The big event of last week was my Mum’s 75th Birthday. Happy Birthday to you! I obviously wasn’t able to be home for that occasion but bizarrely the elderly couple, Jaime and Olga, who are the exact ages of my parents, were celebrating a birthday last week. So I managed to give my Mum a surrogate present by giving them flowers and some whisky. And I got it on camera which was then sent to Scotland. So happy 75th Birthday!
Grant & Helen have now moved on to Peru as part of their Latin-American tour. As I said last week, you could tell that they were genuinely moved by what they saw and experienced in these days that they were with us. And I enjoyed their company – it was terrific to have them here. In the days before they left we had another stroll through the sector visiting families along the way. On Friday night, their final night here, we had Mass as usual at Narcisa chapel (in Reynaldo Quinones) and, as well as giving them a warm welcome, they gave them a farewell supper of rice and chicken! Of course, the thing that they will be remembered for is for thinking that I belonged to an older generation: having been in the house for two hours, Helen (I think) asked whether I was my Uncle Dan’s brother. I mean, he is 26 years older than me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Liam Reilly has arrived back in Guayaquil having done some preaching in the States. You’ll remember Liam as being the priest I visited with Jamie up in the remote mountains of Azogues. Anyway, he has moved on to a new Mission in El Recreo, replacing Paul Sanders who is returning to work in England. The surprising news of his return, though, is the fact that his two German Shepherd dogs had nine puppies while he was away. He never even knew she was pregnant.
In the school this week we are in exam week so there is a lot of sweating going on. It also means that I will not be having Masses there this week but I shall be going in to see how they are getting on. In any case, Monday and Tuesday of this week have been spent down at Ayangue on the coast where we go for a monthly retreat. Having said that numbers this month are severely depleted: only Liam, John Moriarty, the great Tom Oates and myself, with the others being away in the own countries preaching.
The buildings of La Paz and Maestro are moving into their final stages (you’ll be saying I thought that should have finished a while ago). Only the painting and bell towers left to do. They should be ready any time now and we will move in there to have Masses with the official inaugurations taking place once I come back from Scotland in September and October. At the moment I have my eye on the next project which will be the building of the Medical Centre: it will be a two-storey building in the present site and will be able to cater in a better way and in a decent building for the 50/60 patients the Doctor gets every day.
I managed to get a few house visits in this week and once again simply walking around the streets gets me into close contact with the people: you get invited into their homes and you see the very basic way they live their lives. Without water, sewerage and sometimes without food they make me feel truly humble. And it encourages me to go out and do more.
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