Hola amigos!!
I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to write to you all sooner.
Things have been really different (of course) and I have been finding it challenging to make use of the limited
internet access — P.S. Rachel, I just finished the last piece of the Hershey
bar you gave me, mmmm!— Anyways, we are here in San Salvador and I gotta tell you – this place is
so much like my Papa and Momma’s motherland in Kerala, India but without too much humidity and with much less pollution.
As I’m writing to you I’m lying under an avocado tree 😉 . There are palm trees everywhere and people drinking coconut juice. In the city, however, things are a little rough. There are barb wires and metal bars on every house door and window. There are soldiers with guns everywhere. Even the mall cops are legit – they carry some serious guns. There is even a high class brothel a few doors down from where we are staying, also equipped with gun-clad soldiers. It is election time here so there are fireworks that boom every night-have to get used to that. Over all, women do not seem to be respected here but thankfully, we haven’t had any problems – I think they’re still taken aback by the fact that most of our group are “gringos”.
We are so blessed to be staying with our contacts who are by
the way three girls ages 18, 20 and 21 and a few of their friends. They were waiting for us at the airport even though
we were running late due to immigration problems. Oh, also, the drug dog at
customs kept eating my pillow — Sarah, I guess its not just Abby and Sidney! The girls are really nice and it is as if we have known each other for a
long time. They are such amazing, service-oriented girls, who will not sit down
till every mouth is fed and every chore is done. I have so much to learn from
these amazing daughters of God. The first night we were here, we just sat out
in the back yard of their welcoming house under the beautiful cool Salvadorian
night sky, resting in the awe of it all. We then transitioned into a beautiful time of devotion, where Cindy, one of our beautiful hosts led us in worship – her voice is so beautiful
y’all… hearing all those songs that were familiar to me in a language
unfamiliar to me just reminded me of how great our God truly is… as I meditated
on these thoughts, I realized that exactly at that time, my parents were back in
NC partaking in a weekly devotional time of their own… and knowing what they
most fervently were praying for, I broke down and told my group about the home
situation and then we began to all pray hoping that our prayers would fuel the prayers of my parents to quickly heavenward into His hands.
