Third Week in El Salvador

During my third week in this country I did not go to language school primarily because the school was closed and secondarily because there was so much to do. From the ordination of Amy to the priesthood to a trip to the beach things were really hopping. Not to mention that I was out sick for 24 hours on Wednesday.

Monday
Monday was quite interesting. I spent most of the middle of the day riding on the route 5 bus. I knew that it was the bus I needed to take from the CIMA IV where Susie’s house is to catch the 44 to go to Amy’s house, but I did not know exactly where to get off. So I passed the correct stop and wound up getting a tour of the city by the way of El Centro. EL Centro is the commercial center of town where there are hundreds of little vendors on the street and three Roman Catholic Churches including the Cathedral of El Salvador del Mundo where Monseñor Romero is buried. I will have more El Centro next week because we took a guided tour of the area in school. Anyway it took 45 minutes to get through El Centro in the bus.

After I returned to where I regularly catch the 5, I boarded the 44 for another unguided tour of Antiguo Custatlan, the area where the University of Central America (UCA) is. It is a Jesuit run university that was started in 1975 as a center for the study of Liberation Theology. This is the site of the massacre of six Jesuit priests and two civilians in 1989 by the fuerzas armada of the government of El Salvador. I will have more on my visit to the site of the massacre next week, with pictures. Finally after three busses and 2 hours I arrived at Amy’s apartment to take a tour of Parque Custcalan where the wall that memorializes the non-combatants that died in the civil war and the site where Romero was murdered.



The wall in Parque Custelan contains 25,000 names of non-combatants that were murdered or disappeared by the fuerzas armada of the Government of El Salvador during the Civil War. Most of the deaths occurred during the first couple of years (1980-1981). About two-thirds of the deaths occurred during that time including Monseñor Romero (1980) when the Death Squads were extremely active. Padre Rotilio Grande, the good friend of Romero, was murdered in 1977. Besides the names of the non-combatants there is a mural representing the socio-political history of El Salvador. I took a series of photos of the mural and stitched them together in a panorama. That picture is what you see here. After the Parque Cuscatlan we went to the hospital of Divine Providence, the place where Monseñor Oscar Romero lived and was murdered. In the fall of 2003 I watched the movie Romero in a class and since that time I have not been the same. Romero stood up against the repressive government of El Salvador in a time when he knew he would be killed for it. There is a scene in the movie that reminds me of Jesus in Gethsemane. Romero is kneeling at his bed praying, I think it is on March 23 immediately before his speech that pleads with the soldiers of the army to stop killing their own people. He says “I can’t, I must, I will.”; meaning that he must make the stance that gets him killed. Here is a portion of that speech:

"Brothers, you came from our own people. You are killing your own brothers. Any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God, which says, 'Thou shalt not kill'. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you obeyed your consciences rather than sinful orders. The church cannot remain silent before such an abomination. ...In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cry rises to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you: stop the repression" Oscar Romero, 3/23/1980

I knelt in the spot where this was supposed to have happened and prayed that the things that have occurred in this country will never happen again.

After the tour we went to Pupusaria Gaby near the apartment for dinner and then to the ordination practice which lasted way too long.

Tuesday
Tuesday was the ordination of Amy to the priesthood. I worked out of Susana’s house until we left for the ordination around five. I have to tell you that this ordination was the best I have ever been to. During the consecration the Anglican bishop, Martin Barahona, said the prayers in English and the Lutheran bishop, Gomez, said the prayers in Spanish. Mighty powerful!!! The ordination was covered by Chanel 12 and made all the news broad cast on Wednesday. Additionally, Amy was interviewed by La Prensa Grafica. That interview appeared in the paper on Wednesday. For more on the ordination check out: http://www.updatesfromelsalvador.blogspot.com/. I played my Native American Flute for the prelude, at communion and at the prelude.

Wednesday
This day was not a very good day for me. I was really sick all day. I stayed in bed except to go to the john or to eat. Vince and Shelley brought liquids, bananas and Pepto Bismol to me in mercy mission. Not much else to tell but that the sleep and the care cured me and in the morning I was ready to go to the beach.

Thursday
This was beach day. We left with Amy, Sarah, Vivian, Shelley, Becky, and Robin for the beach about 11AM and headed for La Libertad where we had lunch. (Becky and Sarah are friends of Amy’s from Davis and Vivian is Sarah's daughter.) Afterwards we headed to the diocesan retreat center Cielo-Mar a few kilometers closer to San Salvador than La Libertad. Here are a few pictures from a very relaxing and fun day. The sand ruin is a creation of Robin’s.

Friday
Friday was a day off for me. However, I went to San Salvador to have lunch with Hector Mira and his wife at their hotel. We had an interesting conversation about the current situation in El Salvador. I really enjoyed my time with them.

In the evening we went to the selection and crowning of the new Reina de la Juventud Anglicana de El Salvador. (Queen of the Anglican Youth in El Salvador) The young women from several parishes set about to raise money for their youth programs and participate in a “beauty pageant”. I was selected to be a judge. I am not really into beauty pageants but the young women had a great time, took the challenge seriously and raised about $600 for the youth program. The audience had a great time, too.

Saturday
Saturday I went with Padre Ramiero Chavez to San Mateo in Lourdes. I presided at the Eucharist and played my Native American Flute for the congregation by special request. Many of them had been at the ordination. As a side not we vested in the room that Peter Schell lived in for a year. The parishioners that were there remembered Peter as a great youth leader. I met a interesting young woman named Dayana Michel. She is named after the songs “Oh Diana” and “Michele”. She said that her parents named her this because they liked the songs. She is studying Journalism at the National University. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera here so I do not have any pictures.
Later that evening we all went to San Andres for New Years Eve Mass. This time I was deacon to Amy as she celebrated her second mass. Afterwards, we went to Victor and Vilma Ayala’s house for tamales just as we had on Christmas Eve. Victor is the senior warden at San Andres. .
That night we were treated to another spectacular display of fireworks for New Years Eve. Vince, Amy and Robin also put on a great show for us.

Sunday
On Sunday I was scheduled to preside at Santa Maria Virgin, but, there was no way to get there. So I went to Amy’s church, San Andres and was deacon for Amy again. I think that I collapsed the rest of the day. It was a tiring week!

Second Week in El Salvador

This week started with a trip to el campo (rural area). On Sunday, Robin Denney and I went with Bishop Barahona to San Juan de la Tran, southeast of San Salvador. The occasion was the celebration of the 14th anniversary of the founding of the community. The community was established as a result of the peace accord of 1992. Most of the people in this community were combatants on the side of the FMLN during the war.

The celebration took place at the La Iglesia de San Pablo Letrán. The service was broadcast by Radio Mangle, the local community radio station. The telephone that the radio station was going to use did not work so the bishop lent them his cell phone to connect to the radio station. Padre Gérman Lopéz, the priest in charge of the mission, and I con-celebrated with the bishop and I acted as the deacon. The bishop’s sermon during the service was inspiring. It was about the community and the church working together in the struggle to establish the Kingdom of God here on earth.

The church is located on land owned in common by the community, so the community has the authority to decide who occupies the church. At one time a non-denominational church was there and when the community asked them to leave they took everything that was not anchored to the ground: windows, doors, roof, etc. The Anglican Church in El Salvador has an attitude of being in the struggle with the people. Because of this attitude, when the church came to mission in San Juan de la Tran the community realized they had a real partner not only in their spiritual life but in the struggles in their daily lives. The community recently elected to deed the land the church is on to the Diocese of El Salvador so that the diocese can make the necessary repairs to the church. The diocese wants to build a clinic in the vacant lot across from the church and the community is in the process of deeding tat property to the diocese, also. The clinic is presently operating the house of the lay person in charge of the church, Cain. There is also a medical specialist that works in the clinic.

There was a grand fiesta after the service with games for the kids. Of the 100 or so persons at the service about half were children. When I started to take pictures of them they all gathered around to look at the results in the digital camera. Then more and more of them wanted to have their pictures taken in various groups. It was a lot of fun seeing the smiles on their faces. The pictures will be printed and given to Padre Gérman for the community. Later on there were piñatas for the children. The food was typical of the campo: chicken soup, rice, and tortillas. There was the touch of imperialism, however, as we were served Pepsi to drink.

On our way back to San Salvador from the fiesta we stopped in Ciudad Romero where the bishop was interviewed by Radio Mangle. The station is located in the facilities of the Mangle Association, a cooperative that helps the people in the region in many ways and is aided by the diocese. During the interview the bishop handed the mike to me and asked me to say something to the audience – I said that I was glad to be in the country and I thanked the people of San Juan de la Tran for their hospitality. Not very original but all I could come up with at the time in Spanish.

This week in Spanish class we had a new teacher, Wilmer. He is a good teacher. Although I am in intermediate Spanish, I still am struggling with conversation. It seems like there are so many things to remember when forming a sentence; almost like I have too much information.

My partner in class is a young woman named Beth from Manchester, England. She is working on a PhD studying the reasons for the violence in El Salvador.

My baggage finally arrived on Tuesday; eight days after it had arrived in El Salvador and ten days after I had arrived. Not much to say for the good service of American Airlines. The positive thing about the luggage was that everything was supposed to be there was there and nothing was damaged. The clothes were a bit wrinkled, however.

Tuesday was also the birthday of my host mother, Susanna Barrera. We had a small party for her.

People began arriving for La Revereda Amy Denney Zuniga’s ordination this week. Her mother and my fiend, Shelley, arrived on Thursday in time for Christmas. On Friday, a group went to Quezeltapec with Hector Mira, who works at CDSP, to distribute baskets and toys to the less fortunate there. They all said it was a fantastic time. There is more about this event on Amy’s blog at http://www.updatesfromelsalvador.blogspot.com/.

On Christmas Eve, I was invited to lunch at the comedor (a place to eat) that belongs to the mother of Alex, my host father. It is located in the bus terminal near downtown San Salvador. She has owned the restaurant for 25 years and Alex says he grew up in that bus terminal. The food was excellent and it is a great place for people watching.

Later on Christmas Eve, I went over to Amy’s and we went to San Andres Apóstol for Christmas Eve service. I presided in Spanish wearing the new stole that Amy gave me for my ordination. It was a fantastic service with lots of participation by the children. After the service the children all received gifts from the church.

You would not believe the fireworks display that took place from about 11:30PM till 12:30 AM in San Salvador. It was just incredible and it was all put on by private individuals. Fireworks are legal in El Salvador much to the detriment of 175 young people who were injured in the month of December and the 20 or so that were killed. Nevertheless, Amy, Vince, Audrey and Robin set off fireworks in front the apartment during after midnight on Christmas morning.

On Sunday, Christmas Day, we all went to San Andreas Apóstol again at 10AM and I presided at the Eucharist chanting the mass in Spanish. After church we went back to Amy and Vince’s and opened Christmas presents and took a nap as we did not go to sleep until 2AM Christmas morning.