Summer Days

June 24, 2010

This week reminds me of summers long ago when I had vacation from school and life was carefree. Not that the week has been carefree in any sense of the word, but because the children are on vacation this week, my schedule has changed and I find myself with more time to enjoy fun activities with the children. There are no team meetings nor group therapy times. Instead we have planned activities to give the children a break from the normal routine. Monday night a few of the girls came over to my apartment for a sleepover. Wednesday I made soft pretzels with both the boys' and girls' home. Last night and tonight we are watching my favorite movie of all times, "Anne of Green Gables." I did discover while watching it with the girls that I have a new perspective on it as I try to perceive the movie through their eyes -- the eyes of children who understand the pain of Anne as an unwanted orphan. Many of them have felt unloved and unwanted.
Today we have a soccer tournament in honor of the World Cup. For me it has been a good chance to build relationship with the children and connect with them. I have always loved the quote, "You can learn more about a person in an hour of play and in a day of conversation." (or something to that affect) I seem to have lost my camera cord for downloading pictures to my computer so it may be a while yet til I can post pictures from the week.
The vacation week came at a perfect time because last Saturday the mother of three of our children passed away after a battle with cancer. The children and several staff members went to the burial service on Sunday. For these children it is a blessing not to have to jump right back into school and studies but rather to have some time to grieve and readjust to life. They are precious children and it is difficult to see their pain but I am thankful that they have so many people to walk alongside of them here at the home.

Country Wanderings

June 13, 2010

Today Lara (my roommate) and I made the hour and a half drive to the town of Suchitotto, situated on El Salvador's largest lake (but an artificial one). Since I was tired from the week, I was hoping that we kept it a rather low key day and that is exactly what we did. We got to see a little bit of the colonial town before hiking a mile outside of the town to see the waterfalls, Los Tercios. The guide who went with us shared about the history of the town -- a place torn apart by the civil war years ago.

Because the rainy season is only just beginning, the water falling over the rocks was not a ton but it was still beautiful. Many of the rocks were cylinder shaped or pillar-like, giving the waterfalls their own unique structure. I was able to go and stand at the very edge of the waterfalls and look down at the river below. Walking towards the falls it looked as if one might just drop off the end of the world. I of course was careful so as not to drop off. Standing there though reminded me that I feel as if I am on the brink of change in the light of the things that God has been revealing to me. He wants to change my heart and attitudes and even the way I relate to people. I am standing on the edge, getting ready to jump into all that God has for me, no matter what the risk is.

After the hike we went down to a restaurant on the lake and there we settled down for the afternoon, making time to read and journal. I will mention that I was going to that which I never do and order tilapia instead of my customary grilled chicken. I had placed my order and everything when I suddenly thought to ask the waitress if the fish came with eyes and head. It did so I quickly cancelled my order and returned to the regular chicken. At least I attempted to try something new though. I loved the view from the restaurant and the breeze and it was perfect some time of reflecting and praying about what God has been teaching me.

Anytime I drive somewhere new, I am met with surprises on the road. My first surprise today came when all of a sudden in the left hand lane there was a barrel and I had to get over to the right. Immediately after that I saw that there was now oncoming traffic in that left lane. The problem was that there had been absolutely no warning. No signs were in place mentioning that it would be a good idea to move over. No caution signs warned drivers to maintain there position in the right lane. There was simply no communication as to what the barrel stood for and so I saw the whole situation as potentially dangerous. On the drive home, we saw that there had been a landslide closing down the other two lanes and that was the reason for the traffic merging together. The changes were much more clearly marked coming the other direction.

Another discovery in my driving was that the small towns do not mark which streets are one way. It seems that you have to guess and hope that you are correct. I am sure that there are some rules, maybe rules that apply to every little town, but I have yet to figure out what they are. Thankfully I did not appear to go the wrong way on any street and all was well.

Upon our return to the city, we lost power for about 45 minutes. It came back on for a little and then went back off. I had resigned myself to an apple and granola bar for dinner since there was no electric and I did not want to open the fridge. But then the power came on and stayed on. From what I am hearing there was a blackout in all of El Salvador and Honduras. I have no idea of the reason but it reminded me of my many days of power outages at camp in Honduras. The challenge here in San Salvador is that I do not expect the power outages and so I am not as prepared. It took me a while to find a lighter to light the candles and then I broke it so hopefully we will have power until I can get to the store and find some matches. I am reminded that I have much to be thankful for though in that power outages are a rarity these days in my life.

Moments with the Children

June 12, 2010

Here I sit half watching the USA vs. England soccer game, half chatting with Lara, my roommate, and trying to write a blog entry. Multi-tasking would sum up the moment. I just got back from a workshop at church about the different learning styles. All of the volunteers with the children’s Sunday School were supposed to attend. It was a good workshop but because of a long couple of weeks at work, I was incredibly tired. Thankfully I managed to stay awake and did learn a few things.

This past week at La Casa was a tough one in many ways. On Monday we learned that the mother of three of the children was moving in with other family members because she is in her last days of a battle with cancer. In reality she has not fought it much, and so she is going quickly. Several of the staff took the children to visit their mother the next day for what could be there last visit. They shared the message of Christ with her again but she did not want to have anything to do with Him. As of now the plan is to do another visit on Monday (and I think I will go along) so that the children have as much time with their mother as possible. For children (and in adults), coping with loss is difficult and the pain of these last days has been evident in their behavior.

I had several opportunities this week to spend extra time with the girls’ home. On Thursday I took some of the younger girls to a nearby supermarket to look for a cleaning supply. We made it a bit of a treasure hunt so they had fun in spite of it being a rather mundane task – at least for me (but then I am leave the walls of my apartment all the time and have the freedom to go where I want). Friday afternoon I baked cookies with the 12-14 year olds. I am also dedicating more time to one of the girls in particular – Elba. I have been working with her in reading comprehension for the last month and now I will begin some tutoring in English as well.

One of the things that encouraged me most this week was a conversation I had with two of the older boys, Alejandro and Salvador. They were talking about their dreams with schooling after graduating from high school. Alejandro, who still has a year and a half left, wants to become a chef and he said that he would like to have a restaurant here in San Salvador. He would then bring meals to the children’s home every Friday as a small way to give back to the ministry for all that he has received. How encouraging it was to see his heart and attitude!

The Recapse of the Mission Team

June 6, 2010

As I mentioned in the previous blog entry, we had a missions team here this past week -- a youth group from Georgia. Because I was quite involved in their schedule (some translating, leading the campout/cookout, and helping with controlling the erosion at the farm), I have found myself pretty exhausted this weekend. I have had way too many late nights. We were very blessed to have the team here though. The work we did with diverting some of the erosion which was soon to cave in the drive out at the farm came just in time because the very next day Tropical Storm Agatha entered the picture and we had lots of rain. It was also that next day that we were slated for camping out at the farm. We had a few hours of sunshine that Friday afternoon and so we put up tarps in case we could sleep outside as well as got the fire pit ready. About that time the heavens let loose and the rains came down. With much struggle we were able to get the fire started -- and without gasoline. I may have had a little too much pride involved as we were worked on the cooking fire because an uncle of two of the girls in the home was also on the farm that night and he helped get the fire laid. But the typical method of building a fire here is, throw a bunch of sticks (and large ones at that) on a pile, pour on gasoline, and throw the match on top while jumping back. He tried that once and it did not work so when he walked off for more gas, we re-arranged the sticks to make a "real fire." (I had enough classes in Outdoor Cooking, Education, etc... to value a fire built without the help of "explosives." The uncle was convinced that in the rain the gas was necessary and I said that it was not. In the end we started the fire without more gasoline, but we did use a lot of newspaper and dryer lint.

By the time we retired to our places to sleep that night (the girls in the chapel and the boys in a room in one of the little houses), we were soaked and tired. I had led a few teambuilding activities in the chapel and then shared my testimony with the group. That night as I lay in the hot chapel (there was no ventilation other than where air entered in the cracks around the windows -- open windows would have meant that rain, animals, and/or people could have entered with no problem), I struggled to fall asleep, but I realized that I could be thankful for having a dry place to sleep. I knew that many people in the town just below the farm were probably experiencing leaks and flooding that night from the storm. At one point when I looked out the window I saw an opposum climbing up a nearby tree. Had the windows been open, it probably would have joined us inside.

On Wednesday the team took care of all of the children during the day so that the childcare team could go and have a short retreat and rest. We went to a place at the beach where there were some beautiful pools. After a team activity and devotional, we had time to play or rest. I enjoyed hanging out with the other staff in a relaxed setting. Because the ocean was pretty dangerous that day, most of us stayed up by the pools.

Thursday I went with the team to a community almost at the border of Honduras where the mother of one of the boys lives. She use to live on the side of a garbage dump until La Casa de Mi Padre along with Habitat for Humanity built her a new home. From there we went with a pastor up to a community in the mountains where he is working to start a church. I went with the pastor and two of the youth to several houses, handing out food and inviting them to church. One woman that we met, Sophia, was very clearly saddened by life and struggling. We shared with her about Jesus and the peace that He offers but she was not ready to make any changes in her life or surrender to Him. I found it challenging to enter into random homes and start talking to the people there but I know that it is good for me to do. Sharing Jesus is much easier when you have built a relationship with someone though and there is a basis for which you can speak into their lives. Still it was a good experience and good exposure for the youth.

Besides all of the mission team events, there were other farewell parties, the family visit, and personal farewells for me this week. This morning I taught Sunday School for 19 two to four year-olds at church. I did it mostly in English since several of the children only speak English but I found myself forgetting and switching over to Spanish which complicated things for the other leader who was translating. As usual the children were running around the room a lot and even activities that called for their active participation were not enough to keep them in the right part of the room. It would help if we did not give them chocolate cookies the minute that they walked in the door. I think I will try to suggest that to the other leaders in two weeks when we teach again.

Since I need to leave in a few minutes, that is the recapse for the moment. Hopefully I can touch on some other things that God has been doing in a future post.

Singing In The Rain

June 6, 2010

For those who did not get a chance to check out the blog of La Casa de Mi Padre, here is a post that I wrote regarding last weekend -- the events and the rains.

The past few days here in El Salvador have been laden with heavy rains as the Tropical Depression Agatha hovered over Central America, dumping its water on Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. With the rains, came flooding and so life at La Casa de Mi Padre took a different turn on Saturday. A mission team from Georgia arrived at La Casa de Mi Padre late morning to share lunch with the children and also lead them in some games and activities. This team had just spent the night out at La Finca and hence had already spent several hours in wet clothes and shoes.
In the girl’s home the drains on the two patios had clogged up and the water seeped down only at a very slow pace. They were not keeping up with the torrential downpours. Before lunch several of the tías, children, and members of the mission team formed a “broom brigade” and used the brooms to sweep the water through the dining hall and down to a level where it would run into the street. During lunch we noted that the water in the backyard continued to rise and was nearing the door to the boys’ home. Mid-afternoon, in the midst of still more rain, the boys, tíos, and youth from the mission team waded out into the backyard and began the second “broom brigade.” Their task was much bigger than that in the girls’ home but they attacked it with a smile and a vengeance. At some point the shoveling and sweeping of water changed into more of a water fight than anything else. Several of the boys also discovered it was a great place to do handstands, and so they played in the muddy water, contentedly.
As I watched from the schoolroom window where the older girls and I were playing some games, I was impressed by the attitudes I saw exhibited in the boys. I heard no complaining that they had to work in the rain. They simply went about the task and made it into something fun. The youth from the United States and those from El Salvador worked side by side to prevent flooding in the boys’ home. Communication was limited because of the language barrier but I know that what the youth from Georgia communicated without words was that they cared about the children from the home and they were willing to get drenched and muddy yet again to help slow the rising water level.
Today as I came to work, there were the boys again, this time digging out the drains and all of the mud that had accumulated there. They were still smiling and proudly told me all that they had done – and this by 8:00AM. Thankfully today dawned with bright sunshine and though there are still threatening rain clouds in the sky, we are praying for continued relief from the rain throughout the country.

**The weather did clear up on Monday and thankfully things have had a chance to dry out over this past week.