So we’re all feeling a little down after yesterday’s result! This week has been a bit of a whirlwind in terms of construction. The wall at Maestro was finished and looks as good as it did before it fell down last time!!! Hopefully, with the new structure put in place, it will survive any further landslides. Either that or the whole chapel will slide down the hill?? Then, just as that was finishing, I asked the architect to look at the path and staircase outside the Parish Church and all the way down the side past the house and Nursery. Basically the rains over the past two years have caused quite a bit of erosion of the stairway. So it needed restructuring and a proper drainage system put in place (since the city council will not do it, it’s up to individuals to get that sorted). What amazed me was that the architect decided to go for it right there and then. And, within a day, had ten men working on it. As a result it was completed within three days finishing on Saturday there. And, as if it were a test from heaven, the rain came on just as they were finishing seeing if the drainage they had constructed was going to be effective. Positive result. Which was just as well since I was already “toasting” their good work in the usual fashion. Thanks, lads. We were at Ayangue down the coast for our monthly meeting with the St. James’ priests. That is always good occasion with a lot of singing, craic and catching up. This time there was sadness in the air as Ed Veasey, who has been here for twenty years or more, is leaving to do a six month sabbatical. He has been in Guasmo, a really poor area of the city for the last eighteen years and has done a power of work with a very simple manner. He is a true missionary. We wish him well as he moves into a new phase of missionary work.

I was glad to go to Bismarck’s 3rd birthday party the other day. His Dad had just made a passing comment on Saturday about his party and I thought I might not have time what with Masses etc. But, on my way to another Mass, I stopped by the house and I was glad I did. Not only was the main man in good birthday form but there was a swimming pool inside their shanty house. An amazing experience. I didn’t actually go in the pool but I did dance and I did eat the cake. So I was suitably birthday-ed up!!! Feliz Cumpleaños, Bismarck!

The funniest part of this week’s agenda was on Thursday. I was taking my computer into the shop to get a check-over. The computer shop is in a posh part of the city and, while I was explaining to the guy what was wrong with the machine, I looked out to see my car getting clamped and towed away! Hey, my car! One of the things that I have learned here is that the traffic cop sometimes let you off if you speak nicely. So I tried all my charm, but to no avail. The young cop was taking so many photos of my supposed ‘badly parked car’ that it could have made a big album. In the midst of it all, the strangest question was whether I wanted to ride in my own car while it was getting towed to the car-pound. No! So there then ensued a whole procession of going from office to office across the city trying to get my paper work in order so that I could get the car back. Several hours later I arrived at the place only to find that the lady needed a ‘lawyer’s letter” to accompany a certain signature. Having been all over the city getting what I thought was the right papers, I took a deep breath and brought into play another thing I have learned about here: the word ‘no’ doesn’t actually mean ‘no’, it is only the beginning of a conversation! So, after explaining what job I did and how the car would be indispensable, she went and asked a supervisor who asked another supervisor who then let me off! A lot of running around all day, a fine yes but luckily no points on my licence. I have just come from the early morning Dawn Rosary. It is tradition here in the month of May that a group meets near each chapel at 5am each Saturday to walk the streets prayuing the Rosary. It is a real drag getting you out of bed and praying at that hour but they always seem so enthusiastic! The other way of looking at it is there are only two Saturdays left! Catechism and the preparation for First Communion and Confirmation take up quite a bit of time. Firstly I have been helping with the training of the teachers (catechists) themselves and then there is the ordering of the books for the kids. And with over a thousand kids split between the various chapels, there is a lot of running around to do. But we love it! The building of the Maestro wall continues onwards and upwards. It seems stronger than the last time and I get the impression that it will not fall or slide with the next rains!

Another sad day! Clare & Stu, Dave & Jen have now headed home after a very fast week of hard work and laughs. Hard work in the sense that they painted the entrance wall down at the school (complete with school & title small designs) and many visits around the Parish. And laughs in the sense that wherever we were, it was always fun. Even to the wee hours, it was laugh after laugh. Of course, not everything went to plan: they missed a connection on the way over and so had to stay an extra day in Miami. This might have been a good place to stay for an extra day but actually it meant they missed a day here. As well as painting, they also were guests of honour at the Inauguration Ceremony last Monday for the new classrooms: as is the custom here, the ceremony included dances and songs as well as the Blessing itself. They even put on a small play about how the school developed from bamboo huts to brick built classrooms. All four guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves throughout the week and were able to get so close to all members of the community. And, once again, it was the home visits that made the deepest impression on them. Personally I am soooo grateful for their giving and for the friendship. Muchas gracias. A few days before they arrived, I was over in the very wealthy part of town for a wedding reception. David Cupery is an American friend I met through our school. He is over here doing a post-grad course. One of the off-shoots of his Uni work here, however, was that he met his future wife. I think she comes from a fairly wealthy background for they got married in a lavish civil ceremony on an exclusive beach and then had their reception at this very wealthy part of town. You should have seen the size of the mansions as I drove in to the reception – massive, like you only see in movies. And I thought to myself how ill-divided the world is. Here are so many people in Nueva Prosperina living in abject poverty and thirty minutes away they are in absolute dripping wealth. Still I wish Dave and Karen all the best for their married life together. On the building front, we are still repairing the wall out at Maestro. At the start I had said to the architect that, since we were short of cash, I only wanted a bamboo structure on top of a solid foundation but then he told me that he owed me $3000. He owed me???? So I took the cash back and said to him that he should use the extra money to repair the wall as best as he can! The Catechism classes have started again. In six of the Parish chapels we have many kids wanting to make the sacraments of First Communion and Confirmation. I think there is almost three hundred for First Communion in December and over 1,000 in total for all levels of our catechetics programme The saddest story from this week is the visit I made with our four Scots pals. I went to see Luis, his wife and six kids, four of whom attend our School and Soup Kitchen. I wanted to see the situation of the families behind the Soup Kitchen. Basically Luis was knocked down by a falling tree a year and a half ago. After many operations (costly) in the “poor man’s hospital”, he was left paraplegic, disabled from the neck down. I went out with Dave & Jen and Stu & Clare and I think we were just bowled over by how happy the family was, in the midst of great poverty. Yes, they are poor but the mother works so hard to try and get whatever the kids need. The Scots were able to give them a Celtic top each so they were out playing football in the street. I wish I had visited them so much earlier so that I might have been able to help a bit sooner but now that I know them, I will be able to get out every other week.