Markets, Saints, and Peruvian Jazz

Today was all about final prep for the week´s work and the arrival of the team tomorrow.
When I was here last year, I interviewed a civic leader at Santa Maria de Jesus and found the guy to be a spiritual guru. Problem was, the audio track of the video was corrupted beyond repair and the interview was unable to be used in the documentary. It was important enough to Shawn to feature this man in the next evolution of the documentary and so we scheduled an interview with him today to coincide with prep work for next week's team. Diana and I had the opportunity to wonder the village for a bit and photograph what is my favorite spot in this country, the market in the town square. I wont bore you with my overly exuberbtant description of the place other than to say that to walk into this market is to walk out of our daily reality. Thirty seconds in and I dont hear anything but the rapid fire shutter of my camera´s shutter blending like a rythm section for the music of that place. Awesome.
The interview went well and the new mic I brought was spot on perfect. It was interesting to interview this guy again and witness the continuity and congruence of his personhood and spirituality 12 months later. This guy is the real deal.
I was blessed and gifted to spend time with Karen Rodas this evening as the prep team met Karen and 4 of "her boys" from the orphanage for dinner at Sol Latina, one of the coolest spots in all Antigua. Great food, Peruvian music that sounds like jazz with a twist of fluatist center. Describing this place is difficult. It feels like Rick's Place from Cassablanca. It is run by an ex-patriated musician who appears to like red wine as much as does the music he plays. There is an international presance of people here and the language changes as you pass each table. The scene is far removed from the villages where such meals never occur. Tomorrow, reality arrives full force; the teams will arrive and the tasks of sorting and organizing a ton of donations begins. This hotel has been nearly silent. Soon, it will be deafening.
But back to Karen. We talked for nearly an hour about her orphanage and the work there. She tells me about her 13 year old daughters love for the children at the orphanage and the challenges she endures as her mother and father give their lives to the children. She is in the presence of an angel in her mother but the relationship is as it should be, she is her daughter and Karen, her mother. I need to also mention that Karen´s husband is full time at this place. I shared with Karen that I would like to return her for an extended stay and write a book about her and the orphanage. She just smiled and said nothing. I know she has a hard time understanding my admiration of her and my fascination with the faith of her life. I explain to her that the West needs examples like her but she still doesn´t understand. All the more reason I propose to write about her life work. Knowing how my mind works and how my committments begin from moments like this, I laid in bed and wrote the preface in my head.