We headed off from home for two Masses, one at ten and the other at ten thirty - I will not mention the actual starting times of both! The photo on the right is virtually showing you the end of the valley, about twenty minutes by car from our house. Note that there would be very little future in starting up a lawn mowing business in the area!
Mick told us that when the time came to select the land - the Church gets the land free as long as they develop it - the official in charge said that you can have as far as you can throw a stone. He did not realise that Mick had been a pretty fair cricketer in his day. He ended up getting the hill!
The palm trees are bananas and believe it or not they do fruit.
This community had done extremely well with their multipurpose building, they had built wisely.I have to mention that the small lady in the white T-shirt singing with the choir is a mother of three young children and Mick says a tower of strength within this parish group. She organised the children's presentation of the Gospel.
We then drove to our next Mass which was celebrated in the second of the two long buildings almost in the center of the photograph below. I took this shot from the front verandah of the Sisters' house, this valley has no power and you have to carry your water from the road below to your house tank! The Sisters have solar charged torches which they place in their 'garden' each day in order to charge up for their evening activities. They have limited access to ice so most of their food is of the non-perishable variety. The photograph above shows the Sisters house on the side of the valley, you can't miss it - it's the bright yellow house! They called the colour gold!
Sister Veronica prepares everybody for their Mass. The two Sisters, Jacinta and Marie, are Irish by birth, however, they belong to a French Order.
Our two English students from the valley, Gladys and Rubi. These women had to spend hours reparing the road before they came to Mass - by order of the local officials! If you miss the working bee you pay money.
These people are so welcoming, they will do anything for you and yet they have so little themselves. Their living conditions are less than basic and they work so hard, particularly the women. The Sisters have a small project taking place whereby ten houses will get a small area concreted rather than the families living on mud floors!
