Running Hot Water.... Sooo Good.

March 25, 2008


Travel time! Well the past few weeks have been filled with traveling in country and this past week out of country. I took a quick trip back to the US leaving Wednesday morning and coming back Sunday morning. I met lot of interesting people in the trip. On the way there I was sitting at the gate in San Salvador, and a large group of gringos came through and began entering my gate (its all closed off here, its not like Atlanta haha). They check every carryon bag that enters the individual gate. Anyways, one guy came and sat down one chair away from me, and the rest of them sat down in the other aisle across from us. My first comment to the guy beside me as I saw them entering was…… “man, that’s a bunch of white people….haha.” He didn’t know how to take me, until he saw me smiling, and then we started chatting. Apparently, they are a Catholic missionary group from Kansas…Benedictine College to be exact. They were building houses and stuff down here. This guy was one of their two leaders, and he was part of a group called FOCUS (www.focusonline.org) from what he told me, a graduate of LSU and member of Campus Crusades eventually became Catholic, and then with the help of some apologists like Scott Hahn, began a mirror of Campus Crusades, but in a Catholic form. They are in a period of deep expansion right now, yet only enter universities where the bishop invites them into the dioceses. It was an interesting group. I think they said they are going into Kentucky and Auburn and some other impressive schools soon. And for all you Prince of Peacers, Steve Wood gave their last 6 week training session. Sweeeet. It gave us a common talking point.

Cari and the little tike.

*On that note, Steve Wood, the EWTN host of Faith and Family will be giving talks every Wednesday of April 2008 from 6:30pm to 7:30pm on the book of Romans at Prince of Peace. He calls Romans the “most important letter in the history of the world.” Better yet it is free… all that is required to bring is a Bible and a friend (check it out more here (http://www.popteens.org/) under "EWTN at POP").*


So, eventually, I get on the plane, and about midway through the flight start up a convo with the guy to my left….I was in the emergency exit window seat….lots of ROOM! He had a strong French accent, but he didn’t look French. Come to find out he was a Serbian born Canadian. He had left Serbian at the start of the wars there a while ago. He knew the Serbian language of course, and had to learn Russian in school. Later he started English, then moved to Canada, where he finished English and had to learn French. I hate people like this :) He told me that English was the easiest one to learn….go figure, but makes sense. He works for Sony Ericsson and gets to travel a lot (I’m sure all the languages help). We went on to discuss the cell phone situation in the Latin America and in the US, he called the US cell phone companies “disgusting” as far as their prices. They charge so much more than Latin America and other places because they know they can he says. Interesting. We chatted about random things, it was good. I thought he was weird at first, but then I just realized he was European and Canadian.
On the plane ride from Atlanta to Greenville, I was sitting beside a man who attends the same church as my sister. We chatted on that line for a while, and then after talking about my work in Peace Corps, we discussed the dynamics of my water project here and he threw out some ideas as a mechanical engineer. It was a tasty chat…haha.

Which one of us is pregnant?

There were a ton of delays all day in Atlanta due to the storms all along the east coast, but luckily it only affected my late flight by an hour. My sister picked me up, and I proceeded to her house to eat all the leftovers available at one in the morning (airport food is expensive :). All day Thursday I pretty much hung out at Cari’s house, and with Elija and Jonah, which was very fun…..because I didn’t get thrown up on directly. Before Mass that night we ate SUSHI wahooo…. I stayed at Rick’s house, and then met John and Jerome Friday for a snack around lunchtime, and then spent the rest of the day with the parents at Cari’s. That night after watching the Da Vinci Code, I stayed at Cari’s and then Saturday hung out there until the Vigil that night. The Triduum is the Church at its best; it’s the best part of the liturgical year.
I headed back early Sunday morning after a nice meal Friday and Saturday night. I didn’t talk to anyone on the flight to Atlanta, I slept! On the flight from Atlanta though, I sat beside a female Jewish Rabbi! She was with a large group from University of California at San Diego going to El Salvador on a Jewish Grant to work there for a week in Santa Ana. We got to chat about a range of issues, it was fun. I caught the end of Becoming Jane as the in-flight movie…..I thought I was watching Pride and Prejudice…. Oh Jane Austen.

Elija and I, pre Cari giving me haircut

Anyways, I made it back to my house here, and filled in the host fam and all that jazz. Although at that point I realized that I had forgotten to back up my computer on the external hard drive at Ricks….d’oh!


Also, my camera broke while I was at home, I had used it to take a pic of the kids, and five minutes later I took it out to take another and the screen was cracked….. also very sad. One positive side though, was that the Ipod became uncorrupted after the battery died and I plugged it back in the computer. So I kept something intact :)

My fam.

In other random news, I have downloaded Skype to mess around with that, let me know if any of you have it on your computer, it makes for cheap/free talking.
Oh yeah, I brought back an extra guitar (Edward you remember the one I snagged from you in Spain?), to get a little practice in here. Notice the new sections on the sidebar here on the blog of songs that I am learning and going to learn…..I also stocked up on books from home as well :)….I might have to skip Darwin, its slow going.

PS...my camera broke... so I'll have to be creative with pictures the next little while.

In closing, I would like to welcome all those who came into the Catholic family this Easter all over the world. I’ll see you all this Sunday.



"Let all Pious men and all lovers of God rejoice in the splendor of this feast; let the wise servants blissfully enter into the joy of their Lord; let those who have borne the burden of Lent now receive their pay, and those who have toiled since the first hour, let them now receive their due reward; let any who came after the third hour be grateful to join in the feast, and those who may have come after the sixth, let them not be afraid of being too late, for the Lord is gracious and He receives the last even as the first. He gives rest to him who comes on the eleventh hour as well as to him who has toiled since the first: yes, He has pity on the last and He serves the first; He rewards the one and is generous to the other; he repays the deed and praises the effort.


Come you all: enter into the joy of your Lord. You the first and you the last, receive alike your reward; you rich and you poor, dance together; you sober and you weaklings, celebrate the day; you who have kept the fast and you who have not, rejoice today. The table is richly loaded: enjoy its royal banquet. The calf is a fatted one: let no one go away hungry. All of you enjoy the banquet of faith; all of you receive the riches of his goodness.

Let no one grieve over his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed; let no one weep over his sins, for pardon has shone from the grave; let no one fear death, for the death of our Savior has set us free: He has destroyed it by enduring it, He has despoiled Hades by going down into its kingdom, He has angered it by allowing it to taste of his flesh.

When Isaiah foresaw all this, he cried out: "O Hades, you have been angered by encourntering Him in the nether world." Hades is angered because frustrated, it is angered because it has been mocked, it is angered because it has been destroyed, it is angered because it has been reduced to naught, it is angered because it is now captive. It seized a body, and lo! it discovered God; it seized earth, and, behold! it encountered heaven; it seized the visible, and was overcome by the invisible.

O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? Christ is risen and life is freed, Christ is risen and the tomb is emptied of the dead: for Christ, being risen from the dead, has become the Leader and Reviver of those who had fallen asleep. To Him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen."

5th Century Paschal Sermon of St. John Chrysostom

Translating in the Medical Brigade

March 16, 2008

SEMI VIGIL



Man, so much to describe on here about this week…..and I forgot my camera on EVERY occasion…. For the Semi-vigil, the medical brigade, San Sal, and Palm Sunday. I know, I am a bad person. I’ve lost my tourist edge. Hah. Anyways, let’s see…..the semi-vigil went on the day after my previous post from 7-12pm. Don Raul, Dona Amalia, and I walked from the house up to town, catching up to the group that was doing the Stations of the Cross from our little church to the town church. We finished that with them, wandering through the dark with one candle (talk about a pilgrim church), and ended up at the vigil area. It started with a holy hour (prayer and silence) from 7:30, then til 8 in front of the make shift altar and the Sacrament, and then there were songs sang and lay exhortations (encouragement of the brethren some would say) until about 830pm. Then a guest priest arrived with his guitar and gave a very unique presentation on the subject of “conversion”….of the person. He based his whole talk on a song that he slowly revealed and then used the occasional strum of the guitar to get people’s attention. It was great, I like unique approaches that actually work. If I remember correctly, he described 5 steps in the conversion process. The first was realizing that you are basically nothing but a sinner, the second to realize when you fall into sin again, third to go to confession and acknowledge and accept God’s forgiveness, fourth to forgive yourself, and fifth and finally to repairs the damage done to others through your sin. I think that was right, haha. Anyways, he played a section of the song each time that pertained to his dubbed 5 stages then had the people repeat it. Finally, he played the whole thing and had the people sing along. It was a good approach.

Me eating chocolate in Don Raul's kitchen

After they continued with some singing, and later another speech was given by another visiting priest in jeans and a collared shirt on the subject of pardon, piggy backing off the first topic. He was more outgoing and in your face, but I thought got less to the people. Often times in religion reason speaks louder than emotion. It was ok though. After, there was a brief pupusa and coffee break, and at 11 the singing restarted, wahoo, needless to say I don’t know any of the words most of the time. The songs in the Mass I’m getting better at, but these things, no idea. I just smile… :) At about 11:00 there was a few more songs, and then they started a dinamica where the youth group gave a brief ice breaker for the people to have a little fun by breaking people up into the different communities and playing the game where you have a queen up front, and she says an item and the first group to bring that item wins a point. It was well-timed, it got the people moving and the blood flowing for the Mass. Padre Tino started promptly and the vigil ended with the ending of the Mass. I got back and into bed around 1am.

My little dog at the host fam's, Buxy!

ARMY MEDICAL BRIGADE


Wow, awesome experience here. Go me for deciding to volunteer for this thing. I headed out at 430am that next morning after the semi vigil. I got to town around 515 and grabbed a hot chocolate from the lady by the buses there and a sweet bread and hung out til 530. In that time a guy came up and said hello in English and ‘how are you’ as well, but he couldn’t go past there so I had to switch to Spanish haha. His first comment was that he was an evangelical pastor in one of the cantón down the road towards the other municipality. I smiled, and we continued convo for a short while before he left, and I got to wait in the sacristy and chat with Francisco. Francisco is the guy who in charge of the care of the church itself, as well as the materials of all the parish Masses. He is like the gardener, or janitor, etc that is always preparing or cleaning up his place of work at all hours of the day and night….and always with a smile. For that reason, I have an appreciation for his humble work and always make it a point to sneak back there and chat with him when I have time. Anyways, when I take the 6am bus to San Vicente, I usually chill with him for a while during his prep for the daily 6am Mass. Afterwards, I left on the bus and got to San V and used the internet for an hour or two and then shot off to San Miguel. My goal was in La Union in the eastern part of the country. When I was almost there though, I got a call that said we weren’t heading there until the next day, and that I needed to head to a barracks outside of a city in that department. After a short digestion problem, I turned around and eventually found the place.


When I first got there, 2 of the other 3 volunteers were already there. I talked to them for a minute and then got into some convos with the Civil Affairs guys that were there, as well as two others that caught my interest. I then met the lowest ranking cook and headed out with him to help him out with preparing dinner. Eventually, everything was ready and we all ate, and there were introductions and reunions of us and the volunteers that were finished up that day when they got back.


Every morning breakfast was at 530am, yet for some smart reason I would get up at 4:30 to take my shower and read some in the chow hall (hah) and mess with the cooks til everyone got up and made it out. The first day, after our hour trip out to the third of three sites that the army was working, I got put with the veterinarians to help translate for the day. Ha, what was your first idea when you read that one? It was actually kind of cool. I went out with the three of them and we took out with the health promoter through the countryside inoculating for rabies in cats and dogs, and parasites in lots of cows and horses. We ended up in the middle of nowhere on top of a mountain with they had somehow fit 40 head of cattle. We almost didn’t make it because our little Honda SUV was overheating trying to make it up and down the “roads.” It was neat though, I think that the end of the day we had vaccinated over 51 cows and 6 cats and dogs, and given out liquid vitamins to some of the sicker looking animals.


The nights mostly consisted of a mix of basketball, volleyball, and spades that all happened after dinner around 6 or 630. For some reason my shot was on this week. I definitely haven’t played enough to deserve that. Oh well, it worked out well.


The next two days I translated for a Major in the general medical consults, and the last day with a Lt. Colonel and nurse practitioner. We saw pretty much everything….naaa not really, but lots of weird things, as well as the headache and stomach ache that every person started out with describing. Eye care was by far the most needed care (due to the constant dust/wind/sun), medicine for body pain the most desired care, and dental care was busy taking out teeth the whole time.


The lines were ridiculous the whole time. We saw over 1000 people each day and they ended up seeing over 8000 people during their time here, despite having no power the first day due to the slackness of some local authorities. We would get there in bus in the mornings and the lines would be a block out and then turn down the street, with already 200 people seated inside the school.


Overall, I met lots of interesting characters, lots of doctors, learned lots of medical terms and info. I also met an interesting character that I learned a lot from career path wise, and who I think will be of help to me in the future.

My workstation the past week at home.

SAN SALVADOR


So, we eventually had to leave our full meals at the barracks and retire to our own communities. Before leaving however, they invited us to their going away party in San Salvador at one of the nicer hotels in El Salvador. Also, they gifted me some boxes of medicine for my clinics here in SPN that the doctors are going to eat up. I traveled with Chadd, another volunteer of my group, who was actually very inquisitive on some Catholic social doctrines that have been mentioned to me often lately. His out of nowhere questions kind of caught me by surprise, but it made for interesting conversation and tested my degree of assimilation of some of the documents I have read as of late. Now, I see I need to learn more haha. He’s a good kid though, and he’s the first of our group to have a Salvo girlfriend….and he used to work for Napster, crazy. He helped me back with the boxes to San Sal where I stored them there in an the Peace Corps office. The rest of the evening we spent trying to get his newly received, used laptop out of customs at the San Sal Post Office. While he was getting his photocopies certain things and other errands in Centro, I took advantage to visit the National Cathedral, which is remarkably simple inside. After confession there, I met up with Chad in the nave, where he was giving an English lesson to a Japanese man it looked like, haha.... I’m dead serious, and we went down under the church into the crypt to see the tomb of Monsignor Oscar Romero, one of the most dynamic figures of the civil war here a few decades ago. It sat alone behind an altar with a large amount of space around it, with a wood carving on top of him laying down supported by four posts that had the four signs of the gospels inscribed on them. Beside/in front of his tomb there was a group of five people sitting in circle praying and singing softly it seemed like. I didn’t get a better look though because we got kicked out, they had to cut the lights.


That night we chilled in the Estancia, the Peace Corps nighttime stopover point, and then the next day after some work in the office we went to the hotel where the Army was. They all had actually gone in together to get us a room. They were so nice. I got put in charge of the room, go figure. Since we were about 8 volunteers there though they ended up getting us a second one later. Wahoo. Most headed to the pool to chill, but I went with some of the doctors to the markets to help interpret for a while. That night a large group of volunteers and army people checked out Benihana’s in Gran Via, which is like a Hibachi place with sushi as well. One of the doctors paid for a portion of all of our meals, so I got it about half price. It was all really good. That night and next day I took two very hot showers as well. I can’t describe how awesome that was.


The yesterday morning we saw all of them off, except for two, who were sticking around til Sunday to leave, and left me a chance to chat with one by the pool until I left after lunch. He also stockpiled me with goodies and MREs (meals ready to eat). Good stuff. OH, I almost forgot, the breakfast at this place was AMAZING, I had over 5 plates of stuff. My goal was to eat enough to be able to skip paying for lunch and get back to my host fam for dinner. That’s all I can say.
The host fam was happy to see me get back I think….Dona Amalia had actually called me earlier in the day wondering if I was ever coming home haha.


That brings me to today….Palm Sunday. I was actually left by the bus, go figure, apparently it leaves early on Palm Sunday for the procession through the town with the palms. So I walked and got there about the same time and the large group of people were piling in the same place as the vigil with their large groupings of palms, not just the one or two we usually carry in the States. After Mass, I talked with some people that I needed to and then had some coffee with the Padre and Madres in the convent. I’ve definitely got some work to do on my understanding of a Portuguese accent in Spanish.

One of the twins chilling in the hammock.

This afternoon I had an ADESCO meeting, much to do before the end of the month, gotta love it. I also made the flyers for our trip to Guatemala with the parish April 5. That’s exciting.
Pope Paul VI speaks 50 years ago of consequences to be realized in the future of certain trains of thought in the encyclical Humanae Vitae.

“Grave Consequences of Methods of Artificial Birth Control


17. Upright men can even better convince themselves of the solid grounds on which the teaching of the Church in this field is based, if they care to reflect upon the consequences of methods of artificial birth control. Let them consider, first of all, how wide and easy a road would thus be opened up towards conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality. Not much experience is needed in order to know human weakness, and to understand that men -- especially the young, who are so vulnerable on this point -- have need of encouragement to be faithful to the moral law, so that they must not be offered some easy means of eluding its observance. It is also to be feared that the man, growing used to the employment of anti-conceptive practices, may finally lose respect for the woman and, no longer caring for her physical and psychological equilibrium, may come to the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer his respected and beloved companion.


Let it be considered also that a dangerous weapon would thus be placed in the hands of those public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies. Who could blame a government for applying to the solution of the problems of the community those means acknowledged to be licit for married couples in the solution of a family problem? Who will stop rulers from favoring, from even imposing upon their peoples, if they were to consider it necessary, the method of contraception which they judge to be more efficacious? In such a way men, wishing to avoid individual, family, or social difficulties encountered in the observance of the divine law, would reach the point of placing at the mercy of the intervention of public authorities the most personal and most reserved sector of conjugal intimacy.


Consequently, if the mission of generating life is not to be exposed to the arbitrary will of men, one must necessarily recognize insurmountable limits to the possibility of man's domination over his own body and its functions; limits which no man, whether a private individual or one invested with authority, may licitly surpass. And such limits cannot be determined otherwise than by the respect due to the integrity of the human organism and its functions, according to the principles recalled earlier, and also according to the correct understanding of the "principle of totality" illustrated by our predecessor Pope Pius XII [21].


The Church Guarantor of True Human Values


18. It can be foreseen that this teaching will perhaps not be easily received by all: Too numerous are those voices -- amplified by the modern means of propaganda -- which are contrary to the voice of the Church. To tell the truth, the Church is not surprised to be made, like her divine Founder, a "sign of contradiction" [22], yet she does not because of this cease to proclaim with humble firmness the entire moral law, both natural and evangelical. Of such laws the Church was not the author, nor consequently can she be their arbiter; she is only their depositary and their interpreter, without ever being able to declare to be licit that which is not so by reason of its intimate and unchangeable opposition to the true good of man.


In defending conjugal morals in their integral wholeness, the Church knows that she contributes toward the establishment of a truly human civilization; she engages man not to abdicate from his own responsibility in order to rely on technical means; by that very fact she defends the dignity of man and wife. Faithful to both the teaching and the example of the Saviour, she shows herself to be the sincere and disinterested friend of men, whom she wishes to help, even during their earthly sojourn, "to share as sons in the life of the living of God, the Father of all men" [23].”

Class Time in the School

March 7, 2008

Well, Juan José, Don Raul’s youngest, is now officially hooked on sudokus. He is in the fifth grade and already starting the mediums. I’d say that’s an accomplishment. He’s been going through all the old newspapers he can find to bring them for us to do after dinner. Good stuff.
It’s been a little while since I’ve posted so as usual there are a bunch of random stories, and a few full days worthy of talking about I guess.

The principal and secretary of the High School.

We had a meeting at the Instituto (High School basically) with all the scholarship students that we have in the program and layed out some ground rules for what we are going to supply with the scholarship, the service hours, etc. Afterwards I had to take pics of all of them and hopefully we’ll eventually get their pics all up on the scholarship website INSERT HERE…. I think we already have some of the case studies up there.
Oh yeah, same ole problems with the ATMs here as far as getting change goes, but don’t want to go into that in detail online…. Ask if you’re interested.

Our meeting in a classroom.

A giant among men. Crazy gringo. haha.

Also, the other night at Don Raul’s, his eldest son, and my immediate neighbor, had brought over the twins to watch them crawling around, which is new. They are a little behind being pretty premature babies. We got to play with them a ton and take interesting videos while some watching a big soccer game on a borrowed little antennae tv thing.

The two stinkers and their momma.

William!

Celia cracking up.

Roiiiigggghhhttttt.

Milagro with Manuel.

There are lots of avocados here, it is awesome. Jerome, watch out, here comes my cholesterol :)
A few days ago the madre, the familiar name for the nun, came back without her friends this time and brought a bunch of basic food staples and things for the kids. And, as usual, the community filled the little pickup they were driving with oranges, bananas, coconuts, and chickens, and a duck I think, for her to take back to the convent that has 30 nuns she said. Its always a fun time when she comes, even without her clic, haha. She’s a jokester.

Loaded down.

Babies!

FIRE!

Yesterday, was a big day for me giving talks in the classes here 1st-6th grade in the school. I hung out there giving talks on trash and what we should do with it in the morning and evening. I didn’t know how it was going to all turn out at first, but it went ok. Although, I had to learn what “dinamicas” (activities that you use to liven the kids up a bit) I could incorporate with which age groups. It all worked out though. Also, I took some of the day to demonstrate the new computer programs that I got from the embassy for teaching English to the kids. We had some problems at first, but now it all seems to be working. We are in search of headphones right now because there are 9 computers and 3 kids to a computer pretty much, and with these audio programs, they are a must if you don’t want chaos. That is exciting though to see how it all works out with those.
Finally, today I helped Don Raul and Dona Amalia make raffle tickets for a sewing machine they came into possession of. They are going to raffle it off in May to make money for the putting on of the patron festivals here in La Comunidad in August. Sweet.

The rest of March promises to be very busy. Tonight is the semi-vigil in the pueblo in preparation for Holy Week. It will be tonight from 7pm-12am up in the Calvario, the other smaller church in town that they use for smaller gatherings. I have lots to do and read here, but it will be a good experience so I think I’ll attend. Normally they have the “vias cruces,” or “ways of the cross” at 4pm on Fridays of Lent, but today they are going to leave from our little hermita church in La Comunidad and do the Via Cruz at 5:30 to get to the Calvario at 7 for the semi-vigil. Apparently they have kept the ancient Christian tradition of the all night Vigil on Holy Saturday here. Sweeet. Go El Salvador.

After getting back tonight round 1am, I get to leave at 4:45am the next morning to the northeastern part of the country to help translate for some US Military doctors that are doing a medical deal out there until Wednesday. I think 3 other volunteers will be there with me, so that will be fun in the barracks.

"Whatever you are, be a good one"

-Abraham Lincoln

Death and US Embassy

February 29, 2008

Well there are quite a lot of random stories to convey in this entry. There have been quite a few events that have gone on in the past week. Death of a member of my counterparts household, pending stepping down of my counterpart as prez of ADESCO, worms, me messing up washing clothes, funerals, raw eggs and iguana meat, doctrinal classes, and a trip to the embassy. Whew, good stuff.

Padre Tino Killing ants on the phone while Im waiting.

The Ant Dance by Padre Tino in the "Rectory"

Ok, so I’ll start with the ADESCO meeting Sunday where Don Mauricio, my counterpart because he is prez of the ADESCO, is going to step down first of April. Well, wonderful. That means we have to organize the community to elect a new one, as well as find someone with the energy to work for the community. He is the only one on the directive of the ADESCO that really has the desire to develop the town more. I hope that he will change his mind, but it doesn’t look like it. So that is going to be hectic coming in the end of March. In addition to the normal meeting though, where we discussed our 43 dollar gain out of the beach trip, haha…cracks me up, I brought him WORMS. We have some worms in our training center in San Vicente, and I had brought some to Don Mauricio because an animal that is similar to a possum got into his box and ate’em all up….mmmmmm good. Sad though, he had a ton. He planted some tomato plants with this soil and they already have some goodies on them :) Yea, so I had a little bucket full of cow manure and put some dark earth on top with the barely alive worms that I had, but they all crawled down to love on the smelly stuff. Ahahahahaha. So once that gets going, I plan on spreading that around the ADESCO….it’s good dirt. Little buggers.

The end of the Funeral Mass.

The Hearse....haha.

Us heading down main street toward the cemetery after the Mass.

On a smaller note, I found out that I’m still an ignant. Homer didn’t help any. D’oh! Apparently, I have been washing my clothes with this hard hand soap stuff for 3 months. Mia culpa, mia culpa, mia grande culpa. My bad. The other stuff works much better.

The next day I worked most of the day translating some documents for our American Embassy Community Fair, and went to bed about 1130. I got a phone call at about 1145 from Don Mauricio just as I fell asleep telling me his wife’s dad had just died. He was in his 90s and was always hanging out when I visited there with Felicita, Mauricio’s wife, taking care of him. His name was Isidoro Mendez Perez. It was a sad day or two, but I really learned a lot about the culture and death in general in the process. Just as I got off the phone the bells went off here in our little town church, apparently Don Raul had gotten the call just before me (Isidoro was Don Raul’s Uncle, his 83 year old dad’s bro). For a quick deal on the bells here, to save you the Catholic aside, here usually an hour before Mass, 30 mins, 15 mins, and a minute or two before, the bells are rung all at the same time for a few mins to let everyone know to come. However, when the bells go off slowly, and one at a time, it is a notice that someone has just died, and a petition of prayer. These were the bells that went off just as I got off the phone with Don Mauricio inviting me to his house the next day for the ‘vela’ they call it, ‘wake’ I thing would be the appropriate translation. That night, many of the neighbors came and started the prayers and vigil, and throughout the day they all visited. I left with the Lopez fam that night about 8pm to walk down the ridge to their house. We arrived to I don’t know at least 125 people hanging out all over, and others stuffed in the house singing. I left my camera on purpose, but it would have been a good shot on arrival. As most of their house is in the open, they had the coffin propped up on stilts with flowers around it and four tall candles on the corners with a large crucifix behind the head. The whole time there were two guys alternating reading Scripture, and then they would sing a song. Apparently that had been going on all day. Now thinking about it, it reminds me of the scene in the Brother’s Karamazov, where they stood by the body of their abbot, reading the Gospels for a day after his death. Anyways, they eventually ended with the Our Father and a Hail Mary and then the fam served everyone donuts and coffee. Hah, weren’t expecting that were you! Hey prayers are expensive! Haha.

Lowering the guy down.

Down in the hole.

Anyways, I offered the next morning to help did the hole, but when I got there they had like 7 people and it was already mostly dug (its crowded there in the cemetery… I’ll leave it at that). I checked out the last part and headed up the hill to finish the preps for the embassy today. At 1:30pm, they left from their house about 20 minutes below my house to walk the coffin from there to the parish church. I got to the church just as the 3 musicians did and dallied on the guitar for a sec in the church with them til the coffin got there a few minutes before 3pm. People led prayer until the priest got there and then we did our Mass thing and then loaded the coffin in the truck and walked it through town to the cemetery. There we all helped to maneuver it to the hole, then I took pics at the behest of Don Mauricio. I then watched them fill the hole. There was something powerful about watching an 83 year old younger brother shoveling dirt in the hole of his 93 year old brother. It was a good experience overall, I was surprised by the community aspect of it all, but I’m not sure why, and as well as the fact that it’s a much lighter atmosphere that you will usually find in America.

The Fam afterwards.

The final drum roll.

Oh yeah, so also this day, I got to try some interesting foods. For lunch, Nina Delfina, in the house where I do internet, made me a juice drink and wouldn’t tell me what was in it. She made me guess, and I guessed oranges and cream. Wrong. Orange juice and raw eggs. Yummmmy. They got a kick out of my face after being told. It actually wasn’t bad, it tasted like an orange creamsicle. And later for dinner, I ate with the Padre and his people, and we had iguana eggs and meat. You had to bite the tip off and then suck out the inner part, that actually wasn’t bad either.


Well, I just realized that somehow I deleted all of what I had originally written for the rest of this entry. I went to post it today and saw that I was missing the whole embassy part. Wonderful. So now you get the abbreviated version.


Continuing, after the food deal, I went that evening to drop off the last of the stuff for the embassy in the rectory and walked into a doctrinal formation class that Tino was giving to all the leaders of the community catechesis groups…small assemblies I think they call them. I tried to just chill in the back when I came around the corner, but I got called to the front of course, and had to sit in the front pew and listen to the end of the talk. They held nothing back on the padre, man. One lady would throw out a couple verses to get her point across, then Tino would temper it with a different verse, and then they would all discuss for a while, and end with ‘thank you padre.’ Haha. Crazy people. It was enjoyable…I might have to go back, they get together once a week I believe. They have also started the doctrinal classes for ages kinder to 15 in the parish. All the kids in the town meet in their assigned places, and each canton meets in their little church on Sundays to give catechesis to the kids. They have a pretty good little system.

Finally, my trip to the embassy. I was up at 3:55am yesterday morning after going to bed at midnight because of translation stuff, only to miss the bus by about 10 seconds haha. So I walked up to the town in time for the 6am Mass, breakfast with Padre Tino, printed some things out at Nina Delfinas, and then we headed out to switch cars with the nuns because someone stole Tino’s license plate, and pick up Sergio, and Dr. Herrera. Although on that note, I met a little old lady that morning that told me that she wakes up at 3 every morning and prays different things until 5 and then she makes her way to the church. I’m not sure why she told me that, but she seemed surprised to see me at a daily sunrise mass (haha, shes right, normally I’m sound asleep).

Our table of honor.

Anyways, Sergio, ex mayor and vice prez of the committee that runs of the reconstruction funds, checked my Spanish on the powerpoint, and then after picking up the Doctor we made the hour trip to San Sal. Padre Tino is a crazy driver! Its that latino blood. I need to learn to drive stick shift better in case Im ever in an emergency here, :) We finally got to the embassy and made it inside an outer parking lot after inspection of our vehicle, and then at a different station after they checked out my computer and took everyone’s cell phones (they forgot mine haha) and we went through the security sensors and met up with our contact inside. I couldn’t help but laugh when she tried to talk to my group in English…I mean…really. I was surprised by some of the lack of Spanish of the personnel, but some were ok. They led us to our table, and we set up some and found some shade. We were actually the smallest scale people there…for example we were there with mostly international organizations like Habitat for Humanity that were trying to get people to come volunteer and things like that. But, we seemed to have a bunch of interest. Oh, by the way, this was a Community Volunteer Fair, so all the families of the embassy were coming by to see what projects they would like to help out on etc. There were quite a few that offered their houses while we were in town…for Peace Corps Volunteers, so I might take some of them up on that at some point.

Think they understand her?

Overall, it went well. We gave out a bunch of Spanish, and more English descriptions of our parish projects… we presented the parish Elderly Home, the parish School, the parish medical clinic, and the reconstruction effort as our main four. We made lots of good contacts, and I hope we gain from it in the future.

Us checking out of the embassy.

I am going to include pics of the projects later...the elderly home, school, clinic, and reconstruction.

The best quote of the day came from a lady on who approaching our table (not seeing me coming back from the side), and looked at my 3 boys standing there smiling said pointed at them confusedly…

“…and which one of you speaks English?”