Gardening

Today was a beautiful day. Minh, another lay missioner, and I went for a walk this morning and then we had a lunch bbq with the Maryknoll affiliates. This groups is made up of former lay missioners, family and friends of former and current missioners, and anyone interested in being involved in Maryknoll from the states. It was really great to chat with them. One of the affiliates had visited El Salvador for two weeks last year and so we talked about the nutrition and gang prevention programs they have there as well as the clinic run by the sisters. Afterwards one of the affiliates took us over to a vegetable garden on the fathers property which is grown to be given to food pantrys and midnight runs. 

We weeded around the beets and leeks for a couple of hours and then walked back to Bethany- checking for ticks upon our return. We went to spanish mass at St. Annes. The pews were packed full-it did not feel like I was in the U.S.  In the Church there was a statue of Jesus (same pictured below) that the people called Afterwards there was a band playing outside and people gathered.

The next day a group of four of us decided to go to a nearby park for a walk and to enjoy the beautiful afternoon and sunset. We came upon the same group and the same statue that was in the church was under a tent in the park. A procession of girls brought gifts and you could smell the incense in the air.
There was a lot of dancing and music. Below you can see one of the bands that played. The flad says Banda Reina del Cisne. Cisne is a town in Ecuador. I asked someone and they explained to me that this was a celebration that was traditional in this particular town in Ecuador, and now the large population in Croton brought the celebration here.
This picture was taken after about half the crowd had already dispersed, so you can see it was a big event!

There is one girl with a blue banner (on the left side of the picture.) she was the winner of a kind of contest, and there is one girl from each age group that won the same kind of banner. It was a beautiful celebration and I felt fortunate that we came upon it like we did (especially having attended mass with them the evening before.)