BACK TO THE DARK AGES

Yes, that's Kate and Gavin making scary ghost story faces in the dark during our most recent blackout.

It's been a while since we had them, since well before elections at least. But now they're back again, bringing their candelit ambience to at least 5 nights in the past 3 weeks. They can last anywhere from a half hour to three or four hours and normally affect a whole section of the city at a time. Little known fact: cooking roti and tacos by candlelight is actually quite enjoyable business!

So what on earth does one do when one gets home from work and there is no electricity ... again? Well, we're proponents of the following:

Making up scary ghost stories about the rasta man's ghost who wanders the old railroad road selling sugarcane (see photo of Kate and Gavin above).

Modeling in the dark (like Meg, there). An exceptionally brave gentleman told her in the fruit and vegetable market the other morning that her smile could stop a rainstorm in Guyana (meaning it was so bright and lovely). Wow, Meg!


A twist on the category above: modeling with Guyanese tacos in the dark (Guyanese because the taco meat and homemade salsa - with HOT peppers - are wrapped in roti instead of soft taco - ssssssh! don't tell ANY Indo-guyanese that we've mutated their treasured recipes!).




Experimenting: see if the world looks different through the hole in the heel of a sock in the dark. Answer is not really. You see how simple living and hand washing are affecting me?! ;o)


And .... finally ... there's praying the rosary together. Not the whole rosary, mind you, but we have committed to saying a decade each night on the weeknights, focusing on special intentions as we pray. This is different for me, since I've never been keen on rote prayer, and haven't had too much exposure to praying the rosary. But I'm finding that the chance to pray together is so satisfying that it trumps my discomfort and unfamiliarity with the format. So here's to turning over new leaves this fall ... in the dark!

HAPPY MERCY DAY

Here you can see Meg and I celebrating the post-lunch-warmth with Sister Admi (L) and Auntie Lydia (R). These are two women of Mercy if ever I met them. Sister Admi has served Guyana for several decades in many capacities: as a teacher, tutor, hospital administrator, community director and bringing communion to the sick. She has been an invaluable source of care and support to the volunteers in Guyana, always checking in with us and helping people like me work through community finances, 101. Auntie Lydia is not a sister, but lives at the convent and might as well be one as far as I can tell. She is the spunkiest 80-somthing you're ever likely to meet. She's "a little bit diabetic", and struggles with sight, but that doesn't slow her down. She works in the dietary department of the hospital three days a week and takes communion to the sick on those days as well. She works weekends and holidays to give other people a break. I want to show Mercy like these ladies when I'm in my 80s.

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My new community members have arrived, so please join me in welcoming Meg Uplinger and Gavin Murphy to 50 Pere St., top flat!



We just moved in together last weekend, and immediately went on dead-roach-detail, which proved bountiful, as you will see in the picture. Other adventures include chaperoning the boys from the orphanage at a family fair at the Presbytery the day after Gavin and Meg arrived (what stamina!), a community jog on the seawall, a joint effort to drain two five-gallon water bottles in five days, singing songs in what might be spanish, LOUDLY, and enjoying Guyanese cuisine. We even got a new puppy (in the picture). We're open to suggestions for names. More soon, as we're still taking care of some of the "business" of living together ... say a prayer for continued peace in the wake of elections. Things have gone wonderfully so far.