As mentioned, the roads are in poor condition and unbelievably chaotic. It was a long journey to get here, which made our arrival to our week-long home at Laborde that much more of a relief. It has been quite an adjustment from my normal routine in just about every way possible. I wake up in a knotted mosquito net to the sounds of stray dogs, roosters and church bells every day at 6:00 a.m. Food has been one of my biggest obstacles. Although I do not claim to be a picky eater, it is tough to find anything very tempting around here. Let's just say, I did not know there were so many ways to cook a goat. The Coca-Cola and plantains are fabulous though!
My favorite part of the trip thus far has been visiting the school. Notre Dame de Lourdes is located just across the street from our parish. It is basically an open field with about six concrete, tin-roof buildings (as seen in Deacon's last post). It was amazing to see the condition of the school; especially after visiting my nephew's Kindergarten class at Kuemper last week. No, there were no iPads being used by these 5-year-olds. What we found were dilapidated chalkboards and homemade books. The children were all dressed in a uniform and appeared very eager to learn and interested in interacting with our group. It was amazing to see the school, but evident that more aid is needed in order for these children to fully achieve their potential.
Maureen White
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