Theology 2 in Venezuela #14

(By Alan Paul Eilen)

Day 11 (July 26, 2007)

Not surprisingly, we kind of slept in a little bit this morning – got up around 7:00 AM. We went as a group to visit Fr. Steve Woods parish in the city of Puerto Ordaz. He has a inner city parish and a German dog (Weimerheimer) named Humboldt, along with a Gato (Cat), who are kind of the mascots of the place. The cat has taken a vow of celibacy, whereas Humboldt has sired two litters of puppies that have been raffled off to raise funds for the parish. In the afternoon, Antonio drove us to the La Lloizna Park with our guide from the parish Enrico. This was a pretty cool park, what with a great view of the waterfalls of the Caroni River (similar to the one in this picture, which is actually of the Gran Sabana) and paths and stepping-stones across portions of the lake/river and the park. Unlike the other park (Cachamay), their was no zoo. Nonetheless, we say a near extinct small animal off the path, a tree snake and some bees – Michael irritated one to the point that he got stung. In the evening, we got together with a group from the barrio of La Laguna. We introduced ourselves (name, age, place of origin, diocese, and home parish) and sang songs (Mary did an operatic piece and Stephen sang with guitar his song: “Soul of Christ”. They both did a great job. Before saying ‘goodbye’ a young boy (@ 11 years old) played the drums with a couple of sticks – we all joined in a sang and clapped our hands. It was a nice visit. Oh, I almost forgot. Earlier in afternoon, before Mass at 6:00 PM, we were entertained with a children’s program of dance and song. They even got the rest of us out there, but I think we set back cultural relations a few decades with our bad dancing.