| Day 3 (Monday March 12, 2007) |
Senor Dave Begins the Day's Work in Song
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Here's today's diary item from Terri:
Last Mate's log: Stardate 03122007
Sleep, glorious sleep (sung to the tune in "Oliver"). Last night we slept
like logs, listening to the sound of gentle rain (or was it a downpour) and
wondering what weather would greet us on our first workday. We survived
bouts of darkness when the electricity decided to surprise us as we
worshiped.
Dave didn't break stride when the lights went out as he regaled
us with a fast-paced song about faith, which was a mixture of blues, C&W,
and rock and roll. Nunzi tried to get a few brave souls to walk in the
rain to the Superama for helado (also known as ice cream) at 9:00 p.m., but
Captain Marilyn said "No, por favor."
The sunrise greeted us early, and we prepared for work. Words cannot
describe the outfits we wore for our assigned tasks. Ralph, Jerre, and I
looked like doctors in hospital scrubs - very stylish, comfortable, and
cool. Marilyn was in her lime green painting capris and shirt..quite a
sight! We set off for adventures unknown in 3 taxis, the Bishop's car, and
the Diocesan Suburban. Moving our group is like moving a herd of cattle,
Planning a Day's Work
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and we are without a sheep dog (I guess technically I should call us sheep,
but cattle seems more appropriate somehow). Once we finally climbed into
vehicles with our assigned traveling buddies, the fun began.
Our work crew set off for San Jose, a church somewhere in Cuernavaca. Bob
lead us in a rousing chorus of "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" in our cab
as we wove through busy streets that are completely without traffic
signals. This was a small sign of good things to come. The church of San
Jose is very small, but lovely.
Fr. Victor greeted us with "Mi casa es su
casa," and he meant every word of it. We were joined in our work by a
young 16-year-old boy, Rueben, and a kind older gentleman, Guillermo,
neither of whom understood a word of English. After school Ricardo, age
14, joined us; he is a great kid who had never held a paintbrush in his
life. When he left today he said he would be back tomorrow. I think we
are making friends.
Our team's task this week is to paint the inside of the sanctuary, turning
bright neon blue walls into blanco
Moving Pews to Paint
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(white) walls. This will be a
challenge, but our little team met the task head on. Rick, our team
leader, was a proper taskmaster today, assigning us walls, paintbrushes,
ladders, and rollers. The only controversy of the day was our discussion
of how to cover the cross (and Jesus) to protect it/him from spattered
paint. Somehow garbage bags just didn't seem appropriate.
We may not have had acorns, like Dave told you about yesterday, but
wherever we go we seem to take nuts with us. I can't imagine why that is.
The work - and the fun - began in earnest. Who would have thought that we
have frustrated Broadway wanna-bes in our group? The acoustics in the
little church were as good as in a shower stall, and we sounded marvelous
as we belted out such songs as "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus
Christ Superstar, "Some Enchanted Evening" from South Pacific, "Go Greased
Lightning" (complete with hand motions as we painted - you should see that
wall) and "Summer Loving" from Grease, "Do, Re, Me" from The Sound of
Music, and so many more. As a special request Dave belted out "Old Man
River" from Porgy and Bess. In our search for music that Fr. Victor could
sing with us we hit upon "Yesterday" by the Beatles, which was a great
success. He even could keep up with the Rolling Stones' "I Can't Get No
Satisfaction."
Ok, folks, we even sang worship songs as we worked, including "Open the
How many Episcopalians does it take to paint a wall?
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Eyes of My Heart, Lord." Dixie reported she could see us "reach out and
touch him" with our paintbrushes, voices, and in our conversation. And Fr.
Victor taught me to sing "Amazing Grace" in Spanish - that is a blessing I
will hold in my heart.
After a morning of painting, Nunzi and I were assigned the job of painting
the priest sacristy. We learned to paint around and over cobwebs, and we
gently ushered spiders and lizards out of the path of our paint. We
occasionally felt the need for attention, so sang for our team in the
sanctuary: "Oh Ah, Oh Ah - That's the Sound of the Men Working on the
Chain Gang" and "I am Woman, Hear me Roar." I think the paint fumes had
gotten to us by that point.
We are all back safe and sound after a full day of painting, and as I write
this we are waiting on dinner to be ready. I suspect we will have big
appetites. The only known injury occurred in the other team, when Ralph
apparently tried to fight a lemon tree and lost. Dr. Jerre, in her scrubs,
took care of cleaning the wounds on his arm.
We send you our love and our joy. We are all smiling and laughing after a
full day of work, and we all still love each other! Yea God!!!
Paz,
Terri Morgan
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