Last
weekend we celebrated Corpus Christi. As
with most of the masses here, the crowd was huge and the procession
outstanding!
Friday,
June 8th, we celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and I spent the
morning at Caritas Secondary School for the celebration of the 1-year
anniversary in Kimbe Diocese. Mass
followed by presentations of poetry, drama and dance by the students. It is always fun to be with these girls but
today I have no pictures to share.
Priscilla
is one of our next-door neighbors. She
is 14 months old and one of the ladies of the Diocese told me she is considered
the Diocese Baby. She is adorable and
every time she sees us she comes running with her arms open wide to be picked
up and receive hugs. If our door is open
she comes in to visit, which sometimes makes her mother a bit uncomfortable,
but the good thing is that she is easy to find.
On Tuesday of this week, Ron took me to two of the parishes he will be working with on building or maintenance projects. The first was Mai, the Catechist School where they will be building a chapel. The grounds are beautiful!
Below
is one of the pieces of artwork in the main building which is drawn by Fr.
Yarek.
Jesus, I Trust in You
We
then travelled on to Silanga parish where Ron took some measurements for work
to be done on a convent to convert it to a duplex for some of the Health Care
workers whose homes were damaged in the earthquake. The drive was lovely but long and the road,
the New Britain Highway, is very bumpy.
Ron
and his crew are also busy working on getting the Cathedral grounds ready for
construction to begin in July. The
Cathedral roof will be raised and repaired, and some pre-construction work done
so that, when funds are available, changes can be made on the interior. Bishop Bill is meeting with artists in the
States for interior art as well. Today,
they worked on pulling down needless light poles, the one pictured below took out
an electrical line when it came down.
This was right outside our front door.
My
projects for the Diocese are more behind the scenes and very tedious. I must keep reminding myself that Papua New
Guinea time is not the same as the US!
If someone says they will get you the information immediately, it might
mean 1 week or 6 weeks, who knows for sure?
But, everyone has the best of intentions and part of the problem here is
me, in that I still think like an American!
People I have visited with who were Peace Corps Volunteers and past Lay
Mission-Helpers assure me this is normal in any country.
It looks very interesting I hope to hear more about your life there.
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