From the Shanaway Road to Ecuador

FR John Molloy’s good work for the poorest of the poor in Ecuador continues to inspire the people of Ennis in many ways. Shanaway Road man Pat Collins returned from five weeks’ volunteering with Fr Molloy’s at Monte Sinai parish, describing his experience as “a great adventure”.
Pat took a sabbatical from his job at Intel in Shannon last year, the International Year of Volunteering, after saving up five days leave a year over the last five years. He spent a few weeks with his family, wife, Theresa, and four boys, before heading to Ecuador to help Fr Molloy with his missionary work.
“Thanks to the generosity of family, friends, neighbours, former and current work colleagues, clubs and organisations I’m involved with, as well as the wider community, I collected over $7,000, all to be spent in Ecuador. I will always be very grateful for that generosity.”
The majority of the money went towards the provision of a new classroom in the parish school.
“This is Fr John’s priority project and he often talked about how grateful he is to the people here in Ireland for their support of his efforts over the last number of years.” The remaining money was spent on small community projects and maintenance jobs in the church and other parish buildings. Fr John’s parish is part of the poor areas called ‘barrios’ that surround Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city. The parish, in a reclaimed swamp, is home to 40,000 people.
Pat recalled, “Living conditions are not good, there is no running water, no drainage or sewerage system, no rubbish collection and the vast majority of streets are not paved. In the dry months, there is an immense amount of dust and flooding is still a major problem in the rainy season. The first impression one gets is the heat and the smell, that takes some getting used to. It took a few days to get used to the conditions in Monte Sinai, the heat, smell and dust but I soon settled in.”
The vast majority of houses are built with bamboo with an entire family living in a one or two-room house. Trucks sell water, while electricity is pirated. There is no rubbish collection, with residents burning what they can and leaving their remaining rubbish at the side of the road.
During his time in Ecuador, Pat lived with Fr John in the parish house and explained that the people of the parish were very welcoming. “While they have so little, relative to the resources we have here by accident of our birth, they appear to be no less happy than people in Ireland.”
One of Pat’s proudest achievements was the building of an outside toilet for a poor family. However, that wasn’t without its problems. “This was a big adventure, the two ‘builders’ were Jose the father of the family and myself with occasional help from a friend of his and lots of encouraging visits from members of his family and people in the parish. We completed the bathroom/shower building in about three and a half weeks. There was extreme drama a couple of days into the build when the local military personnel turned up with a demand to knock the toilet and his house as their map said they should not be there. But this was resolved by the very formidable Madre Lucelli, one of the Columbian nuns who runs the local school. The build had its frustrations but I will never forget the experience or the gratitude of the family and excitement of the children as we finished the job.”
A typical day for Pat involved getting up at 5.30am before working from 6.30am for the next four hours before the temperatures start to rise. The hot afternoons made working outside impossible, so Pat did administration in the parish, including building a wireless network for the parish buildings. By mid-afternoon, it would be cooler and work could commence outside before heading back to the parish house before dark. The weekends would see a concentration on the more liturgical aspects of life.
“During my time there, Fr John ran a wonderful week of the family, with special ceremonies every evening for either old people, families, expectant mothers and so on. So many people volunteered that week, it was so encouraging and uplifting to see a community forming and coming together to make life better for one another with little or no resources. Fr John is very passionate about building a sense of community and this is a real challenge as his parishioners are all new to the locality as well as being from many different types of communities all over Ecuador.”
Music is a very big part of religious ceremonies, with Fr John encouraging youth groups and music in the church. The money Pat brought helped buy instruments and PA equipment. “There were a few, what I can only describe as surreal moments as I’d walk through the Barrio to hear Slievnamon or some other Tipp favourite being played by Fr John on the concertina. Some of his slow airs also made the evening mass during the family week very special. And he’s working on a few Clare songs I’m glad to report.”
Pat praised the work of Fr John saying, “He is such an amazing person, doing such fantastic work; as well as developing the religious aspects of the parish he is builder, cost controller, project manager, community worker, marriage counsellor, employer and lots of other roles. He has a wonderful parish worker, Silvia, who runs the parish office, helping to issue the paperwork, arrange the volunteer catechists, manage much of the correspondence with the diocese and lots of other work that makes a parish twice the size of Ennis work. He’s supported in his work by three wonderful nuns from Colombia who also live in Monte Sinai and he gets some help from six young US volunteers. So much has been achieved and Fr John is always very keen to point out how important the support and generosity from Ireland has been in making it happen.”
Pat says he will be forever grateful to the people who made this trip happen. “My wife, Theresa, and four boys, who found a way to make it possible at a busy time for our family. At Intel Shannon, my boss Jonathan Walsh, the Site Ops team and my colleagues in work, especially Sinéad Fitzpatrick, who all took on so much of my workload as well as the wider Intel for having the “sabbatical” option in place. I appreciate all those who supported me either with donations, help or encouragement. The people of the parish in Ecuador for their welcome, support, patience and openness to let me into their daily lives and last but not least Fr John Molloy for being the most wonderful host, for allowing me into his parish, his home, for taking care of me, for encouraging me as well as for all the work he does on an ongoing basis with the most needy in the world. He brings such credit to our diocese and our country. All in all, it was a great adventure and a wonderful life-affirming experience. It had its ups and downs but I can truly say I got so much such joy from it all,” he concluded.