Well, now that we are into July, I can say ‘next month I am going home’. And I am really looking forward to it. I have my usual spreadsheet up and running and changing by the day although Andy says “it’s not worth the paper it’s written on”. I am home this time for a little shorter – the reason being that, when I come back, I will travel around (perhaps go up the jungle) for a week before getting stuck in again.
This week’s building work goes on apace and we are moving into the final stages of both La Paz and Maestro chapels. Both are preparing their bell towers this week as well as putting on the undercoat for the painting. Both groups of workers have been great – slowly but surely moving ahead as with all the building projects. However, there is a difference in that Manuel, the ever-present foreman and foreman of Maestro build is much more outgoing than Christian, the La Paz foreman. So, when I take my bottle of cola and buns for the workers, in Maestro they stop and share the crack whereas in La Paz they just leave them till I go away and don’t stop for a chat. Do you think they don’t like me? At the Pastoral council last week we decided to leave the Inauguration of each chapel till I come back. That way there is no pressure to rush towards a finishing date.
The National Youth day was fantastic last week. There were over three thousand people at each event. On Wednesday there was the opening service, March through the city centre and festival; then on Thursday there were prayer services and the Final Mass with the Roman Cardinal Re. Of course, I was involved in the accommodation process and it meant that we were up and running on the Wednesday from 5am and at it till the Festival finished making sure that each group had arrived at their Parish of accommodation. It was a sweat as numbers kept changing by the minute – literally till they arrived. Having said that, working with the other youth leaders was a great experience and bodes well for future enthusiasm in diocesan youth work. Also the phrase of the whole experience given to us by the Archbishop was ‘We should be the last people to lose our calm”!
MY second cousin, Grant, and his girlfriend, Helen, are here staying for a week as part of their tour of South America. We have been involved in loads of things: we walked through the sector visiting some of the old folk; we have been down the Nursery; we have been at the school on various occasions (I left them there this morning so that they could be with Flor’s class all day); and have celebrated Mass in several chapels. I think, like most people, they have been stunned by what they have seen but genuinely appreciated the warmth of the friends around us.
I have decided this week to undertake a new project and a personal one. I am going to do a house-swap for a week with Freddy. Why a house-swap? Well, for some time I have thought that my life here and my experience with the people would be better enhanced by living as the people here do, in their very poor houses. I hope that by living in a very basic house, I can get a better understanding of what it means to live a shanty life. Why Freddy? I have great confidence in him. I hope to do it before I come home to Scotland but, in any case, we will discuss it this afternoon …. In Freddy’s house!
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