Yesterday, Monday, Julie and I went on an adventure where we learned that everything is closed on Mondays...well, not everything was closed, but close to everything was closed. We went out to the western part of the country to visit a hotel where Julie might bring one of the church groups she is leading this summer. We wanted to find some fun things that the group could do while they are out there. We looked at the El Salvador travel book and found some things to go check out. We went through 3 little towns that were supposed to be touristy towns, but not much was going on. We went into a few little stores that were selling arts and crafts types of things and they were very nice. But you can only spend so long looking in these shops. Many shops were closed, the churches were closed, a little cultural house was closed. We were told that stuff was closed because it was Monday. I guess tourists aren´t supposed to come on Mondays. If only the book had told us this.
We had a very lovely lunch at the hotel which was beautiful with gardens and flowers. The weather was much nicer there, it was much cooler than here in the capital. We headed back to San Salvador. Then Julie and I went with a couple of university students who live at the Casa Concordia to see El Salvador´s national university. It was a huge campus and there were students all over the place outside hanging out (and some were studying).
Today, we went to the University of Central America (UCA). Julie and I saw on the UCA website that there was a special exhibit during the month of March for the anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero. However, the exhibit was no longer there. I guess they decided to take it down early to put up a new exhibit. Oh well. I´ve been reading a biography of Romero and I am continually amazed by what a faithful and courageous man he was. Reading it while I´m here in El Salvador visiting some of the places where he traveled to and worked, makes it so much more real. It has been 31 years since Romero was killed by the Salvadoran army for speaking out against the violence of the Salvadoran government, but Romero´s legacy lives on. There are pictures, murals, t'shirts, posters of him all over the place. The people remember his work and many, especially those at the UCA, continue his work. When President Obama was in El Salvador last week, he visited Romero´s tomb. Although Obama did not make any sort of official statement about his visit to Romero´s tomb, it was indeed a very symbolic action for him to pay his respects to a man who fought for justice for the poor and the oppressed. If only U.S. foreign policy would express more concern for the poor and the oppressed.
After we went to the UCA, we went to the Casa Esperanza, the Hope House, which is the Luthera´n church´s ministry to the homeless. Julie and I helped make tortillas. I felt bad for the people who had to eat the tortillas that I made because they weren´t as round as they should have been. We got to join the people for a mini worship service and then helped serve lunch. We served a full room and some people didn´t even get a seat. There were many more children there this time than I have seen in past times that I have gone to the Casa Esperanza. This afternoon we went to the military museum (I´ll tell you more about this later), we saw the U.S. embassy here (it´s HUGE), and we went to a botanical garden.
