Okay that’s me just about ready to go out the door as I head home for Mum & Dad’s 50th Wedding Anniversary. It will be a great occasion and I am really looking forward to being at this proud event. Of course, the folk here want to be involved in the moment and are sending a few home-made presents. I am sure they will be appreciated. Last week I was at Ayangue with the St. James’ guys for our monthly meeting. It was the usual business mixed with a bit of swimming. It is always great to get together with the other priests every so often to catch up but also to encourage one another and to hear everyone’s story. Of course, with a strong Irish contingent, we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a fine meal – roast beef, as far as I remember. When the priests went away on Wednesday morning, I stayed on because I had a teachers retreat to give; the teachers from the Parish School normally start the year with a retreat and I suggested that we could have it in Ayangue since I was going to be there. It was a relaxed affair – we prayed and shared but there was also time for the teachers to get a swim in the sea! The most touching part of the retreat was when we had a night-time Stations of the Cross through the village with each teacher carrying the heavy cross. The prayers in the night-time were at the very least poignant as each person related something of their own life-story. Once back in Nueva Prosperina I got stuck into work with Lent and the Masses. It was a busy weekend as we also had three youth meetings with the parents. There are a few youth events planned for the next month or two so we had to bring the parents up to speed with what is happening. The youth work is something that I love as it is full of life. The school building is now nearing its completion and should be fully ready by the time I come back from Scotland. I can see it from my house and I could see the second floor going up and the roof going on. My only concern is that we might be losing a few pupils this year. The school year starts in April so a lot of parents are signing up in these last days of March. However, Ecuador’s President has offered free state education and many people are taking advantage of that. Our school cannot compete with FREE education but hopefully the proof of our worth is in the good education we have provided now for six years. It remains to be seen how well we do with numbers once April comes. So it’s off for Scotland and the celebrations. Chaocito!

The big disappointment of this week was that Rachael Blair cancelled her visit to us. She is a member of a Rotary Club in the USA whom I had met (when Disco Dave was out) up north in Manta. We have been planning for some time to renew and extend the small Medical Centre that is at one corner of the school. You may remember that in recent weeks we secured the land beside the Nursery for the building of the new Medical Centre; all that was needed was one or two more donations. Rachael had promised us a donation …. But, at the last minute she got the flu. So we were all pretty disappointed at the cancellation but I do hope that she gets better, that she will come out soon and that she can help us with the building work. Down at the school it is work, work, work. This week they have put up the walls on the second floor classrooms and started putting the iron roof-structure on. In spite of heavy rains which have really hampered the work, they have made good progress. Good on you, Pedro. I was party to a bit of really good news last week. One of our young catechists, Jose Luis, from La Paz chapel has decided to go to the seminary. We took him along to an Applicants’ fortnight last Sunday (so he’s still there just now) and it was great to see so many – about thirty – taking part in this selection week. Jose Luis is a really dedicated person and recently got a big Community award from his secondary school in the centre of town. HE really wants to do this and I hope he gets into the seminary and finds happiness through the years there as he tries to listen to God’s call. I went with Tito, our Parish youth co-ordinator, to El Triunfo on Friday. Along with his wife, Lourdes and three-year old daughter, Yerly, we set off early. I had thought the journey would be much longer; as it was, it only took us an hour and a half. The reason for the visit was to go to a retreat centre where we will have our big youth Convention in June. I think there are about 120 already signed up for it. It promises to be a really fun-filled but deeply spiritual event. And I am looking forward to it. At that time, my niece, Elise, will be out with her pal, Rachel, so I am sure they will enjoy it too. More Catechism visits this week as I try and get the catechists to sign up for our training programme: so far we have just short of ninety catechists, up on last year. The very nice moment of the week came in the shape of a Full English Breakfast. I met Les Dickens, from the east end of London, last year by accident. He is FIFA’s rep for Ecuador and also runs a pretty successful perfume business that supply all over South America. He has made several donations to the kids at our school (he helps with their fees) but each time he does that he invites me to his house for a big fry-up. Fantastic. Which is where I was on Tuesday. Oh, and he also can get his hands on back-copies of Coronation Street!!!!

Well there we are the second House Swap and I am still standing. This week I swapped house with Freddy and once again it was a wonderful experience. I suppose the idea of the whole thing is to get a closer experience of how people in the sector live without running water (therefore no showers and no flushing toilet) and with poor electricity. I had Freddy’s house at the back of his Mum’s house. Freddy’s brother, Diego and his sister, Yesenia along with her two daughters (Nicole and Brittany) live there so it is a busy house. Basically I lived in Freddy’s house but ate with the larger family – Freddy’s house is so small there is no room for a kitchen. Of course, I did a house swap last July so I was quite used to the toilet beside the pigs but I decided that I would just wash (throw water over myself) in Freddy’s house – it was just as easy. I made good friends once again with the pigs, although one spat on me today! The big difference this time round is that we are in the rainy season so there is a large pool of lying water in the middle of the back yard which I presume has all sorts of bacteria living in it. As well as that, there was one night that the rain was coming in on top of the bed where I was sleeping. As I got into bed, I realized that I was underneath a drip but then though there is no solution …. So I just put my head under the covers and went to sleep. And it worked!!! Of course, the best bit about the whole experience was sharing time with Freddy’s family. Like Freddy, they are lovely people and it was just great to sit round at nighttime and share all the stories of the day, rest in the hammock and then head off to sleep. By way of thank you to them I invited them for lunch today so, as well as eating well, they went away with extra plates of leftovers which I am sure they will devour. Muchas Gracias, Freddy. The other side of this week was that I did not use the car at all – apart from one emergency. So it was up and down hill to get to visits and up and down hill to get to Masses. And buses into the city centre the twice I needed to get there. I was shattered most nights but glad of the extra opportunity to live simply and meet the people in a much closer way. The school build continues to move forward. This week they are putting the pillars up on the second floor. So I really do think they will be finished more or less for the start of the new school year on April 5th. I have also continued to make my visits to the various chapels to meet with our Parish Catechists as they too prepare to start a new Catechetical year. And then there’s the youth work so……. It’s no rest for the wicked!