So Christmas has come and gone and we had a fine celebration here. Of course, there is not the same build-up as there is say in Scotland and obviously there is not the money to go round. So it is a mush quieter celebration. Having said that we had three Masses for Christmas in the new Parish Church – on the 24th at 8pm and 11pm and then on Christmas Day itself at 10am. Here in Latin America the big time for celebrations and for families to gather is the night of the 24th and that is reflected in the fact that the Church is packed on Christmas Eve and relatively quiet the next day. Still we had lots of singing and participation at all three Masses with a different youth group putting on a Nativity play at each of the Masses. I also pushed the boat out this year and provided a small bag of sweets to all the kids that turned up at the Christmas Masses: I had reckoned on 1,000 bags and by close of play on the 25th they were all gone. Once the Masses were finished I met up with the other St. James priests in one of the city hotels – a fine meal but no crackers, no party hats and no mince pies on the go. Poor show! After that it was off the movies for a relaxing end to a busy few days. One of the nicest events of the week was the annual Christmas meal for the teachers. In the past we have gone to a restaurant in town but they plumped for my other suggestion – going to my house where I would prepare a meal. Great idea but it means I have to do the leg work – move chairs and tables to get the twenty guests in and then, of course work hard at burning the dinner. No it went fine and we had a great laugh. Our new priest, Colm, had just arrived and was using the occasion to show off his newly-acquired Spanish. Fantastico. Everyone left well fed and with a big bag of goodies under their arms, including a cooked chicken (no, I hadn’t killed it myself). Colm is getting settled in slowly but surely, getting used to his new surroundings and planning his missionary future. He is a really pleasant guy and comes ready with hurling stick in hand, coming from a big hurling family in Tipperary. Actually he has settled in very quickly and was the main celebrant at the 11pm Christmas Mass. He also preached finishing his homily (in Spanish) by singing “Silent Night” in Gaelic. The saddest event of the week was the suicide of one of our school pupils. Andrea was a 13 year-old, happy girl at our afternoon school where we take boys and girls who have been street sellers for too many years and give them some education. As I say she was a happy girl and I was totally shocked when our head teacher, Adela, turned up at our school to tell me of her death. We all went over to her house and I was overwhelmed when I saw her lying in the coffin in her school uniform. A sad first for our school. The house where she had lived and died was the typical bamboo house where her four brothers and sisters had crammed an existence. Her disabled brother ah died last year and now she had taken her life. I cried along with the teachers and pupils that had accompanied me and I wondered what way out of poverty and misery there is for our people here. Of course the big event before the Christmas feast was our First Communion Day on Saturday. We had 180 kids form all six chapels of the Parish where we have catechesis and all chapels participated in the readings, prayers and offertory. Clearly with that number there was no room to move in the big Church but we made the mist of it and it was a fine faith-filled celebration. In true Latin spirit they were fighting one another at the end of Mass to get space on the sanctuary for a good photo. My smile began to wane after the 50th photo. Having said that, all in all it was a great day and amazing to think how the Parish has developed – when I came three years ago, there were less than sixty kids for First Communion. Now that we are established, it seems that the number will grow year on year. So now I am up the coast at the St. James retreat house at Ayangue – scene of some famous dives from a second floor. W are here for our monthly meeting and also a chance to wind down after the busy days of Christmas.

The big news of the week is that the Nursery was finally opened and we have it up and running. Wednesday was the big day and, as well as our own thirty kids, we had invited the kids from other nurseries in the Parish. So there was a big crowd of parents, leaders and other invited guests. WE had also invited the Children’s charity (INFFA) who provides the meals and wages for the mothers who take care of the kids through the day. I was called on to say a few prayers and bless the Nursery but the main event was the singing and dancing by the kids themselves. It was a fantastic day and great testament to the generosity of people back home that such a building could be put up in rapid time. Some people have asked me am I mad to have thirty kids (soon to be 65) right beside my house – would it not be too much noise. But hey, is there not a quote in the Bible “Let the children come to me”? The other big event of the week concerns the proposed trip of the youth group here to Scotland. One of our big headaches is getting all the paperwork together. So Monday was “Passport Day”. Having had loads of experience of Ecuadorian bureaucracy, I had fully expected to arrive at the passport office to be told that we did not have the relevant papers or that the office was shut for Christmas. But the eleven who need passports arrived at the Passport office and six of them were seen right away and had their passports in twenty minutes. The others –who are the under-agers – had to return with their parents the next day. So, after a week, we have nine of the passports and it will be a matter of days before they are all in. The next step, of course, is to get an entry Visa to the UK for which we will all have to travel to Quito in the first week of January. Exciting times! The School building continues to come ahead and the floor for the second level was laid last week – they do not wait around. With some good news coming from home re donations etc, I decided to move ahead with a further two classrooms. With the school expanding next year to take us up to 4th year of secondary school, then more space is needed. Since the space on the ground is limited, we need to build up. The other building story concerns the laying of the community football pitch – this has been an idea of mine for some since the communal pitch beside the school is mere dirt and, when the rain comes, it is impossible to play on. Having received some cash from Celtic Charity Fund and others sources, I was keen to move on. So it looks likely that, when we go to Celtic Park with the Ecuadorian youth in February, we will be able to report a new football pitch. I had a tearful moment earlier on in the week when I went to the Opening of the new offices of the Plan International charity – once again I was called in to bless the new place. After the prayers and the obligatory dances, we went inside to have a slideshow presentation of some of the kids from our own area who have been taken away from street work and have gone into education. As I saw the kids telling us how hopeless life was on the streets (selling sweets and slippers), I realised that charities like Plan really do make a difference. But the funniest moment of the week has to be my encounter with Pedro. He is an old man who wanders into any Church group that is taking place – Rosary, youth group, whatever. He is lovely and always has a friendly smile and embrace. He stopped me yesterday and asked if Tracy and Suzanne were coming over for Christmas. I was taken aback to say the least – and that he had remembered their names after seven months. I thought to myself how attached the people get to all eth Scottish friends that have come out.

Well, yesterday was a bit of a mad day here: Confirmation Mass; Moving into the new Nursery; laying the second floor in the new school building; an end-of-year Catechism party; plus a few other Masses. The Confirmation Mass brought together 69 young people from the various chapels in the Parish here, 65 from San Ignacio School and 12 from Tom Oates’ nearby Parish. The Mass went well and as you can imagine, with so many people packed into the Church, was lively. As always happens at these critical moments, the electricity went with about half an hour to go before the start of the Mass – luckily service was resumed just as we were ready to go. For this year, it wasn’t the Archbishop that came out (well, he’d been out twice while Ian & Michael were here) but his Vicar General who came out. He was very good and happy to share out the tasks but, in his homily, went into great details about warning the youth about the “dangers of the modern world”. Yet everyone seemed to have good Mass and, at the end, it was the usual round of photos. Plastic smiles please! So Phew! We are actually moving into the Nursery. What a great relief. After having blown my gasket a few times, the Children’s Charity finally agreed to us moving into our new property right beside my house here. It is a great building and great testimony to the generosity of people back home. Yesterday it was all hands on deck as cupboards, desks, chairs and toys were moved into the new building. We are having an official opening on Wednesday with all sorts of dignitaries coming so there should be great fun as well. The kids move in tomorrow for the first time so I am actually looking forward to having a bit of noise around the place – as if there wasn’t enough! And the school building is moving ahead quickly. I think I mentioned before how I feel that this team of workers moves at a very steady pace and, before you know it, they have done great strides. So yesterday they were laying the second floor of the two-storey building at the end of the school yard where all the bamboo huts are. This will hold six classrooms and will bring the total of brick-built classrooms to sixteen – fantastic generosity from people back home! To see the lads working away was tremendous. Muchas gracias! And, as if all that was not enough for one day, I got a surprise when I turned up for the last Mass of the day at Carmen. To be told it was Narcissa’s birthday! If you remember Narcissa is one of our Catechists but was diagnosed with AIDS earlier in the year. As we celebrated Mass last night with Narcissa singing (?????) at my side, I couldn’t help thinking how blessed she has been to have made some sort of recovery from her very serious illness. So we ended Mass with a ‘fuerte aplauso’ and a rendition of ‘Cumpleanos feliz!’

Well, the big event of the past ten days was the Inauguration of our new chapel at Reynaldo Quinones where the chapel is dedicated to Blessed Narcissa de Jesus (a Guayaquil girl who died at 24 yrs and was famed for bringing families to God) – she will be declared a saint later in the year. For over a year now we have been celebrating Friday night Mass in a shed beside the community office and there was always a crowd of about thirty. Then came the decision by the community leaders to give us a big space of land to build a chapel on. I think they thought I was building a cathedral – not for thirty people but still. So the enthusiasm of the community was infectious and soon we were doing bingos and dances to get funds together. And when I came back from Scotland in August we started moving the land and building. The building went up rapid style with metal pillars and bamboo walls – the idea being that the community having received this as a gift from Scotland might get together themselves and raise funds for the walls. So the Big Mass took place a week past on Sunday with Jamie (on his last Sunday) as guest of honour, resplendent in tartan waistcoat and tie! The chapel was packed, the singing enthusiastic and people generally very excited; afterwards there were games for the kids and sandwiches for all. All in all , a great way to celebrate the new phase in the life of the Parish. On the Nursery front we seem to be getting somewhere. You will remember that the building was finished over a month ago but the Children’s charity that provide the food and wages were dragging their heels about extending their coverage. I had been back and forward to their offices, had been phoning them – all to no avail. And then when I blew a gasket (with calmness I must add) at one of the leaders last week things started to move. And it looks like the parents will be on hand this coming Saturday to get the new place in proper order. So I really do hope that the Nursery will be up beside my house before Christmas. Not that I am desperate to have 70 weans screaming at my door; but that’s what it was there for. IT will also have a knock-on effect at out Parish School because, with the Nursery going, we can use that building for classrooms or move the Soup Kitchen perhaps. In any case, the building at the school is coming on apace. There will be three classrooms downstairs and three upstairs with an access staircase built in. This team of workers do not mess about and, although they get paid much less than they would ion Scotland, it amazes me that their dedication to workmanship is not diminished in any way. This building will also include a new toilet block and should last till February. But by far the saddest event of the week was the departure of Guayaquil’s new-found friend, Jamie Maxwell. Jamie himself knew that, leaving here after being immersed in the shanty for so long, it was going to be sad in a kind of post-HCPT/Lourdes way. At the school there was a farewell presentation on Friday and we had all the teenage girls weeping, some teachers and even a big burly guy from Primary 7. Saturday night there was a concert in the Church Hall which was well attended and people had a chance to have a last photo and chat with him. I had also put together a slide presentation of some of the key moments of the last three months. I had previously taken Jamie out for a meal in town on Thursday night – we went to a tapas bar near the Cathedral and we had good food and good crack. In fact, for three months there has been good crack often to the ‘wee hours’ and Jamie has always been there with a word of advice or two but more often than not just a laugh. Oh how we laughed! So I will miss his songs, laughter and friendship but “Hey, Jamie, did you have to steal my toothbrush and razor?”

Fr. Martin Chambers writes: I have known Jamie Maxwell for several years through regular pilgrimages to Lourdes with HCPT. Recently he finished his university course and wanted to do something ‘significant’ with his year away from studying. He asked to come out to my shanty Parish in Ecuador for three months and I was only to happy to receive him. The following is his reflections on his so far on the Missions … I’ve now been living in the shanty town of Nueva Prosperina for 43 days. When asked to convey my experiences so far in 800 words I was faced with a major problem; where to start? I have opted for the following experience as I feel it best represents the amazing young people whom I have been privileged to have come into close personal contact with. A couple of weeks into my trip some members of the local youth group invited me to go with them into Guayaquil city centre. There they treated me to a guided tour of the more affluent parts of the city which I had yet to encounter. For these youngsters a trip to the city centre is a real treat, and I could sense their excitement from the moment we met early in the morning. We took a bus from the local main street into the town centre, disembarking at the Malecon 2000. This is a promenade that runs alongside part of the river, built to commemorate the millennium. We walked along here, enjoying ice cream along the way, and then climbed to the top of the lighthouse to look out over the sprawling city. Another bus trip followed, this time seeing us travel to the shopping centre. Here we enjoyed a spot of window shopping, and, would you believe, several shots on the elevator (trivial to me, but exciting to them!), before sitting down to a well-earned pizza. After the pizza it was time for the bus home, though not before a visit to a pharmacy, much to my puzzlement. It emerged they stopped to buy plasters for my heels which they had noticed were bleeding from all the walking! All in all a fantastic day that everyone enjoyed. This might not exactly be everyone’s idea of a sightseeing tour, but one revealing aspect of the trip was that the young people were taking me to places that they regard as special. Shopping centres and pizza parlours; places that we take for granted. But why is this story so important I hear you ask? Firstly, the eight young people who accompanied me to the city had scrimped and saved the few dollars they possess to pay for my bus fares, my food and drink, and also bought me a small gift of a chain as a keepsake. I offered to pay for the pizza, and to buy drinks, but was met with a firm refusal. They might not have many possessions, but they do have a great sense of pride. They had invited me out, and therefore, as their guest, I was just to sit back and enjoy the day. Secondly, I speak little Spanish, and, likewise, the young people have only a small grasp of English. Therefore, communication was obviously going to be a problem. However, we all enjoyed the challenges that this created, and worked at making ourselves understood to each other. This sometimes took the shape of writing things down to see if this helped, drawing pictures, pointing at objects, or even acting out certain words. This had been one of my main worries before coming to Ecuador, but the patience the young people show with me is startling, and I was never made to feel like I was hindering them. Despite the lack of a faculty such as a common language, I was able to communicate with a group of young people, with whom I have little in common, and share a great day with them. Finally, and the thing that struck me most, was the fact that helping me enjoy my day was central to their own happiness. This was a day they had been planning together for some while, and they had been saving their money to be able to treat themselves in town. Yet, after deciding to invite me, their primary goal changed to ensure I enjoyed my day. They all went out of their way to make my day enjoyable, and little points, like using some of their money to buy plasters for me, reiterate how much attention they were paying to my well-being and comfort. I was humbled by the care and attention they lavished upon me, and I will wear their gift of a chain with pride. Yet their kindness, their friendship, and their sense of caring, far outweighed any gift they could have bought me. My lack of Spanish made it difficult for me to convey how sincerely grateful I was for my day out, and I can only hope that they realise how special my day was made by their generosity. Though these young people may be poor in a financial sense, they are blessed with gifts that money just can’t buy.