First Week In El Salvador

Hi everyone,

I am in El Salvador now and things are going great. I have completed one week of Spanish class at CIS (http://www.cis-elsalvador.org/). It is a very socially conscious operation and we have learned a good bit about the situation in El Salvador. I will be writing more about that later.

On my first Sunday, I presided in Spanish at the chapel in the diocesan headquarters at 8AM and at San Andres Apostol the church that my friend Revda. Amy Denny Zuniga is in charge of. It is now official that I have presided more in Spanish than in English since my ordination on 12/3. Amy has me booked at different churches for the rest of my time here.

Amy and her husband Vince are in El Salvador working in the Diocese of El Salvador for the next year or more. Amy is from the Diocese of Northern California and was graduated form the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale last May. She will be ordained to the priesthood on December 27 by Bishop Barahona. Vince and Amy have a blog at http://updatesfromelsalvador.blogspot.com. Check it out there are some great stories there.

Amy's sister, Robin, is also here for a month or so and has a website about her adventures in El Salvador and the service work she did in Mississippi after the hurricane disasters. It is located at http://www.geocities.com/redenney99.



I am staying with a great family in a barrio named CIMA IV. It is in the hills to the south of San Salvador. My Salvadoran parents are Alex Rodriguez and Susana Barrera (pictured to left). They have a son named Rodrigo and a housekeeper Dona Jesus. I am surprised to have my own room as the house is very small. The neatest part of the house is the roof. It is a covered patio where we sit, talk had have coffee. I also do my homework there. Dona Jesus is a good cook and I am well taken care of. It is possible to take a bus to and from school, but I have only ridden the bus to the house once. Alex takes me to school in the mornings and Susana or Vince take me home. However, I believe that next week I will be riding the bus more.

On Tuesday evening, I met with Bishop Barahona for about an hour. I like him very much. Tomorrow (Sunday, 12/17) we are riding together with Robin to San Juan de la Tran. The community fas founded after the war as a part of the land reform. Most of the people there are x-guerilla fighters and members of the FMLN party. The church is celebrating the anniversary of the founding of the community in the early 90's.

Today, Sunday, we went Christmas shopping at the El Arbol de Dios and El Mercado de Artesanias. Both places were great places to shop and a lot of Christmas and other presents were purchased. I was the recipient of a beautiful stole from Amy for my ordination. Here is a picture of me in it. Also, here is a picture of Amy and Vince shopping in the Mercado.



Dinner tonight was papusas a typical El Salvadoran treat. They are made of either corn or rice flour and stuffed with goodies like beans and cheese and grilled. This was the first time I had been to a papuseria. The papusas were GREAT!!



There is one negative thing that is going on, I do not have my suitcase yet. American Airlines has been really uncooperative. They give you numbers to call to check on the baggage and no one ever answers the phones or they are off-the-hook. I went to the airport yesterday and they had finally sent the baggage to me via a courier on 14 Dec. but the baggage is not here yet and they do not seem to care at all about it, nor can they tell me when the bags might get here. Sorry to go on so long about this but as you might can expect I am a bit frustrated. It is a lucky thing that I had a couple pair of jeans, my doff kit and underwear in my second bag to get me through.

That is all for this week. Check back next week for more.