Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Panama Project - Wednesday of Week Two

Saturday, Walter Smith brought the seminaristas en el Projecto Panamá to their Field Work sites. Vivian Lam and Linda Hall went to Pueblo Nuevo and Iglesia San Andres, while Dustin Trowbridge went to Lasjalices, a small extremely rural community way up the road. He's in an area without electricity, where horses are the best way to travel.

Today, after the 7:30 am Holy Eucharist with Healing Prayer, Canonigo Walter Smith and I headed to el Interiór to check on our seminaristas (I always joke that we leave them in the Interiór somewhere with a bag of food, a knife, and a flashlight. If they survive ten days, they can be ordained anywhere). Everyone was fine, and I have the photos to prove it. I have to admit that Walter and I were a little worried about Linda as she doesn't speak español, but when we picked up Padre Eladio in La Chorrera, he said, "Linda habla español." We thought he was joking, but she has been working with the English/Español dictionary I found her and is doing quite well! Linda and Vivian are serving as chaplains at the local public school (yeah, that's not a problem here in Panamá), as is Dustan.

We went to see Dustan first, as he was at the most distant location. The folks he was staying with were really hospitable and even killed a chicken for our lunch. Actually, they fed us a lot; we had some sort of crema, made of pineapple and cinnamon and flour, and then gaucho de pollo, a chicken stew with yucca. I swear I saw the chicken running around at least two hours before we ate.

Wednesday next week Walter and I will gather up our seminaristas and take them to Playa Santa Clara to debrief and relax, and then back to Panama City on Friday.

Photos. Click on photo for more detailed view


Iglesia San Sebastian y Fabian. Vivian and Linda will be moving here from Pueblo Nuevo on Monday.



A Close up of Iglesia San Sebastian y Fabian


We crossed this little creek to get to Lasjalices. There are days when one can't cross this little creek.

Lasjalices, the community in which Dustan is serving right now. On Monday he will move to Pueblo Nuevo.



Dustan is doing some tutoring here














Some origami



Dustan listening to our conversation



Un cerdo se llama "embara"



I don't know this parrot's name. Probably "polly;" aren't they all named "Polly?"



Iglesia San Andres en Pueblo Nuevo. Vivian and Linda sleep in the back section of the church



Close up of San Andres. The ranchito is the Parish Hall.



Linda Hall and Vivian Lam



Here they are with the family they are staying with. El Señor is the Senior Warden of Iglesia San Andres

4 comments:

pj said...

Now that's my kind of parish hall! Don't mind me, I'm just catching up on a week's worth of your posts, all at once.

Beautiful photos. Is it 100 degrees there, like it was in New York yesterday? Hope not!

Anonymous said...

Dearest Lovely Embara,

The moment I saw your photo it was love for me, I was stricken (again)...it's something about the way you look or maybe the color of your hair...the flap of a ear, the twinkle or swoosh of your tail...perhaps it's your ability to survive out there in the campo seminary as they murder your chicken friend and call *it* lunch...as I tuck myself into bed tonight I'll be thinking of you...only you and your territory/pen, your death defying courage in the face of a few well-intentioned, but hungry/skiny priests on the prowl.

Tell me we can marry (should you survive and they change the vows to include all sorts of animals instead of just those silly combinations of men/men women/women men/women and all combinations of) in San Luis Obisbo (or is it now Santa Maria Obisbo?) in the Primavera.

How I long that it be so.

I realize we'll have to move to another country, most likely a suberb of Monterey, Mexico, and change our names to Perez but it will be worth it to be with oneanother...think of it...marital bliss and your Pork Loin.

Alvin Harmsdodger-Armando Tenderatenador

(wanna see my references on request?)

Jane R said...

Aha! This is JUST what Those Folks were predicting would follow same-gender marriage! Bestiality! Non-kosher bestiality at that!

Anonymous said...

Bestiality! jane r

What? Que? I have no idead what you are speaking of...there is no beast in me or even carnal lust for my intended and beloved Pork Loin...we are a simple, if slightly overwheight, virgin couple who are miraculously being brought together because of Padre Mickeys Panamanian Happy Dance Party Happenstance and Seminary Tour...I, who knows first paw the pain and suffering and potential lonliness of Embaraita, was, myself, rescued as a young piglet from a family of chicharone driven so called "Anglican" predators...I was wisked away, by a kindly Gay priest, to a small island North of Scotland, Uruguay where I was washed (extensively), well fed and educated in a private trough on the grounds of the school where PB Vacables was Headhamster...one day, while learning all there was that I could possibly learn, a beady eyed Englishman jumped into my pen and tried to grab my tail! "No dice buster," I squealed exactly at the moment when my owner, and guardian, jumped into the attempted GRAND THEFT (and probably worse) and pushed Padre Vacables away from me and we went on the RUN!

Embara, if I'm accepted by her, and I will scurry off to the land of the Aztecs, Mayas and Cliffdivers with the hope, as a pretty pair of pigs always do, that we will one day, be fully accepted for what we are and share in a joyous future blessed with abundance in parenthood...happily we will live, everafter, safe in the knowledge that we can smell a bad pig anywhere and trot off quickly to a more secure aldea.

Thanks Be To God

Alvin Harmsdodger

(A pig with a happy past...wanna see my references?)

I See You!

Sign by Danasoft - Get Your Free Sign