Blogs from El Salvador, Central America Caribbean - page 8

Entry #1 Post Trip Reflections This summer I took my first foreign mission trip. On July 23, I departed with 14 others from St. Thomas of Villanova Parish and headed to San Salvador, El Salvador . We were part of project FIAT (Faith in Action Together, an outreach of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). The sisters have a mission house there (Casa Voluntariado Santa Rafaela Maria), built for the express purpose of attracting and housing volunteers to come and help them with their work for the Salvadoran people. While there I had hoped to write a running blog describing each day, but unfortunately we learned, shortly after arrival, that the computer available for general use was malfunctioning, as were both the mission house phones! Although Sister Gloria (the leader of this week’s mission) ... read more

I couldn’t wait until 3:05. Because at 3:05 my journey began. We started off driving to my grandma’s, but when we stopped we couldn’t get the car started. We got to my grandma’s really late so we went to bed. The next day we got up really early. My grandpa had to drive us to the airport because if we drove to the airport we would have to leave our car there. When we got on the plane my mom gave us gum so our ears would pop. For the first hour I read my book. Then Aspen and I played a bunch of card games. When we got to Mexico it was so hot it made my eyes water. The next three days we were in Paradise Village and we did the same thing. ... read more

My mom and I got up at three o’clock it was still dark and I was tired but I got a doughnut so it was worth it. Then I went to the airport and I got to sleep. My dad picked us up in Los Angeles and took us to the boat. Then we started to sail to Catalina Island. When we got there it took a long time to find an anchorage because it was a holiday. This morning I blew up the dinghy. I have been asking to drive the dinghy for three months now. Today my dad finally taught me to drive it. Then I went fishing with a lure. I did not catch anything. Then I got small hooks and squid and I caught two fish. At dusk my dad and ... read more

Thursday, August 5th; Today was our group day, spent doing stuff just for the church and seperate from Moody Missions. We left the hotel a bit later than planned because we first made a trip to the local Super Selectos to buy a bunch of water, then a stop at a pharmacy for some sinus medicine. We finally left at about 9:30am for our trip to the "mountain church" and then to the orphanage near La Libertad. After a nice easy trip on the highway to our turnoff for the mountain church near Comasaqua, we traveled about 10 kilometers on a nicely paved but often terribly steep road, then another couple of kms on a similar road made of dirt. We were so glad to get there safe and sound, especially my wife who is very ... read more

Tuesday, August 3rd Another day in El Salvador. An even earlier wake up time, although again we slept quite well and awoke over an hour before we needed to, a decent breakfast and we were on our way to the Los Angeles community to finish the houses. This time, the women went to places by themselves and just us guys (and one more adventurous young lady) worked on houses in the community. Soon after lunch, we'd finished the last of the ten houses, so we were taken on a preliminary tour of the Los Angeles 2 community we'd work at tomorrow. This community was even more impoverished looking, and from the looks of things had a lot less families living there. Unfortunately, being the newer of the communities, all that has been done for them so ... read more