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After the busy month of December 2003 when Mother General and Mother Basil were with us for a few days and then we had the preparations for Christmas and the Bishop’s visit to celebrate Holy Mass and bless our Shrine of Our Lady of Cisne, we received the wonderful news that Mother General would be returning in February with Mother Philip Howard. Even in that short time so much has happened for Mother to see and admire in our community.

Before Christmas we were asked to organise a novena of prayer for the local people in preparation for Christmas. The response of the people was so enthusiastic that we decided to continue with something similar, and so the idea of the Bible talks was born. Once a week on Thursdays at 7pm a group of locals comes to our ‘guest house’ and together we read a section from the Bible and give some reflections on it. Questions are asked, and some quite interesting answers are received. The group then comes to our church to pray the Rosary and finishes by joining us for Compline, the last Office of the day. The people are very keen to come to our church for Eucharistic Adoration. In our turn we are learning also very much from them, for their simple, open, uncomplicated faith is, in the world of today, absolutely admirable.

In February work continued on our two new cabanas (cabins) for guests. Unfortunately quite a bit of excavation was needed and when the place was ready for the laying of foundations it looked more like a large hole. We went to take a photo of it just when the three workmen were wandering off. When the foreman saw the camera he shouted: “Run here boys! Get your tools! They are going to send us to London!”

Many months ago the men planted near the river one plant, the use of which always seemed to be doubtful. Its name is Chira (read cheerah). It had flowers, then they died, and it had other flowers which also died and at the end all the plants looked pretty dead ­ and there was still no word about its use. Finally a cry came to the community ‘Chira is ready for harvest!’ Good. So now we will see what it is good for. And we had plenty to see. First two men spent two days harvesting it ­ cutting it down, digging out the roots which are used and washing them. Then they announced that they would need a helper ­ preferably a woman. So the following week they came with a lady and began to process our chira. First they peeled the root bulbs roughly, then they grated them, next they added some water into it and taking handfuls they pressed and squeezed it through the sieve, leaving the water fall into a big container. An interesting moment came when they told us that it is not the squeezed dry thing which is used, but the water, which looked dirty brown. This was left aside until something like corn flour set on the bottom and the dirty looking water was tipped out and replaced with clean water which also eventually got dirty. This process was repeated until both the floury powder on the bottom and the water on the top got clean. All this took three persons a whole week of hard work and if one rejoiced that that was that ­ it was not! The many buckets and pots and containers with wet chira flour had to be left to dry, and it needed to be mixed and stirred and shaken in the process! Otherwise it would dry into one solid block and have a bad odour. And on top of all that we were told that the mice love it ­ so all the buckets, pots and containers had to be carefully stored every night until the flour dried... So if any monastery with a garden considers to plant some chira plants, our advice is: do use it for something else!

One of our great joys has been to move from our temporary quarters in the old farm house to our new monastery with cells set around a pretty cloister garden. Four of the cells have windows looking into this cloister and the other four overlook the length of our property, and in the distance, Mandango, the mountain synonymous with Vilcabamba. Our church is now complete and we have had benches made so that the laity chapel seats 80 people in comfort and more at need. Both the local churches are over an hour’s walk away so our church makes possible attendance at daily Mass for many devout people. Already we are able to have Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament for most of the day, every day.