We arose very reluctantly at 5:00 AM. to head to town for breakfast before church. When we arrived at the bus, two people had become ill during the night. We thought possibly it was caused by our Friday lunch with the villagers, but this was doubtful as only two people were affected. Our Friday lunch consisted of Tortillas, specially made rice, boiled chicken, tomato sauce, plus a very good hot sauce and it was all very good. They also had pop for us to drink. All I can say is that it was good food, and HOT! The bus was to arrive and leave at 6:30 AM., but we ended up sitting in the bus waiting until 10:30 AM. We had rented the bus for 11,000 pesos (approximately $67 U.S. dollars) and had told the villagers that they could fill the remaining seats that we didn't need and go with us. When the bus arrived, there were more villagers on it than we had expected!

We left San Lorenzo and headed for Mina Vieja with SRO (standing room only) on an old renovated school bus. We thought our bus (SHEM) had problems!!!! I counted four panes of glass in the whole bus that weren't broken or cracked. We had been traveling this old rough road for nearly an hour and perhaps were half way to Mina Vieja when all of a sudden, the bus stopped and some 5 or 6 villagers, both men and women, got off the bus. One of the older American gentlemen advised us that this was a "pit stop." No one believed him, but he was right! They simply relieved themselves right alongside the road. Well, back on the road again. We had traveled another hour or so when all of a sudden we heard this loud 'POP" and a hiss. We had blown a tire, but we were only about 1 mile from the church so we walked the rest of the way. The church service had started some time before we arrived. When we entered the church, a mandolin group was playing so we took our places on their "make-shift" seats. It was evident that they didn't have enough money for regular church pews so they had placed planks on blocks to serve this purpose. After our arrival, the church was pretty full. The pastor asked us to come up and sing and after we had finished, they sang a song of welcome to us. We were involved in the service about an hour before it came to a close.

They invited us to have dinner with them after the service. Our menu this day consisted of tortillas, beans, rice, chicken and SUPER-HOT sauce. Quite a few of our group could not eat the hot sauce so they gave it to me! I wasn't even sure I could eat it this hot but surprisingly I ate it and I would have to say that I have never eaten anything so hot in my entire life. They also provided us with soda pop and I, for one, was thankful for this!

After we had finished with dinner, we walked back to where we had left the bus as we were ready to go home. The bus was not there, much to our surprise. It had been taken to the nearest village to have the tire changed, but arrived about one-half hour later and we loaded to leave for home. On the way back, we stopped to get a tire changed again because his spare probably wasn't going to last. We took advantage of this break and went up the street to a gas station to use the restrooms. This was a fun time as we were really getting silly from the long ride and lack of sleep the night before. When we finally got back to San Lorenzo, we ate supper and headed for our respective homes. When we arrived at our home, we found the family had straightened up our room and made up our cots. We were very pleased by their thoughtfulness and help. We didn't have any trouble falling asleep! One thing I failed to mention about the events of the this day was the fact that Bill B was bitten by a dog when he picked up the ladies for breakfast, but the bite was not too serious.