Tuesday, November 27, 2007

All Saints Day in El Salvador 11/07

Despite some large setbacks with the airlines, my recent trip to El Salvador was a great experience. First of all, I had to deal with a cancelled flight and as a result a complete lack of luggage once I arrived. Thankfully I finally did receive my baggage the night before I was scheduled to return back to Miami.

The trip itself was a wonderful mixture of family, cultural holiday, and work. We hosted an end of the year meeting with all the directors of the different orphanages. We discussed project possibilities for the upcoming year and evaluated all the support they have been receiving up to this point. The homes in El Salvador greatly benefit from our Angels of Hope program. In fact, we are the primary, and perhaps only, source of outside support that many of them receive.


This year we completed water-related and/or construction-related projects in all the homes. Now that they are already benefiting from their new bathrooms, cisterns, cupboards, etc, we are looking forward to starting to work with agricultural and animal husbandry projects that will further enrich the nutrition and quality of life within the homes.


Within the past four months we have added three new homes to the program. I took the time to visit each of the homes and meet the administration and staff. I love visiting the homes. The children always have a "show" prepared and are very eager to receive us. I get a tour of the facility and always call the children out who have not made their beds yet. It was wonderful to see all of the new homes and welcome them into our Angels of Hope family.


I love the children in El Salvador because they are very affectionate. I enough hugs and kisses to last me a year. All the kids line up to say hello and goodbye with hugs and kisses each time I see them. It's great!


On top of a great work trip, I also happened to be present for All Saint's Day. This Friday is a national holiday and nearly everything in the country was shut down. I spent the day with my in-country coordinator and her family. I found that all the people in El Salvador were in the cemetaries or out visiting relatives. We stopped every ten minutes for great home cooked food and more visiting. By the end of the day I had eaten my fill of Pupusas, elote asado, tortillas, requeson, caldo de gallina, frijoles, and jugos naturales.


We went to visit her grandparents, aunts, and uncles. They all lived in small little pueblos up in the mountains. The scenery was beautiful and each of the homes was filled with unique smells, food, and people. We picked beans out of the pods and an Aunt showed me how to make fresh cheese out of natural cream. We visited the cemetaries and decorated the tombs of different relatives who had passed. There were bands playing music for the dead and families gathering over the graves of their loved ones.


And I did all of this, five days of work and travel in El Salvador, in the same outfit because my luggage still had not arrived!