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.