LAST DAY IN ELIAS PINA

Our last day was today and it was filled with lots of activity.  We visited the new high school, went to the Friday market, visited the elementary school, played on the playground, had our last time of sharing on the roof of the parish office and then had to begin to say our good byes - the most difficult part of all of this.  Many tears tonight and I am sure there will be more tomorrow.  How do we tell you all exactly what we all learned and experienced?  The pictures just don't seem to tell the entire story.  Our lives are changed for the better because we know each other and these wonderful people in Elias Pina.  We will see you soon and can't wait for your hugs!  Here are some pictures from our day today.  See you all soon!!

A PIECE OF HEAVEN - THURSDAY

What a day we have had today.  Our walk up the mountain was a workout but the view from the top was worth every step that we took.  We had great conversation and prayer on our journey.  We were able to pray the rosary with our Dominican brothers and sisters on the top of the mountain.  We did every other decade in a different language - Spanish - English - Spanish, etc.  We are now exhausted and ready for a nap.  We left at 7 am to avoid the worst part of the sun  - we returned just in time for lunch at about noon.  Everyone is doing so well.  Last night we had an intense time of sharing - lots of tears.  The thought of leaving this place is beginning to hit the students hard.  They miss home and want to see family and friends but the thought of never seeing the people they have come to know as "family" here is heartbreaking.  This afternoon we will be attending an English school to converse with the students and then tonight pizza.  Tomorrow we will spend most of the day at the school.  It is so hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day here.  The time went so fast.  Hard to believe that the students had tears the first day because they were so afraid that they weren't going to "connect" with the people here and now they have tears because they don't know how they will leave.  It has been a GREAT week!!

WEDNESDAY MORNING POST

We were without electricity most of yesterday and during the night.  When the electricity finally went back on this morning, I quickly got on the internet to update the blog.  I will try to publish pictures later.  Yesterday we painted at the second chapel - we finished in record time - we were much faster this second day.  We returned for lunch to find the temperature to be 98 degress with the themometer being in the shade so we are sure in the sun it was hotter.  Because of the hot and humid weather, we made our way to the ice cream store a little later and then had the pleasure of working in the bakery where they have ovens going, no airconditionin or fans - it was like a sauna.  We had a great conversation about what it is from this country that we would like to bring back with us to the US.  Most of us feel if we could take the easy lifestyle, time spent with family and the people we have met, we would make our lives just that much better.  Today the school happens to be closed for a faculty retreat so we are going to spend the day with Fr Mike.  Two campo Masses and Mass in El Llano - the other big church that is part of this mission down here.  We are looking forward to a day with a little less work.  Tomorrow will be our mountain climb and our pizza party (since we can't have meat on Friday) and then Friday we head to the schools for the day.  So much is happening in the lives of the students - it will be hard to share all of it when we return.

PAINTING - MONDAY

 

 

When the day began we had big plans to paint chapel #1 in the morning, eat lunch and paint chapel #2. Unfortunately those were very big plans because we painted from about 9 am - 2 pm on chapel #1 and had to return to lunch so chapel #2 will have to wait until tomorrow. We had LOTS of rain last night - we were all soaked from the rains - it felt good after the hot day. Today was very hot too but we were troopers working until all of the work was finished. We got to ride in the back of the truck to our worksite - that was like being on a roller coaster - we laughed an awful lot the entire way there and back. We finally exchanged money and got a treat of ice cream this afternoon - thanks to Mrs McKnight. Thanks for all of your messages and all of your prayers. We pray that you are all doing well too. Here are a few pictures from our day!!  Sorry this is coming so late - it is the 3rd time I've tried - the other two times we lost electricity before I was able to post!!  We had a great sharing session tonight - I think that these young adults will come back changed - they are such a great group of individuals!!

SUNDAY = FUN DAY!

What fun we all had today!!  We began our day with Mass at 8:00 am - it was standing room only!  Then we were able to attend the Religious Education classes for the children and after class we played with well over 75 children.  Organized chaos at times!!  We are all beginning to feel much more comfortable here in Elias Pina.  We have lots of red faces, shoulders, arms and legs today.  It was such a hot and sunny day that when the rains moved in at about 5:00 it was a welcomed treat.  As I am writing this I can hear the students in the other room sharing stories, playing cards, laughing and just enjoying life.  They are all doing well.  Tomorrow we will paint!!  That should be a hot one but we are up for the challenge.  Enjoy the pictures of our students making the children here laugh, smile and just love life.  Thanks for all your prayers!!  Hopefully we will have electricity tomorrow so we can post again.  We need to sign off now before the lights go out again!!

MOVING IN - SATURDAY

We made it here safely - but wow what a long day of traveling!!  Everyone has moved into their new homes - many are much nicer than the homes from the past few years - almost everyone has a toilet so no latrines and we are slowly but surely getting acustomed to life here in Elias Pina.  We were able to sleep in a little today and then after lunch we had our own little "Parade of Homes" through Elias Pina.  I figured that we must have walked at least 3 miles to get to all of the homes.  The students all seem very happy.  The pictures were taken outside of each of their homes with some of their family members.  Almost all of the homes are new host families this year so hopefully Ms Simon and Mrs McKnight won't get lost walking everyone home tonight!!

 

Tomorrow we plan to go to Mass and then help with 3 catechism classes - the topic this week for the little children (ages 7-12) is Moses - we are meeting tonight to come up with some ideas of what we might be able to do with them to make the lesson more interesting.  Wish us luck!!  Thank goodness we have Mrs McKnight - we know that she will come up with something!!  We found out that we will be painting two chapels - one on Monday and one on Tuesday.  We plan to teach ourselves some songs on the recorders that we brought along and then on Wednesday we plan to visit the Kindergarten classes at the school and teach them how to play the recorders.  That should be interesting too.  We are all falling in love with the children down here. The electricity was out most of the day today - we hope to post again tomorrow with more pictures but we can't promise anything because the electricity is so unpredictable.  We wish all of you well.  We don't even want to complain about how hot and humid it is here because we know you are freezing in Wisconsin.  At 11:30 am today the boys checked the thermometer and it read 94 degrees - hot, hot hot!!  God bless you all and thanks for your prayers!!

THE WEEK IS FINALLY HERE!!

This is the week!!  Finally, after all of this time, we leave on Thursday night for our mission experience.  Please keep the students in your thoughts and prayers.  Thursday night and Friday will be a LONG day of travel for us.  Please pray that all goes well for us.  Stay tuned for more updates from Elias Piña!!

PREPARING FOR ANOTHER JOURNEY:

Preparing for yet another trip to the country I have come to consider my home away from home.  What a great group of students I have to share this journey with!  Can't wait to experience yet another wonderful mission trip in Elias Piña.  Only 3 more weeks of waiting and we will be able to embark on this journey - I am keeping Annie, Emily, Erin, Christina, Andrew, Tom, Andrew, Ashley, Kaitlyn, Val, Nicole, Domenica and Mrs McKnight all in my prayers so you can really open your heart to all that God is calling you to be and experience on this great journey.  May we all let go and let God work in and through each of us.