Day Eleven

We were afforded a lie in today which I took full advantage of before we had to be out. As Marie and I were packing we put the TV on and saw some of the seminarian Mass, sadly there was no sign of JP, Daniel or John. It later transpired that JP and Daniel were outside and John was at the back.

The rest of the group met at 10:45 for a brief update before we clapped in the Bishop. We then had a cheeky Diocesan photo with him which was nice. Lizzie and I then joined the music group for Mass. Weirdly I had woken up with Majesty and then Zaf said that we would be starting with it. Mental!

Our bishop did a lovely job of Mass and told us that the clergy all really appreciated us young people, and how we were the missionaries of the Church.

After Mass, we all rushed off to find food and go to the supermarket so we'd have supplies for the vigil. Because Foyer's Hollywood took so long getting our order together we were late back, but so were lots of people so it wasn't too bad.

We then all grabbed our vigil stuff, gave the keys back to reception, and got on the coach. We were then taken as far as it was possible to get us to the vigil, but before we knew it we had to get out and walk. It was baking as we walked towards the air field, and Fr Phil was keeping us going at a rate of knots. We eventually made our way to just outside Cuatro Vientros and then Fr Phil went mad at the people who didn't have a hat on!

We finally got in and already thousands upon thousands of people were there. We began to walk to our designated zone, and as we were walking a fire engine came along and the firemen sprayed us with water. It felt so good, and so many people had their arms up taking in the water. We were soaked but it was amazing! It certainly made me feel a lot better. We finally made it round to D3, passing quite a few people who had fainted, only to be told at the entrance that we weren't allowed in because it was full! So we had to find somewhere else to set up for the night. Fr Phil suggested F3 so we went towards there, and as we did there were a lot of volunteers carrying this girl who was completely out of it and even had a tube in her throat. As they passed, her arm scraped against mine, I wouldn't be surprised if that girl had a dislocated sholder after that!

We got into F3 and after people had a row with Fr Phil they agreed to move forward so we could get in behind them. We started putting our tarpaulin out and then another row ensued with another guy. In the end we just had to try and ignore that man and get settled. I sat and ate an energy biscuit, which really did give me more energy, and then Ruth and I headed out on an adventure to find some water. In the scrum of people trying to get water, we met a guy from Zimbabwe who chatted to Ruth for a little while, and some people from Brooklyn. We ended up singing Beatles songs and I had so much water in my arms it was crazy!

We managed to get enough water to share out for everyone, and then got back to the others. They had kindly laid out my sleeping bag as this adventure for water took over an hour. Sadly I was on the edge of the tarp near to the guy who was going nuts about it all and also a massive ants nest. A little while after this the group leaders came back with the food. My veggie stuff was interesting to say the least. They had given us microwave meals and a veggie burger. Everyone was very kind though and gave me all sorts of things out of their bags that they didn't like or want.

Not long after this the Pope began his journey to the air field, and as he did the storm clouds were gathering. We quickly tried to get our stuff into bags to be protected from the rain and before we knew it the thunder and lightning show began. It was fork lightning on a huge scale, the storms surrounded us before it began to pour and we were told to get ourselves and our stuff under the tarpaulin. It ended up being really scary and Lizzie and I said a decade of the Rosary and then Marie, Laura, Lizzie and I said two more.

The rain abaited for a while so we all got out from under the tarpaulin, where all we could hear was screams from the people around us, and we were addressed by the Pope before we had adoration. The screens, or at least some of them, had gone off and the sound was affected for a while, we got it back after a while, but it was clear that others couldn't hear or see anything, because there was still chatter, singing and dancing.

Still we adored Christ and were blessed by the Pople, and the Blessed Sacrament was removed before we had more rain, and were again under the tarpaulin. There was a beautiful firework show to round the night off. After a little while the rain stopped and we got ourselves ready for bed. As I lay down, it rained a little bit so I put my rain jacket over my face and tried to get comfy. I had to get up in the middle of the night to go use the loo, and it was amazing how many people were still up and singing. One of the water pipes had burst and was creating a rather large pool. We got back and went back to sleep again.