El Salvador 2023 – part 2

The last half of the week was quite eventful, in both good and bad ways.

On Friday we went to San Lorenzo. That is one of the most memorable places for me, where my fear of cows was realized. When we arrived, Pastor Francisco and his wife Angela were welcoming as they always have been. There were two boys playing in the yard, waiting to be seen with their parents. Mom gave them a world beach ball and they were very excited to play with it. The first few patients were sitting already, so I went to take names. I couldn’t tell you their names, but I remember their faces from years past.

We were sitting, watching the boys play when it suddenly occurred to me one boy had a very familiar face…years ago we had met a tiny boy, probably 18 months old, who had a heart defect and was told he needed surgery. His name was Emilio. When we left, there was not much hope he could get surgery unless someone paid for everything. This boy playing was him! Donna had already seen him and listened to his heart, not knowing who he was. We asked if that was the same little boy and his mom told us that when he was four years old they had the surgery done in Seville, Spain. He has another surgery planned in a month. It was truly incredible to see him as a healthy 9 year old, playing and running around.

The rest of the day in San Lorenzo was slow. We had about 35 patients all day long. Some of us went adventuring to the store for drinks and got to see the cathedral on the way. After lunch, Bishop Juan drove us down to the river that separates El Salvador from Guatemala. We crossed on the swinging bridge and then were going to cross back but David had the idea of walking across. Juan said it was fine, so several of us walked right across through the water of the Rio Grande! Totally worth the soggy shoes.

Saturday was a fun day for our group. We had earlier decided to visit the Mayan ruins of Tazumal, but then the other group was going to the hot springs so we joined and did both! I’ve been to ruins a few times but this tour guide was by far the most informative of any. He explained that the temples were oriented in the cardinal directions and said there are about 11 layers of the big temple that haven’t even been excavated. He explained that the Mayans were not bloodthirsty cannibals, they were much more intellectual than history tells us. They had many calendars which were based on seasons and lunar cycles, including the birth calendar. In Mayan culture, your birthday occurs every 9 months because it took 9 months to be born. They have a higher respect for women because women create life. He told us that 60% of the leaders were women. We learned how to count to 5 in Nahuat, which is different from Nahuatl. It made me want to learn more! The sun was very hot during our tour and there was not much shade. Afterwards we shopped in the street vendors a bit and I found some beautiful jade earrings.

For the afternoon, we went to the Termales de Santa Teresa, also known as the hot springs. El Salvador is home to the largest group of geothermal springs in Central America. There are various pools, mostly hot but some cooler. They also have fresh smoothies, coffee, and great food. There are several cabanas to stay in and it is not very expensive. I’d love to be able to go and stay there someday, experience the spa and have some relaxation. We walked around more than I have in years past and I got some beautiful pictures of the flowers.

Sunday is always shopping and church day! In the morning, we take the Ruta de Los Flores (Salvadoran version of the Blue Ridge Parkway) up to the little town of Ataco and spend a few hours shopping. My favorite shop is the Hermanos FaBrus, who paint “las memitas” which symbolize the Salvadoran woman. The other shops are touristy and have mostly the same things but sometimes you find hidden gems. We were able to purchase items in Ataco for our fundraising auction next spring. Hopefully the people here will appreciate them like we all do.

For lunch we went to the coffee plantation Entre Nubes. Most of us have been before so we skipped the tour and just relaxed. They have made improvements since we last visited…more fancy machines for the coffee and expanded the dining area. It was a great lunch as always.

Sunday afternoon we went to La Providencia for church. The message really tied together all the things we talked about through the week. Kathy picked random words for us to do nightly devotions on long before the trip. He talked about almost all of them. It was a great end to the week.

For dinner after church we went to “the shack” for pupusas. They have also made improvements! It doesn’t even look like a shack anymore! The pupusas were delicious.

Monday was the most adventurous day of all, travel home day. We started at 7:30am getting on the bus for our 2.5 hour drive to the airport. The bus made it with no problems. While checking in, several of us were asked if we would like the exit row instead…DUH of course. Once we checked in, we had 3 hours until our flight started boarding. We all went off in different groups to get some coffee and food and waste the hours. Around 12, they notified us the plane would be delayed coming in, which we later figured out was because Miami airport is where Trump landed and they probably stopped flights for a little bit. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 1:11pm…we didn’t get on the plane until 2pm and then there was a minor maintenance issue that had to be fixed. A light cover had come off. Now, if they had fixed it and been done it wouldn’t have been a problem. But it seems the mechanic needed a certain type of tape approved by the FAA to fix the light cover. After an HOUR on the tarmac we finally got clearance to take off.

It was a smooth flight, except about 20 minutes before we were due to land I noticed the plane had started circling. After probably 20 minutes of circling with no updates, the pilot finally came on and told us Miami airport was closed for severe weather. This happened to us on another trip and we were diverted to a whole different airport where we had to spend the night in a hotel…NOT AGAIN! Another 30 minutes later we finally landed, 8pm EST (6pm El Salvador time). Our connecting flight to Raleigh took off at 7:30 so we had totally missed it.

Coming through customs was easier than in the past, mainly because the agent I had didn’t speak a word to me. He didn’t even open my passport! All our bags arrived and we went up to the ticket area (with what seemed like the rest of America) to rebook our flights. As we stood in line, Susan got on the phone with the airline. We figured we would be there a while and miss the late flight as well, but as luck would have it, the ticketing agent came and asked for anyone who was going to Raleigh to step out of line. They had room on the late flight! We all think Susan’s call saved us. We had to re-check in through TSA and then RAN to the gate, only to find out it didn’t board for another 18 minutes.

After all was said and done, we arrived in RDU around 1:45am. I was worried our bags didn’t make it but somehow they all did! It was an adventurous day that I’m glad is over.

The trip was overall wonderful. Highs and lows are to be expected during travel, but we sure did swing the pendulum. I can’t wait for the next trip…hopefully we will have some new faces to join the team between now and next year.

The return to El Salvador

At the request of my Gram, I’m bringing the old blog back to life! We are back in Ahuachapan for the first time since 2019 (thanks Covid). As much as things have changed over the past 4 years, a lot has stayed the same. We are staying at the mission house like in the past, but now there is a big kitchen and dining area on the second level! It’s really nice to have an inside area to eat and hang out. There are several noticeable changes overall, less trash on the streets, more apartments/buildings on the road from San Salvador.

We got here Monday around lunchtime, after having to be at RDU at 3am for our 6am flight. TSA wasn’t even open when we got there! We had a layover in Miami, where Kamiel and I enjoyed chicken caesar salads, mozzarella sticks, and chips at 10am…it felt like lunchtime because we had been up so long already! The flight to El Salvador was almost the same length as the flight to Miami. Once we arrived in San Salvador, it was just a matter of clearing customs and getting our baggage. The airport has had significant improvements since we were last here. It used to be only one story, small customs on the way to baggage. Now it is 2 stories, accented by the El Salvador blue beams in the ceiling, and has separate walkways for getting on and off the plane. We got our visa stamps, collected bags, and went outside to wait for the medical bags to clear customs. In the past, we have waited several hours for that process but this time it was probably less than an hour! Then we got on the bus and began the drive to Ahuachapan, about 2 hours.

Tuesday’s clinic was in San Salvador, Zacamil. It’s a church that the mission hasn’t been out to in probably 10 years, but is close to a hospital so we were told it may not be very busy. We got there after a 2 hour drive and they had already started taking names and putting people in line to be seen. It was hotter in the church than most places we have been…Brian said it was because the ceiling was so low, air couldn’t move like usual. Even though everyone was hot, we all worked together to set up the stations – four medical, one glasses, the pharmacy, and a spot for the kids to color and play. Bishop Juan brought us Burger King for lunch, a special treat. By the end of the day, we had seen around 150 people. The oldest was 90 years old (Carlota) and the youngest was 1 month old (Kael). Turned out to be quite busy after all. We stopped on the way back for some gas station treats. We also drove past a field of lava from a volcanic eruption in 1914. It was so cool! We all went to bed fairly early…the heat was exhausting.

Wednesday, we headed to Roca Eterna, another church none of us had been to before. It is walking distance from the mission house! Again, when we got there the people of the church had already started lining up in order. We split the line into general medicine and glasses, and then got started. It was much cooler in this church, because they had ceiling fans and a big space. Again, we did 4 medical stations, 1 glasses, the pharmacy, and the kids played in a separate room. Somehow it felt more chaotic than most clinics…I think because people kept coming to the doorway instead of waiting out in line. It did get better in the afternoon though. We came back to the mission house for lunch and then continued for a few hours afterwards. In the end, we saw about the same amount as the previous day, around 150. Wednesday was also an adventure of rearranging rooms because another group was coming in. They swapped out beds and added beds and we moved a few people around. The new group had a LONG journey getting to the mission house…the bus rear-ended a car and they had to sit for several hours waiting on police and all to get everything straight. No one was hurt and they all made it safely. We are enjoying getting to know them.

Today (Thursday) we went back to a place that is familiar to many of us, El Shaddai. Back in 2014 on our first trip, our group helped with the construction of this church…it was nothing but walls. That was where I got sick and ended up staying in for a few days. Then in 2018, it’s where we held clinic for 2 days and most of us ended up sick (see previous blog posts). Now we are back in 2023 and we have successfully held a clinic without losing anyone to sickness. Some of the group went out for food delivery and the others stayed to run the clinic. We set up three medical stations and one for glasses. There were a few people already in line when we arrived and then more just kept coming through the day. We totaled about 100 today, between glasses and medical. There were two little girls who were just the cutest, Emely and Camila. The older one (probably 8 or 9 years old) wanted to take pictures with us and gave us all one Smarty from her little roll. The younger one (probably 4-5) came up to me at the intake desk and confidently asked what time she was going to see the doctor. She was satisfied when I said it would be just a few minutes. It’s always fun to be able to talk to and play with the kids. After the clinic, we went out for ice cream! Juan and Bryan showed us the ATM that allows you to buy Bitcoin, as it is a recognized currency here.

Tomorrow we are planning to go to San Lorenzo. A few of us have been there, but not many. I am very excited to go back and see how the community has changed, although that is where the cows try to scare me most. It will likely be a more difficult day because we have started to run out of some medicines. Every time we come the needs differ, so it is difficult to order exactly what is needed. As we finish the week out, we unfortunately have some patients who we can only recommend medicine for, instead of provide. The same goes for glasses…some strengths of reading glasses are more popular so those are running low as well. We trust that the true needs will be able to be met with the supply we have.

PS I tried to add pictures but the wifi is not strong enough for that…check out the Salvadoran Mission Project or my pictures on Facebook to see them.

An open letter to the buyer of my childhood home…

First of all, welcome. I hope you are excited and see this place as a home, not just a house. It’s not shiny or new, it’s not without flaws, but it’s full of all our memories. This letter is meant as a guide to walk you through the house.

Now let me tell you some of the secrets. When you start to go in the back door, it’s going to trick you – that latch sticks and you have to turn the handle up, not down. And make sure it latches good behind you or the dog can nose it open, we don’t want that.

When you walk in, you’ll see a big counter separating the kitchen from the dining area. It’s the bar. Not a drinking type bar, but where we had fun spinning barstools, breakfast every morning before school, and sat every afternoon to do homework. From there, mom could be cooking dinner and helping us too.

Now walk into the kitchen. It used to be off white tile, light brown cabinets, plastic looking butcher block, but doesn’t it look incredible now? It got a professional remodel not too long ago after some water damage we didn’t find until dad was gone for a few years. All new cabinets, counters, appliances, floor, everything!

From the kitchen, go ahead into the living room, but be careful of the doorway there, sometimes it jumps out and gets you. Mom and dad both tripped and fell on it at different times. Mom ended up with a knot on her eyebrow and a black eye. A few years later Dad landed on a metal cross that was about to be hung on the wall and dented it.

Now I want you to look down. Yes, at the living room floor. This is the most important piece of the house to me. Dad laid this hardwood floor piece by piece every night for months. It is firmly ingrained into my mind never to drag things across the floor because it might scratch the hardwood. 25 years and it ended up with a few scratches but nothing that can’t be buffed out. If you do decide to put a new floor, be gentle taking it up.

Walk over toward the other end of the living room…there’s an all brick fireplace where we always had gas logs, our source of heat in many winter storms. The mantle is perfect for stockings, and you’ll need a big clock to go above it. Our Christmas gifts were always piled on this fireplace with the tree just to the right. I hope you make it beautiful for your family at Christmas.

Turn and walk to the right a little and the living room becomes the dining room. This is another great thing about the house. The kitchen, living room, and dining room just have one wall standing in the center. When I got a bike for Christmas, I remember riding circles around the rooms. The dogs love to chase each other around and hide under the bar. The dining room itself never got much use after we got older, but growing up we ate dinner together every night with the news or Jeopardy in the background.

This is a small secret, but I’ll let you know, because maybe you’re new to the area. You gotta have a good window to watch the weather and the back door in the dining room is perfect. Any chance of snow or hurricanes, this is the door to watch. See, there’s a light on the back deck there so you can watch the snow accumulate on the railings or see the leaves blowing all around in the tropical winds. You just have to position the living room furniture right.

Okay, let’s head down the hallway. Wait, stop at the front door. You’ll want a screen door or glass door to be able to see the front yard. It’s the best of the three doors to have open in the spring or fall, but the screen door we had was getting too old. Before we go any further down the hall, I have to tell you that even after living in this house my entire life, I still mix up the light switches. The one closer to the hall is the porch and the one closer to the porch is the hall. Mom laughs at me every time.

As we have been preparing the house for you, the new owners, it occurred to me how someone else would soon be walking down this hallway. How they may have little feet running up and down on Saturday mornings, laundry baskets in the corner, or gates at the end. It’s a strange thing to feel something about a hallway but in a way, it’s the heart of this home.

Go on down the hall now, but just a little, there’s a “coat closet” that always held way more than coats…Christmas presents, formal dresses, wreaths, gift wrap, throw pillows, it was kind of like a junk drawer but in a closet. When you live in a house for 32 years, you can upgrade to a junk closet though, right?

The laundry room isn’t much more than a place to put the washer and dryer. There is a shelf and rod so you can hang stuff to dry in there though…dad was always about building stuff. You’ll notice similar shelves in almost every closet.

Turn directly around and you’re facing my sister’s bedroom. If you have kids, this is the bedroom for the wild child. It was originally carpet, but she smashed Vaseline and ointment into it when she was little. At about that same age, she wrote all over the walls and also stuck a tootsie roll to the wall because “little Bill did it on TV”. Then she got a cool race car rug and doll house headboard to keep her busy, so her room was where we played. Don’t worry, she grew up fine.

The next bedroom was mine. This is where the nerdy or imaginative child belongs. Beware, the vent doesn’t work quite right. I had a vivid imagination when I was little and thought there were really little people like Thumbelina everywhere, like maybe that’s how stoplights changed colors or maybe they lived in the vents and turned on the heat and air… So I gave them things, like Barbie doll size shoes. This room was also carpet for many years. I didn’t ruin my carpet when I was little, I waited until I was 19! I tried to sneak a 12 pack of Mike’s Hard Lemonade into my closet…the bottom fell out and two of them busted. I, however, did not get busted, thanks to the wild child sister helping me clean up. My room was originally sponge painted when I was born. Mom did it herself and we finally repainted it to purple when I was 12. I made my sister stay with me that night because I hated it and wanted my old color back. If you look above the closet and window, there’s a built in shelf that held all my stuffed animals. Mom loves that shelf. There’s so much more I could tell you about this room but we have more house to discuss.

On the left when you leave my room is the hall bathroom – my sister and I shared it. It’s the only room without popcorn ceiling. Apparently we used to take super hot showers and there were pieces falling, so mom scraped it all off. Here on the right is the hall closet, or I guess linen closet, we just never called it that. Top shelf is for bed sheets, next one is for blankets, middle one is for medicines, next one is for games, and the bottom is a hodgepodge of things. Of course you can organize it how you like, but I’m just letting you know what the house is used to.

Let’s go into mom and dad’s bedroom, it’s the end of the hallway and it’s huge. The door sticks just a little. They had a king sized waterbed pretty much my whole life. Mom downgraded to a regular queen mattress once dad died and my uncle made a head board for her new bed from the old one. The carpet in here was also messed up at one point, you can take a guess on who did it…bright orange paint, yes, that would be my sister. Oh, go open the closet and look on the left. See the shelves? Those were FULL of records for most of my life. Fill them up with whatever it is you collect.

Okay now head outside. No, I’m not finished yet. There’s an outside part to this. Go out the back door by the dining room. This deck was just redone this past spring by my grandpa and uncle (and a little help from yours truly) so it’s nice and sturdy. The patio back here could use a little love but was beautiful when those stones were first laid. Off to the left there used to be a huge paper birch tree but it got taken down so it wouldn’t cause damage in any storms. That door over there? Ha! No idea, could lead to Narnia for all I know. It’s an outdoor storage closet that I don’t think I’ve ever been in. Okay now look in the back yard, do you see those middle bushes? Those are very well established blueberries and you can let them grow without fertilizer or pesticides like we have always done. They will give you big baskets of berries every summer.

You may notice a faint path around the yard, that’s where dogs have always walked to check the perimeter. Bo was the first dog here, then Travis was my first dog (he’s buried in the woods back there), then Sami, now we have three indoor dogs but they’ve run those paths too. There’s kind of a hole in the yard from where our swimming pool was…you could fill it in or level it back out for a pool. Lots of fun but lots of maintenance. Behind the pool hole is where dad built our play house. Spent a lot of time in there when I was little. We took a few boards off the bottom sides to reuse for ourselves, little mementos of home. It’s still as sturdy as ever.

Time to see the garage. Turn the knob counterclockwise on the backdoor. It doesn’t work otherwise. Dad and his friends built this garage. We actually found the plans and permits while cleaning it out. They’re here for you in case you need to see how something is wired. Until a few weeks ago, I had never seen the garage empty. It was always dad’s workshop, filled with sawdust and projects. He was a diesel mechanic, then taught the mechanics, so there were plenty of tools too. For fun he loved to fish and make things from wood. Two things we could always count on in the garage – classic rock on the radio and the smell of sawdust. Please fill this garage with your favorite things. It doesn’t know how to be empty.

Okay, well, I think that’s about it. I mean I could spend hours telling you stories but I was just trying to hit the high parts. Some of the things I missed? Well, the front flowerbeds used to be full of day lilies and iris, another one of dad’s hobbies, so if you have a green thumb and want to add some color, those grow well here. We had a basketball goal up here at the front of the garage, so it’s a good spot if you want one. The mailman always makes a muddy spot by the mailbox so try to keep some gravel down there. All of the neighbors are great. OH and leave the stump in the flowerbed under the wild child’s window…it’s precautionary against them sneaking out, although it may just leave a scar instead of actually preventing it.

So, if you actually took the time to read all this, thank you. I truly hope you make as many memories as we did and that it becomes a wonderful new home. We will miss it. Take care of it.

Megan

100 years loved

September 7, 1920 will always be a historic day for my family. It’s the day our family’s story began. My great-grandmother was born in Pitt County, North Carolina and was the second oldest of 11 children. Today she celebrates 100 years of life and love.

It’s difficult, almost impossible, to imagine the changes she has witnessed in the world over her lifetime. We’ve grown up hearing her stories of the family’s first colored TV, having to lock the doors of the house for the first time, and lots about farm life. Everyone in the family has a favorite “Mamma story”.

To put the 100 years a bit more in perspective, I made a list of significant events since her grand entrance into this world (and if the dates are slightly off, please forgive me, I am no historian):

• November 1920: Over 8 million women vote in their first election since the 19th amendment granting Women’s Rights earlier in the year
• 1921: First Miss America pageant
• 1924-1933: Prohibition
• 1928: Invention of sliced bread
• 1929: Start of the Great Depression
• 1931: Star Spangled Banner becomes our official national anthem
• 1938: Fair Labor Standards Act sets the minimum wage at 25 cents an hour
• 1939-1945: WWII
• 1950-1953: Korean War
• 1955-1975: Vietnam War
• 1958: First American satellite launched
• 1959: Alaska and Hawaii join the USA
• 1961: Russia sends the first man to space
• 1964: Civil Rights Act outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, National origin and eventually sexual orientation
• 1967: First Super Bowl held in Los Angeles
• 1969: Moon Landing
• 1980: AIDS epidemic begins
• 1986: Challenger space shuttle explodes
• 1999: Columbine high school massacre
• 2001: 9/11 attacks
• 2003: Iraq War
• 2007: iPhone becomes available
• 2008: Obama is elected as first African American president of the US
• 2013: Boston Marathon bombing
• 2020: COVID19 pandemic

And that’s a shortened list! I left off a ton, especially recent history. Some of the older ones may not seem special, like the Miss America pageant, but for me that’s something I associate with Mamma. When I was younger, my cousin and I used to spend the night and watch it at her house. We would get Burger King for dinner, she would give us a dollar and we would go to the dollar store, and then come home and watch the pageant.

My sister said today she thought it was amazing that sliced bread is the coolest thing SINCE HER! She remembers Mamma talking about the first time she had sliced bread and that her mother told her there was no reason to slice it, they could just tear it apart like they usually did.

One of my most favorite stories is how she met her husband. He was the bus driver for her siblings and neighbors and she figured out a way to get a ride on the bus, then got to be the last one on and was bold enough to ask him to ask her on a date. She thought he had the prettiest blue eyes. Later, they went down and got married in Dillon, South Carolina.

100 years of history, lived and witnessed by the matriarch of our family. She has taught us all so much in so many different ways. Recipes handed down, cotton from medicine bottles saved (you can use that to take nail polish off instead of buying cotton balls), Bible stories, and family traditions. She taught her four children, then grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and now even great-great grandchild. We owe a huge part of who we are to her.

New year, new decade

This is not a typical blog post but as I was driving to get dinner tonight, the radio had on a mix of the past decades #1 hits and as the songs played I was thinking of how much has changed since the last decade.

Let’s go back 10 years, the change from 2009 to 2010…do you remember where you were? Who you celebrated with? I was a senior in high school, celebrating with my best friends. The following June was our ticket to adulthood, high school graduation. 2010 was a big year of change. I met some of my very best friends, my college roommates, and learned how to live mostly on my own for the first time.

2011-2013 were much of the same for me, making new friends and surviving college…finding out that classes weren’t always as easy as movies made them seem, realizing that my plans weren’t the plans God had laid out, as I failed to get into nursing school twice, but as it worked out, He laid it out so I graduated perfectly on time with a Spanish degree! My roommates changed a few times but it was always for the best. Each person was exactly right for the time. Somewhere in these years, I got my passport and started traveling. Argentina was the first trip, 10 countries total now.

2014 was one of the tougher years this decade when our family dealt with one of the only losses many of us have had, my dad. In the spring of that year, I had decided to move to Spain after graduation and luckily had told the family before he got very sick. In April we had to say goodbye (for now) and then a week later I finished that divinely planned Spanish degree. That summer was my first trip to El Salvador, which is reason I think that Spanish degree worked out so well. September came and I moved abroad and learned so much about myself and the real world. Again, new friends and places. What a year.

The following year, 2015, I finished up my time in Spain and my mom and sister traveled abroad for the first time. My sister learned how much she HATES planes and my mom learned that coffee is truly better anywhere but the USA. We walked around Rome, Amsterdam, and Brussels. Not many people get to do that. By the end of teaching in Spain I was ready to come home but had no idea what to do when I got home. Luckily, my friend knew of a job opening at the dermatology office she worked at and I’ve been working there since.

2016 to now: I think I’ve spent the last part of this decade finding my way home. I am now a homeowner. I have a job I enjoy (most days). I’ve been in El Salvador every summer building new relationships and helping build their community. It’s become a home away from home. The biggest personal change has been a new relationship and it’s helping me grow even more.

2020 is sure to be a good year and if the past 20s showed us anything, they’re sure to be fashionable! Hope this new decade is full of good surprises for everyone!

Days 4 and 5: Returning to Los Horcones

Last year, our group did a medical clinic and construction work in a community called Los Horcones. Arroche is the pastor there but some of us have known him since the first year because he was also a construction guy. When we were out there last year, our clinic was set up under 3 tents and we were in the dirt. The construction team mixed batch after batch of concrete (by hand, there is no quick mix concrete or mixers here) and poured the floor for the church. This year, we pulled into a totally different area. There was an entire building, no trees, and a new building in the back! It’s amazing to see the changes in a year.

Between yesterday and today we were able to treat about 90 people in that area. Many of them were familiar faces, especially the kids. Antonio is one of the boys there. He helped mix concrete last year, and this year he told me how he has learned some English from the teams that have been working in the church. Karina and Luciana were also there this year and were still the quietest of the bunch. Yensi and her cousin Besi were two girls that I didn’t remember but they seemed to remember us.

Seeing how this community has changed since the first time I visited in 2015 is amazing. And knowing there are other communities that are starting to go through these same changes gives hope for the future. We may be spending our last 2 days here doing fun things like shopping and ziplining, but it doesn’t take away from the work we’ve done already. We will take with us all the smiles and laughter and lessons from these families.

Day 3: Third time is the charm!

My very first trip to El Salvador I got sick the first day, probably something I had before I got here. Last year almost the entire team got sick. The common factor for me in both of these events happened to be one place, El Shaddai. Don’t get me wrong, I love visiting this church but it does bring memories of not so fun times when we go there. So finally today, the third time I have been there, for the first time ever, I didn’t get sick!

Our medical clinic saw patients in the church at El Shaddai today. We treated around 100 people again. Several times we had families of 5 or 6 come in as one group, so that was a bit challenging to treat them all at one time. Before lunch, we had to stop taking names and tell people to come back in the afternoon. There were a lot of people. Our very last person had a blood sugar of 458 – the highest we’ve had on one of these trips!

Because we stopped taking names, I had time to play with the kids a little bit. They were not as talkative today, but they really enjoyed coloring and using the jump ropes and soccer ball that we brought. There were probably about 10 of them running around at any given time.

I also enjoyed spending part of the afternoon getting to know one of our translators, Claudia. She is very sweet and all of us have loved working with her on this trip. The translators are so important to our mission here. Without them, we cannot do most of the things we need to do! Every trip we get to meet new translators and reconnect with the friends we have met before.

Tomorrow we return to last year’s area, Los Horcones. We will get to see how much progress has been made on the church!

Day 2: Divide and conquer

Our team may be smaller but we have done so much in the two days we have been here it feels like more than 2 days!

Today we divided 3 ways: some went out to Santa Ana for a medical clinic, some to the school, and others for food distribution.

The medical clinic visited a community we have never been to before, Santa Ana. It was in a little church with a friendly pastor who welcomed us in graciously. We set up and got started as quickly as possible after about a 45 minute drive. We were able to help around 100 people today between both the medicines and the glasses.

My part of the medical clinic is triage: I write down the name/age/problems of the people who want to be seen and then that gets passed on to the doctors via one of our “runners”. The runner also helps get medicine for the doctor once they’ve seen the person. It’s a lot to keep in order, especially with so many people coming through the door and with a language barrier.

Today we decided to stop taking down names around 12pm, in order to be able to see all the people we could before we needed to leave. At that time we were on ticket 57. (One ticket may have a whole family.) By about 2:30, we had run through all of those! Pastor Juan helped to organize the people who had waited so patiently hoping to be seen and we were able to see almost all of them. By the end we had 73 tickets.

I spent about an hour and a half this afternoon talking to three of the kids from the community. I think they asked me every question they could think of! I told them where we were from then drew them a map of the US and pointed out NC. They wanted to know if we had a zoo and what animals were in it, so I used every vocabulary word I knew. They wanted to know what movies I liked, what foods, what I studied, how I knew Spanish, they asked me to translate about a hundred different words into English…it was an intense interrogation. It was exhausting but I loved spending the time talking to them and encouraging them to learn more about things they love.

Tomorrow we plan to be in El Shaddai. It is a community that many of us have been in several times. It’s the first place we went on my first trip. Hopefully it will be a great day again!

El Salvador: Round 6!

Six years of coming here and it still amazes me to see the beauty in this country. Fifteen of us arrived yesterday to help distribute food and medicine in Ahuachapan and the surrounding area.

Most of us started our journey yesterday morning around 3am EST. We arrived at the mission house around 9:30pm EST. The airport in Raleigh had a very long check in line, then we had over an hour delay before we left Atlanta, then it was about 4 hours before we cleared customs in San Salvador, and then a 3 hour bus ride up the mountains. Thankfully everything made it through and we made it safely to the mission house.

Today most of us were in La Gloria, a community some of us worked in 2 years ago. It was amazing to see the completed church and see how some of the kids have grown up! We saw around 90 people in the medical clinic and delivered 20 food bags.

Because we have a smaller team this year, we didn’t get to see quite as many people as last year. The ones we did treat were very grateful. Many of the people who come through have simple problems like a cough or headaches, but don’t have medicine readily available like we do.

Tomorrow we will split the team into a few places. Some will be doing a clinic in a new area, others will visit the school, and others will be back out in La Gloria to deliver more food.

Please pray for our safety and the work we are doing, and if you can, say a special prayer for our dear friend Linda Brown and her husband Herb. They took me on my first mission trip and I haven’t stopped since! She has been a huge missions supporter for many years and has set an example of love for us all. Thanks everyone!

Days 5-7: Strength through adversity

I mentioned at the end of my last blog that a few of us were under the weather. That was around 9pm. At that time, there were 3 of us that weren’t feeling well. By the next morning when we woke up, 9 people were feeling sick, and by the afternoon only 4 were still feeling well. At this point we had two choices: whine, complain, and act pitiful, or continue to serve people like we had been doing all week.

Our human nature said to stay in bed, but we all took turns going up and down the stairs to check on our sick friends, refilling the water bottles, and getting medicines. Thank goodness for our nurses and PA and Doc who told us what to do. Breanna’s home church sent 4 people down with some medicines to donate and they showed up in the midst of this and helped wash dishes so we didn’t have to, let us take some of their medicine, and helped care for us as well. After about 24 hours, the majority of us felt much better.

Saturday was supposed to be a day of zip-lining and hot springs but only a few group members went on those adventures. Those who didn’t go had a relaxing day at the mission house. I skipped the zip-lining but went to the hot springs and it was very relaxing. They are man made but heated naturally from the volcanoes underneath. We tried several different pools until we found the right temperature, much like Goldilocks and the porridge.

Sunday we went up to Ataco to shop. My favorite place to visit is an art gallery run by two brothers (Hermanos FaBrus) who paint murals around town and have beautiful artwork to purchase as well. This year I added a coffee cup and a print to my collection.

After shopping we went to Cafe Entre Nubes. It is a coffee plantation where we eat lunch. The new group members went on a tour of the plantation and the others sat and talked. It’s another one of my favorite places because it’s so different from anywhere else. There are usually hummingbirds flying around too.

Sunday afternoon we went to La Providencia for church. That is somewhere our group has never been before so it was cool to see another new place. The pastor gave a sermon on Jesus calming the storm, David slaying Goliath, generally the tests we face and how Jesus is always walking with us through them. We witnessed that during the last few days of the week for sure.

Monday morning is always bittersweet because the week is ending and we have to say goodbye. This year, I am ready to be home, but still sad to leave. I was sitting at breakfast thinking about the different struggles we had faced through the week, and thought about how close we were to home.

Now, as I write this, we are sitting on the tarmac in Nashville, TN. Our flight from San Salvador to Atlanta got diverted because the airport in Atlanta closed due to storms. We were due to land in Atlanta 3 hours ago. Our flight home to Raleigh is supposed to take off from Atlanta in 40 minutes, but we don’t know when we will be cleared to go to Atlanta. Yet we are all calm. This is just another hurdle in our journey this week. Who knows when we will actually get to our homes! But I’m sure when we get there we will arrive knowing we accomplished what we set out to do: “Love God, Love People”.