El Salvador: We're Off!

LOG 1

The group arrived at the SFO airport and flew for El Salvador at 1:30am. We arrived safely with all of our luggage and were on the road in our van for 9am. All of our luggage was in the back of another pick up truck. It was HOT and humid- very far from San Francisco weather.

We drove for two hours until we arrived San Miguel where we picked up the Rev. Elizabeth Evans who is the priest for the mission of San Lucas. We checked into our hotel and had a nice lunch introducing ourselves to Mother Evans and learned more about what we would do for our days in San Miguel. San Miguel is next to a very large volcano and is surrounded by lush tropical forrest. Its probably the hottest place in El Salvador.

We took a 1.5 hour siesta since none of us received much sleep on the plane. Once we were assembled we drove to the local public hospital where we met with the director of the hospital. We learned about the needs of the facility which are great. We viewed the mammogram x-ray machine which the mission of San Lucas helped get to the hospital. We toured the pediatric ward and gave baby clothing to nursing mothers. They were very grateful.

We then saw little Oscar who was in the pediatric ICU. He was a premature baby and was extremely small and frail. He moved many of us to tears and we met with his mother and assured her of our prayers for she and her baby boy.

We drove to the mission church of San Lucas where we toured the church center where many ministries take place- a worship space, office, classroom, housing for released inmates from the women's prison and housing for the chaplain. We saw another home of Mother Elizabeth's assistant who also offers her home for inmates on their days out from the prison.

We drove 30 minutes to the home of a 65 year old released ex offender who lived with her 90 year old mother in a home with no electricity. She was so honored that we came to visit her. Her dogs attacked one of her chickens in the yard while we were there and that became their dinner.

We drove back to San Miguel where we enjoyed a meal before retiring for the evening. Everyone is tired from the long day and night. I know I will take several showers a day while we are here. Thank God we have A/C in our hotel rooms.We get up early and head to the women's prison for 8am.

Peace,
Tommy+