Mission trip 2-14 Guatemalan people come to El Salvador

As I left off on my last blog we had just arrived in El Salvador.  It was late Saturday night on Feb 8th.  Three people came with us for the opportunity to review the mission of Padre Fuentes after them being so nice to show us all of the areas they were working on in Guatemala.

Jason Powell, his wife and lady named Claudia came.  Claudia works for their organization and is Guatemalan.  She is educated with a college degree from that country.  Her English was good.

We took them to a hotel in San Salvador that the Padre selected.  A nice one near the better area of town where the nightly rates are $40 dollars.  The plan for the next day was to remain in San Salvador and to visit the tomb of Archbishop Romero.  It is in a large cathedral in the heart of the city.  After that it was time to go to a local chapel and a ghetto that was being helped by the local Catholic Church.

So Padre, Jicela, me and 3 others went.  Unfortunately,  as I said 3 of use got sick late Saturday night and so the trip was not pleasant.  We cut the trips a little short and came home and I went to bed at 3 PM and slept until the following morning.

Monday all were feeling better and it was off to the Colegio.  This group is very interested in education as the Padre is.  So they were very pleased as they came into the walls of the school to be greeted by all of the children at the entrance.  Shortly thereafter it was time for an assembly where each teacher introduced themselves and told them what they do. That was followed by some songs and a Salvadorian dance by several of the students.

The rest of the time was spent visiting each classroom and reviewing the workbooks and teaching methods.  Of course the Padre explained the growth of the school from just 3 grades in 2010 to now kindergarten through 9th grade.  He explained that during this time there have been 4 major building projects to accommodate the now 165 students.  They were 8 new classrooms, a computer room a revised cafeteria, a cemented basketball court.  Finally there is the partially completed Pilgrim house that will expand the kindergarten and provide a place for people like me to stay when we visit to help out. There are two additional rooms for a few young men that are going to college but come from very poor places and really have no place to live while they are starting to attend some advanced training.

The group was very impressed.  In addition to this they reviewed the cooperative bakery that stands by itself at the back of the property which provide jobs for 4 ladies and a place to help to educate some of the older girls on the art of baking.

Beside that there is the carpentry shop.  It also stands alone.  Lots of donated equipment in this building.  The Padre is trying to establish a program to teach the students this skill.  He will admit that he has a ways to go in this area.   I still think this is a big area that people in our own church could help if they have skills that they could give in getting this going better.

The Hope Renewed people were surprised with all of the progress in such a short time but recognized that as in any projects there are opportunities that could be worked on.

After that it was a short one hour trip to the city of Chaletenango.  There the Padre had a medical clinic where he brings specialists in from San Salvador and provides primary care also.  Besides this there is a Dentist, and a medical lab.  The Padre asked the patients to pay $10 dollars for their visits if they are able. The doctors that come charge a lower rate because of their respect for the Padre and because they see the need to help over and above what is usually provided in the free public clinics that are around in the rural countryside.  The group was surprised with its cleanliness and procedures that are provided.  Besides this there is a small pharmacy close by run by the Padre for the needed drugs of the patients.  Again it attempts to sell them at a reduced price to help the poor of the community.

So that was the little trip to El Salvador for this group.  We arrived back in the early evening in San Salvador and had a discussion with them about our trip to their mission and theirs to ours.  That was one of the objectives of this trip for me.  The next step will be to see if we can work together along with all of the help we can get from people in the our church and others to make the Padre's missions the most successful ever.  

Again to do this will take time and effort and a whole bunch of talent from many people. I hope you will want to help.

The next morning, on Tuesday, the Hope Renewed people left and we are on our way to our next project.  That was taking some people to a town of La Libertad to have their eyes checked.  That will be the subject of the next blog.

Post Script

I have been driving around a lot these last two weeks with the Padre.  Of course you see some nice areas  especially in San Salvador, but mostly you see people walking everywhere along the streets.  You see them carrying loads of sticks to take back to their homes, or bottles of water being balances on their heads.  You see people trying to sell just about anything along the road.  It could be a fruit of some kind, a string of fish, some bread, some corn, some craps from the local probably polluted lake, a coconut and even an iguana once in a while dripping with blood.  Besides this you see local huts along the road in the big cities, in the small towns, just about anywhere where people might stop and just might buy something.  This is surely a society of people that just to survive must do these types of things.  I am sure that on most days they are lucky to makes sales of 5 or 10 dollars.  So much sitting and waiting for someone to come by and buy.

Many of the roads also have many children walking to school with their uniforms on.  You see there are no school busses.  If you are lucky and can afford it you might get in the pack of a pickup truck and be driven to school and pay a few coins for the service.  Most people go by bus since most people do not have a car.  Also realize that gas costs as much here as in the States.  So if you make $200 dollars a months, do you think you could afford to pay for the gas?  So you see the busses packed with people with the rear of the busses looking very low.  You see pickup trucks with side rails that are just jammed with people. I wonder how they can breathe.  Of course so many houses in the rural areas just made of tin or adobe.  Built wherever.  There is a lot of public land.  The heat is repressive in the lower elevations and you have to admire the struggle that goes on with these people.  It becomes very sad and overwhelming at times.  Clearly in many ways a broken society.  It however has potential. It could be lush and green it could have good businesses and education for all not just the rich.  We will see.

See you next time.
Jim