Down A Dusty Lane: Villagarcia de Arosa

This past weekend (Sunday) I had an assignment to speak in the smallest of the eight units here in Galicia--Villagarcia de Arosa. Villagarcia is only 49 kilometers away, and we were able to be there in plenty of time to be assured of a good seat!! (tongue in cheek!) Being the tiniest unit in the District, they only had a total of ten people there, and that included the two of us!

They meet in the downstairs "social room" of the Hotel Playa Compostela, pictured above. The

Branch President actually lives in Vigo, but has been called to go to this place and serve as their President. The man in the picture, in the suit, is Presidente Temes and the woman closest to you, is his wife. The only other male in attendance, that lives and attends here, is 80+ years old, but , oh, what a sweet ole man he is!!

This is a picture of the outside of the Hotel, which is located on the main street of Villagarcia. The day we attended, the city was sponsoring a race, and you can see some of the contestants making their way down the road in front of the "church". Because of the race, and where we had parked the car--on the street--we were not allowed to leave immediately after the meetings until after the race had run its course (pun intended!!), so that we would not be endangering any of the runners if we were to drive down the street.

With about 20 minutes to kill, we strolled (reverently, because it was still Sunday :>) ) a block to the west, and found the beach. Even though it was lightly raining, it was enjoyable for us to be able to just walk along the seaboard and see the beautiful area that these folks call home.

Looking to the north, along the walkway, The following shot is from the same spot, but looking the opposite direction.

The village (as I call it) has a population of around 57,000. It is a beautiful place, and very clean.

The people we passed by seemed happy, even in the rain. I suppose, that living with rain as a normal occurrence, it doesn't seem to dampen their spirits at all. We hope to be able to return and do some more exploring along the beach, when we have more time, and not being on a Sunday. Our branch has a little get-together every fourth Sunday, where everyone brings a dish of something to share, and we all sit down together and snack on (picar) the things that were brought, so that caused us to have to hustle away from Villagarcia sooner than we would have normally wanted.

Last Thursday, I dropped Hna. Bake off at the Church for a R.S. project, and then I hiked across the valley and up the hill to the south, to check out the Cultural City of Santiago. The Cultural City is (was) supposed to be one of Santiago's claim to fame, sort of a big deal, but it has not gone as planned. They held an international design contest in 1999, for this project, and building began within the next two years. After more than a decade of frustration with the construction, they decided to halt the deal, because of being over-budget by more than four times. Some portions of the 4-building complex are completed, but others are not. It is supposed to represent something along the lines of the buildings just "springing up out of the ground, sort of like a continuation of the rolling hills that surround them." (does that make any sense?) Well. we'll let the pictures do the talking. Here goes:

Two of the buildings, springing up out of the ground, sort of together.

Windows: major reason for some of the cost overruns.
So many of the windows had to be cut on-site, with very few
being of the same size.

Good look at the four!

On the backside now, looking down between them, taken
from the middle of the plaza. Notice that the plaza is laid
with tile.

Check out the windows on this one!!!

More tile.

Look at all those different cuts of glass. No wonder they were
pulling their hair out on this one!!

This doesn't really belong with the Cultural City photos, but is a
shot of the freeway going past Santiago. Notice how they had to
follow the contours of the land. There are no long, straight stretches here.

The Relief Society project that day was to make cards to send to active and less-active members of the branch for the holidays. One of the sisters in the branch had a paper cutter (Cricket), so they were able to make some neat looking cards, to let folks know that they have not been forgotten

On the left, Hnas. Baxter and Iregui. Hna. Iregui took the place of Hna. DeWaal,
who went home a couple of weeks ago. On the right, Hnas. Felicitas and Eteluina.
Hna. Bake's striped shoulder can be seen in the lower right.

Our branch president lives and works on a dairy, about 65 kilometers from here, toward the northwest. We have been taking the Elders in our car, out there, to visit them and to teach some of their neighbors. Their milk cows stay indoors all year-round, under a huge metal shed. Like most dairy farmers, they sell the bull calves and keep the heifers for replacement animals. They grow corn for silage, and put it in big pits, just like they do in the states.

The one time we went there in the daylight, we were able to see one of these little deals on his farm.

We had been seeing them in lots of places where we had driven before, but did not really know what they were. We have seen miniatures of them sold in the tourist shops. We asked one shop owner what they were, and her answer was that "they were a place to keep sacred things." Well, that did not jibe well with the one that we saw, once, that had the lady's laundry hanging inside it! Another person told us that they were used for the remains of dead folks, (cremated, of course). That did not seem right either. So. . . . we asked President Goyes what his "horreo" (Spanish name for them) was used for, and he said, "For storing corn". The parts (legs, slats, bases and top) are all formed from concrete--something that will last and hold up under the onslaught of rain, and humidity. He also added that, in the old days, the larger the "horreo", the more wealthy the farmer. Based on that, this place was one of the better (more wealthy) ones around. This particular one is the largest one we have seen. Notice the large, round "wheel-shaped" parts that sit on top of the legs, and support the upper portion of the "horreo". Varmint control!!