Friday the 18th of January....... Flight from Dublin to Paama Via Newark airport. Our flight out was at 9AM, we needed to be there 3 hours beforehand as the destination was America. The only bus that suited the time would have had me in the airport with over an hour before I could check in. Thankfully my Daddy was able to bring me and at that hour of the morning, we were at the airport in an hour. When we arrived at the airport my dad spent a couple of minutes showing me how I was going to get over to the bus when I got back, for I was flying from terminal 2, not terminal 1 like I usually do when I fly out from Dublin. Equip with info of how to get over to the bus I grabbed my bag, said my goodbyes and headed in to meet the others. Even though Fr Jim rang me as I got to the door and told me what desk they were at I still went in the wrong direction when I got inside..... Panama was off to a great start 😀As we waited in the check-in queue two guys looking very official and important came over to us. They asked us a few questions. I was intrigued as to who they were so in pure me style I asked them. They were American customs guys. We checked in our bags and off it was to Amerian customs. The guy asked me a load of questions. When I told him I was going to World Youth Day he asked if the Pope would be there. Once through customs, we kept going through security and then to our gate. For some reason we did not stop to look around duty- free, I think we were all so tired that we just wanted to sit. We chilled and waited for our plane to arrive. Breakfast on the plane was pancakes.... Yum. I got coffee with breakfast. As I was not given sugar with my coffee I thought the little pack I got with my breakfast was sugar so I put it in my coffee...... It was not sugar but salt. When she came around again I got coffee with sugar.
All 5 of us survived the 2 plane journeys and the layover in Newark. In Newark we split up. As it happened I stayed with the Kehoe's. We were amazed by the food ordering method, there were tablets at all the seats. I just got a smoothy, so I felt like I was being healthy. Everything ran on schedule. There was a bit of a delay when we arrived in Panama due to a long queue at customs but we got through with no problems. A taxi had been ordered for us and he was in the airport awaiting our arrival. So once we got through customs it was off to our hotel. The taxi driver couldn't get out at the barrier as he stayed longer than he had paid for...... So there was a further delay but we got there eventually. The guy at the desk in the hotel was lovely. He agreed that it would be okay to not check out the following morning until 1 o clock rather than the usual check out time of the hotel. This meant we had a bit extra time to chill and do stuff around the hotel. I was so tired and delighted to get to my room and lie down. It worked out that we all had a room to ourselves...... And the rooms were huge. After relaxing a bit, letting people know I was safe (it was like 2 r 3 am at home so didn't text many people) and doing some internetting it was off to bed for me.
On Saturday morning I woke very early but eventually got back to sleep. I got up when my alarm went off, went over to Aoife, we knocked for Steven but when we got no response we headed down for breakfast. After a long breakfast, we waited for the others, we went back to our rooms, packed somewhat and went down to the pool. Outside it was already very warm but the pool was freezing when I first got in. Didn't stay too long as it was only a small pool but it was lovely to relax a bit. After we got cleaned up we had mass and then the guy who was due to collect us and bring us to the parish was waiting downstairs for us. So we finished packing and headed down.... The Kehoe's were ready before me and they knocked on my door and waited for me which was lovely, I had only met them a week earlier and we seemed to instantly click which was great. Once we were all down (one had gone off to a conference so we only had 4) and checked out it was time to go out to the parish.
As we arrived at the church the parish group were singing and dancing in welcome to us. There was a bit of hanging around in the Church as we waited for our families. The 3 lads were with one family while Aoife and I were together with another family. I was delighted as I was afraid I was going to be on my own. We had to wait a bit longer than the lads for our family. While we were waiting around in the church it was really warm so we had to keep drinking water and had to take advantage of the shade....... We hadn't quite got used to the weather yet. As we were sitting inside a man came in. We knew he wasn't local. He looked like a leader of a group. We got talking to him and quickly discovered he was from New Zealand although I showed how bad I was at telling accents by asking if he was from a totally different country. We had been talking for a good while before he told us he was a Bishop...... He didn't look like one, he was dressed so casually in shorts, sandals, and a shirt. I really liked this guy and loved our encounters with Bishop Charles Drennan over the week.
Our family finally came to bring us to the house, the mammy of the house and the youngest son. The mammy had no English but the son had okay English. The house was just down from the church so it was very handy. We got to the house and met the father and other son who was in the army. The father had pretty good English. We got a lovely cold glass of juice on our arrival, much needed. We were very impressed with the house, there was air con and Wi-Fi, sure we were sorted. Aoife and I thought we were coming over to nothing so we were in luxury to have the basics. And the bed was huge....... By the time we left Aoife had figured out this was not a gigantic bed but two beds pushed together! There was loads of room for a third person in it. With the AC I always looked forward to returning home in the evenings as the heat outside was great. Once we had settled in it was back down to the Church to meet the others and tip into town to explore. The original plan was the boys would come up and collect us as they passed on the way to the metro. But the family said they would bring us to the Church. We tried to explain that the others were going to collect us but the family were just not getting it. So we hopped into the car and off we went. Aoife text Steven as we left to let him know of the change of plan.
We had our first Panama metro experience on the Saturday afternoon/ evening. I would love to say it went without a glitch but that wouldn't be entirely true. In order to get into town, we had to change metro line so we got off one metro, went down the stairs and then went into another metro station. When we got to the metro we realised that we had actually just come back into the same station we had just come out of....... We were supposed to go around the corner in order to get to the other line. So off we went down the stairs again in order to go into the right metro station. After that small bit of getting to know the metro and the stations it was off in to town. In the station, we met a lovely staff member who helped us...... Poor Aoife nearly came out married, the guy was really hitting on her even though he was at least twice her age. Before going down to the old city we stopped for a coffee. We found a spot with a lovely view of the water. Then it was down to the old city, it really was a lovely spot. After some exploring, we sat for dinner. We met our first foreign pilgrims from Porto Rico, there was a great buzz around the place and by the time I got back to my Panamanian home I had 2 new friend requests on Facebook.
Sunday morning and our first mass in the parish with other pilgrim groups. The main celebrant of the mass was our new friend from New Zealand, the Bishop we met the previous day. At the end of mass, we were treated to some traditional dancing from the country. Then we were given lunch in the parish, a joint effort of the locals and the Dublin group. At one stage during lunch, our new friend ended up at our table. I was happy, I got my photo with him. The last WYD I met a foreign Bishop and here I was again, my second WYD, meeting a foreign Bishop. In the afternoon we went out to the Canal and got to watch a big cruise ship come in. The family that the guys were staying with brought us so we brought them for dinner after. By the time we got to a restaurant for dinner I was dying, I couldn't eat but I kept smiling, I didn't want my feeling crap to ruin the evening for everyone. Once we got back to the house I took 2 paracetamol and a Motilium and I just lay on the bed, every now and again I said something. According to Aoife, I was lying so straight I looked dead. I didn't know what was wrong me, all I knew is that I needed to give the meds time to kick in. After a while, I got some energy back and was okay. Looking back that might have been heat stroke or just a killer migraine that came out of nowhere. The jetlag didn't help the situation. But the main thing was that it passed.
When we arrived to the Church on Monday morning we met Bishop McKwoen from Derry, a sound guy. My encounters with him were always so nice during the week. Although telling him that I had studied Theology backfired as he put me on the spot on Sunday. We went out to visit sick people in the parish on Monday morning. This was moving. The lady I went in to was bed bound but she had a great joy about her when we went into her. We bumped into our New Zealand Bishop a couple of times. I think it was on Monday that the Bishop gave me his card. By Monday he had shortened my name to 'Mel', we had only met two days previous. Everyone that knows me knows how I hate my name being shortened. I said nothing though, it just kind of grew on me. The Parish gave us lunch and after we celebrated mass as a small group we went off exploring again, this time to the causeway where we sat for a drink or 2, just relaxing. Then we walked back a bit, taking it in and we stopped for dinner. We met Polish pilgrims on the causeway who sang to us...... We had a bit of crack with them. This was my 4th day with the group and I was only learning that one of the lads smoked!!!! I dunno how I missed that. When we got back to the parish there was music going on. Aoife and I only stayed a few minutes and then headed off as we were a bit tired.
Tuesday morning I can't remember what really happened but the excitement was building and WYD 2019 officially kicked off the Tuesday evening with the opening mass. What I do remember of Tuesday morning was that it did not start well for me. Our getting up routine was always to check our phones first, we were five hours behind Ireland so we had to catch up. I was not expecting the news I read. One of the girls sent me a photo on Whatsapp, not expecting it to be important I went on Facebook before opening that message. On Facebook, I saw that one of the Red nuns had died. I knew she was sick but I was not expecting her to go so soon. I really felt I would be home before she died. When I saw the post I was shocked. At first, I kept the emotion under wraps but I did shed some tears before we left the house as the news sank it. I realised that the message from Lindsay was to let me know that Sr Perpetua had passed away. When I opened the Whatsapp message I had wished I had opened that before I seen it on Facebook. After breakfast, we headed down to the church and did something. After a while, we headed into town, got lunch, did a small bit of exploring, got coffee and headed to the venue of the opening mass. We went into a Church when we were in the old city. I took this opportunity of prayer to bring my grief to God. I had taken time earlier in the parish to pray for Sr Perpetua but now I was ready to hand my grief to God so that I could enjoy the week. Looking back now, that handing over really did help, my sadness did not negatively impact the rest of the pilgrimage. When we were exploring Fr Jim identified a group from England and said we should go say hello. They were from Bermingham. As we spoke I realised they were the group that Fr Alan ended up coming with. As he wasn't with them at that time one of them told me they were meeting at 2.15 and I should come back, so I did but was told Fr Alan was off doing priestly stuff, hearing confessions. I was gutted, I couldn't believe I had met the group among so many pilgrims yet I had not met Fr Alan. They told me they would be out at a conference thing on the next day and I would definitely meet him there. This was the first I heard of this conference so was not sure I would get out to it..... It was a good bit out of the city. The group wanted a photo and then I headed back to my guys and we went to the venue. I text Fr Alan later to say hello. We were at the venue in plenty of time. To see the crowds gathering was wonderful. Dublin found us and we joined them under the bridge, shelter from the sun. While we waited for mass to start we chilled and I mingled a bit with foreign pilgrims. I got really excited when I saw Canadians...... I always get excited to see Canadians with my big brother living over there, the only thing is, unless they are from Toronto or Guelf I haven't a clue where they are from. At one stage one of the lads from the Dublin group appeared with cold Coke and crisps.... A very welcome refresher. As well as drinking plenty of water we needed to watch our sugar intake and keep that up too as a drop in sugar in the heat of Panama could lead to not feeling at all well. I've experienced a drop in blood sugar once and I didn't fancy experiencing it again. Mass kicked off and in went the headphones to get the English translation. It was hard to distinguish when mass started as people were mingling and not looking at the screens as much. Plus the book said one time and we were told another, I think mass started in the middle of the two times. Fr Jim left us in order to concelebrate the mass. After mass, he returned to us. Music was still playing so he brought us up closer to the front to enjoy it. We stayed for a bit and then left to get food. We passed subway which was packed so we kept walking and found a quieter place to eat. I just wanted to sit down. After dinner, it was back to the metro station to go home. There was mighty crack on the metro. There were a group f pilgrims singing beside us. Then Aoife suggested we sing the Fields of Athenry and low and behold all four of us gave it a bash. For a small group of four, we didn't do too bad. The bigger group who had been singing before us gave us some great encouragement.
On Wednesday the Catechesis sessions started. The New Zealand group who had been in the parish had left at this stage, including our new friend. Our morning sessions were led by a group from Australia known as Broken Bay Youth. They were a lovely group with great energy. It was obvious that they were filled with the Holy Spirit, sharing the message of the Lord. The sessions on Wednesday and Thursday morning consisted of praise and worship, games, testimonies, a talk from a Bishop and Holy Mass. During mass I noticed a lady at the back, I saw her name tag and her surname was Dowling. Because my granny was a Dowling I went over to her after mass. She was an American religious Sister but no relation to my Dowling relations in the States from what I could establish. Before we parted she gave me a little prayer book which was lovely. After Mass, we headed into town. We found a great place for lunch where we changed metros. Jacob left us after lunch as he had to go back as he had plans to do something. After lunch, we got on the metro into town. Fr Jim got off a couple of stops before us as he was going to the park to hear confessions for the afternoon. So it was just me, Aoife and Steven left. We continued into town and stopped for a drink. Aoife had got a Frappe on Saturday and persuaded me to get one today. It was delicious and much appreciated in the heat. When we were finished we set the location of the conference on Google maps and headed off. Someone had the wise idea to walk the whole way out. It was a task in the heat but we had plenty of water and we took our time. I think it took us just over an hour, what was hardest was the heat and we had one serious hill to get up in 32 degrees but with the help of God, we made it to the conference. The walk was a great chance for us to bound and have fun (as if sharing a room with Aoife wasn't enough of a chance to bond). When we got into the centre straight away I spotted Fr Alan...... I knew him instantly but had to wait for him to move to confirm it was him. When he sat down I told the others I was going to say hi. He had just arrived himself, he greeted me with a small hug. We chatted for a few minutes and he said he would come to find us in a while. We walked around, got snacks and went to sit. I was delighted to get chocolate as I had not had any since I arrived. We ended up sitting in the totally different direction than I told Fr Alan we would be. As the place was huge I decided to go over and tell him where we were. We talked some more and agreed to meet when the conference took a break. I got tired of waiting for him so we went on out towards the water and sat down. And low and behold I spotted Fr Alan. I shouted over at him and he came over to us. We were sitting on the grass so when I saw him coming towards us I had to get up to greet him with a full hug (I'm a hugger at heart and don't like 'improper' hugs). The four of us spoke a bit and then he left us. After a bit, we made our way back in but decided to go in a different door. We saw a big open area so we went exploring. There was music so we stayed to listen to that a while. As we were listening to the music I spotted the Bishop who had spoke at our morning session. As I had not caught his name I ran over to him to say hi and get his name. I generally would not do such a thing but at World Youth Day in a different country, on a different Continent, I felt it was perfectly okay to do something like that. After the music we went back in as the evening part of the conference was starting. I wanted to stay to hear Bishop Barron and was told he was first on. But when he was not appearing I suggested we head on. The others said they were okay to stay if I wanted but I was very conscious of them. I knew that I was tired and hungry so I felt they were probably the same. I said goodbye to Fr Alan and we headed out. We got a taxi to the Metro at Albrook. When we got to Albrook we walked around the shopping centre a bit and then headed back into town. We went to Subway for food..... we wanted McDonald's but they were not taking our food vouchers so Subway it was. We met more Canadian's in subway including a Bishop. Later in the week, we learned that the Canadian Bishop was not actually part of that group. They had just met him on the street and invited him for food. Very random but a perfectly okay thing to do at World Youth Day. After our food, it was home for us.... We were shattered.
Thursday...... After another morning led by the Aussies, it was off into town for lunch. Before we went down to the Church I had the opportunity to watch Sr Perpetua's funeral online which was nice. Although it did leave me a bit unsettled for the day, I acknowledged my feelings and got on with the day. At the morning session, the guy that gave his testimony was actually a seminarian, I couldn't believe it, he didn't look like a future priest, he was too cool and laid back. His testimony was great. I felt emotion build so went over to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel to sit with the Lord but there was a priest in there hearing confession so I had to get on with it. After lunch, we made our way to the park where Pope Francis was due to arrive soon. This was a hard afternoon as there did not seem to be any crowd control plans at the gates. It took us ages to get in and at one stage we thought that we were not going to get into the park. We knew there was no way we could stay where we were either for we were like sardines subjected to pushing. Groups were forming chains which made the pushing worse. I honestly thought someone was going to be crushed. I was amazed to see this pushing happening by people who called themselves Catholics. If people were just patient all would be okay. I remember one stage the pushing got so bad it looked like I was going to lose the others as well as me getting hurt. I just shouted out STOP and reached out for Steven who was behind me. I still find it amazing that Steven and I did not exchange words at that stage but when I reached for his hand he reached for mine and brought me back to the fold, a really nice moment in the middle of the chaos. We finally got into the park and while the crowd inside was big we were able to breathe and move around, we left the crushing situation behind. As it happened we got a really good spot by the road that the Pope was due to come down. I decided to leave my phone in my bag and look at the Pope with my own eyes rather than through a camera which I had done at the two Papal audiences which I attended previously. I was not overly bothered to get close to the Pope but Fr Jim found me a spot with a decent view so I stepped in and it really was a great spot. I watched him pass with my own eyes as Aoife got a video. I missed what the Pope said as I had forgotten my headphones. When I had realised I did not have them we thought it would be okay as we had planned to be with Dublin and we knew some of them had radios. But we were not with Dublin. It was a lovely evening once we got through the crowd control problem. The funniest part of the evening had to be when the lady beside us nearly sat on Aoife's head as we were sitting on the ground. I didn't actually see it myself but Aoife told me. When all was over we headed to get food. We found a restaurant in a supermarket, I had seen it earlier, it wasn't the nicest but we were glad to get food. We went looking in the alcohol section as Fr Jim wanted to get something for the family he was staying with. The alcohol was dirt cheap.... madness. We got ourselves some non-alcoholic treats, chocolate etc and then we continued the rest of the way home.
Friday morning was a bit different. The Aussies led the session but we did not have a Catechesis talk from a Bishop even though there was a Bishop in attendance who celebrated Mass. Dublin invited us over to the little park for Mass as they were of the opinion there was no Bishop for mass in the Church. I decided to stay put and let the others go over. I just felt I needed some me time. It was a lovely morning indeed, we played games, had some song and listened. I think this was the morning we got into groups with fellow pilgrims. The reason for these groups was to reflect on how the week had gone for us. The theme of the talk we heard was reconciliation. So priests were dotted around the Church hearing confessions. Then we had mass. At the end of mass, we were told of a board that the parish had that we were all invited to write something on. When I came back with the group I wrote on it. When we were finished in the Church I headed over towards the park to meet the others. On the way I met Fr Jim, the guys were just behind him. They had to bring chairs back to the Church. When all was done I could not miss my chance to get photos with other pilgrims. Since coming to Panama I had really got into this selfie business. The Aussies were my main attraction for photos. After photos were taken and the board signed we tipped into town for lunch. I think this was the day I was amazed by what a foreign pilgrim was using as a musical instrument, a silver thing with another silver thing to strike it. He made noise with it by rubbing the smaller instrument against the bigger one. He gave the instrument to me to have a go at it. He showed me what I needed to do..... Twas mighty crack indeed. After lunch, we headed to the park for the Stations of the Cross with the Pope. I was going to leave the group to it as I did not want to go through the same experience as the day before again. And I needed alone time. Having had some me time in the morning I decided to go with them but was adamant that if there were crowd control problems I was not staying. On the way to the venue I seen a guy selling those cool umberella hats. I had seen them early in the week but when I decided I wanted one I could not find anyone selling them. When I seen them on the way to the park I shouted at Aoife who stopped so I could purchase one, then we joined the lads who had stopped further up. Fr Jim reminded us that if we were stopping to tell the group..... We just bit our lip, the night before he stopped at an ATM in the metro station without telling us. We (Aoife) had to go back up the stairs to see where they were. No big crowds to contend with at the gate, we just walked straight in. Dublin were not where we expected but we stayed put. Next thing they found us and invited us over to the grass by the water so we went over. As we were going over some lady approached us as she seen that we were Irish. She too was Irish, a Presentation Sister working on foreign soil. She did not look Irish or a religious sister for that matter. She was lovely. Of course, this sparked excitement in me as I know a Presentation Sister. However, I am no good with surnames so could not tell her the Sisters name other than Mary. But I'm sure there are a few Mary's in the order. It was roasting. I saw a few of the Dubs in the shade so I went over there for a bit. Fr Jim was doing his checking in and missed me as I was lying down. One of the Dubs pointed me out to him. While we waited for the Pope to arrive we mingled with each other and other pilgrims. Some joined in music playing with other pilgrims. While others made cardboard houses and sought shelter there. At the end, Fr Jim asked us if we wanted to see if we could get close to the road to see the Pope as he passed by. Aoife and I declined as we were happy enough that we had seen him the day before, surely he had not changed in 24 hours. When all was over we went for food. Fr Jim wanted to go for a drink after. Aoife and I were keen to get back as we hadn't really got to spend time with our family. So we left the lads and strolled to the metro to go home. I think this was the evening we met Fr John from America as we were walking from the metro to the house. We had the habit of saying hello to everyone we saw as we walked back to the house. We said hi to one guy and when he heard hello back in fluent English with no Panama accent, we got excited and stopped to talk to him. And me been me asked for a photo, which Aoife jumped in for too. Thene we left him. I think his name was Fr John and I think he was from the States. Son Fidel was heading to Puru the next day so we really wanted to chat him before he went. When we got home Fidel was not there. Aoife was about to go into the shower room when we were told that Fidel was in the shower. After a while, we realised that he was not in the shower but at a baby shower....... The language barrier got in the way there. As Fidel was out we did not get to chat him before he headed away. Before he left on Saturday morning he came into the room to get stuff out of the wardrobe. Both Aoife and I happened to wake slightly as he was in the room. We said goodbye and wished him well. When we woke up later we said how we were glad we got to say goodbye.
Saturday morning. After mass we headed towards the site of the Vigil. I was expecting to walk the whole way but we got the metro to the station that was closest to the site. When I realised how far the walk was from the entrance gate to our allocated area I was glad we did not walk the whole way to the site, in that heat we would have died! From the metro to the site some of the locals lined the streets offering us water refills and others used hoses to wet pilgrims, I dodged them but am sure it cooled pilgrims down. Before we got to the site we had to join a queue to collect our food bags. With bags over our shoulders, it was time to take off on the last leg of our journey. When we got to our spot we set up our space, ate something and chilled, we were wrecked. At one stage I thought I saw Fr Jim sitting on a camp bed and I thought he was great to carry that. I later realised he hadn't brought a camp bed. After a while I wanted to go wandering, I would have been fine on my own but invited Aoife for the company and to make sure I didn't get lost. Was glad I brought her after as I decided to buy drinks for the gang and I didn't have enough hands to carry everything. Before we left the parish that morning Ger gave us tickets for close to the front, T2 and T5. So after a while, we headed up, leaving our stuff where it was trusting all would be okay. As we got closer to the front we realised that two of the group had T2 tickets and three had T5 tickets, T5 was closer to the front. We pleaded with the ticket checkers to let us all in and then a guy who looked really important just motioned for Aoife to keep coming. We had to sacrifice Fr Jim though. We hadn't realised we were missing him until we had walked in a bit more. The guys at the first gate took Aoife's ticket which meant she had nothing to show checkers but because she was with us she got past with no problem. That was until we got to the last ticket checker at the stage. The whole, 'she's with us' wasn't working when she couldn't produce a ticket. Thank God they finally let her in. We had great seats. We claimed our seats, left our bags down and went over to get closer to the dancing that was going on. As we were wandering one of the Bishops I seen looked really familiar but I couldn't put my finger on who he was. Next thing Aoife made a comment asking if it was the New Zealand Bishop that was in our parish. The penny dropped. I couldn't place him at first because he was all dressed up in Bishop's gear, he had only seen him in casual gear. Equip with this knowledge that it was him we went over to say hello, I got very excited to see him. I think this excitement was a mixture of the atmosphere we were in and the fact that we met this down to earth Bishop again, we thought once he left the parish that was it. It was lovely to see him. We chatted and we mentioned that we did not know him all rigged out. I even made that comment, 'So you really are a Bishop'. We joked around and he said that he did not believe it himself..... He still looked at himself and wondered what all 'this' was. Charles is a relatively new Bishop so I think it is still sinking in a bit for him. I couldn't let this photo opportunity pass with him all dressed up. After Aoife took one of Charles and I the others got in and we got a group photo. We said our goodbyes and he wandered off. I did a bit more wandering and met more pilgrims. I was asked to take a photo of a group and I jumped in for a photo after. The time was approaching for the Pope to arrive. Some people stood along the barrier behind the seats, the barrier that kept us all safe from falling. Others lined up along the carpet coming up the middle. I remember having a conversation with a Capuchin friend of mine before about Pope Francis not been able to manage steps so I knew he wasn't going to go up that way, even though the guys on the ground made it look a bit like that. I stayed put at the back barrier. I wanted to shout over at the others who were at the carpet but I knew to shout over would have been a waste of time and energy. And if I moved out of my spot which was perfect I would not have got in. After a bit, the Pope came up in the Popemobile. I got a perfect view of him..... He was well close. This time, unlike Thursday evening, I decided to take a video. The video turned out very shaky as I did not want to look at him through a camera so I was trying to take a video and look at the same time. When the Pope got on the stage the evening continued with stories told through drama before the Pope spoke to us. Then we entered a time of prayer and adoration. There was a statue of Our Lady of Fatima on the stage. After the Pope left the stage the statue was processed off the stage, down the steps, and around the Park. The comment was made after by someone that this was so the Pope could slip away. While the statue was traveling I saw vehicles on the outskirts of the park and remember thinking, 'there he is.' We stayed at our seats until we were put out. Then it was back to our beds for the night, making a toilet stop on the way. Before I went to Panama people warned me of the spiders...... When we got back to our stuff the guys had a few spiders around there stuff, I was delighted that I had none. Some of the spiders were well big...... Scary stuff!!! I kept my distance as they negotiated getting rid of them. As we were all settled down, ready to sleep Steven suddenly slapped himself and said 'got him', myself and Aoife were like 'What the....' We were pretty sure there was nothing on him but Steven said he had felt something, I think he also said he was dreaming of spiders. With this incident out of the way, we settled back down and tried to sleep..... I think tried is the operative word, According to my Fitbit, I got about 3 and a half hours sleep. As a scout sleeping on the ground is not uncommon to me but when it is outside it is generally in a tent and I have space to ensure I'm not sleeping on bumps..... Although I generally do end up on one. Determined to sleep in my Bivvy bag I did. At first, I just wrapped my flag around me but then I decided I needed to get into the bag as it was just too cold. After we had returned to our spot from the stage and relaxed a bit I wanted to go for a wander and invited Aoife, I was taking the travel in groups very seriously. While out wandering we bumped into a girl, American I think, who was telling people about confessions available. They came up with the idea and got a priest who was traveling with them on board. After a while, they had a load of priests on board with the initiative, hearing confessions in various language. I thought it was a great idea, here in the middle of a park with 500, 000+ young people there was the opportunity to go to confession because a group felt it was important and the priests agreed. Fantastic, well done to those who came up with the idea. Having chatted this girl we continued wandering. We bumped into the Canadian we had met in Subway Wednesday night and we walked and talked with him. It was a pleasant surprise to bump into him among the huge crowds. We laughed about the Irish language and I think he found it very funny how Aoife said something or maybe it was how I said it, I can't remember. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. After our wander, it was back to our patch to bunk down for the night..... With the spiders. In Madrid, at WYD I vaguely remember that there were Adoration tents at the Vigil. I was disappointed that there was none in Panama but Ce la Vie.
Sunday morning...... After a very disturbed night of sleep, I was woken at about 5.55 by 'GOOD MORNING EVERYBODY..... GOOD MORNING' blaring over the speakers. Big shout out and thank you to the MC's there...... NOT!!! Mass was not due to start till 8, we did not need a rude awakening so early. We got up, ate etc and just chilled until the Pope arrived. We stayed sitting where we were as he passed and we saw him..... Sure he was above the crowd in his Popemobile. As mass finished we picked up our stuff and headed off. Fr Jim moved up to the front early in the morning to concelebrate mass so we decided not to wait for him as the crowd was huge. The crowds going out were so big I started thinking there would be a repeat of Thursday afternoon. However, on Sunday we had more space so no squashing, thank God. The four of us managed to stay together all the way. Well, there was a few times one of us got a little ahead but because of the crowd we stopped and waited for the others as soon as we could. The crowds settled a bit as we got out the gate. I think we took a wrong turn on the way out. We stopped at one stage so Jacob could check directions to the Metro. As we were sitting getting the directions a lady approached us to see if we were okay. When we told her we were looking for the metro she said it was up at the end of the road...... We got all excited. However, was not just at the end of the road!!! It was ages away!! But we trodded on in the heat and finally got there. When we arrived at the station there was a good crowd. This was the first time all week that we had to wait outside a station to get in. We usually saw the crowds outside the station and went off to get food or something instead. When we did get in I went through the barrier and separated from the others. So I waited for them, looking back at the crowd at the barriers. The workers in the station were only letting so many through the barriers at one time so as to avoid overcrowding inside. Probably a good idea as overcrowding in the station could result in somebody getting hurt. At least if the crowd was outside the space was open and people had more space to spread out. When the others got through we went for the metro. We got on and headed home. At least the walk from the metro station to the house was all downhill for we were wrecked.
When myself and Aoife got in we just collapsed on the bed. We were supposed to go away with our Panama family that afternoon but we were just not able. We picked up that where they wanted to bring us was by the Canal. Having been out at the Canal we just knew we did not have the strength to travel that far! So Mammy and son went without us. We rested some more, cleaned ourselves us and headed into town, the Bishop was bringing us out for dinner. We had agreed to meet the lads at the Church of St Francis. While we were walking to the Church we detoured into the square for some reason. We had time to spare so when I realised that the Cathedral was open I suggested we went in. We were not able to get in earlier in the week as it was closed. I realised on the Sunday that it was closed because it was being done up and the Pope rededicated the Altar or something when he was in the area. It was a lovely building. I was most impressed by the Tabernacle, the design was a Cathedral.
We stayed a few minutes and then headed to the Church. We found somewhere to sit. One of the lads rang us and said they were down at the Cathedral getting the Bishop so we walked back down. If we had known they were meeting the Bishop at the Cathedral we would have stayed there, my feet were killing me! When we got there Fr Jim was coming out of the Cathedral but without the Bishop who he had gone in for. Seemingly the Bishop was behind him as he left. So Fr Jim had to go back in. This time he came out with the Bishop and Fr Denis in toe. Time to go get food. We went to the restaurant that we had gone to on our first night in the parish. The conversation was great all evening. We did not know Fr Denis but the conversation flowed freely. Himself and the Bishop were traveling back the following morning. As we were saying our goodbyes I realised that the Bishop knew the one family I knew in his Diocese of Ferns. I really wanted to leave as the energy had dropped again and I was wrecked. We finally left. We left Jacob at a place to meet some of the Dublin crew. We did not stay with him as we were too tired. I think Aoife would have but she didn't want to leave me alone. Steven was going to go with Jacob I think but he decided not to in the end. We thought Fr Jim was going with the Bishop and Fr Denis but he left them and came to the metro station...... Much to our delight! It was home and straight to bed. I think we did our usual chatting before going to sleep. Before we left the lads we were told Dublin were having mass Monday morning at 9 AM. However, before we went to sleep we saw in the group chat that they did not have mass scheduled for the morning. So Aoife and I decided we would take our time getting up Monday morning.
When we woke on Monday we started with our usual routine of checking our phones. Next thing Jacob rang me to tell me they were having mass and asking if we were coming down. I told him we were only getting up and would meet them at their house around 10. After breakfast, we walked over. On the way we seen the Dublin crowd gathered at the stand band. I motioned for Bishop Donal to step away from them. We thanked him and said goodbye to him. I had hoped our visit to the lads would be a quick visit as I just wanted to relax in town but we stayed a while. We got a few photos and said goodbye to Fr Jim as he was heading away for a few days and Aoife and I headed on up to the metro. The lads said they would follow. On the way to the metro, we stopped in the park to talk to the Dubs. One of the lads was originally from Spain so spoke fluent Spanish, he had acted as translator at the first pilgrim mass in the parish. We were planning to get the family a card and wanted to write on it in Spanish but we had little Spanish so we asked him to translate something that we had written earlier. While he was doing that we said our goodbyes to the Dubs. I went over to Fr Seamus to say goodbye. He observed that every time we met it was at a religious gathering. He really complimented me, my faith and my work. I walked away feeling wonderful. When Aoife got her phone back with a big long translation it was off to the metro for us to go into town. We went to our favourite spot for a Frappee. Steven joined us soon after and we stayed a while before going towards the old city to buy presents. On the way back I was feeling somewhat deflated so asked the guys if it was okay if we went into the Cathedral which they had no problem with. Then we headed back to the Metro to go out to Albrook. All afternoon I was having dizzy spells which I was keeping an eye on and making sure I drank loads of water and got sugar into my body. As we walked around Albrook I decided to stop putting on a show and go back to the house. With the long day of travelling we had ahead of us on Tuesday I needed to be in good shape for it. So I told the others to stay and I would see them later. I went home and just rested. They eventually turned up at the door. Later Mammy and Son brought us down to Dominos. Unlike Dominos in Ireland you can sit down and eat your food in Dominos in Panama, it is a real restaurant. I was hungry but not overly hungry. I ate some pizza and the Coke gave me sugar. We had an early night as we had to be at the airport at 6.30 the next morning.
Tuesday morning Mammy and Daddy brought us to the lad's house as their family was bringing us to the airport. We put our bags in the car. Next thing Steven was sitting down stirring tea (I heard that tea was lovely, we got it one morning but it was too sweet for me) and the Mammy of his house was putting a plate of food in front of him. She offered us something but I couldn't, I was only half awake! We finally set off, the daughter, who had good English, brought us, it did not take too long. When we arrived we had a little bit of trouble finding the desk we were to go to but we found it and the queue was big. There was a load of Aussies in the same queue. The group who had led our Catechesis sessions were all there and a few more. We saw one of the girls inside who had loads of energy all week, she gave me a hug, she was lovely. We realised that the queue was not moving, everybody was giving out to the worker at the front. What was happening was that a queue had formed outside as well and they were letting all of them in first! We finally started moving. In the queue, we got chatting a Bishop and a priest, at two different times. We flew through security in Panama but had to go through a second security screening going into the place where we were to wait for our plane..... I had to throw out the bottle of water I had just bought! The flight went smoothly, I was not sitting beside the others but Aoife and Steven were just behind me. We were expecting Breakfast on the first flight...... We got a biscuit and coffee. When we landed in Newark we had to go through customs and collect our bags..... We were standing at the wrong luggage belt for our bags. When we collected our bags we had to pass another security officer and say hello. My laces were open, she told me to tie them so I did not fall. I told her I would but she insisted I do it there in front of her. I knew she expected me to properly tie them, I was not going to get away with just tucking them in. So with my laces tied we headed to get rid of our bags again. It was just a matter of handing them to a guy, no real delay. With bags given in for there journey to Dublin, we went for food. However, finding the terminal that we were getting our connecting flight proved challenging. We gave up looking and asked. In the terminal, we had to go through security again! We decided on Pizza for lunch. I was still a bit nervy with how I was feeling but I ate a good bit of my pizza. Then we went shopping. We separated. There was a funny moment in the duty-free. A lady shoved her boarding pass in front of me in silence. After an awkward silence, she asked if I knew where that (the gate) was. I dunno what made her approach me. As it happened I knew where the gate was, she was going to Dublin like us. Maybe she approached me because I looked Irish. I noticed that our gate had changed and texted the others. Our new gate was miles away. I headed down having bought nothing, the others followed me after. As I was waiting for the others I got chatting a couple from the US who were flying to Dublin. To my surprise, they were not staying in Dublin or going on to Galway. No, they were going to Kilkenny! I think he had a relative there. When the guys arrived one of them needed to go to the loo. He went back the way he came and had to walk a bit to get there. When I stood up for a wonder I realized that there were toilets right beside us. On my wander, I went into a shop and bought an airplane for one of the kids........ When I got home I could not find that airplane anywhere. Me thinks I left the little airplane on the big airplane. I returned to the guys after my walk and we started boarding a few minutes later. We were all together on the plane, Jacob and I were beside each other and Aoife and Steven in front of us. It was funny, I think the flight attendant thought Jacob and I were a couple, haha. I loved the flight attendant though. We got well looked after on that flight food wise, dinner which consisted of an appetizer, main course and dessert and breakfast about an hour before we landed. Dinner came out pretty soon after we got into the air. As the pilgrimage was at an end I decided to celebrate with a glass of wine. I soon realised as my head went a bit funny that might not have been a wise idea. When asking for wine I completely forgot about the xanax I had taken only an hour earlier. My second drink was a cola! We landed in Ireland a good bit earlier than scheduled. The pilot told us we had to wait 10 minutes as the gate was not ready for us...... I would say that it was at least 20 minutes. We got off the plane eventually, went through security and collected our bags and made our way out. Steven and Aoife's dad was waiting for them. We said our goodbyes and they left. Jacob and I went for hot choclate as we had to wait for our buses. I walked Jacob over to his bus then and said goodbye. I had to wait a bit for my bus to arrive. And it was bloody cold in Dublin. It was the start of the snowy weather. I was glad I gave in and put on my tracksuit in Newark! I was delighted to get on the bus, into heat and I could close my eyes, although I don't think I slept.
World Youth Day 2019 in Panama was fantastic, I am so glad that I went with the group I went with. We did not know each other well, I had never met Jacob and only met the Kehoe's a couple of times yet we all bonded really well. Fr Jim, I had spoken to a bit but only met twice. The most challenging part of the trip, after the heat, was the person who always seemed to want to get from A to B. We were in a different country, we wanted to take it all in and walk slowly, stopping to take photos from time to time. That was hard with one person, but I think we did it anyhow. The walking was challenging but only because of the heat. I realized on the Saturday that I need new sandals so may go shopping. I was disappointed that I did not get to Romaro park but we could not do everything. That is where Fr Jim went to hear confessions and I think he said it was a half hour walk from the station. I was delighted that I finally got to meet Fr Alan over there after meeting his group but not him. Our schedules were not overly busy. We had plenty of time to chill. I especially liked the Causeway on the Monday as we just sat and chilled by the water with drinks. The breeze was refreshing. Also, the day before we left was nice. The programme was finished and we sat outside drinking and chatting, Aoife has introduced me to Frappee's!
Our Panama family were lovely. We had some giggles with them. As Mammy had no English Google translate became our friend but even he got it wrong at times. The youngest son's name was Jesus, pronounced differently but I made the connection on the first day. Our bed was in his room which I found a bit strange but that was the way. At night he always asked 'enter or not enter'. One night we had the lights off and were relaxed. Next thing he walked in, scared the crap out of me. As he left I just said loudly, 'JESUS', he came back in and said 'yes', we were in the knots laughing. During the week we had a great chat with son Fidel, we were trying to explain chocolate. Strange because the pronunciation in Spanish is only slightly different. I think someone was messing with us saying he did not understand. There was also the night we were talking about Pizza, Aoife said she likes Pizza and Jesus ran out of the room. We think he was going to tell his mammy we wanted Pizza but we got across that we did not want pizza. By the end of our time in Panama, we realised that to them 'I like' means 'I want'. From when we arrived the mammy of the family showered us with gifts, the gifts just kept coming. She seemed to have really been clued into what we wore as she gave me a lovely t-shirt, my style and she gave Aoife trousers which was the same fashion as what she had been wearing. Then on our last day, she gave me trousers similar to what I had worn the previous evening. On the Monday before we left we were trying to figure out if the parents drank alcohol, we wanted to buy them something. I asked the youngest son who went out to his mum, I think she thought I wanted wine. So we were still not sure if they did drank or not, I was pretty confident as she took out a bottle of wine but was not 100%. Then mammy and son went out and I took the chance to ask Daddy Fidel. He too thought I wanted some wine but when I told him I didn't he said if I did want some to just ask. From our conversation, I was confident that they did drink wine so I let Aoife know. When Aoife got back and the family was back (all except son Fidel) we asked them all to come into the room (the air con was there). When we had them all gathered we thanked them for their hospitality and gave them some presents in appreciation. We were very impressed with the hospitality of the people of Panama and how nice they were. It was totally not what I was expecting, a lot nicer. Another stand out thing for me during World Youth Day 2019 was in the stations the volunteers had big foam hands. As pilgrim passed they hit the hands, high fives if the hands were high enough. The people I met at WYD 2019 were lovely. The ones I will remember most after the Ferns and Dublin groups has to be Bishop Charles Drennan, Fr Allister (New Zealand), Bishop Donal McKweon (Derry), the Aussie crew especially the one with all the energy, I do not think I got her name and the Bermingham crowd. I am so glad that I went. Here is to the next WYD in Portugal.
All 5 of us survived the 2 plane journeys and the layover in Newark. In Newark we split up. As it happened I stayed with the Kehoe's. We were amazed by the food ordering method, there were tablets at all the seats. I just got a smoothy, so I felt like I was being healthy. Everything ran on schedule. There was a bit of a delay when we arrived in Panama due to a long queue at customs but we got through with no problems. A taxi had been ordered for us and he was in the airport awaiting our arrival. So once we got through customs it was off to our hotel. The taxi driver couldn't get out at the barrier as he stayed longer than he had paid for...... So there was a further delay but we got there eventually. The guy at the desk in the hotel was lovely. He agreed that it would be okay to not check out the following morning until 1 o clock rather than the usual check out time of the hotel. This meant we had a bit extra time to chill and do stuff around the hotel. I was so tired and delighted to get to my room and lie down. It worked out that we all had a room to ourselves...... And the rooms were huge. After relaxing a bit, letting people know I was safe (it was like 2 r 3 am at home so didn't text many people) and doing some internetting it was off to bed for me.
On Saturday morning I woke very early but eventually got back to sleep. I got up when my alarm went off, went over to Aoife, we knocked for Steven but when we got no response we headed down for breakfast. After a long breakfast, we waited for the others, we went back to our rooms, packed somewhat and went down to the pool. Outside it was already very warm but the pool was freezing when I first got in. Didn't stay too long as it was only a small pool but it was lovely to relax a bit. After we got cleaned up we had mass and then the guy who was due to collect us and bring us to the parish was waiting downstairs for us. So we finished packing and headed down.... The Kehoe's were ready before me and they knocked on my door and waited for me which was lovely, I had only met them a week earlier and we seemed to instantly click which was great. Once we were all down (one had gone off to a conference so we only had 4) and checked out it was time to go out to the parish.
As we arrived at the church the parish group were singing and dancing in welcome to us. There was a bit of hanging around in the Church as we waited for our families. The 3 lads were with one family while Aoife and I were together with another family. I was delighted as I was afraid I was going to be on my own. We had to wait a bit longer than the lads for our family. While we were waiting around in the church it was really warm so we had to keep drinking water and had to take advantage of the shade....... We hadn't quite got used to the weather yet. As we were sitting inside a man came in. We knew he wasn't local. He looked like a leader of a group. We got talking to him and quickly discovered he was from New Zealand although I showed how bad I was at telling accents by asking if he was from a totally different country. We had been talking for a good while before he told us he was a Bishop...... He didn't look like one, he was dressed so casually in shorts, sandals, and a shirt. I really liked this guy and loved our encounters with Bishop Charles Drennan over the week.
Our family finally came to bring us to the house, the mammy of the house and the youngest son. The mammy had no English but the son had okay English. The house was just down from the church so it was very handy. We got to the house and met the father and other son who was in the army. The father had pretty good English. We got a lovely cold glass of juice on our arrival, much needed. We were very impressed with the house, there was air con and Wi-Fi, sure we were sorted. Aoife and I thought we were coming over to nothing so we were in luxury to have the basics. And the bed was huge....... By the time we left Aoife had figured out this was not a gigantic bed but two beds pushed together! There was loads of room for a third person in it. With the AC I always looked forward to returning home in the evenings as the heat outside was great. Once we had settled in it was back down to the Church to meet the others and tip into town to explore. The original plan was the boys would come up and collect us as they passed on the way to the metro. But the family said they would bring us to the Church. We tried to explain that the others were going to collect us but the family were just not getting it. So we hopped into the car and off we went. Aoife text Steven as we left to let him know of the change of plan.
We had our first Panama metro experience on the Saturday afternoon/ evening. I would love to say it went without a glitch but that wouldn't be entirely true. In order to get into town, we had to change metro line so we got off one metro, went down the stairs and then went into another metro station. When we got to the metro we realised that we had actually just come back into the same station we had just come out of....... We were supposed to go around the corner in order to get to the other line. So off we went down the stairs again in order to go into the right metro station. After that small bit of getting to know the metro and the stations it was off in to town. In the station, we met a lovely staff member who helped us...... Poor Aoife nearly came out married, the guy was really hitting on her even though he was at least twice her age. Before going down to the old city we stopped for a coffee. We found a spot with a lovely view of the water. Then it was down to the old city, it really was a lovely spot. After some exploring, we sat for dinner. We met our first foreign pilgrims from Porto Rico, there was a great buzz around the place and by the time I got back to my Panamanian home I had 2 new friend requests on Facebook.
Sunday morning and our first mass in the parish with other pilgrim groups. The main celebrant of the mass was our new friend from New Zealand, the Bishop we met the previous day. At the end of mass, we were treated to some traditional dancing from the country. Then we were given lunch in the parish, a joint effort of the locals and the Dublin group. At one stage during lunch, our new friend ended up at our table. I was happy, I got my photo with him. The last WYD I met a foreign Bishop and here I was again, my second WYD, meeting a foreign Bishop. In the afternoon we went out to the Canal and got to watch a big cruise ship come in. The family that the guys were staying with brought us so we brought them for dinner after. By the time we got to a restaurant for dinner I was dying, I couldn't eat but I kept smiling, I didn't want my feeling crap to ruin the evening for everyone. Once we got back to the house I took 2 paracetamol and a Motilium and I just lay on the bed, every now and again I said something. According to Aoife, I was lying so straight I looked dead. I didn't know what was wrong me, all I knew is that I needed to give the meds time to kick in. After a while, I got some energy back and was okay. Looking back that might have been heat stroke or just a killer migraine that came out of nowhere. The jetlag didn't help the situation. But the main thing was that it passed.
When we arrived to the Church on Monday morning we met Bishop McKwoen from Derry, a sound guy. My encounters with him were always so nice during the week. Although telling him that I had studied Theology backfired as he put me on the spot on Sunday. We went out to visit sick people in the parish on Monday morning. This was moving. The lady I went in to was bed bound but she had a great joy about her when we went into her. We bumped into our New Zealand Bishop a couple of times. I think it was on Monday that the Bishop gave me his card. By Monday he had shortened my name to 'Mel', we had only met two days previous. Everyone that knows me knows how I hate my name being shortened. I said nothing though, it just kind of grew on me. The Parish gave us lunch and after we celebrated mass as a small group we went off exploring again, this time to the causeway where we sat for a drink or 2, just relaxing. Then we walked back a bit, taking it in and we stopped for dinner. We met Polish pilgrims on the causeway who sang to us...... We had a bit of crack with them. This was my 4th day with the group and I was only learning that one of the lads smoked!!!! I dunno how I missed that. When we got back to the parish there was music going on. Aoife and I only stayed a few minutes and then headed off as we were a bit tired.
Tuesday morning I can't remember what really happened but the excitement was building and WYD 2019 officially kicked off the Tuesday evening with the opening mass. What I do remember of Tuesday morning was that it did not start well for me. Our getting up routine was always to check our phones first, we were five hours behind Ireland so we had to catch up. I was not expecting the news I read. One of the girls sent me a photo on Whatsapp, not expecting it to be important I went on Facebook before opening that message. On Facebook, I saw that one of the Red nuns had died. I knew she was sick but I was not expecting her to go so soon. I really felt I would be home before she died. When I saw the post I was shocked. At first, I kept the emotion under wraps but I did shed some tears before we left the house as the news sank it. I realised that the message from Lindsay was to let me know that Sr Perpetua had passed away. When I opened the Whatsapp message I had wished I had opened that before I seen it on Facebook. After breakfast, we headed down to the church and did something. After a while, we headed into town, got lunch, did a small bit of exploring, got coffee and headed to the venue of the opening mass. We went into a Church when we were in the old city. I took this opportunity of prayer to bring my grief to God. I had taken time earlier in the parish to pray for Sr Perpetua but now I was ready to hand my grief to God so that I could enjoy the week. Looking back now, that handing over really did help, my sadness did not negatively impact the rest of the pilgrimage. When we were exploring Fr Jim identified a group from England and said we should go say hello. They were from Bermingham. As we spoke I realised they were the group that Fr Alan ended up coming with. As he wasn't with them at that time one of them told me they were meeting at 2.15 and I should come back, so I did but was told Fr Alan was off doing priestly stuff, hearing confessions. I was gutted, I couldn't believe I had met the group among so many pilgrims yet I had not met Fr Alan. They told me they would be out at a conference thing on the next day and I would definitely meet him there. This was the first I heard of this conference so was not sure I would get out to it..... It was a good bit out of the city. The group wanted a photo and then I headed back to my guys and we went to the venue. I text Fr Alan later to say hello. We were at the venue in plenty of time. To see the crowds gathering was wonderful. Dublin found us and we joined them under the bridge, shelter from the sun. While we waited for mass to start we chilled and I mingled a bit with foreign pilgrims. I got really excited when I saw Canadians...... I always get excited to see Canadians with my big brother living over there, the only thing is, unless they are from Toronto or Guelf I haven't a clue where they are from. At one stage one of the lads from the Dublin group appeared with cold Coke and crisps.... A very welcome refresher. As well as drinking plenty of water we needed to watch our sugar intake and keep that up too as a drop in sugar in the heat of Panama could lead to not feeling at all well. I've experienced a drop in blood sugar once and I didn't fancy experiencing it again. Mass kicked off and in went the headphones to get the English translation. It was hard to distinguish when mass started as people were mingling and not looking at the screens as much. Plus the book said one time and we were told another, I think mass started in the middle of the two times. Fr Jim left us in order to concelebrate the mass. After mass, he returned to us. Music was still playing so he brought us up closer to the front to enjoy it. We stayed for a bit and then left to get food. We passed subway which was packed so we kept walking and found a quieter place to eat. I just wanted to sit down. After dinner, it was back to the metro station to go home. There was mighty crack on the metro. There were a group f pilgrims singing beside us. Then Aoife suggested we sing the Fields of Athenry and low and behold all four of us gave it a bash. For a small group of four, we didn't do too bad. The bigger group who had been singing before us gave us some great encouragement.
On Wednesday the Catechesis sessions started. The New Zealand group who had been in the parish had left at this stage, including our new friend. Our morning sessions were led by a group from Australia known as Broken Bay Youth. They were a lovely group with great energy. It was obvious that they were filled with the Holy Spirit, sharing the message of the Lord. The sessions on Wednesday and Thursday morning consisted of praise and worship, games, testimonies, a talk from a Bishop and Holy Mass. During mass I noticed a lady at the back, I saw her name tag and her surname was Dowling. Because my granny was a Dowling I went over to her after mass. She was an American religious Sister but no relation to my Dowling relations in the States from what I could establish. Before we parted she gave me a little prayer book which was lovely. After Mass, we headed into town. We found a great place for lunch where we changed metros. Jacob left us after lunch as he had to go back as he had plans to do something. After lunch, we got on the metro into town. Fr Jim got off a couple of stops before us as he was going to the park to hear confessions for the afternoon. So it was just me, Aoife and Steven left. We continued into town and stopped for a drink. Aoife had got a Frappe on Saturday and persuaded me to get one today. It was delicious and much appreciated in the heat. When we were finished we set the location of the conference on Google maps and headed off. Someone had the wise idea to walk the whole way out. It was a task in the heat but we had plenty of water and we took our time. I think it took us just over an hour, what was hardest was the heat and we had one serious hill to get up in 32 degrees but with the help of God, we made it to the conference. The walk was a great chance for us to bound and have fun (as if sharing a room with Aoife wasn't enough of a chance to bond). When we got into the centre straight away I spotted Fr Alan...... I knew him instantly but had to wait for him to move to confirm it was him. When he sat down I told the others I was going to say hi. He had just arrived himself, he greeted me with a small hug. We chatted for a few minutes and he said he would come to find us in a while. We walked around, got snacks and went to sit. I was delighted to get chocolate as I had not had any since I arrived. We ended up sitting in the totally different direction than I told Fr Alan we would be. As the place was huge I decided to go over and tell him where we were. We talked some more and agreed to meet when the conference took a break. I got tired of waiting for him so we went on out towards the water and sat down. And low and behold I spotted Fr Alan. I shouted over at him and he came over to us. We were sitting on the grass so when I saw him coming towards us I had to get up to greet him with a full hug (I'm a hugger at heart and don't like 'improper' hugs). The four of us spoke a bit and then he left us. After a bit, we made our way back in but decided to go in a different door. We saw a big open area so we went exploring. There was music so we stayed to listen to that a while. As we were listening to the music I spotted the Bishop who had spoke at our morning session. As I had not caught his name I ran over to him to say hi and get his name. I generally would not do such a thing but at World Youth Day in a different country, on a different Continent, I felt it was perfectly okay to do something like that. After the music we went back in as the evening part of the conference was starting. I wanted to stay to hear Bishop Barron and was told he was first on. But when he was not appearing I suggested we head on. The others said they were okay to stay if I wanted but I was very conscious of them. I knew that I was tired and hungry so I felt they were probably the same. I said goodbye to Fr Alan and we headed out. We got a taxi to the Metro at Albrook. When we got to Albrook we walked around the shopping centre a bit and then headed back into town. We went to Subway for food..... we wanted McDonald's but they were not taking our food vouchers so Subway it was. We met more Canadian's in subway including a Bishop. Later in the week, we learned that the Canadian Bishop was not actually part of that group. They had just met him on the street and invited him for food. Very random but a perfectly okay thing to do at World Youth Day. After our food, it was home for us.... We were shattered.
Thursday...... After another morning led by the Aussies, it was off into town for lunch. Before we went down to the Church I had the opportunity to watch Sr Perpetua's funeral online which was nice. Although it did leave me a bit unsettled for the day, I acknowledged my feelings and got on with the day. At the morning session, the guy that gave his testimony was actually a seminarian, I couldn't believe it, he didn't look like a future priest, he was too cool and laid back. His testimony was great. I felt emotion build so went over to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel to sit with the Lord but there was a priest in there hearing confession so I had to get on with it. After lunch, we made our way to the park where Pope Francis was due to arrive soon. This was a hard afternoon as there did not seem to be any crowd control plans at the gates. It took us ages to get in and at one stage we thought that we were not going to get into the park. We knew there was no way we could stay where we were either for we were like sardines subjected to pushing. Groups were forming chains which made the pushing worse. I honestly thought someone was going to be crushed. I was amazed to see this pushing happening by people who called themselves Catholics. If people were just patient all would be okay. I remember one stage the pushing got so bad it looked like I was going to lose the others as well as me getting hurt. I just shouted out STOP and reached out for Steven who was behind me. I still find it amazing that Steven and I did not exchange words at that stage but when I reached for his hand he reached for mine and brought me back to the fold, a really nice moment in the middle of the chaos. We finally got into the park and while the crowd inside was big we were able to breathe and move around, we left the crushing situation behind. As it happened we got a really good spot by the road that the Pope was due to come down. I decided to leave my phone in my bag and look at the Pope with my own eyes rather than through a camera which I had done at the two Papal audiences which I attended previously. I was not overly bothered to get close to the Pope but Fr Jim found me a spot with a decent view so I stepped in and it really was a great spot. I watched him pass with my own eyes as Aoife got a video. I missed what the Pope said as I had forgotten my headphones. When I had realised I did not have them we thought it would be okay as we had planned to be with Dublin and we knew some of them had radios. But we were not with Dublin. It was a lovely evening once we got through the crowd control problem. The funniest part of the evening had to be when the lady beside us nearly sat on Aoife's head as we were sitting on the ground. I didn't actually see it myself but Aoife told me. When all was over we headed to get food. We found a restaurant in a supermarket, I had seen it earlier, it wasn't the nicest but we were glad to get food. We went looking in the alcohol section as Fr Jim wanted to get something for the family he was staying with. The alcohol was dirt cheap.... madness. We got ourselves some non-alcoholic treats, chocolate etc and then we continued the rest of the way home.
Friday morning was a bit different. The Aussies led the session but we did not have a Catechesis talk from a Bishop even though there was a Bishop in attendance who celebrated Mass. Dublin invited us over to the little park for Mass as they were of the opinion there was no Bishop for mass in the Church. I decided to stay put and let the others go over. I just felt I needed some me time. It was a lovely morning indeed, we played games, had some song and listened. I think this was the morning we got into groups with fellow pilgrims. The reason for these groups was to reflect on how the week had gone for us. The theme of the talk we heard was reconciliation. So priests were dotted around the Church hearing confessions. Then we had mass. At the end of mass, we were told of a board that the parish had that we were all invited to write something on. When I came back with the group I wrote on it. When we were finished in the Church I headed over towards the park to meet the others. On the way I met Fr Jim, the guys were just behind him. They had to bring chairs back to the Church. When all was done I could not miss my chance to get photos with other pilgrims. Since coming to Panama I had really got into this selfie business. The Aussies were my main attraction for photos. After photos were taken and the board signed we tipped into town for lunch. I think this was the day I was amazed by what a foreign pilgrim was using as a musical instrument, a silver thing with another silver thing to strike it. He made noise with it by rubbing the smaller instrument against the bigger one. He gave the instrument to me to have a go at it. He showed me what I needed to do..... Twas mighty crack indeed. After lunch, we headed to the park for the Stations of the Cross with the Pope. I was going to leave the group to it as I did not want to go through the same experience as the day before again. And I needed alone time. Having had some me time in the morning I decided to go with them but was adamant that if there were crowd control problems I was not staying. On the way to the venue I seen a guy selling those cool umberella hats. I had seen them early in the week but when I decided I wanted one I could not find anyone selling them. When I seen them on the way to the park I shouted at Aoife who stopped so I could purchase one, then we joined the lads who had stopped further up. Fr Jim reminded us that if we were stopping to tell the group..... We just bit our lip, the night before he stopped at an ATM in the metro station without telling us. We (Aoife) had to go back up the stairs to see where they were. No big crowds to contend with at the gate, we just walked straight in. Dublin were not where we expected but we stayed put. Next thing they found us and invited us over to the grass by the water so we went over. As we were going over some lady approached us as she seen that we were Irish. She too was Irish, a Presentation Sister working on foreign soil. She did not look Irish or a religious sister for that matter. She was lovely. Of course, this sparked excitement in me as I know a Presentation Sister. However, I am no good with surnames so could not tell her the Sisters name other than Mary. But I'm sure there are a few Mary's in the order. It was roasting. I saw a few of the Dubs in the shade so I went over there for a bit. Fr Jim was doing his checking in and missed me as I was lying down. One of the Dubs pointed me out to him. While we waited for the Pope to arrive we mingled with each other and other pilgrims. Some joined in music playing with other pilgrims. While others made cardboard houses and sought shelter there. At the end, Fr Jim asked us if we wanted to see if we could get close to the road to see the Pope as he passed by. Aoife and I declined as we were happy enough that we had seen him the day before, surely he had not changed in 24 hours. When all was over we went for food. Fr Jim wanted to go for a drink after. Aoife and I were keen to get back as we hadn't really got to spend time with our family. So we left the lads and strolled to the metro to go home. I think this was the evening we met Fr John from America as we were walking from the metro to the house. We had the habit of saying hello to everyone we saw as we walked back to the house. We said hi to one guy and when he heard hello back in fluent English with no Panama accent, we got excited and stopped to talk to him. And me been me asked for a photo, which Aoife jumped in for too. Thene we left him. I think his name was Fr John and I think he was from the States. Son Fidel was heading to Puru the next day so we really wanted to chat him before he went. When we got home Fidel was not there. Aoife was about to go into the shower room when we were told that Fidel was in the shower. After a while, we realised that he was not in the shower but at a baby shower....... The language barrier got in the way there. As Fidel was out we did not get to chat him before he headed away. Before he left on Saturday morning he came into the room to get stuff out of the wardrobe. Both Aoife and I happened to wake slightly as he was in the room. We said goodbye and wished him well. When we woke up later we said how we were glad we got to say goodbye.
Saturday morning. After mass we headed towards the site of the Vigil. I was expecting to walk the whole way but we got the metro to the station that was closest to the site. When I realised how far the walk was from the entrance gate to our allocated area I was glad we did not walk the whole way to the site, in that heat we would have died! From the metro to the site some of the locals lined the streets offering us water refills and others used hoses to wet pilgrims, I dodged them but am sure it cooled pilgrims down. Before we got to the site we had to join a queue to collect our food bags. With bags over our shoulders, it was time to take off on the last leg of our journey. When we got to our spot we set up our space, ate something and chilled, we were wrecked. At one stage I thought I saw Fr Jim sitting on a camp bed and I thought he was great to carry that. I later realised he hadn't brought a camp bed. After a while I wanted to go wandering, I would have been fine on my own but invited Aoife for the company and to make sure I didn't get lost. Was glad I brought her after as I decided to buy drinks for the gang and I didn't have enough hands to carry everything. Before we left the parish that morning Ger gave us tickets for close to the front, T2 and T5. So after a while, we headed up, leaving our stuff where it was trusting all would be okay. As we got closer to the front we realised that two of the group had T2 tickets and three had T5 tickets, T5 was closer to the front. We pleaded with the ticket checkers to let us all in and then a guy who looked really important just motioned for Aoife to keep coming. We had to sacrifice Fr Jim though. We hadn't realised we were missing him until we had walked in a bit more. The guys at the first gate took Aoife's ticket which meant she had nothing to show checkers but because she was with us she got past with no problem. That was until we got to the last ticket checker at the stage. The whole, 'she's with us' wasn't working when she couldn't produce a ticket. Thank God they finally let her in. We had great seats. We claimed our seats, left our bags down and went over to get closer to the dancing that was going on. As we were wandering one of the Bishops I seen looked really familiar but I couldn't put my finger on who he was. Next thing Aoife made a comment asking if it was the New Zealand Bishop that was in our parish. The penny dropped. I couldn't place him at first because he was all dressed up in Bishop's gear, he had only seen him in casual gear. Equip with this knowledge that it was him we went over to say hello, I got very excited to see him. I think this excitement was a mixture of the atmosphere we were in and the fact that we met this down to earth Bishop again, we thought once he left the parish that was it. It was lovely to see him. We chatted and we mentioned that we did not know him all rigged out. I even made that comment, 'So you really are a Bishop'. We joked around and he said that he did not believe it himself..... He still looked at himself and wondered what all 'this' was. Charles is a relatively new Bishop so I think it is still sinking in a bit for him. I couldn't let this photo opportunity pass with him all dressed up. After Aoife took one of Charles and I the others got in and we got a group photo. We said our goodbyes and he wandered off. I did a bit more wandering and met more pilgrims. I was asked to take a photo of a group and I jumped in for a photo after. The time was approaching for the Pope to arrive. Some people stood along the barrier behind the seats, the barrier that kept us all safe from falling. Others lined up along the carpet coming up the middle. I remember having a conversation with a Capuchin friend of mine before about Pope Francis not been able to manage steps so I knew he wasn't going to go up that way, even though the guys on the ground made it look a bit like that. I stayed put at the back barrier. I wanted to shout over at the others who were at the carpet but I knew to shout over would have been a waste of time and energy. And if I moved out of my spot which was perfect I would not have got in. After a bit, the Pope came up in the Popemobile. I got a perfect view of him..... He was well close. This time, unlike Thursday evening, I decided to take a video. The video turned out very shaky as I did not want to look at him through a camera so I was trying to take a video and look at the same time. When the Pope got on the stage the evening continued with stories told through drama before the Pope spoke to us. Then we entered a time of prayer and adoration. There was a statue of Our Lady of Fatima on the stage. After the Pope left the stage the statue was processed off the stage, down the steps, and around the Park. The comment was made after by someone that this was so the Pope could slip away. While the statue was traveling I saw vehicles on the outskirts of the park and remember thinking, 'there he is.' We stayed at our seats until we were put out. Then it was back to our beds for the night, making a toilet stop on the way. Before I went to Panama people warned me of the spiders...... When we got back to our stuff the guys had a few spiders around there stuff, I was delighted that I had none. Some of the spiders were well big...... Scary stuff!!! I kept my distance as they negotiated getting rid of them. As we were all settled down, ready to sleep Steven suddenly slapped himself and said 'got him', myself and Aoife were like 'What the....' We were pretty sure there was nothing on him but Steven said he had felt something, I think he also said he was dreaming of spiders. With this incident out of the way, we settled back down and tried to sleep..... I think tried is the operative word, According to my Fitbit, I got about 3 and a half hours sleep. As a scout sleeping on the ground is not uncommon to me but when it is outside it is generally in a tent and I have space to ensure I'm not sleeping on bumps..... Although I generally do end up on one. Determined to sleep in my Bivvy bag I did. At first, I just wrapped my flag around me but then I decided I needed to get into the bag as it was just too cold. After we had returned to our spot from the stage and relaxed a bit I wanted to go for a wander and invited Aoife, I was taking the travel in groups very seriously. While out wandering we bumped into a girl, American I think, who was telling people about confessions available. They came up with the idea and got a priest who was traveling with them on board. After a while, they had a load of priests on board with the initiative, hearing confessions in various language. I thought it was a great idea, here in the middle of a park with 500, 000+ young people there was the opportunity to go to confession because a group felt it was important and the priests agreed. Fantastic, well done to those who came up with the idea. Having chatted this girl we continued wandering. We bumped into the Canadian we had met in Subway Wednesday night and we walked and talked with him. It was a pleasant surprise to bump into him among the huge crowds. We laughed about the Irish language and I think he found it very funny how Aoife said something or maybe it was how I said it, I can't remember. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. After our wander, it was back to our patch to bunk down for the night..... With the spiders. In Madrid, at WYD I vaguely remember that there were Adoration tents at the Vigil. I was disappointed that there was none in Panama but Ce la Vie.
Sunday morning...... After a very disturbed night of sleep, I was woken at about 5.55 by 'GOOD MORNING EVERYBODY..... GOOD MORNING' blaring over the speakers. Big shout out and thank you to the MC's there...... NOT!!! Mass was not due to start till 8, we did not need a rude awakening so early. We got up, ate etc and just chilled until the Pope arrived. We stayed sitting where we were as he passed and we saw him..... Sure he was above the crowd in his Popemobile. As mass finished we picked up our stuff and headed off. Fr Jim moved up to the front early in the morning to concelebrate mass so we decided not to wait for him as the crowd was huge. The crowds going out were so big I started thinking there would be a repeat of Thursday afternoon. However, on Sunday we had more space so no squashing, thank God. The four of us managed to stay together all the way. Well, there was a few times one of us got a little ahead but because of the crowd we stopped and waited for the others as soon as we could. The crowds settled a bit as we got out the gate. I think we took a wrong turn on the way out. We stopped at one stage so Jacob could check directions to the Metro. As we were sitting getting the directions a lady approached us to see if we were okay. When we told her we were looking for the metro she said it was up at the end of the road...... We got all excited. However, was not just at the end of the road!!! It was ages away!! But we trodded on in the heat and finally got there. When we arrived at the station there was a good crowd. This was the first time all week that we had to wait outside a station to get in. We usually saw the crowds outside the station and went off to get food or something instead. When we did get in I went through the barrier and separated from the others. So I waited for them, looking back at the crowd at the barriers. The workers in the station were only letting so many through the barriers at one time so as to avoid overcrowding inside. Probably a good idea as overcrowding in the station could result in somebody getting hurt. At least if the crowd was outside the space was open and people had more space to spread out. When the others got through we went for the metro. We got on and headed home. At least the walk from the metro station to the house was all downhill for we were wrecked.
When myself and Aoife got in we just collapsed on the bed. We were supposed to go away with our Panama family that afternoon but we were just not able. We picked up that where they wanted to bring us was by the Canal. Having been out at the Canal we just knew we did not have the strength to travel that far! So Mammy and son went without us. We rested some more, cleaned ourselves us and headed into town, the Bishop was bringing us out for dinner. We had agreed to meet the lads at the Church of St Francis. While we were walking to the Church we detoured into the square for some reason. We had time to spare so when I realised that the Cathedral was open I suggested we went in. We were not able to get in earlier in the week as it was closed. I realised on the Sunday that it was closed because it was being done up and the Pope rededicated the Altar or something when he was in the area. It was a lovely building. I was most impressed by the Tabernacle, the design was a Cathedral.
We stayed a few minutes and then headed to the Church. We found somewhere to sit. One of the lads rang us and said they were down at the Cathedral getting the Bishop so we walked back down. If we had known they were meeting the Bishop at the Cathedral we would have stayed there, my feet were killing me! When we got there Fr Jim was coming out of the Cathedral but without the Bishop who he had gone in for. Seemingly the Bishop was behind him as he left. So Fr Jim had to go back in. This time he came out with the Bishop and Fr Denis in toe. Time to go get food. We went to the restaurant that we had gone to on our first night in the parish. The conversation was great all evening. We did not know Fr Denis but the conversation flowed freely. Himself and the Bishop were traveling back the following morning. As we were saying our goodbyes I realised that the Bishop knew the one family I knew in his Diocese of Ferns. I really wanted to leave as the energy had dropped again and I was wrecked. We finally left. We left Jacob at a place to meet some of the Dublin crew. We did not stay with him as we were too tired. I think Aoife would have but she didn't want to leave me alone. Steven was going to go with Jacob I think but he decided not to in the end. We thought Fr Jim was going with the Bishop and Fr Denis but he left them and came to the metro station...... Much to our delight! It was home and straight to bed. I think we did our usual chatting before going to sleep. Before we left the lads we were told Dublin were having mass Monday morning at 9 AM. However, before we went to sleep we saw in the group chat that they did not have mass scheduled for the morning. So Aoife and I decided we would take our time getting up Monday morning.
When we woke on Monday we started with our usual routine of checking our phones. Next thing Jacob rang me to tell me they were having mass and asking if we were coming down. I told him we were only getting up and would meet them at their house around 10. After breakfast, we walked over. On the way we seen the Dublin crowd gathered at the stand band. I motioned for Bishop Donal to step away from them. We thanked him and said goodbye to him. I had hoped our visit to the lads would be a quick visit as I just wanted to relax in town but we stayed a while. We got a few photos and said goodbye to Fr Jim as he was heading away for a few days and Aoife and I headed on up to the metro. The lads said they would follow. On the way to the metro, we stopped in the park to talk to the Dubs. One of the lads was originally from Spain so spoke fluent Spanish, he had acted as translator at the first pilgrim mass in the parish. We were planning to get the family a card and wanted to write on it in Spanish but we had little Spanish so we asked him to translate something that we had written earlier. While he was doing that we said our goodbyes to the Dubs. I went over to Fr Seamus to say goodbye. He observed that every time we met it was at a religious gathering. He really complimented me, my faith and my work. I walked away feeling wonderful. When Aoife got her phone back with a big long translation it was off to the metro for us to go into town. We went to our favourite spot for a Frappee. Steven joined us soon after and we stayed a while before going towards the old city to buy presents. On the way back I was feeling somewhat deflated so asked the guys if it was okay if we went into the Cathedral which they had no problem with. Then we headed back to the Metro to go out to Albrook. All afternoon I was having dizzy spells which I was keeping an eye on and making sure I drank loads of water and got sugar into my body. As we walked around Albrook I decided to stop putting on a show and go back to the house. With the long day of travelling we had ahead of us on Tuesday I needed to be in good shape for it. So I told the others to stay and I would see them later. I went home and just rested. They eventually turned up at the door. Later Mammy and Son brought us down to Dominos. Unlike Dominos in Ireland you can sit down and eat your food in Dominos in Panama, it is a real restaurant. I was hungry but not overly hungry. I ate some pizza and the Coke gave me sugar. We had an early night as we had to be at the airport at 6.30 the next morning.
Tuesday morning Mammy and Daddy brought us to the lad's house as their family was bringing us to the airport. We put our bags in the car. Next thing Steven was sitting down stirring tea (I heard that tea was lovely, we got it one morning but it was too sweet for me) and the Mammy of his house was putting a plate of food in front of him. She offered us something but I couldn't, I was only half awake! We finally set off, the daughter, who had good English, brought us, it did not take too long. When we arrived we had a little bit of trouble finding the desk we were to go to but we found it and the queue was big. There was a load of Aussies in the same queue. The group who had led our Catechesis sessions were all there and a few more. We saw one of the girls inside who had loads of energy all week, she gave me a hug, she was lovely. We realised that the queue was not moving, everybody was giving out to the worker at the front. What was happening was that a queue had formed outside as well and they were letting all of them in first! We finally started moving. In the queue, we got chatting a Bishop and a priest, at two different times. We flew through security in Panama but had to go through a second security screening going into the place where we were to wait for our plane..... I had to throw out the bottle of water I had just bought! The flight went smoothly, I was not sitting beside the others but Aoife and Steven were just behind me. We were expecting Breakfast on the first flight...... We got a biscuit and coffee. When we landed in Newark we had to go through customs and collect our bags..... We were standing at the wrong luggage belt for our bags. When we collected our bags we had to pass another security officer and say hello. My laces were open, she told me to tie them so I did not fall. I told her I would but she insisted I do it there in front of her. I knew she expected me to properly tie them, I was not going to get away with just tucking them in. So with my laces tied we headed to get rid of our bags again. It was just a matter of handing them to a guy, no real delay. With bags given in for there journey to Dublin, we went for food. However, finding the terminal that we were getting our connecting flight proved challenging. We gave up looking and asked. In the terminal, we had to go through security again! We decided on Pizza for lunch. I was still a bit nervy with how I was feeling but I ate a good bit of my pizza. Then we went shopping. We separated. There was a funny moment in the duty-free. A lady shoved her boarding pass in front of me in silence. After an awkward silence, she asked if I knew where that (the gate) was. I dunno what made her approach me. As it happened I knew where the gate was, she was going to Dublin like us. Maybe she approached me because I looked Irish. I noticed that our gate had changed and texted the others. Our new gate was miles away. I headed down having bought nothing, the others followed me after. As I was waiting for the others I got chatting a couple from the US who were flying to Dublin. To my surprise, they were not staying in Dublin or going on to Galway. No, they were going to Kilkenny! I think he had a relative there. When the guys arrived one of them needed to go to the loo. He went back the way he came and had to walk a bit to get there. When I stood up for a wonder I realized that there were toilets right beside us. On my wander, I went into a shop and bought an airplane for one of the kids........ When I got home I could not find that airplane anywhere. Me thinks I left the little airplane on the big airplane. I returned to the guys after my walk and we started boarding a few minutes later. We were all together on the plane, Jacob and I were beside each other and Aoife and Steven in front of us. It was funny, I think the flight attendant thought Jacob and I were a couple, haha. I loved the flight attendant though. We got well looked after on that flight food wise, dinner which consisted of an appetizer, main course and dessert and breakfast about an hour before we landed. Dinner came out pretty soon after we got into the air. As the pilgrimage was at an end I decided to celebrate with a glass of wine. I soon realised as my head went a bit funny that might not have been a wise idea. When asking for wine I completely forgot about the xanax I had taken only an hour earlier. My second drink was a cola! We landed in Ireland a good bit earlier than scheduled. The pilot told us we had to wait 10 minutes as the gate was not ready for us...... I would say that it was at least 20 minutes. We got off the plane eventually, went through security and collected our bags and made our way out. Steven and Aoife's dad was waiting for them. We said our goodbyes and they left. Jacob and I went for hot choclate as we had to wait for our buses. I walked Jacob over to his bus then and said goodbye. I had to wait a bit for my bus to arrive. And it was bloody cold in Dublin. It was the start of the snowy weather. I was glad I gave in and put on my tracksuit in Newark! I was delighted to get on the bus, into heat and I could close my eyes, although I don't think I slept.
World Youth Day 2019 in Panama was fantastic, I am so glad that I went with the group I went with. We did not know each other well, I had never met Jacob and only met the Kehoe's a couple of times yet we all bonded really well. Fr Jim, I had spoken to a bit but only met twice. The most challenging part of the trip, after the heat, was the person who always seemed to want to get from A to B. We were in a different country, we wanted to take it all in and walk slowly, stopping to take photos from time to time. That was hard with one person, but I think we did it anyhow. The walking was challenging but only because of the heat. I realized on the Saturday that I need new sandals so may go shopping. I was disappointed that I did not get to Romaro park but we could not do everything. That is where Fr Jim went to hear confessions and I think he said it was a half hour walk from the station. I was delighted that I finally got to meet Fr Alan over there after meeting his group but not him. Our schedules were not overly busy. We had plenty of time to chill. I especially liked the Causeway on the Monday as we just sat and chilled by the water with drinks. The breeze was refreshing. Also, the day before we left was nice. The programme was finished and we sat outside drinking and chatting, Aoife has introduced me to Frappee's!Our Panama family were lovely. We had some giggles with them. As Mammy had no English Google translate became our friend but even he got it wrong at times. The youngest son's name was Jesus, pronounced differently but I made the connection on the first day. Our bed was in his room which I found a bit strange but that was the way. At night he always asked 'enter or not enter'. One night we had the lights off and were relaxed. Next thing he walked in, scared the crap out of me. As he left I just said loudly, 'JESUS', he came back in and said 'yes', we were in the knots laughing. During the week we had a great chat with son Fidel, we were trying to explain chocolate. Strange because the pronunciation in Spanish is only slightly different. I think someone was messing with us saying he did not understand. There was also the night we were talking about Pizza, Aoife said she likes Pizza and Jesus ran out of the room. We think he was going to tell his mammy we wanted Pizza but we got across that we did not want pizza. By the end of our time in Panama, we realised that to them 'I like' means 'I want'. From when we arrived the mammy of the family showered us with gifts, the gifts just kept coming. She seemed to have really been clued into what we wore as she gave me a lovely t-shirt, my style and she gave Aoife trousers which was the same fashion as what she had been wearing. Then on our last day, she gave me trousers similar to what I had worn the previous evening. On the Monday before we left we were trying to figure out if the parents drank alcohol, we wanted to buy them something. I asked the youngest son who went out to his mum, I think she thought I wanted wine. So we were still not sure if they did drank or not, I was pretty confident as she took out a bottle of wine but was not 100%. Then mammy and son went out and I took the chance to ask Daddy Fidel. He too thought I wanted some wine but when I told him I didn't he said if I did want some to just ask. From our conversation, I was confident that they did drink wine so I let Aoife know. When Aoife got back and the family was back (all except son Fidel) we asked them all to come into the room (the air con was there). When we had them all gathered we thanked them for their hospitality and gave them some presents in appreciation. We were very impressed with the hospitality of the people of Panama and how nice they were. It was totally not what I was expecting, a lot nicer. Another stand out thing for me during World Youth Day 2019 was in the stations the volunteers had big foam hands. As pilgrim passed they hit the hands, high fives if the hands were high enough. The people I met at WYD 2019 were lovely. The ones I will remember most after the Ferns and Dublin groups has to be Bishop Charles Drennan, Fr Allister (New Zealand), Bishop Donal McKweon (Derry), the Aussie crew especially the one with all the energy, I do not think I got her name and the Bermingham crowd. I am so glad that I went. Here is to the next WYD in Portugal.
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