Banica...Day 3!

After months of preparation, I am finally in Banica! It's so amazing ot finally be here...and I am so grateful to my parents, my friends, all of those who donated, and everyone who encouraged me and helped make this possible. THANK YOU!

Over the past two days, I have managed to get my room all unpacked and organized. On Saturday, Fr. OHare, Tom Brock and two of the parish staff members came to pick me up from Gertrudis' house. I said goodbye to my wonderful host family and after a brief photo shoot (pictures coming soon) we headed for Banica. We arrived in Banica at 5:15pm and I had just enough time to get all of my things into my room and freshen up before 6pm Mass. After Mass, Fr. OHare announced that I had arrived and I was able to meet and greet many of the women who help out with altar-guild type stuff. They are so sweet! There is one woman who every day since then has told me thank you for coming. Sunday morning I joined the choir for their cursory review of the songs before 7am Mass.

One of my first jobs while I am here, will be to lead the rehearsals and help the choir learn new songs, and sing well during the liturgies. This is a telling bit of news for you because...Any of you who know me, know that my musical talent is quite lacking and though I can read music, I would never think of singing in, much less leading a choir in the States. But that's the thing...I can read music. Here, whatever little you have is something that you can give. So starting tomorrow I will be working with the choir. My other project now is just getting familiar with the curriculum that we use to teach the Mass classes and the sacramental prep classes. The formation classes are fairly basic (starting with "Quien es Dios?") and all oral. Everyone is literate at least at some level, but the most effective way of teaching is still orally and with pictures. My Spanish is improving day by day, and right now my big focuses are 1) understanding the way people speak in Banica, where the Spanish is quite a bit different and 2) expanding my vocabulary.

Yesterday evening all of the Americans had dinner together at the parish (pizza, french fries, carrot cake...all homemade). I am really going to enjoy how fresh all the food is here. Everything was picked that day or the day before, and we make almost everything from scratch. It's great news to me since I had just finished reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and was ready to start eating fresh, local foods! There is no other kind here (of course, I can always get my Dorito fix if I really need it).

Right now internet is down at the parish because one of the recent storms has moved the very finicky dish out of kilter with the sattelite. In order to use the internet I have to trek up to the volunteer center...but at least we have access! If I don't update for a while, you know why...but I will try to be good!

Overall, I'm excited to be here, and can't wait to jump in. I'm also looking forward to becoming more accustomed to having bugs around. Right now using the latrine elevates my blood pressure to dangerous levels. The first night there was a huge, nasty black spider and a roach with wings. But I came out unscathed. Other than that, there have been no other scary things. Those of you who have been worried about storms...know that in Banica we are surrounded by huge mountain ranges, which basically protect us from the bad weather. Thanks be to God!