How bad is it?

First an update and then some reflection. It is Tuesday evening about 6:15 local time and we are just finishing up our showers and preparing for dinner. The hotel has an internet cafe but the modem got fried by the tropical storm that passed through Sonsonate on Sunday afternoon. So I haven't been able to put anything up on the blog since we left the Lutheran Synod in San Salvador.

It was an interesting ride to Sonsonate on Sunday. Water was flowing inches deep across the road in most places and feet deep in some places. That storm forced us to pull over at one point in time. Sunday evening was for settling in and the beginnings of sick stomachs for a few. Nothing major. A few more experienced today. On Monday at 8:00 we left for Puente Azul. Upon arrival we quickly discovered that the foundation and the floor for the parsonage that we were to build was not completed nor even started. But that is no big deal, you go with the flow in this situation. So we discovered that we would be digging the footers and preparing the foundation and floor for the parsonage. Marco quickly laid out the lines for the footers and we began digging and moving rocks. There were two huge ones in the middle of the layout. They were real fun - NOT!!!! But we did manage to get one out and the other we are still just breaking off enough of the top so that the floor will pour over it. The footers have to be 36" deep and that has been a real challenge. We've been digging down through rocks (ranging in size from a basketball to a basketball backboard), hard clay, and fire ants. We're almost deep enough in most places. Tomorrow we'll finish that up and start pouring the footers.

Puente Azul has no electricity and is extremely rural and poor. The dogs and the chickens running around the village all look like they are ill and starving. It is pretty rugged and very poor conditions in which these brothers and sisters live. Some in our group have been surprised by the conditions here. In conversations, some have said that they have been surprised by the severity of the poverty. Others have said, they are surprised that the poverty here is not as severe as they thought it would be. Across the board among those commenting though, there seems to be a consensus that even living in poverty that the people are happy. What might that very observation have to teach us as culture and as a church in that culture?

In recent weeks, immigration has been a hot topic of conversation in the western hemisphere. In the United States, the conversation has been about the question of illegal immigration and how to handle all of the illegal immigrants already living in the United States. A variety of perspectives have been offered up via the media. On the south side of the U.S. border the conversation has been different. I can't say for the rest of Central America but I can tell you what we've heard in El Salvador. Leaders in the churches and communities that we've talked with don't want to see the people emigrate. The Lutheran Synod held a youth assembly last Saturday to which 80 youth from across the country came. It was an event designed to encourage them to not attempt to emigrate. At the gathering, we heard a letter from a young man, a high school aged teenage, who was currently in prison in Crystal City, Texas, after his 3rd attempt to cross the border. His mother and sisters wrenchingly wept as the letter was read. The leaders in the Lutheran Church don't want to see people emigrate because it robs the country of its capital - not finanicial capital but the resource of people, ones who can make a difference.

At the youth event, Pastor Sandra who works in the human rights office of the Lutheran Church spoke encouraging the youth not to emigrate but if they chose to do so anyway to please contact them so that the church could be of assistance if they ran into trouble. She was weeping as she uttered these words. Marco leaned over to me and told me that she was crying because her husband had emigrated and was now living in California and pushing a broom for a living. Marco also shared with me that this man is a well respected attorney in El Salvador who has received awards from the bar association and other groups for his work as a lawyer. His situation is that he refuses to charge or force poor folks to pay their bills for his legal work and he refuses to be the kind of attorney that only serves the intersts of those who can make him wealthy. This man is one who could make a tremendous difference in this country - not by the wealth of his wallet but the wealth of his integrity, conviction, and ability to see a different tomorrow. But at some point he couldn't see a different tomorrow apart from emigrating to the U.S.

How bad is it? I've seen worse, but I've also seen much better. This question though is only the beginning of the discussion. From there it can take off towards immigration/emigration issues, peace and justice issues, and questions about our own relationship to these situations as well as many others. This is a powerful trip for us as a group and we hope that we can share some of our experience with the congregation at home as well as others. For now, keep us in your prayers and please pray for no more rocks!