When you´ve been in El Salvador for a month...

After being in El Salvador for exactly a month, I was starting to get comfortable and almost bored with El Salvador, but then Saturday happened.  There simply are no adequate words to describe what I saw and experienced.  But I´m going to try as hard as I can to convey what I saw, heard, and felt.

On Friday, Julie, Mari, and I took a bus about 2 hours away to the south and east part of El Salvador.  We went to a town called Concepcion Batres.  We stayed with David and Nancy who are missionaries here for 2.5 years from Wisconsin.  They have a nice house (except for the bugs, mold, and leaking roof).  They have been in El Salvador since November and have been in their house for a month now.  They are teaching a bunch of English classes in communities near where they are living and they are working on trying to figure out some bigger projects that they can work on with members of the communities.  Concepcion Batres is a really cute town and it is in a very safe area.  After dinner we were able to walk to the town center to get some ice cream, and even though it was dark we didn´t have to worry about our safety.  It was almost like being in a completely different country- everything was just calm, nice, and safe.  It was refreshing to see that it is actually possible for this to happen in El Salvador.  I can only hope that this can happen in other cities as well.

Friday afternoon, a pastor that works in the area where David and Nancy work stopped by for a visit.  Pastor Ana Rosa told us that the next day she was going with another pastor, Pastor Alejandro, to visit the communities in the department of La Union where he works and to see some of the destruction from tropical storms Agatha and Alex that came through about a month ago and a week ago respectively.  Since we didn´t have any plans yet for Saturday, Julie and I asked if we could go with and Pastor Ana Rosa graciously agreed.

Pastor Ana Rosa picked us up at 6:30 on Saturday morning and we headed father east and south down the highway.  We drove for about 2 hours on the nice highway.  On the way the views of the landscape were beautiful- mountains, volcanoes, farmland.  We even got to see the ocean and Honduras.

Eventually we stopped to pick up Pastor Alejandro who is the pastor of the communities we were going to visit.  We drove a little bit farther and then turned off on to a ¨road¨.  We didn´t have to go very far on the ¨road¨ but we did have to go through a pretty big river.  During the rains in the tropical storms the the river flooded practically the whole community that is located here along the river.  The houses are at least 10 feet above the level of where the river is right now, and the river came up 15-20 feet during the flooding. 

We parked the truck where the road ended and went to see the first house.  The woman who lived in the house welcomed us in and eagerly showed us how high the water had gotten (about 4-5 feet up the walls of her house), she showed us where the walls had cracked from the force of the water, and she showed us how they had tied the beds to the ceiling so they would be off the floor. 

We went and saw the neighbor´s house which had fared somewhat better.  While Pastor Alejandro went with Julie and I on this little tour, Pastor Ana Rosa had set up a table and chair and a line of people was beginning to form.  The main reason why the pastors had come was to get a list of everyone´s name and their identification number so that the Lutheran Church knows how many people are there and in need of food and assistance.  Pastor Alejandro seemed to think that there wouldn´t be enough aid for all the people, but he promised to do what he could to get them food and medicine.

While Pastor Ana Rosa continued with the paper work, Julie, Pastor Alejandro and I went to see some other houses in the community.  Julie and I had no idea what we consented to when we agreed to go see some more houses.  We went down to the river level and then went back up the bank of the river.  Everything was still very wet and MUDDY.  I´m still not sure what would have been appropriate clothing for this adventure, but a skirt and sandals just wasn´t working out for me.  The mud was the kind of mud that that is squishy and you have to pull up to get your shoes out of it.  Julie and I struggled along.  At first I was trying not to get dirty, but I soon gave up on that and just tried not to fall into the mud or water.  Julie and I were pretty helpless when it came to walking in the mud.  Pastor Alejandro and a woman from the community helped each of us by pulling us along through the mud.  Julie and I laughed at ourselves and Pastor Alejandro and the woman laughed with us.  It´s a good thing we were able to laugh about the mud and our helplessness because there was very little else to laugh about in this community. 

Early on in our adventure I got too close to one of the barbed-wire fences and I scraped my arm and it was bleeding.  The woman who was helping me just wiped off the blood for me and we continued on.  The community has no roads, just paths between the houses.  We went up and down hills, through streams, and even through a field where cows were grazing.  At one point we had to go through one of the fences.

Some houses were damaged so much that the families could no longer live in them so they had to stay with another family.  There was a variety of qualities of houses in this community.  There were a couple of houses that had been built through the Catholic aid organization Caritas.  These houses made of cinder blocks with a cement floor held up well in the flooding, but their belongings that they weren´t able to move got wet.  There were some houses that were made with bricks and mortar and they were still standing but we saw some that had been cracked from the force of the water.  Then there were some places where people lived that you really couldn´t call houses.  Some were just sticks with plastic.    It was unclear to me what made a house uninhabitable- to me they all appeared to be unfit for a family to live in.  I think some people were able to clean out the mud, little stones, and garbage that had come into the house with the flooding water.  Those that weren´t able to live in their houses stayed with others in the community.

7 people lived in this house:

The woman from the community that was with us told us she wanted us to see her mother who was sick.  When we finally made it to her house we went in and we were offered a seat on a bed.  The house was about 10 feet by 20 feet.  There were two beds and three hammocks hanging.  They had some shelves, dishes, things to cooks with, and a few other things.  In one of the hammocks was the woman´s mother. 

 She was probably in her 60s, maybe older.  She had a hernia and was in constant pain from some other ailment.  She had also broken her wrist or arm some time ago and she wasn´t able to go to get it fixed.  It had healed in such a way that it looked like her hand was dislocated from her arm bones and the hand was almost perpendicular to her arm.  They told us for $300 she could have surgery to fix it, but this is far more than they could ever dream of having.  As we were sitting there another woman came in and showed us her hand that had been severely burned quite a while ago.  She had it covered with a towel and I highly doubt that she had received any medical assistance.  As we sat there it the house and witnessed the lack of access to health care, Pastor Alejandro and the woman in the house told us about other ways in which this community suffered.  Pastor Alejandro described how young children cry from hunger: their cries are weak because they do not the energy to cry loudly.  They don´t have clean water to drink.  They have to wash their dishes and clothes in the river and I´m guessing that most of them also bathe in the river.  The river is muddy and Pastor Alejandro said that the river is often contaminated leading to skin rashes.  There are no jobs.  They have no transportation to get anywhere.  These people had next to nothing, they recognized their own poverty and suffering, and they were desperate.  They were desperate for help of the most basic sort- food, medicine, water, and shelter.

The reality of the immense suffering in this place hit me hard while I was sitting in that house.  I cried.  The full reality of the suffering of this community hit hard.  My heart has been broken before, but as I was sitting there my heart was ripped apart, and I´m not sure that it will completely heal.  I guess when you´ve been in El Salvador for a month, your heart gets broken beyond repair (not quite as nice as getting to go to the pool when you´ve been in El Salvador for a week, but I wouldn´t have traded this day for anything).

The people in the community were very eager to show us their houses and what had happened because of the flooding.  Again and again Pastor Alejandro told us to take pictures of the damage and of the people living in the community.  Pastor Alejandro and the members of the community knew the power of Julie and I taking those pictures.  A picture is worth a thousand words and they knew those pictures would convey the words of truth about the damage of the flooding and the immense struggles the people live through even when they aren´t dealing with the damage of flooding.  They told us again and again to take pictures so that people would believe what happened.  I´m not sure if there was some history of people not believing what happened to them, but they were very adamant about us taking pictures and then showing them to whoever could help them.  They told us to show the pictures to our churches, to show the pictures to our pastors, and then they told us to bring our church members and our pastors to this community.  More than anything the people in this community wanted people to know that they are there and they are suffering, and they need help.  They knew that Julie and I and all the people we know back home have the power and the ability to help them.

Julie and I wanted so bad to give them something, to give them everything they needed.  We didn´t have anything with us to give them, but my mind immediately began thinking of ways that I could help this community.  Their needs are so immense, immediate, and numerous.  Julie said that the ideal situation would be to help them start up something that would be self-sustaining and empowering to the people in this community.  However, it seems that they are so far from this.  First they need food, water, medicine, and shelter before they can even think about doing something long term.   

As Pastor Ana Rosa finished up the paperwork, Pastor Alejandro spoke to the members of his congregation who were gathered.  He told them to pray for the things they needed and he told them to remember that God has not nor will God ever forget or abandon them.  It was clear that these people felt completely abandoned and forgotten by the whole world, and I´m sure in their situation it would have been very easy to question again and again where God was in their suffering.  More times than I would like to admit, I have found myself questioning if God was really with me.  I can only imagine how much stronger that questioning must be for the people in this community who have essentially been abandoned by everyone. 

Pastor Alejandor gathered all the kids together and they sang a couple of songs for us.  There were some pretty darn cute kids.

We left this little community and then we drove a little bit to where more of Pastor Alejandor´s congregants were gathered.  We saw some more houses that had been flooded.  They recorded names and identification numbers again.  When we were finished there we tried to go to another little community, but we couldn´t get to it because we couldn´t make it across a river.

Some houses were completely destroyed by the flooding.  Here is all that´s left of one house:

I thought I had seen the worst of poverty at the Hope House and in Pastor Matias´ communities and I had seen poverty.  But I hadn´t seen Poverty.  The people living in this community told us they had nothing and it was true.  They had nothing before the tropical storms, they had less after the flooding, and the will have even less after the next time their community floods.  These people are vulnerable.  The flooding may be a natural disaster in the sense that it was nature that brought the rains, but it is a man-made disaster when we consider the social injustices that will keep the members of the community there to suffer flood after flood.  They have practically no chance of ever being able to break out of the cycle of poverty and suffering that they were born into.  Again and again the community will flood, they will rebuild their houses as best they can, and they will continue to just barely survive.  Children will continue to cry of hunger, people will continue to go without basic health care, they won´t have adequate houses.

The cycle of suffering will continue unless something changes for this community.  The needs of the community are far beyond what they could possibly provide for themselves at this point.  I´m sure there are just as many ways to help as there are problems.  I don´t yet know even where to start, but I´m determined to find out.  As I sat listening to the children sing and as Pastor Alejandro prayed, I knew that God brought me there for a reason.  Looking back now, I can very clearly see how God worked to get me to this community

Houses, Road Work, and Stories

Julie and I just spent a couple of days with Pastors Matias and Martina.  I just love staying with them!  They take such good care of us and are such wonderful people!  The highlights of our stay with them was going to visit the two month old baby in the community of Colon and going to the pool.  We also got to go visit a couple of houses in Guaycume that are being rebuilt after the heavy rains of last November damaged them.  One house was pretty much completely destroyed when mud from the hill above slid down and covered the house.  They now have a sturdy house, but they don´t have electricity, running water, or windows, and they just have a dirt floor.  The other house fell down the hill it is located on.  They are still working on reconstructing the house.  I´m not convinced that even the new construction will help.  The house is well constructed, but it seems like it is just a matter of time before the land below it is washed away down the hill by rain.  The family is in a tough situation though because this is the land they own and so that is where they need to construct their house.  The money for the new construction for both houses came from donations from churches in the States.  The new house cost $3,000 to construct- strong foundation, two rooms, strong metal roof.  With $1,500 more they could have electricity, a nice cement floor, doors, and windows.  Just think...only $4,500 to construct a nice house.  Wouldn´t it be wonderful if everyone could have a simple nice house like that?  Here are pictures of the house that was destroyed by the land slide and their newly constructed house.

Also in Guaycume, Pastor Matias and some of the church members spent time clearing some brush from the side of the ¨road¨ and digging some ditches on the side of the road for the rain water to run through so that the rain hopefully won´t make it´s own ditches through the middle of the road.  The road was in great need of work.  Pastor Matias worked so hard!  He was using a machete to whack away the brush.  I think you would be hard pressed to find a pastor in the U.S. who would lead his congregation in such road work (and with one lung!).  Again it was obvious just how hard working Salvadorans are. 

The other day, Julie and I went with Trini to a little museum.  We took the bus to get there and as we were riding the bus I was observing the people on the bus.  I first looked at Trini who was sitting a few seats ahead of me and I thought about her testimony that she shared with us some time ago.  I thought about all she had been through during the war and since then- fleeing the army, losing one of her sons and her husband during the war, being imprisoned and tortured, struggling to find work to survive, and most recently losing another of her sons to gang violence.  Then it struck me that most of the other people riding that bus also had some story about the war and how it affected them.  I know at least part of Trini´s story, but I cannot even begin to fathom how many other stories there are.  Practically every Salvadoran who is older than 18 has a story to tell about how the war affected them.  It´s difficult for me to comprehend how all the Salvadorans I see everyday -riding the bus, walking on the streets, shopping in the grocery store- all these people have their own stories of war, of violence, of pain.  These stories have obviously shaped people- who they are and what they believe- and yet just looking at people one would have no idea what stories they have within them. 

I cannot imagine what it is like for people to carry around such stories of violence and pain.  Do such stories unite Salvadorans?  Or do the stories divide people?  There is such a rich history and so many stories that I don´t know.  And yet I´m in awe of the humanity here and the incredible lives that continue despite or perhaps because of their stories of war.

Testimonies

Last Friday when we were all in Antigua, we shared a very special worship service.  Instead of a traditional sermon each of us would share our own testimony of how our time in El Salvador had affected us and our faith.  After lunch we all spent 2 hours in personal reflection and writing to prepare our testimonies.  Then we gathered together in the courtyard of out little hostel.  The family who owns the hostel lit incense and helped us set up chairs and an altar.  We squeezed in enough chair for us all to sit in a circle.  With the blue sky above and beautiful plants, flowers, and vines around us it was a perfect setting for our worship service.  Pastor Kristie set up the altar complete with bread and wine for communion.  A wooden Jesus was nestled in the low branches of the small tree next to the table that served as the altar.

We settled into our chairs and we began the service.  We joined together in songs and prayer.  Then it came time to share our testimonies.  One by one, each person shared his or her testimony as the Spirit moved him or her.  Each person told something different, each of us took something different from what we had experienced.  Some shared how their faith had been challenged, some shared how their faith had been strengthened by what we had experienced in El Salvador.  Many talked about the love, faith, and strength of our Salvadoran friends- Pastor Matias, Pastor Martina, Trini, Jorge, Mari, Atilio, and of course all the kids.  We also shared tears with each other- tears of sadness for the pain and suffering we learned about, tears of happiness for the miracles and joys we witnessed, tears of thanks to God for an opportunity to grow in faith, tears of frustration for the continuing injustices and suffering of the Salvadoran people, and tears of solidarity with those in our little circle and with our friends back in El Salvador.

It was so moving to hear how everyone had been affected by our time together in El Salvador.  It was helpful for me to have time to reflect on my own experiences so far, but it was even more helpful to hear everyone else´s reflections.  It was amazing to hear how much people learned and grew in such a short time.  It was clear that God is truly powerful and when we let God guide our experiences, our faith and understanding can grow immensely.

Some told stories of moments that were significant for them.  Some talked about the trip as a whole.  Some built on previous experiences in El Salvador while others told of how El Salvador had affected them for the first time.  Some talked about how this trip had ignited in them a passion to continue to work for justice and to help our Salvadoran friends.  In every single testimony, one thing was clear: El Salvador and the incredible people here have a power to change and inspire people to work for a better world while strengthening faith.

I was struck by the resolve so many had to not be complacent in their faith or in their efforts to live as true Christians.  As we sat listening to each other´s testimonies, I think many of us were thinking about what life would be like with we return to our ¨normal¨ lives.  We were challenged to change by what we had seen, done, and learned in El Salvador, but how long would that last once we returned to our materialistic, comfortable, and busy lives at home?  How quickly will we forget the stories and lives of our Salvadoran friends as we get lost in the entertainment of whatever is on the TV?  How soon will we forget about the bugs, heat, bumpy roads, and the mud when we return to out clean, well-constructed, air-conditioned homes and churches?  How can we continue to be changed and challenged in our faith?  How can we continue to feel the passion for justice and peace we felt when learning about the injustices and violence of the past and present in El Salvador?

I´m not sure that anyone has a good answer to any of these questions.  And the good news is that I still have a few more weeks to think about these questions.  However, sharing our testimonies in that group gave me hope and reassurance for a number of reasons.  Most importantly, I fully felt that I´m not the only one who has these sort of questions.  Furthermore, I was reassured that I don´t have to change the world on my own. To be able to share these difficult questions and the burden of changing the world makes me feel (a little) better.  Perhaps it is partly my introverted nature, but I often feel overwhelmed and helpless when I think about all the injustices in El Salvador (and in the whole world for that matter).  I have always known that there are lots of great people who are passionate about justice and peace, but to have so many gathered in one place talking about faith and the issues of justice was powerful for me.

I was amazed at how honest and frank so many people were about their emotions and their faith journey during the trip.  This is evidence of what an amazing group of people this was but it also speaks to the power of our shared experiences in El Salvador.  Sharing trips on the ¨roads¨, sweating together, being hot and dirty together, and sharing tears really has the ability to bond a group of people like nothing else.  I´m looking forward to sharing testimonies with another smaller group in a few weeks.  It will be interesting to see how my own experience and reflections will have changed with a few more weeks of El Salvador.

Today we went to Trini´s house and worked in her corn fields.  We left at 7:00 am and traveled in the pick-up truck a little over an hour to her house.  About 7 of the older boys came with along with Julie, Mari, Trini, another woman and an old man who was doing the driving (Julie and I aren´t really sure who this man is, but he is nice and drives them around sometimes).

Trini´s house was built through Habitat for Humanity.  It is a nice little cinder block house with two bedrooms, a kitchen area, a little bathroom, and they have added a little room on the back.  The house is near the town of Suchitoto but is in the country (we had to go down a bumpy road and through a small river).  They have electricity and some days they have running water.  The first thing we did when we got there was check to see if the water was running today- it wasn´t.  Then the boys got out the little TV and got it hooked up to the antenna which was on top of a long branch.  The TV had to be hooked up so that they could watch the soccer game that was on.  It was so funny watching all the boys crowd around the TV messing with the antenna and adjusting the buttons to try to get it to work.  They eventually got the game on although it was in black and white and was pretty staticy.  We made some breakfast of beans, eggs with veggies, bread, and hot chocolate. 

And then we went to the corn fields to pick weeds.  The boys were using machetes to cut some weeds and the women were just pulling the weeds by hand.  Farming in El Salvador is very labor intensive- they don´t have tractors and there is no way that tractors would even work on the hilly, rocky soil.  So everything is done by hand- planting, weeding, and picking.  I cannot imagine what a farmer from Illinois would think of the corn fields in El Salvador.  I don´t even know how the corn manages to grow in the rocky soil. 

We spent most of the morning picking weeds (Julie and I did pretty good, but we didn´t work as hard as the Salvadorans.  Salvadorans are such hard working people.  Even the kids pitch in and usually work harder and do better than I do.).  Mari, Julie, and I went back to the house to make some lunch.  Mari did most of the work to make some soup and warm up some tortillas.  Julie peeled some potatoes with a knife and we discussed how much easier it would be with a potato peeler.  Everyone came in from the fields, we ate lunch, and the boys turned the soccer game on.  We cleaned everything up, locked up the house, and went into Suchitoto to visit Jorge´s grave before heading back to San Salvador. 

About a week ago, the police brought a family to stay here at the Casa Concordia.  I´m not sure if I completely understand what exactly happened, but I think I understand that the kid´s father was killed and then they family got word that whoever killed the dad was going to come and kill the rest of the family.  So, the family is staying here until the police can find a new place for the family to stay.  There are two young girls, a young woman, an young man, and an older woman.  They are in a safe place here, but I cannot imagine the fear and grief they must be going through.

The day before we left for Guatemala, the police showed up with an old woman.  Apparently they found her wandering the streets.  She was confused about how she got here and she said that she was from Guatemala.  Who knows how she ended up in San Salvador.  We tried to ask her, but she didn´t seem to know.  The police were going to contact the Guatemalan embassy to see if her family had reported her missing.  That evening we had a pizza party with all our Salvadoran friends and she joined right in with the festivities.  A few people gave some thank you speeches and then the old woman stood up and offered a cute little thanks.  I highly doubt she had any idea what was going on, but she just went with the flow and joined the crazyness.  

Back in El Salvador

Julie and I are back at the Casa Concordia.  Our bus ride back was uneventful, thankfully.  We left Antigua yesterday morning at 5:15, dropped the Minnesota folks off at the airport in Guatemala City, and then Julie and I went to the bus station for our journey back to El Salvador.  Our short visit in Antigua was wonderful and rejuvenating, and now I´m ready for 4 more weeks of El Salvador.  I´m sad that the Minnesota folks are no longer here- they are all such wonderful people and it was truly a pleasure to get to know them and to experience El Salvador together.

A lot has happened that I haven´t had the chance to write about yet, so hopefully over the next week I can catch up on posting.  We´ll see...

The first two weeks I was here, I felt completely overwhelmed with all I was experiencing- all the stories of pain, difficulties, and problems.  I heard about and witnessed first hand the structural violence of poverty.  Pastors Matias and Martina were constantly telling me about things that their churches needed and about the struggles that the members of churches were going through.  I was learning about so many problems and needs that I just felt so overwhelmed to even start to think about how I could even start to make a difference.  Part of the reason why I wanted to come down here this summer was to try to determine in what way I can work with the people of El Salvador.  However, after the first couple of weeks I felt I was even father from determining how I could help here. 

Being with the folks from Minnesota this past week really gave me reassurance that there are other people out there who like me are working to make the world a better place.  It was amazing to see what a positive difference their scholarship program makes in the lives of hundreds of students.  It is so good to know that I don´t have to change the world on my own!  No matter how small a difference I can make on my own, I know that with all these other wonderful people who care about the people of El Salvador, we can do something significant.  So I feel less overwhelmed and hopeless.

Last Sunday morning we went to church in the Lutheran cathedral.  This church was bombed twice during the war, and they just don´t have the money to fix it up.  There are simple wooden pews and the walls are made of pieces of some sort of low-quality plywood painted green.  The church is located just down the street from the Casa Esperanza.  Definitely not what you would think of when you think of the most important Lutheran church in the whole country.  Nevertheless, it was a lovely service with some great music and a meaningful sermon from the Bishop.   

After the service, we got to meet with Bishop Gomez.  He talked a little bit about the Lutheran Church in El Salvador, the war, and the trip to Europe he just returned from.  Then we got to ask some questions.  Bishop Gomez is an amazing man.  In 1992, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and he was close to winning.  During the war he led the Lutheran Church in efforts to help the people through things such as a refugee camp.  For speaking out against the violence of the war, he and his family had to deal with death threats.   

When Julie and I arrived back in San Salvador yesterday we were told we were going to a wedding in a little bit!  The Bishop Gomez´s daughter got married and we got to go.  I love how things like that just happen!  The wedding wasn´t too different from other weddings I´ve been to, but there were a few differences.  We got there at about 2:00 and we were one of the first ones there.  We thought it was supposed to start at 2, but it really didn´t start until 3.  Some folks were still decorating- putting up balloons and streamers.  More people trickled in and the bride and groom came.  They first did the civil ceremony.  The bride, groom, Bishop Gomez, the lawyer who was the Bishop´s brother, and two other people who I presume were witnesses sat at a table in the front.  The lawyer read the documents and then the bride and groom signed it and they were legally married.  Then we waited a while and then the religious ceremony started.  After the service everyone had a nice dinner of rice, bread, vegetables, salad, and chicken.  There was cake but we had to leave before they cut it.       

Adventures on the way to Guatemala

We had quite the adventure yesterday coming to Guatemala! We left the Casa Concrodia at 5 am and headed to the bus station. We went with a very nice bus company that has very nice two level buses with comfy seats, air conditioning, shows movies, and serve a little meal. We got all checked in and left San Salvador at 6 am. I fell asleep pretty much right away and slept until we got to the border. A man from the Salvadoran customs came on the bus and checked our passports. Then after a few minutes the man who worked on the bus serving us food, etc. told us that the bus was going to have to wait there for an hour, so it would be best for us to get off the bus and walk across the border and go through the Guatemalan customs and wait for the bus on the other side. So we all got off the bus and walked across the bridge that took us to Guatemala. It was definitely an interesting experience to walk across the border. As we were waiting in line to get our passports stamped in Guatemala, we saw our bus pull up, but it had not been an hour. I'm not really sure what happened- perhaps they thought the traffic was worse than it really was- I don't know.


So, then we all got back on the bus and continued on our way. After a little bit we started going slow and stopped periodically. Then we stopped and the engine went off. The driver tried to start it again, but it didn't start. The young man who worked on the bus told us we be waiting for an hour or so while they found some parts and tried to fix it. After a while it got really warm on the bus without the air conditioning so we got off and chatted with each other. I got to meet a young woman from the U.S. who is working for an organization called Voices on the Border (http://www.votb.org). It was neat to hear about this organization and to hear about the work that this young woman is doing.

Here we were standing on the side of the road while with bus driver worked on trying to fix the bus. I think they said there was something wrong with the oil or fuel filter. They got it started we got on the bus and then it stopped working. We got off the bus and after a few minutes they got it started again, we got on a started moving. We were going pretty slow though. After about 45 minutes we met another bus and we changed buses and continued on to Guatemala City on the new bus. We got into Guatemala City at 2:00- about 4 hours later than we should have. Then we had an hour ride to our cute little hotel in Antigua. We went out and had dinner- our first real meal of the day- and then walked around the city for a little bit before heading back to the hotel for our nightly Bible study/group devotions.
By no means was it a horrible day, just different than we had anticiapted. Always an adventure.

To Guatemala

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I´m heading to Guatemala for a few days with the group from Minnesota.  We are taking a bus to Guatemala City and then we will go to the city of Antigua where we will stay in a hotel.  The purpose of this time in Antigua is for the folks from Minnesota to reflect on their trip and to relax a little before returning home.  I´m looking forward to reflecting with them and hearing more about how this experience has affected them.  The folks from Minnesota will fly back home from Guatemala City and Julie and I will head back to El Salvador on Saturday morning.

I don´t have the energy, brain power, or time now to write about our activities today, but you will hear about them soon enough.  I´m not sure if I´ll be able to write while I´m in Guatemala, but hopefully I will be able to.