Martin Chambers Ecuador Trust

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.