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.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Jon Sobrino!!!
The other day I was chatting with my mom on Facebook and she asked me what the best part of my trip has been so far. I struggled to think of a good answer, and eventually said that the day we worked on the church, heard the testimonies, and visited Jorge´s grave was probably the most meaningful day. There have of course been wonderful moments and I have experienced lots, but nothing really stuck out to me as being ¨the best¨.
Today that changed. I got to meet Jon Sobrino!!! Jon Sobrino is a Jesuit priest (originally from Spain) who has worked at the University of Central America (UCA) here in San Salvador for a long time. He is one of the leaders of Liberation Theology and has written many many books. I have read some of his books and these books greatly influenced my own theology. Furthermore, he is an amazing man of great courage, he is incredibly intelligent, and is overall just a great model of a person of faith who is working for peace and justice.
Julie and I have been talking about wanting to meet this man for quite some time. He often travels out of the country so we weren´t sure if he was in the country or not. We asked a few different people around here and most people seemed to think that he was indeed out of the country. But when we went to the UCA today, Julie was asking a secretary if Jon was in the country and as she was asking, he walked past us, the secretary pointed him out to us, and he went through some doors (we think he went to the bathroom). So, naturally Julie and I freak out as if we had just seen a rock star. After a few minutes he came back out and it was obvious that he was in a hurry (he´s a very busy man). Julie and I very quickly asked him if we would take a picture with us and he agreed. And then he left. Julie and I were just glowing and smiling and star struck for some time. We are hoping to maybe find some way to get to actually meet him and talk with him sometime later in our trip. Just to be in his presence for a short time was amazing!!! I´m still a little bit giddy just thinking about it.
The reason we were at the UCA was to visit a museum there and to learn about the massacre that occurred there in 1989. A student served as our tour guide and did a fantastic job- the amount of information was overwhelming. We started in the museum where they have artifacts from priests, nuns, and other church people who were murdered before and during the civil war. We started with learning about Father Rutilio Grande who was assassinated in 1977 along with an old man and a young boy who were traveling with him in his jeep. We saw the shirt Father Grande was wearing when he was shot, the shoes of the old man, and the backpack of the little boy. Father Grande was just the first of many who were killed because they were priests, because they were nuns, because they had things like Bibles with them, or simply because they were just with a priest or nun. In the museum we saw a picture of Pastor Matias´ priest who had been killed in 1979. All the pictures and personal artifacts of the people who had been assassinated really showed that these people were people just like you and me. These things illustrated humanity in the face of inhumanity.
Our tour guide told us about a few massacres of hundreds of people- women, men, kids, elderly people. The Salvadoran army (backed by the U.S. government and tax payers) massacred these people for no rational reason. They justified what they did by saying that the people they killed were guerrillas or they were supporting the guerrillas, but in reality most of the people in these massacres were just people trying to escape from the army.
Then we started learning about the massacre that occurred at the UCA. In the early morning hours of November 16, 1989, members of the Salvadoran army came to the place where Jon Sobrino and 6 of his fellow Jesuits lived there at the university. (At the time Jon Sobrino was out of the country.) The Jesuits were awoken by the soldiers. The soldiers ordered the priests to go out of their rooms into a garden area where they proceeded to brutally murder the men by shooting them. One of the priests had managed to stay in his room until he thought the soldiers had left, but he opened his door too soon and he was shoot too. A little bit down the hall, the groundskeeper´s wife (Elba) and their daughter (Celina) had been sleeping. They had been awakened by the gun shots and when they opened the door to see what had happened the soldiers saw them. The soldiers had been told to leave no witnesses and so these two women were killed as well. The rooms of the Jesuits and their things were burned, shot, and otherwise destroyed. We saw the clothes the Jesuits had been wearing when they were killed- pajamas. They soldiers left a brutal scene. Blood, organs coming out, skulls bashed in.
Just outside the museum and the place where the Jesuits lived is the rose garden that was planted in memory of the Jesuits, Elba, and Celina. The roses were planted in the place were four of the bodies were left. The gardener would eventually plant more rose bushes because these people were not the only ones assassinated during the war.
The reason the Jesuits and other religious people were murdered was because the government feared that they and their ideas were encouraging the people to rise up against the government and the wealthy. Most of them practiced and preached liberation theology which challenged the status quo of the injustices that benefited the wealthy but greatly harmed the poor. In a symbolic act, the soldiers destroyed the priests´ books, typewriters, and heads because they used these things to teach and preach liberation.
Recently declassified documents indicate that U.S. officials knew about the plan to kill the Jesuits before it happened. This is obviously very disturbing on a number of levels. Today we talked about the Cold War mentality, the way of thinking that led to support such atrocities. However, nothing can justify what happened to the 6 Jesuit priests, Elba, and Celina, and the thousands of other innocent people who were murdered during the war.
Today that changed. I got to meet Jon Sobrino!!! Jon Sobrino is a Jesuit priest (originally from Spain) who has worked at the University of Central America (UCA) here in San Salvador for a long time. He is one of the leaders of Liberation Theology and has written many many books. I have read some of his books and these books greatly influenced my own theology. Furthermore, he is an amazing man of great courage, he is incredibly intelligent, and is overall just a great model of a person of faith who is working for peace and justice.
Julie and I have been talking about wanting to meet this man for quite some time. He often travels out of the country so we weren´t sure if he was in the country or not. We asked a few different people around here and most people seemed to think that he was indeed out of the country. But when we went to the UCA today, Julie was asking a secretary if Jon was in the country and as she was asking, he walked past us, the secretary pointed him out to us, and he went through some doors (we think he went to the bathroom). So, naturally Julie and I freak out as if we had just seen a rock star. After a few minutes he came back out and it was obvious that he was in a hurry (he´s a very busy man). Julie and I very quickly asked him if we would take a picture with us and he agreed. And then he left. Julie and I were just glowing and smiling and star struck for some time. We are hoping to maybe find some way to get to actually meet him and talk with him sometime later in our trip. Just to be in his presence for a short time was amazing!!! I´m still a little bit giddy just thinking about it.
The reason we were at the UCA was to visit a museum there and to learn about the massacre that occurred there in 1989. A student served as our tour guide and did a fantastic job- the amount of information was overwhelming. We started in the museum where they have artifacts from priests, nuns, and other church people who were murdered before and during the civil war. We started with learning about Father Rutilio Grande who was assassinated in 1977 along with an old man and a young boy who were traveling with him in his jeep. We saw the shirt Father Grande was wearing when he was shot, the shoes of the old man, and the backpack of the little boy. Father Grande was just the first of many who were killed because they were priests, because they were nuns, because they had things like Bibles with them, or simply because they were just with a priest or nun. In the museum we saw a picture of Pastor Matias´ priest who had been killed in 1979. All the pictures and personal artifacts of the people who had been assassinated really showed that these people were people just like you and me. These things illustrated humanity in the face of inhumanity.
Our tour guide told us about a few massacres of hundreds of people- women, men, kids, elderly people. The Salvadoran army (backed by the U.S. government and tax payers) massacred these people for no rational reason. They justified what they did by saying that the people they killed were guerrillas or they were supporting the guerrillas, but in reality most of the people in these massacres were just people trying to escape from the army.
Then we started learning about the massacre that occurred at the UCA. In the early morning hours of November 16, 1989, members of the Salvadoran army came to the place where Jon Sobrino and 6 of his fellow Jesuits lived there at the university. (At the time Jon Sobrino was out of the country.) The Jesuits were awoken by the soldiers. The soldiers ordered the priests to go out of their rooms into a garden area where they proceeded to brutally murder the men by shooting them. One of the priests had managed to stay in his room until he thought the soldiers had left, but he opened his door too soon and he was shoot too. A little bit down the hall, the groundskeeper´s wife (Elba) and their daughter (Celina) had been sleeping. They had been awakened by the gun shots and when they opened the door to see what had happened the soldiers saw them. The soldiers had been told to leave no witnesses and so these two women were killed as well. The rooms of the Jesuits and their things were burned, shot, and otherwise destroyed. We saw the clothes the Jesuits had been wearing when they were killed- pajamas. They soldiers left a brutal scene. Blood, organs coming out, skulls bashed in.
Just outside the museum and the place where the Jesuits lived is the rose garden that was planted in memory of the Jesuits, Elba, and Celina. The roses were planted in the place were four of the bodies were left. The gardener would eventually plant more rose bushes because these people were not the only ones assassinated during the war.
The reason the Jesuits and other religious people were murdered was because the government feared that they and their ideas were encouraging the people to rise up against the government and the wealthy. Most of them practiced and preached liberation theology which challenged the status quo of the injustices that benefited the wealthy but greatly harmed the poor. In a symbolic act, the soldiers destroyed the priests´ books, typewriters, and heads because they used these things to teach and preach liberation.
Recently declassified documents indicate that U.S. officials knew about the plan to kill the Jesuits before it happened. This is obviously very disturbing on a number of levels. Today we talked about the Cold War mentality, the way of thinking that led to support such atrocities. However, nothing can justify what happened to the 6 Jesuit priests, Elba, and Celina, and the thousands of other innocent people who were murdered during the war.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Scholarships
Yesterday and today there were two celebrations of the scholarship program that Family of Christ Church has created so that over 300 Salvadoran students can go to school. Members of their church sponsor children so that they can buy things like school uniforms which are required in El Salvador and other school supplies. The program support kids in kindergarten all the way through university and there are even a few students who are going to medical school. The university students and medical students obviously have more costs associated with going to school so they receive more money than the younger kids.
At any rate, this scholarship program is pretty amazing! The students are mostly from the communities where Pastors Matias and Martina work and there are also some students in the program that are at the main Lutheran Church, the Casa Esperanza, and the Casa Concordia. Yesterday over 200 kids gathered in the church in Buena Vista for a church service and the kids acted out the gospel lesson, played some music, and gave speeches of thanks. Then each child was called up, their picture was taken, and they received a book, a few other little gifts, and a note from they people in Minnesota that sponsors the child. We all had lunch, the kids did some crafts, and they all ran around playing with the gringos. Today at the Casa Concordia we had a smaller gathering of those students who were not there yesterday- about 60 students I think. Below are pictures of some of the kids that were cramed into the church in Buena Vista and some of the kids from the community of Colon acting out the Gospel.
Many of the folks that are here from Minnesota sponsor a child, and it was very moving to see the kids and the sponsors interact. Some were meeting for the first time and others had met before. It is one thing to send money to a child, but when you get to meet and talk with that child it makes it so meaningful. There is obviously a great physical distance between Minnesota and El Salvador not to mention the numerous other differences such as language and culture. But that physical distance and all other differences were overcome yesterday and today when the children and the sponsors interacted. The children and their mothers were so incredibly grateful and thanked the sponsors again and again. Without the support, many of these kids would have no chance of being able to go to school.
This program hasn´t been around for too many years, but the enormous benefits are already evident. Last night Alvaro told us about his life. His dad died when he was young and soon after his mom started living with a man that mistreated him and his sister. So he decided to leave the house. He ended up in a orphanage for a little bit, then left and ended up living on the streets of San Salvador. He lived in a park and tried to earn some money by washing windshields of cars. He moved around to different places and some point he started sniffing glue. For awhile he lived with 9 other boys and an adult. Sometimes they slept in a park and sometimes they would find an abandoned house to sleep in. When they slept in the park people would complain to the police and then the police would come and tell them they couldn´t sleep in the park. One day he and the other boys were brought to the Casa Esperanza, Alvaro was the only one who decided to stay there. Trini saw potential in this young boy and she took good care of him. Through the scholarship program he got to go to school and started in 8th grade. He studied hard and finished the year second in his class. He went on to 9th grade and again finished second in his class. Trini sort of adopted him into her family as she has done with a few other kids as well. Alvaro thought he would go on to high school and so Trini again found a way for him to attend.
Alvaro thought he might like to study medicine and he read that Cuba has the best medical schools. Through a special program he gets to attend school there. And the scholarship program helps support his living costs. He has a few more years left of his general studies and then depending on what he wants to specialize in it will take him longer. When he was telling us his story he told us that the only reason he is alive is because of God. There were so many times when he could have died, and without God there is no way that he would be studying to be a doctor. He is home on a break and we got to celbrate his birthday a few nights ago. Truly an incredible success story. And I can only imagine how many other success stories there are already through the schoalship program and how many more there will be.
At any rate, this scholarship program is pretty amazing! The students are mostly from the communities where Pastors Matias and Martina work and there are also some students in the program that are at the main Lutheran Church, the Casa Esperanza, and the Casa Concordia. Yesterday over 200 kids gathered in the church in Buena Vista for a church service and the kids acted out the gospel lesson, played some music, and gave speeches of thanks. Then each child was called up, their picture was taken, and they received a book, a few other little gifts, and a note from they people in Minnesota that sponsors the child. We all had lunch, the kids did some crafts, and they all ran around playing with the gringos. Today at the Casa Concordia we had a smaller gathering of those students who were not there yesterday- about 60 students I think. Below are pictures of some of the kids that were cramed into the church in Buena Vista and some of the kids from the community of Colon acting out the Gospel.
Many of the folks that are here from Minnesota sponsor a child, and it was very moving to see the kids and the sponsors interact. Some were meeting for the first time and others had met before. It is one thing to send money to a child, but when you get to meet and talk with that child it makes it so meaningful. There is obviously a great physical distance between Minnesota and El Salvador not to mention the numerous other differences such as language and culture. But that physical distance and all other differences were overcome yesterday and today when the children and the sponsors interacted. The children and their mothers were so incredibly grateful and thanked the sponsors again and again. Without the support, many of these kids would have no chance of being able to go to school.
This program hasn´t been around for too many years, but the enormous benefits are already evident. Last night Alvaro told us about his life. His dad died when he was young and soon after his mom started living with a man that mistreated him and his sister. So he decided to leave the house. He ended up in a orphanage for a little bit, then left and ended up living on the streets of San Salvador. He lived in a park and tried to earn some money by washing windshields of cars. He moved around to different places and some point he started sniffing glue. For awhile he lived with 9 other boys and an adult. Sometimes they slept in a park and sometimes they would find an abandoned house to sleep in. When they slept in the park people would complain to the police and then the police would come and tell them they couldn´t sleep in the park. One day he and the other boys were brought to the Casa Esperanza, Alvaro was the only one who decided to stay there. Trini saw potential in this young boy and she took good care of him. Through the scholarship program he got to go to school and started in 8th grade. He studied hard and finished the year second in his class. He went on to 9th grade and again finished second in his class. Trini sort of adopted him into her family as she has done with a few other kids as well. Alvaro thought he would go on to high school and so Trini again found a way for him to attend.
Alvaro thought he might like to study medicine and he read that Cuba has the best medical schools. Through a special program he gets to attend school there. And the scholarship program helps support his living costs. He has a few more years left of his general studies and then depending on what he wants to specialize in it will take him longer. When he was telling us his story he told us that the only reason he is alive is because of God. There were so many times when he could have died, and without God there is no way that he would be studying to be a doctor. He is home on a break and we got to celbrate his birthday a few nights ago. Truly an incredible success story. And I can only imagine how many other success stories there are already through the schoalship program and how many more there will be.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Dirt, Testimonies, and Tears
The folks that are here from Family of Christ Lutheran Church in Minnesota are some pretty cool people. There are about 8 adults (including one of their pastors, Pastor Kristie) and 8 high schoolers. A few have come before and some are here for the first time. I have very much enjoyed the activities we have done together so far and I´m looking forward to our upcoming activities together.
I can now say that I have helped build a church, which I think is a pretty cool thing to be able to say! Yesterday I went with the delegation that is here from the church in Minnesota to help work on the church that is being built in Buena Vista. Basically we moved dirt around. For Salvadoran reasons, the dirt inside the rooms of the church is higher than it should be. So we shoveled the dirt into wheelbarrows and moved it to a pile of dirt outside the church. I think the dirt was really more like clay- thick and very moist and very difficult to shovel along with plenty of various sized rocks. Some people used pick axes to loosen the dirt first for those who were shoveling. I have to admit that I was a pretty bad worker- it was so hot and it was so hard to move that dirt. While I´m certainly glad that I got to help, I´m also glad that I only had to work for this one morning. I can´t imagine how the Salvadorans that are working on it can work all day, everyday.
We worked until lunchtime and then we gathered in the shade of a tree, sitting on cinder block for chairs. While we enjoyed our lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, juice, and watermelon, we heard the testimonies of 3 people: Pastor Matias, Atilio (a man that is on the pastoral team with Pastors Matias and Martina), and a woman that is a member of the congregation where the church is being built. I know this will be a long post with their stories, but I feel compelled to share their stories.
The woman from the community who talked to us was elderly, maybe about 60 I´m guessing. She first thanked us on behalf of the congregation for coming to visit and for helping with the construction. She then told us that during the war, people in the community were killed and the all the houses were burned down. When it was safe for them to return, the came back and started rebuilding their homes and their lives. This woman had lived for a little while in another community where Pastor Matias was already working and when she moved to Buena Vista she asked Matias to come and bring the word of God to this community as well. And so he came, and this church community has been growing ever since.
Atilio did a fantastic job telling his story- he is such a kind and well-spoken man. He started his story about 10 years ago when Pastor Matias first started working in Guaycume, the community where Atilio lives. Pastor Matias saw that he was a great man and put his trust in him to do some work for the church. Because work is very scarce in El Salvador, Atilio decided to immigrate to the U.S. He got a job with a cleaning company and within a couple of years he was in charge of the entire Eastern U.S. division of this company. He was paid well, and very soon this money started causing some problems for him. He started using drugs and got involved in money laundering. He has a nice car and lots of drugs. Eventually he got caught. He spent 10 months in jail and then was deported back to El Salvador. While he was in jail he reconciled with God. When he got back here he was very quickly reminded of how there is very little work here. So, he was about to leave to go back to the U.S., when he got a call from Pastor Matias saying that someone in the States had just emailed him and said that they would support a salary for Atilio to join the Pastoral team again. Now Atilio is in charge of the church building project and he occasionally preaches and helps lead the church services in Guycume. I got to hear him preach last week, and he preached with such intensity and passion.
Pastor Matias has an amazing life story. When I was in El Salvador before he spent about 2 hours (and that was after he told us he would give us the short version) telling us about his life and experiences during the war. His testimony yesterday was much briefer (15 minutes), but I learned some new things. I´m sure I will leave some things out but here is his story as I can recall it...In his family there were 12 children, 2 died when they were small children. When he was growing up in the 60s and 70s, life was very difficult. They primarily worked the land to grow food, but they didn´t own the land and each year there was less and less land that they were able to get food from. In 1979, the priest that served where Matias´ attended church was assassinated in the church by a death squad that was most likely supported by the government (at this time Matias and his family were Catholic). The assassination of the priest really pushed Matias and many others to organize and join guerrilla groups. And so he joined the fighting in Guazapa (the area where most of his communities are) which was one of the areas where fighting was the most brutal. In 1984, Maitas was injured when a piece of shrapnel went through his chest and struck his lung. He was treated in a ¨field hospital¨ and he eventually made it to San Salvador where they had to operate and take out all of his lung. The second day Matias was in San Salvador he came to know the Lutheran Church. In 1982, his family had gone to a refugee camp that was run by the Lutheran Church and they were still there, so the Lutheran Church helped reunite him with his family. Then he was picked up by the military and was held for about 4 months in captivity and was tortured there. The International Red Cross helped get him out of captivity and then he went to Nicaragua for 5 years and then he went to Moscow for about 10 months. Then he was able to return to El Salvador in 1991. When Matias spent some time in the Lutheran refugee camp, he got to meet Bishop Gomez (although he wasn´t the bishop at the time, just a pastor in the Lutheran Church). Matias got to talk to Bishop Gomez about his experiences and this first conversation eventually would lead Matias to become a Lutheran pastor. Up until the time he became a pastor, his entire life had been devoted to what he referred to as ¨la lucha¨ (the fight). For his efforts he did not receive any compensation, but I think that he is very proud of the time he devoted to fighting for a more just society in El Salvador, and in many respects he continues to fight for justice for the members of the communities where he is a pastor.
After we finished our lunch and heard the testimonies, we packed into our two microbuses (bigger than a mini van, but smaller than a bus) and headed to the town of Suchitoto. We were sweaty, hot, and it smelled like a boy´s locker room, but once we got going the wind cooled things off and the smell wasn´t too bad while we were moving.
Our first stop in Suchitoto was the cemetery to visit Jorge. Jorge was a son of Trini (the woman who runs the Casa Concordia and the Casa Esperanza). This past October Jorge was murdered by a gang member. The gang was trying to recruit Jorge´s two teenaged sons. His sons, being the good boys they are, refused to join even after one son, Edwin, was shot at twice on his way home. It is only because he is a fast runner that he is still alive. They moved the boys to live with family elsewhere so the boys weren´t even around the neighborhood where Jorge and his family had their house, but the gangs didn´t give up and threatened to kill Jorge´s two step-daughters. Jorge confronted the gang members and told them to stop trying to recruit his sons and to leave his step-daughters alone. For this, the gang members said they would kill Jorge. And so he lived for a few weeks in anticipation of his death. One day he was taking his wife, Mari, to the supermarket, he was driving his microbus and was stuck behind a bus when he saw one of the gang members coming. He told Mari to run as he was pulled out of the car and then shot 13 times. He died there in Mari´s arms.
One of Jorge´s brothers is a policeman and he made it his personal mission to find and capture the young man that was responsible for killing Jorge. In El Salvador, the justice system works very poorly- it is very rare especially for gang members to be captured and punished for their crimes. They arrested the man, he went to trial, and is now in jail. While it is clearly wonderful that this young man was held responsible for his crime, Mari (Jorge´s wife) had to testify in court. Because of this, she will probably never be able to return to the neighborhood where she and Jorge lived because the fellow gang members would take revenge on her for her testimony in court. And so she now lives in another part of the country and still worries about her safety. (Mari has been with us the past couple of days and came with us yesterday. She seems to be doing ok- as well as can be expected.)
Obviously the whole family as well as Jorge´s many beloved friends were devastated by his death. Jorge was an incredible man- Trini says there was not a bad bone in his body. When I was in El Salvador last March, Jorge spent a great deal of time with us driving us around and taking very good care of us.
Cemeteries in El Salvador are quite different from those we are used to. Those who can afford it have very ornamental graves, but Jorge doesn´t yet have anything on top of his. They simply piled the dirt back on top and planted flowers and there are some fake flowers as well. Usually after a couple of weeks the pile of dirt on top of the grave sinks down, but even after 8 months Jorge´s grave has not sunk down. Trini said that he just wasn´t ready to be put in the ground. And neither were we ready for him to be put in the ground. At the cemetery, we paid our respects to Jorge and Pastor Kristie said the most beautiful and fitting prayer. It was quite emotional and there were many tears, including mine.
I can now say that I have helped build a church, which I think is a pretty cool thing to be able to say! Yesterday I went with the delegation that is here from the church in Minnesota to help work on the church that is being built in Buena Vista. Basically we moved dirt around. For Salvadoran reasons, the dirt inside the rooms of the church is higher than it should be. So we shoveled the dirt into wheelbarrows and moved it to a pile of dirt outside the church. I think the dirt was really more like clay- thick and very moist and very difficult to shovel along with plenty of various sized rocks. Some people used pick axes to loosen the dirt first for those who were shoveling. I have to admit that I was a pretty bad worker- it was so hot and it was so hard to move that dirt. While I´m certainly glad that I got to help, I´m also glad that I only had to work for this one morning. I can´t imagine how the Salvadorans that are working on it can work all day, everyday.
We worked until lunchtime and then we gathered in the shade of a tree, sitting on cinder block for chairs. While we enjoyed our lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, juice, and watermelon, we heard the testimonies of 3 people: Pastor Matias, Atilio (a man that is on the pastoral team with Pastors Matias and Martina), and a woman that is a member of the congregation where the church is being built. I know this will be a long post with their stories, but I feel compelled to share their stories.
The woman from the community who talked to us was elderly, maybe about 60 I´m guessing. She first thanked us on behalf of the congregation for coming to visit and for helping with the construction. She then told us that during the war, people in the community were killed and the all the houses were burned down. When it was safe for them to return, the came back and started rebuilding their homes and their lives. This woman had lived for a little while in another community where Pastor Matias was already working and when she moved to Buena Vista she asked Matias to come and bring the word of God to this community as well. And so he came, and this church community has been growing ever since.
Atilio did a fantastic job telling his story- he is such a kind and well-spoken man. He started his story about 10 years ago when Pastor Matias first started working in Guaycume, the community where Atilio lives. Pastor Matias saw that he was a great man and put his trust in him to do some work for the church. Because work is very scarce in El Salvador, Atilio decided to immigrate to the U.S. He got a job with a cleaning company and within a couple of years he was in charge of the entire Eastern U.S. division of this company. He was paid well, and very soon this money started causing some problems for him. He started using drugs and got involved in money laundering. He has a nice car and lots of drugs. Eventually he got caught. He spent 10 months in jail and then was deported back to El Salvador. While he was in jail he reconciled with God. When he got back here he was very quickly reminded of how there is very little work here. So, he was about to leave to go back to the U.S., when he got a call from Pastor Matias saying that someone in the States had just emailed him and said that they would support a salary for Atilio to join the Pastoral team again. Now Atilio is in charge of the church building project and he occasionally preaches and helps lead the church services in Guycume. I got to hear him preach last week, and he preached with such intensity and passion.
Pastor Matias has an amazing life story. When I was in El Salvador before he spent about 2 hours (and that was after he told us he would give us the short version) telling us about his life and experiences during the war. His testimony yesterday was much briefer (15 minutes), but I learned some new things. I´m sure I will leave some things out but here is his story as I can recall it...In his family there were 12 children, 2 died when they were small children. When he was growing up in the 60s and 70s, life was very difficult. They primarily worked the land to grow food, but they didn´t own the land and each year there was less and less land that they were able to get food from. In 1979, the priest that served where Matias´ attended church was assassinated in the church by a death squad that was most likely supported by the government (at this time Matias and his family were Catholic). The assassination of the priest really pushed Matias and many others to organize and join guerrilla groups. And so he joined the fighting in Guazapa (the area where most of his communities are) which was one of the areas where fighting was the most brutal. In 1984, Maitas was injured when a piece of shrapnel went through his chest and struck his lung. He was treated in a ¨field hospital¨ and he eventually made it to San Salvador where they had to operate and take out all of his lung. The second day Matias was in San Salvador he came to know the Lutheran Church. In 1982, his family had gone to a refugee camp that was run by the Lutheran Church and they were still there, so the Lutheran Church helped reunite him with his family. Then he was picked up by the military and was held for about 4 months in captivity and was tortured there. The International Red Cross helped get him out of captivity and then he went to Nicaragua for 5 years and then he went to Moscow for about 10 months. Then he was able to return to El Salvador in 1991. When Matias spent some time in the Lutheran refugee camp, he got to meet Bishop Gomez (although he wasn´t the bishop at the time, just a pastor in the Lutheran Church). Matias got to talk to Bishop Gomez about his experiences and this first conversation eventually would lead Matias to become a Lutheran pastor. Up until the time he became a pastor, his entire life had been devoted to what he referred to as ¨la lucha¨ (the fight). For his efforts he did not receive any compensation, but I think that he is very proud of the time he devoted to fighting for a more just society in El Salvador, and in many respects he continues to fight for justice for the members of the communities where he is a pastor.
After we finished our lunch and heard the testimonies, we packed into our two microbuses (bigger than a mini van, but smaller than a bus) and headed to the town of Suchitoto. We were sweaty, hot, and it smelled like a boy´s locker room, but once we got going the wind cooled things off and the smell wasn´t too bad while we were moving.
Our first stop in Suchitoto was the cemetery to visit Jorge. Jorge was a son of Trini (the woman who runs the Casa Concordia and the Casa Esperanza). This past October Jorge was murdered by a gang member. The gang was trying to recruit Jorge´s two teenaged sons. His sons, being the good boys they are, refused to join even after one son, Edwin, was shot at twice on his way home. It is only because he is a fast runner that he is still alive. They moved the boys to live with family elsewhere so the boys weren´t even around the neighborhood where Jorge and his family had their house, but the gangs didn´t give up and threatened to kill Jorge´s two step-daughters. Jorge confronted the gang members and told them to stop trying to recruit his sons and to leave his step-daughters alone. For this, the gang members said they would kill Jorge. And so he lived for a few weeks in anticipation of his death. One day he was taking his wife, Mari, to the supermarket, he was driving his microbus and was stuck behind a bus when he saw one of the gang members coming. He told Mari to run as he was pulled out of the car and then shot 13 times. He died there in Mari´s arms.
One of Jorge´s brothers is a policeman and he made it his personal mission to find and capture the young man that was responsible for killing Jorge. In El Salvador, the justice system works very poorly- it is very rare especially for gang members to be captured and punished for their crimes. They arrested the man, he went to trial, and is now in jail. While it is clearly wonderful that this young man was held responsible for his crime, Mari (Jorge´s wife) had to testify in court. Because of this, she will probably never be able to return to the neighborhood where she and Jorge lived because the fellow gang members would take revenge on her for her testimony in court. And so she now lives in another part of the country and still worries about her safety. (Mari has been with us the past couple of days and came with us yesterday. She seems to be doing ok- as well as can be expected.)
Obviously the whole family as well as Jorge´s many beloved friends were devastated by his death. Jorge was an incredible man- Trini says there was not a bad bone in his body. When I was in El Salvador last March, Jorge spent a great deal of time with us driving us around and taking very good care of us.
Cemeteries in El Salvador are quite different from those we are used to. Those who can afford it have very ornamental graves, but Jorge doesn´t yet have anything on top of his. They simply piled the dirt back on top and planted flowers and there are some fake flowers as well. Usually after a couple of weeks the pile of dirt on top of the grave sinks down, but even after 8 months Jorge´s grave has not sunk down. Trini said that he just wasn´t ready to be put in the ground. And neither were we ready for him to be put in the ground. At the cemetery, we paid our respects to Jorge and Pastor Kristie said the most beautiful and fitting prayer. It was quite emotional and there were many tears, including mine.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Beauty Pageants and the Homeless
First, some news...I doubt this will make the news in the U.S., but just in case it does know that I am fine and all is well. This morning there was a bit of a disturbance in the center of San Salvador. The mayor (perhaps with good intentions) is trying to get the street vendors out of area near the center of the city I think so that it will be cleaner and nicer looking. Many people set up little shops and sell whatever they can such as fruit, vegetables, candy, shoes, clothes, toys, etc., etc. As is most construction in El Salvador, these shops are constructed of a hodgepodge of whatever they can manage to find to construct the shop. Not always the best looking, but functional. There has been an ongoing struggle for at least a couple of weeks between the vendors and the mayor. One night a few days ago, crews came in to demolish some of the shops and the mayor is continuing to try to get rid of the vendors. However, this is the vendors´ only job and many of the vendors are understandably upset that the mayor is trying to move them out. Today there was a march and protest with some of the vendors who were expressing their discontent with the mayor and the police were trying to keep the protest under control. The footage on the news looked pretty ugly (people throwing rocks, burning tires, police in riot gear). All is under control now though.
Yesterday, was a beauty pageant of sorts at the kids school. For each grade (kindergarten through 9th grade), a girl was nominated to be the ¨princess¨ for that grade. Then all the princesses competed against each other to see who would be the ¨queen¨ of the school. This was a fundraiser for the school- the girls got one vote for each 5 cents they collected. Whoever got the most points would win. The youngest kid who lives here, Julissa, who is in kindergarten, was the princess for her grade. She (and the rest of the princesses) got all dressed up in beautiful dresses and we (Julissa, her mom, a couple of her cousins, her aunt, one of the university students who lives here, and 7 young women from the States) all went over to the school for the afternoon assembly. The girls paraded out in front of everybody watching and they announced how many points each girl had up to that point. Then it started raining...at first just a little bit but then it poured and thundered and there was lightening. The assembly was outside so things had to be adjusted a little. Meanwhile a few boys started playing soccer in the pouring rain and got soaking wet. I guess nothing can stop them from playing soccer. Julissa was in 3rd place I think, but then all the girls had a chance to collect more money from the crowd or turn in money that they had collected at home. Well, before we left for school Julissa had collected some money from all the gringos, so that helped put her in first place! The rain let up for a little bit for the crowning ceremony. She got a sparklely crown and a sash that said she was the queen and she got to sit in a chair decorated with tissue paper and flowers. She is such a cute little thing and she was very clearly happy that she won!
While we were at the school we got to see some of the kid´s classrooms and we got to meet a few teachers. The classrooms were smallish, but decent (they even had whiteboards, rather than chalkboards. Julie was jealous because she doesn´t even have a whiteboard in her classroom in the U.S.!). The kids go to school either in the morning or in the afternoon. So the teachers teach one class in the morning and a different class in the afternoon. It seemed that there was probably about one class for each grade. There were about 5 policemen who were there at the school. Julie was brave enough to talk to one of them and she found out that the police have to be at every school while there are kids there. I know many schools in the U.S. have guards, but there certainly aren´t police at every school like there are here.
Of course the group of young white women attracted a lot of attention from the kids. They all wanted to come see and talk to the gringas. Some of them practiced the few phrases they know in English, while others were too shy to say much of anything. Some wanted their picture taken and some wanted to use our cameras to take pictures. I never like to be the center of attention, but being white in a country of brown people certainly attracts attention.
Today I went to the Casa Esperanza (Hope House). This is a place run by the Lutheran Church that supports homeless people in a variety of ways. The Casa Esperanza is located in one of (if not the) poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in San Salvador. While going to this neighborhood may not be the most pleasant or safe thing for the people who help run it, this is where people are in great need. The Casa Esperanza is open Monday through Thursday and on these days it provides a meal, a place for people to sit and talk with each other, clean up, and wash their clothes. There is a room for homeless children to come play and have a meal as well. Unfortunately they don´t have someone that can come everyday to take care of the children so today there weren´t any kids. They can provide some limited medical care- they have some medicine and supplies that have been donated, but there isn´t anyone with any serious medical training who can help. They also hold periodic AA meetings. There is some equipment for woodworking and painting. They make various wood crafts (crosses, Christmas ornaments, angels, etc.) to sell to make some money.
I went with Alvaro (an amazing Salvadoran who I will tell you more about later) on the bus to get to the Casa Esperanza. (Please also look forward to an upcoming post about the buses in El Salvador.) When we got there I got a little tour and then I helped make tortillas. I´m certainly no expert at making tortillas, but I didn´t do too badly. They were mostly round and were pretty much the correct thickness. I just formed them into the correct shape and put in on the grill to cook, then I let the expert flip them and take them off the grill.
Once the tortillas were all made, I went down to the room where all the homeless were gathering. Some were washing themselves and their clothes (but eventually the water ran out, so they couldn´t do that anymore), others were talking with each other, and some were watching the TV (soccer and then the news), but they were all waiting for the lunch which probably would be the only meal they would have all day and maybe until Monday when the Hope House opens again. About 30 people (mostly men, but a couple of women came too) wandered in by the time lunch was served.
Before lunch I talked with some of the men, then we had a brief worship service led by a pastor, we served lunch, some of the men helped clean up, I talked with some more men, and then we closed up and left. The conversations I had with the men were not what I anticipated.
The first man I talked to, Roberto, started talking to me in nearly perfect English when he learned I was from the U.S. He had lived in Maryland for 20 years before he was deported about 8 years ago. The second man I talked to (we also spoke in English) had lived in California for 30 years before he was deported 2 years ago. Both of these men told me that they did not like living in El Salvador. They had both spent most of their lives in the U.S. and they had to leave it all behind when they were deported. They left their families, kids, friends, houses, cars, jobs, etc. Both men were born in El Salvador but the life and culture they knew for practically all their lives was in the U.S. They aren´t used to Salvadoran culture and they aren´t used to being without their families. They are here practically all alone. I asked Roberto if he was going to try to go back. He said that he very much wants to, but he doesn´t have enough money, it´s too dangerous, and he doesn´t want to risk getting caught by the police again. He has a wife and two young kids in Maryland, but after he was deported his wife started dating another man, and now Roberto´s wife won´t let him talk with his kids. I asked the other man if he ever got to talk with his teenaged kids on the phone, and he practically started crying and told me no. I also talk briefly with another man who had also been deported recently.
I talked with a few other men and I asked them mostly about their families and if they are ever able to find work. Families in El Salvador are a mess (this subject will be yet another post) and it was sad to hear their stories of being estranged and apart from their family members. A majority of the men I talked with had some sort of trade (auto mechanic, construction, selling food) that they had skills in, but they just are not able to find work and even when they do find a day of work they don´t make enough money to support themselves or their family. I felt bad that all I could do for these men was listen to their stories and sympathize with them.
Yesterday, was a beauty pageant of sorts at the kids school. For each grade (kindergarten through 9th grade), a girl was nominated to be the ¨princess¨ for that grade. Then all the princesses competed against each other to see who would be the ¨queen¨ of the school. This was a fundraiser for the school- the girls got one vote for each 5 cents they collected. Whoever got the most points would win. The youngest kid who lives here, Julissa, who is in kindergarten, was the princess for her grade. She (and the rest of the princesses) got all dressed up in beautiful dresses and we (Julissa, her mom, a couple of her cousins, her aunt, one of the university students who lives here, and 7 young women from the States) all went over to the school for the afternoon assembly. The girls paraded out in front of everybody watching and they announced how many points each girl had up to that point. Then it started raining...at first just a little bit but then it poured and thundered and there was lightening. The assembly was outside so things had to be adjusted a little. Meanwhile a few boys started playing soccer in the pouring rain and got soaking wet. I guess nothing can stop them from playing soccer. Julissa was in 3rd place I think, but then all the girls had a chance to collect more money from the crowd or turn in money that they had collected at home. Well, before we left for school Julissa had collected some money from all the gringos, so that helped put her in first place! The rain let up for a little bit for the crowning ceremony. She got a sparklely crown and a sash that said she was the queen and she got to sit in a chair decorated with tissue paper and flowers. She is such a cute little thing and she was very clearly happy that she won!
While we were at the school we got to see some of the kid´s classrooms and we got to meet a few teachers. The classrooms were smallish, but decent (they even had whiteboards, rather than chalkboards. Julie was jealous because she doesn´t even have a whiteboard in her classroom in the U.S.!). The kids go to school either in the morning or in the afternoon. So the teachers teach one class in the morning and a different class in the afternoon. It seemed that there was probably about one class for each grade. There were about 5 policemen who were there at the school. Julie was brave enough to talk to one of them and she found out that the police have to be at every school while there are kids there. I know many schools in the U.S. have guards, but there certainly aren´t police at every school like there are here.
Of course the group of young white women attracted a lot of attention from the kids. They all wanted to come see and talk to the gringas. Some of them practiced the few phrases they know in English, while others were too shy to say much of anything. Some wanted their picture taken and some wanted to use our cameras to take pictures. I never like to be the center of attention, but being white in a country of brown people certainly attracts attention.
Today I went to the Casa Esperanza (Hope House). This is a place run by the Lutheran Church that supports homeless people in a variety of ways. The Casa Esperanza is located in one of (if not the) poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in San Salvador. While going to this neighborhood may not be the most pleasant or safe thing for the people who help run it, this is where people are in great need. The Casa Esperanza is open Monday through Thursday and on these days it provides a meal, a place for people to sit and talk with each other, clean up, and wash their clothes. There is a room for homeless children to come play and have a meal as well. Unfortunately they don´t have someone that can come everyday to take care of the children so today there weren´t any kids. They can provide some limited medical care- they have some medicine and supplies that have been donated, but there isn´t anyone with any serious medical training who can help. They also hold periodic AA meetings. There is some equipment for woodworking and painting. They make various wood crafts (crosses, Christmas ornaments, angels, etc.) to sell to make some money.
I went with Alvaro (an amazing Salvadoran who I will tell you more about later) on the bus to get to the Casa Esperanza. (Please also look forward to an upcoming post about the buses in El Salvador.) When we got there I got a little tour and then I helped make tortillas. I´m certainly no expert at making tortillas, but I didn´t do too badly. They were mostly round and were pretty much the correct thickness. I just formed them into the correct shape and put in on the grill to cook, then I let the expert flip them and take them off the grill.
Once the tortillas were all made, I went down to the room where all the homeless were gathering. Some were washing themselves and their clothes (but eventually the water ran out, so they couldn´t do that anymore), others were talking with each other, and some were watching the TV (soccer and then the news), but they were all waiting for the lunch which probably would be the only meal they would have all day and maybe until Monday when the Hope House opens again. About 30 people (mostly men, but a couple of women came too) wandered in by the time lunch was served.
Before lunch I talked with some of the men, then we had a brief worship service led by a pastor, we served lunch, some of the men helped clean up, I talked with some more men, and then we closed up and left. The conversations I had with the men were not what I anticipated.
The first man I talked to, Roberto, started talking to me in nearly perfect English when he learned I was from the U.S. He had lived in Maryland for 20 years before he was deported about 8 years ago. The second man I talked to (we also spoke in English) had lived in California for 30 years before he was deported 2 years ago. Both of these men told me that they did not like living in El Salvador. They had both spent most of their lives in the U.S. and they had to leave it all behind when they were deported. They left their families, kids, friends, houses, cars, jobs, etc. Both men were born in El Salvador but the life and culture they knew for practically all their lives was in the U.S. They aren´t used to Salvadoran culture and they aren´t used to being without their families. They are here practically all alone. I asked Roberto if he was going to try to go back. He said that he very much wants to, but he doesn´t have enough money, it´s too dangerous, and he doesn´t want to risk getting caught by the police again. He has a wife and two young kids in Maryland, but after he was deported his wife started dating another man, and now Roberto´s wife won´t let him talk with his kids. I asked the other man if he ever got to talk with his teenaged kids on the phone, and he practically started crying and told me no. I also talk briefly with another man who had also been deported recently.
I talked with a few other men and I asked them mostly about their families and if they are ever able to find work. Families in El Salvador are a mess (this subject will be yet another post) and it was sad to hear their stories of being estranged and apart from their family members. A majority of the men I talked with had some sort of trade (auto mechanic, construction, selling food) that they had skills in, but they just are not able to find work and even when they do find a day of work they don´t make enough money to support themselves or their family. I felt bad that all I could do for these men was listen to their stories and sympathize with them.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Casa Concordia and the big city
Yesterday I moved from the house of Pastors Matias and Martina to the Casa Concordia (the Lutheran guest house in the capital, San Salvador). I was a little bit sad to leave them (they took such good care of me!), but I will see them again and I am definitely ready for some new adventures. My most wonderful friend Julie arrived here on Monday night and it has been SO great to be with her. Even better, it has been so nice to be able to speak English (Pastor Matias and Jorge know some English and we practiced sometimes, but it just wasn´t the same). Every day I gain a better appreciation of what it is like for so many immigrants in the U.S. who are trying to learn English...it isn´t easy to be living in a place where most people do not speak the language you are used to! I´m also glad that Julie is here because it´s good to be with someone else who understands the difficulties of living in a different culture.
There are a variety of people staying here at the Casa Concordia. The Casa Concordia is run by Doña Trinidad (Trini for short) and her family, so she, some of her daughters and daughters-in-law, and many of her grand kids stay here off and on. Today a delegation of 16 people from a church in Minnesota will be arriving and they will all stay here. There is Nick, a young missionary from the States, who is staying here. There are also a few university students who stay here. Right next to the Casa is the Bishop´s office as well as the administrative offices for the Salvadoran Lutheran Church. (The bishop is currently out of the country but he will be back in a few days.) There are constantly people coming in and out, and it has been great to meet a few new people and to see those that I met when I was here before.
On the way to the Casa Concordia, we drove on a very nice section of a new highway. Pastor Matias told me that it is indeed wonderful that they constructed this piece of highway because it makes it easy for him to get into the capital and to the Casa Concordia where he often has meetings. However, to build the highway they had to evict many people from the land where they were living. As it usually is, these people who got the bad end of the deal were poor people who only had the land and whatever sort of house they were able to construct on that land. When the highway project began, these people had to leave with whatever they could carry with them and try to find someplace to live. Who knows where they ended up or how they are doing. While this highway may seem like progress and development, for those people who were kicked out of where they were living it certainly was not a positive development.
Random observation...I am continually struck by how genuinely happy and full of life Salvadorans are. They are always laughing, joking with each other and (lovingly) making fun of each other. Pastor Matias always seems to be whistling or singing a joyful song or hymn. The kids play with each other and always find some way to have fun. Even though their life isn´t always the greatest, Salvadorans somehow find a way to make the best of the situation.
There are a variety of people staying here at the Casa Concordia. The Casa Concordia is run by Doña Trinidad (Trini for short) and her family, so she, some of her daughters and daughters-in-law, and many of her grand kids stay here off and on. Today a delegation of 16 people from a church in Minnesota will be arriving and they will all stay here. There is Nick, a young missionary from the States, who is staying here. There are also a few university students who stay here. Right next to the Casa is the Bishop´s office as well as the administrative offices for the Salvadoran Lutheran Church. (The bishop is currently out of the country but he will be back in a few days.) There are constantly people coming in and out, and it has been great to meet a few new people and to see those that I met when I was here before.
On the way to the Casa Concordia, we drove on a very nice section of a new highway. Pastor Matias told me that it is indeed wonderful that they constructed this piece of highway because it makes it easy for him to get into the capital and to the Casa Concordia where he often has meetings. However, to build the highway they had to evict many people from the land where they were living. As it usually is, these people who got the bad end of the deal were poor people who only had the land and whatever sort of house they were able to construct on that land. When the highway project began, these people had to leave with whatever they could carry with them and try to find someplace to live. Who knows where they ended up or how they are doing. While this highway may seem like progress and development, for those people who were kicked out of where they were living it certainly was not a positive development.
Random observation...I am continually struck by how genuinely happy and full of life Salvadorans are. They are always laughing, joking with each other and (lovingly) making fun of each other. Pastor Matias always seems to be whistling or singing a joyful song or hymn. The kids play with each other and always find some way to have fun. Even though their life isn´t always the greatest, Salvadorans somehow find a way to make the best of the situation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)