Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Thursday evening/night arrive in El Salvador

About a year and a half ago I went on a mission trip to El Salvador. This is the first of a daily narrative of my experience. It was wonderful.

The parish group which arranged to pick us up had a pickup and a bus. We did not have enough room for all of the luggage so they hired another guy with a truck to take to take the rest of the luggage the two hours to Berlin (named after a German guy who got ship wrecked in El Salvador pop. 25,000 I think) where we stayed for the whole week. Because I was in charge of logistics I had to ride with this hired truck driver. So the first thing I do in El Salvador is get into a truck with a stranger at night who was to take me to a place I had never been before. Cool. When we got to Berlin we were served hot chocolate (by Haide who was in charge of our meals) and went to the men’s quarters. This consisted of a “house” with 5 rooms one chair, one table and matrices laying on the floor. Two bathrooms each consisted of a very scroungy looking toilet and a shower with a 50 gallon drum under the shower head. The water ran 2 hours every two days and the drum captured the water. This is what we used to shower and flush the toilets. Toilet paper had to be thrown in a trash can because the sewage system can’t handle it. For me the toilet situation was the worst thing. I passed a fairly restful night interrupted by horses whinnying, cats and dogs fitting, roosters crowing and fire crackers through out the night. Fortunately I had ear plugs.

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