Yuscaran Yearnings

Saturday we were scheduled to meet Fr. Dagoberto in Yuscaran at 9:00 A.M. We left late due to the old man being slow getting out of the building. Didn’t matter because when we got there, Dago was teaching a class, and told me in 30 minutes he would be done. Right, an hour and half latter, he was ready to rumble. In the meantime, we wandered around the town a bit, and relaxed in the pretty town square.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
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Duane is keeping a sharp eye on them

                
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Art??

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An outhouse and shower for a nearby shack

After the rather long wait, Dago loaded up his truck, and I do mean loaded, the back full of people. We started off following him, heading supposedly for Lainez, a town up on the top of a mountain which sported the first Episcopal church in the Department. It was a long, dusty and windy road. At times, ‘road’ was too generous a description. Dago was dropping people off, picking people up and dropping them off all the way up the hill. From the back seat, I heard continuously, “where are we going?”, “ is this safe?”, “What is he doing?”…….. I didn’t have a gun.

There wasn’t much of a town visible when we reached the top. The central area consisted of an unfinished church building, an escuela (school), and a couple of other buildings. Down the hill was also an impressive tree, called by the locals the Tree of Love. A nice little pavilion nestled under the outspread branches of the tree. On a hot day, it was very pleasant in the shade of the Tree of Love.

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Well it looked interesting to me

As did this

The roads up the hill were pretty frightening at times, but kinda fun. The road in the picture below looks like an interstate highway by comparison. The other picture below shows the smoke from the wildfires that were burning all over the country. After disastrous rains last summer and fall, the normal dry season has been particularly harsh. We had one small rain shower while we were there. The people don’t have anything, then God just seems to dump more hardships on them.

After checking the Tree of Love and the partially built church, we visited with Fr. Dagoberto’s family for a little while, then jumped in the car for another exciting drive to a little town, Zarzal, Dago’s home town. I took one of my favorite pictures in Zarzal last year, a beautiful little urchin.

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I didn’t see her this year, but i left a copy of the picture for her parents. I did get a shot of the other little girl above. Naturally, my apprentice has exactly the same shot. I swear I felt her camera resting on my shoulder.

After a short stop in Zarzal, we went back to Yuscaran the back way. Quite a drive. Back in Yuscaran we had a couple of hours to kill, so we hung around the square and took pictures as usual. No great surprise, huh?

Some shots from the square.

This little vixen came up to Fr. Reid and I while we were sitting, relaxing on the square. She chattered away and posed with her little friend. She was full of herself, and she just glowed with personality. Her friend was a little more shy.

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A couple of old codgers on the square. And the pretty fountain.

We attended a church service in Yuscaran, then headed back to Zamorano, and ate again at the La Casona Del Valle Restaurante. Another long, rewarding day. God is good. Always.