Es Su Casa, Continued

Hola!

This is our delayed post about our day Tuesday!

We woke up in Uayma to a beautiful breakfast buffet made by our friends from the parish. During breakfast, we received a gift of traditional Yucatecan candies that the mayor sent for us to try! Afterwards we toured the rest of the church, including a climb to the top of the roof to look over the village! The church itself is gorgeous and is uniquely inspired by Arab culture - the only one around here designed in this way.

After the tour of the church, we had to say our goodbyes to Padre Felix. His joy and kindness will remain with us long after we are home! I’m talking with one of the local parishioners after dinner last night, Tricia found out that the man she was talking to had a friend named Don Emilio who makes pottery and invited us to visit him! When we arrived, we got to see the kilns he had built in his backyard and he did a full demonstration for us on his potters wheel! He talked about the materials he uses to make his items and the process they go through until they’re ready to be sold. It was a truly memorable experience!

The last part of our journey was a visit to a cenote nearby. A cenote is a natural sinkhole that is formed by collapsing limestone which reveals underground water. The cenote was beautiful and we were able to go for a swim! We hit a little snag in our day when our van broke down in the cenote parking lot, but the staff at the cenote were so friendly and helped bring a village mechanic to us. We were on the road after a few hours and arrived back at the mission house to find that Sylvia, the lovely woman who coordinates the family sponsorship program for the mission, had made us a delicious meal complete with dessert! We were overwhelmed with the kindness of Padre Felix, the cenote staff, and Sylvia all day and are deeply grateful! As many people have told us since we arrived in Yucatan, we truly felt like “Es Su Casa” (like this is our home).