Kathy's Blog

Medical Assistance

2012-01-25T17:53:00.000-08:00

One service that is provided by the Pastoral House is financial assistance for medicines, special medical tests and exams (CAT, X-Ray, etc.) or even a regular doctor’s consultation for those without the financial resources to handle those.

Why would folks need to pay for a medical consultation when the clinic up the street gives basic consultations for free?

Here is the reality … testimony provided by a woman and her daughter this morning:

Margarite and her mom ... I did not ask her to lift her shirt and I apologized profusely for being so intrusive of her privacy - Blanca explained that she could be helping someone in the future - perhaps her story will move people to help.

Margarite had a hernia that needed surgery. She and her mom came to the house today asking for assistance for the post-operative medicine she needs – we helped out with that …

Margarite’s history: she had gotten a referral from the clinic here in Berlín to be seen at the little hospital in Santiago de María (25 minutes up and then down the road). The hernia was apparently bad enough that it needed surgery. She had that scheduled and then done.

As she tells it: she was given too much anesthesia and woke up vomiting and with a severe headache. Her neck had been in a hyper extended position (she demonstrated from her standing position with her chin pointed at the ceiling).

They sent her home after the vomiting subsided. The vomiting returned and the headache never went away. She went to the clinic here in Berlín looking for relief. She waited several hours to be seen and ultimately was never attended to. So she went to a private doctor, who after a cursory look and simple questions, prescribed acetaminophen. She was told to go back to the little pharmacy at the clinic where she was told they had none. She had to go to the clinic in Alegría which is a 10 minute bus ride to the next town. So she and her mom took the prescription and went. There she was given 2 (yes … TWO) acetaminophen.

Wonderful health care provided to the folks here.

Not.

Please: for every delegation that comes down … each one of you – please consider going to Costco or Sam’s and buy the huge bottles of Acetaminophen, antihistamine and antacids (like Tums) to donate them to the Pastoral Team. Those things are very expensive here and are weaker in strength to boot. A big bottle could help a lot of people!

When people come to the house with headaches or aches and pains and they need basic OTC medicines – and we happen to have some here, we ‘baggy-up’ 20-30 for them. To me, it speaks volumes that people come to us for medical assistance.

We do have a small health fund that used to be supported by the sales of Blanca’s Bags – but because we only sell them to visiting delegations, those proceeds are very minimal. With the quantity of people who come to the house in need of medical financial aid, those funds dwindle down rapidly.

I wish we had a dollar tree. Better yet … a 20 dollar tree.

"Doliencia"

2012-01-20T12:32:00.000-08:00

Ache is perhaps the better translation for ‘doliente’. According to Google Translate, it means: suffering. I got the word ‘sore’ from how Idalia was describing how she was feeling and how she got her aches and pains. I didn’t bother to look it up. There are so many words that have multiple meanings or in this case … more or less the same meaning.

In the ‘doliente’ blog a couple days ago I spoke of the physical.

Idalia said it can also relate to your heart … like when someone you love dies.

And after yesterday and how I woke up this morning – ache and suffering seem like more appropriate translations.

At about 7:30 a.m. yesterday, we got news that two people had died in an accident on the road between San Francisco and Berlín. This is the main road out to most of the cantons. There was a power line that had lowered substantially. And as it rounded the corner coming down the mountain, the first truck into Berlín from the cantons hit it. And two people got electrocuted.

One of them was one of our young horsemen from when we went to Rio de los Bueyes during the 15 days of rain last October. He had helped us get food relief and a delegation down to the community! I bet he was less than 25 years old.

The other was a woman from San Isidro. I remember her well – when we went door to door with a delegation we met her. She was so friendly, talkative, joking … and as we left she gave us a chicken and mini (“deditos”) bananas. A beautiful woman. She was only 47.

Apparently, they both grabbed onto something metal when the truck stopped after it hit the wire ... and they must have been grounded somehow.

And then, a couple hours after this news, we found out about another death in the community ... an older man who had been sick. He was 74.

So – we planned to visit all three of the families.

Idalia went and bought flowers when we found out that the bodies were released to the families. She, Blanca and Cecilia then created 3 beautiful arrangements using baskets and pots and greenery from around the house. We loaded us and the flowers in the truck.

On the way out of town, we picked up Ivan – the President of the San Isidro Directiva who was helping the families and several others who had been making purchases for the two families (things like the large yellow candles that are placed around the casket for the rosary, cups, sugar, coffee, pan dulce for all the people attending – we had helped out a little for each family - the funds that the Pastoral Team provides helps with these things). We had at least 8 San Isidro people in the back of the truck - several of them family members.

Our first stop was to see Ricardo and his family. This was the saddest visit. Ricardo was weeping. He was so obviously feeling his loss. And their daughter Jeanet was equally distraught. Blanca has a very loving side and had beautiful words that accompanied her hugs and patting. I had already received a message from Lisa (from San Isidro’s partner church in Iowa) sending prayers so I relayed that to them as well.

Inside the house, Teodora's casket was set up. The window in the lid of the casket was open, but she was covered with a sheet. Apparently, they did not/could not make her presentable.

As late as it was getting to be (5 p.m. ish) we only stayed for about 20 minutes. The Rosary would be much later.

We said our good byes and drove down to we visit the family of Santiago. His casket was also set up with candles and flowers. His daughter Candilaria was standing by the casket when we arrived. There were a couple women and some children with her. A couple of young men (grandsons) were finishing up their work for the day so they could get the home ready for their own visitation and rosary later that night.

After about 20 minutes of quiet visiting, we left. We dropped Ivan off at the main road (Santiago lived a ways down one of the smaller roads) and then started the trek to Rio de los Bueyes. The road had been repaired so we could get there on this more direct route. This was the mud road we traveled by horseback back in October – (see blog from October 19, 2011) - it is now well repaired! We called Manuel and told him we had left San Isidro ... and when we got to RdlB about 25 minutes later, they were waiting for us. There was a large truck already full of people and lots of people waiting. Manuel asked if we could carry a few family members since the big truck was full to capacity - we would be traveling to Talpetates. We ended up with at least 18 people in the back of our pickup and by now it was getting dark - and we had 25 minutes to go. It was slow going with all the weight we had - and it was very dusty following the big truck so I lagged behind it quite far - but in spite of that - since this road has lots of tall sugar cane on either side - there is no place for the dust to disburse. I felt badly for the folks in the back ... but no one complained.

We finally got there - the people in the back directed us to the home. There were lots of people there between us and the big truck and those that were already there. The ‘horse community’ of Talpetates and Rio de los Bueyes is pretty tight. I recognized lots of young men from our trek during the rains. There was much sadness. One man in particular stood for a very long time looking into the casket with a little flashlight - this is not considered rude - it is just the custom to look. He was moved to tears several times - but was obviously trying to hold them back - unsuccessfully mostly.

We stayed only about a half hour. We knew we had a long drive back to Berlin in the dark and it isn’t really a good idea to be out and about for three women alone. It is pretty remote between the communities.

But I'm so glad we went. My heart is heavy for all the loss. I think I really ‘get’ that feeling of ‘doliencia’

Thank you for all your prayers for those that suffer.

Words

2012-01-18T20:14:00.000-08:00

I had to laugh this morning. I went down to get a cup of coffee and Idalia and Blanca were at the pila washing clothes. Idalia said something that I didn’t quite catch … there are still (and always will be I suspect) many words I don’t know. So when she said what she said and I didn’t understand I asked her what that one word was. She repeated it for me. Rather loudly she said: ‘doliente’

I laughed out loud – not at her or the word – but it is so common, when someone doesn’t understand a language, when we talk to foreigners to try to help them understand what we are saying, we speak LOUDLY. Not more slowly with more simple language. But LOUDLY.

So I joked with Idalia and thanked her for yelling the word to me so I would understand it better. We both laughed then and continued the conversation about this word … exaggerating our loudness and having a lovely bit of camaraderie.

She explained what it meant and why she was feeling that way. Poor thing.

“Doliente” basically means ‘sore’.

She was gathering firewood (for cooking) like most people in the cantons have to do. This is one of her tasks for her family – probably because she is very STRONG.

She apparently had an extra heavy load yesterday and she strained herself when she loaded them on her head and then again when she dumped them to the ground at her home. Her side hurts her badly she said.

Así es la vida … la gente siempre doliente por su trabajo diario …

Such is life … people are always sore because of their daily work …

This and That

2012-01-18T06:52:00.000-08:00

It has been a busy, busy couple of weeks since I got back. Lots of the busy-ness has been of the organizational variety. And report making … and meeting attendance …

But there have been some cool things thrown in the mix.

This:

We had a brief, one day visit from a youth group from St. Catherines. They are always a delight. Their working partnership is on the other side of the country, but they always make an effort to come up to meet the Pastoral Team, learn about their work and know the Berlín community a little. This visit, we took them out to the coffee farm where the beans for Don Justo Coffee with Dignity are grown and had a wonderful learning experience. Arquímedes was there waiting for us to explain the process from seed to cup. He has gotten quite eloquent over the years: evolving from one word answers to our questions to fully embellished explanations without prompting.

Arquimedes explaining the nursery (center)

Explaining the drying process. Don't worry ... footprints don't hurt the beans!

Trying on a basket!

After this, we came back to the Pastoral House and they spent time listening to the members of the Pastoral Team – a bit of their history, what they do and their motivation for doing what they do. As always, they had good questions.

Their visit was way too brief!

That:

We went out to visit San Isidro – a recently partnered community. The first ‘project’ with their partner church in Iowa was to develop a mini-cooperative. After several lengthy conversations – with all sides throwing out ideas, questions, concerns, hopes … the (very organized) Youth Group decided they would like to learn artisan skills. Some were interested in painting, some jewelry making – both macramé style and wire/bead designs. We had teachers lined up for both of those and they had begun their training the first week of January. We went out mid-way through their trainings to see how things were going. We had heard good reports. When we arrived, there were 7 young people painting in the church and 16 (I think) young men and women busily practicing their macramé skills. When we arrived, they all started pulling their creations out of bags so we could see. There was a big difference between their first efforts and what they are producing now. There were some beautiful pieces!! Julio (the jewelry teacher from Santa Ana) said between them, they have enough to fill a large table. At least ¾ of the items – in my opinion – are sale worthy. And that is something we are going out to talk to them about next.

Texture, subtle color variations ...

A group effort - work in progress on the wall of the church

Blanca checking out the work

Julio said this group learns quickly. Motivation and interest is vital.

Some of the work of just 2 girls! Very cool. Anyone want to shop???

This is their final week of training. Friday will be the “closure” – they are inviting their whole community as well as the Pastoral House folks to see what they’ve accomplished. We are going to ask Fr. Cándido to come with us to bless the group.

We plan to sit with them to reinforce the original concepts of ‘cooperative’ – one common cash box – making sure there are funds to purchase materials for future creations, all working as a group for the common good of the group. There are a couple of adults working closely with the youth to help them and the youth have already formed a Directiva: a president, vice-president, secretary and 2 treasurers (better for transparency to have two people responsible for the funds). They are on their way! And this is an exciting venture which ultimately could be accomplished in other communities with other youth groups or women’s groups.

Organization is key. Cooperation is necessary. Agreement.

SUCH potential!

I would SO not have the patience for this work!!

But I'd be happy to wear them!

Details ... exact work

Cecilia scrutinizing the work. She approved!

Look what SHE has done!

This is 'waxed' thread ... bracelets made with better than the usual materials you can get here

Tamales and Scholarships

2012-01-13T07:13:00.000-08:00

This morning I had a tamale for breakfast and some platanos … not an unusual breakfast at all. But where the food came from is very special.

The platanos came from Blanca’s father’s land. They are always delicious. They make sure we have a supply of them on a regular basis.

The tamales – there is a story about those. I commented to Cecilia that they were very small. Normally they are about 5” long and about 2” around. These were about 4” long and about 1” around. And they were in corn husks and not the ‘normal’ banana leaf wrapping.

I learned they were a gift to us from one of the mothers of one of our scholarship recipients yesterday. It was a way for her to express her gratitude. And she is one who definitely would not be able to enroll her son in school without some help. She sells tamales here in Berlín. She is a single mom with 2 in high school and one in the middle school. The kids work in the fields to earn a little pay. They work hard to be able to survive and to be able to go to school. The tamales may seem like a humble gift – but to me it was a huge gift.

We had 45 students and about 60 parents here yesterday for our beginning of the year meeting. The chapel was full and there were probably 20 people sitting and standing outside the door listening. The third year parents and students were invited to hang out in the kitchen area since they knew the process and all. This made room for our new families.

Cecilia getting ready to take 'roll-call'

Blanca talking about roles and responsibilities

Balmore explaining the funds, from where they come and the sacrifices we
ALL make to be able to send our children to school

Blanca reviewing the lists

Standing room only!! the people sitting and listeing in from outside the chapel door.

I explained a little of what we talk about in that meeting in my last blog so I don’t need to repeat it all here … maybe just a little embellishment … We talked a lot about the responsibilities of all of us. And we tried to explain that it is from the efforts of lots of people in the States that we are able to provide this financial help to the families … that we know it doesn’t cover all their expenses – but it is a help. Several parents spoke up at this point expressing gratitude for the help because it is big. And without this support they aren’t sure how their children could continue studying. And it isn’t just our responsibility (the Pastoral House) to help their students be able to attend school – but also the responsibility and sometime the sacrifice of the family to help it be a reality. There were beautiful words spoken.

After the meeting which lasted about an hour, we started the process of handing out the first “cuota” or payout. The partner churches that have scholarships provide $100 per year to the family which is given in two payouts. (One partner church gives $150 in 3 payouts). We give the first $50 at the beginning of the year to help buy the uniform and shoes and some school supplies. Then again in July, halfway through the year, the families get the other half. This second payout can help replace worn out shoes or buy more school supplies.

Prior to the second payout we will have received grade reports for 2 periods. And I always ask for some sort of written message from the students to share with their partner churches or the individuals who help support our general education fund. We have 27 students who are being supported by 4 different Iowa churches and 33 students who are being supported by random individuals committed to education.

We have students from San Francisco, Las Delicias, El Tablón and Virginia (partnered communities). We have students from Loma Alta, San Lorenzo, Alejandria, and a few students from here in town (general funds).

I took photos of each student – that is included in the folders I keep which hold their solicitude (application), most current grade reports, letters of gratitude and any other information pertinent to the effort.

Now I get to make a report to each of the partner churches as well as the donors (that I know about) of the general education funds. I will include the student’s pictures so everyone can see that there truly are young people who will be able to go to high school because of their generosity.

My tamale tasted wonderful this morning.

Below are a few of our students ...

Bessy

Zulma

Oscar

Maritza

Marvin (son of the tamale woman!!)

Aida

Boris

A New Year

2012-01-11T16:35:00.000-08:00

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written … I debated making a New Year’s resolution to be better about that this year – but …

I could think back about the many cool, interesting, frustrating, maddening, joyful (etc.) things that have happened in the last few months – but I think I will begin with the present. Time permitting (and motivation doing its job) I could little by little think back and perhaps spot-light some of last year’s highlights.

So I’ll start the new year with this week.

I got back from Iowa and into Berlín on the 6^th and as normal, I hit the ground running. I spent about 5 hours that afternoon chatting with Blanca and Cecilia about all that had been going on while I was gone: some things important, some not. We spent good time catching up on all the news here in El Salvador and in Iowa.

We also had a big Pastoral Team meeting the very next day to ‘plan the year.’ We don’t literally plot out the whole year on a calendar. We discuss what our focus might be. We evaluate the good and bad from the prior year and from that we decide what we could change to make things better. Everyone shares their thoughts and ideas and I was able to give some input from our Compañeros volunteer group. With all that – we think we know where we’re going.

In a nutshell: we want to help the church/community partnerships evolve and grow. Those that have been in partnership for years will hopefully have more communication – listening as well as opining and suggesting ideas from all sides.

We also want to focus more on self-development within the communities. It is beautiful to give a gift (a new church, a community house, a new fence for this or that, etc.) – but we would like to take advantage of all the different trainings and workshops that are being provided by NGO’s like InterVida, ProComes and ProVida. We want to encourage groups to form, become organized and begin to think about how they can put into practice what they have learned. And if they can organize themselves – to then present a solicitude to their partner church to perhaps support them with some start-up materials – which is the biggest hurdle. The idea is – if they can start up – they can produce goods to sell and become self-sustaining in time. Mini-cooperatives.

Now to be very clear – the gift of fertilizer that many Iowa churches provide to the farmers in their communities is still vitally important!! Yes it is a ‘gift’ – but it is also an investment for a family’s well-being. The rural families are all subsistence farmers – and if they do not produce sufficient crop, whole families suffer. Ideally a farmer will harvest enough for his family to consume all year with some left over to sell for the things they cannot grow. Fertilizer use on this badly depleted and mountainous land can provide from one third to potentially double the crop. Obviously – climate is a huge un-controllable contributor to how much a field will yield. But the farmers do see a large difference in crop out-put when they have fertilizer – even when – or maybe even especially – when the climate does not cooperate. Families for the most part cannot afford the $50-$75 bags of fertilizer. Many take out loans and go into debt. So even if a church can help each farmer with one sack per family - it is a great help. And the farmers are doing their part to respect the gift by working diligently in their farms.

The last couple of days I’ve also been working on organizing all our solicitudes for high school scholarships. Most of the communities who have an Iowa church partner provide scholarship help to the youth in their community. It might be only 2 students – it could be 9. And then we, as a Pastoral House, support many students who come from communities without a partnership. We are able to do this thanks to some very generous donors in Iowa!! This year we have a total of 54 high school students who are receiving scholarship help. Of those 54 students – 25 of them are not from a community with a partner church. The scholarship does not cover ALL their expenses, but provides relief to the struggling families to enable their teens to continue going to school.

We have our big meeting with the students and their parents tomorrow morning. We explain the roles and responsibilities of all of us. Obviously the students need to put efforts in their studies and bring us their grade reports each period and I ask for a ‘thank you’ letter at least once during the year. Parents need to encourage and expect their students to attend to their studies. We provide the funds and encouragement. We also have a typewriter here and many research materials they can use … our students are invited to take advantage of the few things we have to help them in their work. And the cool thing is … many do!! I love it when I come downstairs and see the teens typing away … or huddled over an encyclopedia (thank you Mike for buying us a Spanish set of encyclopedias!!). And the students sometimes come and ask for help with their English homework.

It’s been a busy few days!

brrrrr

2011-11-29T05:32:00.000-08:00

'El Norte' is here. The strong-ish winds coming from the north blowing it's cold across the country. It's cold. I slept with socks on last night - and my jacket. Under 3 layers of blanket. I had a hard time crawling out of bed into the cold morning.

"Pobresita la gente dormiendo en la calle" Cecilia says to me this morning when I jokingly shivered while I walked by her on my way to get a cup of hot coffee.

That put me in my place.
Dang.

Lord help me to never forget the "poor people sleeping on the street"

Not my normal blog ...

2011-11-28T06:19:00.000-08:00

I don’t understand so many things. I’m not talking academics. Although admittedly I’m on the low end of that spectrum as well.

When I have free minutes I try to find out what is going on in the world. And the latest deaths in Pakistan near the Afghanistan border just makes me sad. I grieve for them.

There is so much I just don’t understand. Of course I can read about what physically happened. Who did what and when and to whom and the ‘why’ and the blame is on this one or that one and they are evil and they are … Good Lord.

In my heart I don’t understand. Why do we fight and kill in the name of God or religion? Why do we fight or kill in the name of political ideologies? Why do we fight and kill for power? Why do we fight and kill for ‘what is right’ … and who is to say what IS right????

I have been blessed with a very … shall we say … eclectic extended family. I have a Catholic sister (I’m Presbyterian), I have a Muslim brother-in-law, niece and nephews. I have sons who have explored a variety of faiths, Buddhist nephews and nieces, and Jewish ex-laws. There is probably more variety in that mix that I don’t even know about. We are Irish, French, Korean, Italian, Pakistani, Philipino, Vietnamese, German/Hungarian/Austrian, and even a wee bit of Native American. And again – there is probably even more variety than I am aware. God only knows where our political ideologies are! I could make some guesses – but you know what? I don’t care. It isn’t important. I love them all. In spite of – or maybe even in part, because of – all our differences.

Granted, I’m talking family. But let’s include neighbors. Again – there is a huge variety.

Well –not so much here in El Salvador, you are either Catholic or ‘Evangelical’ (or with no faith) and you logistically belong to one of the 4 major political parties … everyone is pretty much Salvadoran so there are no ‘race’ issues here. But even with those few variables – there is quite a bit of rivalry, hatred and even some violence.

I understand not agreeing with something. There are many things I object to, don’t agree with, and don’t fully understand (etc.) either regarding our diverse faiths, politics, life-style or whatever. But who am I to judge other’s beliefs? Who am I to try to change them? Who am I to KILL them?

Good Lord.

This is a big planet – but a small world. And the world is getting smaller.

Our commonality is our humanity.
Where does all that hatred start?

It’s become a cliché and almost a joke … buy why CAN’T we all just get along?

One Would Think ...

2011-11-22T06:58:00.000-08:00

One would think … after nearly 3 full years of living here – with an additional 7 months prior living here as a ‘temp’ - that I would feel more integrated. More a part of the culture. More at home.

Don’t get me wrong – I am well loved here. I am welcomed and embraced in the communities and especially here at the Pastoral House.

But.

Still, everyday I’m learning cultural nuances – some large, some very subtle - that remind me that I grew up with a different mind-set. My whole life revolved around a totally different set of experiences and expectations.

In some ways humans are all the same. We all love, find joy, sadness, guilt, hurt, anger, have faith (or not), get jealous, are capable of being hurtful, love, treasure friendship, - I could go on.

But.

How we express or how we cope or deal with all those human emotions and activities can be so distinct.

And sometimes things that I feel are not important – are hugely important here.

This isn’t to say that ‘my’ way of thinking is better – or worse. It’s just different. We are a product of the realities of our own situations: our own social norms, our own political culture, our own value systems, etc.

Sometimes I get impatient and think ‘why is this such a big deal?’ … ‘Why can’t we just do it this way?’

But then I have to rein myself in.

I am a foreigner here still. And truthfully … I always will be.

Rio de los Bueyes

2011-11-19T08:20:00.000-08:00

I just spent some time reading Alisha’s blog about our day in Rio de los Bueyes – listening to the testimonies of several people who lived the civil war - and who are still here to talk about it.

She did a beautiful job of capturing their testimonies so I won’t repeat it here – go to her blog:

http://alilorraine.blogspot.com/

Incredible.

Thank you Alisha.

2 videos ...

2011-11-18T14:38:00.000-08:00

A sampling of a bumpy ride out to a canton - perspective from the back of the truck. And this is a GOOD road!!!

Tortillas - the staple food of the Salvadoran people. It is not the very thin Mexican tortilla but a 1/4 inch thick, beautifully rounded disc that has substance. It is eaten at every meal. If there are no tortillas, then the meal is not complete. You can eat them plain with a little salt ... use them as a utensil with your meal - scooping your food with it. You can put cheese on them or in them. Normally they are eaten warm and fresh off the comal (the round cooking surface you see in the video) or toasted over a burner on the stove. One of my favorite meals is a tortilla with a 2" hole cut out of the middle - in a frying pan with a thin layer of hot oil, place the tortilla down and break an egg into it. It looks a little like a flying saucer. It is yummy! Another favorite meal of mine is a tortilla cut in half ... then slice it open like a pita and stuff it with some cheese and fry it up in a thicker layer of oil. (This is not to be confused with a cheese pupusa!)

As you can see - they take a while to make. You use the old stone method to make the masa (dough) the proper consistency. It is time consuming. And hot work. And requires some skill to make a beautiful rounded tortilla.

Watch their hands. It is a talent!!

Getting to know you …

2011-11-18T13:36:00.000-08:00

It’s been a very busy couple of weeks. We hosted a delegation of 5 people from Dallas Center for a week and since they left on the 15^th, I’ve been catching up and attending to different obligations and activities.

One highlight of our delegation week:

A thing I particularly enjoy doing is going to our partner churches communities. And as tiring and exhausting as it can be, I LOVE to go walking door to door to talk to the people. It is a great way to get to know the community a little better - this time we asked questions about what grade their children were in (which is always interesting to see a 17 year old in 4^th grade). We also asked if the land on which they had their home theirs or rented or if they were caretakers. Then we asked about their farmland: owned or rented and how much land they had.

Some delegates worry about being rude but no one finds these types of questions intrusive. People here like to talk about their lives. And when the North Americans come and actually take the time and make the effort to walk in those extreme conditions of heat and sun, dust and dirt, steep hills up and down, rocky, slippy, narrow paths and needing to dodge all manner of large animal pooh – as well as the animals themselves (dogs, cats, turkeys, chickens, ducks, cows, horses and pigs) well – suffice it to say – folks here really appreciate the efforts made by their Iowa family members!

We don’t get to stay as long as we’d like – but in every home we are welcomed in. And whoever is there – man, woman or child - they try to find a place for some of us to sit be it a worn out and holey hammock, a very tired plastic chair, a tree stump or humble wooden plank bench. We are hugged and told ‘pase adelante’ (come on in). We step onto their dirt floors, look THROUGH their walls to the outside, breathe in the oppressive smoke from their cooking fires, try not to trip over the chickens running under foot and smile and talk and love each other.

The best thing is that not only the delegates get to put a face on their Salvadoran family – but the Salvadoran gets to put a face on their new Iowa family. It makes the partnership real. It builds a beautiful connection. Everyone can now say a prayer for and think about each other with a face in mind.

So our 5 delegates walked to 119 homes in 3 days – also taking the time to meet with the Directiva (the town council) and share a Celebration of the Word. What a blessed week.

Virginia home

A beautiful family in Virginia

A steep entry to a home site

Ahi no masito!!! (not far now!!) hahahaha

Making a 20 point turnaround with lots of 'helpers' STOP!!!!

Blanca and Kathy

Walking by the unpredictable horses and cows

and pigs ...

This is what it's all about! Maria and friend

And what beauty!

No Maria ... you can't take her home!

I think C.J. is in love!

Blind and very emotional about our visit!

New friends

And I can never resist holding a baby

Lots of walking

... and walking

and walking with a helpful hand

and climbing

through the crops

but worth the walk

Tortilla making

peeking in at the visitors

TWINS! Thanks for coming to the rescue Mitch

Absolute beauty

Very humble home

obstacle courses

Each family received a new hammock!

Shelling red beans

Don't mess with these big boys

17 days old

The Twins

Cecilia either tapping for me to go ... or to stop.

And some people ask why we are here!!

I'm always learning ... never make assumptions ...

2011-11-07T17:38:00.000-08:00

Paperclips

I had a 5 year old visitor yesterday … he saw a paperclip on my desk and asked me what it was. He had no idea what it was. We spent some quality time playing and experimenting what could be done with those clever little items. … He really enjoyed clipping papers together.

I also showed him how to make a chain. I think I will put a bunch in a baggie to give him to take home. I do have a relatively good quantity in my colorful bucket ‘o’ clips. I could spare a few.

Watercolor trays

I walked into the kitchen this afternoon and Blanca was painting corn husks so she could make flowers. She had a water color try (the kind you buy for your kindergartener at the beginning of the school year). This must have been leftover from a delegation.

She had broken off a small chunk of one of the colors and put it in about a cup of water to mix. It wasn’t doing a very good job of painting the corn husks.

I had to show her (an almost 50 year old) how to get the tip of the brush wet and merely skim the top of the chosen color. And viola … it’s almost real paint!

“AAHHH” she says.

Oh… and then I had to tell her to clean the brush in between using the different colors so as to not dirty each one…

There are so many little things we take for granted that EVERYONE knows …

Reality check: not so.

Oskar's Visit

2011-10-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

Cecilia spent the night with her family last night and Blanca and Idalia went to the 6 a.m. mass this morning - leaving me alone from about 5:45 a.m. till 7:15 or so (well – not totally alone – Alisha was here but she was still asleep). I didn’t realize I was home alone till the newspaper man who loudly announces his approach with the song: ‘El Diario … El Diario de Hoy’ had to ring the doorbell twice and I had to go running down to get the paper and pay him.

I love that man. (Don’t be worried Mike haha). He is about 300 years old, a bit stooped and is ever faithful. I miss him when he has a cold and cannot sing his approach. He always has a sweet smile when I see him.

Most of my alone time was quiet – so I typed an email regarding our water filter monitoring, and then began to read past sermons from Heartland Presbyterian (Thank you Mark for posting them) while sipping my coffee.

Ah – but then the doorbell rang again. I ran down the stairs again and opened the little sliding door to see who it was before I opened the door – and there stood Oskar from Santa Cruz. He often visits us here at the Pastoral House on a Sunday morning. He is in town for church and he enjoys talking to Blanca and Cecilia and Balmore. It is almost a tradition. He sometimes sits and chats for more than an hour.

So today, I invited him in – it was almost time for Blanca and Idalia to return. He had in his hands a big bunch of beans freshly harvested. It is a gift for the Pastoral House. The immediate thought running through my head was: “Good grief! People have lost crops due to the rains! Surely you have, too! And here you are bringing one of your first harvested bunches as a gift to us!!” I wanted to cry. I cannot say no to the beans – that would be extremely ungrateful and disrespectful of me. But I can inquire about how his family situation is! I asked him about his crops and how they fared. He said he lost about 50% of his bean crop: mostly those in the lower areas of his fields. He said he would have lost more but the beans we gave them were really good. He said they grew fast but not too tall and that they quickly flowered and produced well. So in reality, he could have lost even more. Not only the weather, but also the way the plants grow – and the different varieties of plants that are planted can effect a crop. Apparently, the tops of the plants are susceptible to different weather elements so if a variety of bean grows really tall – it is more vulnerable.

And he said the bean seeds we gave were a good variety. So he said they won’t have much to sell if any – he plans to set aside beans for next year’s planting season in May (there are two bean planting seasons) and they will have enough to eat for most of the year. He and his family will be fine. He talked about those who lost not only their crops but their homes. And he is aware of the fact that he has his family and they are safe. And they still have their little house and they will be fine. And they will have enough beans to eat.

I am constantly reminded of the beauty of God. And that beauty is so evident in the hearts of people such as Oskar.

First fruits

Photos of Rio de los Bueyes

2011-10-20T06:10:00.000-07:00

Making food packets with the delegation

Everyone out while we hoe up dry road to get beyond the slippy part!

We needed to walk a bit behind the truck

Greeted by horses and their owners! What a great surprise!

Weldon helping out

Blanca, Idalia and Mauricio

Loading the food bags into larger bags

Loading bags for the horses

Ready for the horse

Easier to carry the boxes in sacks for the horses

Packets ready to load onto the horses

Securing the packets

Teri is a natural on the horse

Marie looks mighty fine atop that steed.

Even I got to ride! What luck!

MY view - Manuel was my chauffer for the trip down

These men walked so we could ride. NICE people

Members of the Civil Protection Committee were provided slickers and boots

Everyone pitches in when they can

This wasn't even the worst of it ... for those parts I was holding on for dear life!!

A long way down to Rio de los Bueyes

Almost there ... the walkers were TIRED and a mess

At the school

Planning how to proceed

Kathy and Blanca

Adding the oil to the bags

Directiva president addressing the crowd

Listening and waiting

Directiva President thanking the Team and the delegation

Blanca addressing the crowd

Everyone listening

Me having a good cuddle

Avoiding puddles

With her family's packet

Looking on as others receive their packets

The fingerprint signature

The Directiva helping out

Skirting the muddiest areas to leave the school grounds

Here is is dad ...

We're grateful for the Directiva's work!

Many fingerprint signatures - using the pen to ink the finger

Waiting patiently for her family

Add caption

Waiting for mom

This woman was SO beautiful

A contagious smile

Patient and kind hearted delegates!!

Trying to stay mud free

Helping mom

Whoops. I stepped in a mud puddle

Idalia accepting the ride back up the road

No words for this cutie!!

Weldon walked down - but gonna ride up!!

Blanca's very FIRST ever ride on a horse. She was scared. But not anymore!

Elmer (Cecilia's son) had come along to help and learn about his mom's work

My chauffer for the ride up - but about halfway up he let go of my rope!!

A lovely road. We all felt very bad for our 'chauffers'

Kindly horse-men

Taking a breather before they head back down

Friendly and helpful horse-men

Manuel - a GREAT voice for his community!

Saying good-bye to us!

Those birds when in this quantity mean that the rains are going to let up for a while.
We can hope.

But ... the next day it did rain ALL day again. The delegation had to cancel their visit to their partner community. But this day's experience was priceless.

Rio de los Bueyes Assistance

2011-10-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

In response to multiple phone calls from the Directiva and a personal visit from someone from the community, we made a decision to put together some food packs to bring down to the 68 families in Rio de los Bueyes (RdlB) – many who had been evacuated to the school. Because of their location in the lowlands, much of their community is underwater. They are close to the Lempa River so between the almost 40” of rain that has fallen in the last 9 days and the releasing of ridiculous amounts of water from the ‘15 de septiembre’ dam, they have been inundated. We were told that the sugar cane in the fields next to their community were under water. The cane was over 8 feet tall and located on the side of the roads leading into the community. No one could get to their work in the fields for the past week and a half. For a people who live from week to week – working all week to be able to buy the basic things they need to eat, this means they are without funds to buy food for their families. In addition, they had become very isolated and cut off from the nearest area to make food purchases due to the feet of water on their ‘main’ roads. Getting to Berlín the ‘back’ way requires about a 4-5 hour walk or a 2 ½ hour horse ride. There is transportation that can go from San Isidro (about an hour and a half walk up the road) but that would involve money. And even $1 to pay to get to Berlín and then $1 to get back is beyond the reach of many at this point.

The decision had been made to cancel our current delegation’s visit to El Mozote due to the dangers of traveling such great distances in this weather. So yesterday when we woke up, the Team had already made a phone call and arranged the purchase of rice, sugar, coffee, spaghetti, soup, cheese and oil. This was delivered to us by about 8:30. While we waited for the groceries, we bagged up some beans that we had left over from our bean give-away.

Our visiting delegation also helped re-bag rice into 2# bags and filled the big garbage bags with all the goodies. Raul and his father Antonio came in their KIA (a larger truck) and we loaded up and made the trek out to San Isidro. We knew the roads were passable to that point so decided we would go as far as we could and then walk from there down to Rio de los Bueyes.

I was personally worried about how we were going to get the food bags down to the community if we were walking. Each bag weighed at least 15 pounds. There were 11 of us on this trip out. Even each of us taking 4 bags each (which honestly, on that walk, we never could have achieved that feat!). After 20 minutes, 10# feels like 50#.

I was told that some people from RdlB were going to meet us and help carry. Thank goodness!

The ride out was wet. We got rained or drizzled on almost the entire way. It took well over an hour – normally it is about a 50 minute ride to San Isidro. When we got as far as we could, on the road ahead of us were a few men and several horses! It was a beautiful sight. They all had big feed plastic sacks. They were able to put 4 of our sacks in each of those. And each horse took 2 of those big sacks. Nice. As the men were doing that, and we were all taking photos, even more horses came. This enabled some of us to have a ride down the more than 2 mile distance in the mud. (Weldon, one of the delegates had a pedometer and he knows how to interpret it! He made that estimate based upon the kind of steps he was taking with the conditions he had).

The Pastoral Team did not want to ride (a fear of horses) and two of the delegates chose to walk. Those that rode were led by the horse’s owners. What a muddy mess. It rained or drizzled about half the trip. It took about an hour and a half for all of us to get to the school in town. People were waiting at the school for us. The president of the Directiva spoke in gratitude for the efforts made by the delegation and the Pastoral Team who is always keeping an eye on the situation and always has concern for the people in the communities. They not only have concern, but actually act. They recognized the sacrifice and effort it took to even just arrive to their community. Much gratitude was expressed. Blanca spoke briefly – also expressing gratitude for the willingness of the delegation to make the effort. It was a difficult trip: messy, cold, wet, long, uncomfortable and tiring. She joked that we would all be feeling it in the morning! Then they started distributing. The Directiva had the list of heads of households of each family in the community that people would sign. The Directiva took the opportunity to ask everyone to write down the number of people in their families and add those born within the last few months so they could be updated in their census.

Then the names began to be called in the usual manner. The Pastoral Team had brought some bread, crackers and pop. It was already 1:30 and no one had had lunch. This snack served as lunch.

We took a little break then went back to the activities to take photos and to be with the people in the community.

At the beginning, the Directiva had asked the horse men to please come back to bring us all back to the truck. We didn’t need all the horses (many of whom had been ‘borrowed’ from Corozal people) and God bless them, enough horses came to give us rides back up. It would have taken over 2 ½ hours to walk UP. It took about an hour on horseback.

We made the wet trip back to Berlín safely … albeit wet, muddy, tired and achy. And yes. As Blanca predicted, we are feeling it a bit this morning. But it was worth every effort.

The average rainfall in October is 23 inches. Between Monday, October 10^th and Tuesday October 18^th we had about 31 inches here in the Berlín area and nearly 50” overall in El Salvador. This is a greater quantity than when Hurricane Mitch hit. And it has been raining pretty much non-stop since then. (It is now about 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon).

5 days and working on 6

2011-10-15T07:17:00.000-07:00

Yes it is still raining. We have moments of reprieve but not enough. 3 or 4 hours on Thursday we were rain free and about the same yesterday. Otherwise, it has been pretty much steady rain.

We're watching the news a lot - lamenting the sadnesses of people who have lost their homes (such as they were) and their possessions (such as they were). There are images of people in temporary shelters such as schools and churches. Thin mattresses laid out on the floor, people looking mighty sad and worried.

It's a helpless feeling I imagine.

I can't imagine what they must be thinking - how they will be able to go back and face their situation after the rains stop and the waters eventually recede. Cecilia and I were watching the news - seeing the villages inundated with water, the fields, the people and animals wading thru waist high water. Homes that have collapsed walls (yesterday a collapsed bedroom wall killed a 16 year old boy).

Evenually people will go back to their homes to try to rebuild their lives.

Here in Berlin, so far, we seem to be relatively ok. No grand disasters - just the smallish ones. Not small really - perhaps 'individual' disasters might be a better way to describe it. Most communities have been without power - in and of itself is not TOO big of a deal - they've only had electricity for a year or so. But the wet and mess, the fear of loss of their crops (corn, beans and coffee), the damage to homes and roads, being cut off from town. Those are big individual types of disasters. We could have way bigger issues - we all know that!

We're most concerned about the people in the lower areas of Berlin such as Rio de los Bueyes ... they often get flooded from the Lempa River. We can't reach anyone - but - if there is no power, you cannot charge your phone and the cell phones often don't have signal when there is a loss of power. So we pray for them and await word from word of mouth.

This morning I have to go to San Salvador to fetch a delegation. I had a stroke of luck (I personally think it's more of a guardian angel) because Alfredo - the man we hire to drive delegations from here to there - said he had to bring another group to Santiago de Maria which is down the road from us. He said he would swing by on his return and take me to San Salvador. So I don't have to travel by bus or to drive personally. I'm very grateful for that. Alfredo has the kind of driving experience that is invaluable. Especially with all these rains - who knows what any road will look like at any given moment. No offense bus drivers - but I'd rather be in a smallish microbus with someone I know driving - than a huge bus with drivers who like to fly.

This delegation is going to get an eyeful this week.

Derumbes y Deslaves

2011-10-12T19:42:00.000-07:00

So – I was obsessing about the children getting wet in the last blog. Now, after over 36 hours of almost constant rain, there are bigger issues to deal with …

Other than personal ‘inconveniences’ like being continually cold and damp, there are three really big things to worry about: landslides, flash floods and rivers over-flowing their banks.

Living in the mountains in a country that has been greatly deforested, landslides are an obvious concern. In 2007, the whole community of Brisas del Sol was basically destroyed and 4 people were killed - one person was washed about 5 kilometers down the ravine.

With the earth saturated, there are many areas that are potentially in a path of a landslide. There are always plenty of ‘mini’ landslides along the roadsides: covering the roads with mud, rock and plant debris. Often during a rain such as we have now, vehicles don’t bother to even try to go in or out of the cantons. The fear is a larger collapse and sliding of the hills around us.

You wouldn’t necessarily consider flash flooding to be an issue in an area that is as elevated as we are. But there are lots of lower areas – communities or homes/neighborhoods either below or near ravines. And when it rains here, these ravines as well as most of our streets flood incredibly.

These bigger dangers are what occupy many people’s minds at the same time they are dodging raindrops within their own homes. Not everybody certainly, but a great number of families live in homes that seriously lack ‘tightness’ in their construction.

We are technically in “orange alert” status. We have the police patrolling the streets – especially last night when we were without electricity. The Commandos and Civil Protection committees are also at the ready. Schools in the department of Usulután (where Berlín is located) as well as many coastal areas have been suspended until the rains subside.

We lost power at about 3 p.m. on Tuesday. And it finally came back about 4 p.m. Wednesday. For us the temporary lack of power is no real tragedy. We cook with propane, so we can cook and therefore eat. We normally have very little in the refrigerator and freezer so we don’t lose too many foodstuffs. The biggest inconvenience is that we can’t communicate via internet. And our phones worked only sporadically. Apparently I could send texts, but no texts came into my phone in response. I felt a bit cut off from the world!

We spent a lot of that unconnected 24 hours talking, reading and working the ‘Last Supper’ jigsaw puzzle that C.J. gave us last year. It was like a mini vacation (if you could take away nagging fears).

The talking part was good. Blanca reminded me that La Geo (the Geothermal plant) takes advantage of all this rain to clean out their equipment – and letting the polluted (BADLY polluted) waters flow down the hills. This is a manner to mask this task. But no one is fooled. And people suffer from this.

She also told us that it is particularly dangerous to be out on the streets when there is no electricity at night – the thieves come out.

Then there is the hydro-electric dam on the Rio Lempa: “At 1:00 this afternoon the September 15^th dam began discharging water at a rate of 2300 cubic meters per second, just under the 2500 cm/sec the regions levee system can stand. At 4:00 pm the dam began releasing at 3500 cm/sec, and they increased it 5:00 pm 4000 cm/sec” (from the blog: Voices of El Salvador dated Oct. 12, 2011). This discharging of water inundates the coastal areas with even more waters – displacing families and destroying livestock and crops.

Blanca also reminded me of our visit to Rio los Bueyes last year – many people had fish drying on their roofs. This was because the Lempa River overflowed its banks in a big way and flooded fields and homes. And nearly everyone ‘benefitted’ by being the recipients of river fish which then were left behind as the waters receded. I have a feeling there will be more ‘meals in the fields’ soon …

Pray for an easing of the rains. Pray for the safety of those at risk (of any natural disaster anywhere in the world). Pray.

Raining Buckets

2011-10-11T07:41:00.000-07:00

I know I’ve talked about this before and in the grand scheme of things it is a little thing. It is something we North Americans (for the most part) think about differently. Even I do sometimes after all this time.

I had fallen asleep to rain on the roof. I woke up sporadically throughout the night hearing that rain – thinking what a lovely sound to be sleeping to… and then I woke up to begin the day with the rain still pouring.

This isn’t TOO unusual. We are in the rainy season after all. And October and the beginning of November can be particularly relentless. So I’m not sure why this morning I’m ‘obsessing’ about children and youth walking into town from the cantons to get to school.

Mauricio, Elmer and Marvin (Cecilia’s brother and 2 sons) were the first thing on my mind this morning upon wakeup. I’m thinking they will be SOAKED by the time they get here at 6:15. I’m thinking about those poor boys who every day swing by the Pastoral House after their half hour walk UP the path from Alejandria to change into their uniforms which Cecilia has washed and ironed the day before. These poor boys will be SOAKED. I knew they would not be able to cross the flooded and rushing river which splits their little village to get to the main road to catch the bus. The bus probably isn’t even running this morning because it cannot climb the slick, muddy and sometimes steep roads to town. I’ve driven that road in the rain and it literally becomes a rushing river in many places, mucky mud and deep pot holes in others and slick cobble in others.

I knew the boys would have to walk the more direct path – which is narrow, muddy, steep and mostly through a coffee finca. I’m thinking that maybe they won’t come today …

Wrong. Right on schedule – they showed up: Mauricio with an umbrella and his jeans rolled up and wearing his cheap sneakers to get here. Elmer arrived in a cheap thin yellow poncho that only went down to the waist so his pants and shoes were saturated. Marvin didn’t come (the youngest).

Dedication and commitment.

I remember years ago, living only 4 blocks from Indian Hills Jr. High school. I would drive my boys to school when it rained. And even before that, when my sons were in elementary school, they rode the bus. When it rained, I would drive them the half block to the corner and invite all the kids waiting at the bus stop to pile inside the van to wait for that bus.

And here, so many children have to walk a very long distance to attend school. Rain or shine, mud or dust.

And I’m pretty sure many of those same children were not thinking about the lovely sound of the rain as they slept last night – more likely they were trying to stay dry in their beds below their leaky roofs.

Final Bean Delivery Report for Compañeros and friends

2011-09-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

Corozal

Corozal - way too cute!!

Santa Cruz

Casa de Zacate

Rio de los Bueyes

September 14, 2011

What a time it has been! We delivered the last of the beans to Colón and Las Delicias on Tuesday the 13^th of September. From here we are preparing the final financial reports and the data from all the deliveries. I will share in this general report the data – but not the financial information for each partner church. They will get that information privately. But there is still a lot I can share. I will give you the bottom line numbers – they amazed me. Due to the generosity of many – many families are planting right now!

San Francisco	65
El Recreo	78
Casa de Zinc	13
Casa de Zacate	23
Virginia	108
Muñoces	38
San Isidro	48
Tablón Centro	85
Tablón Cerna	44
San Felipe Arriba	18
Corozal	59
Delicias	35
La Llanes	16
San Felipe Pajuilar	44
El Guarumo	8
La Mediagua	38
San Lorenzo	13
El Jicaro (mujeres)	20
Alejandria	30
Santa Cruz	41
Las Perlitas (Grupo de mujeres)	10
Colón	60
Varios	20
Rio los Bueyes	56

This list has the names of each community or group receiving the beans.

This also lists the number of families who received a bean packet.

Not everyone received the same quantity of beans: it depended upon the funds that arrived, the quantity of families in each community and/or the average size of the land people have to work with in their community.

Here is a summary:

24 Communities/groups served

970 Families received beans from this effort

28,000 pounds of beans were purchased
91 cents per pound for the beans is $25,480

$1 per 100 pounds for transportation is $280
Equals a grand total of $25,760.00

Partner churches had funds in their accounts here and/or sent funds for this effort.
Many individuals and un-partnered churches sent funds for this effort.

We want to express our sincere gratitude on behalf of the families who have received the beans.

Here is what I call a God moment: I was literally typing this last sentence when Blanca walked in the office with a letter she had written. I think I will end this ‘report’ with that message from the Pastoral Team followed by some photos.

Spanish first:

Berlín 14 de septiembre, 2011
Cada uno de según lo que decidió personalmente y no de mala gana o la fuerza. Pues, Dios ama al que da con corazón alegre. (Segunda corta a los Corintios Capitulo 8, versículo 7).

Como nos hubiera gustado que todos los que dieran sus donaciones para la compra de frijoles pudiera haber estado durante la entrega a cada familia para que pudieran ver la felicidad, la alegría de cada personal que los recibía. En cada rostro podíamos ver al agradecimiento por este regalo.

Como mostrar nuestro agradecimiento a Dios en primer lugar y a ustedes hermanos y hermanas que con sus donaciones hicieran posible que muchas familias pobres pudieran tener frijoles para poder sembrar en ese año. De parte de cada familia beneficiaria; muchísimas gracias y que Dios les bendiga y le multiplique sus bienes materiales y espirituales ahora y siempre.

“El hambre compasivo será bendito: supo compartir su pan con el pobre.” (Proverbios 22:9)

Que importante en la vida sentirse parte de una misma familia, hijos de un mismo Dios en donde no hay envidias, mentiras, odias, desigualdades. Que hermosa cuando los hombres y mujeres, niños y jóvenes, ancianos – nos unimos nos solidarizamos con los que están tristes, con los que lloran, con los enfermos, con los que no tienen nada.

Todos somos importantes en la vida. Todos tenemos misiones diferentes pero con un mismo fin: construyen un mundo diferente donde reine la justicia, la igualdad, la libertad, el amor.

“Todos los que habían creído vivían unidos compartían todo lo que tenían. Vendían sus bienes y propiedades y repetían después el dinero entre todos según los necesidades de cada uno.” (Hechos 2:44-45)

A esta estamos llamados cada día a vivir como los primeras comunidades. Jesús espera por ti y por mí. Ya comenzamos, debemos continuar.

Saludos y abrazos de las comunidades de Berlín.
El Equipo Pastoral

Now in English:

Each one, according to his personal decision, and not reluctantly or with force for God loves a cheerful giver. (Shortened Corinthians Chapter 8, Verse 7).

We wished for each of you that gave donations for the purchase of beans that you could have been here during the delivery to each family so you could see the happiness and the joy of everyone who received them. In every face we could see the appreciation for this gift.

How to show our gratitude? To God first and then to you brothers and sisters with your donations that make it possible for many poor families to be able to plant beans for this year. On behalf of each beneficiary family, thank you very much and may God bless and multiply your material and spiritual wealth now and forever.

"A compassionate man shall be blessed; he knew how to share his bread with the poor." (Proverbs 22:9)

How important in life to feel as a part of a family, as children of one God where there is no envy, lies, hate, inequality. How beautiful when men and women, children and youth, the elderly – we join in solidarity with those who are sad, those who week, the sick, those who have nothing.

We are all important in life. We all have different missions but with a common goal: to build a different world where there is justice, equality, freedom, love.

“All who believed were together and shared everything they had. Selling their goods and properties, they gave to everyone all according to their need.” (Acts 2:44-45)

To this we are called to live each day as the first communities lived. Jesús waits for you and me. Since we started, we must continue.

Greetings and hugs from the communities of Berlín.
The Pastoral Team

----------------------------------------------------------------

The Family Agriculture Plan gave away 95,000 bean packets the beginning of August. This number was cut from the 325,000 corn/fertilizer packets last April!

Considering about 40% of the 6.5 million (ish) inhabitants live and work in rural areas, that quantity does not nearly cover the needs of all the subsistent farmers. We’re talking conservatively 2 million subsistent level farmers.

So folks knew the Agricultural Packet of beans was coming the beginning of August. They were told they had to call the number (advertised on TV) and if their name was on the list, they had to go to Usulután to pick up the packet. This detail alone prevented many people from getting their beans even if they were on the list: losing a day of work as well as having to pay $5 transportation to/from and cost of food because it would be an all-day task. So some people may have been on the list, but in reality did not receive their bean packet from the government.

And as we learned … most people’s names were NOT on the list. WHY people were on the list and others not, well, there has been no answer. Speculation yes - everyone has their theory - it's all a political game says Blanca.

Media Agua

Jicaro Women's Group

Sorry ... this has nothing to do with beans ... just too cute for words - life in a canton!

San Felipe Pajuilar

Colon

Las Delicias

Virginia

La Llanes

Alejandria

Every community!

Some immediately started to sort and clean the beans to plant!

On the way to Colon ... someone already planting amidst the doubled over corn stalks

Amen and amen and thank you

September 3, 2011 – Surviving the First Week of Bean Delivery

2011-09-13T07:01:00.000-07:00

This has been a full week of activity. You saw the prior report of the purchase of beans – now I’d like to share a bit of our deliveries so far.

On Saturday the 27^th of August, I picked up our two delegates from the Compañeros group. We didn’t let them rest for very long. After a relatively lengthy meeting on Sunday morning, we had a bite to eat and started right in on deliveries.

Each day we visited at least two communities. One day we actually managed to deliver to four. We planned the routes logically: according to their proximity to each other. Most of the communities were asked to seek out their own transportation – our little pick up can’t handle TOO much weight. Also, asking communities to find their own transportation is a way in which the Directiva (Elected City Council) can participate in the process. And most communities have someone who has a vehicle. If there were not many recipients – we just used the house pick up and did not charge transportation fees.

Here was our schedule this week:

Sunday morning: meeting.
Sunday afternoon: Media Agua (38 families/25# each) and San Lorenzo (13 families/25# each)
Monday morning: meeting.
Monday afternoon: Corozal – Canton farthest from Berlín (32 families/40#, 27 families/15# each)
Wednesday morning: El Tablón Centro (84 families/40# each, 2 families/15# each), El Tablón Cerna (40 families/40# each), and Santa Cruz (41 families/25# each).
Wednesday afternoon: El Recreo (78 families/20.5# each) followed by a meeting.
Thursday morning: Community Wide bi-monthly meeting at the Pastoral House
Thursday afternoon: Casa de Zinc (13 families/40# each, 3 families/15# each), Casa de Zacate (16 families/40# each, 7 families/15# each), San Isidro (22 families/40# each, 26 families/15# each)
Friday morning: La Llanes (11 families/40# each, 5 families/15# each), San Felipe (18 families/25# each)
Friday afternoon: Alejandria (30 families/25# each) and we got back to the house early to rest (but I’m typing this report!) 508 families received beans. 14,924# of beans. (Forgive my math if I added wrong!!)

In the communities where there is a partner church and when we received sufficient funds, the families who did not receive the governmental agricultural assistance received 40# (a “medio” which is a standard measure here). The families who did receive the governmental assistance were supplemented with 15# to bring them on an equal level with the others. A medio will cover about half a ‘manzana’ which equates to about ¾ of an acre. We asked one of the farmers how much could potentially be harvested with 40# of seed. He said about 2 sacks – which is about 400# of edible bean.

In the communities where there is no partner church, we had to work with funds that came in from a variety of sources: individuals, churches who are not partnered, foundations, Rotary Clubs, etc. Some of those un-partnered communities received the 40/15# combination. Some communities received 25# each. The quantity of families in need was a factor (it is easier to accommodate a community of 20 or less with 40#). Another factor for a community who only received 25# would be the average size of the plot of land the people work. For example, in Alejandria, the majority of the farmers only have a half manzana. So 25# would cover that space sufficiently.

The process of delivery is basically the same as any church gift: we are provided a hand written list from the Directiva of a community. I type it into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with space for signatures. The Pastoral Team verifies the names on the list; comparing it to a community census to make sure there is no duplication (for example: a list with a parent and 2 or 3 sons living in the same house). The idea is one per family. They did catch a couple of cases with that kind of duplication. The problem with duplications is a matter of ‘fairness’ – if we allow this for one family, why aren’t the other 8 families with 3 sons getting the same? We just can’t afford to do that. But this is not a ‘new’ concept. Any help that comes is ‘one per family.’

Now we have our verified lists. The Team calls a member of the Directiva to set a delivery date and time. The Directiva informs the beneficiaries and instructs them to show up at the determined time. The Directiva is charged with finding transportation to get the beans from the Pastoral House to the community. Often there is a truck within their own community that they can contract. The Directiva finds community helpers to come to the house to help load. In a couple of cases, community members even came to the house to help weigh and measure beforehand. (Remember that we bought the beans in 100# sacks so they needed to be divvied up into 40, 25 and 15 pounds sacks).

The Pastoral Team and I drive out separately so the community truck does not need to bring us back to Berlín.

Once in the community a Directiva member (usually the president, but not always) speaks to the crowd to explain the gift and express their gratitude. They also take this time to explain that they are collecting a little to cover the cost of transportation. It is usually minimal: 25 or 50 cents per family depending on the type of truck needed which depends upon the quantity of beans being transported. Larger communities need a larger truck.

A member of the Pastoral Team speaks to explain how we are able to provide this help due to the efforts of MANY people in the States who have concern for their well-being.

We then give the list to a member of the Directiva to call names and obtain either a signature or the fingerprint of each recipient. This ensures we don’t miss anyone. Community folks help hand out the bean sacks.

While this is happening, the Pastoral Team typically chats with people off to the side and I take photos and interact with the children.

The Pastoral Team tries to engage the community leadership – this is part of their function in general, but it also is a visible sign to the community that their leadership is working on their behalf. This is always a part of the orientation in a community. When invited to a ‘general assembly’ meeting where all are present, the Pastoral Team tries to remind the families of their responsibility to support the Directiva: the people they voted in as their leadership. And when necessary, if a Directiva asks, the Team repeats this when there is a donation and everyone is gathered.

A beautiful story: In Media Agua, they discovered 3 names were inadvertently left off the list. So Blanca came up with a possible solution – each beneficiary could share so that everyone would have beans to plant. Everyone in the crowd nodded in agreement to this idea. (See the photo of the man with the scale). Immediately, the secretary of the Directiva did the math and figured that 2 pounds from each would cover those missing names! So out came the scales and as sacks were given to each family, they paused to give their share so the families accidently left off the list would benefit as well. And yes … we could have gone back to the Pastoral House and grabbed 3 more bags. However – this was an opportunity for a community to resolve a problem on their own – with everyone participating in the solution. The woman in red above was a cheerful giver. It really was quite beautiful.

At the bean distributer's warehouse checking out the quality

Oscar pulling apart a bean to find where it is 'born'

Cecilia paying ... Mauricio counting every bill

"Will that be credit card ma'am?"

Loaded by 2 men at the distribution warehouse

Enjoying the ride from San Miguel back to Berlin

At the Pastoral House getting ready to unload

Oscar from Santa Cruz helping out

Cecilia is thin but MIGHTY

The stack of beans getting tall!

Ismael from La Llanes helping out!

Even Alisha schlepped bags from the truck in the garage to the Chapel

Vidal from El Tablon helping out

Idalia ... a woman of great strength

Papa Antonio and his sons Raul, Vidal and Cruz - our faithful driving crew

Hippocratic Oath?

2011-08-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

I wish I had the words to describe the health care conditions here. And I don’t know the half of it I’m sure. I hear things from people we know and from the Pastoral Team themselves. And I’ve had a couple of first hand experiences. I want to tell you about one.

Two nights ago, two women came to the door needing help. This is not an unusual thing. Folks know that if they need help, we will do our best to do so and if we can’t help, we try to steer them in the direction of someone who can …

So these two women did not want help for themselves. Instead, they told us the story of their neighbor: an old man who is quite sick. He has cirrhosis of the liver. His niece – his only family from the sounds of it – does not want anything to do with him. She lives right next to the man but apparently does not look after him. So the neighbor ladies have been feeding him breakfast and supper and checking in on him on a regular basis.

These women had become very concerned about his condition they so had taken him to a local doctor for a checkup. This local doctor looked him over and she gave him a referral to be admitted to the hospital in Santiago de Maria. The doctor said that at the hospital, they could ‘drain’ the fluid buildup in his stomach and potentially save his life. By the time they were done taking him to the doctor and then back home so they could look for transportation, it was late. They couldn’t find anyone to take him to the hospital and since they knew about us and knew we had a vehicle, they came here and asked if we would take him.

Cecilia and I talked and we decided we needed to do this for them. So we all piled into the truck and headed down to where he lives just below the cemetery which is not too far away. It took about 15 minutes for them to convince him to go – he didn’t want to – but eventually they all came out – several people supporting the man as they made their way down the roughly 50 yards of the uneven path leading from his home to the truck. It took a couple of men to help him into the front seat of the truck. He was obviously bloated and in pain. His left hand and fingers were inflated like a balloon. His stomach was obviously bloated as well and his calves were like rocks. He could barely move.

And I’m not saying this to be rude, but he smelled horrible. Now mind you – I dearly love the people I work with who live in the country. Many of whom often do not smell very good – but we hug them and take no notice because of our love for them. But this man smelled sick. It was not a lack of personal hygiene care – although I’m sure that is minimal (and I say that feeling badly for him, not as a criticism) – but he smelled very ill. I don’t have words to describe it.

Unfortunately, it started to rain shortly after we took off so we had to close the windows. Thankfully within about 15 minutes the rain stopped on the other side of the mountain.

So we got to the Santiago de Maria hospital about 6:30 p.m. and I could at least drive in to the parking lot so he could be closer to the entrance. The women were able to get a wheelchair for him and as they were struggling to get the man out of the truck, a young man came out to help. Turns out he was the relative of another patient waiting to be seen. So they took him in and Cecilia and I drove out to park in the street and wait. Only ‘family’ are allowed in - and at that, only one or two of them. The women were not family, but they had his personal information so could be with him as his guardians.

Cecilia and I waited outside for about an hour and a half. Cecilia talked to the guards to convince them to let her in to get an update – to see how close he was to being admitted. She found out that there was only one family left ahead of him. So she came back out and we waited a bit more. About a half hour later, all three of them came out: the two women holding up the sick man. The doctor on duty would NOT admit him! In spite of the referral and the obvious bloating – they would not admit him. As one of the women muttered under her breath “it’s better to just die at home.”

What an incredibly sad thing to say. But she got no argument from her friend or Cecilia.

My question of disbelief: what kind of doctor would not admit such a sick man? He even had a doctor’s referral!

As Cecilia said: “Such is health care in our country”

And the next day when Blanca was here and after telling her what happened the night before. She literally said the same exact thing.

This is such a different world than from where I come from. And unfortunately – throughout the entire world there are LOTS of other countries who experience the same lack of care or worse.

What a travesty.

Urgent Request

2011-08-09T16:31:00.000-07:00

In our travels this week with the Heartland delegation, we visited not only their sister communities of El Tablon Centro and Cerna, but Casa de Zacate as well. From our conversations with the 3 Directivas - and phone calls to the Pastoral Team from leaders of a couple other communities - we have discovered a vital need. By the end of this month, everyone who farms should be planting their new crop of beans. The problem is - the people do not have beans to plant. Part of this is due to the last 2 year's horrible crops. They didn't produce enough to eat let alone to have sufficient amounts to set aside for the following planting season.

The government had a seed (beans) giveaway recently - but hardly ANYONE in this municipality was given the seed. For example: only 3 out of 45 farmers from Santa Cruz, 3 out of 80 in Tablon Centro and 6 out of 25 in Casa de Zacate received their 'packet'. None out of the 48 families in Cerna nor the 44 families in Alejandria received any government seed.

So now the majority of people cannot plant. They are very worried they will not have food next year. The Pastoral Team considers this a crisis situation.

Scott Valentine (Clive, Heartland) made a suggestion - a good one. That I immediately communicate this need to Compañeros and see if we could get this information out to all our sister churches as well as our non-partner supporters.

I have faith in the folks in Iowa (and beyond) that they can raise the funds. The problem is the need for a rapid response. The planting should be done within the next three weeks!

Ideally, the farmers would need about 100# of seed to provide a family with thier food needs for the year as well as enough to sell for a bit of income with some leftover to safeguard for the following year's planting. But the Pastoral Team's thought is to try to raise funds for 40# per family farm. This quantity of seed would potentially provide enough beans for a family to eat for a year.

40# of seed costs about $50. There are roughly 1000 families in all the cantons of Berlin. That would be roughly $50,000 which we need by August 22nd.

The Pastoral Team has already started calling the Directiva of each community to ask how many families did not receive the government packet of seed and to organize and create community lists for disbursal. From this we will know exactly how many families are in need of this support.

In a related topic: Currently, InterVida (an NGO) is helping communities develop Seed Banks but they are not yet fully operational. In the event that more funds are received than are needed to relieve this immediate crisis, they would go toward faciliiting additional seed banks in communities that do not yet have them. A seed bank would help a community avoid this kind of crisis in the future.

We thank you for your efforts and await with hope your rapid support. Follow the usual manner of getting funds to the mission. Send checks to the Presbytery of Des Moines, 2400 86th St., Suite 20, Urbandale, IA 50322. Please include in the memo section or in message to designate "Bean-Seed".

Kathy and the Pastoral Team

More on Benigno

2011-07-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

We were all sitting around the breakfast table this morning. Most of us tired – not of us not sleeping well because we are worried about Benigno’s family (see previous blog).

We were talking about this this morning – and how could it be that he could have been so sick and no one knew. Because I did find out that no one knew!

Apparently he felt a great pain in his abdomen (solar plexus area) early evening on Wednesday the 20^th. His house is way down the road from the ‘center’ of town. (We’re talking 20 families in this community). He made his way up to his sister’s house and couldn’t go any further. They called a friend and waited for transportation to get him to the hospital in Santiago de Maria and that come quite late. He was given something for the pain, but they only did simple exams.

The sad reality here is if you have no financial resource, that’s all you get: a basic exam. For example: an older woman came out of her exam with one of the doctors of the Newton Medical Delegation last March and was quite emotional. She said that this was the first time she was ever actually touched by a doctor. In all her years – her exams have been words only: “How are you? You have a pain where? Ah … take this prescription to the pharmacy and buy …”

Ok. That is over-simplifying the exam I’m sure. I hope. And I have hopes that not all public servant doctors are like this, but I have heard it over and over from several people: that without financial resources, that is pretty much all you get. Period.

So there are many people who don’t bother to go to the doctor for every little ache or pain. They ride it out. They ignore it. They live with it. Because in reality, what could you do about it? If you have cancer, or lung disease, or kidney disease or whatever – you can’t afford the medicines. You can’t afford the operation. So why bother to know.

After the internment yesterday we were talking to some of the family and we were told that they were told that ex-rays showed his lungs were basically ‘dead’ and non-functioning. He ended up in a larger hospital in San Miguel and died there. The family might never know what was wrong with him. But it is possible he was riddled with cancer and never knew it.

A funeral

2011-07-22T19:32:00.000-07:00

We went out to La Llanes again yesterday. We were just there for their Patron Saint celebration last Saturday. And we had visited there with the Central Presbyterian Church delegation a couple of weeks ago – delivering large water tanks and getting to know them a little and visiting a few homes.

One of the homes we visited was a couple with 14 children. They are poor … poor. They live in a smallish house with minimal ‘furniture’ (‘furniture being a relative term here). Their little home is on a level-ish part of land with several hills surrounding it and a beautiful view of a valley below and a volcano in the distance. They live smack in the middle of the land they farm for the owner who lives in San Salvador. They ‘rent’ the land they farm – but he didn’t know how much he would have to pay that year. The owner hadn’t said yet – but last year it was $24. A fair price for all the land he was working! And it is a beautiful location. When we were there, the corn was all planted and growing nicely – about 3 feet high. The father of the family was answering our questions very graciously. He seemed pleased by our interest in his work and our interest in his community.

So yesterday we went out to La Llanes again. But this time for something very sad. The same man who was explaining about his crops and sharing his life with us – died. He was 51. He left behind a wife, 14 children and one grandchild. Apparently he woke up one night with deep pain in his lower gut. He didn’t go to the clinic right away – but eventually someone took him. I’m not sure what the prognosis was – the family wasn’t sure. They might never know.

But we drove out to be with them for the first day of prayers.

The Pastoral Team helped out with all the pan dulce (sweet bread) they would need, a couple pounds of Don Justo Coffee, 12# of sugar, 100 cups and plates, misc food stuffs for the family themselves. We gave them money to buy the funeral candles. And we paid for the transportation for the people to get home after the burial. And we’re thinking of buying a couple hundred pounds of corn for the family.

We’re worried about the family. How can we not worry? How is she going to take care of all those children? Their crops?

8 of Benigno's children, a grandson and his widow Maria

We found out about a beautiful thing – tomorrow (Saturday) – about 20 people from the community are going to go out to their fields and ‘clean’ it for them – to clear the weeds from the corn stalks. This is a job that would normally take almost a week for one or two people to do. And the widow would not be able to do it – her youngest is 3 years old!! So the community is banding together to help her out.

And I bet they will help her through every step of the process all the way to harvest.

Community is something people do well here. It is uplifting and inspiring in the midst of the great sadness.

Please pray for this family. And all the families who struggle with life’s great challenges.

Looking back at their home from the edge of the slope at the end of Benigno's rented farmland

One of Benigno's sons perched on a stump in the field. What a view!

Commissioning of a Delegation

2011-06-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

Below are the words from Pastor Jim Wallace of Central Presbyterian Church in Des Moines. Their delegation of 7 persons will be here on Friday. The text is his sermon for the commissioning of this group.

I asked for permission to share here within my blog as well as Alish's blog (we reach different audiences)and Jim graciously said yes. He has summed up beautifully the vision and intent of the Our Sister Parish mission which is the relationship between several Iowa churches, the Pastoral Team and the communities we serve.

Thank you Jim.

Commissioning Message/Service for El Salvador Mission Trip 2011

One of the great impulses of the Church is to go out into the world. There’s a kind of restlessness about the faith that just doesn’t allow Christian people to stay home. Christians go out into the world.

You hear that, of course, in the Great Commission. And Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28).

Heaven and earth belong to Jesus and so off to the nations disciples go.

Christ’s great ambassador, St. Paul, saw the Christian faith as something to share and spread. He would go and start churches, then drop by and check with the faithful to see how they were getting along and encourage them. St. Paul never stayed home. He was constantly on the go.

You might remember the maps on your Sunday school room of Paul’s missionary journeys. Going here and there, doubling back, crossing over and under, the lines and connections of his travels looked like a pile of spaghetti.

Well, on Friday of next week seven members of Central Presbyterian church will get up and go by boarding a plane and heading to El Salvador. For a couple of us it will be a return visit from 2008. Over the last three years a number of other Central members have spent time in El Salvador on their own or with another group.

Our Presbytery, the Presbytery of Des Moines, has had a relationship with a small faith community in Berlin, El Salvador for 20 years. Many of our churches in the Presbytery have made trips to El Salvador, some churches numerous times, forming partnerships with the cantons or villages in the area.

Since the trip in 2008 our church has helped support the Pastoral House in Berlin, El Salvador. This is the place where people in the community come for help and where delegations stay as they visit and establish relationships with various cantons. The pastoral team is also in touch the leaders in the villages surrounding Berlin. And so, it is an important, even crucial, component of ministry in that community and region.

Part of our trip will be to spend time with the Salvadorians who staff the Pastoral House, so as to strengthen our relationship with them. The little bit of money that we send each month to the Pastoral House helps pay for water and electricity and simple upkeep so they don’t have to struggle as hard to meet those expenses. In turn they can concentrate on doing ministry in the community and villages that surround Berlin. Besides spending time at the Pastoral House, we have been invited into their homes—a great honor.

We will go and see some of the important places from El Salvador’ horrific and heroic past. We will go to the place where the six Jesuit priests were murdered at the University of Central America, a turning point in their bloody civil war and U.S. support of the brutal Salvadorian army that waged a war against its own people.

We will see the humble home of martyr Archbishop Oscar Romero, who began his career in a church structure that was closely aligned with the powerful and the wealthy, all in the name of stability and order. Romero was picked because it was thought he would not rock the boat. But he had a conversion of sorts and began to side with the poor instead of the powerful and began to preach about social justice and liberation. And for that he was killed, as he stood behind the altar, breaking bread during Mass.

We will spend time in villages and at various projects supported by other churches. There will be a dedication mass to celebrate a new cooperative that was the project of the Pastoral Team, a small village, the University of Central America, and the government of El Salvador.

We will visit some marginalized schools. We will see where the coffee you purchase is produced and processed.

We are taking some things that will be helpful. We have a bag full of school supplies, a couple bags of used eye glasses, a kit donated by an optometrist to test eyes, some basic medicines—all to be donated and left with the Pastoral House.

Now less you think this is a luxury sightseeing trip, let me assure you it is not. There will be no air-conditioning. This is a country in poverty. Accommodations include flushing a toilet and taking a shower by taking a bucket of water and pouring it down the stool or over your head.

When groups go to El Salvador they don’t go there with a “top down” model of wealthy North Americans doing something for the poor Salvadorians. As much as is possible, delegations go to El Salvador with the intent to “be with” instead of “do for.” Delegations go to understand that country’s troubled and sometimes horrific history, the social and economic forces that have contributed to systemic poverty, and, as much as is possible (for people who will return to warm showers, soft beds and an abundance of food), to live day to day and to share life with the poor.

Now this idea of “being with” instead of “doing for,” of relationship building instead of building something is a difficult concept for North Americans because out of our abundance of resources and power we are accustomed to taking on the role of superior fixer, the knight in shining armor.

As a writer on short term missions (somewhat) jokingly suggests, “having an engineer on your mission team can be a mixed blessing. Engineers are trained to diagnose and repair problems; it is part of their professional DNA. They will typically go to a service site and immediately begin to calculate the most efficient approach to the tasks at hand… [but that] won’t always work in another culture, and it may even be offensive.”[1]

One enterprising pastor in another setting got around this problem by having a wall that people could work whenever they would come on a mission trip. He has no idea what the wall is for or if it will ever be done, but it takes care of the problem of visiting teams needing to do something tangible. Then, once they get that out of their system, he says the real mission takes place—meeting and building relationships with the men in the community who need long-term training and social services in order to survive.[2]

And delegations don’t go with the idea they are taking God to these people; God is already there, among the people. Dean Brackley, an American born Jesuit priest, who moved to El Salvador after the six priests were killed, writes about the importance of not going with the idea of taking God to people, but discovering that God is already there, among the people. He says:

If we allow them to share their suffering with us, they communicate some of their hope to us as well. The smile that seems to have no foundation in the facts is not phony; the spirit of fiesta is not an escape but a recognition that something else is going on in the world besides injustice and destruction. The poor smile because they suspect that this something is more powerful than the injustice. When insist on sharing their tortilla with a visiting gringo, we recognize there is something going on in the world that is more wonderful than we dared to imagine.[3]

So, we go, but not with a “top down” model. We don’t go to fix or bring God. We go to “be with,” strengthen relationships, discover what God is doing.

In one of the great passages of the New Testament, St. Paul writes, “Let the same mind be in you that was^* in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross...”

“Let the same mind be in you,” Paul says. Don’t grasp power. Don’t cling to position. Be like Christ who emptied himself in order to be with us, to share in our experience, our pain our, sorrow, our joy, our humanity. He could have hung on to his position and power as Lord of all, but he didn’t. Literally in every sense of the word, Christ set that asides in order to be with us, to be one of us.

And by implication that’s how Christians go into the world. That’s how Christians do their mission work. Not from a place of superiority, but humility. Not from the mindset that we have the money, we have the power, we have what you need and we are here to give it to you. Our attitude should be like Christ who set all claim to privilege aside and emptied himself in order to be with us, to share with us, to enter our experience and our humanity. And so we go, as best we can, following that example, not to “do for” but “to be with” and to “share in.”

When you approach such a trip as this in that way, you open the possibility of learning, experiencing, sharing, growing. I have already mentioned Bishop Romero. In the midst of the struggle against poverty and threat and violence and death, he is reported to have said these inspiring words:

“It helps now and then, to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capability.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own. Amen.”

I hope our delegation from Central comes back with at least a little bit more faith like that, faith that sees the kingdom of God not as some far off ideal, some utopian someday. But the kingdom that we are called to work for and live for and strive for, not just in our hearts, but a kingdom of justice for all God’s children. Amen.

[1] Misguided Missions: Ten Worst Practices, by Mark Wm. Radecke in Christian Century May 18, 2010.

[2] Ibid. Adapted.

[3] As quoted in Misguided Missions: Ten Worst Practices, by Mark Wm. Radecke in Christian Century May 18, 2010.

This is what it is all about

2011-06-09T18:21:00.000-07:00

Sometimes my heart gets very heavy. Sometimes it seems we lose sight of where we need to be going. There are issues and problems, grief and sorrow: things both within and beyond our control. But then something happens to bring it all back into focus. Thank you God!

Yesterday, we went back out to visit La Llanes –if you remember, La Llanes is that little community comprised of 20 families who are actually all one big extended family!

And if you remember – a week or so ago, all of us went through our ‘closets’ and came up with BAGS of clothing. I later learned that it wasn’t just Blanca, Idalia, Cecilia and I that went through our closets – but all of their families did as well. And since we didn’t have much clothing for children – I went out and bought some. We ended up with a good amount!

So yesterday we went out to deliver. We asked the Leadership Committee to meet us at the community ‘center’ at 3 and the community to be there about 4. The idea was that all the clothing would be spread out and the Committee, using the census we had, would divvy up the goods. This is because they know the relative sizes of people. They started with one article of clothing for each person. They bagged up by family (using tape to put the names on the bags). After everyone got one item they went through the list again. And again, and again. I’m not sure how many rounds they were able to make, but it looked like everyone got several new (slightly used) pieces of clothing.

Blanca explaining the process

She found a knit hat and loved it!

This did not come out of MY closet.

And I don't think this ended up in his bag!

When the families showed up a little later we had more of surprise. Alisha’s church sends her a little money now and again to be used at her discretion. She decided she wanted to get a little toy for each child. Prior to going out to La Llanes, we stopped at a little store that has such goods. We went by the census and chose items depending upon age and gender. The average price of the toys was about $2 each. We got dolls, cars/trucks, little badminton sets, jump-ropes, etc. Things that would hopefully last more than a week.

As the families received their bags of clothing, Alisha handed out toys. We had a couple extra children who were not on the list – but luckily, Alisha’s parents had brought down a bag of stuffed animals so we were prepared! And it all worked out well! There were lots of smiles. Alisha and I were not sure the children would know how to use the badminton set, so we gave a little demonstration. I’m happy to announce that I did quite well! I love that game.

The vehicles were quite popular!

Look mom!!

Kinda like Christmas

We finished up and prepared to leave. Of course, there were people who wanted to say a few words; expressing thankfulness and reminding us that we would always be welcomed there – with or without gifts! They would be waiting with open arms.

What we did yesterday was truly a ‘band-aid’ in that it will not solve anything nor make the realities of their poverty change. But beyond the physical gifts – I saw and deeply felt a much larger gift.

We have only been there a few times – but since the very first visit, I felt a warmth and friendliness. And it almost feels like family. Maybe because they are one large extended family – and overall, a close family – and that carries over to how they treat others. We are welcomed. We are offered coffee (good, strong, residue at the bottom of the plastic cup coffee!!) and we are offered a place to sit and rest a bit. We are invited in. And not just their homes. But I think we are also in their hearts. I know they are in mine.

I was humbly reminded why we are here. Why we chose to do what we are doing.

The parked truck is always a piece of playground equipment

Very cute and very fat babe!

THIS is how coffee should always be prepared!

Home made Capiruchi

Sod walls

Some final words

Doves at my feet

Gramma and my fat little baby

Every family received a "Trinity" bear!

Good and strong coffee!

Busy, Busy week!

2011-06-05T18:59:00.000-07:00

See Alisha's blog if you want LOTS of details about the week with her family!! The link is to the right!

What a fabulous week we shared with Alisha’s family! In many ways they were similar to all delegations in that we visited the historical sites in San Salvador, a massacre site, communities, etc. But this ‘delegation’ was also very different. This was family. We had a little more flexibility with our agenda. For example – they wanted to see some of the ruins so we did that. We visited El Mozote to hear the testimony of that massacre, but we also visited Rio de los Bueyes to hear several ex-combatants speak of life for them during the war and the massacre that took place near there. Incredible. After that horrific account, we went to a local ‘pool’ for lunch. I don’t think I’d take a regular delegation there – too rustic. It was hard to get to – lots of ‘ducking’ in the back of the pick-up truck! And once we were finally there, there was no place to sit, it was very buggy and the water was a bit skuzzy … but I’m sure glad we went. I thought it was pretty cool! We dipped our feet anyway and had scores of little fish nibbling on our feet!

We visited our Don Justo Coffee with Dignity farm and got a real complete explanation of how the coffee goes from seedling to our cup. We visited the lagoon inside the crater of Alegria and then had time to visit the actual town of Alegria – exploring the church, shops, park and beauty of this little town and even enjoyed a cup of coffee (or hot chocolate) from a vendor in the street.
The family even got to ‘help out’ delivering fertilizer: going to Mercedes Umaña to make the purchase, then they sat on top of the pooh in the back of the big truck on the way back to Berlin and then to San Francisco and then enjoyed visiting with the people while it was distributed.
They WALKED the two miles down then up to San Francisco the next day. We visited three families – 3 families who are being supported by their church with high school scholarships. We enjoyed the hospitality of a cup of coffee and some pan dulce before we made the walk back to the Pastoral House. We probably walked 5 miles that day. UP and down lots of ‘streets’ and paths.
They spent a morning with Alisha in her school. Four times in each of the 9 classes they sang and did the movements to Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes, handed out stickers and pencils and had a time to visit with the students. We visited the homes of the Pastoral Team members in Alejandria.
At the beginning of the week we ate at a new place in San Salvador called the Secret Garden (I won’t take a ‘real’ delegation there because it was way too expensive!!) and at the end of the week we enjoyed taking the Pastoral Team out to dinner in Alegria at their new favorite place with most of us getting huge shrimp which we ‘wore’ quite well as you have to eat it with your hands! Yum.
It was a very good week. And it really did fly.

A sad thing – 2 nights before they left – I got called down from the office – I had been working on their final budget (I give a summary of the actual costs vs the budgeted amounts) as well as a spreadsheet for the purchases that Compañeros made of Blanca’s Bags and crafts for the Latino Fest this year. When I went back up about 45 minutes later – there was a puddle of water on my desk near the computer and in two spots on the floor. The roof was not leaking and I had NO water in my office (nothing on my desk except a sealed bottle of water that was intact). We have NO idea where the water came from.
There was no evident water on the laptop … but … when I moved the laptop – there was water under it. And when I lifted the laptop, water dripped from it. I have a fan under my laptop to keep it cool. It essentially sucked up the water on the desk and forced it into the laptop from the bottom.
Matt, Alisha and I dried it as best we could. Matt un-did the little doors, we gently sopped up the water … Alisha had a can of air … then we set it out to dry over night … taking out the battery, etc. Bottom line is … it never returned to functioning. I have a dead laptop. Alisha’s mom took it back with her – Mike is going to putter with it to see if he can repair it. If not, I have a friend who knows how and has the equipment to extract the data from the hard-drive. And Mike can buy another laptop for me and bring it down when he and his church come down the beginning of July.
In the meantime I do have my little net-book that I bought last year for traveling and for my work trips back home. I hate the keyboard (keys stick and don’t always type what I click!!) but it’s better than nothing. But ALL of my documents, templates, pictures, reports, etc. are gone. Hopefully not forever.
I’m hoping I don’t have to buy another laptop. But if I do … such is life.
It really is a mystery as to how the water got in here. No roof leak – no wet windows – no water glass in my room … The Pastoral Team said it was a ‘water ghost’ - I have a guess that it was totally accidental and that someone feels too bad about it to ‘fess up.’ I’m trying not to make a huge deal of it here so no one feels worse than they probably already do …
There are definitely larger tragedies in life!!! I will keep it all in perspective.

Shopping Spree

2011-05-26T11:09:00.000-07:00

I decided I wanted to go buy some children’s clothes for our clothing give-away in La Llanes… we have quite a chunk of adult clothing to bring out there from our own personal ‘wardrobe purging’ but very few things for children.

I had a feeling that I could buy quite a bit with $20. And I was right. Check this out:

6 pairs of shorts at 50 cents each
24 shirts (tank tops mostly) at 50 cents each
5 pairs of shoes at $1 a pair

I might just have to go do that again before we go! I can’t think of a better way to spend my money. Lord knows I really don’t need much!

Two Blessings

2011-05-24T21:19:00.001-07:00

I have two very cool things to share:

The first blessing: As a result of a blog about the community of La Llanes and the need for water collection there, I received an email from a very small church in Centerville, Iowa (Centerville Presbyterian Church). The pastor there wanted to let me know that their mission committee wanted to purchase a water tank! She is also going to check with the men’s and women’s groups of the church to see if they would like to purchase another one.

What a blessing! So for sure we have one tank bought … only 19 to go!
:o)

Any others out there that would like to purchase a 750 liter water tank for a family?? Only $125 each … going once … going … well … 19 more times we hope!!

I love you all. Thank you!

A second blessing: Blanca and Cecilia (two of our Pastoral Team members) were telling me that they were going through their clothing to see what they could find to give to the families in La Llanes. So I was humbled and motivated to do the same. How sad is this: I found ten shirts (tank tops), a skirt and 4 pairs of sandals to donate to the cause. And I STILL have way too much clothing.

I have often felt that the poor have the most generous hearts. I learned a lesson today from my sisters at the Pastoral House!

I think tomorrow I will take $20 and go to the market to find some children’s clothing.

Who are you??

2011-05-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

So I'm looking at the "stats" of my blog and Alisha shared with me how to see who my 'audience' is. HOW FUN!

I have had people visiting the blog from all over!

This MONTH: U.S., E.S., Germany, Iran, China, Russia, Phillipines, Denmark, France, India and Canada.
This WEEK: U.S., E.S., Germany, Iran, China, Russia, France, India and Canada.
TODAY: U.S., E.S., Germany, Russia and India.

So ... WHO ARE YOU ALL?
I'm really curious as to who is reading this blog and why? I think it is very cool actually.

The U.S. and E.S. are easy to figure out. But China? India? Iran? Russia?

Very cool.

Water ...

2011-05-22T10:32:00.000-07:00

You might have seen Alisha’s recent blog about the things we take for granted … things that so many people do not have the luxury of enjoying: water and electricity being pretty basic (and we can’t forget food and shelter).

Well – this is something I often struggle with. I truly do live in a palace compared to the people we serve. I have walls, a roof, a floor, a private bathroom and I never worry about my next meal. And I have water. If not running – at the very least it is in my pila for the 90% of the time (literally) that the water does not fun through the pipes.

So this morning – I had a treat. Something I have not had in my bathroom since I’ve been here (as interim in 2007/8 and as permanent co-worker since January of 2009). I had a hot shower.

My shower has been ‘repaired’ several times – but the repairs never took. It took someone who knew what the real problem was and then who knew how to fix it. Thank you Andres! He had to hook the shower head up to a separate circuit breaker – and one more powerful that the one that was there. Prior to this addition, everything was hooked up to one relatively weak circuit breaker – so my lights would dim when I turned on the shower and at best I would get tepid water; just enough ‘warmth’ to take the freezing edge off. So like Alisha – I usually didn’t bother with the actual shower, but preferred the control of the bucket shower. Brrrr. I also have a 'flash water heater' meant for heating water for tea - bet the original inventor of this lovely device didn't know it would be appreciated for other uses!

So now I not only have water running every other day. But now I have HOT water.

And along with it the guilt.

I’ve been told I shouldn’t feel guilty because I have these luxuries. But I can’t help it.

Internment in Rio de los Bueyes

2011-05-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

We went back down to Rio de los Bueyes – leaving the house about 11:30 to get there for the 12:30 commencement of the trip to the cemetery.

We got there a little late – but they had not left yet. They were waiting on the big truck that would carry the bulk of the people.

After about 15 minutes, they decided to leave without it. The loaded Jesús’ casket into the back of a pick up truck. Five people got into the bed of the truck with the casket and Eulalia and a grandchild got into the cab with the driver. Our pick up truck followed them - after a bunch of people hopped on of course.

It was me, Idalia, Blanca and Aminta in the cab of our truck, Alisha, Cecilia and Miguel in the back and a lot of others. Alisha later told me there were 22 people in our truck. Add the four of us in the cab.

I knew the road from Rio los Bueyes to La Barca was relatively flat and not too bad so I wasn’t too worried about the suspension of the truck. I also figured we’d be going slowly. And I was right. What normally would take about 15-20 minutes to drive between the two communities, took over an hour.

We followed the casket’s pick up the entire way. Fortunately for the people walking, about a block from the house, the big truck met us and about 50 or so folks hopped into that. There were also at least 4 pick up trucks full of people behind us – each loaded with people. Partway there we met another large flatbed full of people going to the internment and a little further on we picked up another dozen people who were waiting for the caravan to go by.

Word of mouth is incredible here. Jesús just died less than 24 hours prior. And here were all these people going to her internment. There were several people from Berlin as well as people from El Tablón, Corozal, Casa de Zinc, (probably more places) and it seemed like all the people from Rio los Bueyes were there! I would bet there were between 250 and 300 people at the cemetery.

When we finally arrived (and it was a very long and extremely hot and dusty ride and had I not been driving, I could have slept – as it was I was trying not to nod off in the heat with my hands on the wheel! But then I thought - man - the people standing in the backs of the trucks have it way worse than I do!) When we finally got to the cemetery, I drove up the hill to the entrance so people could get out and then turned around and parked in the shade a little down the road.

By the time I got to the area, the coffin was already under the shaded ‘gazebo’ area – there is a pedestal of cement for folks to put their casket and the large lamina roof serves as a shady place for someone to say a few words, or to have the last viewing of their loved one.

We were there about 15 minutes – chatting with people. There was enough shade and a bit of a breeze so it wasn’t unbearable. One of the family members came up to us and they asked Blanca and Idalia to lead the singing at the gravesite. They were hesitant because they worried they would start crying. But ultimately, they sang.

6 men carried the coffin down the very steep and slippery path to the gravesite where the hole was already dug. The singing started as people were still carefully making their way down. The men started putting the rope around the casket to lower it into the grave.

And here there was a small glitch. The hole wasn’t big enough. So out came the shovels and they dug some more. No one seemed overly surprised or bothered by this. The singing continued on. And soon the sounds of dirt being shoveled on the casket could be heard along with the singing and then the prayer.

That is a unique combination of sounds.

There was no service per se – just a few songs and a long prayer. Then everyone headed up to the vehicles. We were not going back to the family’s house since we were now closer to the PanAmerican Highway. We headed back to Berlin in that direction instead of going all the way through the canton roads. It only took us about 50 minutes to get home. Going the other way would have been and hour and 15 at least. And a lot bumpier.

We were able to bring several people back to Berlin with us. Including two men who were selling popsicles and ice cream at the internment.

This is an acceptable thing at an internment – the selling of food and drink, ice cream, candy, banana chips … It isn’t considered tacky here.

It was a physically draining day. The oppressive heat and dust coupled with the very slow driving (after driving 50 bumpy minutes just to get to the family’s house in the first place – and then driving back to Berlin afterwards) wore me out. When we made it back, I went up to my room and stretched out on top of my bed – mostly to stretch my achy back – but I actually nodded off for about 10 minutes. By that time I was ready for a cup of coffee and to sit with the ladies of the Pastoral Team.

May 13th 2011 - Jesus

2011-05-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

Rest in peace in the loving arms of God your father.

We just received a phone call that Jesus died. Not 15 minutes after I posted the story of our visit with her.

We're sad.

We'll be driving out there again tomorrow morning. God must have known we needed to be there because a meeting we had scheduled in the morning got cancelled.

Please send up prayers for the family.

Cancer

2011-05-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

Jesus (in the back-ground) and Blanca two weeks ago.

Today we received a phone call from a family in Rio los Bueyes. We always visit this family when we go down there for their annual Celebration of the Martyrs. In fact, we were there just a couple of weeks ago. (See Alisha’s blog – link to the right!).

We knew that Jesus, the mother/grandmother has cancer. She has had good days and bad. When we visited a couple of weeks ago, I could see she was weak and she only stayed out on the patio with us about 20 minutes. She then had retired to her room to lie down.

So the phone call today was from her daughter Eulalia. Mom is doing very badly she said. She is not sleeping, she is not able to eat or drink and she is vomiting blood. (Sorry for the graphic image). And she was asking for ‘those from the Pastoral House’ –

We decided we needed to go see her. It is what the Pastoral Team does. They visit the sick and try to give comfort.

Normally it is over an hour’s drive to Rio los Bueyes but we learned of a shortcut and now it only takes about 55 minutes.

When we got there, she was in bed so we went in to sit with her. She recognized and acknowledged us and spoke briefly. Blanca asked about her pain. She said ‘not too much, but I am nauseous and I can hardly sleep.’

She is so thin. Her stomach is quite bloated though. She is weak and even as we were there, she was groaning the soft groans of nausea. And several times she had to spit into a rag, or TP. And indeed, she was spitting blood.

She was very hot. It is very hot in the valleys and her room is cinderblock with one window. For some reason, the door was shut – but Cecilia propped it open for air flow. Of which there was very little.

Eulalia was using a large folded towel to fan her mother. Resting her arms every so often.

We talked for a while. I myself was praying for peace and comfort for all of them and freedom from pain and nausea for Jesús. At this point, the only freedom will come from death.

We only stayed about a half hour. Before we left, Eulalia had one of the children climb a tree and fetch some oranges for us to take back to Berlin. Even in grief and suffering, people are compelled to share!

All the way back to Berlin I could not stop thinking of her. And about how Jesús is being loved by her family – especially her daughter. I was thinking about how hard it must be for the family (they live in a multi family compound so there are lots of children that also need tending).

Death is a fact of life here – I know that – I have grieved with many families in my short time here. Suffering is a fact of life here.
Pain is a fact of life here.

People suffer but they take it in stride. I’m not saying people are ‘content’ with their lot in life – but death, suffering and pain do not necessarily incapacitate people.

There are NO resources to help this family. No hospice care. No hospital that they could afford to take her to help her manage the pain and nausea.

They have each other. And they love each other. And they do what they can to soothe the suffering.

God bless these folks. And all people suffering illness and those who care for them – resources or no.

Wendy

2011-05-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

This morning there was a bit of joy for us here in Berlin. I received a call from our friend Jorge T. in San Miguel. A while back we had asked him where we might be able to buy a wheelchair for a child here in Berlin – we were hoping he knew of a place in San Miguel so we wouldn’t have to go all the way to San Salvador. He said that his Rotary Club could probably get a chair. And they did! Rotary Club Siramá based out of San Miguel collaborated with Rotary Club Choluteca in Honduras to obtain a chair for us! (www.clubrotariosiramasanmiguel.org)

So Jorge called to set up a time that they could come to Berlin to deliver it. They wanted to go to the community and visit the little girl personally. So we found a time we could all go. It happened to be yesterday – Mother’s Day here in El Salvador.

Ursulo and Jorge from Rotary Club Siramá arrived about 10:15 in a smallish car. We all knew it probably could not make it on the roads in a canton so we loaded the wheelchair in the Pastoral House pick up truck and I drove us down to El Recreo.

I wasn’t entirely sure where Wendy lived in El Recreo – but I was told that we would be met on the main road by the cut off to their house. And sure enough, grandpa Alcides was there waiting for us!

He hopped in the back of the truck and pointed the way. I had never been on this road before – it was a bit rutted with some tight curves, a bit narrow in spots and well off the beaten path. We finally made it. I parked on the street but was soon told to move the truck into the yard because something needed to get by. I thought another truck, but it was an ox cart full of wood.

I went in to greet Grandma Marta and Wendy who were in the house. Wendy was finishing her meal of beans. The men unloaded the chair. We spoke for a while with Alcides and soon Marta carried Wendy out and set her in the chair. We all commented and expressed appreciation of the chair. And Jorge and Ursulo asked questions about Wendy’s condition.

It was all incomprehensible to me so I later asked Jorge to explain in English (he is bilingual). He said “the congenital defect of the girl in her back is named myelomeningocele. She went to surgery when she was one day old. Later she went back to the Operating Room and the neurosurgeon set a valve in her head to regulate the cerebrospinal fluid.”

Marta lifted up Wendy’s shirt so we could see where she had surgery. They must have grafted the area with the skin from her thigh. You can see in one of the photos a large patch.

I googled the condition to learn more. Skip the next 3 paragraphs if you are a little squeamish. It isn’t horribly graphic – mostly sad.

From the MedlinePlus website (A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine NIH National Institutes of Health): Myelomeningocele is the most common type of spina bifida. It is a neural tube defect in which the bones of the spine do not completely form, resulting in an incomplete spinal canal. This causes the spinal cord and meninges (the tissues covering the spinal cord) to stick out of the child's back. Other congenital disorders or birth defects may also be present in a child with myelomeningocele. Hydrocephalus may affect as many as 90% of children with myelomeningocele. Other disorders of the spinal cord or musculoskeletal system may be seen, including syringomyelia and hip dislocation.

The cause of myelomeningocele is unknown. However, low levels of folic acid in a woman's body before and during early pregnancy is thought to play a part in this type of birth defect. The vitamin folic acid (or folate) is important for brain and spinal cord development.

Additionally:
Children who also have hydrocephalus may need a ventricular peritoneal shunt placed. This will help drain the extra fluid. This procedure is done in the operating room under general anesthesia. It takes about 1 1/2 hours. The child's hair behind the ear is shaved off. A surgical cut in the shape of a horseshoe (U-shape) is made behind the ear. Another small surgical cut is made in the child's belly. A small hole is drilled in the skull. A small thin tube called a catheter is passed into a ventricle of the brain. Another catheter is placed under the skin behind the ear and moved down the neck and chest, and usually into the abdominal (peritoneal) cavity. Sometimes, it goes to the chest area. The doctor may make a small cut in the neck to help position the catheter. A valve (fluid pump) is placed underneath the skin behind the ear. The valve is attached to both catheters. When extra pressure builds up around the brain, the valve opens, and excess fluid drains out of it into the belly or chest area. This helps decrease intracranial pressure.

Wendy does have Hydrocephalus. I could see the tube along the side of her neck and it’s origin on her scalp.

God bless that child!

As we were sitting and talking with Wendy and her grandfather, small talk mostly, Martha came out with bowls of beans for each of us. And then came out with heaping plates of tortillas. And then she came out with huge glasses of lemonade (which gave me no ill effects thank you very much!!)

This is another example of the generosity and hospitality of the folks who have so very little. I learned that this family does not own the home they live in … they are the caretakers of the property. Which means they at least don’t have to pay rent. But the only work the grandfather has is farming. And that does not provide much ‘income’ – especially when there is a bad harvest like the last two years.

I was very happy that Rotary Club helped this family! What a blessing!

And we will keep an eye on them. And I know their partner church in Iowa will also. They already have and I know they will continue!

Wendy in her new chair

Jorge, Alcides, Ursulo, Marta and Wendy

Jorge, Wendy and Grandma Marta

Ursulo, Alcides, Jorge, Wendy

An old wheel chair - they lead a rough life

Jorge and Wendy