Farewells, Celebrations and a Hike!

Farewells, celebrations and a longggg hike are all part of Fall Break - a week that is quickly ending all too quickly.
Let's rewind the week ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Saturday, the 13th-was time to experience a Filipino birthday party of one of the choir members in the Saturday night choir I sing in. Here is the main course:

It took all day to roast the pig. The finishing touches was to get the skin crusty! This was done in the backyard of their home in the city.

Do you feel sorry for this pig?

Have you ever looked a pig in the eye? 

Would you be able to take a slice out of him and eat it?

Before the Filipino celebration we had.............................

OUR LADY OF FATIMA CELEBRATION

It is the 95th anniversary of Our Lady's appearance at Fatima in Portugal.

At noon the church bell rang 13 times for the Angelus. All were outside to pray the angelus and then begin the procession.

Parishioners came from St. Andrew's Parish and Our Lady of the Mountains. The rosary was prayed in Spanish and English.

Father Ariel and Father Marcos,along with Deacons Bill and Reynaldo  were present for the celebration.

Friday was a sanity break from school. I had planned on being in school one day by myself with no one to bother me so that I could collect all the evidence needed to prove the Self-Study book written for our accreditation visit in February. ( The book should be going to print the first week of November! WHEW!!!)

My mistake was putting an ad before Fall Break in the newspaper, online and parish bulletins for a 7th and 8th grade teacher for which I need to hire by the end of October. Usually only a few people answer my teachers' ads. This time I had at least eight prospects. So lots of impromptu interviews, passing out applications, answering their questions and in between I did get most of the evidence collected and filed and found out what I still need from the teachers. My secretary and I worked together Wed. and Thurs. as she is new starting the last week of September. After spending Monday-Thursday in school I knew I could not sit at my desk one more day.  I needed the great Arizona outdoors.

I found a very good hikng partner-the first person who can walk faster than me.

We did a 12 mile round trip hike of Carr Canyon about 8 minutes from school. I had hiked it once under a full blue moon. It was different doing it totally in daylight.

I don't know how high up we were but I could see the dirt road winding down below that we had followed to get this high.

A wall of rocks held in by a mesh fence was on the road we hiked too.

Our green hills from the monsoon rains are now gone with the monsoons ending about the 2nd week of September. There will be a few rains during the winter but the green hills won't come back till the 2nd week of June when the monsoons start again.

To my surprise towards the end of the hike I saw five horses on the hillside. I don't believe they were wild as there was a  fence at the very bottom of the field by the road we hiked on.

I don't think they will get fat eating off of this hill.

This week we had two farewells. Neither of them were welcome and one was very sad.

Thursday night, my PTSO Officers (Parent-Teacher-School-Officers), along with Fr. Ariel and myself went out to eat to say good-bye to the Glandon Family. They were leaving Fort Huachuca and heading to Fort Hood in Texas for a new job. These are some of the hardest working PTSO officers I have ever had and  a rare  group where we all had fun together at the planning meetings and the events themselves.

Their daughter Kiara came to our Camp Franciscan at our Motherhouse this past June. We had a very cold yard sale at the Glandons to raise money for our plane tickets. We pray that they will come back some day to Sierra Vista.

This is the story of our school-a very mobile student and teacher population because of our Army Base that employs about 10,000 people-army and civilian.

 A very sad farewell was to the Border Patrol Agent who was killed by friendly fire as the three agents on horseback checked out a tripped sensor at about 1:00am in the middle of the desert in Naco, AZ - five miles from the Mexican border.

The funeral took place at the Mormon Temple less than a mile from our school.

As Sr. Anna and I went past the Mormon Temple the morning of the funeral around 7:10am, there were already about 20 Border Patrol horses in the parking lot and many Border Patrol vehicles.

The funeral took place at 10:00am with about 1,000 people attending.

I came down the road again at about 9:20am. I had to stop on the road as the procession of Border Patrol Agents on horseback was coming towards me. Two fire trucks held up a U.S.flag over the road as the horses went under the flag followed by a wooden wagon carrying the wooden casket of the fallen Border Patrol Agent. His horse came behind him-riderless with the stirrups turned backwards. It was a very sad day for our city and for all Border Patrol Agents.

It's a sight I won't ever forget.