The visit up north to see Martin Kelly, a St. James priest from Motherwell Diocese, dominated last week. I had not been to see Martin in his Puerto Quito home since coming here and he had always been at me to visit. So, with Colm Hogan at my side, I took the bull by the horns and got the bus up north. It was a great ride (I got some sleep in) as we passed hours of rice fields and banana fields. And when we eventually got to Puerto Quito it was an amazing experience. It is very much countryside parish but is so extensive – there are something like 90 wee communities that Martin needs to attend – some he gets to every week, but most are once a month. Martin has been in that parish for over sixteen years and things have definitely been built up during that time: roads have been built where once Martin had to walk across fields; new communities have appeared; and, on a Church level, Martin ahs set up Chapels and community centres as well as the main Church and Hall. There are as well a few well-based social projects that help the people develop their farming skills. All in all, I was very glad to have visited and seen how a ‘campo’ parish can work so well.
My car has been causing me problems recently: last week it started to shake quite heavily while I was out and about. So I took it into the garage to get the wheels balanced and alignment done. Naturally enough for Latins it took two days longer than they had said. However, like the Gospels, I was just insistent and kept phoning every three or four hours. In the end, I think they were just glad to see the back of me! However, without the car, this allowed me to indulge in my favourite shanty pastime: get out walking and visiting people. Two afternoons last week I got my wellies on and trudged through the muck, up and down hill, to see as many people as I could: I visited Aida in her simple house and, once again, I got to see Richard as he develops his house with Scottish money. One of the lessons I have learned here is to ditch the car every so often and get out walking – you are able to spend time chatting with folk which you obviously cannot do when you are in the car. A simple lesson, eh?
I have started two courses this week: my regular guitar class and a course for new Eucharistic ministers. My guitar class is taking place in La Paz chapel at the far end of the Parish; it is great to see the enthusiasm of the young folk. I had bought six cheaper guitars and amazingly I got six participants so they each have a guitar in their house to practice. It is also clear at the very start that has good skill and will advance quite a bit during eth classes. The other course is for Eucharistic ministers to help with Communion: once again the people, young and old, are glad of the opportunity to advance in their faith. Of course one of the things that would frustrate anyone from back home is that, although I set the time for the start of the class each week, no-one turns up on time, they all arrive at least fifteen minutes late!!!!
I met with Pedro Mogrovejo, our architect, through the week. He had been working on plans to build three more classrooms. It looks like we might have enough money to do that build. In spite of the economic crisis, it looks like our friends back home have continued to be very generous!
My two good nun friends, Louisa and Isabel, are off to Spain for a month’s break. They need it I think as they were completely run out for weeks. They work in another Parish nearby but have worked here on various occasions and what I like about them is that they are a good sounding board for many ideas and frustrations of mine. They always give me time to let off steam! Louisa is from Gibraltar (so is bilingual) and Isabel is from mainland Spain. Together they have worked well fro five years but it really is funny when you go and visit: you would think they are always fighting and arguing but I think they need that spark to get them going.
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