I had a bit of a run-in with the local lawyer who oversees “security” in the area. He was basically concerned with various things that had been happening in ‘Parque Paraiso’ and how kids were getting access to games there. His fears were calmed when I took eth Committee to see him and let him know how things were being set out. However, in the midst of all of this , the funniest comment ... he invited me to play some time in the future in his team because, as he said to the committee sitting there in his office, “Padre Martin was nearly professional before he became a priest!” (He obviously knows me very well. We have now got underway with the building of two small chapels at La Paz and at Maestro. Both will have community meeting rooms as well as the chapel, which will have capacity for around 150 people. Maestro chapel was started two weeks ago but La Paz only got underway last week. The two groups of workers are led by the same architect and I have great confidence that they will all work well and on schedule. A funny incident happened last week as I went with the architect from one site to the other. At one stage we had to go on to the city Perimeter Road. It had just stopped raining and I, because of the heat, I had the windows opened. So when the 21 bus passed by at great speed and hit a puddle, all the water splashed right in on top of the two of us in the car. Better than Alton towers, I thought! I don’t know if you remember but some months ago I had the national football coach out at our school. This was through a friend, Les Dickens, an Englishman who I had met at an ex-pats meeting in the city centre (I have only been once). Anyway, I have kept up contact with Les and he recently was interested in our projects as a result of ‘Parque Paraiso’. This week we were back in touch as he had got hold of eight FIFA balls for the kids to use. So I am going to hold on to them just now because at the end of May we will be having another football competition to celebrate our Parish Fiesta on May 25th.

The School year is well under way now and it is great to be around the place. The more I am there; I can see that it is turning into a great school. Yip, the building adds to it but more than that, you can see the kids and staff behaving differently around the place: Tito led them, in prayer on Thursday morning and you could hear a pin drop when he asked for silence; then I noticed that the staff are making efforts to teach in a new way – not pen and chalk but a lot of investigative study. May this happen for years to come. The work has started in Maestro chapel where we are changing the bamboo walls for brick walls and underneath for a proper meeting room. It is amazing how quickly the things turn around. Within a day it was all taken down and they had started laying concrete plinths. With it being a smaller job there is a smaller group working there. Of course it is only one of the two chapels being done: La Paz chapel starts on Monday and I am sure they will move with the same speed. That plan is slightly different in the sense that the chapel is on the ground and their three meeting rooms will be built along the side wall. The Nieto sisters, Gloria and Isabel, have geared the whole community up for the work and it is great to see their enthusiasm. They were the first chapel years ago who said they wanted to build their chapel but they ran into so many difficulties along the way, it is great to see it coming together. I had a nice Scottish visit through the week – from the Murphy family from Clarkston who I had met last year at St. Joseph’s where I was preaching for the Society. Their son, Michael, is teaching for a year in Cuenca (four hours bus ride from here) and the family was out visiting him during the Spring break. They had spent a week in his place and then toured around a bit esp. the Galapagos Islands and were passing through Guayaquil on the way home. So I thought well there’s no point in taking them to see the central sights of the city – you can see that anytime – but instead decided to show off the shanty town in all its glory. So we walked up and down the hills, visited a few old folk and took in the lovely smells. I think it would be fair to say that their jaws dropped, like most people who see it for the first time! Thanks, Sean, Honor, Claire and Katy for your kindness. The week started with a great visit up the coast to Ayangue for our monthly meeting. There was as ever a chance to rest and catch up with the guys who come in from all over the country. IT was also a chance to practice my dives, although I still haven’t done another jump in from the second floor – next month! I wrote the Newsletter which will come out soon. And we voted for the new Director although the result won’t be known for a couple of weeks because the Peru guys have to vote in a week’s time. A bit complicated.

The school opened last Monday for the new year and had eight new classrooms. What an emotional event it was to look up and see a second floor and to think that, more than ever, it actually looked like a school. Gone for good are the bamboo huts. The school has come of age! Of course, we should not forget that the 750 pupils now occupying the school come from homes of extreme poverty. All that ahs happened is that their poverty has been changed slightly by a dignified school complex. In true Ecuadorian style, the workers are still in and working away while the pupils are around: the second toilet block is nearing completion as are the two new small rooms – staff room and Head teacher’s office. As far as further work is concerned, I think maybe towards the end of the year, we could o with building three more classrooms which will suffice for the extra year group that will come in the next two years and a computer room. It was a pleasure to go round the classrooms later in the week and see the brilliant smiling face. It really is a great school and what has struck me about this new session is that we have a ‘strong team’ of teachers and Adela is trying to get them into new teaching ways – not just the ‘sit-at-a-desk-and-listen’ approach but group work etc which is a complete innovation for Ecuador. As well as the new school year coming around, catechism classes start and we have begun in all five chapels where Catechism is taught. This year we have had to suspend Catechism in Maestro chapel because there simply is not the place to do it while rebuilding work is going. Each year the numbers have grown and I am sure at the main chapel, with this being the first full year, numbers will go up. I was at the Parish Church this afternoon and it was amazing to see rows and rows of parents and kids waiting to enroll!!!!!!!!!! We also have a good team to co-ordinate Parish catechetics – with Tito, Ruth and Sister Mariana as additions to last year’s helpers of Adela, Freddy and Carol. This week was also a week of youth work – deanery and Diocesan. Since Colin is away recuperating, I have been charged with getting youth work locally together. There is a group of keen youth workers so the job is made so much lighter. And they are well aware that the best people to lead youth ministry is the young people themselves so that’s what we are trying to do. This week I had a deanery youth event and also a co-coordinating event with the Bishop. In each of these we are looking forward to the big Youth Procession at the end of May as well as a bigger event in July. I managed to do a wee bit of visiting people in their homes this week – always something that keeps me grounded with the folk roundabout.

The exciting news of the week is that we won the Inter-Parish 5-a-side football competition. Of course, with the event being hosted by us on ‘Paradise Park’ we had a great chance. I wasn’t particularly interested in playing but when San Ignacio chapel asked to make up numbers, well, needs must, no? So we played and won 4-0, 3-0, 1-0, 3-2 and in the final 4-1. A victory parade was ours. The ageing 43 year-old got a runaround in each game. Fantastic for the lads! Made a good bit of football news as bad news kept filtering thru from Scotland …… This afternoon I went down to see the finishing off of the school project and to salute the workers for their mammoth effort. Quite good that they have finished off today as the new school year starts tomorrow at 8am. There are eight new brick classrooms, a new office, a new staff room and two new toilet blocks. We have also moved the Soup Kitchen to a new location. It will be a proud moment to bless the classrooms tomorrow – a great thank you to the Rope Foundation and to the ‘2 Hands’ charity – as well as so many friends in Scotland – for their great fundraising efforts that have allowed all this to take place. You are tremendous! Talking of schools, we had the first of our regular in-service days for our school teachers on Friday. I led them in a workshop on Hope – how we can hope in the future but also have hope in the present – and it seems to have provoked a certain amount of thought and discussion. Anyway, after I had done my bit, I moved down tot eh house where I prepared a lunch for them all – all 22 of them! Soup, Lasagna and a pudding. Not as fancy as the Christmas lunch but still ….. And we did the ‘Prayer on High’ – ask our friends who witnessed it on the Scotland trip! Or catechism year is starting up again and various chapels are getting into gear. With this being the first full year of the Parish Church, there are loads more kids coming for Catechism as well as adults. So more work – thanks! One of the things we will have to do this year, though, is cancel Catechism in Maestro chapel as it, along with La Paz chapel is being knocked down to make way for a new brick-built chapel. It’s all go here, then! We had a great night through the week with Lady’s 2nd birthday party. Carmen and Edgar are fantastic people. They live with their five kids in a very basic house. They scrape together a living – Edgar runs a taxi in the shanty and Carmen hires out a washing machine. I got to know them when I moved into my flat here three years ago. And since then I have always seen them as a family who really do struggle to give their family a happy life. So it was great to spend time with them at Lady’s 2nd Birthday party. I had been given a Postman Pat doll when I was in Scotland recently – so it is being given place of honour now in their house!