CARTHAGE, MO.---- Talk about a big family reunion. Jennifer Nguyen is meeting cousins she's never even heard of before. She is 14 years old and this is her 1st Marian Days celebration. She is from Philadelphia and rode in a car for 20 hours to get to Carthage. All to meet more than 50 family members.
"Coming here was hard. We had to squish in a little car. Camping, that was a bit of a surprise for me. I thought we were going to be sleeping in a hotel," states Nguyen.
She crams in a tent with all those cousins, but luckily it has an air conditioner.
"I'm in a tent with 9 or 8 people, it's kind of like a sleep over."
That car ride seemed like it would never end.
"My mom and dad take turns driving the car. When my mom drives, it kind of scares me."
Her uncle Hien Bui is also from Philly and he says it's not easy to find a place to camp near the church.
"Very hard to look for a spot. I have family from Kansas City, 2 hour driver here. They get the spot 2 weeks ago," states Bui.
The family says they are spread all over the country and it's nice to meet in 1 place to pray. One thing they can't escape is the heat. So how do they deal with it?
"Oh my God, I pray, I pray before I go to sleep and pray before I wake up," states Vicki Nguyen, Traveled from Texas.
That's not affecting their main goal, which is to honor the Virgin Mary.
"No matter how hot it is, we're still gonna come meet out family. This is a big party for all of us," says Vicki Nguyen.
The celebration wraps up on Sunday.
With 60,000 people in one spot many of them will be on their cell phones. Verizon Wireless has brought a COLT truck to Marian Days. Colt stands for Cell On Light Truck. It's basically a portable cell phone tower that can handle all the extra phone calls in the area. Carthage normally has about 15,000 people that live in the area and the towers weren't designed for that many additional calls.
"With the social media, everybody on Facebook, Twitter, text messages, we don't want anybody to slow down or have any kind of interruptions. Just as a precaution we put the COLT out there ," states Samuel Butler, Verizon Wireless.
The COLT was also used in Joplin shortly after the May 22nd tornado hit.
"Coming here was hard. We had to squish in a little car. Camping, that was a bit of a surprise for me. I thought we were going to be sleeping in a hotel," states Nguyen.
She crams in a tent with all those cousins, but luckily it has an air conditioner.
"I'm in a tent with 9 or 8 people, it's kind of like a sleep over."
That car ride seemed like it would never end.
"My mom and dad take turns driving the car. When my mom drives, it kind of scares me."
Her uncle Hien Bui is also from Philly and he says it's not easy to find a place to camp near the church.
"Very hard to look for a spot. I have family from Kansas City, 2 hour driver here. They get the spot 2 weeks ago," states Bui.
The family says they are spread all over the country and it's nice to meet in 1 place to pray. One thing they can't escape is the heat. So how do they deal with it?
"Oh my God, I pray, I pray before I go to sleep and pray before I wake up," states Vicki Nguyen, Traveled from Texas.
That's not affecting their main goal, which is to honor the Virgin Mary.
"No matter how hot it is, we're still gonna come meet out family. This is a big party for all of us," says Vicki Nguyen.
The celebration wraps up on Sunday.
With 60,000 people in one spot many of them will be on their cell phones. Verizon Wireless has brought a COLT truck to Marian Days. Colt stands for Cell On Light Truck. It's basically a portable cell phone tower that can handle all the extra phone calls in the area. Carthage normally has about 15,000 people that live in the area and the towers weren't designed for that many additional calls.
"With the social media, everybody on Facebook, Twitter, text messages, we don't want anybody to slow down or have any kind of interruptions. Just as a precaution we put the COLT out there ," states Samuel Butler, Verizon Wireless.
The COLT was also used in Joplin shortly after the May 22nd tornado hit.
