Last day in guatemala + first day in el salv

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well i made it to el salvador!

after my last blog i called my cousin marguerite to check in and explain how i'm doing. well from there she was gracious enough to extend an invitation to visit my other cousin Richard's Pacific house in Guatemala. Usually, the trip to Antigua from Xela shouldn't take that long, but the road construction made me about two hours late for meeting Marguerite and Tomas, which i felt terrible about, but they were great. So from there, we drove to Richard's house and met up with Richard, Ruth, their daughter Ruth Maria, her husband Javier, their kids Javi (3-ish?) Juan Pablo(young), Maria Olga, Jaime, Stephanie, Stephanie's boyfriend Quique, Daniel, Mariel, Maria Olga and Jaimie's granddaughter Isabella (i apologize to my cousins for spelling the names incorrectly). We had a great lunch that Ruth had made of fish with a shrimp cocktail salad and then took advantage of the beautiful weather. Naturally i forgot to take pictures of paradise.

Then Marguerite and Tomas drove me back to Antigua where we had a really great dinner and then I met back up with my group. There was a pretty intense rugby game being played in a bar between Ireland and Scotland. Strangely there were lots of Irish and Scottish people in attendance; as if ever irish and scottish person in the country had all descended on this one bar to watch this game.

the next day we headed off for el salvador. we crossed the border successfully and made it to our house in San Salvador which is beautiful. I'll need to take pictures of it, but it is gorgeous.

Today we did an economic survery of San Salvador going around with $5 and trying to buy various things. Next we visited Oscar Romero's tomb. I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures there as people were praying over his tomb. We returned from that to hear a history lesson of El Salvador. Apparently it is calculated that 740 Salvadorans migrate to the United States every day. there are only 7 million people in the country, so if that increases over time, El Salvador could be in some big trouble.

Tomorrow is the first day of class for Liberation Theology with Sr. Peg who i've heard so much about, so i'm really excited about that.

I hope everybody else is doing well and i'll post again soon!

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Photos

plaque on the floor
more or less: here are buried 21 people who were massacred in the streets of san salvador on october 19, 1979 for the carried out movement (?) of popular organizations

Comments

[MARGUERITE]

WE ENJOYED SEEING YOU
DEAR JOSEPH: EVERYTHING WORKED OUT BEAUTIFULLY ON SATURDAY, EVERYBODY AGREES, WE HAD A WONDERFUL TIME WITH YOU, AND I AM GLAD THAT AT THE END OF THE DAY YOU STILL HAD TIME TO GO WITH YOUR FRIENDS TO WATCH THAT GAME, AND YOU SAW A VERY DIFFERENT GUATEMALA THAN WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN, LA ANTIGUA IS OUR COSMOPOLITAN PLACE. YOU SPELLED EVERYBODYS NAME CORRECTLY, MARIA ISABEL AND MY MOTHER CALLED LATER TO SAY GOODBYE TO YOU, AND I TOLD THEM ALL ABOUT OUR DAY TRIP WITH YOU. WE LOVE YOU AND WE WISH YOU THE VERY BEST AT EL SALVADOR, ENJOY¡ MARGUERITE AND TOMAS, YOUR SPANISH IS INCREDIBLY GOOD, CONGRATULATIONS!

[Marcia Gorgone]

Bueno
Hola Jose, sounds like fun!!! It's frigid here so your photos look so wonderful!!! Janet went to the ceremony at the White House for the Red Sox on Wednesday!! I'll ask Andrew to forward the photos to you to remind you of home and Red Sox Nation!!!Love, Mrs. G