Lazy Sunday

wasn’t so lazy.

I started by waking up at 6 to go make some off-the-record breakfast (which is a story in and of itself). Basically, I found out that breakfast was going to be water that was heated up the afternoon before and yams with a chance of bread. After a day of only having semi-warm water and old bread, I decided not to risk the near morning starvation by having a friend bring me eggs and bread the night before. So I woke up got and made my way to the kitchen, with “my pantry” in tow (honey, bread, tea, tomatoes, pimon, & eggs). As Blaise and I were finishing up my 3 egg omelet with toasted bread accompanied by tea with honey, the guy who is in charge of breakfast. I had told him a few days before that I would like to eat a little early because I had some students coming to help me in the garden at 7h. He gave me a piece of bread, the previously heated water, and a bag of tea the night before, not knowing that I had plans of my own. Well I think the point got across that people who work need to eat food. You can imagine the grin on my face as I walked away from the busy as a bee Blaise (who was cooking an omelet sandwich for himself, which I gave him as a sign of gratitude) working in front of an awe-struck monk who was probably still trying to get over how big my omelet was. Sorry dude, but I work my ass off in the garden and I put up with all of the food save the slimy gumbo sauces, which a handful of monks don’t even eat. It’s no secret that the American loves and needs his breakfast. If you can’t help me out a little bit then you had better believe that I am going to go behind your back to make sure that my tummy is happy.

After eating, I went straight to the garden and started working. Blaise came out, but only to tell me that he wasn’t feeling well and had to finish his morning prayers. Luckily two of the ten students that I asked to come and help showed up. I gave them the rest of the monks breakfast, consisting of yams and rice, and then got down to business. Part 1 of my garden project was to clear the paths of the rock pieces and clear out the trees on the South side of the garden from all of the old mason bricks that were tossed there during the construction of the monastery. We worked up until mass, at which point I darted back into the monastery, showered, and made it to mass in time for the gospel and my favorite, the 40+ minute homily. At least this one was in French. But he lost me on the fifth word, as I didn’t know what it meant.

Anywho, I bolted after communion and went straight back to the garden. Shortly after that the lunch bell rang and I managed to get a few extra places set for my little workers. Lunch came and went with the blink of an eye and before I knew it we were back to work, except now the sun was in full force. Luckily, the work we were doing, thanks to our earlier efforts, was now in the shade of the cleared out trees. We finished building the first half of the wall and were gathering the random toe stubbers throughout the garden and placing them as supports for the backside of the wall when I was called upon by John de la Croix. Apparently the community doesn’t work on Sundays (more on this later) and my workers had a lot to do at home on Sundays, generally speaking. He asked me to “set them free” and without explicitly saying it to stop working for the day. We finished our current task and then I let them go, at our previously determined stopping time. And then I went on to water the entire garden and clean up some random things around the garden getting it ready for the week. So much for stopping.



I am craving a donut right now.