The Missions: San Francisco and San José

Unless the mission is oriented by charity, that is, unless it springs from a profound act of divine love, it risks being reduced to mere philanthropic and social activity...Consequently, being missionaries means loving God with all one's heart, even to the point, if necessary, of dying for him. - Pope Benedict XVI


after two years of being lazy and analog, i finally took the time to properly mount the garmin etrex vista gps unit on the motorcycle. now i have speed, trip odometer, altitude, bearing, and even glide ratio (for emergencies, don't think i could actually report the number...)

i'm off to the mountains with 14 americans, 9 dominicans and 2 mules. be back tomorrow afternoon if all goes well. rumor has it that there is an incredible waterfall/launch site with a deep pool. we can only hope.

here is the food preparation team with the big pots:

fr murphy and i were standing on the balcony discussing how to fell the coconuts on the adjacent tree and we came up with the following:

tie a nylon cord to a hatchet, climb on the roof, throw the hatchet at the coconuts and knock them down.

after a few practice throws to get our bearing and aim we took down three, only one of which lost its milk. much easier than climbing the darn tree.

11:02 am - too many people have shown up for this thing. unprecedented numbers. no bishop though. i think we're looking at 500 people. i'll take a pic of the food preparation area before it gets broken down, it's very impressive.

tomorrow we have the honor to host an all day diocesan assembly! get out the wood honey, we need to cook rice, beans, and chicken for 400 people! someone make some ice!

here is fr murphy rescuing the kitten from the tree last night:

sorry i haven't been blogging, but between dodging hurricanes, having a 4-day power outage, and the introduction of a new cat things have been busy.

we got so sick and tired of the local power lines blowing out that we have decided to put in our own pole with 15kw transformer. don't have a pic yet, but it's slick. we're pulling off the high power line and avoiding the local transformer issues. it hasn't been tested yet, since we haven't had any electricity, but it looks good anyway.

here is a quick snapshot of one of my new creole instructors. she has the ability move her eyes in odd angles:

dennis has taken a northerly jog, which puts us tangentially in the heavy outer bands if he stays the course. we have been enjoying a stiff breeze and on-and-off rain showers for the last 24 hours. yet another tropical event that jilts us...

this fellow is called a "padrote" - id est - a stud goat. this thing is twice the size of any goat i have ever seen. we'll be renting out his "services" for the low price of 300 pesos (about $10 us dollars). knowing, as you do, that the kid goats take all the qualities of the male goat, we will be able to produce a top quality race of goats. so send us your she-goats and 10 bucks and we'll take care of the rest.




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