Sunday, March 29th

Yesterday was the big day for the "walk of faith". We got up at 5:30am, got ready to go, and met at the church by 6:30. Fr. Jack, Brookston, Braeden, Bridger and myself along with 3 otheres from the parish took the van to the base of the mountain and began our "walk". All along the way we had "stations" where there's a cross, signifying the stations of the cross similating Jesus's crucifiction. It was about a 3 hour walk up the mountain, twisting and climbing as we went along. It was really hot, and there were about 2500 people on the trek. As we neared the top, there was a breeze which helped a lot! When we got to the church, they had a re-enactment by some kids of the crucifiction. It was pretty real, and quite surreal to be honest. We then had mass for all, and started our decent. It only took the kids and myself 40 minutes to make it down the mountain back to the van. When we got there, (ahead of the rest), we waited for 30 minutes for them to get there. Of course, we had NO shade, so there we sat in the hot desert sand/rocks waiting for their arrival. We were back at the paroquia (parish) by 1:30pm.

The gringos from Fargo arrived at 3:30pm. Monique, bless her soul, brought a football for the boys. They practically unpacked her bags for her so they could get it! THANKS MONIQUE!!

Last evening we had a palm Sunday procession starting 7 blocks away from the church. We had a donkey with a "Jesus" and around 100 people in the procession. We got to the church, and to my surprise, the donkey and "Jesus" proceeded up the aisle to the altar. It was really awesome to see. Sometime during the mass, I needed to be excused, and was outside. Braeden and Bridger followed me. We were sitting on a cement bench in the garden, when all of a sudden people started running out of the church, and running out of the homes all along the paroquia. I was like, "what on earth is going on?" People were in panic mode, and looking up at the buildings when it dawned on me that our bench had been moving. I had chalked it up to the kids playing around and moving the bench, so I didn't really notice much, but when we discovered that we couldn't even budge the bench we knew instantly that we had partaken in an earthquake.

Fr. Jack continued with the mass, and all was well, luckily. Panic set in for me when I realized what was going on, and Brookston and Brinley were still in the church. I said a few quick prayers and left their fate up to God......I felt so helpless and panic=stricken. Wilder later told us that when it's windy here, there's usually an earthquake tremor of sorts, and then the wind stops. That's exactly what happened.

Today, we took 400+ people to Vesique Beach. Ron Stensgard and family arranged for the 6 large buses and all the food to be taken to the beach. The families from the soup kitchens were the guests for the day. Despite our slathered-on sun-screen, Bridger and I managed to get burned. The beach was gorgeous as always, but today it was very windy after lunch. I was a little nervous tonight about another tremor, but none so far.....the kids had a lot of fun.

Everyone hit their beds tonight early from their long 2 days of exercise and excitement. Tomorrow will be back to "normal".....school work for the kids, and myself working at the medical post.........time is sure flying by fast! Tonight my house dad, Julio, told me that he's going to be very sad when we leave. He's gotten pretty attached to us, and loves kids. He asked if we wanted to stay for a year............I won't divulge my answer to that! LOL!!

Until next time......
CM