Tanzania: Silence

Well I have had action and silence these past two weeks. Went to the Mogollon rim with Fernando. Did a weekend of camping. Beautiful weather during the day but it got a lot colder than I expected t night. It got down in the high 30's with a cold wind blowing. We had a fun weekend. With many beautiful views driving along the rim. He did a 24 hour fast with me. It was fun watching how antsy he was the last few hours. We had some goo time for sharing. I then headed to St. Rita's Abbey in Soniota. You have to take dirt roads to get there and you feel out in the middle of no where. There is a adobe retreat house that maybe holds 10 people. 100 yards away is the Sisters convent. They are cisterncian and focus their life on prayer. Their chapel is in the shape of an L. I was on one end of the L and they were on the other end with the altar in the center focal point of the L. I would go there for prayer and mass. I could only see a few of them from where I was sitting. It is very pretty down there and very quiet. I was the only one there in the retreat center. Thus begins my time of silence. I spent most of my time just clearing my mind and staring at the mountains. very quiet. No phone, email, no people. After about 8 hours I started to feel this loneliness. There is no one out here. The only person I think I would have seen would be an illegal immigrant walking by. After a while I had to open a book and read just to feel some sort of connection with someone. As the sun went down I felt more and more desolate. Having a whole day of silence really makes one reflect. The sun rose and it was a beautiful sunrise. I went to mass in the morning and one of the sisters recognized me. She came over and said you did my bone scan. I did and I remembered her. She said, "let's meet after dinner". I said, "Ok what time" SHe said, "1:00pm". Ok then I responded. 1:00pm is after dinner. It was great meeting up with her again. It is a small world. I remembered our conversation when I was doing her scan at the Hospital. It is weird how things work. After the retreat I was ready to head back to Tucson and spend time with people.
That I did. I have been running around trying to see everyone. Went to breakers water park with Rand, Austin, Reed boy, and Fernando. Watching two children is a lot of work. I was whipped out at the end of the day. Then I went to the Salt river with my roommates and my cousin Laura up in phoenix and with her friends. I think I put on about 8 layers of spf 50 and I still got red. It was 107 that day. Well time is winding down here in Tucson. I stopped by the hospital and saw most of my former coworkers which was wonderful to see them. I have a few more days to enjoy Tucson.