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After several rooster choruses, we were surprised to hear the "Alleluia" chorus from Kathy’s phone at 6 AM. It was actually a little cooler during the night than I had anticipated. I was glad that my sheet could be doubled over – that provided exactly the right amount of warmth. I am finding that my ankles are a bit sore this morning -- probably from dangling over the edge of my air mattress all night. Tonight I’ll take some of my stuff and pile it up at the end of my bed so that my feet don’t hang over. Kathy’s bed partially deflated during the night, so she woke up practically sleeping on the floor. Breakfast was my first box of mini cereals from the variety pack that I had brought with me. Thankfully, I had left everything in its original packaging, so the cereal didn’t get wet during yesterday’s water bottle mishap in my carry-on bag. I have quite a stash of food, which is good since I missed out on the grocery shopping trip yesterday, where the others who had flown directly to Santiago, were able to buy what they wanted. Glad that I have brought mine from home. I have 8 mini cereal boxes, 2 boxes of breakfast bars, several individually-wrapped packages of Oreos and, ah yes, a bag of Starburst jellybeans for Karen.
A quick note about our accommodations. We are living on the 3rd
floor above La Anunciacion church. There is a 2 bedroom apartment there, with a
large room attached to it, which is used as a parish hall or classroom. The
bedrooms are small and do not have cross ventilation. Thus, we have all elected
to sleep in the classroom, since we are all women. Andi and Karen have taken the
mattress from each of the bedrooms and dragged them into the classroom,
which
I will refer to as our sleeping area, to use as their beds. There are some
bookcases under the window along one wall in the sleeping area where some of the
team have stacked their clothing. There is also a long rectangular table in one
corner, a regular sized desk, and about half-a-dozen student chairs – the kind
with the writing surface on the right side. We have arranged our "beds" along
the exterior of the room in a large circle. Guess that I was the last one to
claim my territory, so I am along the right wall, where you first enter the
room, without any shelves. No matter. I have commandeered one of the student
desks to put some of my stuff on, and my towels can hang from the jalousie
window cranks above my bed so that they can dry. My suitcase sets on the floor
next to the bed so that I can have easy access to it during the week. No need to
unpack (and where would I put everything anyway?). The dining area contains a
large table, covered with a lovely lace tablecloth (that will be completely
annihilated by the end of the week) and several chairs. There are several of
those white-plastic stackable chairs scattered around the room and along the
wall closest to the kitchen. There are 1.5 bathrooms on this floor. We have all
been warned about putting toilet paper into the toilet – it is a big No-No! Ugh
– this is a little hard to get used to, but the consequences of not following
this rule are completely unacceptable, as it could mean the loss of that
bathroom. The half bathroom, however, is a bit problematic in the sense that it
doesn’t have water if the power is out, which is most of the time. There is a
bucket filled with water, in case you need to "power flush." The bucket can be
refilled by using the valve under the sink (assuming that the power is on). But
you had better be sure that you completely close the valve, because if you
accidentally leave it open and the power comes back on, well, you can just
imagine. No power also means that you will not be able to use this sink to wash
your hands. Better to just use the main bath whenever possible. It seems that
the half-bath gets the most action in the morning and evening when we are all
trying to brush our teeth. Since you can’t use the water from the faucet to
brush, all you really need is a sink to spit into. So, the half-bath becomes the
teeth-brushing destination, so that the main bath is available for "other
purposes."
Got dressed and headed downtown in a taxi minivan to Fr. Almonte’s other
church, San Lucas. We got there just after 9 (which was when we thought the
service was supposed to start), and discovered that they sing the songs until
9:30 and then start the service. Deacon Kathy suited up and did a great job
translating the Gospel, on the fly, from the Spanish Bible. The service was the
same
as last night’s, but less confusing now that we had been through it once. During
the service, one of the musicians walks down the aisle, from the back of the
church, holding the Gospel over her head, singing acappella. Her voice is
startling clear, and it is incredibly moving. She chants "Escucha mi pueblo, yo
voy a hablar. Esucha mi pueblo, yo voy a hablar" (Listen my people, I am going
to speak. Listen my people, I am going to speak.) The response is "Habla Senor,
te escuchare. Habla Senor, yo voy a escuchar." (Speak Lord, I will listen to
you. Speak Lord, I am going to listen). I get chills as the chant is repeated
and wonder if we could do this back home, in English of course.
After the service, a gentleman came by and offered us something from a tray. I asked "Que es esto?" (What is this?) He answered with a Spanish word that was unfamiliar to me. He must have seen the confused look on our faces so he said "cookie." Oh, sure. We’ll have a cookie! We each grabbed one from his tray. They were dome shaped – about the size of a half baseball. We each bit into ours and were quickly surprised at the taste – kind of like a baseball. Sheree said "They’re so dry." I said, "Yes, and they’re so large." That was about the time that Smith was tucking hers into her purse. Kathy appeared and noticed our cookies. I quickly broke mine in two and gave her half. OK – so that solves half the problem. The gentleman appeared again, this time with coffee. According to the coffee drinkers, the cookie was delicious if you dunked it in the coffee first. Sorry, I’m a tea drinker. I just nibbled at mine until it disappeared. Thank goodness I had brought my water bottle. In the meantime, Andi met with some of the gals who will be teachers and assistants this week at San Lucas VBS.
Trip home was in a smaller taxi with an extra person. That would explain my new butt bruise as we tried to squeeze in and I sat on the metal part of a broken seatbelt. We definitely wouldn’t squeeze this many people in back home – we just wouldn’t do it. Lucrecia whipped up something delicious for lunch – the eggs and sausage that we were supposed to have for breakfast. After lunch, Andi, Karen, Karin, Yvonne, Fr. Almonte and his wife Olga headed off to Mao. The rest of our team went over to the school to organize the supplies – about three hours work. We have six suitcases of supplies that need to be sorted out and divided up. A brief discussion about whether or not we should organize the crayons by color. Uh … no! A great group to work with as we counted out crayons, markers, craft sticks, etc. to divide all of the supplies into three for our three locations. Without knowing the numbers of kids anticipated at each location, we can’t do any better than just dividing everything into threes. Smith counted all of the paper plates – at least once. The supplies for each group were packed back into suitcases so that they could be lugged to each location tomorrow morning. The suitcases are extremely heavy now and I am glad that the suitcase designated for our group can remain exactly where it is, on the floor in this classroom. The classroom itself has a solid wooden door and a metal gate on the exterior with a giant padlock. We are sure to keep the gate closed and locked so that our supplies do not disappear.
Lucrecia, the woman who has been hired as our cook for the week, was
preparing dinner when we came back. Lucrecia is very petite, I don’t think she
breaks 5 ft, even in the high heels that she is wearing. She doesn’t speak much
English and is clearly good-natured, which will come in handy as she has to deal
with our Spanish this week. The kitchen is well equipped – we’re just all trying
to ignore the raw chicken that is adjacent to the bag of ice in the freezer.
There
are several other food items that are just setting on the counter or in the
fridge, without the benefit of wrapping. Rick would be trying to seal everything
up in Ziploc bags – this would be driving him absolutely crazy. Clearly, things
are a bit different here. Sheree made an executive decision to crack open the
wine and cheese and crackers. Excellent idea. We each poured a small glass,
except for Lucrecia, who filled hers to the top. The others finally arrived from
Mao – with stories of a rooster, mother pig and eight piglets, and other farm
animals that participated in the church service this afternoon. Apparently, the
site for Mao is located on a banana plantation where the owner has graciously
offered up a piece of his property for the church. Sounds just like St.
Margaret’s of Scotland, minus the bananas. Tonight I announced that I would be
keeping a journal, which I’m sure Hollywood will have great interest in. I
suggested that the others consider which actress should be selected to portray
them in the film. They all rolled their eyes and laughed, except for Yvonne, who
clearly didn’t get it. We tried to explain to her that I was joking, but she
seemed a little confused by the whole conversation, especially when I said that
we will need to find a fabulous Dutch actress to portray her. We finished our
dinner as Andi gave us last-minute tips about VBS for tomorrow.
We’ll be fine … I stacked my Keds and sandals up at the end of my bed. That should work. Trying to fall asleep amidst the street noise, car alarms, barking dogs, etc.
