Thursday, February 21, 2013

7 Quick Takes First Week of Lent

Each week of Lent I'll post my 7 quick takes!
If you're behind the times (Jenny Hess) let me fill you in that "7 Quick Takes" is just a list of 7 thoughts /happenings/what-have-yous.


1. Our priests are awesome!  
Most of you know I've been spoiled by great priests since I've been hanging around S.O.L.T. for the past 10 years.  But lately I feel especially blessed.  Every homily has been amazing and on top of that they are so good to us, their flock, in many ways.  From Theology of the Body classes, to individual spiritual direction, to just hanging out... they are Christ to us and they are great at it!

and... Welcome Fr. Scott Giuliani!  Like a trooper Fr. Scott pulled into the driveway at 4:55pm and 5 minutes later was saying the 5 o'clock Mass for us.  We are so blessed to have a third priest to serve the people here and even more blessed that it's Fr. Scott!  YAY!

2. Art is a release for me.  Despite not having free time to draw or paint since... oh well... since college I suppose, I still find little things that art related to be such a release.  Art is still part of my 'down time' and I will always enjoy it as a hobby in one way or another.  No, I haven't painted anything, I'm speaking very loosely about art right now; including reused plastic coke bottles made into lanterns, my Mardi Gras costume, homemade stationery, and random photos taken on my phone as "Art". haha



3. LAST WEEKEND.  We drove to Orange Walk (northern Belize) for the Boys Soccer National Championship.  It was a crazy 40 hour trip which started with the church van breaking down 20 miles from the game we were missing and ended sitting in the emergency room with 2 of our boys after a crazy CRAZY fight broke out on the field in the last 5 minutes of the game on Saturday morning.  Mt Carmel took 3rd place and don't worry, the boys are both fine!  The best part of the trip was the amazing generosity shown to us by our Vice Principal and her in-laws.  They housed us, fed us, and drove us around the entire trip!  The most shocking part of the trip was waiting at the emergency room.  Both of our boys just needed to make sure they didn't have a concussion and x-rays to make sure they didn't have any broken bones, it took a while to see the doctor because he was busy attending to a man who had just been admitted with his hand chopped off by a machete!  Yes, this is as shocking here as it would be in the States (ok maybe slightly less shocking here) and I'm sure my mother is freaking out, but don't worry, Mom, we make a point to always stay away from crazy people with machetes :)

4. Chapel time in the morning.  Best part of Lent so far!  We are fortunately to live right next door to Jesus.  For Lent I've made a point to hit the adoration chapel to start each day.  It's been surprisingly easier than I thought!  I don't dread getting ready a little earlier, I actually look forward to it... and my days have been notable more peace-filled because of it!

<--- Jesus is my closest neighbor


5. Letters.  I haven't received mail in quite some time and Tuesday I happened to receive 5 letters!  (Thus proving my theory that despite what the mailman says, the mail IS NOT delivered to Benque from Belize City everyday!)  So thanks Mama, Jenny (and Anna), Sr. Claire, Emily, and Jonathan!

6. Tabs on my blog.  This may sound simple, but to a once-computer-illiterate girl it's a pretty big achievement to figure all these things out.

7. The stupid dog.  Yes, my roommates are DETERMINED to get a dog.  Despite my very reasonable argument that in due time it's going to start rotting from the inside out like all the other dogs in Benque they just HAVE to have a dog because "He's just sooooo cute, Betsy!"  If I had a picture of the dogs on the streets here I would post it and all of you would look away in disgust and vow to never again read my blog.  But it's hard to take a picture of something you walk a block out of the way just to avoid seeing, yes, I'm talking about "pink dog" and "tumor dog".... anyway, last night this dog (they named him Frank but I refuse to name him) supposedly followed them home.  He stayed on the balcony upstairs all night which made me realize they definitely fed him; no wonder he followed you!  The good news is when I caught a glimpse of him this morning I realized he's WAY to clean (and neutered) to be a stray, so hopefully his owners will come looking for him or he'll go home on his own!

Hope everyone is having a great start to Lent!  <3


1 comment:

  1. DUDE! I just figured out tabs, it was pretty much an awesome discovery :)

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