The Radio, traditional dancing, and St. Paul... and a scrape

I had a very enjoyable, and very varied weekend. On Friday night the seminarians held a night to

Seminarians

mark the month of May as the month of Mary. Each diocese put on something - some of them sang, some of them danced, and one of them in particular had a song composed that reminded me of the music of the Spanish Tunas, university groups from the middle ages that went from house to house singing to their sweethearts - it was really something.

 The Diocese of Chitre, an area known for its folk brought some traditional dancers. The men wear simple white shirts, a hat known as a pintado, and a small bag known as a chacara. This is still an outfit that is seen quite often here at formal events. The women wear long dresses known as polleras (literally chicken dresses - the long skirts would have been used long ago to shoo chickens from the house etc). They also use very elaborate head dresses which are highly symbolic. The head pieces were originally made from a combination of pearls and whitened fish bones - nowadays they are made from plastic, unless you want to spend an absolute fortune and have one made of pearls.

On Saturday I spent the day preparing for some talks I am due to give next weekend, and then, in the

evening, I went with a group of seminarians to Radio Maria, the Catholic radio station. This is part of an international organisation which operates also in Ireland. However, I don't think that in Ireland it has anything like the listenership that it has in Panama. Each week the seminarians do a one-hour slot which involves a biblical reflection (normally on the following day's gospel) and then a discussion on some topic. On Saturday we were talking about power - it actually turned in to quite an interesting conversation.

On Sunday morning I went to St. Rita's Parish to help with masses there and then, at lunch time, I was invited by a friend of mine who is Panamanian, from a Chinese background. We went to the old colonial part of the city and had a great chat and a chance to catch up on all the news, as well as sharing ideas for various activities.

When Claudina left me home I went with a group of seminarians to see the new film on the life of St. Paul. I have to say that I enjoyed it very much - I hadn't really expected to! After the film we went to get something to eat and then, after a very enjoyable evening, we managed to jam the minibus against the roof of the garage. This seems to be something that happens from time to time and they were able to free it before too much damage was done - other than to the driver's ego!