The Life of (Liam) Reilly

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Saturday was the dreaded day, yes another year. Here are some of the memories... Here is a party in the barrio Hermano Gregorio...

With some of the children of the catequesis...Infancia misionera...

With some wonderful religious, the ones you never hear about in the Irish Independent. Mary and Elizabeth have given over 30 years of their lives to the poor in the community of Colimes, two hours from Guayaquil, mighty women from Galway and Cork with their first Ecuadorean vocation... They are members of the Mill Hill Sisters, Franciscans of St. Joseph...

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A typical home of the indigenous communities

This is the home of Carmen Saeteros. She has just turned ninty (she thinks). Very often they have difficulty remembering their date of birth. Her very simple house is typical of the indigenous community and made from clay and stray blocks (bloques de adobe) with the luxurious models having tin roofs, (many with stray). These homes are bitterly cold for a man from Belmullet used to the bit hearth full of good black turf. But these are a tougher people. Carmen sleeps on the floor on a large bag filled with animal coat. Inside it is just one room with a table at one end and her bag (bed) at the other. She survives on milk and eggs (dairy products in large quantities being bad and all that jazz, she must have missed that health supplement) With no shoes and no socks, the earthen floor can be well... Recently we have decided to "renovate" her local run-down chapel at a cost or between $2000-2500. She said it was the best New Year present she could have received. She (as the elder stateswoman), and the rest of the community of Rumiurco are very proud of their Christian Catholic faith. Say one for her, she is quite ill at this moment.

Our New Church at Cimientos

Ciemientos is a community in the wilds of the mountains of Ecuador, untouched until recently by the "outside" world. It is a community constituted entirely of indigenous peoples. They speak Kichwa and are intensely uncomfortable speaking in Spanish (as am I, so at least we have that in common). Thanks to the support of the people of my native Erris, Co Mayo, this chapel is nearing completion. Unfortunately because of the incredible effects of the "La Nina" and associated weather patterns, the inauguration will take place in the summer, probably September. But it is a beautiful chapel, built on the foundation of an old Inca structure. (Ciemientos means foundation) They do not rue the loss of the Inca relic because they are decendents of the Canari people who were subjugated by the Inca Empire in the thirteenth century. One back as it were, if not a little too late.