during the Vietnam war and for whatever reason decided that life was a lot better (and cheaper) here. Most of them, however, have one (or two) Filippina women on their arms at all times. The women are without fail at LEAST 20 years younger than the men. The American men at Club Serena had no Filipina women in sight and were talking about their snorkeling journals at the dinner table while drinking gin and tonics. They smiled and at us and we smiled back but decided not to strike up a conversation.

About thirty minutes later we were seated at the bar and they were at the table next to us. All of a sudden I hear the words "Santa Clara." Hmm, that's funny I thought. Maybe I heard wrong, maybe they are talking about some place in the Philippines called Santa Clara. A minute later I hear "Loyola Marymount." Ok they have GOT to be talking about Santa Clara (my alma mater FYI). I whisper this to Lindsay and she says she thought she heard it too. I walk over and apologize for interrupting and tell them I thought I heard Santa Clara and we are graduates from June 08.

It is a small, small, minuscule world. These two men are JESUITS who taught at Santa Clara for 20+ years! One of them now lives and teaches in Taiwan and the other one lives in Los Gatos (15 mins from SCU where I always ran) and was on a trip to Asia to visit his friends. They are good friend of Papa Locatelli (President of SCU) and one of the men started the Communications department at Santa Clara in 1972. Wow. My jaw was pretty much on the floor. Lindsay and I are not only across the world but also at a small and hidden resort in the middle of no where. WHAT ARE THE ODDS? It was truly amazing to talk to priests from Santa Clara and to get to share our story and experiences. I never had any Jesuit mentors while at SCU and always felt a little envious of my friends who were in esoteric prayer groups etc. At this moment I finally felt what everyone tells you about the SCU community after you graduate: it is everywhere. After chatting with them for a while about the priests and professors we knew in common I ran up to the room to text my parents that I was definitely safe at the resort with Jesuits from Santa Clara staying a few feet away from us.

For those of you who are wondering which Jesuits, it was Father Privett (his brother is the one at USF) and Father Morrison.