It is such a beautiful night

It is such a beautiful night. The stars are showing their brilliance with Orion low on the horizon early in the evening. This close to the equator days are pretty much from 6 to 6, pretty much every day of the year. We are into about day 4 of the Purissima celebrations of the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The Virgin is the biggest deal for Catholics here and she is the protector and patron saint of Granada having saved this city from ruin more than once. For this I am grateful. So each night she stays on a different main street and each evening there is a procession from where she spends the night to the Cathedral. Each night the floats and music bests the ones before. Tonite we had the pope (around 18 years old) blessing everyone and releasing doves in his message of peace on one float.

He was following a live tableau of Virgin Marys at different phases of her life. Absolutely gorgeous. Music was Ave Maria on loudspeakers on pick up trucks. It actually worked. Who knew?

I began a new phase of my tiny dentistry program today. Carlos found me while I was having lunch with my dentist, Jaime Salinas. Carlos is a kid who was very loyal in his devotion to begging food from me last year. He is really bright and attractive. Last year he ran a lot of errands for me and we became friends. Last year he went to school. He is 9 or so. This year when my son and I ran into him, he gave us his usual huge grin and hugged my son like a lost father. He didn't look as healthy this year, but he said his mother is working now. She sweeps streets. She probably gets paid ten cents an hour. She has 5 kids. This is better than last year when she wasn't working and was sick all the time. I haven't met her.

In any case, I had the good dentist look at his teeth right there in the restaurant and he has big honking cavities in his molars. So we took him in a cab to show him where the dentist's office is and explain that he needs to get his teeth fixed and next Saturday he has an appointment. I bought him food for his family and we are ready to get started. Our little foundation will pay. I will go with him. I asked the dentist what he thinks about Carlos' health. He said he looks fine, but needs more food.  He is so bright and loyal. We will see if we can get him a little job or a little business and hope that he can go back to school again.

It is hard for a kid to feed a family, and stay cheerful. It is hard for anyone. He chose me and he chose my son, so I guess we had better see what a little bit of opportunity can do to boost his life. He is that kid one meets every now and again who has a real sparkle. When we go out together, local people always wave and smile at him. this is very different from the usual reaction to street kids. We'll see. I told him the Virgin was looking out for him and he thought about it and pretty much wanted to know if she had food.