A few years after being widowed, and as soon as her youngest child reached the age of maturity, Hebblethwaite decided to leave her job and home and go to live in this rural community of South America. The poor and forgotten village of Santa Maria had been, in the 17th and 18th centuries, one of the famous Jesuit-Guarani reductions - the mission settlements for indigenous people.

Touching, funny and compassionate, this selection from Hebblethwaite's monthly columns in The Tablet weaves together a moving story of her time living simply among campesinos.