Friday, January 19, 2007

My Journey in El Salvador Parte Cuatro

Hola,

Well, I've been back here in Colorado for awhile now. I will try not to make this too long, but there are many things to cover.

My last email was right before we went to the village of Pappaturo. It was a very eye-opening experience. Cliche term, but I do feel much more aware than I was previously.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to experience things as fully as I would have liked, as I got sick a little after we got there. No, I did not directly drink the water. Other people in the delegation also got sick. I
definitely got the worst of it (I'm still not 100% back). This could have happened partially because I ran into some rocks in the ocean and got some pretty bad scrapes and a cut on the bottom of my foot, which might have weakened my immune system a little bit. Whatever the case, I ended up staying in the Campo on Tuesday and missing out on part of the trip.

Pappaturo is an amazing village. The community there is so strong. Everyone that we interacted with was loving and caring, and also very understanding of those of us who didn't know much Spanish. Even being sick I felt like I was part of the community, as people came to check on me, and I learned later that members of the community had been asking other people in our delegation how I was doing. I really wish I had the
opportunity to spend more time with the people there, and at least try to talk with them, but even without that it was a powerful experience.

It was really saddening to me to hear that they only get a priest once or twice a year, except for funerals and weddings, and supposedly the priest charges an unnecessary amount for his services. On the one hand I'm amazed to see such a strong community, but I would wish that God was a bigger part. Given the community that they have already built, I think the depth that following Jesus can bring would be a sight to behold.

After our stay in Pappaturo we returned to San Salvador. The next days were packed as we visited the "ruins" of San Andreas, a Mayan site and learned a little about Mayan spirituality and how it is currently
manifesting itself. Afterwards we went to the UCA (Central American University) a Jesuit institution where the 6 Jesuit priests, and the housekeeper and her daughter were murdered. We heard from Dean Brackley, a Jesuit from America who went down to El Salvador to take the place of one of the murdered priests. He gave us a little bit of the intellectual context we need to return to America.

The evening was finished with a party at the San Francisco de Asis parish where we had a band ("Grupo Mayas"... the Andes sort of Pipe music often seen at local fairs etc.) and then watched some of the youth breakdance. It was a memorable event and I was struck by the simple beauty and joy that existed as our two groups came together and danced.

The next day, after we had packed up we heard the story of Carolina y Damián, our hosts, told by Damián. I hadn't realized how involved he was with the guerrilla movement and had been captured and tortured. It was shocking for me to say the least to realize that this quiet reserved man was so involved.

Next, we visited the memorial wall for those who have been killed. It is similiar to the Vietnam wall in our own country, and it is not yet completed, and there are many names which will not be remembered.

After some quick last minute shopping we were off to the airport, and parted ways with Mateo our wonderful guide.

In the days since, in between getting ready for school and recovering from being sick, I'm not sure if there is much for me to add. I know I will continue to think about El Salvador and figure out how I'm going to stay involved, whether that be in the simple fact of being more aware and sharing stories and learning about what continues to go on there, or perhaps something more active. I don't know. Already now I feel the weight of my life here settling in, my own comfort level returning and my desire to focus back on what I have left here.

It's somewhat difficult to realize how quickly the experience seems to be falling away. It was deeply moving, but so are other parts of my life here that I perhaps do not realize are such. I hope that at the very least I remain aware of how blessed I am.

Hasta Luego,

-Daniel James

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Our Responsibility...

This began as a reply to a friend's post, but I decided I was going to make my own statement about it, so here you go:

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The frustrating thing is that, at least in America, if we choose to live an "alternative" lifestyle than the consumerism we live in, it's hard to survive. Even if we go off and start a cooperative, grow our own food etc, we would still probably have property taxes, utilities (unless you use solar power or something, but that would be expensive to start with). And so on and so forth. Even then, not everything could be produced on our own.

To actually go against the culture takes a lot of effort, and probably need to be around other people who share the same values. Sure, it's possible, but how many people are actually going to do it, since its so much easier to stay where we are. Not to mention, to be realistic it would take a certain level of money to start out on your own.

And even when you make that decision, thousands of others don't care or don't want to put in that effort, and thus those who are in power and have money continue to abuse the environment and people and whatever else. It seems like little else but an all out revolution will change anything, but then new people get power and they can become just as bad.

Some of us might be called to educate (whether its college or in a community or church), some to go into politics to try and change things, others can work at organizations. But it is an uphill battle, and it's easy to get discouraged.

What I've realized that at least for those of us who call ourselves Christian, we can look forward to the Kingdom of God returning. I don't mean this in the sense that we have an excuse to give up since God is going to eventually come and restore things anyway. Instead, even though we may not see progress, we can be confident that God is working all things for good.

I think the best thing we can do is to keep ourselves aware of these things in our society that are wrong. Go outside more, actually feel the ground under your feet (and if it isn't snowing, perhaps even take off those shoes!), feel the wind, the sunshine. Talk to people around us, and most definetly pray.

Even if the things we can do are small, like use the car less, buy more local products, go to a farmers market, start a small garden, use less electricity, don't support companies that are unethical, recycle, bring your own bags to the grocery store, buy fair trade and sweatshop-free products, or anything else you can think of. They are small things, but they are important.

For us Christians, its easy to get focued on the making disciples part of bringing the Kingdom of God to earth, but I think protecting our environment and fighting against all sorts of injustice are just as important (Try reading Amos). Just as sharing God with people is a frustrating process, with small steps, so is changing the larger things in our world. None of it is easy but we are still called to do it, and God is going to be with us.

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Friday, January 12, 2007

El Salvador Group Letter #3

Hola a todos!

This is the final update from the Romero House Pilgrimage to El Salvador. Our past few days have been full of new faces and new experiences, lots of fun and lots of spiders, scorpions and bats! Since our last update, we left the capital city of San Salvador and headed north to a small village, Pappaturo, in the Department of Cuscatlan. This was our first experience of the campo--the rural area that makes up most of El Salvador.

For four days and three nights, we were able to see first hand how most of the world lives. Forty-five minutes down a winding, broken and rocky ´road´, Pappturo is a small village of about 400 people. The people there make their living mostly off the land, harvesting corn, beans, sugar cane and other fruits and vegetables. The village, only 16 years old, was founded by a group of refugees returning from many years of refuge in Mesa Grande, across the Honduran village. Few were from the area originally, and all had been drastically affected by the war. There was not a family in the group who had not lost one, if not several, members of their family.

For our stay there, nine families openned their modest homes to us, often humbling us by the immensity of their generosity. Some offered their own beds, and all provided large amounts of food for us. Despite a sometimes frustrating language barrier, we were still able to connect with and get to know the stories of the people that lived there.

For one day, we traveled to nearby Suchitoto, a beautiful old colonial town in the area. From there, we traveled by boat to Copapayo, the site of a two-day massacre. We heard testimonies by surviving members of the village of El Citio. Their stories of the terrible massacre, in which many women, children, and other non-combatants were mercilessly slaughtered was one of the most moving experiences of the trip.

The rest of our days in Pappaturo were spent among a variety of activities to help us get to know our new amigos. We painted another mural under Tony Ortega´s direction, we helped our families with their chores and farming, checked out the local swimming hole, and played soccer on what Brett called the most beautiful field he´s ever seen.

After our return to San Salvador, we spent today visiting the San Andres ruins--remnants of the ancient Mayan civilizations of El Salvador. In the afternoon, we went to the University of Central America, where we saw the museum and site of the Jesuit martyrs, and heard a talk from Fr. Dean Brackley.

Now we are off to a farewell celebration from our amigos we met earlier in the trip at San Francisco de Assis.

We can´t wait to tell you all more of the important details and continue to live on in solidarity with the people we have encountered.

La Paz!
Romero House El Salvador Delegation

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Thursday, January 11, 2007

El Salvador Group Letter #2

Greetings from El Salvador ¨"Hola". We finished the mural here in El Salvador on Saturday. Tony Ortega designed an image with a march of people carring banners of Monseñor Oscar Romero, Our Lady of Guadalupe and sayings against violence and injustice. Members of a youth organization and Regis students worked together, painting the mural over a two day period. We started by tracing the design and then working in layers with different methods of mark making. At the youth center we also learned about their programs of education and gang prevention. We also helped the Salvadoran youth with their mural.

Saturday afternoon we saw the extremes of poverty and wealth. We visited an upscale shopping mall and across the street we visited the neighborhood of Cuchilla, which is in danger of being removed by the city. Some of the people have had homes at Cuchilla for decades. This small community lacks fresh water, electricity and adequate sanitation. The people are fearful of losing their home and having no place to go. We met a law student who is working with this community to protect their legal rights.

Sunday we attended mass in Mejicanos, a neighborhood of San Salvador. Following the mass, we went to the beach with youth from the center. We played ultimate frisbee and body surfed. The waves in the ocean were huge and strong. After a good night´s rest, we are ready for a three day visit to the campo.

Saludos de El Salvador,

The Romero House delegation

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Sunday, January 07, 2007

My Journey in El Salvador Parte Tres

Hey Everyone,

I typed up a nice email explaining the day, but then my email decided to be a peice of crap so I lost it. Hopefully I can capture all of it (possibly shorter haha).

First, This will be my last email for a little while. We are going to the village of Pappaturas near Sugitoto (pardon the spellings, don´t have my iternerary in front of me). We will be spending the next three nights there so I will not be able to check email until I´m back. I may be able to call but I don´t know because the phone system is really weird with different phones only working with certain phone cards etc.

The community I mentioned in my last email was La Cuchilla.

Today was a fairly relaxing day. We went to Mass at the Parish San Francisco de Asis, where we painted the mural and have been hanging out with the youth their at their development center (where the mural itself is located). Afterwards we went to the beach with a few of the youth and had a great time there.

The bad part about the beach is that the one time I went into the water I got caught in the undertoe a bit and met with some rocks, leading to bad scrapes on both my knees and my feet, along with a deep cut on the sole of my left foot which will not be pleasant for walking the rest of the trip.

The good things is that I finished my second book and was able to rest quite well (until the rock incident).

The Mass was very good. The Priest´s homily was based off of the gospel reading about the Magi who came to visit Jesus awhile after he was born. He spoke about how the Magi followed a star to find Jesus, and spoke to us about how we need to find our star for the age, and how our star should be the poor and oppressed as that is who Jesus was and lived with.

He also spoke about how the Magi left by a different path because of the corruption of Herod. He explained how Herod is much like the current president of El Salvador and like Bush. And it struck me when he mentioned that Herod was a puppet for Rome, just like many leaders of Latin American and Middle Eastern countires are puppets for the U.S. (Saddam for instance, not to mention Bin Laden, although neither tolerated it forever... not that it excuses their actions).

I took communion at Mass. The Priest spoke about how Jesus did not come to create division, and if that means we need to remove structures and religion, so be it. Also, my concience was clear about it. It´s between me and God anyway, so I would appriciate not getting flack when I get back, but I would be glad to talk about it.

Finally, please keep praying for us. We need it. Pray for me, and the 15 other people, and all of those we have interacted with and will interact with.

El Salvador is a beautiful place and I really want to come back, perhaps even this summer? Please pray especially for me to discern how I fit in El Salvador in the coming days, whether it be with an organization like Project Salvador in Denver, or either a short or long term missionary here. (To my church friends... mission trip possibility?? I have contacts and I´m sure we could get more through the Vineyard).

Otherwise, I will talk to you all after I´m back on the 13th.

I love yah all, and if I missed anything I will include it later.

-Daniel

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Saturday, January 06, 2007

My journey in El Salvador Parte Dos

Buenas Noches Amigos!

Well, it´s my third day here in El Salvador now. It has been a very moving experience thus far.

We just returned from a small community, I don´t recall the name at the moment but I will include it later. It is situated in El Salvador´s ´last lung´ which is a forest that is slowly being taken over by developers. They are actually right next to a new Mega Mall in between two highways.

The community has existed for about 60 years, however they have been corralled in this small area because of the development. The municipalities have no desire to legalize their presence, instead they want to remove them in order to create an ecological preserve, to somewhat save face for the acres and acres of land they have destroyed.

Speaking of the Mall, I found it absolutely disgusting. It was worse than any mall that I have been in Colorado. The prices are exactly the same as in America, and we are talking about El Salvador. Today we compared the prices at a farmers market with the mall and the difference is crazy.

Unfortunately I have to go soon so this is going to be cut somewhat short. The point being, I was very moved by the community. It felt to me to be the first tierra santa... holy ground... that I have experienced here in Salvador. Beyond even the resting place of Oscar Romero etc. I´m not sure what I might be able to do in the future, but I feel connected to this community. To those of you in my Church, it would be my hope that perhaps we can do something to support them, at least by allowing me to distribute information about the community to everyone once I recieve some, if not financially, and of course in our prayers.

For now I need to go. Continue keeping me in your prayers, along with this community. I love you all and I am also trying to make space to pray for you also.

Hasta Luego

-Daniel

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El Salvador Group Letter #1

Hello to all our friends and loved ones at home in the states!
Our Regis delegation is currently residing in San Salvador at the beautiful Casa Oasis. We arrived without any problems on the night of Jan. 3rd at around 9pm. Upon our arrival we were greeted by Matthew Eisen, our trusty group guide and Brother Agustin of the Maristas order who took our 13 bags of donated shoes and school supplies to the far off mountain village of Talnique. From the airport, we had a beautiful 45 minute drive into San Salvador and arrived at the casa. As you can imagine, we were all pretty tired so we got a good night´s rest to start off the trip. Thursday was a very eventful day: We started with a brief overview of El Salvador´s 500+ year history followed by an analysis of the current political and
economic situation here. This was presented to us by a gentleman from the non-profit organization Equipo Maiz named Carlos. The main event of the day was our pilgrimage to Divina Providencia, the cancer hospital/chapel where Archbishop Oscar Romero was asassinated. We recieved a wonderful talk from Sister Bernita, who gave us a bit of Romero´s history. After that, we swung by the national cathedral to see the memorial where he is buried. Later in the afternoon, we took a drive outside of San Salvador and up into the surrounding hills to La Perta del Diablo, which is a beautiful mountian hike which ends with amazing scenery from surrounding volcanoes all the way to the ocean in the south! Again, very exhausted, the group returned to the casa for another night´s rest. We woke up this morning and headed out for a very very emotional day. First we met with the co-madres, or the mothers of the disappeared, who gave us their testimonies from the civil war. They are a group that is committed to finding the disappeared or murdered victims of the violence which just ended in the early 90´s. We heard personal stories of torture and murder from this country´s recent history. Following this powerful presentation, we met with a group of marginalized youth from the parish San Fransisco de Asis where we began and almost completed our first community mural project under the master artist Tony Ortega. At the parish, we heard about gang violence in the country and the problems that Salvadoran youth face today. That´s pretty much the highlights for now. The food is delicious, the people are friendly and welcoming and the stories are breathtaking.

Much Love,

Your brothers and sisters in solidarity

ps. please forward this on to other friends/family who would like to know about our adventures. we will keep you updated as the days continue.

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Thursday, January 04, 2007

My Journey to El Salvador Parte Uno

Hi Everyone!

This is going to be a short email since I´m about to go to lunch.

First, I´m in El Salvador for those of you who don´t know. I didn´t expect to have internet access but I do. I will be here until the 13th. This is my first day. I just got an overview of El Salvadoran history and now we are going to be out and about.

If you want a post card, I don´t have addresses with me, so send me yours.

Also, feel free to pass this on to anyone who might be interested. I wasn´t sure, particularly with my church friends (wasn´t sure about my pastor for example?) since this was a quick runover.

I will write more when I get a chance.

I love you all.

I should also be getting a phone card eventually so some of yous will be getting a call

(which reminds me, I forgot my phone so I also don´t have many numbers, so if you want to send me yours I can give yah a call!!)

Gotta go for now.

Daniel

P.S. Pray for me, it´s going to be intense...

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