On the way to the house building site yesterday, Br.
Dismas stopped to pick up his friend, Francisco. Francisco is a member of the
local parish where he is responsible for teaching all of the altar boys. He is
also a very good man, who has freely given up several of his days to work on
the house for Juanita and her children.
In broken Spanish we tried to talk to with Francisco
on the ride, but had to rely on Br. Dismas to translate most things. In that
conversation, we learned that it was Francisco’s daughter Emily’s ninth
birthday.
I then asked Br. Dismas if we could stop on the way
home after work and sing to her “Happy Birthday” (in English, of course). He
thought that was a great idea. We didn’t tell Francisco or the others on the
team that we were going to do it. We just left it a surprise.
So at the end of the day when we pulled up to
Francisco’s cinderblock house, we asked him to go and get his daughter so we
could sing to her. She must had gotten quite a kick when she came to the gate
and saw eight of us all covered in oil and dirt from the day. Br Dismas introduces
us as the Grand Gringo Choir and we did a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday”
while standing in a narrow gravel street between cinder block houses. Emily’s
smile was priceless and when we were done, she laughed and said something like
“God’s blessing to you all”. What a beautiful thing for a nine year old to say.
That simple encounter with Emily really made our day, as I am sure it made hers
as well. I can only imagine what she told the kids at school today!
Matthew
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