In Service Training and the End of Homer

February 22, 2008

Here is a nifty article that I ran across on the Archbishop of Canterbury. Allen Hunt had it on a blog post under the “Death of a Church” and I had to check it out of course. The link to the article is in the blog.

http://www.allenhuntshow.com/Allen-Hunt/2008/02/09/the_death_of_a_church#comments

Our bus rules.

Oh well, I return from San Vicente. Fun stuff. Only really two things to talk about and that is my trip to SV for a few days and the end of the Iliad and the Odyssey, wahoo! First the trip to San Vicente. The deal is that after the first three months of service for volunteers, there is a reconnect, or In-Service-Training, in our center in San Vicente. So I went back Tuesday morning, after writing some letters with Don Mauricio to the power company to move some power lines out of the new road and taking some pics of the guys working, and made it back for dinner at my training host family’s pad. I had dinner with Mercedes, Estefani, Joel, and Alejandro and then hung out and chatted for a while. We ate pupusas :)

Our road project.

I had breakfast with them and then headed back to SV for my day of reconnect or whatever you call it. It was good, we took the first while to do a round table discussion of how each person’s site is going. That was actually much more helpful than I thought it would be because each person has made a few different contacts to help out. We spent the rest of the day learning about some different programs that Peace Corps offers to help out with certain projects. Fun stuff.

Our Masters in Geology and Volcanology

That night I hung out in the “hotel” from our first few days in country, the one that had a hole in the wall for a shower haha. Its funny. We all hung out in the “lobby” and listened to music on the ipod etc and chatted it up. Ohh, I totally forgot. There were some great religious conversations that went on that night starting at dinner. The group I was sitting with broached the topic of how they were amazed at the Stations of the Cross here in El Salvador (the whole group being non-Catholics). One volunteer described how that each station was laid out and made in colored sand around town while the population carried a model of Jesus bearing his cross to each of the stations with a man who had a bull horn that led the prayers. Another volunteer (who comes back in later) on the opposite side of the country talked of similar experiences (without the bullhorn haha) and was amazed at the piety in this time that was publicly displayed. I just sat back and enjoyed the show, but then I was drawn into a conversation by this second volunteer on the use of the familiar in dealing with God and Jesus instead of the formal Spanish by the Church. Historically, if I’m not mistaking, the familiar in Spanish was used only with royalty and close family. But, it made for interesting conversation. As I was sitting at the table with the second volunteer more off to the side, she eventually questioned me on quite a few social issues of the Catholic Church over the dinner. She is part of one of the married couples here and said she considered becoming Catholic in the past after moving away from her period in life of what she called “hardcore evangelicalism,” yet settled on Episcopalian, however still attends Mass once a month or so because she is compelled by the liturgy.

Our Masters in Spanish Literature. Straight up Don Quixote.

Our Masters in Education and wifey of the previous guy.

She is a big John Paul II person, which didn’t surprise me because he was big on clarifying Catholic positions on social ideas in an ever changing realm in our culture. We disagreed on some things here and there, but as usual, she sometimes characterized us in an inaccurate way and naturally pegged me as a convert lol. She likes to comment that most cradle Catholics don’t deem the understanding of the teachings as important, just the fact that there are teachings. So, she made some comments later that night at the hotel that brought up huge discussions that involved 4 or 5 of us volunteers. It was all good discussion. It was like a big religious forum night in our Peace Corps group. None of which I started!



The next day I had nutter butters for breakfast and guacamole and chips for lunch while I was waiting on my 3pm bus. However, I have made the mistake of letting people see the books I am reading. There is like a line of people waiting for The Divine Comedy and Homer now. I am afraid I will never get them back. I don’t mind Divine Comedy because even though it’s a nicer copy, it will make a lot of people really think if they read it all. Homer, not so much. Haha.



On to subject two, I finished the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer!



I’d say it’s a super book for the history enthusiast who doesn’t want to think a ton. There is not a ton of applied thinking work that comes with reading it and it’s an awesome example of ancient oral culture that we find in writing. If I remember correctly, scholars date the battle of Troy sometime just after 1200 BC if it actually took place….which I think more and more people are leaning towards yes. Anyways, there were a few things that I took from reading to two books. Actually, I ‘d say two things: Mortality and Humility.



First, this book revolutionized my idea of mortality in that I think that men died in just about every way possible throughout the books….and repeatedly so, haha. Moreover, there was no discrimination in between the godly warriors (often with immortal blood in some manner), those with experience fighting, and those who were deemed common. All at some point fell before the spear of another fighter. The book was explicit with gore, as to the exact causes of death of each person, but I’d say never overboard for their culture.



Second, the underlying idea of humility of all involved stunned me. Every Greek or Trojan that would be daring enough to go out and tout that his own personal strength was the cause of his victory probably only had about 10 pages to live. Every successful character in the book submitted to a will greater than his own and after the victory, reveled not in himself, but in someone greater than himself. From Achilles to Hector, right on down the line. The polytheist ideas are obviously wrong, but if you were to substitute the word Providence every time you read gods…and God everytime you saw Zeus, you would more or less find a Christian book because the operating principle seem to be similar. Humility and respect. Now of course, these are gross exaggerations, but it helped me bring into context what Paul had to work with when he set off into the Greek culture to convert.



Other random things about the books I found, was that in the closing books of the Odyssey you see the word ‘God’ and ‘holy’ begin to appear, which I don’t remember in the entire rest of the books. Interesting….I don’t if the later translations or whatever were corrupted by the Christians copying them, or if that was just the deal. But it’s convenient that it happens in the latter parts of the Odyssey which most say was written much later.



The story differs from the movie Troy somewhat, but movies will be movies I guess.



Yes, bats live in my house at night. I hear they eat mosquitoes though.

Hello little guy. Yeah, thats my ceiling. He finally stopped flying around so I could take a pic.

On to the Pilgrim Church by E.H. Broadbent in 1931. It was gifted to me and seems to be about the ‘church’ that lived outside of the ‘orthodox’ Church up until the Reformation, I guess, when they became somewhat ‘free.’




The back cover of the book:




“It ought to be obvious to even the casual observer of history that the real story of the church is not the one recorded in secular history. But E.H. Broadbent’s classic work, THE PILGRIM CHURCH, demonstrates that the true heart of this amazing drama is not even recorded in church history books.
· This is the saga of those intrepid believers, ‘of whom the world was not worthy,’ who not only were persecuted by civil authorities, but were denounced, defamed, and decimated by the professing church.
· Who were the Waldensians? The Lollards? The Stundists? The Anabaptists? These names were given by their enemies to those who claimed only the name of Christ, and who were prepared to suffer for His cause rather than submit to those man-made traditions that they believed contradicted the Word of God.”




The inside flap which gives a little more insight into what it seems could be an unbiased presentation of history, but I don’t know yet, I have yet to read it. The parts in brackets are what the inside flap left out from the books preface.




“Ours is a day of ecumenism which seeks to establish an unbiblical unity denying the very separation from error for which the Pilgrim Church suffered an died… [Leading evangelicals would have us believe either that the Roman Catholic Church’s doctrine of salvation has changed, or that it has always been biblical, in spite of its official declarations (consistently for centuries and still today) to the contrary and it’s persecutions of those who adhere to biblical truth.




That persecution is still going on in Latin America, parts of Europe and other places where Rome is strong enough to impose its will.] Both the martyrdom of the Pilgrim Church for 1,500 years and Reformation are being presented as a semantic misunderstanding that should never have occurred between those who actually believed the same thing but didn’t know it. Evangelical leaders have gone so far as to join hands with Roman Catholics in proclaiming the gospel to the world. The Pilgrim Church sets that record straight.”




This forward was written by Dave Hunt in 1999.




Fun times….although I can’t really disagree with his “consistently for centuries” argument :)

To the Beach!

February 17, 2008

SHAZAAAM! Just felt like saying that….well it was more like a whisper. Oh well, I’m pumped right now, and you won’t believe it by who….a Methodist pastor. Allen Hunt is a radio host in Georgia, and I will post a link to two of his shows for downloading. Enjoy.

http://www.allenhuntshow.com/Listen/Audio/MP3/2006_1203_01.mp3

http://www.allenhuntshow.com/Listen/Audio/MP3/2007_0819_02.mp3

Anyways, let’s see, before getting into the beach trip yesterday, I’d like to mention a big community meal we had a few days ago. The parish put on a “Cena de la Amistad,” (Dinner of Friendship) actually I just realized I think that might have been Valentine’s Day haha (they call it the day of love and friendship and give hugs or handshakes to friends and family on this day). They have been selling tickets for 2 dollars for weeks and that night everyone gathered to feast mwhahahaha. They had a three person little band, a guitar, a singer, and something else that I don’t remember…they were dressed in green and black though haha. I FORGOT MY CAMERA, oh well. It was a pretty big deal for the community…there were about 800 in attendance I hear. The money went to the reconstruction of the parish church. We had rice and beans, something weird, and something else I don’t remember, and tortillas and coffee of course. As you can tell it wasn’t the most stellar food, but it was a nice environment.

starting out the trip after the raffle

the kids stylin in front of me

The beachers coming in after their morning fishing trip.

AHHhhh…. Speaking of the environment, it is beginning to heat up here politically. The ex-mayor from what I hear is possibly going to change his previous party to be the candidate for FMLN (left), the national rival of the current mayor’s party, ARENA (right). ARENA has been in power for some twenty years, fyi. Anyways, the previous mayor showed up early and conveniently chose his spot with his bright red colored shirt on (the color of FMLN) to greet everyone with a smile and handshake. The current mayor was helping MC the event, and had helped out through certain donations of supplies, and his wife is a catechist in the parish. So, it’s a very interesting position that I’m in to sit back and watch how it all unfolds before the elections in January. I say interesting because they know I can’t take a side and that I don’t have a vote, or technically a vested interest, but both are eager to get projects done. But it’s also fun to listen to Padre Tino always plee for a clean election from the pulpit…..the calm before the storm wahoo. The meal went well though, there were people there from other cities in El Sal, as well as Alaska, CAROLINA, Spain, and Brazil. Good stuff. I did hear later that the food messed some people up that night though (Don Raul and Dona Amalia). I didn’t though!!! Is that good or bad? Does that mean I already have those guys living in there, or my body just kills everything that comes in now? How else would I eat the same thing and not get sick?...awesome… Haha.
Oh let’s see, what else… ah yes…. I caught some interesting info from Furman. There are a certain number of people’s coming home that are taking place in a certain group of people in which the inter religious discussion I always found fun to say the least. Welcome home yo.
Now the fun stuff. Yesterday, the town went to the beach! I spent the night before preparing all the raffle ticket numbers and my raffle box and putting together the prizes. The bus picked up everyone at 530am and at 6 we switched buses to go to Playa Majahual in the department of La Libertad. Before getting on the bus, Don Mauricio (my counterpart and prez of the ADESCO) called out the name and when the person got on the bus, I would give them their half of the ticket with a number, and my half with the same number that I put in the box.) Once everyone had paid on the way to the beach (that’s the way it works here on buses), we started the raffle. We had 4 2 liter sodas (3 Salva Cola and 1 Coke), 7 groups of 3 small bags of chips, 2 calendars (thank you Williams family haha), and a paddle ball game (thank you Ansley). Finally we raffled a free trip… a lady won the four dollars, wahoo.

Im not sure.

The coastline to the left....lots of COCONUTS!

Our pad for the trip is under this thatch.

We arrived a short time later, it was interesting, a little different from the way things work in the US. As soon as the bus got close to the beach, there were guys all over the place yelling at the bus and Don Mauricio trying to get him to come to his place to park the bus….eventually he chose one, and we pulled in under the thatch roof and everyone got off. What they do here though, instead of setting up on the beach, is shack up in little rooms there under the thatch for about 5 dollars a pop. It’s a little 6x6 room at most, that I could barely fit into, especially the door haha, I had to bend way down. Interesting, oh well, I joined in a group of 8 that got a room, and I just left my bag in there because I didn’t need to change or anything…yeah the whole cargo shorts over the bathing suit thing. The beach pretty much consisted of these types of places. Each place had some type of food somewhere close.

The beach to the right. The sand is much darker here.

Our bus we came in is on the right.

The doors there are to the little rooms I talked about, people are chillin outside them.

I walked around with Don Mauricio for a while to check out the place with Oscar. I couldn’t help but laugh because every little food place we passed they came out to bargain and DM just kept walking and would say, “yea yea, we’ll be back soon!” Eventually we came back by the beach and checked out the fishermen coming in with their boats. We had a nice discussion on the different kind of life lived here, and how they have to survive differently, and then we headed back to “bathe ourselves.” That’s what they call coming to the beach… to go into the ocean is to bathe yourself. Palabra.


This is the pier at the Puerto city where they sell all the fish. You can see the cranes at the end.

I planned on spending the rest of the day just eating cheezits to save money, but Don Mauricio and some other old guy fell in love with them and helped finish them off before lunch. D’oh. Later DM wanted to grab lunch, so I felt bad and went, and he had to help out with a few quarters cause I only brought a few dollars…hahahaha. No prob…it’s a give and take system here. Anyways, the day was fun, they don’t like to go too deep, height problems haha, but DM surprised me. He is one of the shorter guys and was right there where I was messing in the waves. No fear in that man. I couldn’t have had a better guy as my counterpart.



Everyone thinks that my Iliad and Odyssey book is the Bible haha. I’m going to have to finish it off quick before they think I’m some sort of freak :) Almost there. We left and stopped by a place called Puerto, a little larger town that is popular for it selling of fish on a pier where all the boats are dropped into the water by crane. They sell TURTLE EGGS there…. I’m interested to try some. …I only saw one vendor, but there were a ton there. That was nifty, there was also some black guys there that were taller than me and everyone from my community felt compelled to tell me that I looked like a Salvadoran next to them height wise haha. They might have spoken English, they looked at me a few times while they were passing through, but I never got a chance to ask.

After that we headed back to the community, and I made it with just some red on my face….sweet. Although, someone called me a shrimp when I got back, they were joking of course. I have learned that I can’t joke though here… there is a slightly annoying lady in town that sells things next to Dona Amalia, and she asked if I wanted to buy gel today after Mass for my hair while I was chatting with DA. I laughed and said no that my hair was like this because of the salt from the beach… and I joked that I only wash once every two weeks. She looked surprised and started yelling to all her friends laughing in the market as if I was serious so I had to cut her off real quick and insist it was a joke….buggers. Dona Amalia once again warned me after that the people in town I can’t joke with because they will believe whatever I say….. REAAALLLLYYYY… I’ll have to test that out…..I’m an Arabian Prince from now on. :)

“No Gods, No Masters.”

The motto of The Woman Rebel, a 1914 paper founded by Margaret Sanger, who was a fighter for women’s “reproductive” rights and co-founder of the predecessor institutions of the Planned Parenthood. She was one of the few social reformers who lived to see her reforms implemented, and in 1965 contraception/birth control was legalized in the US. Here’s a random fyi, how many Christian denominations’ doctrines taught against contraception before 1930?....I’ll give you a clue, its smaller than 1. How many teach against it today?......yep, not much bigger, 1. On that note, how many taught against abortion in the time of Roe v. Wade? Is that number changing as well? Are there studies that correlate the use of contraception to the rate of abortion in a given area? Isn’t it ironic that many Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, protest outside abortion clinics, and then go home and use the products they endorse? I say all this in all honesty because I never really put much thought into these questions in the past outside of the historical context, but I might have to look into it more now.


This isn't a terrible place to start....Kimberly Hahn has some interesting ideas on the subject.


http://www.bringyou.to/JHKimberlyHahn.mp3

Things

February 9, 2008

Not much to report as of now, but the next few weeks are filling up pretty quickly. Rolando, by boss, and his crew are coming by this Wednesday to do their 3 month visit and check up on how everything is going. Then I have a meeting Thursday at the school here in the town and with the health promoters to plan our little environmental talks and recycling events. Saturday is our trip to the beach to raise money for the ADESCO here. The Monday following, I am supposed to go to a town north of San Vicente to give some talks on organic composting and worm boxes for a Youth Development volunteer to his 9th grade class I think, not sure on the grade. The next three days I will be in San Vicente for our In-Service-Training for Peace Corps. The first and last day I don’t have to go because it’s a Spanish workshop and I just barely made the cuts for not having to attend. I am going to visit the training family though and get some free computer work done in the training center. That’s about all I got right now. Tomorrow is Mass, an hour of internet before the bus leaves, and the ADESCO meeting after lunch to plan more of the excursion….fun stuff.

Random pic of the Lopez girls.

Matthew 6:34

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.”


February 11, 2008

Mark the date and time, I finally beat advanced minesweeper. I haven’t played it in a few months, but I played it all the time during training and it would either crash when I got close, or just whoop me. Mwhahahahaha. 9:25pm Central Time, February 11, 2008….in your face Windows Vista.

I can pass on a happy person now.

“In your face, democrats.”
-don’t remember who :)


February 13, 2008

I have spent the past day cleaning and washing and cementing around the house. Yes, cement. They sell it for 15 cents per lb in the town. I patched up my water basin to bucket bath and now its dry so this afternoon I am going to fill it with water again and see how it goes. I washed clothes as well, and then filled up everything I could scrounge up with dirt to start the seedlings that I have. Everything from Teddy Graham things, to random plastic buckets, to old Maple syrup holders from Aaron’s time here. Today I am going to plant some hopefully, if not, I’ll do it tomorrow. This morning I got up and mopped and washed my sheets, and got the house ready for my boss’ visit. Rolando is supposed to be here any minute to do my three month visit and see how things are going. Wahoo. The rest of my time the past few days has been filled with reading about how to control pests naturally without highly concentrated chemicals and fertilizing with existing plant life…. Or some baloney like that, its much easier with chemicals, J…. Hahahahahahaha. No no, that’s not what we are here for, it makes for interesting reading though. They give us bunches of resources when we come out here, its actually coming in handy now. Although, I’m learning all of this stuff in Spanish so, I am not quite sure what to call any of these things in English. Oh well. It was the same when I couldn’t transfer the history terms from the Madrid classes to Furman.
Kevin doing his cursive homework haha.

Well, just finished with Rolando… he gave me more work lol. Go figure. Although I did get to meet some Alaskans that were visiting here. They travel the world homeschooling their kids. Very nice.

St. Francis De Sales:

"What else is the doctrine of the Fathers of the Church except the gospel explained and Holy Scripture expounded? In other words, the difference between Sacred Scripture and the teaching of the Fathers is like that between a whole almond and an almond cracked open so that the nut can be eaten by anyone, or like that between a whole loaf of bread and a loaf broken into pieces and distributed. On the contrary, therefore, it is necessary to make use of such works, for they have been instruments by which God has communicated to us the true meaning of his word."

Pilgrimage from Cojutepeque

February 5, 2008

Wowzers, yesterday I completed my first ‘official’ pilgrimage in name and it was it pretty cool I must say. But I guess a little background is in order. To start off, as many know the Church calendar, the liturgical year, squeezes Jesus’ life into one year. The Church lives his life with him during through the year, as it does in an abbreviated version every Sunday. Beginning with Advent in December, the colors, symbols, and readings in the Church change to show and demonstrate the pilgrim path of the Body with its Head during the year. Well, here in El Salvador, after the birth of Christ and that celebration in the Christmas season, there falls the pilgrimage in honor of the “Dulce Nombre de Jesus” (the sweet name of Jesus). On February 4 every year (from what I hear) closing the patron festivals of the town, kid Jesus (it looks like a large dressed up doll haha) is brought by pilgrims from a department up north to a southern capital of Cojutepeque. Then from there, it is brought to San Pedro Nonualco. The Presentation of Jesus is read in the church at the end of the trek and the festivals, leading into the opening of Lent, and in the Liturgy the ministry of Jesus (specifically the revelation of himself) beginning on the 6th with Ash Wednesday.

So there is the background….haha. I got up at 1:45am yesterday morning so that I would have time to make it to San Pedro by 3 to leave. But of course I arrived at the absolutely perfect time. The buses that left somewhat closer to where I enter the town, left 10 mins early…..this NEVER happens in El Salvador, they are 30 mins to an hour late for everything, except Mass. The only reason I can think of that is because these two buses were hired by the ex-mayor, who wants to be the NexT mayor, in the upcoming elections, and wanted to get their before the bus leaving from the Mayor’s office. Whatever. Anyways, I just missed those buses, so I walked to the Mayors office, right at 3….no bus. HA, it came about 45 mins later….its actually kind of cold in shorts and tshirt at that time of the morning here. We arrived in Cojute around 445am and then after waiting around there in the cold for a while, everything started and we left on foot at 530am. At this point, when kid Jesus arrived (hah), there was an old guy carrying him and another guy with a big ole wooden case on his back, and some ladies and kids that accompanied them with candles……AND after the third picture my batteries died. Oops. I realized about 2 hours later that I had a flashlight that I could switch the batteries out of, so I took pictures later. It was neat though in the beginning because people were coming out of their houses to offer alms as we passed, and I basically just followed the candles and little 4 man band that followed them playing some decent music. It was 2 violins, a little guitar/banjo, and a bass kind of thing. I was impressed that they were there the entire climb.

The band at 5am.

Our first uphill climb later when I realized I could switch the batteries of my flashlight with those of my camera


About 3 hours into it, they all stopped to pray at a site where we met up with some more people. We started with about 250 people I think. I guessed that from counting a certain group in the front…seeing the space they occupied, and then seeing how many of those sized groups there were overall. Who knows haha. At this point, I ran into my Peace Corps boss, Rolando, who was tagging along as well. I took advantage of the quick rest to get a snack out of my bag. I brought along Daddy’s hiking bag, and had a few jugs of water, some bread I had bought the day before, sunflower seeds, and a pack of nabs that Mother had sent a few months ago (oh and some Victorian oranges). After that crazy climb of the dormant volcano during training, I figured that would be about right, but I really didn’t know what to expect.




Ha. Crossing the Tiber.


Another crossing.


Me in front of a little waterfall on the way.


We were going downhill for about the first 4 hours I’d say, and then we made it to a river and had to criss cross it for a few miles. This was actually pretty funny because hundreds of people were trying to cross the river where you have to take off your shoes and socks to get across because it was deeper, but a bunch of us found ways around the borders without having to do that. Less fun, but later on we had to do some rock jumping, so that was made up for not unnecessarily fording rivers. We passed a waterfall, ate on a little island an orange, watched a kid in a speedo climb it and almost kill himself on the way down, and then we continued. Eventually, we made it to the base of Maria Ostuma, the municipality that is above San Pedro Nonualco. We then began a pretty steep climb for some 3 hours up the ridge to make it to Ostuma.



After we climbed out of the valley from the river

I think this was actually in the riverbank.


At this point, we stopped at the end of the first steep part to check out a ‘molinera’ where they squeeze the juice out of the sugar cane and make sugar…..stuff. That was cool, I tasted the foam on top and it was neat, but it wasn’t super sweet yet, so I had to act like I really liked it because everyone else was going bonkers about it haha. It was cool to see how they were making it though. They had a machine to grind and squeeze it, then a pipe running it to four large semicircular shaped holders that had an oven under each one to keep it boiling, with the foam rising to the top. Then eventually they would pour it into holders to cool and either make candies or sent to the places that make rum. Wahoo.

The machine that squeezes all the good stuff out of the sugar cane.

The vats of liquid sugar mmmmmmmm.

There, I met the father-in-law of a previous volunteer about 4 years ago that married his daughter, I think they live in Pennsylvania now or something. So he was my guide for the next few hours, because I still had no idea where we were going. It was good conversation, he asked eventually about my religion, and we talked a bit. We talked about American culture and Salvadoran culture…he had visited the States quite a bit and mentioned how that we are so much more individualistic in the States. I laughed because I had already had this discussion with quite a few people. It’s a common distinction. As to why…. Maybe in another post.

Climbing down another hillside.

Later on approaching a small town on the outskirts of San Pedro Nonualco

Us awaiting the old people in the back with Jesus :)

We reached Ostuma and piled in the Church where the priest in a polo and jeans gave a quick speech on the importance of continuing these types of traditions, quoted similar mentalities from the recent council of Bishops of Latin America and then we pushed on to the finish line. That last part was one of the hardest parts, really, really steep, whew, but it’s all good. Eventually we made it to the outskirts of the town and ran up on another few hundred waiting for us, clapping, praying, yadda yadda, then a presentation by some guys dressed up as four Christian kings and 4 pagan kings. Not sure where that came from, but oh well. They did have swords though and were going at it; that was cool.

The people leaving the church in Santa Maria Ostuma

Coming into the outskirts of a neighborhood of San Pedro. It looks the sign says "Welcome honored pilgrims that visit us...May the sweet name of Jesus bless you... Our Lord Jesus Christ, the town of San Pedro, and the Mayor welcomes you with open arms"

The rally in the neighborhood.

This caught my eye in the photos so I blew it up, they had the welcoming of the pilgrims right below this Seventh Day Adventist building it looks like. They like to come and plant little churches all over the country, I never new this one was here til the photo.

Finally, we preceded from there with the Mayor and Padre Tino (whom I’m having bfast with Friday) at the front, with two bands, and the kid Jesus, through some of the streets of San Pedro and then finally ended at the church with a reading from the Gospel. I had the best spot because I was behind a crazy person doing karate to the beat of the 4 man band I was behind. He was hilarious (or hysterectal as Ms. Sandra calls it)…I took a short video, but I’m not sure yet if it came out. There are three types of crazies here: mental crazies, drunk crazies, and religious crazies….with mixtures all in between. I think this one was a drunk/religious crazy. My favs are the mental ones though, they are the easiest to deal with.




Us on the main street of San Pedro heading toward the Church after having gone through the neighborhoods. The crazy guy dancing is on the right.

Ending the “caminata” as they call it, I left the church and got some of their special French fries during the festivals, two actually, one for me and one for Alex, at the place where I do internet.
It was a good time, I met some good people, and well it was a good, tough experience. I have to say though, that I was amazed at the people. Both the quantity and the moms that did what I had a tough time doing, carrying one child, and with another one tagging along. That was crazy to me. The quantity was just fun to watch, whether they were crossing a little river, climbing the side of a mountain, piling in and out of churches, or piling through the streets expressing confidence in the Faith. Especially on a work day. Cool beans.


This quote from an article on Hilary Clinton made me laugh, it was from a "fan" in the audience.

"Iron my shirt!"

February 6, 2008

And it begins. The most powerful 40 some days of the year for the Christian. Wahoo Ash Wednesday (Miércoles de Ceniza). A nice 6 am Mass again this morning, thanks to my host fam, dirty dirty people…. Hahahahahaha. Joke….naaa we weren’t sure if the bus was going to make it up later so we got on the 5am bus to the town. It was fun, lots of people, lots of Spanish, lots of ashes. I got a kick out of part of the homily where the priest responded to accusations to him by ….non-Catholics as to Lent not being in the Bible. Would anyone like to comment on that? :)…of course I have no opinion.

“Acuérdate de que eres polvo y al polvo volverás.” (cf. Genesis 3:19)

Remember that you are dust and to the dust you will return.

Leaving Behind the Brothers Karamazov (hah)

February 2, 2008

I finished the book, whew! My streak of book that are very different from things that I’ve read before continues. Although, Crime and Punishment definitely had some similar ideas especially in the end of the two books, as far as transformation through suffering (and criminal action haha). So, The Brothers Karamazov, if you are up for a semi-thinker, that goes decently quick, but have time because it’s a little longer read. Subject wise, its interesting because its like a philosophically religious (Russian Orthodox) mystery because you can’t really pin peoples motives til the latter half of the book. Religious wise its interesting because at times he is bashing the Catholic Church for its authoritarian whims, and a few times is quite sarcastic to the audience in the book that if they aren’t careful that Luther and his heresy will sneak in, ha! The book weaves quite a few themes quite skillfully, it was enjoyable.

A pic at the neighbors birthday fam doodad for Jacqueline, the little girl neighbor

Here is the kicker for this post though. I had to go to Zacatecaluca, the department capital, yesterday morning for money to pay for my monthly debts haha. I brought along with me Hal Lindsey and Jerry Jenkins’ book Left Behind. I read the first 50 or 75 pages, and then skimmed the next 450 throughout the morning. It got that feeling at moments here and there in my gut during that first 50 pages when I was like, uggggghhhh, that just feels so wrong. After getting the feel of the plot though, I could see how people could get in to that part, and just swallow the theological garbage in the process. Although, I did like the fact that the new, demonic world religion that would serve the Anti-Christ would be based out of Italy. Classic. I guess one of these days they will explain why all of their predictions of certain have to be edited every year because after the Vietnam War, was the Millerite movement the 1988 one?, Gulf War, 911, End of Mayan Calendar that’s coming, etc their endtime propaganda has to wait for the next bit of news to sell some more books. Although I have heard of a book called Father Elijah (?) that might be a nice book to read after something like this. Anyways, the Rapture makes me chuckle haha…although in reality it’s just a symptom of a greater problem. The Reformers would be flipping in their graves, however they have fully pulled away from the only authority that can do anything about it :)

Anyways, I’ve started Homer’s Iliad, so that and they Odyssey should take a while, but I’m already enjoying it. Although, I see Brad Pitt in my head every time I read Achilles now, oh Troy. Its funny though that the book is already differing more than I thought it would from the movie, go figure.

The valiant Lucero, the little male calf that chills by my house.

This quote was what someone said to Paul Thigpen, a current anti-Rapture scholar and doctor in American Religion I believe, who was talking to a friend about his beginning to read the early Church Fathers. After mentioning this, his friend remarks:



Friend: “Well I’m glad you are studying the Church Fathers, people like Charles Finney….”



Thigpen: “....Well Charles Finney was [only] 100 years ago…?!?”



He later notes that “historical amnesia” on this issue and many others is often prevalent.




February 3, 2008



I went to the ole Dance and festival last night, wow, lots of people. I went with Margherita and Fatima and Rudy (the last two were the ones that just got married). It was fun, we jumped on their little ferris wheel when we first got there, wahoo, although I learned not to jump on right after eating a bunch of pupusas, reallllly queasy after. We danced the rest of the night to a cumbia band called Guanaco Solido. Guanaco is slang for Salvadoran, in case anyone cared haha. Then on either side of them they had big spaces full of lights and too many speakers to count for an hour of dancing in between their hour of playing, Ultravision or something did that. It was a good time, although it made it hard to get up this morning for Mass.

Guanaco Solido doing their thing.

I will say that I think through college and now here in El Sal I have learned that you can tell a ton about a girl after you dance with her. Sometimes you can almost really see right through them. I didn’t know what to think about Margherita because I don’t know her too well and only heard how the fam had stereotyped her for loving to go crazy dancing. After dancing with her now though, I can now see through that some, as well as after seeing her expression at other people on the ‘pista’…dance floor. Anyways, the point of all this is to close with a quote that I’ve been wanting to use. Mwhahahahaha

“You do not truly know someone until you fight them.”

Seraph, Matrix Reloaded