Side Trip to San Salvador

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Our breakfast was an included part of this trip. We had scrambled eggs with cheese, 1 pancake, 1/2 toasted cheese sandwich, mixed fruit and Watermelon juice (John) and Georgie had 1 toasted cheese sandwich, mixed fruit, and watermelon juice. After that we got on the bus and began our side trip to the capitol city of San Salvador. The sun was shining brightly, the views were marvelous (a mix of valleys and small mountains, about a 1 mile long area with black lava rock) and the conversations were buzzing.

About 1 ½ hours later we arrived at Providence Hospital Chapel, the site of Archbishop Oscar Romero’s assassination in March 1980. This horrific event escalated the Civil War among the countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicauragua, and Honduras. Fr. Ron celebrated Mass again except the atmosphere was more emotional and binded our group more closely together. Fr. Ron’s sermon (different from a hoily in that it was on any topic chosen by the celebrant and not about the day’s readings), he chose to talk about providence ( a plan that God has chosen for us—if we listen carefully). First he gave three examples of providence in stories about Fr. Bill Wassen (the founder of NPH), Archbishop Romero who wanted to be a philosopher, theological priest and not the humble servant among the peasants of San Salvador that he became, and the third example was “US” who came on this trip for a reason and we were urged to listen for what that meant to each of us. He provided three ways for us to find that out: 1. To continue with our sponsoring of a child and making other donations, 2. To take actions that propel us into a deeper commitment and active roles, and 3. To continue praying for guidance for ourselves and richer lives for the NPH children and staff and volunteers.

The Mass was followed up with a ¼ block walk to the house that Archbishop Romero lived in for a short time before he was killed. They made it into a small museum and left it just as it was immediately before he died. His vestments had blood stains and his shirt under the vestment had a small (.22 caliber) bullet hole in it. Also, they say it was a miracle that it did not tear apart his heart even though it was an explosive bullet. His heart was buried in the yard under a grotto and his body was taken to the Cathedral in the central city and placed in a crypt beneath the church. WOW!! Very emotional and spiritual.

After a very brief stop for some fast food at Burger King, our next move was to visit the Fernando LLort (Yort) Art Gallery and gift shop, see (www.fernando-llort.com ) an artist who used bright colors with distinct patterns with many genres such as paintings, sculptures, prints. He loved the Salvadorans and taught one whole village how to copy and use his style without a copyright. After a short tour of the gallery, folks went to the gift shop with much gusto purchasing many Fernando originals. We will be gifting the family with our Fernando originals.

After our visit to the Art Gallery, the group voted to skip another small trip to a artisan market and hopped back on the bus for another trip back to our hotel. After we arrived “back home”, we had about 2 ½ hours to cool down, refresh ourselves and get ready for another group meal. We went to an Argentinian Steak House. I had a New York steak with veggies and a potato while Georgie had grilled shrimp. During our meal, several of us who hadn’t been together much before, traded stories about where we grew up, how we got to this trip toNPH and the like Now I am finishing up this blog about 11:30 pm. It is time to get some sleep and get ready for celebrating with the NPH high school graduates at the Casa Sagrada Familia.

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