Help, we´re trapped in the Museum (Do you remember those books?)

Queridos Amigos y familia,
The weeks are flying by here in Ecuador; I can’t believe March is almost over! We have had a good couple of low-key weeks here in the barrio. We enjoyed celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary of the grandparents of one of our kids from school complete with a Mariachi Band, an outdoor mass with all the local communities, a fiesta for the feast day of Maria Eugenia (the founder of the Religious of the Assumption) including a puppet show, snacks and of course - dancing, and wearing our new matching uniforms to school (yes, the teachers have uniforms too!)
This past weekend we went to Ibarra, a nearby city. It was a nice get-away and we were able to see many of the sites in one day. We went to several churches and decided to go to El Museo de Banco Central before it closed on Saturday afternoon. We got there around 1:30 p.m. and took in the museum learning about religious art, local artifacts, modern art and a brief history of the town. After exploring the entire museum (even the upstairs theatre and locked library) we made our way out only to discover the door was LOCKED! Trying not to panic we pushed and pulled for a while and realized there was no way we could move the padlocked door. We tried calling to people from the windows (before we realized they were tinted) to no avail. Next we found the phone and a list of emergency numbers, so we tried calling the local office but couldn’t dial out. Then we remembered there was another gate, still locked but with bars that were open to the street. So I flagged down an old man on a bike and explained our situation. He said he would go check around the building to see if he could find someone and never returned. Next, we scoped out a family walking down the street and asked them to stop across the street at the Tourism office to ask someone there for help. They sent over a young man who was tying not to laugh as he said, “I just don’t understand how this happened to you.” Oh dear! He told us we couldn’t call the police because they wouldn’t answer. Then he asked if we had turned all the lights on and we said no … So he decided that the guard had just left for lunch and would be returning and what we needed to do was just wait. After about 20 minutes or so, we heard a noise and rushed to the door. I told Nicole we were really going to freak out whoever was on the other side when they saw us! The guard’s eyes were really big as he opened the door to our anxious faces :) Then he asked us, “You were inside?” Yes … we replied and you locked us in! So we left and went to inform our new friend at the tourism office we had made it out! He just laughed and said we were good sports about the whole situation (he was probably thinking: Only Americans get themselves into these sort of predicaments!) But it made for a good story anyway!
We enjoyed the rest of our time there visiting other sites around town and on Sunday stopped by Otavalo and the large indigenous market there to do a little shopping.
All in all a good weekend! We are trying to make plans for next week. Normally the sisters/community do a Holy Week Mission and go serve the people in another area for a week and lead them in a retreat. I was really interested in this (it sounded a lot like Totus Tuus!) but haven’t heard too much more about it. We also thought about going to Riobamba to visit the sisters there (they keep giving us a hard time about leaving the country and still not even visiting them!) So we’ll see what happens!
Hope you are having a blessed Lent and able to reflect daily on how Jesus is calling you to make little sacrifices to grow closer to him and show others the way.
Love and peace to you,
April