I vaguely remember the sound of several cohetes going off this morning at 4am. Cohetes are loud noisemakers that sound like fireworks. At first I couldn’t figure out why they were setting them off. Then I remembered that Berlín’s patron saint festival is this week. It was incredibly annoying at the time but after I woke up I had almost forgotten that they’d gone off at all. I wonder what time they’ll start shooting them off tomorrow.
Today I was supposed to go with the Pastoral Team to Virginia so I could observe the medical delegation. But this morning Kathy took one look at the trash basket I had strategically placed close to my bed and said that I wasn’t going. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling really nauseous and had moved the trash can by my bed just in case. I was fine but it was probably better to wait one more day before doing anything. Kind of a bummer because I really wanted to go watch the medical delegation today. I felt much better when I eventually woke up. I waited a little while before having some bread and fruit for breakfast.
Okay. Another explanation of what I’m doing. For several different reasons I will be waiting one more week before I start teaching. I was hoping to get work done over the weekend to prepare myself for my first day but since I was sick that didn’t really happen. There are also some important things I need to get done right now for Westminster and Compañeros. (Compañeros is the coordinating body for the Des Moines Presbytery’s El Salvador mission). So this week I will be accompanying the medical delegation and working on other things during the evening.
Since I was feeling better I had a chance to get some good work done. I worked on some things for Compañeros, typed up a bunch of notes for Westminster about the meeting we had with San Francisco, looked over the completed San Francisco census, translated a solicitation for fertilizer for Westminster from San Francisco, and other various projects on the computer. I’m hoping to get some important things emailed off soon. I remember looking at Kathy yesterday and saying, “The works never ends, does it?” Nope. There are some day s when I feel like I’m doing really well and I’m getting a lot of work done and then there are days when I feel like I’ve accomplished nothing.
I spend a little out in the yard area with Chelita so she could peck around in the grass. I always watch her closely because I don’t want Barbara to peck at her (and the ladies told me not to leave Chelita alone with Barbara). I sat in a chair in the grass so Chelita could be near me. She’s bigger than she was when I first got her. And now she’ll go about 2 feet away from me. I used the time to copy over some notes I had in one notebook to my new San Francisco notebook that I bought.
Going through sacks of corn at the Pastoral House
Hola Idalia!
The ladies all returned home exhausted from the day so I was surprised when they mentioned something about going to the Coronation of the Queen celebration tonight. I was excited because I really wanted to go but didn’t want to ask because I knew they’d had a long day. We left a little before 8pm and walked to the town square. We were looking at one of the little stands set up when the queen of the festival came walking out with several other people. It was time for the celebration to begin!
The queen and her entourage made their way to the middle of the park. We found a good place to stand and watch. People from City Hall spoke as did the mayor. The former queen gave her last speech. Then the new queen received her crown, sash, robe, and staff. A poem was read to the new queen and then she gave a brief speech. It was all fun to watch. As I was watching it dawned on me that I was at the Coronation of the Queen last year as well. The former queen I saw tonight was the new one I saw last year. We left before 9pm so we could all get some decent sleep. It’s going to be a long week, and I can still hear the music from the festival.
Last year's queen
Holding the sash and crown
The new queen
The candidates from this year
The band arrives
There's always music
The Patron Saint festival begins tonight with the Coronation of the Queen
Lots of people were there
There goes the new queen
And her lovely ladies
The queen's float
There she is!
Beautiful!
2 comments:
I'm glad you are finally feeling better. Looks like a pretty fun festival. I hope you have fun the rest of the week with all the festivities.
Love the pictures of the festival -- beautiful dresseses.
Post a Comment